March 2020- birthday girls and the day the world stopped

 My mom was in town for Ava's birthday. Ava turned seven! I like how we can have conversations and she has a great memory. She is starting to seem like a big girl and can really be a help to me sometimes. On the other hand, she still seems like my little girl who needs mommy cuddles and pronounces some words in a cute way like "to-ge-ver."

 We went to church and had cupcakes and sang to her after dinner.

 She is such a beauty!

 I took some pictures of Ava with her siblings on her birthday too. Ava has a love/hate relationship with Coen. They love to play together, but they fight like crazy. Ava adores Audrey and I think Audrey really helps Ava when she's having a hard time controlling her emotions. It's comforting for her to just hold Audrey.

 On Monday my mom and I picked up McDonalds and took it to Ava's school for lunch. Ava has been wanting me to do this all school year. She was so happy!

 My mom gave the kids some much needed attention while she was here. They loved it!

I dropped my mom at the airport and it was back to my crazy schedule! I tried to be brave about it. 

 I took the kids on a walk and Audrey rode in the stroller like a big girl for the first time.

When the kids and I were playing in the front yard our next-door neighbor had a worker climbing up a ladder to fix something on the roof. Coen yelled to me "Mom, he's gonna fall down!!!" I'm sure the neighbor and the worker could hear him. Coen is like me- really cautious and scared of heights. I explained the man was holding on to the ladder tight and it was ok. A few minutes later Coen ran over to the edge of our yard, looking up at the worker, and screamed "Mom, he's gonna kill himself!" 

 My birthday fell on a Wednesday this year. Brent worked from home which is a huge help for me. I worked and Ava went to gymnastics, and I got letters and special texts from loved ones. At the end of the night, I realized we hadn't taken one picture all day! So I had Brent take one of me while I was feeding Audrey since this is how you can normally find me these days. I am a lucky mommy.

Ava's school had a special "dress up as your favorite book character" day. Ava dressed up as Ramona- complete with the messy hair, a butterfly shirt, flower skirt, and boots.

 He got into a fight with Ava and she clawed him a good one.

One night Coen had a bad dream and screamed and ran into our room. We let him sleep on the floor by our bed when he's scared. The next day I asked him if he remembered what his nightmare was about. He said "It was about a bunny." I said, "a bunny???" Coen said "it was hopping so hard!!"

 Emily sent me a care package since life was so crazy and hard for me. It was the sweetest thing. It made me laugh and cry.

 Brent's friend from his program at school got baptized! We were so excited to go support her.

 Matching sisters

Cone got to go to Young Men with Brent be a missionary for an evening.

During Come Follow Me one night, I asked the kids, "what are some things we can do to get closer to God? Ava said she could make goals and do her sticker chart. Coen said "drive." Huh?? Coen said "drive to him." 

On March 12 while the babysitter had the kids at the park, I kept getting texts and seeing news stories that things were shutting down because of Covid-19. We knew it was serious when Disneyland closed and the church said no more meetings at all for the foreseeable future. That evening I went to a baby shower for my friend Diana. 

During the first few days I didn't understand the extent of Covid-19. I thought it was going to be like a snow day, but for a couple weeks, and then life would be back to normal. I thought it was the germaphobes that were staying home, but if we washed our hands really well it was fine to go out a bit. We went out to dinner that Friday night to use my Red Robin free birthday burger. The restaurant was pretty empty and we were like, this is crazy!! It just kept getting crazier the next few days.

On Saturday morning I got up to go grocery shopping. I walked in to find the produce section completely empty. There was not one apple or banana or anything to buy. It was so weird and eerie. I found canned and frozen fruits and veggies, but it made me feel on edge and realize how much we take for granted.

I took the kids to a birthday party (see paragraph above- did not understand the extent of this thing!) and they had a super fun time playing.

On Sunday we had our first 'home church." We weren't authorized to do the sacrament in our stake yet, but it was a really nice worship time.

Silly Audrey.

