September 2018 - Labor Day, Volleyball, Puppies

For Labor Day this year, we traveled down to San Antonio to see Scott and his family. We were looking forward to the long weekend break, but unfortunately, Abby's first volleyball game of the school season was held on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. We decided we'd leave right after her Saturday morning game, drive straight down to San Antonio, and still have Sunday and Monday to spend with family. Watching and playing with the nieces and nephew was the best part. 

We also ate, played games, visited, and played outside while we were together. It's our favorite kind of family vacation. Here are some more pictures I took that weekend. Getting toddlers to sit still for a picture is very difficult, especially trying to get more than one to do it at the same time. These are the best I could get. 

As I mentioned before, Abby's school volleyball season started off with tryouts the first week of school. Abby made the A team and started the season as the setter. She was very excited to get her number, "6" again. They played their first game the week after making the team and they played Lincoln. Coach Denise came to see the girls play so we grabbed a picture of her with Abby after the game.

 Here's Abby with some of her teammates, Andrea, Paulina, Emily, and Alisha. And then another picture of Abby with her Stars teammates, McKenzie, Emily, Diane, and Kayla. We ended up losing to Lincoln in three sets. It was a good game, although you could tell that it was the very beginning of the season. They were still getting used to playing together as a team.

The younger siblings were having fun hanging out together during and after the game. I took this picture of our three girls with Riley outside the Coronado gym where the Hornedo/Lincoln game was played. 

The next week was full of volleyball as the team played their pre-season tournament. I only got this one picture from all three games that they played because I was always too busy watching and cheering during the games. Abby's team won their first two games, so they played for the championship on Saturday. 

They ended up losing the championship game in three sets. The other team had one amazing player and we just couldn't come back although the two sets we lost were very close games. We still got a trophy for second place. Here's the full team with their trophy after that final game. A serious picture and a silly one. 

Their first home game was against Wiggs and we ended up winning that game. Abby's in the setter position in this first picture and is serving the ball in the second one. I really love watching her play. She's great on the court and gets along really well with all of her teammates. 

Here's a closer up picture of Abby serving the ball at their game against Wiggs. And then a picture of the entire team after their win. We were so happy for them and their hard playing.

During the Franklin high school's homecoming week, there is a parade and the middle schools are invited to participate in the parade too. Abby's team had a trailer that they decorated as Monsters Inc. Here are a few of the girls from the team when I dropped Abby off to get ready. Abby ran along the truck in the parade for the entire route. They had a lot of fun throwing candy and waving to the crowds. The parade was held on a Wednesday night so our youth who were not in the parade met up to watch it together. Here are all the youth and kids who were watching the parade together. I knew so many people in the parade, from all the youth from our wards and also a lot of girls from Stars volleyball and from when we were coaching at the YMCA. It was so fun to see so many familiar faces. We had a great time. 

Abby played an away game at Guillen middle school the following week. I only took one picture at that game too. They won that game pretty easily. It's fun to see them work together and progress as a team. Abby played one more game in September, against Magoffin, but I didn't get any pictures at that game. It was also an away game and we won, but it was different because Abby had to play libero. They lost a couple players due to injuries and grades; and the coach thought Abby was their best defensive player, so she was switched from setter to libero. She was really nervous about changing positions, but she's been doing really well. I'm so proud of her that she can fill in wherever she's needed and help the team from any position.

Abby is struggling managing her time to keep up with school, volleyball, band, church, and social life. She is so busy all the time. As we were driving home from Guillen after her game, she ended up falling asleep and using Taryn as a pillow. It was pretty cute because Taryn was trying so hard not to move so that she wouldn't wake up Abby. She just sat very still smiling until we noticed and I took a picture. I thought it was adorable how the little sister was supporting the big sister. I love these girls. Since we're talking about Taryn, I'll include this picture from her first Fun Fit Friday. It started pouring rain as soon as their PE began, so we all raced to the gym before we got too drenched. We played with hula hoops, basketballs, and jump ropes. Taryn had fun playing with her friends and showing me all of her PE skills.

Our girls, along with the Kasallis boys, prepared a musical number that they performed in Sacrament in the middle of September. They practiced a lot and my dad accompanied them on the piano. They sang Glorious, which is most famously sung by David Archuleta. It's also from the Meet the Mormons movie. Each kid had a one or two line solo and then they sang the chorus all together. It was beautiful and they did amazing. A lot of youth from the other wards even came to our sacrament because they heard they were singing and they wanted to be there to support our kids. They did an awesome job. We got so many compliments on their voices, and on how it made them cried, and how they felt the spirit. It was great. Since we couldn't take pictures or record in the chapel, we had the kids perform it one more time that night so we could get a recording. I took this picture near the end of the performance. I love these kids! 

