Tessa Turns 9!!!

 

Our Tessa Girl is 9 years old!!

Tessa love love loves gymnastics. She is constantly doing cartwheels, handstand front rolls, walkovers and handstands all around the house. She loves going to her gym with Morgan and wishes she could go more than twice a week. We decided to get her a bar for home for her birthday, and I was so excited to give it to her that we had her "open" her present before school that morning. :) She loved it and has spent all her free time using it since Friday!

Tessa's in 3rd grade this year. She was a little sad to learn that none of her friends from last year were in her class this year. But she has made friends with most kids in her class already. I love to hear her tell me about her new friends that she is making and how they became friends. She can find something in common with most people, and is so kind to everyone. She's a very social girl and a good friend to others.

Tessa loves to write notes to her friends. She loves to read, play outside, play pretend with Damon, and she still loves all animals. She loves to take care of Sadie when Roxanne goes out of town. She refers to a lot of our neighbors by their pet's name. She knows which dog's owner they are, but doesn't know the person's name. :)

Tessa loves to go on long bike rides. We go on a lot of rides around the whole neighborhood. She loves to watch tv, especially 5 Minute Crafts and Nailed It. She plays music on Alexa anytime she's in her bedroom. She has a playlist for all occasions. She eats Mac & Cheese every Sunday for lunch.

We sure love having Tessa in our family! She is hilarious, generous, sometimes sassy, helpful, sweet, a quick learner, and so much fun to be around. We love love love you Tessa Girl!!!

Paul made crepes for Tessa's birthday breakfast. We all enjoyed those!

Alyssa, Avery, and Felicity came over after school for her party. 

Tessa opened her presents and then we picked Morgan up and went to Hang Time.

Paul picked up Cafe Rio for dinner after the party, and then Tessa opened the rest of her presents.

We had cake and ice cream and then it was time for bed.

She looks so cute in her new koala pajamas. :)

Mountain Bike Park

 When we were taking Tessa's birthday pictures we found a Mountain Bike Park at Timpanogos Park. We thought it looked fun and wanted to try it out. I decided to keep Damon home from school on Monday because he had a cold. He felt fine, but I was worried about him sneezing and sharing germs with the other kids. Since he felt fine, and it was the last day of warm weather on the forecast, we took our bikes up the canyon and tried out the trails.

We had the park to ourselves, and so we could just go back and forth on the easiest trail. We had a great time, and Damon got pretty comfortable with all the hills.

We wanted to go back again when Tessa got home. (Rockwell had gone home with friends after school. He'll have to try it out the next time it's warm again.) When we went back that afternoon there were a few other groups of people there, so we had to follow the directions on the trails, which made for more challenging hills and turns. Since Damon had gotten time that morning to get comfortable, he had no problem with the new trails. He seriously rocked it! It was adorable.

He would go ahead on his own and just check in with me whenever he passed us. He had such a blast. Tessa was nervous for the first bit. We took it real slow and walked the trails a few times so she could know what to expect. She eventually felt comfortable riding, and loved it when she got the hang of it. I loved watching her stick with it and overcome her fear. We stayed until it was almost dark and we were all sad to leave. We'll definitely be going back in the spring!

This & That

 I took the kids up the canyon to take Tessa's birthday pictures. When we were finished with the pictures, they all had a blast riding their scooters and skateboard down the hills at Timpanogos Park. They had a funny face for me every time they passed. :)

They were so thirsty but didn't want to go home, so we ran to the gas station and got some Gatorade and then headed back up to Canyon Glen park to play on the playground. I know I say it all the time, but I seriously love Provo Canyon! There are so many fun things to do up there.

When we went home, the kids played in the leaves in the front yard. I love days like that where the three of them just play outside together all day and have a blast.

I went to dinner with Audrey and Katie for Audrey's birthday. We missed Al, who was home sick with Covid, darn it! After dinner we watched videos we had made when we were in college. They were hilarious...and embarrassing. Haha!

At dinner one night, Damon was singing God Bless America over and over and Tessa was not happy about it! :)

Tessa's teacher taught the kids how to fold the American Flag and she was excited to help Paul fold ours and put it away for the winter.

While Paul Was Away

 Damon had his 50's party to celebrate the 50th day of school.

It was fun to help with the party and see Damon's awesome hula-hooping skills!

They did a few different activities counting to 50, did the limbo, the bunnyhop, and had root beer floats. It was a fun party!

Tessa got to dog-sit Sadie for the weekend. :)

The Woahn's took Rockwell to the BYU football game on Saturday. They ate lunch at Seven Brothers and enjoyed watching BYU play a great game against Idaho State.

Tessa, Damon and I played games and rode bikes outside and then got ourselves some drinks. 

Mel Bean texted a picture of her at the Swig that opened in Oklahoma while we were in line at Swig. I sent her a picture back of where we were. We thought it was fun to *almost* be hanging out at Swig together. :)

Shiree texted and told me that they were about to paint their doors in their driveway. The kids and I had gone over there earlier in the morning to see all the remodeling they're doing in their house. She said that Damon had told her he wanted to watch Kim use the paint gun, so to send him over. He thought that was so cool. I loved watching him sit and visit with Shiree while they watched Kim paint. We really have some amazing neighbors!