Abby's First Temple Trip

Before I get to the annual school-year posts, here's a post from April of things we did that month. The main event was Abby's first temple trip to do baptisms. It was also my and Tyler's first time to go to the Juarez Mexico temple, which is our temple. I made sure that we had our passports ready so that I could go with Abby during her first time. We had even found our own names through FamilySearch.org of my relatives on my mom's side to do the baptisms for. It was awesome! Here's Abby with her two Beehive buddies: Carrie and Braelinn.

We left our church to caravan at 4:45 in the morning so that we were getting to the temple around 6 in the morning. After we were finished with the baptisms, we took pictures outside of the temple. However, the sun is just coming up, so the best pictures with the temple in the background had the people in the picture staring directly into the rising sun. Here's the entire youth group that went that morning. 

Here's a picture of all the young women who were at the temple. I was able to leave my other girls sleeping at home because of my friend and visiting teacher, Heather, who came and stayed with them when we left so early in the morning. What a great visiting teacher! 

With it being Abby's first temple trip, I was able to tag along and watch. Tyler, now with a calling in Young Mens, would have gone either way. He was able to do the baptisms for Abby, so that was an extra special treat. We took pictures of just the three of us before we left to drive home as well. It was an amazing experience, and I can't wait to continue doing the work for my ancestors and going back to the temple to do it.

After driving back from the temple, we went straight to our volleyball games at the YMCA. I coached the games in my skirt that day, which was fine. The funny thing was, the dress that Taryn picked to wear that same day made her my twin. I had to take a picture. Aren't we just so cute? :)

Also in April, one of our Additional Relief Society Meetings was a painting class. Dee Bowden, from the 5th ward, came and taught the class and we all left with our own versions of this flower. It was so fun hanging out with the ladies and learning a new skill. All of the paintings turned out unique and beautiful.

Aubrey loves to have her picture taken. One day while at the Kasallis's house, our friends the Andersens stopped by with their brand new puppy, Leia. Aubrey took a turn holding her and had to have her picture taken with her. It's a cute picture because as we see puppy Leia growing, we can remember how tiny she once was. 

Easter Sunday was spent at church and with the Kasallis's after church. We had our annual Easter egg hunt and dinner with them. It was a fun time, until they were playing in the backyard when Aubrey got hit by the swing which knocked her back into the rock wall behind her where she hit her head. She got a decent cut, but we just applied pressure and decided she didn't need to go into the doctor's office. Luckily, she didn't mind the pigtails so we could keep an eye on it as it healed. Poor thing. 

April also included a city event through the YMCA, so Tessa and Aubrey prepared all month for a performance with their gymnastics class. Taryn continued her classes in gymnastics and ballet as well even though she didn't perform. I wanted to get some cute pictures of Taryn doing ballet, but the only time I remembered to pull out my phone for a picture was when they were stretching. 

The city event was held at the Chihuahuas baseball stadium and it was a Healthy Living event with performances by different groups and lots of vendors selling their products. We walked around the vendor booths playing activities and getting free goodies. The girls had their picture taken with these beauty queens at the end of the vendor row. 

Tessa and Aubrey performed a gymnastics routine with their Rollers 1 class to the song Thumbs by Sabrina Carpenter. It was choreographed and they loved practicing it at home. 

It had fun dance moves and a lot of tumbling including a little solo done by each girl. Both Tessa and Aubrey are awesome at back walkovers now and have perfect cartwheels and round-offs. They had a fun time performing, and they did a great job. They finished off the routine by doing some tricks with the trampoline which included front flips off the tramp with the help of their coach, Sean. They all did so well. Both girls really love gymnastics and are doing so well at learning new tricks.

Tessa Turns Ten!!