Finally, I have to include these pictures of some adorable little puppies. Our friends, the Kims, have two dogs who had puppies together. Akita and husky mix puppies. They are so cute. Once the puppies were old enough to have visitors, the Kims invited us over to hold and love on the puppies. Here are my kids taking their turns holding them. There were seven puppies to choose from - all of them as adorable as the next one. 

Most of the puppies where shades of white and light brown. There was one dark one, the one Tessa's holding, that a lot of kids said was their favorite. The kids were trying to talk us into getting one of the puppies once they're old enough to be adopted out, but I'm still not ready for that kind of commitment. A puppy is like having another baby or toddler in the house and I don't need that kind of mess or responsibility right now. So for now, we'll just enjoy holding and playing with the puppies while they're young and cute and at someone else's house. 

A little update on Tessa as she started middle school. After her rough start at the beginning of the school year, she has quickly adapted and is doing just fine. She has joined the Math Team at school and went to her first Math Meet at the end of September. They take math tests for fun, including MathSense which is mental math. They can't write anything down except for their answers. She's been learning all the tricks and tips for those kind of math problems and at their first meet, she ended up with an award because she placed 6th place among all the 6th graders. We are so proud of her. She enjoys it and loves learning new things. She's now rocking it in middle school. 

Here's a quick picture of the girls with our friend Riley Blacksher. We went out to eat with their family and this awesome El Paso sign was near the restaurant. So while waiting to be seated, the girls got this picture. We love where we live; and we love our friends.

The final news for September would have to be the Khalid concert that Abby was able to attend with her friend, Emily Blacksher, Rilery's sister. Emily's 14th birthday was right before the concert and she got tickets from her grandparents and her parents let her pick a friend to go with her. She chose Abby and they had a great time. Khalid is a famous singer who is from El Paso. They went to the concert, bought their concert t-shirts, and had fun listening to the music. Here are a few pictures that they took and sent to me so I could include them here in the blog. 

The school year is marching along quickly and we're all staying very busy with school and work and church. We're just so happy that our family is enjoying life and doing well.

August 2018 - End of Summer, Beginning of School

The end of July and beginning of August overlapped a little in end of summer activities. I've decided to include all of my pictures in this post that were our end of summer festivities. And since school started so early in August this year (August 13th), the only other pictures I've taken for August were from meet the teacher night and the first day of school. So here's how our summer ended. The big news for Abby was that she got braces! Three days after getting home from Utah, they were able to schedule her an appointment. She was very excited to get them on. The sooner the better she said, so she could get used to them before school started. I also wanted her to have time to adjust to playing the French horn and eating and other things that were going to change once the braces were on. Here she is during the process and after we got home.

Abby also got to participate in a couple more volleyball camps to keep her practicing before her school tryouts. She went to the UTEP volleyball camp and had fun with girls from her club and school teams, and also with girls that she remembered from last year's camp. I went early a couple days and grabbed these pictures as they practiced. 

Abby also did a camp through the city that was free, but run by the same UTEP players that ran the UTEP camp. They took one big group picture on their last day. Abby enjoyed learning from new coaches and strengthening her skills as she continued her workouts. Luckily she's not sick of all the volleyball playing yet. She's very good and learning more each time she plays and I love watching her play. 

Our ward had a pioneer day breakfast, so Tyler left early to help cook. I woke up to get the girls ready to go and saw this in my backyard. We had a skunk in our pool! It was a baby skunk that was stuck in the water intake area. Whenever it tried going out to swim, it would swim along the wall and then head back to where it could stand and just hang out there. I would've tried helping it out with our net and long pole, but then we started seeing other skunks in the backyard right above the pool and I decided it wasn't worth getting sprayed by one of its friends in the process if I tried to help. So after calling Tyler, I called animal control. We went to our breakfast and I got the call later saying animal control was at my house. I met them there and waited in the house while he took care of the skunk in the pool. The other skunks were no longer around, so he didn't have to worry as much about being sprayed. The next day Tyler saw and took a picture of a fox that was up on the hill behind our yard. We see all kinds of animals in our yard which is one of the reasons we love our house, but we're not sure if our chickens are attracting all these animals or what. It's been a little crazy. 

