March 2022- Ava turns 9, coyotes at the temple, and Audrey starts school

Highlights of March included birthdays for me and Ava, an overnight trip to Portland, and Audrey's first day of "school" (daycare). Also, busy season started getting way too busy for me. 

Our babysitter cleaned up our toy room while she watched Audrey- so nice!

On Ava's birthday Audrey woke me up nice and early, so I got a head start on my work for the day some time in the 6 o'clock hour while Audrey watched a show. 

Ava chose pie for her birthday. She's growing up, so didn't want the same old cupcakes she used to get when she was little. This chocolate brownie pie was delicious!

IHOP was having free pancake day so we all went together before it was gymnastics time. That evening after gymnastics she opened presents with grandparents on the phone, and we were all too full from pancakes to have the pie so we saved that for the next night! 

Singing happy birthday to our big 9 year old! 

At 9, Ava is starting to be part big kid, part small kid. She can be so fun to have conversations with, and she helps me remember things, etc. She can unload the dishwasher for me and peel potatoes (I never thought I would get to the point where a child could be helpful!) She can watch Audrey for me for about 30 mins at a time if Brent's working from home and I need to run to the grocery store. She has been very dedicated to learning everything she can about Anne Frank and tells me all sorts of things she learns. She reads Harry Potter with a flashlight every night in bed and finished the 6th book. 

She also is still a small kid and wants me to check on her at night, because she gets scared of being in the dark. She is very sensitive and cries when other girls don't include her at recess or talk about having a sleepover that she wasn't invited to. She still has some trouble controlling her temper and regularly injures Coen by hitting, punching, throwing things at him, etc. 

She lives for play dates or when we have people over to dinner and is still as social as ever. She bears her testimony often in church, in front of a hundred people! She is a little light and brings so much energy and life to our home.

Walks with Audrey- she just loves this cat so much! 

After petting the cat for quite a while, I made her get back in the stroller to continue our walk. I had to take a picture of her face, so sad about leaving the cat!

My birthday fell on a Friday this year, which is the best day! The kids had no school on my birthday. They were pretty grumpy and fighting a lot of the day, so that was not my favorite. I took the kids to the church to play with friends and I always enjoy talking to the other moms there.  On the way home I decided to get fancy sandwiches so I didn't have to cook lunch for everyone. They were so yummy! That evening Brent and I had a date planned for when we put the kids to bed- we watched Dirty Dancing since neither of us had ever seen it. Yeah, you heard that right, Brent had never seen it! It was a total chick flick which I like. I love my birthdays and this one was a great one! I had to take a picture- here's what 35 looks like! 

Audrey saw that I had painted my nails and begged for me to make her nails pink too. I painted her fingers and toes pink and she was thrilled! Also when I was painting her toes, I discovered that she has  two wide big toe nails, just like my grandpa Hansen! She didn't get his club thumbs though- just the toes!

Audrey saw a metronome on Ava's piano book and thought it looked like a bad guy, or a "mean" as she calls them. She kept showing me the angry face she thought it was making- watch for it at the end of this video. 

 

Ava's birthday party was the day after my birthday. Ava had a Mickey Mouse/Disney World theme. We decorated Mickey sugar cookies:

And we played Headbands combined with find your partner. So once you guessed your own person, you had to go find your character's partner. The kids also played the movie game and danced to Encanto. She had 5 friends come and that was just right. 

Mmm and the sugar cookies were delicious! Ava got a lot of cool presents, especially a lot of fun Harry Potter crafts.

Coen had a special week at school for reading week. They dressed up in honor of a book each day. This day was wear red for Clifford. He was very disappointed he didn't have red pants! 

Audrey my silly goose. She put that bandaid on her head just because bandaids are super fun and stylish. 

Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss- Coen instructed me on how he would like his hair done. Before he went to school I convinced him to wear matching shoes to be more safe.

Audrey loved her nails being so much, that while I was talking to my Nana on the phone, she found the nail polish, sat in the stroller in my office, and painted her nails on her own. Luckily she didn't get any nail polish on the carpet, and she just dripped some on her pink shirt but it kind of blended in. Oh this girl- she's busy!

