January 2023- Basketball dude Coen

Eugene felt nice and warm after snowy Utah, but check out the forecast at the beginning of January- rain every day! The rest of the month saw some sunny days here and there, but we do have lots of gray skies and rain in Eugene's winter! 

We were so happy with our new flooring and carpet! It was exactly what we wanted. All the months of difficulties with the restoration company finally became worth it. 

I'm in activity days now. The day after we flew in to Oregon, we did a spa night for Activities. 

Audrey was a stinker this month! Not sure what got into her, but she kept doing so many naughty things, being mean, etc. 

Audrey trying out her new apron:

We had Christmas part two and opened up the presents we didn't take to Utah. The kids were excited about this game from my mom. 

Coen's excited face at a present being opened:

Audrey's preschool had a little Santa's workshop where we could send a few dollars and she chose presents for each family member and wrapped them. She was so excited for us to open her gifts, it was so adorable and funny! Coen got cookie cutters:

Brent got bumble bee sunglasses. Hahaha.

Ava got clip-on earrings, and I got a stuffed animal unicorn. Her face when we opened the presents was priceless. 

We watched Lyle Lyle Crocodile one night which is about a crocodile that can sing and lives with a family in NYC. At one point, a cat basically jumps into the crocodile's throat and is swallowed. Audrey was so into the movie- she gasped when this happened and was just watching with a horrified look on her face. A little bit later, the crocodile starts gagging and spits out the cat. Audrey started like hyperventilating when this happened and I couldn't tell if she was about to cry or gag herself. After the cat came out, she looked at me with a worried look on her face and asked if the cat was OK now? I assured her it was, and she couldn't stop talking about the cat and the crocodile. 

A couple days later Brent sent me this picture- Audrey playing crocodile dentist. Notice what's in the mouth? Haha.

The teachers hang recent pictures outside the classroom at Audrey's preschool. I thought this one was cute!

We babysat friends while the parents went to a movie:

Audrey had her first day of Primary! She was a little sad to not go to nursery, but our friend Tammy is her teacher so she's happy to go with her.

Painting nails after church with my pretty girl:

We had our friends over for dinner to say thank you for watching our house while we were in Utah! Audrey loves Olivia- little princesses.

We were watching a movie and a snake came on the screen. Ava still cannot handle snakes!

We went to pick up the kids from school. Audrey begged to take her scooter, so I said ok (she usually only rides this scooter inside our house). Once we got to the park, Audrey just took off on the scooter, going way fast, past the parking lot toward the school! She wouldn't listen and stop and I had to run as fast as I could to catch up. She scares me! She kept zooming away from me by the street so I had to carry her home and say no more scooter outside. Besides not listening, she did things like unroll a whole roll of toilet paper, throw all the folded laundry around the room before we could put it away, etc. I'm not sure if this was a Christmas hangover or what, but Audrey was such a handful this month!

"Hickory Dickory Dock"

Audrey is doing speech once a week at preschool through the free program the state has, and we're in the process of getting her into another speech program that will run through our insurance. 

My work pays for us to go to a dinner each year for Christmas since I'm not in Utah in time for the Christmas party. This year we took the kids with us and went to BJs. The food is always so yummy there! 

Church cleaning day! Everyone can help!

Audrey's hair is getting so long! I decided to not trim it anymore and just let it grow for something different. 

Coen's basketball games are every Saturday (the season is for 8 weeks). The first one was so hilarious to me. It was the kids' first experience playing a game, and the coaches had to remind them which way was their basket. One kid cried if he lost the ball. Another kid was holding the basketball like a football and running around like a crazy chicken while the other kids chased him. Coen's team only scored 3 baskets in the whole 40 minute game, and Coen was one of them! I cheered so loud! After the first game, his team has improved so much and they play a pretty decent game of basketball complete with passes, dribbling, and defense. 

Tammy came to some of his games and loved them as much as I did! She also entertained Audrey for me. 

In Coen's second game he made three baskets, and in another he made five. Each game he likes to make a different amount of baskets, silly boy.  At the first game, Tammy said, "I didn't know he was the start of the team!" For their little team, he is one of the highest scorers, if not the highest- he's just a good shot! He loves it so much that he skips and hops a lot during his games. During the first game, I wondered if his ankle was hurt because he was skipping so much. I asked him about it after and he said, "oh, I was trying not to step on the lines." 

I took Ava on a little girls time to Target and she picked out a dress that she is going to get for her birthday.

We played our new game, Qwirkle on Sunday afternoon! We have 9am church now, so we're home by about 11:20. I always have things I want to do, like laundry, cooking, my blog, etc, so the day still passes quickly.

The kids had no school on Monday for MLK day, so some of the moms gathered at the church to let the kids play. One mom brought her bounce house which was fun for the kids. 

I told Ava she was too big for the bounce house though, and she was good about finding other things to do. She's getting so old!

I had to take this picture to remember Audrey's naughtiness! I think this may have been after she unrolled the toilet paper. I can't keep track, but she thought she could look innocent! Her preschool teacher one day asked if I could stay after to talk about Audrey. She wanted to know if I had noticed anything off with Audrey lately- was she not sleeping well, sick, etc? I said, I have no idea why, but she has been such a stinker for the past month or two! The teacher said Audrey was starting to have behavior problems in school. She was starting to hit, grab, or pinch other kids when she wanted a toy, and wouldn't listen to the teacher to stop. The teacher had to pull her off the other kids a couple of times, and put her in time out while she was kicking and flailing. I think my eyes popped out of my head when the teacher told me this.

