Abby Turns 11

Abby turned 11 on December 19th. We celebrated by traveling to Oklahoma (see next post). But before that post, here's a post all about our first born. Here's Abby outside the Oklahoma City temple on her birthday.

This semester, Abby played another season of volleyball through the Y. She played in the next age group now that she's in 5th grade, so she was with 5th-7th graders. She still did well and was one of the best servers. By the end of the season, she was even getting some overhand serves over. Her coach, Coach Eric, was the coach for two teams and they practiced every week together. His daughter plays for the high school team, so she was usually there at practices with some of her teammates, which helped the girls advance in their skills a lot, at least when they were being nice. 

I finally got a picture of Abby with some of her team at their last game. Coach Lindsey, the daughter, was the one there for that game. Abby had a lot of fun and we've already signed her up to play for the next season starting in January. 

Abby has become very involved in musical instruments this semester as well. She started taking piano lessons from a neighbor and has really enjoyed it and picked it up quickly. She had her first piano recital the week before her birthday and played two songs. She sounded great. She practices all the time, so she'd better be good. :) She helps babysit her teacher's kids during her teacher's other lessons, so she even pays for her own lessons that way. She wasn't sure if she'd keep doing it next semester since the babysitting and practicing takes a lot of her free time, but after her recital and all the hard work, she's thinking she may stick with it a little longer. Abby has also continued playing the bass at school. She even learned Silent Night on her own so she could play with a church group at our ward Christmas party. She really likes playing and is proud to tell everyone that she's first chair at school.

Abby's orchestra concert at school was held on December 17th. The school cafeteria was packed so I took up my filming spot right behind Abby since she was the front, right person of the whole group. Here she is with the entire 5th grade orchestra. 

Here's just the bass section, all five of them. They all played really well and sounded good considering the majority of the kids have only been playing for about four months. I liked the action shot while she warmed up for the concert. They played a lot of songs - some Christmas and some basic tunes like Twinkle Twinkle. My favorite parts were when they played by sections, so only the basses would play while the other sections either picked out the notes or waited their turns to play.

Here's a picture of Abby with one of her friends, Amy, who plays the cello. And then we took a picture of Abby with her orchestra teacher, Ms. Cedillos.

December 18th was the last day of the school semester. All classes had their Christmas party for the last couple hours of the school day. I was pretty much running Aubrey's class party, but I took some time to go to the other girls' classes to see them and take a few pictures. This is Abby with her home room teacher, Mrs. Ayers. She is also Abby's Math and Science teacher.

I took some pictures with Abby's friends too. The first is with Amelia and Isabel, and the second is with Sophia and Ady. Abby has done really well in school so far. She's had to work extra hard to keep up her good grades, but she did it, making straight As again this semester.

While in Oklahoma City on her actual birthday, Abby was able to open her presents in the hotel with all the family. She got clothes, games, a Pentatonix cd, a movie, and gift cards. She was happy. And we were all happy to be with family. Happy Birthday Abby!

Thanksgiving - From San Antonio to Utah

This Thanksgiving, it was was our year to be in Utah with Tyler's family. Tyler had a work conference in San Antonio the weekend before, however, so we tacked that trip on too. We took the girls out early and drove down to San Antonio Friday night and stayed with Scott and his family. It was fun staying up late, playing games, and hanging out. The girls decorated cupcakes and we got to see Chloe play her T-ball game.

We drove home Monday after Tyler's conference was over. Tyler worked on Tuesday while the girls and I washed clothes and repacked our luggage, and we left Tuesday night for Utah. We stayed in Farmington, NM and drove the rest of the way on Wednesday. We stopped in Moab for lunch. I wanted to take pictures but it was really windy and cold, so this was all I was able to get. I loved their funny picture though.

We spent the rest of the week with Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons and all the cousins. Taryn and Lucy were pretty much inseparable. Sometimes Aubrey led them around and sometimes Anson joined in, but these girls were always together doing the cutest things.

The three little ones made a "doctor's office" and colored lots of pictures of their patients. For some reason, they kept yelling "ohh" while they played so when I got them to stand still for a picture, they couldn't resist saying "ohh" for those too. I at least got them to smile long enough for one.

With all the family together, we had to use three tables to fit everyone (and this was minus Tara and her family who stayed home because Tara was about to have a baby). Here's the kid's table. 

And here's the middle-aged girl's table. The oldest two grandkids and adults sat at the last table, but by the time we were all sitting down, we were eating, so I didn't get a picture. We had yummy food with the traditional items like shrimp cocktail, raspberry jello, and all the usual turkey and sides. It was delicious and so great to be together.