Tyler started a project of making loft beds for Aubrey and Taryn. We had decided to rearrange the girls in their rooms since Tessa was starting middle school, so Tyler gave himself the deadline of finishing it all before school started. With all the furniture rearranging, I asked Tyler if I could paint some accent walls while the rooms were emptier. So I started with the playroom which became Aubrey and Taryn's room. I decided on the design and the girls picked the colors from what paints we already had. And I was good about taking some before, during, and after pictures. Here's the before picture, and one during, while Aubrey and Taryn helped paint their new wall. 

I took a picture of the finished wall, and then one more picture of the complete room with the completed loft beds. The girls were so excited to sleep in their new beds that first night. Our futon couch fits below one of the beds, so we can even all watch movies in their together and there's still plenty of room for toys and for the girls to play. I'm still adjusting to calling it their room instead of the playroom, but everyone is happy. And Tyler had it all done with time to spare before school started. 

Tessa's room was next and we went a little more creative for her wall. I showed her some examples on pinterest and she picked the chevron pattern and wanted it green. We even used a second color after seeing and loving some examples of that. The prep work of measuring and taping the wall took the most time, but I like doing that kind of stuff and we really loved how it turned out. These are the before and after pictures of Tessa's room. Her room was a major change when I starting taking off the pictures that were on the wall. When we moved into this house, I decorated this room as the nursery, so we removed all the "baby" items and really turned it into a middle schooler's room. With the younger girls' new beds and new dresses that they and Abby got, Tessa was the only one without any "new" furniture. She was at least able to pick out a new bedspread and sheet set, and she was happy when a smaller tv was moved into her room so she could watch her own movies too. She loves her room and has adjusted to being on her own just fine. 

A couple weeks later, we were able to finish Tessa's room by adding this accent wall with Tessa's favorite animal. We had painted it green when we did the other painting, but we waited for the vinyl and finally got that right after school started. We love how it turned out. Tessa loves that when she lays in bed, she can see the turtles through her dresser mirror.

Abby wanted an accent wall too, and after I started the other rooms, she did the research herself and decided what design she wanted. She picked this geometric pattern design and even wrote out her plans of where the tape would go. I did the majority of the work on the other rooms, but Abby was very hands on and did all the work with me. She said she wanted purple, so I was very excited when I found a clearance bucket of purple paint at the store. It said it was interior paint, so I bought it and brought it home. What I didn't realize until I was opening it was that it was oil-based paint, so it was very messy and very smelly. It coated very nicely on the wall, but it was a beast to clean off our skin and the paintbrushes. And the smell! It was so strong when we were painting Abby's wall that even with the balcony door open to help ventilate, our eyes were watering as we painted. We even had all the girls sleep downstairs that first night after painting because the smell was so strong. I learned my lesson on that one, but at least the rooms turned out nicely and all the girls are happy.  

As for the girls, they enjoyed the final weeks of their summer. Taryn loved watching her sunflowers grow in our front yard. We took a picture of the first one that bloomed. It was practically as tall as she was. Tessa spent a day at Hornedo when she picked up her laptop and then went back that afternoon for their "fish" camp where they take the 6th graders around to tour the school and get comfortable with middle school. I took this picture of Tessa with her friends from church, Seki and Olivia, who went together during the tour.

Taryn had a final playdate with all of her kindergarten class friends for a last summer hurrah. We had already found out their teachers for the new school year, and sadly Taryn was the only one from this group of KD kids who was going to be in a different class than all of the other kids. The other moms really wanted me to try and change Taryn's teacher, but Taryn was good with being in a different class. She just said, "it's ok. I'll see them all at lunch and recess." She's such a good kid. Her friends were able to come over for lunch and swimming and they had so much fun. Here's Taryn with her buddies Isabella, Jackson, Benny, Gabby, and Alyssa. Taryn had a mishap at this playdate when they were playing. Aubrey was holding Taryn and she tried dropping her in the pool, but didn't get her over the water far enough, so when Taryn fell, she hit her nose on the side of the pool. She was bleeding everywhere; it was so freaky. I was glad it was my kid and not someone else's, and once we got all the bleeding stopped, we could tell it was just a bruised and bloody nose. She luckily didn't get any black eyes, but her nose was very tender for a couple of days. Besides that, the kids had fun spending time together and enjoying their summer. 

On August 4th, the youth had a temple trip scheduled at the Tucson temple. We met at the church at 5:15 in the morning to drive the four hours to Tucson to have the kids there for a 9 am baptistry appointment. Since Tyler and I are both currently working with the youth, our other kids stayed the night at a friend's house, so that we could both go with Abby. We drove our van full of kids and had a good time visiting on the long drive. We had 14 youth go in all, and they all did family names that they had researched themselves. Abby had 10 family names that she had found herself. It was so awesome to be with our youth inside the temple. We took pictures afterwards and then grabbed lunch before heading home. 

