September 2021- We moved! (down the street)

We got to Eugene at the beginning of September and got right to work packing and organizing our house and also going shopping to buy some things for our new house. We went to a thrift store and found some school desks for Ava and Coen, for $15 each. Yay! While we were there Audrey jumped on the sofas and took off the stickers that show how much they each cost. We discovered they were all up her arms and tried to guess which couch each sticker should go back on, oops. 

We were on the hunt for a king sized bed for our new huge bedroom, but realized they were so expensive. We went to Costco and found they had king sized mattresses on sale, and there were two left in the store. We were so blessed to get this mattress! It was the first purchase to go in our new house. The kids watched their first movie in our house on the new bed. They chose Home Alone, which wasn't so funny for Brent after the broken window experience a few days earlier. 

Brent meticulously packed up each of his shelves and kept his movies in order, driving dozens of loads  between houses in our red car.

Audrey played with these "shish kebob" toys for so long while we packed and cleaned! One day she fell asleep like this. She started phasing out of naps right when we moved, and would only nap some days.

Coen expressed his stress of moving and school about to start with crying... a lot of crying.

Ava was so excited to start 3rd grade! Her teacher is Ms. Aley. I found she had written a good luck note for her new teacher for her first day. She is so thoughtful.

Coen was very excited for kindergarten. While I was helping him pick out his clothes for his first day, I told him he would look cool if he wore his batman shirt. He said so seriously, "I want to look cute, not cool." He insisted on wearing his Sunday best. 

They start the kindergartners here with a "kindergarten camp" for one day where they do activities with each of the kindergarten teachers, and then after they assess the kids, they call to tell us which teacher he'll have. Coen got Ms. Whitten, the same teacher Ava had!

Coen has always wanted to do homework like Ava and he takes school very seriously. His first day his homework was to fill in an "all about me" sheet. While he was coloring his homework, he said to Brent, "Dad, I feel peace in my heart."

I made a back to school dinner for the kids, which was roast and mashed potatoes.

We were able to slowly move things over to the new house since the new house wasn't occupied. Brent slept at the new house to protect all of our stuff, and I slept at our old house with the kids since we weren't really occupying the new house yet. Before Brent would leave for the night he'd help me barricade the front and back doors with whatever we were moving that day, like bookcases. I set the alarm each night and felt pretty safe, but it was stressful! 

Audrey got a huge sliver in her hand at the park one day and I tried to get it out while Brent held her, but it was so deep and she was screaming that Brent was holding her tight. I decided to try again while Audrey was sleeping. That night though, she kept pulling her hand away and was sleeping fitfully and I just couldn't do it while she slept with a little needle and tweezers. The next day the skin had grown over the sliver a lot! I didn't want to have to take her to the doctor. That night when she went to bed I said a prayer that she could sleep deeply and that I could be brave and get the sliver out. I went sanitized my needle and started working on the sliver and Audrey didn't move a muscle! I was able to quickly get it out- an answer to my little prayer!

We packed our house, one room at a time, and left the big furniture for the day when our friends with a truck could come help us move the big things. 

Moving is the absolute worst!!

We put the crib mattress on the floor for Audrey and she started sleeping on that instead of her pack n play since she is two after all, the poor kid. She still happily sleeps in our closet!

Audrey gets the giggles and keeps things light around here!

Random story- Ava was giving Audrey a piggy back ride and accidentally dropped Audrey on her bum. I said "Ava!!" and she said, "What? How would you like if it invisible walls jump out and smack you in the face?" I asked her all confused, "What does that have to do with dropping Audrey?" She said, "Well I get hurt too sometimes!" Haha, oh Ava. 

Our little helper.

Audrey gets to go to her friend Matilda's house each Monday while Brent and I work. It is so nice for both of us to be able to get a lot done, and Audrey absolutely loves these days. Coen didn't have school this Monday (because of the kindergarten camp) so he got to go with Audrey and they went peach picking.

Cute friends!

The kids helped me clean at our old house and their favorite part was getting the sudsy water and cleaning the oven. The sister missionaries also came over and helped me clean on the last day, which was super helpful. These were a hard couple weeks with working during the day on our normal jobs and then cleaning and packing in the evenings. Our closing date got pushed back a few days because our buyer's buyer was having to provide a couple extra things to the underwriters. It was stressful for me because we basically had moved everything over to the new house, and now hadn't closed, but Brent knew everything would work out. The kids and I finally started sleeping at the new house Wednesday September 15. 

