Halloween and the sick Cowleys

October 16-November 10

Life was way too busy, I didn't have time to keep up on my blog! 

We were pretty sad that we couldn't find Coen's Donald Duck costume anywhere and we knew it would fit this year. After tearing apart the whole house and garage, Brent found it!

I bought Ava this outfit for Ava at Old Navy and thought she looked cute. This is what she did when I wanted to take a picture. She has been a crazy ham lately.

Ava read Coen a book one day- a rare moment of sibling camaraderie.

The sun came out for a minute so we took Ava's picture outside. 

We had more and more friends over to dinner. We made it through most of our ward so we started going through Brent's classmates at school. :) It was Rachel's birthday when we had her over so we sang to her.

We had friends over to watch a movie and these two ended up huddled close together, a little nervous.

We all got sick with colds all November long. Mine turned into a sinus infection and I was so miserable I finally went to the urgent care. Ugh. Brent was at school so I took both kids with me and the receptionist told me ten people had walked in right before me so I had a long wait. I texted Brent and told him about it and he asked if I needed him to come. I told him it was OK and he could keep studying. I was sitting there feeling so sick, trying to keep the hyper kids from touching everything in the waiting room, when Brent showed up completely drenched from the rain, having walked from campus. It was so sweet because I knew he had so much homework and was stressed, but he took the kids to the library for me during my appointment. 

Brent and I had to speak in church on the Plan of Salvation and the Proclamation to the Family. It was hard! We had friends sit with our kids and they were good during our talks. Brent of course brought in movies to his talk on families and I talked about how my life choices have been impacted by knowing the Plan of Salvation. Here I am after my talk, holding a cute little plant one of Brent's friends brought me when he came to dinner.

I picked up Ava from preschool like this and she cracks me up with her spunk. We had some warm days mixed in our Fall.

One of Ava's favorite song came on the radio so I pulled over to film her dancing and singing. She normally is in a booster seat, FYI.

Coen spilled his drink kind of on purpose and he was very happy to clean up after himself when I asked him to. 

Coen loves going to Max's house so much. He goes on Wednesday mornings just for a couple hours but he talks about it all long. He says "Max house!" Here's a video. 

The Museum of Natural History on campus had a night especially for graduate students. We walked past the famous Hayward Field on our way.

 We had a fun time at the museum!

 Coen especially loved this exhibit that had a duck from the Native Americans.

The kids watched Trolls and they couldn't help themselves and danced to all the songs.

We go to the library story time every Friday morning and after, the kids love to play with the legos and blocks. Ava asks me to take her picture every time of her creation.

One Saturday our stake had a pass-along party where people could bring things they don't want anymore and everyone swaps. I found this double stroller I've been wanting for so long!

Coen got croup one weekend and it scared me a little bit one night when he was breathing weird. The next day I told Cher and my mom and they told me to sit with him in the bathroom with the hot shower going. Here's a selfie from the bathroom. And also notice Coen's hair in this before picture.

I decided Coen's hair was too uneven in the front so I trimmed it, like I had done a few times before. But I kept going shorter because his cowlick was making his hair weird, and eventually his hair ended up like this:

I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Can I get a redo on that?

We decided his hair needed a buzz. I had no confidence in my haircutting skills so I made Brent do it.

He looked so different after!

This is what our forecast looked like:

Brent's Cub Scout troop went to the fire station and we got to join in.

Ava had been acting so naughty and grumpy lately so I thought she could use some one on one time and I took her to Target after school one day. She liked these ear muffs. Look at this goof's face when I took her picture.

This is the first time I saw Ava draw a picture of our family. I thought it was so cute!

I had some extra time before picking up Ava from preschool so I let Coen run around the grounds of her school. The trees are just huge!

We went to our friend's Halloween party as Forrest Gump and Jenny. This was when we couldn't find Coen's Donald Duck costume so he went as a Mickey fan. Ava was Princess Sofia but she ran off playing and didn't get in the picture.

Halloween- Ava was Belle in the afternoon preschool. 

When I picked Ava up from school she said, "so is Grandma coming now?" She thought that Grandma would be at our house since I told her grandma is coming after Halloween. She was pretty devastated. 

We went to Brent's school to trick or treat. His campus is so beautiful.

Mr. blue eyes. He got called a girl.

After trick or treating Brent went through the kids' haul as usual. Here's a video: 

I was in charge of my first baptism and it went well. It took me quite a bit of time time to make up the program. I took Ava with me and the boys stayed home.

The Trunk or Treat at our ward was super fun. We had chilis and soups and a lot of nonmembers came.

Ava wanted to play store with me and the cash register was my favorite toy as a child so I was happy to play along!

I found out Ava has the Pledge of Allegiance memorized because she says it every morning at school. Here's a video:

Brent put on La La Land and Coen was mesmerized by it.

Fall in Eugene and a trip to Denver

September 17-October 15
Ava did great in her first primary program. She was so excited and jumped right up there to say her part, "I choose the right when I color pictures for my grandma because it makes her happy." We practiced her part a lot and she had it down. Here she is on her program day:

 My assignment as a counselor was to make thank you gifts for the teachers after the program. Anything crafty is a stretch for me, but I got it done.

 Ava drew herself at preschool and this is the first time I saw her draw a person. I love the long arms.

 Coen will go on the potty if we ask him but he's not really interested in potty-training all the way. He did go #2 on the potty and I thought we made significant progress, but he hasn't done it since.

 Coen took the kids on a long walk in the rain while he listened to his book for school.