We had another birthday in the house; and having two kids in the double digits just makes me feel double old! Tessa is in the middle of the 4th grade and she really loves school. They had spring pictures at school a couple weeks before her birthday and she really wanted me to buy the picture packet because she liked the background and her pose. The funny thing was, she was sick at school that day. I even picked her up early because the nurse called and told me she had thrown up in class. Luckily, she hadn't really thrown up in the classroom, but had made it to the bathroom; but she definitely was sick and you could see how pale she was in the school picture. I also don't like spending all the money on a few pictures, so I usually take my own. We found a spot in our backyard that had a similar feel as her pictures and took our own that I thought turned out so much cuter. And even better, they're free. Tessa was happy with them too. Here's our favorite one with Tessa posing the same way she did in her school picture. 

Here are a few more from our "photo shoot." I can't believe this girl is ten years old. She is still our outgoing, sweet, loving, bubbly, jumpy girl. She's very good at keeping everyone happy and making everyone feel included. We love her kind heart.

In school, Tessa does really well. She loves science and after learning about stalagmites and stalactites, and prompting us to take that trip to Carlsbad Caverns, she also spent a lot of time trying to create her own cave environment. We tried making it a couple different times and after having stalagmites and stalactites grow in our own kitchen, we finally took a picture before cleaning it all up. 

Tessa turned 10 on March 24th, but that was such a busy day, we did the majority of our celebrating the next day, which was a Saturday. We did have time for a candle in her cinnamon roll at breakfast and to open a few presents. We also took a picture before leaving for school to have one from the day of her actual birthday.

I was also able to go to her class at the end of the day to deliver donuts to her and her classmates. They sang happy birthday and always love getting treats. I was going to take a picture of Tessa and those who were around her, but her teacher, Mrs. Adkins, had them all go out into the hallway to line up so I could get a picture of the entire class. It was so thoughtful. I love it!

On Saturday, Tessa was able to pick a couple friends to join us for her birthday celebrations. We went to a movie and saw Beauty and the Beast and her friends Romni and Blaire joined us. We picked them up early and had donuts on our way to the movie theater. 

After the movie, we had to take Abby to a volleyball camp that she's in, but the rec center is right next to a park, so we let the girls play while we waited for Abby. I didn't get any pictures at the park, but as we loaded up the van to take the girls home, I grabbed one more picture of Tessa with Blaire and Romni as Tessa opened her presents from them. 

That afternoon, Tessa got to pick the place to eat lunch with our family. She chose Koze, where they cook the meal in front of you. We had just gone to one a couple weeks ago, and Tessa knew then that she'd be picking that place again for her birthday. The food was yummy and they even brought out her ice cream sundae with a candle in it.

On Sunday, we celebrated with the Kasallis's and Tessa wanted a turtle cheesecake for her birthday "cake." She still loves all things dealing with turtles, so she thought it was the perfect choice of birthday treat. Tyler is our dessert maker and he made this delicious cheesecake for us all to enjoy. 

We spent the entire weekend celebrating Tessa's birthday, and we had a great time doing it. We love this girl and are so proud of the young woman she is becoming. Happy Birthday Tessa!

Spring Break 2017 and Other Happenings

Before we detail our Spring Break, there are a few events and pictures from February and March that I want to include in this post. Tyler and I went on a double date over Valentine's weekend with the Kasallis's, so we had our picture taken at the restaurant. The flash was very bright. We enjoyed the fancy, yummy food; and the place was all decorated for Valentine's. It was a fun evening.

A few pictures of Taryn always make an appearance since she's still with me all the time. Here are some cute ones I took. One Sunday afternoon, Abby was practicing her horn and Taryn decided to "help" her by leading the music. It was so adorable, I had to take a picture and a video to show them playing nicely together. We went to a movie with the Kasallis's one weekend and ended up at Chic-fil-a afterwards for lunch. Taryn and Teagan decided to share their lemonade smoothie and I thought it was the cutest thing. 

