October 2019- Hosting our own Halloween party & baby Minnie Mouse

Ava loves her baby sister! These sweet moments where they smile at each other make me so happy.

Coen had lots of play dates this month! Since I wasn't working, I was able to invite lots of kids over and spend time with them.

Sweet little Audrey, always so pleasant and just happy to be here.

Ava started to be able to hold Audrey easier since she can support her own head.

I went to a baby shower for a friend and Audrey got passed around between the ladies. Audrey is on the ground if you can spot her!

General Conference was a nice break from our normal. The kids were excited to color their conference bingos and other activities I printed out for our ward primary.

Ava lost her front tooth! She ran over and said "look Audrey, I lost my tooth!" The kids seem to think that Audrey really can understand everything they say. I'm sure she at least understands their body language and likes being included! The other day at church, the kids were setting up their activities in Audrey's lap and saying "we're playing with Audrey!" After they finished their game, Ava was cleaning it up from Audrey's lap and said to Coen, "Ok, tell Audrey what we're going to do next." Little 2 month Audrey was just watching them with her bright eyes. 

On a walk Ava said "look what I can do!" She then did this trick which made me laugh:

I went to the women's conference at the church, with this little cutie as my date. Brent took the older two to a BBQ for his school.

Warm-ish weather, felt so nice!

Audrey's first toy- she can bat at these toys with her hands.

I went to breakfast with a couple friends from the ward (the things I can do when not working and on maternity leave!) Audrey was a perfect little girl there.

Brent and I started institute on Tuesday nights. We left Ava & Coen with a babysitter and brought Audrey with us. Our class was on the Hymns.

Ava had school picture day and I took my own out front because I'm cheap like that, haha. But I think they turned out better than the school's, since I got some real smiles from her!

Brent was sad her tooth was gone for picture day but I think she looks like a real first grader now!

I was telling Brent a funny story from Texas yesterday. One time I was at the grocery store with Ava and a lady was going gaga over how cute Ava was. She said to me, "she looks exactly like you, only even prettier!" It made me laugh so much and didn't even make me feel bad, because she IS beautiful.

The trees in our neighborhood are SO beautiful in October. They stay like this for quite a few weeks.

Ava had been begging me to do science experiments so when I saw a science night at Brent's school, I knew we had to take her. She got to do different experiments and activities like the egg drop.

From about 8:30-10:30pm, the older two are asleep and it's just Brent and me and the baby. It's my favorite time of day (no offense Ava and Coen!). Especially when on maternity leave since I had done housework and things during the day so we could just RELAX. Now that I've started back to work, we still have fun and watch shows, but lots of times we are doing dishes, sweeping, or folding laundry while we watch.

Audrey at her 2 month check up- she weighted 10 lbs 1 oz and was about 25th percentile on height and weight.

Here she was cooing and talking to me while waiting for the doctor to come. I felt so bad that she was about to get poked! She only cried for a second when getting her shots and then stopped once I picked her up.

We had a play date at the Wilsons and all of the kids were in matching gray stripes :)

We went to Detering Orchards farm for our traditional hay ride and pumpkin patch experience. It was a really cold day and Coen's jacket got left behind so he wore an extra one of Ava's.

On the hay ride.

Picking pumpkins:

We met up with our friends the Groesbecks there.

Audrey ready for church- Brent likes to put this princess crown headband on her.

My friend had given the kids gum when we were playing at a park. When we got home I assumed both kids threw away their gum but it turns out Ava decided to save her gum in her special cupboard for the next day. (Since she's not allowed to have gum at home, this was a logical move, right? Save the gum for one more day). Well, Ava couldn't keep it a secret for long because she somehow got her hair in her mouth while chewing and got the gum all stuck. I looked up how to get gum out without cutting hair, and coconut oil did the trick! She is now not allowed to have gum EVER.

Smiley Audrey.

Ava really likes her gymnastics class. She can't stop doing gymnastics at home! She has the hardest time sitting in her chair at dinner. Usually I get annoyed, but this day I couldn't stop laughing at what she was doing. I mean look at her!

Audrey's cheeks are plumping up nicely. I have been breastfeeding her about 80% of her intake, which is lots better than the 50% with Coen!

Cute little clean unicorn.

The grad school had a night at the museum night where we had dinner and activities. We met the Wilsons there.

Ava the future scientist.

Brent's friend from his program also had a tiny baby.

Ava was Rapunzel for a friend's birthday party. We put lots of her flower clips in her braids.

Brent decided we would host a Halloween party since our friends needed a break from hosting. We invited about 7 or 8 families- about 30 people. We spent all day preparing the garage, cleaning our house, cooking 3 soups, etc. I was stressed out, I had a hard time even sleeping the night before. Brent was living his best life though, and so was Ava. Here's our garage ready for the party:

We were Hocus Pocus characters with our friends the Groesbecks. Ava was Dani the witch.

Coen was Thackery Binks, the cat.

I was one of the witches, Audrey was the book (with the eyeball) and Brent was the Satan guy who answers the door for trick or treaters. haha.

Alex was another witch and Christopher was Billy the zombie. The party turned out to be a success and we got to know 4 new families in our ward! 

Tummy time

Audrey at almost 3 months:

Here are Coen and Ava (each right at 2 months) for comparison, I think they do look like siblings!

Sweet girl paying attention at institute.

Audrey's eyes started turning bright blue, but it's hard to capture in pictures.

The trees in our neighborhood were just gorgeous! Our neighbor's tree dropped a lot of leaves at once so we took some pictures while on our way to get our mail.

Cute Ava without her front teeth!

Audrey got big enough to sit in her bumbo!

We turned this Mickey Mouse costume into Minnie by putting a bow on top.

Everywhere we went people were freaking out over the little Minnie.

We went to a carnival at the school, but it was way too crowded for me! The kids had fun doing the different carnival games. You maybe can see a little Coen Woody here and the back of a Ava Tiana.

The cute boys in our family.

My phone is just filled with smiley pictures of Audrey. She smiles so easily. 

I started back to work the last week of October. I was pretty sad to start again since life already felt so busy without trying to add 20 hours of work to it! Audrey was very good and sat in this bouncer and smiled at me while I worked. I am grateful to work from home because I can just nurse her while I work. 

I went to Coen's preschool on Halloween and saw him in his costume parade. He was so excited.

We went to Brent's school for trick or treating. This is at the end, when everyone was just done apparently! Brent took the kids trick or treating at night while I stayed home with Audrey. It was super cold but not rainy luckily.

That concludes October!