More cat pictures because this is Audrey's favorite thing. The sad thing is that the cat's owners moved shortly after this, so Audrey has no more cat to pet on our walks!

The kids played outside with our next door neighbor who is in Coen's class. She was our neighbor's foster daughter for a year and just the cutest, happiest, spunky girl. Our neighbor told me that the mom got her life in a place where she could get the daughter back, so the girl was leaving the next week. I have to admit, that night I cried. I cried for this little girl, who at the age of 5, has had to deal with so much change and the heart-break of not having a mom who was fit to care for her. And I cried for my neighbors who loved this little girl like their own and had to give her back. I so admire people who do foster care!

Our ward did a funeral for my friend Krystal who died in January of Covid. I'm so glad we did because it was nice to honor her and share that with ward members. The kids sang I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus. I gave a talk on the 5 things Krystal taught me. Highlights included she taught me how to bear your testimony often and with conviction, and she taught me to let other people serve you - let people in. 

I did Audrey's hair in pig tails with a bow and it was SO cute! I love that she lets me do her hair and keeps it in. Ava often would pull out her hair after I had done it when she was this age.

Come Follow Me- acting out a story from the Old Testament. I can't even remember which story now! But Coen's bath robe, a Moana skirt on Audrey, and Ava's blanket were the props. 

We went to our friend's house for dinner on Pie Day. We had homemade pizzas and different kinds of pies. 

Ava worked hard all term studying and learning about Anne Frank. She made this puppet out of clay, and wrote a speech about Anne Frank. She dressed in what she thought Anne could have worn. Her teacher sent me a video of her speech and she did a great job and wasn't even nervous. 

These two looked so cute holding hands on our walk.

And the cat makes an appearance again....

A friend in the ward and I had been using the same babysitter on different days during the week so we decided to combine forces and have her watch both kids one day. Audrey was so excited to go to their house and had her bag packed. 

When I went to pick up Audrey though, the babysitter told me that Audrey had cried most of the day. That made me feel so sad! I don't know why she didn't do well that day- she usually is so social so I'm not sure why she wasn't happy. 

On Friday before Spring break, we went to Portland. Audrey has been asking and asking me to swim, so I booked a hotel by the temple that had a pool. When we got to the hotel, they informed us that their pool wasn't open yet after Covid. So sad!! 

That evening we went to Mexican food and then drove to the temple to take pictures. Right as we came up to the temple grounds, two coyotes ran in front of the car! 

It was a beautiful evening at the temple. Audrey hadn't been here yet and she was very impressed.

Pointing at the temple. She knows the temple song, so she was very happy to see one.

Coen looked so cute reading the words up on the temple.

The kids are thrilled to sleep in a hotel room and watch TV in bed. 

We went to OMSI (science museum) and the kids loved doing all the activities. We hadn't been here in about 3 years. 

Make it rain on the city!

The kids' favorite activity was a huge wind tunnel that they could put papers in and watch the papers fly.

Brent and I did sealings in the temple while Karen watched our kids at the visitor center. We are so grateful for kind people that help us! We went to Red Robin on the way home, and the kids were thrilled about their balloons.

I try to have the kids help me put away their laundry each week. Without fail, each week Coen acts like I've come up with some special way of torturing him, since he has to put away his clothes. I had to take a video so that I can show him this when he's older!

The next week for Spring break, I had so much work to do. I tried to get up early and work hard and efficiently, and then have a little time to play with the kids, but overall I felt stressed and guilty for not giving my kids a more fun spring break. I had our babysitter come three of the days which was super helpful, and she took them to the park. 

Our grandma sub came and read books to the kids. Coen got a cold this week. 

The kids love Encanto and can't help but dance to it!

One afternoon it was so warm! Brent took the kids to a fun park by our house to enjoy the sunshine and eat pizza.  

I met up with them at the park and then we went on a walk by the river, behind the hospital. 

