July was so busy and full! We started out the month in St. George, and then went back to SLC where Brent left to Singapore a few days later. Brent got back from Singapore and a day later we drove to his family's reunion in Yellowstone. This blog will cover the second half of our St. George trip, and all of the SLC stuff in between the other big trips!
Kai is such a water baby and thoroughly enjoyed being in the pool every day in St. George, just like the rest of our kids.
We went to the movie theater to see How To Train Your Dragon then to Cafe Rio with my parents, Andrew's family and my Grandma & Grandpa Hansen. The movie was good, and Kai slept through the whole thing, so I'd call it a success.
We got this Headbands game at the DI and the kids had lots of fun playing it. After my mom took a picture of the kids, they asked to see the picture, and then all magically guessed their character on their head.
That evening Coen, Audrey, me and Brent went to see The Little Mermaid at Tuachan. My parents and Ava babysat Kai back at the condo. They had been to the Wizard of Oz a few days before. The shows are always amazing here! The Finches were in St. George and happened to be sitting in the row right behind us!
It was so fun to have two babies to pass around! Chloe was in a funny phase where she was scared of some people- look at this frown!
To celebrate his half birthday, we gave him rice cereal! His first time to try anything other than milk and the lick of pineapple Brent gave him that one time.
Kai was not super impressed with the rice cereal. He ate a few bites and then seemed done. I decided we need to add some baby food next time since rice cereal is very bland.
Andrew's family came over to watch the entertainment:
Brent and I went on a date to Outback! Our little third wheel is getting harder and harder to bring places with us, as you can see he's grabbing Brent's plate in this picture:
Kai learned how to sit up! It was so weird for me to look over and see him sitting up.
Ava taught herself how to dive a couple years ago and did it over and over:
The 4th of July is my Grandpa's birthday! I have such fun memories of being with him and our whole extended family each year on his birthday. I'm glad they came to St. George with us so we could be with him to celebrate. My Grandpa is the most patient, kind, funny, creative person.
It's been so fun to have new babies together with Laura. We share ideas, commiserate the lack of sleep, and hang out nursing together while everyone else is in the pool.
Jordan bought sparklers and the kids all enjoyed them! Audrey and I watched the fireworks across St. George from the 2107 condo balcony where Laura and Jordan were staying. The next day we all drove back to SLC.
Finally, the baby of the hour!
These two little cousins are also 3 months apart and going to be best little buddies! Bob and Tammy doubled the number of their grandsons this year and are now up to 9 granddaughters and 4 grandsons.
The kids love doing puzzles with Grandpa:
Monday morning I went into my office to work all day. It was fun to see my coworkers and meet all the new people (and also get some treats). I told Brent, I wish we lived near my office and I could work there once a week! Working from home can get lonely and boring, but overall I love it and am so grateful that I can do that. But for today I enjoyed all the chatting and friendships in the office.
Natalie told me about Princess Camp, so I signed Audrey up to go with Olivia. Each day had a different princess theme, complete with a tea party, crafts and games. The first day was Jasmine day.
Natalie, Boston, Marcie, Mitch, Flint, Ava and I went to the Harry Potter exhibition in Sandy. When I saw it was coming to Utah, I knew Natalie and I had to take our girls together! They LOVED it. Boston and Ava kept doing the same pose throughout. Ava will help narrate this part of the blog.
They recreated Umbridge's office and they added her little painted plates of cats. In the wizarding world since the pictures move, they put tvs in the pictures so the cats would move around and meow.
Platform 9 3/4.
Kai really loved this exersaucer and it was so helpful to be able to put him in there.
Belle day at camp!
We got out the water table and Kai loved it so much. He does the cutest little thing with his lips in this video:
I thought this video of the missing shoes for Cinderella was cute:
Patty invited us and Natalie/Tim and Bob/Tammy to do sealings in the temple for family names. Bob goes to the temple every Tuesday - Friday from about 6am to 1pm! He and Patty have been working on lots of family names and Patty had whole families to seal together. It was so cool to have all of us kneeling around the altar, sealing 4 sisters to their parents at once.