We started with Ava's school time on Monday, and luckily for two more weeks Coen was able to go to preschool. In the first couple weeks I created a schedule for Ava with some detailed things to do, but now we just improvise and decide if we're in the mood for math, science, etc that day. We do reading and writing every day, and then sprinkle in the other subjects.

Luckily we had really nice warm weather the first couple weeks which really helped us quarantine! I took the kids on long walks around the neighborhood and for the first time in [ever?] I didn't feel rushed or on a schedule. For once I wasn't telling the kids to "hurry up." It was one of the biggest blessings of quarantine for me!

Audrey watching the kids in the bath. I'm holding her other arm- she can't stand like this yet.

She looooves to watch Coen and Ava.

Ava being home all day means a lot more time with Audrey. Here she is reading to Audrey.

Brent took his last comprehensive exam on March 17. Hallelujah! We had bought tickets to see the new Pixar movie, Onward. (They limited the number of people in the theater and had groups spread out.) We washed our hand several times and I didn't let the kids eat anything during the movie since I was starting to get a little worried.

We were the only ones in the whole theater for the first while until about four more people came.

Coen has become such a jokester during the last few weeks! I think he provides some comic relief to our quarantine.

We went on a scavenger hunt walk around the neighborhood. The kids loved putting treasures in their bags.

On a walk Ava found a ladybug and played with it for a while. She decided to take it home. I told her she could just let it go. Ava replied "Mom, I lost my first ladybug, Elsa, that I almost raised. I'm going to take this one home." I laughed and said, "and raise it?" The lady bug lasted for about 10 minutes at home until she let it go outside.

We enjoyed exploring a new trail about 10 minutes away from our home.

The trees are covered in moss:

Coen got tired and super-dad carried both kids a lot of the way.

On Sunday we had our first sacrament at home. Ava wrote our names on each of the tiny plastic cups and I told Brent this felt so surreal that we were doing this. It was a very special experience and made our home feel holy.

We take turns conducting and it was Coen's day. Here he is at the "podium."

The quarantined Cowleys!

On Sunday while Ava was in fun time, she wrote a note to Brent that said she thought she shouldn't have fun time on Sunday because she needs to think about Jesus. Brent told her she could think about Jesus during her fun time. Haha.
We went on a long walk at the trail by the reservoir near our house.

Audrey fell asleep in her carrier like this!

Ava got creative with her play time with Audrey.

The kids did some youtube videos learning how to draw things step by step. This is how Coen's dog turned out- I thought it was so cute!

Coen had his last day of preschool on March 27. Here he is with the director of his preschool.

The kids and I played beauty parlor one Saturday morning while Brent worked. 

Yes, Coen has on make up and I painted his nails. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

It was all fun and games in our beauty salon until Coen wouldn't pose for the picture the way Ava wanted him to and she attacked him.

Cher is always doing cool things with her kids and making amazing cookies etc. So I thought I should make cookies with my kids for once. We made a gluten-free recipe and they turned out flat and ugly. I have to admit, I felt a bit like a failure. Later I heard Ava talking to my mom telling her excitedly that we made cookies and they were "sooo yummy." I'm glad that the kids can overlook my faults, and I'm not only talking about ugly cookies, if you know what I mean.

Audrey started sitting up confidently on her own without tipping over (finally at about 7.5 months). Before I knew it, she was on her hands and knees, rocking, and trying to scoot around.

The gift of quarantine- time to slow down and get dirty, and let the kids jump in puddles.

Sweet blue eyed girl.

Brent started teaching Film History on March 30. He defended his comprehensive exams via zoom to his committee at 8am and then he jumped right in to teach his class at 10am. I had to get a picnic breakfast for the kids and eat upstairs so that it could be quiet downstairs while he worked. Luckily the kids thought it was a blast- I was tired and stressed out!

And that was the end of March! It was a month I will never forget. Although it felt scary and stressful when everything started shutting down, I felt so grateful that we still have our jobs, home, and a living prophet to tell us everything will be ok. And above all, I'm grateful I have the best people in the world to quarantine with.