Coen and I got home from Utah and we were all so happy to be reunited again!
Brent and I went to a panel discussion about his colleague's new book titled "Latter-day Saint Art." We knew everyone on the panel, and it was a very interesting discussion and very academic.
Conference weekend! The apostles were larger than life on our massive TV :)
Sunday morning- Brent made conference cake and we shared with some neighbors.
I took the kids to a movie night at the library, Inside Out 2. While Audrey was sitting on my lap the baby just kept kicking her like "hey you're in my space!"
I took my turn to sort at our fruit/veggie co-op, and Ava came with me and thought it was tons of fun. She was super happy when she even got paid $10 for her help!
Lots of playing with neighbors while we were off school. Here the girls made a princess bakery.
The kids get invited to the stage to learn some actions for a song.
Audrey on the stage at the end of the evening.
After the water park we did our shopping at Costco and Walmart, since they're both in Kapolei, the town where the water park is. Also, bonus! There's a Chick Fil-A there! So we had that for dinner.
Brent went with his film buddies downtown on Saturday afternoon to watch a special screening of "Blade Runner 2049" with cinematographer Roger Deacon, who has shot most of the Coen Brother's movies. Brent got to ask a question, and had a great experience.
The week after conference it was the kids' fall break (all 5 days). Brent and I still had to work, so that was a bit tricky. Our neighbor from last year, Velzy, came to play with Audrey.
One of Brent's past students works at the PCC in the marketing/filming department and asked if our family could be filmed for a promotion they were recording. The day before he told us to wear our Aloha wear (the typical floral clothes the tourists wear.) We quickly discovered that we are not tourists here, and Brent is the only one with a Hawaiian shirt, haha. We did the best we could from our wardrobe.
They filmed our family walking around the PCC a bit, but then most of the focus was on filming us experience the Luau. It was our kids' first time to go to the Luau, and they were all on their best behavior since they were being recorded!
On Friday Brent and I took time off work so that the kids could enjoy their last day of Fall break. We went to the water park where we have an annual pass. It was mine and Coen's first time since Brent had taken the girls when we were in Utah. Audrey told me that I couldn't do all of the slides because of the baby in my tummy, and she was right. I spent the day in the wave pool.
We went to our neighbor's one year old's first birthday party. Our kids all play constantly together, so Audrey gets to see Baby Elise a lot. She made her this birthday card that says "Dear Elise, you are the best baby in the whole world!"
The birthday party (lots of neighbors are not pictured).
Brent and I were invited to our friend's birthday party, which was a murder mystery dinner. He was assigned the part of a baker-turned-soccer player, and I was a gypsy. We had a lot of fun and laughed our heads off at one of our neighbors who stayed in character as a Frenchman the whole time.
Bump shot- 27 weeks. Every time I'm pregnant, I love to watch my belly grow and take profile shots. It is just SO amazing to me, and so cool to be part of a miracle.
Swimming lessons! We still had a couple lessons I had paid for from before summer break. Coen asked Audrey as we were driving there if she would want to jump off the waterfall. She said no way, she was too scared! But during her lesson when her swim teacher asked if she wanted to try, she said ok. You'll notice in the video that Audrey marches up there and doesn't hesitate. She just jumps right away, even though she was so scared. I hope she always keeps her bravery!
My feet and ankles started swelling at 6 months. In my other pregnancies they swelled the last couple weeks, but I think the heat and humidity made them swell much earlier here.
We spent probably 15 minutes here, and the kids each picked out a little pumpkin, and then we headed to the beach to cool off.
The kids chose Kahana Bay for our beach day. Since Brent was working on campus, I was happy with this choice since the waves are calm here. Plus it's so beautiful.
Our friends the Moncurs came over that night. We had yummy grilled hamburgers and Katia brought cookie dough and let the kids help form the cookies.
Ava loved playing with their baby, which gave me a glimpse into what our life will be like in a few months!
I had to do my one hour glucose test. I found out a couple days later that I failed it! Nooo! That means that in one week I would need to go back and do the 3 hour test.
I said to Audrey, "We're going to paint our pumpkins while listening to Halloween music tonight. It's going to be a Halloween family night!" She replied a little confused, "And Jesus?" Oh yeah, and we'll talk about Jesus because that's the point of family night.
We have Elsa, a dragon (preferably from Lord of the Rings), and Wednesday.
You can't quite see it in the picture, but Coen has a cute little dragon tail too.
A cute drawing from Audrey's preschool! I'm in the center and have big earrings.
I voted, from the comfort of my couch! Ava watched me as I looked up the different candidates for all the different positions. I ended up voting for a mix of democrats and republicans, based on what I thought about each one. I honestly hate politics, but I did my civic duty!
Baby bump- 28.5 weeks.
Monday was my 3 hour glucose test. I had to be fasting, and the drink is double the sugar than the one used in the 1 hour glucose test. Luckily we live so close to the office that they let me go home in between blood draws. After the first hour I felt pretty nauseous and had a hard time working, so I rested for the last two hours. I chose the coolest room in the house- Coen's room!
Audrey's preschool had spirit week for Halloween, and one day it was face paint day. We don't have any face paint, but Ava suggested I just use a marker. So at Audrey's request, I made her a yellow kitty.