Merida day- Audrey wore an Alice in Wonderland costume. She got this bow and arrow:
Brent took the kids to the park. All four kids swinging together! This was Brent's last night with us for a while, as he flew out early the next morning (July 10) to Singapore.
Natalie and her mom took the kids to the Gale Museum one day after Princess Camp. Did I mention Natalie watched the kids for me on Mondays? The grandmas watched them on Wednesdays/Thursdays.
Coen was playing with Moly and hurt his knee. He laid on the ground saying, "Oww!" Molly told him to not move- she would be right back. Dr. Molly came back downstairs holding a purse of mysterious objects. Coen took one look at the purse and said "What the heck are you going to do with that purse?" I started laughing and filming. As you can see in the video, Dr. Molly pulled out a wallet and proceeded to whack Coen's knee to make it all better. Then she whispered to him, "Now get up."
On the last day of Princess Camp, the teacher (who teaches dance in this studio) had all of her teenage students come as the different princesses. Audrey loved it the camp!
7-Eleven day- we got our slurpees. I was only on day 2 of Brent being gone, but already I needed a bit of a break and I bought the kids Little Caesars pizza for lunch after this.
Hanging out in the backyard, the lighting was so beautiful at 7:45pm.
7-Eleven day- we got our slurpees. I was only on day 2 of Brent being gone, but already I needed a bit of a break and I bought the kids Little Caesars pizza for lunch after this.
Kai does not mind sitting right in the grass, unlike some of my other babies who would try not to touch the grass.
This little baby is so much fun!
Bob and Tammy left for Yellowstone, so I was alone in their house with the kids for the next week. Actually Mark and Daniel were there during the work week, but Daniel works late into the evening, and we did see Mark after work in the evenings a little bit. It was a challenging week for me though holding down the fort, missing Brent, and not having my own house and routine. We still did some fun things and got to see my parents and my sisters who each helped me different days.
Here I am at the grocery store- I took Kai in the carrier and he napped while I shopped. I miss having a grocery store with decent prices closer than an hour drive from me.
We went to my parent's house that evening for dinner. Here's Kai holding his new Winnie the Pooh teething toy I bought him at Target.
The kids jumped on the trampoline in the sprinkler. Ava's head in this picture!
While Bob and Tammy were out of town, Coen was in charge of running the irrigation water for the sprinklers. Bob taught him how to do it and Coen got up every morning and did it on his own, setting a timer on alexa and everything!
Sunday was Chloe's baby blessing. I was excited about Kai's overalls- I love little boys in overalls!
Hanging out in the backyard some more. This was a little tricky when so much of our family left to Yellowstone, and I didn't have all of our friends to call for playdates for my kids like I would back home.
On Thursday Laura came down to my parent's house to help my mom babysit while I work. The kids play so well together!
Coen and his grandpas:
I took Coen school shopping and he found some cute clothes. We bought a few pants for Yellowstone too since Coen didn't own any pants.
We went to Yellowstone for a week which will be its own blog post. Now we'll skip ahead to the end of the month :)
After Chloe's blessing (which made me tear up!) we went to Jordan's parent's apartment building for a luncheon. This is the same apartment building where a couple members of the First Presidency live. We were on the lookout but didn't see anyone ;)
Ava was my helper since I had no Brent there.
Ava took this video of Kai trying carrots. As the video progresses, he starts shuddering. I was getting worried- is he not going to like food?! Luckily after a couple more weeks of eating, Kai decided he liked, no- LOVED, all food.
Ava was brave and went to Tammy's ward's girls camp. They only have about 7 young women in their ward so they were excited to have Ava come along. The camp was in Huntsville and they slept in tents, went floating in the Weber River, went snipe hunting, and had the full Utah girls camp experience. Ava had a fun time and said she wants to go again! I was nervous to let Ava go, but didn't tell her that. I asked my mom how in the world she let me fly across the world to Thailand when I was a teenager? I was having a hard time letting Ava go just an hour away. Luckily she had a great time and it was helpful for me to only have 3 kids at home for those days.
