Ava's First Day of Preschool & More

September brought the much anticipated first day of preschool for Ava! She has been talking about it since we signed her up last Spring.

But first, here is a picture of Coen having his breakfast outside with Ava because she really wanted a picnic on a Sunday morning.

 I ordered a planner and a 5 year journal for fun from Amazon and I've been loving both! The 5 year journal is perfect for me right now because you just write a couple lines every day. So the page for September 1, for example has 5 year's worth of entries. I'll be able to look back and see where Coen learned to clap, stands by himself but won't take steps, etc.

Coen is such a happy boy and so fun to have in our home. Here's a video of him giggling at dinner:

 Ava on her first day... Pondering "whoa I have a lot of school ahead of me!" Actually she was sleepy because she woke up early from the excitement.

 She was hardly eating her breakfast and when I told her to take a bite, she told me, "my tummy is jumpy!"

Brent and I both took Ava on her first day, although Brent takes every day now since it's on his way to school, or I'm home working and he's watching Coen. Her school is at a Methodist church and she goes Mon-Thurs from 9am to 2 pm. Her teacher is Ms. Carress and she absolutely loves it! We also love it and are so happy with what a good school it is.

 On Tuesday and Wednesdays I'm home alone with Coen and it's nice to have alone time with him! This is my view all day long as I try to clean the kitchen or anything.

  Ava gets these reports every day about what she learned, what her mood was, how much of her lunch she ate, etc.

After Ava's first day we went swimming. Check out Coen's grin. Haha.

Here is a video of Ava swimming:

 I heard that Ava had failed getting qualified for speech therapy the previous spring but they told me I could bring her in to try again. I was determined, so we went in again. Brent and I half-joked (not in front of Ava of course!) about the words we should have Ava say to the therapist and then she would for sure qualify. "Try to work Cinderella into your conversation" Brent said. Haha, because Ava says it "Sah-yah-yah." Of course it doesn't work like that and they have a flip chart they go through so they can hear all kids pronounce the same words. Ava still didn't qualify in terms of being below the 7th percentile, but the therapist told me she was going to override that since she couldn't understand much of what Ava said while Ava was just free talking to her. Ava will have a therapist come one day a week to her preschool and then we will do homework at home.

To "celebrate" qualifying for speech therapy we went to Chick-Fil-A

 My cuties in their Sunday best- Ava wearing the flower girl dress from our wedding!
A random funny thing Ava said this week was when she was jabbering on and on about "Margaret." I was trying to follow what she was saying and asked, "Margaret, like from Princess Sofia?" She responded "No, Daniel Tiger. You lose."

 For YW we had an international night and I asked a Brazilian lady to help me present on Brazil. I went to her house the week before the presentation and she taught me how to make brigadieros (chocolate balls) and pao de quiejo (cheese bread). Both, so yummy!

 Coen is already a busy bee, getting into stuff.

 Keeping it real on the blog so you all don't think it's just fun and games here :) We were invaded by ants! Yuck. I had to clean and clean and then go outside and find their mound and put poison on that.

 While Ava is at school, Coen and I basically smile at each other the whole time. Haha, he's such a momma's boy and I just can't get enough of him.

Here's a video of Ava dancing in her room- she's just so funny.

In this video Coen is saying "no no" at the dvds. I'm kind of thinking that he thinks shaking our head no no is just something we do before we touch the movies.

 We went to play group at the park and this new family in our ward is from Nigeria. Their baby girl is just gorgeous.

 Coen is a hard age to be at the park because he's too small to play on the toys and he really just wants to eat the dirt. But he did love the swings!

A video of Coen laughing on the swings

Brent invited the primary boys from his class over for pizza and to play games outside. It was a little frustrating because a few boys forgot or wouldn't RSVP, so only two boys came. The two that came had a blast though. Ava was excited to show the boys her Princess Aurora costume, and I'm sure they were thrilled too.

 Snuggles on a Saturday morning in bed.

 I took Ava to see her first baptism because I mainly wanted her to feel the spirit and see one in real life. I think she liked being there although she told me as they were getting dressed, "I don't want to get baptized!"

 Beautiful summer days still in September! That is our crazy backyard behind Ava.

 Coen has been doing "ET finger," which is where he sticks out his pointer finger to everything. Brent decided to show the kids ET and snapped this picture. Proud dad.

I was working while they were watching the movie and all of a sudden Ava burst into my office, on the brink of crying, and said "Mom! ET DYING!!!!" I yelled to Brent to turn off the movie because it was too scary for Ava but then she sheepishly said she wanted to keep watching. I guess she was OK in the end, but here is a picture I took when she was telling me about how worried she was about ET.

 My little Brazilian buddy dressed up for my presentation on Brazil and Brent came to the church with me to help our Brazilian friend decorate the heck out of the room :)

Ava says prayers on her own now, and she kind of takes them as the opportunity to be able to speak uninterrupted for however long she wants and whatever she wants. Sometimes it's so sweet, sometimes it's hilarious, and sometimes we can't understand her and we just want to eat.  So we will whisper to her to coach her along, "in the name..." and she'll say "no, no! I'm not done."

I tried to sneak a video of her praying one day because she was saying the funniest things, but she decided to end it right when I started videoing. I believe she says in this "and Jungle Book my favorite. Ament." She still adds a "t" to the end of Amen and I admit I'm going to be sad when she stops doing that.

Any time Coen hears music, he bops up and down Ava was singing and Coen started dancing to her music. 

Toward the end of September I went to Utah for a work training (and brought the kids) and Brent went to check out some universities for possible phd programs. That will be another post!