The elementary school also had spirit week, and Coen wanted his hair like this for crazy hair day.
Ava and I got haircuts together!
We attended Brent's department's Halloween party. It was a chili cook-off, and I brought our yummy chile verde soup.
After Brent's department party we rushed over to the church for our ward party. Here's Coen marching in the parade.
Halloween at Audrey's preschool- they had jumpers and made it a party day with tons of fun!
I rushed over to the elementary school and watched the school parade. I got there a few minutes too late to see third grade, but I did see Ava parade around the field, and then found Coen after. Here's Ava and her good friend Bridget.
Halloween night- we were so glad the rain held off because it had been so rainy the past couple weeks! Here's Audrey and her bestie Claire, who lives a couple doors down from us.
We dressed my tummy up as Mike from Monsters Inc.
Cute kids!
Lots of our neighbors set up fun things for trick or treaters, like our next-door neighbors who were pirates and created a plank to walk.
It started to get really busy on our street around 6:00 pm Everyone sets up tents and tables in their driveways to pass out the candy, so no trick or treaters go up to the doors. Everyone is outside partying together.
Me and my friend (who is the photographer):
and Brent and the kids:
Brent taught a class at the public speaking club, with an Inside Out theme. He talked about different personality types, and how that influences your public speaking. They each took a test to determine what type of personality they are. Coen was excited to join with dad since it was after bed time! Brent's in the very back, fourth from left, and Coen is probably easy to spot in the front with his blond hair!
I took the kids to a little pumpkin patch that my fruit/veggie co-op put on. It was the hottest pumpkin patch we have ever been to, and flies were annoying the kids, so it was also the shortest time we've spent at a pumpkin patch!
The kids chose Kahana Bay for our beach day. Since Brent was working on campus, I was happy with this choice since the waves are calm here. Plus it's so beautiful.
We were asked to speak in church (I was semi terrified, and semi relieved to get it over with!). The last couple years I've been having a lot of anxiety about speaking in church. Brent volunteered our kids to sing their song they've sang in other ward, so we went to the church on Saturday to practice with the mic, and I also practiced my talk at the mic which calmed my nerves a lot. We ended up not having Audrey sing with the kids because she didn't know the song, and she was a little too giggly and distracting.
On Sunday our talks went well- we were assigned to talk on tithing. After church we went to the visitor center.
Just a normal scene in front of our house- lots of kids playing together.
The last of our swim lessons. Here are a few videos for me to remember where the kids were at. The teacher teaches them to roll to their back to breathe when they're first learning to swim. Also, in case they're ever in trouble in the water, "roll to your back and relax!"
A little dive from Audrey, and encouragement from Coen. Coen's turn- learning the back stroke. He's very methodical about it.
The start of the Halloween parties. Our friends invited us to their ward's trunk or treat.
The kids were excited to join a Trunk or Treat! It was pretty small and short, but just perfect.
Audrey had a cold this week, and always gets a fever with her colds in the night time. By evening she was feeling good so I let her go since it was outside.
Audrey kept getting fevers in the night, and then would be totally fine during the day. But that meant she couldn't go to preschool! One day I could have sworn her fevers were gone, so I bathed her and did her hair and took her to preschool. The teachers always take the kids' temperature when they first arrive, and when we got there, Audrey showed a low fever! So I brought Audrey back home and she colored by me while I worked.
We also borrowed our neighbor's thermometer for a week so that didn't happen again! Our old thermometer had rusted over, and Amazon was so slow at delivering packages around this time, so we had to wait a couple weeks to get it.
I signed the kids up for piano lessons with our good friend, Katia (who came to dinner a few days earlier). She was in our ward last year and now lives in TVA (the married housing on campus). The kids love her, so they have a good time at piano lessons! It was a big debate if we should sign them up because the kids fight me about practicing and Ava especially can get so frustrated and yell/pound the piano etc when practicing. But.... I'm determined that my kids will play the hymns!
Fall carnival at the elementary school. We got the kids passes to these bounce houses, and also bought some food and treats with our tickets. Everything feels so expensive here! It is kind of weird to spend more money than we've been used to.
A walk on the beach by our house makes a nice mini date:
We had Coen and Ava each invite a few friends over for a Halloween movie night. The kids played games, and then watched Casper with popcorn.
Audrey was going crazy in our neighbor's slide/pool. She was cracking me up.
Ava has given me a few feet massages to help with my swollen and sore feet.
Addams family & Wayne's World:
Wednesday & her family, along with Enid (Audrey) from the Wednesday tv show.
We got to school a bit late, so I saw Audrey's class do the pledge of allegiance for the first time. I love Audrey's shy smile looking back at me to see if I'm watching.
Pretty soon it was wall to wall of people. My neighbors and I (who we share a driveway with) took turns sitting at a table in our driveway.
Our friend who is a photographer set up a photo booth in her garage. This was also a hit on Moana street. Here we have Ava and her friends:
And that's a wrap on Halloween! It was so fun to be in the thick of the party. Our town only has about 5,000 people in it, and thousands more additional people come to Moana street to trick or treat. The BYUH parking lot was completely full from the people that come from all over the island. It was a party!