It was so beautiful! 

Coen loves his Pigeon hat and is so crazy over Mo Willems. He devours the Mo Willems books.

One day at dinner Coen disappeared to the bathroom and didn't come back until we were about done eating. I asked him if he was feeling ok, and he said "Yeah. I was just playing tic tac toe with myself, with the bath crayons on the bathtub." Ava looked at him and quipped, "Who won?"  I laughed so hard! I went in the bathroom, and sure enough, there were about a dozen games of tic tac toe on our bath tub. Kids are so funny!

Brent introduced the kids to Full House and all three of them love watching it!

I started to play Wordle and I have not not lost a game yet! 

Coen looked like a little blonde Latino with his shirt off and his necklace. 

Audrey got into the glitter in my closet and dumped it out. A couple days later she ran up to me on the stairs and threw something. I looked on the stairs but couldn't see anything that she had thrown. A few minutes later Ava said "Audrey dumped out the sugar and Coen is skating in it!" It was sugar that Audrey had thrown at me!

A few days after that, Audrey got into a bottle of nail polish (one that I missed hiding) and painted her nails again. Hello terrible twos!

Reading day. I like how Ava is smiling at Sister Peaslee's voices.

I noticed that I had a helper add something to my shopping list. That helper's name was Coen.

We had a friend over to dinner while his family was out of town. He lent Brent his Apple TV so Brent could stream the Oscars.

I made sausage dip for Brent to make the day special ;) About half way through the Oscars, I took the kids to a friend's house to see a returned missionary who had served in our ward. When I got home, Brent was almost done watching the Oscars and he said "You MISSED IT!!!" He was still in shock that Will Smith had slapped Chris Rock.

On Monday Brent and I took Audrey to see her new school. She was so excited!! It's a wonderful school and she has two teachers, Lauryn and Winter. There are about 6 or 7 other kids in her class. Audrey hardly wanted to leave after seeing all the toys at the school. Here she is peaking in, before our tour started.

On March 29, Audrey had her first day of school! Since she had cried so much at our friend's house the week before, I was so nervous that she was going to cry a lot, and not eat her lunch (like little 2 year old Coen did when he started preschool). She was so happy in the morning to be going off to school! She waved proudly to me as she drove away with Brent and the kids.

Her teachers text me pictures throughout the day and they do really fun things with the kids! It made it so much easier for me to let her go, since I have all sorts of guilt for sending my child to daycare and not being the one to take care of them during the day. 

When I went to pick her up, there was a welcome sign for Audrey on the door. As soon as the teacher had barely started to open the door to give Audrey to me, Audrey yelled "Mommy I go school!!!" She was so happy and in the car on the way home she told me, "I not cry." When Ava got home from school, Audrey said, "Dee-dah, I not cry my school!"

I noticed that our cherry tree started getting little cherry blossom buds. Yay!

Some more pictures from Audrey's school.... making cookies,

and playing playdough.

I signed Ava up for Girls on the Run to help her be more emotionally resilient. The program helps girls gain confidence, have healthy friendships, and feel empowered as they run. She runs about a mile each day during the program, I think, and she really likes it! I think it also helps with her excess energy.

I looked over Ava's homework on shapes and angles and really cracked up at #4. It asks, "Does the shape have 2 pairs of sides the same length?" Her response is "I think"

Happy Audrey by the "park" at her school. This is on the high school campus and is primarily for children of school employees, but we got in after being on the wait list! 

The tree in our neighborhood really put on a show. Every time I drove past it, it made me happy!

Audrey's friend Matilda came over to play. These two are the sweetest friend!

And that was March! It is therapeutic to write a blog and look at pictures of the kids being happy. Because when I was in the thick of March, it was hard. A lot of work, a lot of stress, and a lot of feeling like I wasn't doing enough for the kids. Oh, and where was Brent in most of these pictures? Ships passing in the night, as he worked long hours on his dissertation (til midnight or later). We had some good times though, and are now moving onward and upward! Except for April. April was a doozy. But I'm sure May will be better :)