Little Ava Big Texas: December 2018- Christmas Traditions in Utah

Taking the kids to McDonalds for their flu shots

We went to the Creche exhibit at a LDS church in town which is always a great way to kick off the Christmas season.

Maybe the best part is they have an area where you can dress up for the nativity, and Coen saw the cow costume and really wanted to be a cow.

We're missing Joseph- we just have a donkey, cow, Mary and an angel.

The kids really wanted to be together one night and I didn't think they would last, and they would end up fighting, but they fell asleep like this.

When we were getting ready for church, Ava said, "Can I help put on Coen's tie? It's so adorable my eyeballs are melting!"

Ava loves her playdates with her friend.

I try to ask Ava about her day at school, and get some insight into her life in kindergarten, but all she really wants to tell me about is her progress on learning the monkey bars. One day she was so excited to tell me that she had finally learned how to do the red monkey bars! After parent teacher conference, she we went to the playground so she could show me her new trick. At her parent-teacher conference, her teacher told me that Ava is perfect at school- smart, respectful, and kind. I have to admit that I was surprised Ava doesn't give her teacher the slightest bit of trouble because she can be so difficult for us at home. I'm glad she is a good girl at school though!

The kids are really into building forts these days. I built them this "Christmas fort" and put the Christmas lights along the side of it.

Brent's birthday was on a Friday this year. Our friends babysat for us while we went out to dinner for hamburgers. Before bed I decided we needed a picture of his birthday so we took this with a sleeping Coen on my shoulder. Every day I feel so lucky to be married to my favorite person in the world.

Our library had a mini show of the Nutcracker that Ava was able to go to since she had no school on Friday morning.

Our ward Christmas party was a lot of fun and Santa was even there! Here are the kids with their other halves from our ward.

I took this video of Coen, saying "I'm gonna be berrry careful." I was eating my lunch, not paying attention to him, when he kept saying over and over, I'm going to be berry careful. I looked up and saw my cautious boy repeating this to himself.

Totally random- our library had a green screen one day and the kids chose the beach as their background picture. I would choose to go to a beach too.

Our car was pretty dirty and Ava said to me "Mom, maybe you can clean out the car on Monday or Tuesday." I said, "oh, that's a great idea, and you can help me!" Ava looked at me all seriously and said "Maybe Coen can help you because my schedule is this big" and she held up her hands to show me what would be a long list. I laughed so hard.

Play date fun- they made Rudolph crowns at their friend's house.

Cute little Rudolph!

Brent and I went to Coen's Christmas program practice since we were in Utah for the real deal. He looked at us with his shy pointed lip smile the whole time. It was so cute.

Here's a little video of one song:

My friend told us about a mansion in town that has a lot of Christmas lights. This is Eugene, so I was not expecting the mansion to be THIS huge. It was pretty amazing.

Here is a video of our drive:

We flew to Utah super early on Saturday the 15th. The kids were excited to play with cousins and do crafts!

Happy faces to be in Utah:

That evening Brent and I went downtown to try to get tickets to the Tabernacle Choir concert with Kristen Chenoweth, because she's our favorite. It was not too cold for December, luckily, but after being outside for an hour, it got really cold. Luckily, we both were able to find a ticket (just asking around) and we got great seats on the plaza level. It was a fun date and Kristen was very entertaining!

Church with Grandma and Grandpa Cowley:

Since we got a piano I have been playing from the Children's Songbook and decided to teach the kids a song. They learned Picture a Christmas to sing to my mom on her birthday. Here's a video:

Ava looked through the Primary book and made up songs based on the pictures. One day Coen said "I want to sing the song, I'm sorry I spilled milk on the baby's head." I started laughing, what??? Ava showed me in the songbook, there's a picture of a mom holding a baby with a sister standing nearby.

Ava lives for the times when she can do plays with her cousins.

Funny Ava. I thought she looked so grown up here.

Coen came to me and said, "Mom, I want to play with Mark." I told him to go ask Mark, but he was too shy- he wanted me to ask Mark for him. We went to Mark's door and said that Coen would like to play with the toy food with him. How could he say no to that??

We went to Benihana with my parents for the traditional birthday dinner. This time we brought Coen too and he was a little nervous about the fire part.

My mom watched the kids while I was working and took them up to see Cher. They went to lunch...

and also got to visit Santa:

When we went to get our haircuts at Lori's house, her grandbaby was taking a nap on a bed in a guest room. After the baby had woken up, Coen wanted to know exactly where the baby had slept and wanted to put his baby there. He was a styling little daddy.

We went to visit my grandparents and my Grandpa had built a new marble run, which was exciting for the kids.

We had our traditional making cookies at the Cowleys.

My mom took Lucy and Ava to see the Nutcracker. Ava had been anticipating this day since about January of last year.

Brent and I went on a date to Sizzler: It was a fun date, but then that night after we got home Coen started throwing up.

The traditional Nativity dress up at the Dahn party.

Ava being emotional about something. Just keeping it real here.

Christmas Eve jammies:

We put carrots out for the reindeer. Ava was not quite as excited as the previous year, but still super excited the next day to see the reindeer had left the tops of the carrots in the front yard.

About 12:30 am on Christmas morning I came down with Coen's bug and started throwing up. I stayed on the couch downstairs all of Christmas. Brent face timed me so I could see the kids go upstairs and see what Santa got them. The kids got board games, and also art supplies. I don't have any pictures from Christmas since I didn't leave the couch. Yuck.

Day after Christmas, the kids enjoyed playing with all of their toys. They got these bunny and skunk blankets from Grandpa Bob.

Little Stinker Skunk Coen

Brent took the kids on an adventure downtown. I was still not feeling super great so he took them all over to all of the things he's been wanting to do. They went to the Leonardo museum:

They went to the library:

To see the Temple Square Lights:

You'll notice that Ava is not dressed for the cold weather. That girl would not wear a coat. Refused. We got her to wear the coat a couple times during the trip, which required force and Ava screaming as if she was being tortured.