 Ava's picture day- we took our own pictures at home before we left because we're cheap like that :)

Coen really likes fitting himself in small places.

 There were periods were the sun would come out for half an hour at a time. A few of those times I grabbed Coen and we went for a walk in the sunshine!

 Coen has been feeding himself for like a year, but for a few days he only wanted Ava to help him eat. He didn't want me to help him and he didn't want to do it himself. Ava was nice and helped him in between her bites.

Ava had a homework assignment to make her family tree, with each family member's hand being the leaves. She was really excited about it.

 We went to an open house for the school of journalism and communications and I thought Coen looked so cute with this other boy.

 We met lots of Brent's professors and the kids had fun running around.

 We went to a really big second-hand sale that happens twice a year because I was looking for some warm clothes for the kids. We ended up buying a ton of toys for a great price, most of which we're saving for birthdays and Christmas. Brent was just as excited as the kids were.

 I had a work training in Denver and flew out on Sunday. I was gone until Wednesday night of Brent's first week of school. It was pretty stressful finding babysitters and Brent had a lot of running back and forth between home and school, but we got through it.
My flight went through Seattle and I saw lots of cool and tall volcanoes out my window.

 I missed my family so much even though it was only a few days! It was fun to face time with them. I did really enjoy having my own hotel room and being able to lounge around and do whatever I wanted to at night.

 One day I presented on a new accounting standard coming out on leases. I sent Brent my selfie before:

 One evening we went to the Rockies game. I am really blessed to have such great coworkers that are my friends too.

While I was gone Brent held down the fort like a champ and got the kids dressed up all cute.

 My favorite men:

I was happy to be home and snuggle my babies! Coen makes a fierce duck face. Which is actually what he does when we say "what does the bunny say?" because he sniffs like a bunny.

We had some warm weather so of course we had to enjoy our park. Here's a video:

 Coen's saying so many words. Heres' a little video:

General conference weekend was so fun as always. Ava and I painted nails.

 Photo taken by Ava.

 I really was motivated to do better at studying my Book of Mormon from Elder Nelson's talk. If he needs to follow the prophet's counsel, how much more do I need to? I decided to spend about 10 minutes each morning when I woke up reading the Book of Mormon.
On Monday morning after General Conference, I woke up feeling excited about my new goal and the promises Elder Nelson made if we would read from the BOM. After my alarm went off, my phone buzzed with a news alert that hundreds had been injured and about 50 people killed in a mass shooting in Las Vegas. I felt sick and horrified. I was so glad that I had already planned to read from my Book of Mormon and I knew I could turn to that for comfort and peace.

The kids sure enjoyed treats from conference weekend:

 Ava went to school like this one day. She cracks me up.

 This is Ava's new rainbow shirt. I thought she looked cute!

 Every day after her afternoon class, the kids walk out to the foyer and the teacher tells us what they learned that day and then we pick up our kids. Ava hates it when I'm late and miss "the talking part." I try to get there early just to see her face when she walks out and she sees me and says "yessss!"

 Just a picture that shows a typical day around here. If you look at the floor you'll see Coen throwing a fit. That doesn't happen ALL the time, but he does have a few break downs!

This is also typical in our house- both kids playing dress up, and Coen dresses in a princess costume. We have no boy dress ups currently...

The kids love to dance and are happy when Brent joins in. I took this picture just because I wanted to remember the moment. I was still feeling a little shaken from the Las Vegas shooting and felt like a cloud hanging over me. The kids dancing around to happy music really helped me.

 We continue to have new friends over from our ward. This was Coen's nursery leader. Her sons adore Coen and he loves them back.

 We went to a farm here called Detering Orchards. There are lots of farms here that you can go to and buy fresh produce. This was a fun one - we did a corn maze, rode a tractor to pick out pumpkins, and walked around sampling fresh apples.

 The rain came so we didn't get a chance to go pick our own apples, but that's on our to-do list for next Fall!

 There were lots of great photo opps!

Coen in his bow tie. So cute.

 We have a college girl from our ward babysit the kids on Mondays from 1-5pm while I work. It works out really good as she can drive herself over here and the kids adore here. This day Coen fell asleep on the chair like this:

 The view from our bedroom window- that's a park behind the houses. The clouds looked fake!

 We went on a walk to enjoy the pretty sunset. Our mailbox is at the end of our street so it's a good excuse to go for a walk.

 Coen got into my eyeliner. If he's unattended in my bathroom, he will be putting on my makeup.

Ava's been really into telling knock knock jokes for a couple months now, and all of a sudden Coen started telling his own. He only has one though, and it's about Buzz Lightyear. It cracks him up every single time. Here's a video:

 I went to Book Club for my ward. We switch off every other month with a book and a TV show. This month was Stranger Things and the host decorated perfectly.

 Our microwave went out. It was such a pain to heat up food on our stove top the old-fashioned way, how did people ever do it?!  We had a home warranty which paid for a new microwave, but we found out after a couple weeks we had to buy one and install it ourselves. It was going to cost $150 at Lowes for them to install our microwave. Long story short, after about a month without a microwave, Brent was able to install it himself. I was proud of him!

 I took Ava to Old Navy to get a few warm clothes. I am really missing my amazing second-hand store in Texas! It's so expensive to buy new clothes, but I try to be frugal, so this day Old Navy had 50% off kids clothes. When we got home the kids put on a fashion show for us in their new clothes.

 Here's a video:

Coen started saying "dang it." Oops, apparently I say that. Here's a video:

Before church picture. I sure love my little blondies!