January 2021- Kidney Stones and a pretend trip to Hawaii

 January was not my favorite month. It was a hard one, with Brent getting a kidney stone and his Grandma passing away.

I felt bad for not taking our kids anywhere over the holidays and I was also really craving a vacation. Coen got a suitcase from my mom for Christmas, so I woke up on Saturday morning and decided we would go on a fake vacation to Hawaii and give the kids a chance to use their suitcases. Ava created IDs for us all, since we were going to be "flying"- here's mine:

We lined up the chairs and Audrey's little car and put a video on the TV of the view out an airplane window. Ava had the idea that I could bring their snacks and drinks on this wheeling suitcase. The kids were thrilled with their pretzels and juice boxes. 

After we landed, we went upstairs to my bedroom (each of the kids carrying their suitcase they had packed with their swimming suits and towels). We got out the trampoline to make it feel like they were jumping into the ocean, and we put Hawaiian music and beach waves on our TV to set the mood. We took a hula lesson on youtube and the kids got in the tub in their swimming suits. Our Hawaiian vacation took half of the day and it was so fun! It made me really wish we could go to Hawaii!

Here's a video fo Audrey singing "e-i-e-i-o"

The kids had an impromptu music class- here's a video:

Audrey's little pony tail! She screamed like crazy when I tried to put it in as gently as I could. 

Ava keeps making herself letters from Hogwarts and asking me, "do you think that Harry Potter is real? What if I really get a letter to go?"

Ava and Coen have spent hours almost every afternoon playin out front with our neighbors. Ava has really taken a liking to our neighbor Helma who is two years older than her. They have so much fun together and Ava gets so excited when she sees Helma is out.

It was a beautiful foggy morning:

Brent and I went to our optometrist appointment. While Brent was in and I was waiting outside in the car with Audrey, I kept staring at the Crumbl shop. Finally I went in a bought some cookies for us to try out. The carrot cookie our favorite, even Brent!

Audrey loves noodles with red sauce!

We had a scary dragon in our neighborhood one day!

On Saturday I felt so cabin fever-ish. We went for a drive to a reservoir 30 minutes from our house. The kids had fun at the little playground, especially Audrey!

This is the area where Coen broke his arm 4 years ago and threw up 3 years ago. It went much better this time.

We stopped at the Simpsons mural in Springfield (did you know the creator of Simpsons was from Oregon, so Springfield Oregon claims they're really the one in the show?)

We stopped at a Franz outlet and Brent got some cinnamon rolls, which the kids were excited about.

Here's a video of where you can find Audrey lately:

On MLK day, Brent and I still had to work, but Coen was home from school. Coen and Audrey were playing in our bedroom when we heard a crash and Audrey start crying. She would not stop crying, and wouldn't use her left arm. Coen kept changing his story of how Audrey got hurt. Finally, he admitted to Ava that he pushed Audrey off the bed. After Audrey's nap (in her carseat since her arm could rest safely next to her body that way), Brent took her into urgent care since we thought her arm must be broken. 

He waited at urgent care for so long- they were especially busy, and the parking lot was a COVID testing spot. Ugh! She got x-rays and everything, and her arm was not broken! Brent thinks he popped her arm back in to place when he took her out of her car seat there because she perked up after that. We made Coen write sorry cards to Audrey for a week after this, naughty boy!

Each week at Coen's preschool there is a letter of the week and Coen can bring an object or two that starts with the letter. They make a craft for the letter each week- here are the letters K, L and M:

Coen colored on his face one day and told me he made himself into a cat.

Ava started having playdates with a new friend and they bonded over Harry Potter.

Out for an evening walk!

There's a show called Bluey on Disney + that is so cute! It is so funny and I love it as much as the kids do. I've been putting on a few episodes on Friday nights when Brent's at school still. Here's a video of them dancing to the introduction music.

Coen needed some new school shoes so I took him on a date to Target to buy some. He was so excited for his special time. He wanted these camo shoes and I text a picture to Brent because it made me laugh, since Brent hates camo so much. Brent was like OH HECK NO. Luckily we found some shoes that Coen was excited about- we found Batman light up shoes. Coen told me, "I've wanted light up shoes my whole life!" 

It was sunny and so we decided to go check out a park that's near our house. It's only 5 minutes away from our house but we had never been there! It felt nice to walk around in the sunshine, then it got really cold at the end.

