January in Texas- our trip to Urgent Care and more

We got back from Utah and only had about 3 weeks until our Disney World trip. It was really nice to get back into the routine of school and all the fun we always fill in! 

We went to our good friend's house, the Merrells for pizza and games. We played Disney charades and had a lot of fun. 

We had some really warm weather right when we got back (like 70) and it felt so good, especially just coming from Utah. We went on a walk to the park:

Here's a video of Coen dancing with Dad- one of those moments I feel like I'll look back on when our kids are grown and gone, and wish that we could repeat.

After preschool one day we met our friends at the park. It was so warm! 

 We went on a walk around the path and pretended like we were going on an adventure. The kids used their imagination about all the kind of animals we were warding off.

 Ava especially loved "coloring" on the ground with a stick.

I love it when Ava makes Coen laugh. Here's a video:

 Coen enjoyed some chocolate cake:

 This is a new hairdo I did for Ava one day. I called it a "crown" and Ava begs for me to do it every day now.

 On a Saturday morning as I was getting ready to go to a baptism, Brent set Coen on our bed while he ran to get a diaper. I yelled to Brent that he couldn't just leave him on the bed, and Brent yelled back that he was fine and knows how to get down. We were arguing back and forth as I was getting dressed, when Coen crawled to the edge of the bed to get down the right way. He changed his mind and sat back on his bum. Except there wasn't much bed to sit on.

I barely missed catching him as he fell, and he just landed on his bum. When I got back from the baptism though, Brent said Coen hadn't been using his arm and cried if it was touched, otherwise Coen didn't seem in pain. I thought it sounded like nursemaids elbow but we knew something was wrong. We decided to take him to urgent care and luckily the Merrells took Ava for us.

At the urgent care they thought his arm or collarbone might be fractured so we had to do x-rays which hurt Coen and it was so sad.

 The doctor told us that she couldn't see any fractures and so it was probably nursemaids elbow, but they had to have a radiologist read the X-ray to make sure before we go about popping the elbow back into place. Since it was a Saturday, the radiologist might not read the X-ray until the next day, and then we could take Coen in on Monday to have it popped back into place.

We were getting ready to leave when the doctor came back and said they got a hold of the radiologist and it was for sure not fractured. She offered to pop the elbow back into place for us. It was just quick, bending his arm like he was doing a bicep curl, and then all of a sudden he could use his arm again! We were so relieved it was not broken and got taken care of that day!

No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Brent and I matched on Sunday and Ava was so excited to take a picture for us:

 We had the Merrells over for dinner and games. The kids have lots of fun playing together.

 Coen's feeling all better after his elbow incident! Yes, that is a huge bruise on his forehead from another accident of falling.

Since I wasn't able to attend my work Christmas party, my boss told me to go out to dinner here. It was so busy at Christmas time that we finally got to it now. Brent and I went out to Outback and got prime rib!

 I joined an institute class for Moms where a couple of the moms take a turn to babysit everyone else's kids and we rotate. The first week a missionary couple volunteered to watch the kids and 26 women showed up, which meant there were over 40 kids in there! And these were all small kids while the older ones are at school. They were seriously brave and all kids survived. I've never really left Coen in a setting like this, but he didn't cry when I left and was happy to play with toys. They said he just played happily the whole time.

 This silly girl loves to tell me stories when she gets home from school. She makes up all sorts of names and detailed things that happen. Usually it involves her being in "high school."

 When I play along, she gets this hilarious shy smile which I caught on camera:

Here's a video and example of her just talking about her pretend situation she's created:

I took the kids on a walk and picnic to the park. There was a little girl that was so excited to play with Ava. When we were leaving, the little girl was crying and kept yelling at us, "hey, come back! Don't leave meeeeee!"

I took the kids to Old Navy by myself while Brent was working on his thesis at the library. Here's what I text him from there:

I'm not even sure what to say about this video except... I bet you'll watch it more than once.

Ava got this new dress as an early birthday present from my mom and she's so cute in it! Here she is wearing daddy's shoes too!

 One day while Brent was at school all day I was so worn out and the kids were just on one. I had been up a lot with Ava in the night, and the kids were being stinkers and making messes faster than I could clean. I was texting my sisters that this was one of those days when you could really just use a hand.

It's fun to have my sisters to keep things light and funny even when I'm in the middle of it, and not just several weeks later looking back. We were cracking up texting each other "#realmotherhood pictures." Here's a couple I sent:
Mess that seems like it might take 5 minutes to pick up, but with two kids going bonkers, it will really take about an hour:

 Sleepy mom, grumpy child:

 One of my laurels was in the play "Grease" at her high school so we got a babysitter and went to see it. It was a fun time, and some of the girls had amazing voices!

 Chris came into town and we met him in Grapevine where he took us to dinner. It was a brick oven pizza place. Coen was in a bad mood so that was hard, but it was fun to see Chris.