The day after Thanksgiving, we traveled up into the mountain so everyone (except us) could pick out their Christmas tree and cut it down. While the other adults searched for the perfect tree, I followed the kids around and took a lot of pictures. The snow was deep in a lot of places and the kids stopped to rest a lot, but those were the best pictures. 

They all made snow angels during one of the rest stops. At one point, the kids decided to bury Jacob, so he's the black-hooded head in the middle of all the kids in the second picture. He said it was fun, but it just looked cold to me.  

Poor Aubrey always seemed to be the odd man out, because she's the only one of my kids without a girl cousin close to her age. Jacob, who's only 2 weeks older than Aubrey, wasn't who she wanted to be buddies with, but the older girls kept leaving her behind, so she and I wandered on our own for a bit and took some pictures. I liked this selfie that we took together. 

I loved this picture I took of Aubrey by herself so much, that I tried taking individual pictures of each of my girls, but no one else was as accommodating. This was the best I could get from Tessa, although I really liked how it turned out. She kept wanting to throw snow in the air during her picture. 

Abby opted to have her picture taken with Kate and Sara which was fine by me. I love their bright colors against the white snow and brown forest. 

Taryn took her picture with Lucy and Grandma right before they headed back to the car to get warm and eat snacks. 

After Thanksgiving was over for a day, Grandma quickly decorated for Christmas a little bit, so we could have our Christmas gift exchange. The kids all put on their pajamas, decorated cookies, and waited to open up gifts. Here are all the kids decorating and/or eating their cookies. While waiting to open presents, the kids lined up chairs behind Grandma's reindeer and pretended to be Santa and his reindeer so I grabbed a picture. Jacob is Santa in the back. 

The boys were all watching football and hanging out together while the kids worked on their cookies, so I took this picture. It's one of my favorites because the dads usually aren't in many of the pictures, and they were all just sitting there together perfectly like the perfect setup for a picture. I may have to frame this one for all these boys, I love it that much. 

Drew turned 16 this year, but didn't mind playing with the kids or letting them follow him around all weekend. They were all watching him play a game on his tablet, so I thought it was a cute picture. So many cousins! 

We had so much fun being with family. It's always hard to leave, but we left to drive home Saturday so we wouldn't have to drive as long on Sunday. We stayed in Moab and got there early enough to eat dinner at our favorite Moab restaurant called The Blue Pig. We sat at this big booth in the back and I had to laugh looking at Tyler on the opposite side, because it made me think how far apart we were sitting, yet when we were first dating, we used to sit right next to each other. But then I'd look at the four beautiful girls in between us and think about how much our life has blossomed since those days when we did sit side by side. How blessed we are. 

I am so thankful for family!

A Birthday Party

In November, all four girls were invited to a birthday party for Santiago, our neighbor. The Kasallis family was invited too, so we all spent the day together at Bob-O's to celebrate. The kids played all the indoor arcade games first, ate pizza, and had a turn playing laser tag. I missed that part because Tyler and I were finalizing the paperwork to buy our new van. Afterwards, we came back and joined the party for all the outdoor rides and attractions. This is where I took all my pictures. All the rides were based on height, so Taryn was limited to which rides she could go on. One was the train, which she rode a lot - by herself and with Teagan.

Another ride that they liked, and the middle kids also enjoyed was the flying bananas.

Tessa, Aubrey, and Sam were tall enough for the next level of rides which included the mini-go carts. Only three could drive at a time, so they grouped up with their friends accordingly.

They were also tall enough for the bumper boats. Taryn and Teagan were tall enough to go as passengers on the bumper boats, but the driver had to be a certain height AND 16 years old. Abby and AJ were tall enough to be their driver, but not old enough, so the little ones were stuck missing out on the bumper boats. They got really wet on this one, so it was probably better.

The big kids, Abby, AJ, and Logan, spent the majority of their time on the regular go-carts. It was the biggest ride there and they were the only ones big enough to drive on their own. Aubrey and Sam each took a turn as a passenger with Tyler and Tony, so they at least got to ride it once.

The little ones talked Tony into riding the spinning cups with them since they were too short to go alone. I was surprised they liked it. I always get so dizzy and sick on the spinney rides. Abby usually does too, but since AJ talked her into going, she went.

The kids did miniature golf too and had so much fun with all their friends. It was probably one of the best birthday parties we had ever gone to. 

I have to include this last picture because it's so cute. I came home from a late meeting and found this in my bed. Taryn usually falls asleep in our bed and then we move her to her own bed. This is how she had fallen asleep this particular night. It was too cute not to take a picture. I love my family!