Fall 2014 ~ Audrey

Here's what Audrey's 3rd grade year has been like so far.

As I mentioned in a couple posts back, Audrey turned 8 on July 29th.  She was baptized on August 23rd.  We were all so happy that her GreatGrandpa & GreatNana Giberson could make a very quick trip to be down from Salt Lake to be here.  At first she was sad to wait so long after her birthday, but afterward had said it was worth the wait!  :)
Also in that July post I shared a few of the baptism pictures taken by our friend Jerrae Wilson.  I made this collage to display at her baptism.  There were so many cute ones to choose from, you can see all of them here: https://neerings.shutterfly.com/8008

 We were also so happy that Paul baptized her, just like she wanted.  She was then confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by her Opa Neerings.  She wore her baptism dress (given to her by an awesome friend!) all day!  After the baptism we had family back to the house for a little lunch.  It's always nice to visit with those you don't see often enough, and we were so glad to see those who could make it.

Another fun thing that girls start when they turn 8 is Activity Days.  Twice a month for an hour they meet with girls their age and leaders to work on completing the Faith in God program. It helps cultivate gospel principles and also prepares them for the Personal Progress Program that they do when they enter the Young Women's program when they turn 12 and advance from Primary.

Audrey joined the AZ Lady Ducks Cheer Team this Fall.  My best friend volunteered to coach a team since her 2 boys play football for the organization.  She also has a daughter just a couple years younger than Audrey who always goes to practices and games, so why not do something fun?  Audrey had a lot of fun learning to do something she'd often talked about.  She was happy and proud to try it out and learned a lot.

      3rd Grade School Photo                        AZ Ducks Cheerleading Photo

All 8 girls on the team were first timers.  A big challenge in my book, but Coach Rodriquez did an amazing job.  She included all ages, sizes, abilities of girls and had clear expectations for everyone.  Each week she would focus on traits that created successful people, then tied it in to cheerleading.  I loved that there motto was YES!  (You're Extra Special) Here are a couple videos of some halftime cheers they learned.

This first video was from mid-October.

This video is from one of their last games in November.

Another activity Audrey tried this Fall was her school chorus.  She loves to sing and this was a free program that I really wanted her to be involved in before we thought about putting her into singing programs that cost a lot of money.  I thought it was a good starter.  She goes to chorus on Wednesday mornings before school.  They just had their first program, a holiday program, last night, Dec. 11th.  It was hard to see her since she was in the bottom row in the very middle, but she did a great job and most importantly had lots of fun being a part of it.  She will continue with chorus after Winter Break.

I would say that the biggest thing Audrey has learned so far this school year is responsibility and time management.  She has had a tough time wanting to do activities and keep up with school work.  Which let's face it, will only get harder!  She really wants to do well at everything and had many little breakdowns from feeling like she was pulled in so many directions.  We never wanted her to be overwhelmed, but we also wanted to teach her about commitments.  A couple of times she wanted to quit something, but usually only when she was faced with a choice...like a church activity at the same time as a game or a birthday party.  She hated having to choose, she just wants to please everyone.  (Gee, I have no idea where she gets any of this from???)