May 2021, Part 1 - Abby Finishes Volleyball & Goes to the Prom

The first weekend in May had us back in Lubbock, TX for Abby’s final volleyball tournament. We went to Texas Tech again, but stopped for pictures this time. Their buildings are beautiful and the architecture was amazing. We found a lot of great picture spots.

Abby’s close friend, Astrid, came along for the adventure. It was a fun girls trip. They were cute trying to decide where to take pictures and what poses they wanted to do. I narrowed it down to my top favorites, but there were still so many. We took that many pictures. 

 

It was senior day at the campus, so there were a ton of people dressed in their graduation gowns; and a lot of photographers were around too. We even copied other people’s photo spots. We had a lot of fun wandering around the campus and checking out all of their buildings and alcoves.

Abby’s final volleyball tournament of the season was a great experience for Abby. They won some sets and lost some sets, but Abby played amazingly well. She got to set the entire time because the other two setters were injured. She was exhausted from playing so long and hard, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. She played with all of her heart and she was the team leader for this tournament.

 

Abby played all the way around, so she was even setting while in the front row. That means that she’s expected to block while in the front row. I didn’t get any pictures of her blocking, but one of the other moms got the best video of Abby getting a point from a block. It was her first real block, ever, and getting a point from the block made it even better. That’s pretty rare for someone like Abby to get a point from a block because she’s not one of the tallest players, so we were pretty excited. I’ve never cheered so loud. I was so happy and so was Abby and her team. Astrid and I cheered the entire tournament and had a fun time watching all of the games. It was a fun weekend.

A couple weeks later in May was the prom that the kids had planned together. Abby was so excited for this day to finally come. We spent the day getting ready. I did Abby’s hair and Astrid came over with her sister, Treisy, who helped do Abby’s makeup. This was my all time favorite picture from the night. Abby looks like a beauty queen - she’s so beautiful. I love her so much!

These were some of our other favorite pictures. We took pictures before the boys came to pick them up, so we took some of each girl separately and these were my favorites of Abby.

 

And then we took some of the girls together. When the boys came, they exchanged their boutonnières and corsages, and I got a picture as Abby pinned the boutonnière on Cline’s suit.

They were already in a hurry to get to their first stop of professional pictures, but we quickly made them pose for us too. Here’s Abby with her date Cline and then we got a group shot with Cline, Abby, AJ, and Astrid.

They met all the other couples and they had group pictures taken and couples pictures taken as well. Another mom was there and took some of her own. Here are some with Abby and her friends Astrid and Braelinn, and Braelinn and Andrea. They were all so beautiful!

Here’s a picture of a group of girls from church: Alexa, Sarah, Abby, Amelia, Braelinn, and Astrid. And then one with Abby and Gracie.

After they took their pictures, they went to dinner at Cline’s house. And then they had the dance at Brandon’s house. These were pictures Abby took with her phone while she was at the dance. I just asked her to send me some of her favorites so we could include them here.

 

Here are some of the group pictures with a lot of the couples. Abby had fun with Cline and enjoyed his company. They just went as friends, so they were happy to be around other couples throughout the night.

 

I thought this selfie that Abby took was so cute. They rode in the same car with AJ and Astrid. The dinner at Cline’s house was divided by tables of couples. Abby and Cline had their dinner with Astrid and AJ and  Amelia and Milo.

  

Tessa’s group of friends got to be involved for the night too as they did the serving at dinner. They all wore black and went over early to learn the routine and find out what table they’d be in charge of. Cline’s little sister Audrey is in Tessa’s friend group, so they were more than happy to be involved with the night and get to see all the girls in their beautiful dresses. Here’s Tessa and her work crew: Seki, Alexandria, Milea, Tessa, Blaire, Taryn, and Audrey.

Here’s a picture of all of the girls that were at the dance. It turned out to be a great group of kids and Abby said she had a lot of fun. The music was good, the dancing was good, and the friends were good.

And here’s a final picture of everyone that went. Abby knew almost everyone there. It was a lot of church kids, STUCO kids, and football kids - all from Abby’s high school. It was a night to remember.

Finally, Abby sent me one picture from their after party. They ended up at Gracie’s house where they swam and ate waffles. They had so much fun and I loved hearing all about it from Abby. She also has a great group of friends in high school and I was so happy that they decided to put this prom together since the school didn’t do it this year because of Covid. I’m so glad that Abby was able to have this milestone experience of a high school prom.

April 2021, Part 2 - Tessa Plays Softball, Taryn Plays Basketball

Tessa tried out and made her school’s first ever softball team. She and some of her friends tried out together and were so excited when they made the team. They had a pretty short season with only 4 games, but they practiced all the time and Tessa decided she liked softball a lot. 

 

Tessa played 2nd base all season, and she usually started, but they kept enough girls to basically have two full teams, so she always only played half of each game. Sometimes she’d be in the field for two innings and only get to bat once; or she sometimes got to bat twice and play in the field for three innings.

 

At Tessa’s first game, during her first at bat, the pitcher was a really fast pitcher, but also very wild. Hardly anyone got a hit, but we got a ton of runs because she walked a lot of players. Tessa was able to get on base after being walked and with a few more wild pitches, she made her way around the bases and scored a run for the team. She’s a fast runner which helped as she ran around the bases.

Here are a couple more shots while Tessa was up to bat. I love this second one as Tessa’s leading off at second base on her way to third.

I believe their team ended up 2 and 2 overall. Even though it was the first softball season for all the middle schools, there are some club softball teams on the east side of town, so the schools we played from the east side had enough advanced players that they beat our team pretty easily. But when we played Lincoln and Brown, the two other middle schools from the west side, the games were close and we came out on top. You could definitely tell the girls were all beginners, but they had fun learning and playing. Here’s Tessa’s team after their final game.

Tessa went with a couple of her teammates after one of their games to Tropical Smoothie for a treat. She was with Brianna and Alyssa. After their lunch and smoothie, they went out to the little play area outside of the restaurant. They even made a new friend as they spun around on this spinning wheel. I’m glad that Tessa has been able to try new things in middle school and make a lot of new friends.

 

Taryn and Teagan have still been playing basketball with the YMCA. They were the purple mustangs for their second season and they had fun playing. Their team was bigger this time so they had more rest time during the game, but whenever Taryn, Teagan, and one of their teammates, Emmy, got to play together, they did really well. Taryn was still one of the tallest players so we worked a lot on her jumping and rebounding and just being more aggressive in going for the ball. She’s really been enjoying it and loves to play.

 

Taryn always made a lot of baskets, but she was also very aware and good at passing the ball and making sure that each of her teammates had a chance to not only dribble the ball but also shoot the ball and try to make a basket. She had to learn how to work with players on her team that never passed the ball, but she was a very good team player and a strong leader whenever she was on the court.

 

Tessa was bored one day so we did a photo shoot. We took so many pictures, but I realized that the best ones were the candid shots. Tessa doesn’t really like to just pose and smile, but once she started being goofy and having fun, I was able to get some really cute pictures. I loved this monkey face picture because it just reminded me of when Tessa was a little girl. She must have made that face a lot or something because every time I look at it, I just see a little 2 year old Tessa. So cute! She did have some normal smiling pictures too which I loved.

There were just too many pictures to choose only a few, so I’ve added a bunch. Here’s another beautiful one and another funny one as Tessa made a kissy face.

She did a really good cross-eyed picture and I love her serious poses too.

Here’s one more serious pose and probably our all-time favorite. The way she’s turned for this picture makes her look super skinny, but I just love her natural smile. She’s such a happy girl and I love getting to spend time with her having fun. She’s awesome.