April 2018 - A Temple Sealing, Fine Arts, Volleyball

April 1st was Easter Sunday. We were home watching General Conference, but we did spend some time letting the girls open Easter baskets and dye eggs. I thought it was funny because I had no red dye after using it all on some red velvet recipes, so the color choices to dye eggs was pretty limited. The girls didn't seem to mind and were happy with the activity. We had deviled eggs with our Easter ham meal that we ate with the Kasallis's and ended the day with an Easter egg hunt outside. During that hunt, we even found an actual bird's nest with two tiny eggs in it that the kids spent the next couple weeks watching until two baby birds were born. It was a great way to usher in Spring.

That first weekend in April, I was able to fly to Dallas by myself which I haven't done since before I had kids. Scott and Nevla had scheduled their temple date to have Haley sealed to them. With all of Abby's volleyball tournaments, we didn't think we'd all be able to drive this time, so Tyler bought me a flight so I could go and be with them and represent our family. I was excited to fly and be there, but the weather happened to be bad in the Dallas area that weekend, and my flight was delayed. And then when we finally got to fly, the landing was very bumpy. I felt pretty sick the rest of that night and realized how much less stressful driving is than flying. I stayed with my parents in a hotel and we met up with everyone at the Dallas temple on Saturday. Here's a picture of our family after the ceremony with Scott and Nevla and family all in white.

Here are a few pictures of their family and of the kids. I love these people! It was so great to hang out with them all weekend. The kids all did so well even in the cold weather. I was able to help get the babies ready in the temple by dressing them in their white clothes and doing hair. 

I was responsible for getting Daniel into his white tux and it was so fun, and different, dressing up a little baby boy. He looked so handsome when he was all the way dressed. I took another picture of us together that night when we all got together for Haley's and Daniel's baby blessings.

We ate out at a pizza buffet for dinner and I got to hang out with Chloe there. We took pictures to send my girls and Chloe and Abby had an emoji war while we were ate dinner. The funny thing was, the weekend of the sealing happened to be a weekend when Abby's tournament was on Sunday, so she didn't even play that weekend. The sad thing is that we never know until the Wednesday of the same week, so there was no way to change our plans and have everyone drive to Dallas. So Tyler and the girls filled their weekend with chores and entertainment which I'll go into more detail in a second. I also took some selfies with Haley after her baby blessing and she was giving the best smiles!

John flew to Dallas too and Paul drove down for the day, so it was fun visiting with my brothers. We took this selfie together after we had been standing around talking for while; and I thought it was pretty cool that our parents ended up unintentionally in the picture too in the background. Too funny! It had been a long time since it was just the four of us and it was fun to visit and catch up, and to just be together.

As for Tyler's entertainment, he decided with the free Saturday that he and Abby would build a chicken coop together since we've been talking about getting chickens for awhile. Abby was going to use the project as one of her personal progress projects and it would be something fun for them to do together. So Tyler and the girls spent the entire morning cleaning up the backyard and getting it ready to house chickens. They then had a birthday party to go to Las Cruces, so the coop didn't get started, but they did stop at a Tractor Supply Company in Las Cruces and purchased four baby chicks, which they brought home and set up a makeshift house for them in my living room. Abby sent a picture to me of the chicks while I was driving home from Dallas. They're so tiny and fluffy and they have to stay indoors for a couple weeks which was why they bought the chickens before the coop was built. Each girl got to pick out and name a chick. Abby picked the yellow one and named her Nugget. Tessa and Taryn picked black ones with a few white marks and named them Thunder and Oreo. Aubrey picked another black one with a black beak and named hers Amber. We've been watching them grow and they're not so tiny anymore. Tyler's about half way finished with the chicken coop and they'll eventually make their home in our backyard. Needless to say Tyler the girls did fine without me at home for the weekend.

Abby's volleyball continued the following weekend. Here's a great picture another parent took of Abby with three of her teammates: Allison, Emily, and Andrea. They love playing and are usually the ones at practice even on their days off. They also became the Fab 4 team that played in the Stars League and still beat teams of 6 with their team of 4.

