April- our last month in Texas

April Fools Day was pretty uneventful, until I was making dinner and Brent was driving home from school. I've always been nervous about him driving on the twisty road by our house, Hickory Creek, and every day I pray as he leaves school that he'll be safe. I just finished my prayer when he sent me a picture of this and my heart stopped for one second. 

Then I saw that his car looked fine. Mean Brent! He saw this woman lose control and crash right into a tree. The streets were a little slick from rain. She was OK luckily. 

Here's a video of the kids performing on the shed stage. 

Coen wants me to put things on his head when I'm folding laundry.

This little girl does not stop talking. She always has lots of things to tell us.

Ava looking all cute in her [immodest] Moana outfit. :)

We had a super large lizard living in our garage that Ava was so scared of. One day the garage door smashed it. When we raised the garage door to leave, Ava was horrified. It WAS SO NASTY. I took this video when Brent was out disposing of the lizard. Ava says, that she wants "no lizards in Oregon, in the garage. Nasty nasty nasty." This video sums up Texas in about seven seconds. The crazy creatures, Ava talking non-stop, both kids without shirts, and Coen just being chill and watching Ava. 

Coen fell asleep on me one night and I have to say I didn't put him in bed for quite a while. I just enjoyed his snuggles.

 Coen learned how to say thank you and he knows it melts our hearts so he says it quite often.

I'm too cheap to buy school pictures so excuse the screen shots here :) Here's Ava's cute preschool class and amazing (AMAZING) teacher, Ms. Caresse. So we remember, front row left to right: Miller, Ava, Aiden, Daphne, Timothy, Claire, Ms. Caresse, Wren, Avery, Penley, Olivia, Gibson, and Kelly.

Oh how joyous was the day when we signed on our house! We took our kids to a babysitter's house and a notary came to our house and we signed the papers at our kitchen table. It was such a relief to finally have everything worked out!

Here's a video of Ava's hips. I think I need to sign her up for hula lessons. That would be cool.

Brent was really busy with his thesis so I took the kids to Young Women with me. Coen wanted to sit in Tabitha's lap the whole time.

On Thursday morning Brent left for his conference in Portland where he presented on eco-value messages in animation, specifically in the Disney Company's eco-friendly reaction to the controversial release of Wall-E. Got that?

He went to Japanese botanical gardens with his group.

Meanwhile back in Texas, we met our friends at Eureka Park. 

That one moment Ava had the cutest top-bun.

The days went by so slowly without Brent. I had fun with the kids, but it was hard and lonely too! On Friday evening we went to get hamburgers and we ate them at home.

On Saturday morning I had to have the house all clean for the realtor to come take pictures for the website. I took some so we can always remember our cute perfect Texas house! I loved this house so much and it holds so many sweet memories.

I took the kids to the library for story time

On Saturday afternoon we went to the grocery store. By this point I was feeling pretty super mom.

In Oregon, Brent went to dinner at some friends from his mission. Then on Sunday he drove to Eugene and went on a hike with our realtor friend. He ate dinner with the sellers of our home, and actually stayed at their new house, which is just down the road from our new house. He got the keys to our house.

I took the kids to church by myself and Coen got to come to Young Women with me (he usually doesn't.) He loved getting all the attention from the girls! Sunday afternoon and evening was really long without Brent. He just makes everything fun!

Brent came home on Monday night late and I was so happy to have him home!

We had an Easter party and Brent's preschool and neither of the kids wanted to sit on Easter Bunny's lap. Can you blame them?

The kids both loved finding eggs and got a ton of candy. 

We went to the Mazda dealership to check out how much we could get for our car. Turns out hardly anything. But Coen and I took this cute picture.

Easter Sunday with my girlie.

Coen's Easter pictures. Don't mind he doesn't have pants on! He got these little cars from the Easter Bunny.

Ava was so excited about the Rapunzel movie and pink dress in her Easter basket. The Easter Bunny didn't want to wake up too early before church so the Easter Bunny came after church while the kids and I were on a walk ;)

Brent defended his thesis on Monday. My friend Katie watched the kids so that I could go support him. Yay Brent!

Wohoo, done with UNT!

We went to the Merrell's house for FHE and had lots of fun. 

We had Tabitha come babysit one last time and Brent and I went bowling and to Sonic. It was a great date.

Ava drew this picture and it's the first time I have seen her draw something that looks like a person. I thought it was so cute!

Coen got suddenly very obsessed with the song "Try Everything"from Zootopia. We all love the song too, but this boy wanted to hear the song over and over and over any time he saw a phone, iPad, or TV. Here's a video of him asking for the song.

We went to Eureka Park again with my friend Katie and Coen got into chalk that some people had brought. It looked like he had played in makeup.

Ava and her friend Lilian.

Ava came out of her quiet time dressed like this. Coen was happy to wear Mickey ears too.

We went to Kaylie's birthday party and the kids loved the piñata.

We had so much fun with the Merrells the past couple years in Texas. Brent and I got along so well with Vernice and Matt. Any time we were together there were lots of laughs. Ava and Kaylie are best friends which makes it extra fun.

Just had to include this to document Ava's funny faces in pictures!

Coen and Madison were cute little friends too.

Here's a video of Coen saying "Grandpa"

Brent took Ava to the new Disney nature movie, Born in China, and I stayed home with Coen, who is too hard to take to movies these days.

After the movie Brent took Ava to Gibson's birthday party at Chuck-e Cheese.

She didn't like the loud music during the show apparently :)

On Sunday my mom came into town to help us as we prepared to move. Brent had started packing some boxes each day a couple weeks before. I hate the packing phase so much. 

On Monday we had the Merrells over for one last FHE. It was Kaylie's birthday so she blew out a candle.  

The next day we went to Eureka Park one last time with Katie and her girls. We took some cute pictures in the wild flowers here:

Thursday was Ava's last day of preschool. I nearly broke down crying when I picked her up. I loved her preschool so much, and her teacher was just so good with the kids. I loved that it was a Christian school and they prayed before eating, they had chapel and learned bible verses and songs, etc. I also loved that they did so many different activities with the kids like science, singing time, Spanish, tablets, etc. Ava grew up so much this year and is starting to be able to write quite a few letters. Ava went here Monday through Thursday, 9am - 2pm, so it was a big part of our lives.

All the kids ran to Ava to give her hugs goodbye.

Sweet friends. The boy on the end, Timothy, was her crush during the year.

Ava found these baby swimming bottoms and insisted on wearing them on her head like this for a walk.

Oh this crazy girl!

Ava and grandma watching Trolls.

Packing up to go to the airport. Ugh, the lump in my throat. My mom flew with the kids to Utah on Friday evening, and we were to follow, getting to Utah on Thursday. I was so sad to not see my kids for a long time but Brent was happy! Haha.

After much debate and fights and tears, we (really I) decided to sell the blue car in Texas. We were planning on selling it in about a year anyway when we are going to need a bigger car to fit all the so very many babies we're going to have. I also didn't feel like I could drive it all the way to Utah on my own because I fall asleep so easily in the car. So we posted it on some Facebook groups and sold it to a mom buying it for her 18-year old son. Brent was just a tad bit devastated about it. 

We ended up forgetting our garage door opener in the car we sold (oops!) So we went to pick it up on Sunday and we visited Tara while we were in the area. It was fun to see her and meet her cute baby!

Brent and I felt weird and free without our kids. It was a hard time though, packing, and cleaning, and  prepping everything for the move and it was good they weren't there. I told Brent, it's like a honeymoon, only awful! 

Luckily the kids were in Utah having tons of fun with their grandparents and cousins!