Audrey is wearing a dress that both Ava and Lucy wore.  Time flies- it doesn't feel like it was that long ago that both of those girls were wearing this dress!

Audrey watches her show in her car seat during institute, or when Brent and I both have to work. She loves it and says "shoooow." She sometimes rocks herself backwards in her carseat and is like a turtle that can't get up haha. 

A video of Audrey having a tantrum about a diaper change (notice how she whispers bum bum"). I saved this from Marco Polo so it's a bit grainy.

Ava started taking piano lessons with my mom over FaceTime! It's been really fun and good for Ava. She can be frustrating to practice with sometimes, since she kind of wants to do things her own way. If she really likes a song though, she'll play it over and over. One day she set up a sign that we needed to pay 25 cents for "tikits" to listen to her practice. 

Coen had crazy hair day at school and he told me he wanted his hair to have three spikes like this. He won the award for craziest har and got a scarf (which he's wearing in the picture). 

Ava is still completely obsessed with Harry Potter. She makes the best faces when I read to her:

Little Audrey wants to be like her big brother! Here she is in his shoes, backpack, and sucking his water bottle!

We finished the second Harry Potter at the end of January! We watched the movie with Karen that weekend and it was nice to have something to look forward to. Brent had been in pain so much of this month with a kidney stone. It's been a bad one and he still hasn't passed it at the end of February. 

Coen decided he wanted to try reading green eggs and ham. He learned some of the main words and was able to sound out some words.

I was telling Brent that I feel like I can't ever keep up with keeping our house clean, but it's hard for me to be ok with all the mess. I went upstairs and this is what Audrey had done! There's no point in me trying to clean when she is awake, because if she's not supervised she can make a mess faster than I'm cleaning up.

Here's a video of some of Audrey's tricks:

I made ooblek (corn starch and water) for the kids and they played with it for so long! 

We had a fun bubble bath. Ava is getting kind of old now so I colored a heart on the picture for her privacy haha.

Ava planned her own birthday party- it's Harry Potter theme obviously! I like it when she sounds out words. My favorite below is "poshins lesin."

Audrey wanted me to put a bow on her one evening as she was unloading our bathroom drawer (like she does several times a day!) Too bad she won't keep bows on her head because it's so cute!

Brent's grandma Dot died on January 29. It was an emotional week before her death, and hard to not be there. One night Coen blessed that Grandma Dot "can get alive safely and that she can get dead safely." At first it made us smile, but then thinking about getting dead safely was actually a deep and sweet thought! Brent was able to FaceTime with her even though she was not responsive. Brent adored his Grandma Dot and they had such a special relationship! When I first started dating Brent, I immediately fell in love with her too. She was so proper, a talented homemaker, and full of such goodness. She was one of those kind of people that have such a light, that it makes you happy and want to be around them. Brent was in charge of making the memorial video so he spent a lot of time gathering pictures and putting together the video. Here are just a couple pictures he found as he was gathering. 

Brent spent all day and night, all weekend (only sleeping for a couple hours both nights) to get the video done in time for the funeral on Monday. It was a labor of love for his grandma! Luckily Brent's kidney stone eased up for the few days when he was working on the video. 

A few funny things that I want to remember the kids said:

We were listening to the song called "The Tree of Life" and the lyrics say "the greatest place in all the world to be is at the tree!" and Coen chimed in right in time with the music, all peppy, "yes it is!" 

Coen handed his "sorry for pushing you off the bed sorry note" for the day to Audrey. He said "I was going to put it in her crib, but it didn't happen." Maybe you had to be there for this one, but it was so funny like he has a really busy schedule and he just couldn't get to his good intentions.

I bought Ava the book "Sarah, Plain and Tall" and Ava asked me, "what does Sarah Plain and Tall mean? Does that describe her?" I said "yeah, she's plain, and tall. Plain means she's not beautiful, she's just plain." Ava responded seriously, "oh, like you?" I started laughing and said, "Ava!!" She immediately got so embarrassed. It made me laugh so hard. I think in her mind she was thinking beautiful as in glamorous and done up. Maybe. Haha.

And that was the end of January - it was a rough one, but luckily we were still able to have some fun in there together. And maybe some day we'll go to Hawaii for real!