The second weekend of April, the division that Abby's team usually plays in was going to be on Sunday again. One of Abby's teammates was gone for the weekend, so without Abby on Sunday too, they would have been down two players. So their coach decided to play up a division which happened to be Division 1 which is mostly teams of 17 and 18 year olds. Abby's 13 year old team is technically division 4. They usually play division 3 against 14 and 15 year old teams just to challenge them. This particular weekend, there weren't enough division 2 teams, so since they didn't want to play division 3 on Sunday, that left division 1. The fun thing was the girls got to see some really amazing volleyball players. And because they knew they'd probably lose every game, they were able to just have fun and not stress too much about winning. Here's a picture of the girls getting ready for their first game. They played a little too scared at the beginning and got beat by a team that they probably could have done better against had they not been so intimidated. But by their second game, they were playing hard and having fun.

As parents, our only goal was for the girls to at least score 10 points in each set, which they did. They even ended up with scores like 18 and 17 a couple of times. They really held their own and had fun playing against some really great teams. It was a fun experience and the girls left there feeling like it was a lot of fun and they have a lot to look forward to if they keep playing. It was great.

After that tournament, some of the girls on the team got together to watch a new volleyball movie called The Miracle Season. We ate dinner with Abby at the mall and then left her with the team and some other parents to watch the movie. They took this picture of the girls after the movie. They said it was a good movie and they really liked it. It was a great team bonding weekend.

The month of April also always includes Fine Arts Night at the elementary school. I didn't get any pictures except for this one of Tessa. The 5th graders were able to decorate signs that were placed along the entrance hall in the school. Tessa found the one that she and two of her classmates made together so I could get a picture of her with it. The girls usually also get to display some kind of artwork, but the school's art teacher was out of town and they weren't able to display anything this year. We just spent the evening in the craft rooms where the kids got to make things like maracas, dream catchers, foil art, clay sculptures, and more. They had a lot of fun and I love that they do special nights to celebrate music and art. To add on to that, here's a picture of Tessa with Grandpa at one of their first drum lessons. Tessa has decided that she will do band at Hornedo next year, so Grandpa has started lessons with her so she'll be ahead of the game before school even starts. She's having fun learning the drums and working on a new instrument.

I help Taryn's class in the computer lab about once a month. With the end of school quickly approaching, I decided I needed to take a picture to remember Taryn and her kindergarten class. Here she is in line with some of her classmates. In this picture it's Isabella, Taryn, Gabby, Mason, Aubrey, Cassidy, and Bryn. They are such a cute class and they all get along so well.

Another school post I want to include is this picture of Abby with her BFF, Braelinn. They have joined a school club at Hornedo called the Compassion club. They meet once a week and discuss things they can do to show kindness and compassion to those around them. One activity they did was drawing on the school's sidewalks with chalk. Abby and Braelinn wrote the word compassion really big and their picture was taken and included on the compassion club's Facebook page. We all thought it was a great picture and I was able to save it and use it here. I'm so proud of my girls and all that they do to set good examples at their schools and among their peers.

And back to volleyball, but before it's Abby's team, we had to include a picture of Aubrey's volleyball team. They finished out their league season this month. They only won one set the entire season, but the improvement of every player was obvious. They were getting serves over and having long volleys by the end of the season and they said they had fun. We also kept reminding our girls that they are 3rd and 4th graders playing mostly teams made up of 5th and 6th graders and who have been playing together for at least a year or more, so they should be proud of how well they played and how much they've learned. It was fun for me and Tyler to coach again too. The new season has started and some of the girls have stayed to play again on our team, and we've also added Tessa who's decided to play again. We love volleyball.

With only two in-town tournaments left of the season, Abby and her team really picked it up and played even better than they had all year. Back to division 3, the girls were going undefeated in pool play and this particular weekend, they finally made it to the championship game in the gold bracket. Abby still plays middle hitter and loves it. I love how well she plays and watching her get better and better every week is so fun.

They ended up playing against the Stars 12 team for the semi-finals and our team ended up losing the first set barely, like 25-23. Luckily the girls played hard and ended up winning the 2nd and 3rd sets to make it into the championship game. The girls were so excited because they were finally going to get a medal in the gold bracket. They kept up the momentum and fought hard, but ended up losing in the 3rd set of that championship game. They were even down at one point 8-14 in that 3rd set and came back to make it a close game. But they lost 13-15. It was so close!

The girls still had so much fun and really got to see how all of their hard work and teamwork paid off by getting 2nd place in the tournament. It was so fun to cheer along with the other parents. We took a lot of pictures after they were awarded their medals. The girls even had to have some silly pictures. They really have so much fun together.

Coach Denise took this selfie that turned out really cute even though a few faces got cut off. The girls really earned that medal and had fun playing to get it.