I had taken Ava to a counseling appointment and we had talked about having a reward system for not fighting physically so much with Coen and losing tempers. Ava came up with an idea of a pom pom jar to earn a family movie night. So I went to Target and bought mini pom poms, and each time the kids had good behavior and didn't beat each other up when arguing, they got to put a pom pom in our jar. We started using it for a reward system for Audrey at school- if she tried really hard to be a good girl, she could put a pom pom in the jar. If she got a bad report at school, no pom pom. She didn't seem to be embarrassed or sad when her teacher would report they had issues that day. No pom pom. 

Luckily, after about 3 -4 weeks, Audrey started having more good days than bad, and now at the end of February, has been on a roll for having good behavior every day for a couple weeks. 

Coen working on his diamond art:

Activity days- I hosted a mini movie night/ goal setting night at my house. 

My new desk - the height is adjustable and I can stand if I want. I love this desk- so nice and crisp and clean!

What Audrey did during a time out- threw toys around the room:

We went to a convert's baptism. A teenage girl and her dad, Amaya and Josh, started attending our ward a year ago and just have jumped right in and have been so friendly. We've had them mover to our house a few times, and Brent's been involved in some of the lessons. We were so sad (but happy!) when Josh's baptism was at Christmas time while we were in Utah. Amaya got baptized in January and Josh was able to baptize her. Look at how many people came to support her! Standing room only in the font room:

Amaya has been competing to get to the state championship for swimming. A couple weeks after the baptism Brent asked our kids, "who wants to go see Amaya swim?" 

Coen: We already did.

Brent: No we haven't..... when did we?

Coen: When she got baptized.

Ava really wanted to have a "double play date" with her two close friends from school. The day finally came that I arranged it. As we walked home, the girls were all talking a mile a minute. Coen asked me seriously, "Why are they talking so much?" My only answer was, because that's what girls do!

Audrey goes to Olivia's house either Tuesday or Thursday, switching off depending on the week. Audrey really loves her "Olivia day." Olivia's mom took them to visit friends who had baby goats!

Puzzle time with dad!

Audrey had a special pajama day at preschool and was so excited to wear PJs to school, she could hardly wait! She made this pasta necklace at school too- I just love this age (except for tantrums!)

We decided to switch up where Audrey was sleeping. We tried on the bottom bunk with Ava, but Audrey was scared of the big walls in there, and kept saying there were bears on the wall. Brent tried putting a picture of Jesus on the wall, but she was still waking up scared. We tried putting Coen and Audrey in the queen bed, but that only lasted one night as she was scared and woke us all up. This particular night I was up with her for hours. It was so frustrating and hard to be nice in the middle of the night! And melatonin was not working!

In the morning I told her I wouldn't take her to library time because I was too tired and angry. But.... then I thought, well what else are we going to do on my day off? So I took her. 

I took a video of Audrey's favorite song at library time:

Later she kept giving me so many kisses and hugs- OK Audrey, I forgive you for keeping me up half the night. 

Audrey being a "scary bear." She really got fascinated/freaked out by bears this month. I kept telling her that there are no bears in her bedroom when she's scared at night. I told her they only eat honey, like Winnie the Pooh does. One day she asked me, "do bears eat honey... and kids?"

Audrey had crazy hair day at school- I think we got it pretty crazy!

I like to go shopping at Albertsons for their amazing sales. After I picked up Audrey from preschool I told her we were going to go shopping. She wasn't thrilled about it, so I told her we were going to go get a treat- ice cream sandwiches! She looked at me with a gross face and said "bleh!!" I realize that ice cream sandwich doesn't sound appetizing when you're picturing bread with ice cream. I found this picture that Audrey took that day in the store and it kind of made me giggle.  This is the moment I was seeing that they were out of ice cream sandwiches- nooo! 

Don't worry, I went back the next day and got some, and Audrey discovered she does in fact like this kind of sandwich!

All 3 kids were wearing their school shirts for spirit week!

One day we were driving in the car and out of the blue, this conversation happened:

Coen: Ava, do dead people see black?

Ava: Huh?

Coen: Do dead people see black.

Ava: I have no idea what you're talking about.

Coen is always wondering about death and deep subjects! I told him when people die they probably see beautiful things in heaven. 

Ava's song and dance class came to a close with a showcase on Friday night. We got pizza and then Brent dropped her off at the theater while we went back to his office at school to wait for an hour before the performance. 

A video of Coen hanging out in the office:

Ava's group performed two numbers: Good Morning from Singing in the Rain, and Circle of Life. Ava's the one in pink:

Ava says she's Haystack Rock and the kids are waves, at the first part of the video above. 
Brent and I had a good laugh when Ava came home from practice the day they were starting to learn the Circle of Life. She said, "I can't remember what it's called, but it's when you take someone's culture as your own, and that's not good to do. So my teacher said instead of being set in Africa, we're going to be animals from Oregon and Oregon sites."  We so live in Eugene. 

Ava loved performing!

Happy girl:

Tammy came to watch her. Tammy is our substitute grandma!

Audrey did not want to be in our family picture.

Saturday basketball game, Coen making a good bounce pass:

After the basketball game we went to Dairy Queen:

Tammy is Audrey's teacher- here she is going to class! There are 3 other boys Audrey's age in her class.

One day Ava decided she'd give Coen a piano lesson. He really liked it!

Coen in basketball practice- I love taking him and watching him! I feel like it's a whole hour where I can focus on him and watch him - how he interacts with the other kids, how excited he gets about shooting, etc. He is the type of kid that the other kids love and want him to be their partner.

Also, random- Coen dribbles with his left hand. 

I do bring Audrey usually to practice too, with our church bag of activities. This day she got into the music that was playing:

And that concludes January! Busy with lots of activities for the kids, and lots of fun!