We joined the YMCA again since Abby's been playing volleyball seasons anyway. We will have the other girls start soccer this summer through the Y as well. Until the summer, the girls started up their gymnastics classes again. I haven't taken many pictures, but I did get one of Taryn as she works on mastering her cartwheel. Taryn is doing intro to gymnastics and ballet. Aubrey and Tessa are both in the advanced gymnastics class and go twice a week for gymnastics and tumbling. They all love it! Now that Aubrey has learned to ride a bike without training wheels, Taryn has been upgraded to a big girl bike with training wheels. We tried going for a ride one day, so I grabbed a picture after she was all ready to ride, but she's still a little nervous and unsteady on such a big bike. She's sticking with the scooters for awhile longer. 

Like I mentioned, Abby has been playing volleyball still through the Y; and Tyler and I are still the coaches. We coached three teams this past season, but only got pictures of two of the teams at the end of the season. Abby is still enjoying it and looking forward to trying out for the school team in the Fall. Tyler and I enjoy the extra exercise we get and working with the girls to improve their skills. I tell other people that it's like we get our weekly date night every Friday night when we coach. We just spend it with 20 pre-teen girls. Sounds romantic huh? :) 

St. Patrick's Day was right around the same time as Spring Break. We decorated a little, but did not have much around the house. Luckily, we got a fun package full of green items from Grandma and Grandpa Gibbons. The girls posed with their new leprechaun headbands that came in the package. That was pretty much the extent of our St. Patrick's Day celebration.

Now for Spring Break! We ended up staying in El Paso this year thinking that my brothers and their families were coming to visit. But it ended up that kids got sick and some couldn't come, so we had the majority of the week to ourselves. Scott and his family did come up but only for the first weekend. We still enjoyed having them while they were here. They got to see Grandma's new house where they hosted their first slumber party for all the granddaughters. My girls were so excited. We took some pictures before they went to bed and before we left for our night of game playing without any little girl interruptions. 

The two youngest, Nadia and Alexa, came back to our house with the adults, but they still were able to enjoy the beds and pictures for a little bit.

Tyler had taken half of the week off from work when we thought we were going to have a lot of family in town, so we did plan one day to do something "vacationy." We decided to drive over to Carlsbad, NM and visit the Carlsbad Caverns. It's something we've wanted to do since we moved to El Paso, but had never done. Tyler had gone recently with the Scouts from church and Tessa, who's been studying cave formations at school, convinced us that we needed to go soon. We also found out that 4th graders get a free pass to National Parks, so we even got in for free. Bonus! My parents came with us too and we had a very enjoyable day. It was pretty busy, but once we started walking into the cave, it wasn't too crowded. Here are the girls as we waited to check in. 

I took a ton of pictures as we walked through the caverns, but with just the flash and no real sunshine, the pictures are not great and do not do justice to the awesome formations that are there. Here's our family before going down into the natural entrance. 

So here are a few pictures we took of the girls and you can see some of the formations that we saw as we walked and walked and walked. 

There were so many formations! Stalactites from the ceiling, stalagmites from the ground and so many columns. It was amazing! 

 

 

 

The girls all walked on their own and there was very little complaining. We were so proud of them. We did ride the elevator back to the top, so we didn't have to do the walk/climb back up to the entrance. We took pictures outside the visitor center with one of the main signs to always remember our trip. It was a really fun day. 

The caverns are in the middle of nowhere, only near a very tiny town with just a few shops and one gas station. We stopped there to get a few snacks for the drive home, and had fun walking around their tourist shop. The girls found these bar stools and thought they were hilarious. The huge bear statue was a pretty funny sight as well.

We finished off our Spring Break week by swimming. The water was freezing! But the girls had decided to dub it the Polar Ice Challenge and convince people to swim in it with them anyway. They had fun for a few minutes before warming up on the hot driveway or just staying on the edge of the pool playing lifeguard. 

I was happy to have our pool up and running and available for them to swim in this early in the year. It was a great way to end our Spring Break!