Little Ava Big Texas: October 2021- New house fun, Audrey got a tick, and Halloween trunk or treats

I gave Audrey a haircut since it was getting all uneven and I have to say, I thought she looked pretty adorable with her short bob.

Giving me the look from underneath her sunglasses.

Audrey loves her babies and is always tucking them in for bed somewhere. Sometimes they get tucked in on top of Brent's movies on the shelf, and sometimes they get put to bed in our pantry.

Getting ready for church.

Audrey making funny faces at the camera, and cracking me up. She is such a performer.

We had each family that helped us move, over to dinner one at a time. It was lots of fun!

We went to Helma's new house for a playdate. They still go to the same elementary school but it's sad that they're not our neighbors anymore.

Some days if it's nice I let the kids play at the school playground when I pick them up after school. It's nice now that Ava is getting older and can help me take care of Audrey at the park.

Ava has been having a hard time at school- her best friend moved and she is having a rough time making new friends. I'm glad she at least has Coen to play with after school! Although they fight more than they play. But for the first 5 minutes after school they are so happy to see each other.

A Marco Polo that turned out pretty funny, and gross.

Giving her baby kisses.

We had no school on a Friday so we did a little pretend Hawaii at Ava's request. It wasn't quite as good as the first time we did it, but still fun.

Sister Freeman invited me and the kids over for a playdate and we got to meet her new granddaughters who moved here. We made cake pops and made new friends!

Coen got Audrey dressed all by himself. He buttoned her onesie over her pants which was cute.

We went to Deterring Orchards for our annual Fall time at the farm. They raised the price of the wagon ride so much that I only bought one adult ticket and made Brent go!

The last time Audrey came here she was a tiny baby in my front pack and she slept through the whole thing. Last year we didn't go because of Covid.

We decided to try something a little different and pick apples this time. Coen threw the hugest tantrum when we were checking out (because he wanted a caramel apple right then), so he had to have a time out while the girls and I picked apples.

We picked jonagold apples and they were so yummy!!

We had two sets of missionaries over to dinner and it turned out that since one sister had not gotten her Covid shot, she had to eat outside. We kept the sliding door open and Audrey really wanted to face the missionary and talk with her while we ate :)

Audrey really loves going to the park. She enjoys life!

Audrey is always trying to pet cats and dogs that she sees. It makes me nervous, but at least this kitty is a friendly kitty.

Audrey keeps taking off her diaper- she really wants to potty-train I think! We got out her little potty so she can start going on that and she really likes it and is doing well with it, all on her own. One day though, she took off her diaper and pooped in Ava's closet. When Brent found her she panicked and stepped in it and tried to run away. She tracked poop across the carpet and on some of the clean laundry. Ugh! I told her that she has to go poop on the potty and can't go on the floor. Audrey told me "Coco did it."

Ava and Coen decided one day that they were going to be matching. They each wore their rain jacket, their tennis shoes, favorite character shirt, and their umbrella. They got so into planning what they were going to wear the night before.

One day I cracked an egg and got two yolks out of it! I have never had twins!

Friends in the ward got together at a local farm one day. I couldn't go since I was working, but my friend who watches Audrey on Mondays took her there. Here's Audrey and her little friend looking at chickens.

The five minute window of best friends after school!

One day at dinner Ava was singing "Sponge Bob Squirt Pants." Coen corrected her and said "It's Sponge Bob SQUARE Pants." Ava said "What? No, it's squirt. Square doesn't make any sense." Coen shot back, "Oh yeah? Then what shape are his pants?" I laughed SO hard!

The leaves in our neighborhood turned so beautiful in October! This is the view out our kitchen window.

I saw that Saturday's forecast was sunny and like 65 so I planned a little excursion. We drove to the McKenzie river about 30 minutes away from our house and picked up Subway sandwiches for a picnic. The kids were so excited to each choose what they wanted on their sandwich.

After our picnic we went on a walk along the river. We found these things that I thought looked like hobbit tables. The kids liked hopping across them.

After exploring the river area we drove up the river some more to a spot that we always think is pretty when we're on our way to Idaho.

It was a beautiful, warm day!

That night while I was giving Audrey a bath I saw something black in her hair. I tried to pull it out and it wouldn't come and realized it was a tick! Ahhh! I text Brent, who was at Costco, to come home and help me get it out! When he came home, he got it out like a pro with the tweezers. I saved the tick in a ziplock bag in case we needed it for the doctor. Next part of the story to come next month....

I gave Audrey pig tails and kept cracking up whenever I looked at her.

Audrey likes to wear her mask to be like the big kids. She wore her mask to the park and kept it on for like 20 minutes!

We had our neighbors over, the one who was Coen's preschool teacher last year. Her husband had a stroke 6 months ago and has improved a lot, but still has a hard time having conversations. They are the sweetest people in the world. We watched some Halloween shorts with them and made ghost suckers.

Ava got herself and Audrey ready for the day, complete with bows in their hair and purses.

Ava checked out a book about Anne Frank from her library at school. She told me, as if this was so dumb, "This book is mostly just about her living in one small room!" I laughed and said, that's exactly the point- she did just live in one small room for years!

It was spirit week at school and both kids were very excited about it! Here's crazy sock day.

I took Audrey to Get Air for her first time. They had a special toddler time Halloween party and a couple friends from the ward came with me. Audrey was a cute little butterfly!

She saw the trampolines and knew exactly what to do.

Audrey and her little boyfriends from the ward.

Brent took Ava and Coen to the dentist and I took Audrey. We finally switched to a pediatric dentist (who used to be in our ward) and it was a much better experience! Here's Audrey showing off her clean teeth.

Fancy day at school for Spirit week- I can't remember why Coen was pretending to be angry! He can't fool us though, I see that sly smile.

Audrey has her pretend laptop and likes to pretend to work. She will even lock my office door since she sees me do that! She says "I working! K mom? I working!"

The builders of our neighborhood put in the wrong kind of trees about 8 years ago. We got word that finally after a lot of fighting with the city, the trees in all of the park strips were going to be cut down. We took pictures to remember the beautiful trees!

They did come plant new little trees a few weeks after taking them all down, but our neighborhood looks kind of naked now.

I took the kids to Johnston Farm and had Ava skip cooking class one Thursday. This goat and Ava are staring at each other.

The hit of the place for my kids was this big slide into a hay pile.

Cute Coen!

For Halloween we found Coen an awesome green cloak online so that he could be Frodo. He is very into Lord of the Rings and he was so thrilled.

Ava was a Hogwarts student for one of our nights of Trunk or Treat.

And Audrey was Aurora.

He looks like a real hobbit!

Audrey was happy to wear a pretty dress.

Our ward's trunk or treat was really fun. It was held outside but luckily the weather was pretty nice. They had a hotdog dinner and carnival games before the trunk or treat.

I went as a witch and Brent was an evil professor.

The next day was Karen's Trunk or Treat at her ward and we went with her! Audrey went as Donald Duck this time, which we all loved so much.

Can you handle that pose? If you could zoom in, you'd see a little white tail feather on her bum.

Ava got to go early with Karen and help her decorate her trunk with Harry Potter decorations. Ava was so happy!

Here's the finished product.

Karen's Trunk or Treat also had lots of carnival games. There was a whole lot of candy and playing this weekend!

On Sunday Karen came over and helped us decorate our Halloween cupcakes. We made them into green monsters.

Brent took the kids out trick or treating in our neighborhood and Karen and I stayed home and chatted and passed out candy. Our new house is in the happening spot for trick or treaters- there were tons!