Fall 2017 Including Taryn's 6th Birthday

We always talk about how Taryn is just like Abby's mini-me. They have the same dark brown eyes, the same shade of hair, and Taryn looks just like how Abby did when she was younger. Abby was resting next to the sleeping Taryn on the couch one night, and I saw how similar they really look, so I took this picture. My babies!

In September, the girls and I went to the Women's broadcast session of General Conference. Ladies in our ward always go out to dinner afterwards and this time we chose Independent Burger. Their patio area has games and activities for the kids while the moms got to relax and visit. Here's Tessa with her friends Olivia, Rianne, and Mileah. Abby sat with the older girls at their own table. Here she is with Jess, Kate, and Braelinn.

We had a waitress take a picture of the mom table. I love my friends. We always have such a good time together. Aubrey and her friend, Lexi, made this huge tower out of blocks and Lexi's mom took a picture and sent it to me. Taryn loves these nights too because she gets a daddy-daughter date since she's the only one too young to attend the meeting.

On September 11, 2017, on my dad's birthday, Scott and Nevla's baby boy was born. They named him Daniel. After all the granddaughters, it's been so fun to finally have another grandson. He's so cute! Scott and Nevla, after adopting Nadia, were also placed with Nadia's biological sister, Haylee. They hope to be able to adopt her too, but until that is final, I can't post any pictures of her online. However, we love to go visit them and see all the babies. Nadia turned two in October and Haylee turned one. And then they have Alexa who had turned one in July and then Daniel born in September. So they have four babies basically under two. Their hands are full and their house is like a daycare, but those babies are loved and they have their schedule down to a science. We love visiting them and holding babies. I love my nieces and nephew!

We still have deer visitors in our backyard. One day I came home to find this deer napping in my yard. It scared me at first because I had been sitting watching tv for awhile before I noticed him move. He hung out for awhile and I took some pictures because his antlers were so weird - one pointing up and one down. After showing the girls the pictures, we tried to come up with a name for him, but I don't think we ever did. Maybe crooky or something. We'll definitely be able to recognize him if he ever stops to visit again.

Taryn turned 6 on October 14th. Since it was an even-number birthday, she had her first official birthday party with friends. She decided on Chuck E. Cheese and she invited some of the girls from her kindergarten class, plus some friends from her church primary class. Here are pictures from that fun day.

Taryn has two sets of twins in her kindergarten class this year. One set of boys and one set of girls. The girls, Isabella and Alyssa, are some of her closest friends. She also always likes to have dad help her on the games to win lots of tickets.

We did the whole party with hostess thing. The kids had a blast. They got pizza, cupcakes, dippin dots ice cream, all you can play games, and the chance to meet Chuck E. Cheese.

Taryn was not scared of Chuck E. and was more than willing to give him a high five and have her picture taken with him. We sang happy birthday to her and she blew out the candle on her cupcake. Chocolate with pink frosting, just like she had requested.

Here are all the kids from Taryn's party having their picture taken with Chuck E. Cheese. She had Cassidy, Presley, Aubrey, Sam, Tessa, Teagan, Gabby, Alyssa, and Isabella. They even got to pull a pinata. They took turns pulling strings until someone pulled the right one which ripped open the pinata. Taryn was the lucky one who opened the pinata on like her 3rd time around pulling strings. That was awesome.

The coolest part of her party package was when she got to take a turn in the ticket blaster. The wind turns on and blows tickets all around and you have to try and collect as many as you can by catching them out of the air. The first picture was when the hostess was telling her what to do as she got ready. The second picture was during her time and you can see that she got the big ticket which was worth 500 tickets! Watching the video, it's like that ticket just flew right in to her hand and she luckily didn't let go. She said it was a lot of fun, and we all loved watching her in there. She had the best birthday ever and we loved being able to enjoy it with friends. Happy birthday Taryn!

Abby decided on our Halloween costumes this year. She planned out the whole thing and helped me cut and paint them all. She decided on Pac Man characters, so Tyler and I were Mr. and Mrs. Pac Man while the girls were the ghosts. They even have names, did you know? Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde. The girls loved painting them, and although they were a little cumbersome as you walked around, we got a lot of compliments at our ward party and when we went trick-or-treating.

We made an extra ghost for Braelinn so that they could have matching costumes for their band concert. Braelinn's sister, Presley, loved to be in the picture too. Tyler and the young men were in charge of a candy walk where they walked around tombstones and were chosen by number based on the death year on each tombstone. The kids thought it was the best, especially because they used glow in the dark glue, a fog machine, and scary music.