I took the kids to the library to pass some time and we had lots of fun in their kids section.
Kai thinks Audrey is SO funny. He laughs harder at her than anyone else.
Kai giggling because I want to save these moments for ever and ever.
Cher came down to visit one day which I appreciated so much, because the kids were starting to fight and I was getting tired and bored! The days felt so long.
While in the shed in the Cowley's backyard, I saw these rules the kids have put up. Ava, Boston, McKenna, and Coen play in here and it's their clubhouse. The papers say the following (in Ava's handwriting):
Little Kid rules * 8 or up
1. At most 3 chances when we allow it. 2 No touching things unless we say they can 3. Only one little kid at a time.
To enter:
- knock three times
- state your name
- state the name of our group.
Ava got home from camp on Wednesday and then on Thursday morning drove with Daniel and Tim to Yellowstone. Since I only rented a 5 seater car (so much cheaper) for when we go to Yellowstone, we needed one of our kids to get a ride with someone! Ava got there and got to have sleepovers with Boston and I got lots of happy pictures like this one:
Coen got to go to lunch at Tucanos with my parents and grandparents. This boy loves steak so much.
Emily and I met at her sister's pool to swim. It was such a nice pool, and so fun to spend time together!
If you would have told us a few years ago that we'd both have baby boys, we both would have NOT believed you. We have had some very special experiences together involving these little boys. It has been a huge testimony builder of how much Heavenly Father cares and knows me and sends people into my life as an answer to my prayers. It has been such a joy and a blessing to go through mommy-hood together once again with our babies.
After 9 days and 8 nights, and over 24 hours of Brent flying home from Singapore, it was finally time to pick up Brent from the airport on Friday night. We have been apart many times before and I always get so excited to see him. This time felt even more exciting and special- I could hardly contain my excitement driving to the airport that night with a sleeping Kai in my back seat. I picked him up around 10pm and Brent was hungry, so we looked for any food that was open and found Apollo Burger. We went through the drive through and came home and had a feast while Brent told me all about his travels. I love being married to Brent and it always feels like everything is right in the world again when we're back together.
Another happy picture of Ava in Yellowstone. Ava says this is the night they had a Hamilton sleepover. She thought it was crazy her cousins had never seen it so had to show them. They squished the two twin beds together and Ava says by morning, the crack between the two beds was so big that she was falling down.
My parents took Audrey to McDonalds for her birthday lunch. She was thrilled of course! Look how long her hair is!
I went into my office on Monday morning and Brent picked me up that evening for the Brough reunion. Kai really wanted Ava to share her ice cream with him. He was going crazy, trying to get it and Kari asked me, is he a really busy baby? I said, "well he is, starting now!" And that's how it's felt- he is now into everything, starting at that moment!
Family time at the reunion
My cousin Garrett is a competitive rubik's cube guy- like he goes to tournaments all over. So I asked him to teach Coen the basics because I couldn't figure it out from the Youtube videos.
Audrey lost her tooth! This picture cracks me up. She's sleeping with her eye mask that Brent brought her home from Singapore, and the paper next to her is a note for the tooth fairy. It says, "Dear tooth fairy Don't take the ziplock."
Natalie and Boston put on a Harry Potter party for Harry's birthday, which is one of Ava's favorite things they do.
So much fun with cousins! What a full month!
Nana and her posterity! We're missing maybe half the cousins.
Laura gave her tickets to the Hale Center in Orem to my parents, and Coen and I got to go along. Coen had requested to go to a play since Ava got to go to one the previous month. It was fun to have some time with just Coen- my middle child :) The play was really funny and I laughed a lot.
Coen had sports camp that last week of July. In all of the busyness of everything I forgot to send him on the first day! Coen was so nervous to go, that as Brent was driving him on his first day, Coen thought he was going to throw up. Brent stayed and watched him for a while until Coen settled down.
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