Another Fine Arts moment of the month was when Abby's jazz band performed at their contest. Abby is one of two French horns in their school's top jazz band. They play trombone parts and sit in the middle next to the trombones so it's hard to see her when they perform. But they played really well and ended up with Sweepstakes at the contest, all ones. We are so proud of her and all the talents that she has. Her band director, Mrs. Allen, has decided to have a more traditional jazz band next year, so they won't have any French horns. So this was probably her one and only jazz contest that she'll play in. She had fun learning the music and is happy to tell me that she's better at jazz than me because she can pick up the jazz rhythms faster.

I was able to attend one of Abby's Beehive activities this month and I had a great time getting to know the girls better. They did a skills night where they each shared and taught a skill with the other girls. Some did dance, some did sports, and one even did French while another did cooking. It was so fun to see the girls excel and talk so excitedly about something they're good at. Some of those girls are really shy and hearing them talk about their passions and talents so confidently was really fun to see. I love our youth programs at the church and watching these girls grow into confident, strong, independent young women.

The last weekend in April was Abby's final in-town tournament. Their hot streak of playing hard continued and they went undefeated in pool play again earning their place in the gold bracket.

Luckily, the siblings don't mind hanging out and playing together while their older sisters are playing volleyball. This weekend the girls somehow ended up with clown noses and popcorn to keep them entertained. It was too cute of a picture to pass up.

Here's a final picture I took of the team as they started their final game for the championship again. After getting silver the last week, the girls were really shooting for gold and they continued playing hard. They ended up winning the first set, but then losing the second one. They were tied multiple times in the 3rd set, but ended up losing 14-16 in the end. It was such a great game. They played so hard and had some amazing volleys, hits, and saves. We were sad to not see them get gold, but they were definitely deserving of a medal and they had fun playing.

They even had a fun surprise when Coach Denise came back right before their final game. She had left because she had to work at her other job, but when she got there and her manager saw how sad she was, Denise was able to tell her manager that she had just left her team right before their final game of the season and it was the championship game. Her manager let her leave, so she raced back to the courts and surprised the girls right before they started warming up for the game. It was such a fun surprise. Here's the full team with both coaches, Coach Dawson and Coach Denise. It was a great way to end the regular season and to keep the spirits up for their final out of town tournament the following weekend in Albuquerque for the Regional Championships.

March, Part 2 - Albuquerque Trip, Tessa's Birthday, Date Night

I'm starting the second half of March with our out of town volleyball trip to Albuquerque. It was the weekend at the end of our Spring Break. The rest of our Spring Break we had spent at home. The girls each had a day where they got to invite a friend over so they still enjoyed the break from school. On Friday of that week, we left for Albuquerque and got there in the afternoon. Some of Abby's team was already there and we met up with them at dinner. It was her teammate, Andrea's, birthday, so the girls were all invited to a dinner at Bravo! Italian restaurant. The food was yummy and Tyler and I sat with some of the other parents while Abby sat with her team, and our other girls sat with the other siblings. Here are the team girls after dinner. And I took a picture of my other girls with Riley as we walked back to our car to head back to our hotel. They all have so much fun with their friends.

Saturday was the day of the tournament, but we didn't play until the afternoon, so we met at Cracker Barrel for an early lunch. The team got to sit together at their own table where they ate, talked, and did hair.

At the Albuquerque convention center, there was a huge volleyball in the lobby, so the girls got pictures before the day was done. Here's Abby holding up the ball, and then one with her posing with Emily.

My dad took this picture as Abby served. It's one of my all-time favorites. I'll probably print this one out to frame and put up in the house. I love it that much!

Here are some more game pictures. They had three other teams in their pool play. We were ranked first in our pool and beat two of the teams easily.

As parents, we even debated why we were playing in the division that we were playing in because the competition seemed too easy. At our tournaments at home, we play up a division so that the teams we play are older and more advanced and we still match up to them pretty evenly. But at the bigger out of town tournaments, we play at our regular division playing against other 13 year old teams. And we were way better than most of the competition this weekend. I personally thought this was the tournament for us to win all together because we started out playing so well.

The third team in our pool was from Amarillo and they were the only competition we had that day. We still beat them in two sets, but they really had to work for those wins. That team had some really good hitters, but we luckily held them off and ended up winning all our games.

