Audrey loves to make us laugh. Her go-to comedy is doing this scrunchy nose, which after several months of her doing it every day, is still making me laugh.
We set up Ava's desk for school in our bedroom next to our bed, since this was the last corner of our house not used. After being in Utah for the warm summer, we were all freezing here.
Our first weekend we saw all of our bestie Oregon friends that we had missed seeing all Spring during quarantine, and then all summer. We had dinner and played games at Karen's house.
The Groesbecks came over to our house one evening and we talked outside, sitting in our camp chairs- staying 6 feet apart. Audrey enjoyed the Oreos they brought.
I may start a collection of "the places I caught Audrey." I was pulling out the laundry and she jumped right in the dryer.
Karen and Diana came to my house to eat tacos and watch the women's session of conference. Brent and the kids played at the Wilson's house, and then I went over to join them afterward. It was so nice to be reunited again!
We enjoyed conference and the kids liked the general conference activity booklets I printed out. If you look closely, you'll see Audrey inside the coffee table...
Audrey got caught eating toothpaste. This is her guilty face:
"The places I caught Audrey" #2. She is obsessed with Ava's chromebook. Ava thinks it's so funny when I tell her that Audrey wishes she was in 2nd grade.
Coen started preschool at "Busy Bees." It's about 10 minutes away from our house and our neighbor across the street is his teacher. Coen loves going and on the weekend he's sad that it's not a school day. It's so nice that he loves it so much! They are very relaxed compared to the preschool he was at last year.
"The places I caught Audrey" #3- climbing up a ladder. Brent bought supplies and figured out how to set up an outdoor movie on our back porch.
Audrey just really wanted to help by climbing up the ladder.
We watched Casper. It was pretty chilly, but we had lots of blankets. We only got to watch one movie before the cold set in, so next spring I'm sure we'll be having more movies outside!
Here's how Brent did it- he hung a sheet by some clips on a wood rod.
We had a back to school dinner of steak and potatoes. All the kids loved the steak, even Audrey.
Brent is always thinking up ways to motivate the kids with fun prizes for their reward chart. Currently the kids are earning pieces of nerfuls (which are toys from the 80s that Brent loved as a kid).
Ava was freezing and layered up with this funny combination.
I created a schedule to help us keep track of where we all need to be and who's working when. I work on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, and Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and Brent works the opposite. Then he works all day Fridays, and also evenings after we all go to bed. We always feel like there are not enough hours in the day!
Coen looking cute in his new pink shirt.
These sisters were just looking sweet together.
I took the kids to play at the park and Audrey wore her shoes for the first time. She was lifting up her feet so high and making me laugh.
Coen made an Olaf out of his banana:
Ava the witch- too excited to wait for Halloween.
We keep trying to gate Audrey into the living room because she is so busy and we can't get anything done otherwise. She doesn't love it-here you can see she is standing up on the green tote next to the gate, crying.
I helped throw my friend a baby shower:
During Come Follow Me the kids were supposed to draw what it would have been like if they were with the Nephites when Jesus appeared. Ava drew the sweetest series of pictures- Jesus giving her the sacrament, Jesus blessing her (he has tears on his face in the picture), an angel coming to bless her (she has tears on her face in the picture), and Jesus teaching Ava and Coen. I love the Come Follow Me program and how it blesses our home!
Coen wanted me to take a picture of his block tower before Audrey knocked it down.
The missionaries came to film us for a short video they'll put on their facebook page. This is the best picture I could get of the kids!
We have been going on a lot of walks. I make sure to get out every day since we're pretty cooped up otherwise. (All except for Coen who gets to go to school!)
Sometimes when Ava does an assignment on paper, she'll take a picture of it to show her teacher. (Mostly, she does her assignments directly on the computer). After we took the picture on the top right, we laughed so hard- Audrey was in it, and smiled perfectly for the picture.
Audrey found a mask and was trying to put it on her face. She is a child of a pandemic- she knows what a face mask is!
I taught a class at my work's annual audit training on working from home. There were about 100 people on the call, but since I was able to sit at my desk and teach like that, I was not even that nervous. Brent helped give me little pointers to make my powerpoint more entertaining and memorable and it went really well.
We met the missionaries at the park so that they could get some cover footage for the video they're creating about us.
It was super cold!
Audrey figured out pretty quickly how to get onto the bottom bunk.
If you can see Audrey's face in this picture, she is cracking up at herself. One day Ava asked me, "Mom, why does Audrey laugh every time she does something bad?"
These two have played so much together and been cute little frenemies, especially since we've been mostly home in Covid times.
I was eating a lot of gluten in preparation for my endoscopy to test for Celiac disease. So we made chocolate chip cookies. They turned out! Ava wanted to dye them pink. We shared some with our friends.
In October I went back to church for my first time in about 7 1/2 months. It felt really nice to be there! Mostly now Brent and I switch off weeks, with the other staying home to put Audrey down for a nap and watch the meeting online.
The kids loved jumping in our pile of leaves.
Brent took the kids to IHOP after gymnastics for their free "mummy" pancakes. I stayed home with Audrey. Apparently the pancakes were delicious.
When Brent takes the kids to campus for his errands (on their way to gymnastics), they like to play a little game of where's Waldo. You can try to find the kids in each of these pictures!
This screen shot didn't make it in to the last month's post, so it's going in here, because we cannot forget this moment. Brent was cooking Korean chicken while Natalie and Tammy were hanging out talking. I had run downstairs to check on Audrey so I missed the moment when the flames from the chicken shot up almost to the ceiling! Brent calmly placed the pan in the sink as Tammy said "you're on fire!" and Natalie shouted "ohmygosh!!" Brent had Daniel find the footage on the home surveillance camera and we laughed until we cried watching the video over and over.
"The places I caught Audrey" #3- she figured out how to climb to the top bunk- noooo!!
A video of Audrey climbing the bunk bed ladder- after about one day of this, Brent unscrewed the ladder and Ava now has to climb up the side.
Our bedtime routine right now consists of doing a few minutes of Come Follow Me- we read a scripture and talk about a lesson from the manual. Then we read Harry Potter for a little while (Ava is obsessed!!). Then we say prayers and I turn on their Disney pandora for them to fall asleep to. As soon as the music comes on, Audrey starts dancing and the kids laugh and enjoy their little performance. Here's a little video:
Ava came to help me hand out treats at Coen's preschool Trunk or Treat. She was really sad it wasn't for her, but I think she discovered it was fun to hand out candy.
Coen was Batman.
On Friday night we did a Trunk or Treat with our ward friends at a park. Ava went as a witch, and Audrey as Ariel.
It was pretty nice weather and fun to see some friends that we hadn't seen in months!
This was Coen's favorite treat he got- a Forky ring pop.
On Halloween we decided to not go out Trick or Treating and instead have a party here with the Wilsons. We basically have to families in our "bubble," and the Wilsons are one. First we had a little parade to show off our costumes.
Then we colored and did a haunted house craft. Then we had a yummy dinner of soups and rolls.
The dads hid candy around the house and we turned off the lights and gave the kids glow sticks. The kids used flashlights to search for the candy. We did it in a pretty organized manner- two kids in a room at a time, and 2 pieces of candy per kid per room. It was really fun!
Then we played the donut on the string game and ate witch hat cookies.
We all agreed this was a super fun alternative to Trick or Treating- if not a better and warmer one!
