February - the snowstorm of a generation

We had a playdate at the Wilsons and they built an epic fort. Diana watched the kids for me first while I worked, and then I joined them later.

 Coen cracked me up, decorating his body with stickers

 Ava and I at a baby shower for someone in our ward. She was really excited about all the treats :)

 The Wilsons babysat while Brent and I went out to a fancy dinner that my work was paying for.

 We call our Come Follow Me study "family study time." We don't do a lot of prep work before and we just usually follow what is in the manual but simple is good and we have enjoyed it. We usually just get a 5 minute lesson in, and sometimes we'll watch a related Bible video.

Coen was making me laugh with his prayer over his pretend food. He was doing the one they do at preschool and I can't make out too many of the words, but I do hear "happy hearts and sunny weather."  I've been having issues with posting videos on blogger in the last week. I finally gave up and I'll post this blog without the videos and try to add them later. I'm hoping their site is just having issues and gets fixed soon! 

Video of Coen's happy heart prayer

Coen got a few free ballet lessons looking through the window of the class :) Video of Coen following along with Ava's dance class

Play date with friends

 Video of Coen wearing a hat:
Ava looking cute as Supergirl

 The kids made cute Mickey Mouse cookies with playdough.

 We had a Primary meeting at my counselor's house and Coen played in her kids room by himself while we met. He played quietly for an hour, reading books and then lining them up. He's such a good boy, especially when he's by himself!

 Coen wrote his name for the first time! This was on a blackboard at church.

 Video of Coen saying he lived in a tree house

I asked Coen to get his pajamas on and he did it all by himself, completed with green socks and sunglasses. He even posed for a picture.

 Our house is filled with notes from Ava, which are so sweet as she is learning how to spell. This one was particularly adorable. It says "You are a rock star. Keep working to making money mom."

 Since Ava's school doesn't celebrate holidays, one of her friend's moms hosted a Valentines party which was so nice! So Ava still got to make a Valentines box and hand out Valentines to her friends. She was soooo excited.

 After preschool, before we get Ava, Coen will play in his room so well. Sometimes he gets carried away with is little people, making them talk in voices.

 For Valentines dinner I made lasagna (and some gluten free noodles version for myself). I let the kids choose a few things at the dollar store for our dinner which made them so excited. Coen chose red Valentines cups and Ava chose heart candies to spread out on the table. After the kids went to bed, for our simple evening, I had chosen a few I Love Lucy episodes for Brent and I to watch.

Coen's "Mommy day" on Fridays. Sometimes we go to the library. And on this day we went to see Ava at lunch too.

Brent and I went to a Valentines date at our church. Here's my little bump, about 14 weeks here. 

This picture is just the next day, but my bump fluctuated a lot depending on if I had eaten, if it was evening, what I was wearing, etc :) In February I started feeling a lot better and not as nauseous. I got more energy back too, although still feeling like I need to sleep about an hour extra each night. In January I was so tired I didn't even feel like I could function some days, but I had to just keep going. 

 We went on a family date to get Jamba Juice:

 Ava had no school so we decided it was a good day to use her Taco Bell coupon and get her crunchy tacos for lunch.

 Ava created a list of characters for the Alice in Wonderland play she's been planning for Grandma's house. Ava is Alice (of course). Next it says "Sam Chich Cat, Luse the Wikid Kaeing [Queen], Tomis Kalpedr [Caterpillar], Adlen be the door, Nafin Kingn, Coen Mad har." I laughed so hard when she said Adalyn can be the door. I asked her about it and she said, I don't know any other characters!"

 Brent prepared a lecture on Pixar and had asked me to come, but since the kids were off school I wasn't sure how easy it would be for me to get there. My friend offered to watch the kids for me and I surprised Brent and walked into his lecture. He did SUCH a good job and I was so proud of him. It made me excited for when he is a Professor and doing this full-time and developing his own courses.

 Ava decided she would like to read a book by herself. I usually can't get her to read any easy words when I'm reading books to her, but this time she decided she wanted to read the whole book by herself.

 Ava's work from school, "Abehm Lcn was a gud man and he chaj the los" [changed the laws]

 Play date at the park with friends.

 Coen being a goof when I tried to take his picture.

 Brent hosted an Oscar party with a few friends from school. Coen was a hit of the party.

 On Monday morning we woke up to a TON of snow.  Everything in the city shut down, even my OB office. Ava was pretty excited about no school, on the first couple days.

 Here's a video of me measuring how many inches we got on that first morning. They said it was "the snowstorm of a generation" and Eugene hadn't gotten this much snow since 1969.

 Video of playing in snow

 We don't even own a shovel so Brent started attempting to clear our drive way with our rake! If you look closely you'll see Coen sitting in the back of our red car watching. After a few minutes of this not working, I went next-door and borrowed a couple shovels.

 Coen really likes to be the one to lead our music. Video of Coen leading the music:

On Tuesday we sent Coen to school and he was the only child who came! They did cute activities with him and he built miniature snowmen in this tupperware with real snow.

 The only child at school!

 School was canceled for Ava all week except for Friday. The first 2 days were fun, but by Thursday it was getting to be a little too much!

 We went to Target one evening and found some birthday presents. Ava chose this bow:

 Coen really wanted this hat and backpack, but didn't get them because it's not his birthday!

 Something Coen came home with from school. "If I were President, I would go to McDonalds. I would stay up all night. I would go to a McDonald's party. I would play with my family. I would sing."

 Ava went to a friend's house to play while I went to an appointment.

And the crazy snow storm is how we ended February!