Abby really enjoyed her summer and spent a lot of time hanging out with friends. I took this picture of Abby with Braelinn, AJ, and Logan after we got home from the temple trip. We also had a final summer activity for the young women when we went to a movie in the plaza theater during a film festival. We hung out by an alligator fountain in downtown El Paso after the movie. I took this picture of Abby with her friends Carrie, Braelinn, and Alexis.

The week before school started, they had a meet the teacher night for the elementary school. We took Aubrey and Taryn to meet their teachers. Aubrey will have three teachers in 4th grade - Mrs. Armendariz for homeroom, Mr. Martinez for GT/Connections, and Mrs. Adkins for Math/Science. Taryn, in first grade, has Mrs. Moreira who both Tessa and Aubrey had in first grade. They were excited to meet their teachers, see their classrooms, and to find their friends. We saw the Anderson kids in the hallway and grabbed these pictures of Aubrey with Rianne and Taryn with Presley as we were between classrooms. The girls are very excited to start school. 

Abby's final summer activity was league volleyball. She played with the team Titans which consisted of a few of her club team players, and a few new players. We took a picture of them with Coach Dawson after their final game. So in the first picture, the girls are Salem, Abby, Rozy, Coach, McKenzie, Diane, Andrea, and Allie. They had the final tournament games during the first week of school, so some of the girls weren't able to play for those final games. But the girls played well together and ended up winning all of their games and getting first place. We took a picture of them with their medals and with Coach Michael who had worked a lot with them during this season. In the second picture it's: Coach, Abby, McKenzie, Allie, Andrea, Salem, and Diane.

Finally the first day of school arrived. The girls were excited and a little nervous. They woke up early and were ready to go with time to spare. Here are the first day of school pictures of Abby and Tessa in their uniforms for middle school. Abby was very excited that she gets to wear jeans. It's one of the perks of being an 8th grader. Everyone else has to wear khaki or navy blue. Tessa chose her new jumper dress and was very excited for the first day. Although, it ended up not being the best day for her. The school ended up changing her schedule, but they didn't tell her so she went to a couple of classes in the afternoon before telling them that she wasn't on their roles. She got her new schedule right before last period and ended up going to two social studies classes and no PE on that first day. She was unhappy that they had changed her schedule, but by the end of the first week, she was ok with her new teachers and classmates. She eats lunch with her friends, has decided to play percussion in band, and has decided to try out for the math team; so she's doing well and adjusting quickly to middle school life. 

Here are the two elementary girls. Aubrey started 4th grade and was excited to be one of the older kids at the school. Taryn, in first grade, was just happy that she gets to play on the big kid playground since they have a separate playground for the kindergartners. They know the school and know their teachers, so they were ready for school and ready to be with their friends everyday. 

Here are a few pictures I took of all the girls together. I love these girls! This second picture is now my screensaver on my phone because I love it so much. :) I hope they have a great school year. 

The Kasallis family likes to walk to school. With the girls still excited about school and waking up early enough, we've joined them in walking to school quite a few times. Tony took these pictures of the kids as they walked to school together during the first week. These kids love each other, and we always talk about how great they are for each other since they're in families of just boys and just girls. Having each other lets them see what having sisters and brothers is like. We love these kids. 

Taryn's class has an app they use to communicate with each other and where the teacher can send home messages and pictures. I took this selfie with Taryn so that we could include it as our profile. And since I'm not in most of the pictures I take, I decided to include it here. Audrey took this second picture of Taryn for me on the first day of school as Taryn walked with her class from the blacktop to their classroom. They were outside with Teagan, who was starting kindergarten, so they were able to see Taryn when I had to leave earlier since only Kinder parents were allowed to go outside on that first day. 

The final event for August would have to be Tyler's birthday. He turned 41 this year. We did a lot of fun festivities for his birthday, but sadly this was the only picture I took. We went out on a group date with three other couples the weekend before his birthday and we had a Sunday dinner with the Kasallis family to celebrate his birthday. And then on his actual birthday, a Tuesday this year, we ate out as a family with my parents. He chose Red Lobster, and this was the ice cream and brownie dessert they gave him when they sang happy birthday. I love this guy and all he does for our family. I can't wait to celebrate many more birthdays with him. Happy Birthday Tyler!