We spent the first half of May in Oregon, enjoying a lot of family time and settling into our new normal.
Coen woke up with amazing bedhead:
We had some fun playdates with our friends who we quarantined with:
Coen was cracking me up- he wore a basket as a hat:
Ava had planned a "night off" with our friends for weeks and had so many details planned. The kids painted signs for their teacher's parade, did water games, and watched a movie with treats:
Our teachers did a parade through the neighborhoods and we made signs that say "we miss you!" It was a nice morale boost and it was fun to see teachers as the drove by since we hadn't seen them in a couple months!
Audrey was still such a bad sleeper, waking up two times a night. I kept nursing her because I was worried if I let her cry it would wake up Brent. One night Brent slept downstairs with Audrey so I could get a full night's sleep. It felt so nice!
We had our friend Karen stay for brunch after church and she played games with the kids while we made the waffles:
We went on a drive on a Sunday to enjoy the beautiful flowers that were blossoming everywhere.
These flowers were in our church parking lot.
Coen wanted to take a picture of me and did a good job!
I found this paper where Coen had written Audrey's name. He has good handwriting!
After work one day we went to Hendrick's park to enjoy the rhododendrons that were blossoming. It felt so nice to get out of our house! The park was so beautiful- I took a lot of pictures.
We had another playdate with our friends and this time they did bubbles and threw water balloons at the targets they had drawn on the fence with chalk.
Little Audrey, always my buddy right near me.
We were lucky to have some warm days so that we could do our outdoor water fun!
Audrey figured out how to give kisses and she sucks in her top lip to do it like this:
Brent had to get permission to go on campus to scan some books for his class. When he was in his building (all alone), he heard a lot of water. He followed the sound and found the tech center completely flooding. He made some calls to the people in charge and they were so glad he went into the building and it wasn't more days before someone caught the flood!
Audrey learned to pull herself up on the gate and was so proud of herself standing all the time. The baby gate was so helpful to block her in since she is getting busier by the day!
Ava got to know the girls across the street finally, during Covid, and they had so much fun playing out front. They did water fights and Ava got a little intense with it :)
The kids were happy playing in this little bucket of water, but I was excited to go to Utah so that they could enjoy a proper backyard with space to run and play!
Mother's Day- I'm so grateful for my three sweet babies!
Audrey the tiny little human. I call her my busy bee.
Karen had the kids over to play so that I could pack and prepare our house to go to Utah. When I came to pick them up they were all in Harry Potter glasses :)
Packing for Utah is quite the process! I also deep clean a lot of the house before we go so our house doesn't stink after a while.
Our drive to Utah went really well. Audrey went like 7 hours without getting out of her car seat. I just leaned over to nurse her in the car seat, and I kept handing her new toys to play with. We got to Utah on May 16 and the kids were so excited to play with cousins! We had a BBQ at my parent's house and we got to see family which felt so nice to see and talk to people!
My mom took the kids to a park with Cher's kids on our first work day in Utah so that Brent and I could both work.
Brent and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary!
We luckily didn't have any grand plans that needed to be cancelled. I asked my mom if she could watch the kids and I asked Brent's mom if we could have a date at her house. When we got to the Cowley's, Tammy and our kids (she had been watching them) had set up the basement for our date. It was the sweetest thing! There were flowers and candles and cards. The kids were SO excited to show us everything they had set up. Brent and I had cafe rio and then watched our TV show (Schitt's Creek). It was exactly the kind of date I love. Being married to Brent is SO much fun. I feel like the luckiest girl that he loves me and shows me it every day through thoughtful actions.
Audrey- always standing up exploring things!
Coen had a lot of fun playing with Emma when she came to be babysat. He was so sweet with her and would bend down to talk to her and ask her questions.
I love playing games with this funny dude.
We decided to see if Audrey was big enough to sit in this car, and we laughed as she energetically beeped the horn and bounced up and down excitedly.
The kids playing dress up- so cute!
Brent did all these Where's Waldo puzzles with the kids:
We crashed a Memorial Day picnic at Brent's aunt's house, hosted by Brent's mom :) We got to see Great Grandma Dot and that was super fuN!
McKenna love love loves Audrey. She always wants to hold her and play with her.
Brent's parents' ward had a ice cream truck activity where they drove around the neighborhood and dropped off ice cream. This was Audrey's first time to eat a Popsicle and she did a pretty good job! Also notice her foot- she doesn't really like the feel of grass so tried to not touch it.
Audrey's first time swimming (in a kiddie pool). Her strawberry swimming suit makes me want to gobble her up.
These crazies swam too.
My mom took Ava and Coen to the zoo along with Jordan and Laura. I think this was the first time I had let the kids go in public in a month or so! Coen got tired at the end so Uncle Jordan gave him a piggy-back ride. Coen is now helping me with the blog and would like to say "I loved seeing the zoo and it was fun. We saw 'porky-pines'. "
I planned a girls day with my sisters and it was so fun to hang out and talk. Laura moved back to Utah so we met at her new place. We did a puzzle and laughed a lot.
On my way home from Laura's I passed 18 or 20 police cars. It was crazy and I knew something must be up! The whole country, including Salt Lake City, was rioting against police brutality and for black lives. I watched the coverage on the news and can't believe the crazy news stories 2020 is churning out!
Coen says "I had fun Preston reading me the books that I love it."
Andrew's family slept over and we had church together. Coen and Nathan played really well.
Audrey's new trick was raising her arms when we ask her if she's so big. She loved performing for my parents and during dinner, over and over she would raise her arms and smile at my parents, just anticipating the question. Coen says "when we say so big, it's fun to see her little hands raise up in the air."
Natalie hosted a Mermaid party for McKenna and Marcie's birthdays. It was so fun and we had delicious food. Coen says "the cupcakes were a little yucky but it was fun to be there." Hahaha.
Audrey and Ava wore their mermaid dresses especially for the party!
The mermaids!
The kids painted treasure boxes and then went digging for treasure in the sand box. Coen says "that is my favorite treasure box I ever painted."