Tyler's only wish for Halloween was to host a murder mystery dinner. He found one online that was kid friendly and we put it together with the Kasallis family. There were goblins, werewolves, scarecrows, witches, vampires, mummies, and zombies. The kids had fun dressing up and we all worked together to find clues to find out who the bad guy was. It turned out to be Tony the werewolf, which most people guessed correctly. It was a lot of fun.

Tyler's Birthday and Starting School

Taryn started Kindergarten this year! I can't believe it! A couple days before school started, they had a meet the teacher night. Taryn was very excited to meet her teacher, although with always being with me when I'd volunteer at the school, she already knew Mrs. Hardwick. But she was excited to see the classroom and her desk. She was looking forward to starting school.

Tyler's 40th birthday was the first day of school. We decided to celebrate the night before with my parents and the Kasallis's.

We sang and cheered him on as he blew out all those candles on his 3-layer chocolate and pudding cake.

Here are the first day of school pictures. I'll have posts for each girl's first half of school, but at least we had to get things started. Abby started 7th grade and Taryn's in Kindergarten.

Tessa started 5th grade, her last year of elementary school. And Aubrey started 3rd grade.

I grabbed a picture as we walked into the school, so we'll have a picture of the girls' elementary school. The last year that I'll have three girls at the same school.

Epic Summer Vacation Part 4 - Great Wolf Lodge, Disneyland, and a Reunion

Our next stop was a Great Wolf Lodge in California. We've been to one in Dallas, but it was a surprise to the girls that there were others around the United States. As we checked into the hotel, we each got our very own pair of wolf ears.

As soon as we woke up the next morning, we spent the entire day in the water park. It's hard to take pictures since I can't carry my phone around with all the water, but I did take my phone around a few times to grab some pictures as the girls played.

I love all the pretty colors that show up in the pictures from the fun splash pad areas. There were floating logs/lily pads that you could try and get across using the cargo net, and all the girls wanted to try. Taryn was just a little too short to reach the first step, but she got all ready in a life vest to give it a try.

Tessa and Aubrey both made it across. I took a video of them as they maneuvered their way across, but grabbed these still photos as well. They got across a lot faster than I thought they would with the movable lily pads and wobbly net.

We all really liked these racing slides. I tried to get a picture as the girls raced down and I think a couple of them are making the splashes if you look close enough, but you never knew when they'd come shooting out, so getting a picture was pretty tricky. This was my favorite picture I took there, with the slides and big bucket behind the girls.

The next three days were spent at Disneyland and California Adventure. Now that we've been a couple times and the girls were old enough to remember, we were able to navigate the parks pretty quickly and get to all the busy rides first. Here's Tessa and I on the Midway Mania ride which is the Toy Story ride.

We rode Mickey's Carousel ride again in one of the non-rotating carriages.

Aubrey and I rode the jumping jellyfish together and then we were in the right place at the right time to meet Princess Elena. The girls were so excited to meet her and talk to her. She was so pretty!

I always like to get a selfie with whoever's in the ride with me. Here's me, Taryn, and Tyler in our green shell for the Ariel Under the Sea ride.

The Chew-Chew Caterpillar ride is one of our favorites in Bug's Land. I took a picture of the girls from where Tyler and I sat together in the middle.

Abby and Tyler took a break while I rode Flik's Flyers, which is like a merry-go-round, with the other girls. I tried not to get too motion sick.

We all rode the bumper cars together. Aubrey was so excited to drive the car. I videoed as we rode around and tried to take pictures of the other drivers, like Taryn and Tyler.

We hadn't ever ridden Mater's Jingle Jamboree before because we thought it was too spinney like a tilt-a-whirl ride, but it actually wasn't bad; and we all really liked it as we flung around to fun music. Taryn chose to ride with Tyler, and Abby rode with Aubrey.

Tessa rode with me, so she gets the selfie. I loved our even number again, so we just took turns pairing up with different people as we rode the rides.

As we walked through Cars Land, Lightning McQueen drove right past us on the street. I grabbed a quick picture. Aubrey wasn't too happy that she got blocked out of the picture, but we didn't have a lot of time as he drove right by.

Here's one of the few pictures we got of all six of us together. I tried to get us all in while we were in front of the Disneyland entrance and Mickey flowers, but you can barely tell where we are. At least you can see all six of us though.

We ended up waiting quite a while for our first few rides in Disneyland, so the girls were getting a little grumpy as you can tell. They each wanted their own picture in the Toady car, but I made them all get in together for just one picture.

On our second day, we started in Disneyland and used our extra hour in the morning to head straight to Space Mountain. Only Abby and Tyler rode this one last time we were here, so the other girls were a little nervous and excited to get to ride the "one in the dark." Taryn was even tall enough to ride, but afterwards she said she didn't like it that much because it was too dark and too fast.