Our family left that night to drive home since we don't play on Sundays, but the other parents kept us updated on how the Sunday bracket games went. We won the first two games easily and I felt even more confident that this was the tournament that we would win. However, in the semi-finals match, our team played the same Amarillo team that we beat on Saturday and ended up losing to them in 3 sets. We had won the first set easily, but then barely lost the 2nd and 3rd sets. It was so sad. I was so sure that we could win the whole thing. That team ended up losing in the championship game, so it was too bad that we couldn't pull out another win against them. We really love watching Abby play and she really loves her team and loves playing. It's so fun to see how much the girls have improved even though that championship game has still just barely been out of reach.

Sunday night, after getting home from Albuquerque, we were watching a movie together when Aubrey said she wiggled her tooth enough that she pulled it out. At age 9, in the middle of 3rd grade, she finally lost one of her top front teeth. She was so excited and she sounded so cute with her lisp after trying to get used to talking with a missing tooth.

Abby's band played their actual contest numbers for Contest on March 22nd. They played in the evening, so we were all able to be there to support her. The buses were so late getting them there from their school that's only about 10 miles away that they had to walk right up onto the stage and warm up in front of the audience. But they still performed really well and got straight ones from the judges.

Tessa birthday was on the 24th of March which was a Saturday this year. The Friday before I took donuts to her class. She ends her days with Mr. Martinez in her GT class which is her biggest class. We had to bring 30 donuts to make sure everyone got one. They each came up to pick a donut and say a personal Happy Birthday to Tessa. It was pretty cute.

On Tessa's actual birthday, Abby had another volleyball tournament in town. Here are a couple pictures from that game. They played well, ended up first place in their pool, and made it to the gold bracket again like usual even after playing some difficult teams. 

Unfortunately, they lost their first game in the bracket against a hard team that we have yet to beat, so we were done with the tournament earlier than usual. However, that worked out pretty well for us since we had made plans with the Kasallis's to celebrate Tessa's and Tony's birthdays that night.

While I was at Abby's tournament, my parents were nice enough to come pick up the other girls, and Riley, and take them to our ward's Easter Egg Hunt at a park. My mom sent me these pictures as the girls searched for eggs and had fun with their friends. My mom said Tessa never slowed down enough for her to get a picture of Tessa, which sounds just about right.

After Abby's tournament, I found the siblings dressing up in front of the photo spot in the gym. So I grabbed some quick pictures. Here's Taryn with her favorite mask while wearing Abby's volleyball jacket. Taryn did not stand still long enough to be in the group picture. The kids meticulously picked out hats to represent different holidays of the year for their group picture, so they had New Years, Easter, 4th of July, Christmas, and Valentines Day. The siblings of the team players get along really well and have fun playing and messing around together while their older sisters play volleyball all day.

Here's Tessa's birthday picture. She chose the sparkler headband to wear for her picture. This is the one I used on Facebook to honor Tessa on her birthday. She is still our happy, bouncy, active girl who likes to be friends with everyone. She's super smart and loves to answer people correctly whether you want the answer or not. She's also still the tomboy who wears pants with holes in the knees and scuffed up shoes, who would rather be outside playing in the dirt or using her Nintendo DS than doing anything too girly. She loves music and writing her own songs and she's very good at drawing. Happy 11th Birthday Tessa!

After getting home from the tournament, Tessa got to open her presents before dinner and that's when we heard a knock on the door. Two boys from her school and church class, Reve and Ethan, were there with a plate of cookies and they started singing Happy Birthday to Tessa. It was so cute! Tessa even got really red when we teased her about it afterwards. She has such great friends and they all get along really well. I'm excited that they will all be heading to middle school next year together. The church group their age is a really big, really good group of kids.

We met the Kasallis's for dinner at Koze which is the same place that Tessa had picked for dinner last year on her birthday. It was also the last time we had eaten there. It's the hibachi grill where they cook in front of you. We even had the same cook as last time. He was just as hilarious and fun and we had a great time. We squeezed all 12 of us around the table. Here are the two groups of kids.

During the cook's presentation, they take some scrambled egg and toss it up and you try to catch it in your mouth. Usually they just pick one or two people to give it a try, but he let us each take a turn. Taryn was the first person to catch the egg on her first try but it went straight down her throat so she made a funny scared face before she started laughing like the rest of us. She was fine once she took a little drink. AJ almost caught a line drive toss from across the whole table. Even the cook looked impressed. We really had a great time. Tony's birthday was only a couple days before Tessa's, so they made huge ice cream sundae's for both him and Tessa that they brought out with a candle while we sang Happy Birthday to both of them. It was a great night!

