Tessa Turns 11!!!!

 

Happy birthday to our Tessa Girl!!

Tessa is seeming so grown up these days. She is so excited to start Young Women's in January, she is getting more and more responsible by the day, and she's really getting into clothes and make-up. It's very fun to watch her turning into an almost tween. :)

I see times where Tessa seems almost torn between the two worlds of growing up and still being a kid. She still loves to enjoy an afternoon of care-free pretend games, and the next afternoon she spends learning trendy dances with her friends. She loved all her more grown-up birthday gifts she got, and towards the end of the day she said, "I kinda thought I would get a toy or something that I could play with today." She didn't ask for toys, but I think it felt weird to not get any for her birthday at the same time. It's fun to still see glimpses of a child in her. There's no need to grow up too fast!

Tessa still love love loves gymnastics. She's excited for meet season to start soon, and has loved learning her own unique floor routine this time. She loves school and seeing all her friends there every day. She still asks for a dog every day, and made a really great slideshow set to the song Puppy Love trying to convince us the other day. We were very impressed with her presentation, but the answer is still no. Haha. Tessa joined the choir at school this year and has really enjoyed that. Tessa is such a sweet friend and is kind to everyone. She has a great sense of humor and loves to recall funny family stories. She reads the blog books frequently, and knows all our family history. We're all so grateful Tessa is in our family. Life is just better with Tessa in it!!

Paul made belgian waffles for breakfast. The kids all love to get whipped cream sprayed in their mouths on their birthday morning. :)

She opened presents after church.

She loved it all. :) Her brothers got her treats, nail polish, and chapstick. She got a gymnastics sweatshirt, lotion, bath gel, and body spray from Bath & Body Works, a headband, pajamas, and some earrings from Kauai.

She had mac & cheese for lunch, we took her birthday pictures, and then I made a cake while she hung out with her brothers.

She was excited for the butterfly cake!

We had cream cheese chicken for dinner and then watched AFV that night. It was a great day celebrating our Tessa Girl!!

Grandma & Gramps came down on Friday and took Tessa out to dinner and shopping for her birthday. She was so excited to go to the mall with Grandma!! (Gramps was told to wait in the truck because he's no fun to shop with. :) Haha!) She picked out the cutest clothes, and loved getting that time with Grandma and Gramps!

Tessa decided to just have a day with Hallee for her birthday party this year. We picked Hallee up on Saturday morning and went over to Lowe's Xtreme Airsports.

They jumped for almost 4 hours!! I couldn't believe they made it that long, but they had a blast.

We came home and the girls made jewelry with the clay bead set Hallee gave Tessa. The earrings Tessa is wearing in her birthday pictures are ones she made with this set. So cute!

The girls played the rest of the evening and had a great time. Tessa wanted peanut butter play dough for her dessert. 

Happy birthday Tessa! We sure love love love you!!!

Gary & Matt Come to Visit

Gary and Matt came into town for a few days to spend some time with Grandma & Grandpa Ham. Al and I drove up to Mel's on Thursday and hung out there so Gary could meet Zariyah and Clara. It's always so fun to see the babies. :)

We went over to my parents' after that, and sadly we could smell gas again. (Well, everyone else could smell it. I've never smelled it, stupid nose of mine!) Anyway, my dad called the gas company to come back out (they had already had someone out who said they had fixed the problem), and we hung out and visited while they worked on fixing it for real this time. Matt flew in that night and so we got to visit with him for a bit too.

Rockwell, Damon and I went over to Al's the next afternoon and everyone went over to walk on the Provo River Trail. Tessa had stayed home sick from school that day, and so she and Paul stayed home. 

It felt great to get outside and be active. The kids loved playing on the tire swing too.

Gary took some beautiful pictures of the parkway.

We went to Costa Vida for dinner and then Leatherby's for dessert.

We hung out and visited at Al's house for the rest of the night. We asked Lindy if she would take a picture of us siblings. She snapped one of her and Damon while we were getting set up. 

Mel thought some awkward family photos would be fun. :) I think we nailed the awkward!! Haha.

I think we nailed a cute photo too. :) I love love love it when I get to see my brothers. I know it's so hard for Gary to get away from all he has going on with family, work, and being bishop. I loved getting this time with all 5 of us siblings together. We sure miss having Jen with us.

This & That

 The youth went to the Orem Temple open house for an activity. We all gathered for a prayer before driving over there, and then told the kids to find a car to ride in. When Talia and I got to my van, our whole class was in there laughing so hard and yelling, "Drive! Drive! Please let us all stay in here. Just don't tell anyone!" It was so funny.

The temple was beautiful and I'm excited for another one to open so close to us.

Rockwell was practicing his clarinet one night and Damon went and got his recorder and played with him. It was really cute.

Tessa's been able to watch Sadie a few times lately and just loves it.

We roasted hot dogs and s'mores for dinner one night before the weather got too cold. It was really fun to sit around the fire and talk with the boys.

Tessa had a patriotic program at school. It was really good! I loved listening to the music and seeing the fun songs they've been learning about our country.

Halloween

This year we had a cowgirl.

And a banana.

Damon and Richmond were bananas together. :)

I went to watch the costume parade at the kids' school that morning.

And helped in Damon's class party that afternoon.

Last minute, I decided to dress up in my Fijian sulu and jewelry. Our kids are getting old and I realized this may be one of the last years one of the kids would think it's cool for me to dress up, instead of totally lame and embarrassing. Haha. :)

Grandma and Grandpa Ham came for dinner and trick-or-treating. We had the fun dinner of mummies, ghosts, pumpkins, and witch fingers.

Rockwell went to Logan's to play games with friends and hand out candy. He didn't dress up or go trick-or-treating. He really is getting so old. The rest of us bundled up after dinner and headed out. Grandpa showed the kids how his coat and gloves are heated. :)

The kids had fun sorting and trading their candy when we got back home. It was a great Halloween!

 

Boys Trip in Texas

 Paul was flying to Texas the morning after we got back from Hawaii, so we dropped him off at Cade's house on our way home. Cade took him back to the airport on Friday, and Paul, Aaron, and Dave flew out to Austin for the Texas/BYU game. Alan was already out there visiting some people from his mission, and Matt met up with them there too.

Paul ordered some Franklin Barbecue days before they went. I think this was everyone's favorite part of the trip. :) They all said it was the best bbq they've had.

The game was disappointing with BYU losing, but I think they had a good time anyway.

I'm glad Paul could have a fun weekend with his friends!