We rode the Storybook Land Boat ride and then grabbed a picture in the Tea Cup even though we never ride that ride. It's way too spinney!

The girls really liked the Thunder Mountain Railroad especially when all the lights go up the track like the explosives are going off. They ask every time if it's really going to blow.

I took a picture of the screen shot from our Splash Mountain photo. It's one of my all time favorites! From Abby's face getting splashed to Taryn and my screaming faces. Everyone looks so awesome - I love it! We also took a picture as we waited in line for the Winnie the Pooh ride, one of the girls' favorite easy rides.

I took another selfie of all six of us as we waited for the show to start in the Tiki Room. We hadn't ever seen that show before and it was pretty cool. There were a lot of singing birds and singing Tiki poles.

I took a picture of the girls in front of the castle as we walked past. And we grabbed a picture in one of the dumbo cars even though we didn't actually ride that ride since the line was too long.

On our final day, we wanted to catch all the last rides we missed. We rode Luigi's Joy to the Whirl car ride which had been out of service the first day. It was a new ride that they had changed since our last visit, so that was fun. Aubrey got the selfie this time and Tessa rode with Abby.

And Taryn rode with Tyler. This was the closest I could get to them for a picture, but I love how if you look close enough you can see that Taryn's face is perfectly centered in the eye of the car.

Taryn was tall enough for the Guardians of the Galaxy ride which used to be the Tower of Terror. We all went on it together, although I think Aubrey was the most scared. The girls dabbing in the picture were trying to reassure Aubrey while we waited in line that it wasn't that bad. Although they survived the ride, I don't think it'll be on their top favorites list. However, it did make us want to see the Guardians of the Galaxy movies which we since have and really like.

This first picture was my phone screen saver for a long time because it's such a cute picture. The girls really wanted a picture with the California Screamin' ride in the back. They used the first two days of our visit to talk themselves into trying the ride with it's upside-down coaster. Taryn was too little for this ride still, so we took turns riding it. You can just see Aubrey and Abby in front of Tyler in the yellow cars. Tessa's next to Tyler, but you can't really see her at all. This was right at the beginning of the ride as they get shot off after a quick countdown.

Here are the screen shots for Tyler's ride and then my ride as we rode the coaster. The girls got to go twice and decided it was one of their favorite rides ever. They were super excited to tell everyone about how they went upside down for the first time on a roller coaster.

Taryn rode the King Triton carousel multiple times as she waited for everyone else on the roller coaster.

We rode the Toy Story ride again because it's one of my favorites. I grabbed this picture as we walked through the line and passed by Mr. Potato Head. Abby and Tessa were across from me, so I took their picture before we headed in to the ride.

Finding Moana was a must for our trip. Our friend Clare, who's almost 2, is obsessed with Moana, and the girls really wanted to meet her so they could take a picture and send it to Clare. They liked talking to Moana and I got this really cute picture.

We finished off our Disneyland rides with taking a trip on the pirate ship. I even got a selfie with Tyler as we rode around the big lake. We really love Disneyland!

The final part of our epic vacation and really the whole reason we headed to California in the first place was for Tyler's 10-year optometry school reunion. They had food and fun activities like face painting for the kids while the optometrists went to a CE class. This is one of my all-time favorite pictures of Taryn. She chose Wonder Woman for her face painting and she wanted to make sure you could tell in the picture that she had lipstick on too. I love it so much! Aubrey chose this blue flower and loved it so much that she used this picture to have it repainted on her face again at her first school function that had face painting.

Abby decided to have something painted on her upper arm. It was a design she found, but the lady had never done before so she asked Abby if she could take a picture of it to put on her website. Abby loved it. Tessa of course had to have a turtle. She didn't see anything that she liked from the ladies' pictures, but once she told her she wanted a turtle, the lady just came up with this. It was amazing.

The only other picture I was able to take from the reunion was after the picnic lunch when the classmates got out of their class. This was on their campus and Tyler really enjoyed catching up with everyone. We had a dinner and slideshow that night which only Tyler and I went to. And Tyler was able to see even more of his classmates. I can't believe it has been 10 years since he graduated optometry school. It definitely doesn't seem like it's been that long. Time sure does fly by.

On our entire epic vacation as we drove to and from California, any time this song came on, we turned up the music and sang along. It became our theme song for our trip. "It's good to be alive, right about now." It was perfect! And now whenever we hear this song in the future, it'll remind us of our awesome vacation when we had so much fun. I love my family!