On Sunday we had Tessa's actual birthday cake and we sang one more time. One of Tessa's presents was a ukulele. She was so excited to get it and within the first week she had learned some chords, how to tune it, and even learned a couple songs like Row Row Row your Boat, and You are My Sunshine. We were very impressed with how quickly she picked up on it. I think having already learned the violin helped, but she was very good about following the online lessons and memorizing the song chords quickly. I'm so impressed by her ability to learn new things so fast. We love this girl so much!

A little about Aubrey. She decided that she wanted to play volleyball too, so this past league season, Abby's coach, Coach Dawson, asked if we wanted to coach one of their beginning teams. He told us if we coached, any of our kids could play on the team as well. Aubrey really wanted to play, but Tessa didn't, so we started coaching again. I really like when Tyler and I coach because we both love volleyball and it's something that we get to do together. My parents came to one of Aubrey's games and took these pictures for me since I was standing on the side coaching. They are mostly 3rd-5th graders who have never played volleyball before, but they're picking it up quickly and having fun learning. Most are getting their serves in and they aren't afraid of the ball when it come to them. Those are always the first big steps in volleyball.

At the end of March, the elementary school had their big spring fundraiser. Each student was supposed to get sponsors to donate money based on how many laps they would run during a fun run. I went to the school the day of the fun run, but was only able to go to Tessa's run in the morning. The kids each got a shirt that we, as parents, would mark as they ran each lap. Each class made a banner and they spent two weeks talking about positive character traits to build up to the fun run. They had a lot of fun and everyone that I saw ran the total 35 laps.

It was a super sunny day and it got hot fast, but the kids were troopers and kept running. They had a lot of water available and even had icee pops when they were done. Here's Tessa as she finished her final lap. I also took a picture of her with some classmates, Ethan, Reve, Tessa, and Taryn, with their class banner.

 I was not able to make it to Aubrey's or Taryn's PE time, but a friend posted this picture of her daughter on Facebook, so I saved it for myself because Aubrey was in the picture too. I was so excited to see her, and she ran the full 35 laps as well!

I had already scheduled a hair appointment on the same day as the fun run not knowing that was when they were going to be doing it. I decided to go with highlights and a new haircut. Here's a picture I took to try and show the highlights. I also have been trying to be better about curling my hair learning how to use a curling wand, which is pretty fun. I've only burned myself once. :) That same weekend, Aubrey and Taryn decided to try swimming. It's been in the 80s so it's nice and warm outside, although the water is still pretty chilly. But the girls toughed it out and even jumped in and out of the pool a couple times one Friday evening.

That Friday evening that the girls swam, I had planned a group date for me and Tyler. We went out with two other couples, the Deca's and the Anderson's, and we went to an Escape Room. We decided to do that because Abby was going with her volleyball team the next night and we wanted to give it a try first and see how it went. It was so much fun! We were locked in a room and had to find out clues to try and get out of the room before 60 minutes were up. Our group was able to get out with 10 minutes to spare. It was hard, but a lot of fun. There was another couple that was in the room with us, and we all worked really well together. 

After the Escape Room, we met up with another couple, the Andersen's, and we ate dinner. We wanted to eat at Track One which is a bunch of old train cars that have been turned into a restaurant but the wait was too long, so we ended up going to State Line BBQ instead. Tyler and I had not eaten there before, so I was happy with that choice too and the food was delicious. We don't get to go out very often, so it was fun to go on a date and to hang out with good friends too. We had a great time!

The next day, Abby and her volleyball team had a fundraiser at Sam's club. They sold food, drinks, and treats for four hours. The weather was perfect and they made a lot of money. The siblings even helped by holding up signs. It was a fun day. The team met up that night to do the Escape Room. The parents and siblings that were there just hung out in the waiting room waiting to see if the girls would make it out in time. They had dress-ups for one of their Escape rooms, so the siblings had fun dressing up, taking pictures, and putting on their own scavenger hunt with their own made up clues. It was pretty funny.

We could hear the girls' screams as they found new clues or were scared by certain things in their room. They did not make it out of the room before their 60 minutes were up, but they figured out the majority of the hard clues and had fun together as a team, which was the whole point of getting together. These were some pictures we took before they went into the room, and then one after they got out in front of the business sign. The funniest part of the night was when they were walking back to the room to get started, they passed through a door and one of the girls' dads was standing behind the door to let them in. He yelled "Boo" really loud and the girls all screamed before they even made it back into the room to get locked in. We were all laughing so hard because they were already so nervous not knowing how it was going to go. It was funny. These girls are having so much fun together, on and off the volleyball court.