Little Ava Big Texas: February- Feeling Loved

Audrey looked so dang cute for church. Look at her dainty fingers in this picture:

I took the kids to the Dollar Store and let them choose a couple things to decorate our house for Valentines Day. Ava chose these flowers and the ribbon (with some encouragement from me). We put it on the table in our entry way and she did these hearts and wrote on them, all on her own. I thought it was so creative with the two shades of paper and cute handwriting in red! She is our artistic girl.

One evening Ava decided to clean up our living room because it was too messy. She folded the blankets so neatly and left them on the couch. Sometimes she surprises me!

Coen continued with his tantrums:

My sweet momma's girl. Audrey turned 6 months in February, which is my absolute favorite age.

Pretty blue eyes

We got a babysitter and went to the Valentines party at the church, where we played board games with other couples.

Audrey was fussy for the babysitter. She just wants me to hold her all the day! I thought we were taking a cute picture, but then it turned out to look like this, haha!

A little better:

Audrey on her 6 month birthday- Ava is on top of it, when Audrey's "birthdays" happen each month.

The kids played legos so nicely together for an afternoon, it was a miracle!

We went to a birthday party for Brent's friend's son. Coen thoroughly enjoyed himself:

They had a piñata and cake and ice cream!

Brent and friends from his program at the birthday party. See if you can spy Audrey about the third from the right:

Brent hosted an Oscar party with just a couple families this year. We had fun and did not expect Parasite to take the grand prize!

Coen was so excited to get cards in the mail from his grandmas for Valentines Day. Thank you for always sending us things for the holidays!

Audrey thinks Coen is absolutely hilarious. He likes to act silly and make her laugh, but sometimes all he has to do is talk and she starts laughing.

I started going to pelvic floor physical therapy. There is an office dog there that is actually really therapeutic!

We had hamburgers for Valentines Day dinner. Like last year, I made each person a heart with reasons why I love them. Brent made each of us slips of paper with reasons why he loves them and hid them all over the house. Audrey had woken Brent up at 5:30am that morning, so that is what he did all morning until we woke up. I had 33 sweet notes hidden all over the house and it sure did make me feel loved! The kids were super excited to find their notes too- they each had 10 or so.

On the days when Brent stayed home to help me with watching Audrey, he continued to study/grade etc. It was so busy.

My sweet girl, always so happy! She hardly ever cries, which I'm so grateful for. Have I said that before?!

My friend in the ward, who's also my counselor in Primary, made this long blanket for the kids! They were so excited to have a big blanket to share.

Brent had a fun activity at Young Men making these swords, and then having a sword fight!

We had no school on President's Day and a few friends from the ward were getting together for a hike. Since I had to work, my friend offered to take Ava which was super nice. It was way more fun for Ava to do that, than to do her activities by me while I work. Here she is with her bestie at the waterfall that they hiked to:

My friend said Ava did great on the hike, and never complained.

When Ava got home, I found she had collected so many rocks and put them in her backpack. She hiked the two miles or so with an extra heavy backpack! Oh Ava!

My office turned into a play area for Audrey. I rotate her between the different "stations" and she is a pretty good girl. She [and I] can last about an hour and a half like this, and then she takes a nap. I can only work about 4 hours a day if Brent isn't home helping with Audrey because after that it just gets way too hard, and then Coen comes home from school.

We went to play at the park and enjoy the sunshine!

Audrey and I went to visit Ava for lunch on a Friday. I had been so busy with work, and Ava had been asking me to come, It was a good reminder for Ava and me that family is my first priority.

She was happy to have Audrey there!

I took Coen and Ava to a birthday party for Ava's friend at a swim center way across town. The kids loved the wave pool! It was good to get out of the house so that Brent could get some good studying in.

Ava liked this chili pepper and said it reminded her of Chile where my parents lived.

We went to dinner at the Wilsons and had a fun time as always. They showed us their ship they had made that was like Nephi's ship.

On this day I got up extra early and got my work done by the time Ava came home from school, so I was able to take the kids out and relax!

Ava looking so grown up:

Carpool day- I pick up Ava and two other kids from our ward on Mondays and Tuesdays.

My friend Karen offered to take Coen and Ava one evening when Brent had his night class so I could have a break. The kids wanted to go to Red Robin and I told her she really didn't have to take them there! She is like their surrogate aunt and so she had to spoil them :) The kids looked forward to their date with Karen so much. In the morning they were making their menus for Red Robin and deciding what to order. I appreciated her taking them so I could finish some work and eat dinner in peace (with just Audrey) for just one night :)

It was so busy and hard and we felt like we were stretched to the max, but our friends and family jumped in to help us which made it all doable.

When it got really hard in February, my mom decided to buy a ticket to come help me one weekend and be here for Ava's birthday party. The kids were so excited to have attention from Grama!

Ava just looking so grown up! Here she is on her last day of being 6.

Having my mom here meant I could go grocery shopping by myself and also get ready for Ava's birthday party! She cleaned my house while I worked and helped take care of Audrey. Thanks mom, for helping me and also allowing Ava to have such a fun birthday weekend! Brent was studying like crazy for his comprehensive exams and there is no way I could have done it all on my own. Her birthday party was a PJ party in the evening of February 29.