My parents came into town late Thursday night to help us unpack at the new house. It was so helpful to be able to get it all done in one weekend! My dad helped hang all the pictures in our house and check a ton of things off our to do list, and my mom helped me unpack closets and the kids' bedrooms. It was so nice of them to come and use their vacation to help us! 

My parents went with me to pick up the kids from school. 

On Friday we went to Home Depot, Arby's, and the park. Ava helped Coen do the monkey bars.

On Saturday after working on house stuff all day we went to our traditional spot we always go to with my parents- BJs. The food is always so good there! 

We decided that the fridge at our old house can fit SO much more inside even though they're the same size. So, we had friends, neighbors, and my dad help us with the gigantic task of switching fridges between the two houses. It was so hard, but we are so glad to have our old fridge back!

On Sunday I took my parents to a beautiful park in Eugene that overlooks the river. We also went to the rose garden that is close by. The sun was shining and it was so nice to get some fresh air after working inside the house all weekend.

On Monday we finished up house projects and Brent and I went to close on our house. My parents watched Audrey while we did that and got some awesome pictures of Audrey, haha!

Our new house is so much more spacious and we are loving it. All the pain of moving has really been worth it!

We made cookies for our neighbor to say thank you for helping us move our fridge.

 ,.,.

I took this picture just because I thought Brent's eyes were looking extra blue.

Some pictures to remember how our house is set up. 

Brent's office- he got a new desk that can raise to be a standing desk.

 A good portion of the movies fit in Brent's office now.

This is the loft, aka the playroom. We decided to put our second TV here and it's worked out nicely because Audrey will often play with toys while the kids watch a movie. I was worried if we had a TV here they wouldn't play with their toys, but they still play a lot. 

Our huge bathroom. One of my favorite parts of the house is the soaking tub. We have used this tub at least 3 times a week, between all of us, since we've moved in. 

Our bedroom- it's huge! You can't see all of it it in this picture. 

Coen's bedroom. He got our old queen bed. His is the smallest of the bedrooms but it still has lots of room to play around the queen bed. 

Ava's room is the brightest room in the house since it faces the southwest and has big windows. 

She sleeps on the top bunk and soon Audrey will sleep in the bottom bunk. 

The stairs are in the center of our house, which makes it feel a lot easier to run grab something upstairs, compared with our old house where they were at the front of the house. Only problem is we miss having our beautiful entry way at our old house, but we've found that there are things we will always love from each house.

We had the hardest time figuring out what to do with our two living room spaces. This is supposed to be the dining room but we did not need a separate eating space, especially on carpet. We toyed with having this be Brent's office, the playroom, the piano room, etc. We settled on having it be our TV/living room. It's nice because our guests can sit here and not be in the kitchen/toy area. 

Another view of our living room, and you can see it looks into the second living room. 

Our second living room that is connected with our kitchen is what we call our "homework room." I spend the most time with the kids in here after school. We do their homework at their desks, Ava practices the piano, and we read stories on the couch. 

Our kitchen is so beautiful. I feel so lucky to live here. 

This is the view from our kitchen of our backyard. You can't see all of the yard here but it's pretty big for Eugene, especially compared to our old backyard. 

The entry way, with my office off to the left. 

My new office! I like being able to look outside and watch people walking their dogs, etc. 

Our friend, who sold the house to us, stopped by with a Martinelli on the day we closed. Wohoo!

Brent took Audrey to her two year old check up. She's tall and skinny! About 70% height and 30% weight. 

Audrey loves nursery so much! She runs in there and doesn't look back. Her favorite part is that they give her a "drink," which is her very own sippy cup.

We still go on walks past our old house. 

We were singing "I Love to See the Temple" at family night and right after we sang "a family is forever," Coen muttered "unless you get divorced." I wasn't sure if I understood him right so I asked him what he said and he said so matter-of-factly, "Unless you get divorced, then you won't be together forever." Haha, he is such a thinker. 

Occasionally both Brent and I go on a walk to get the kids from school. One day when we did this, Brent continued on with the girls and Coen and I stopped at the park and had an impromptu mommy son date. He was so thrilled to have my attention.

Audrey learned how to pedal her bike. 

We had Karen over to dinner to say thank you for watching the kids a couple nights while Brent and I packed. We did poppers to celebrate moving into our new house. We finally were able to sit down and enjoy a movie. We watched Cruella, and I fell asleep, since I was so tired from everything!

Ava made a playdough cake creation. She started going to cooking class and really wants to get into cooking.