January 2017 - Disney World!

We decided to take advantage of the cheap airfare from Dallas to Orlando while we're still here (we found $100 round trip on Southwest!) and go to Disney World. Ava is so crazy about anything Disney and knows all the princesses and songs and movies. I thought Coen would just be along for the ride, but I was surprised by how much he loved it all too! My parents were so generous to give us the tickets for Christmas. We went January 25 - February 1.

We got to stay with one of my best friends, Wasana and her husband AJ, for the first four days of the week, so that was really fun to see them.

The hardest part of this post is sorting through the hundreds of photos and videos! I got it down to below 100, so be warned, it's a long post!

Who needs a double stroller? Not us! Ava walked a good chunk of the time, and if she was in the stroller, we were carrying Coen, which meant we were all tired! My phone says we walked between 8-9 miles each day.

 Day one: Animal Kingdom
We walked in and first thing, Brent ran into a former manager!

 Safari

 That is a gorilla behind us by the waterfall.

First characters we met.The kids were both nervous.

Everest, Brent's favorite ride. I thought it was pretty fun too! Although, I just scream on rides so all of my pictures look like this:

Selfie after the scary part:

Coen waving to Donald Duck and Goofy. He loved them! He thinks all animals growl like a bear, so when we asked him what Donald Duck says, or anyone else, he would growl. It got to the point anytime he saw Mickey Mouse, or any character, he would growl. There was a lot of growling that went on during this trip :)

 I loved the Finding Nemo show so much! The kids did too :)

 One of the times we put both kids in the stroller.

 We hopped over to Epcot that night.

Day two: Magic Kingdom, with Wasana

Watching a show with Anna and Elsa in front of the castle:

 Me, screaming and alone, on Splash Mountain. We went at a great time of year so we didn't have very long lines anywhere. We waited about 10-15 minutes max for rides, and some we just walked right on. We got riders swaps for Brent and I, and used lots of fast passes.

 Video of how Coen acted on all the rides- clapping and waving to everything.

Ava's favorite ride of the day.

Ava got scared on a scary dinosaur ride the day before, so when we were getting on the Little Mermaid ride and it was dark, she started to cry. Here she is crying, but trying to be brave. Luckily after this she learned that all the rides are fun. 

The way to meet Belle was so cute. They had a little interactive play and each kid got to participate. Ava was a "salt shaker." She has the biggest smile in this picture: 

 Coen being charmed by Belle:

 Dressed up as Belle at Belle's castle:

 Ava laughing on the tea cups:

Video on the teacups:

 Ava laughing because she could control the magic carpet to go up or down, and it was surprising me which direction we were going.

 Ava feeling much better on the Little Mermaid ride this time:

Toy Story ride:

 It was so fun to be with Wasana. She is so funny.

Day three: Epcot (meeting up with Wasana & AJ some time)

Video of Coen growling for Mickey Mouse:

 It was sooooo cold this day and so we left the pajamas under both the kids. I was still cold with two jackets on, so that was a bummer.

I love Ava's huge smile in this one:

They were not mating, I promise. Haha.

We found out that since we had a Disney Chase card, we got to have a private meeting with the characters:

Video of meeting Mickey and Goofy:

 In Mexico.

Day four: Break from Disney- brunch with Wasana's parents, and then Wasana drove us to our hotel and we went to Downtown Disney together:

 Ava got to squish a penny for a souvenir.

 Enjoying our chocolate sample at Ghiradeli.

 Brent and Ava went to the hot tub at our hotel.

 Day five: Hollywood Studios with a little Epcot in the morning

Video of Ava telling dad all about the Star Wars ride. She was so scared at first, but then after she decided she liked it since she saw Chewey.:

 Coen was such a good boy, waiting in the lines, and at all the shows we went to. We had lots of snacks in my purse and his bottle, which kept him happy.

 Ava loved the Disney Junior show- seeing Princess Sofia, etc.

 We were waiting for the Beauty and the Beast show and Coen was flirting with Japanese women behind us.

The Fantasmic show was our favorite! It was spectacular.

 All Coen wanted to do was sit in this basket in a souvenir shop.

 This is how we went home every evening- all tuckered out.

Day six: Magic Kingdom
 On our last day we went back to the kids' favorite!

Video of the dance party:

Ava held hands with me on the scary rides.

 Watching the parade:

  Ava decided she LOVED Splash Mountain. I was so worried about Brent making her go on it because I thought he was going to scar her, but she thought it was so fun and awesome that she got wet at the end. Luckily lines were short and so she got to go on it quite a few times.

 Ava dressed up as Rapunzel to meet her:

Coen really liked this little splash pad area that was a Dumbo theme.

 Barely staying awake in the line to get on the ferry.

We were also so lucky to not have picked up any sickness while we were there. We were vigilant about washing hands and using sanitizer all day and luckily we stayed healthy!

 Day seven: Downtown Disney to choose our souvenirs, and then home on the plane.
The whole trip, whenever Ava saw any merchandise, we kept telling her that she could choose one thing on the last day. She had her heart set on a baby Anna. When the last day came, she was so excited to finally get her. We chose a baby Dumbo for Coen.

 When we got home, Ava went to her room and got her PJs on, and snuggled up on the couch with her mermaid blanket and new baby Anna. We were SO tired after our trip! But it was so worth it, and so fun to see the kids enjoy everything.

January 2017 - January in Texas- our trip to Urgent Care and more

We got back from Utah and only had about 3 weeks until our Disney World trip. It was really nice to get back into the routine of school and all the fun we always fill in! 

We went to our good friend's house, the Merrells for pizza and games. We played Disney charades and had a lot of fun. 

We had some really warm weather right when we got back (like 70) and it felt so good, especially just coming from Utah. We went on a walk to the park:

Here's a video of Coen dancing with Dad- one of those moments I feel like I'll look back on when our kids are grown and gone, and wish that we could repeat.

After preschool one day we met our friends at the park. It was so warm! 

 We went on a walk around the path and pretended like we were going on an adventure. The kids used their imagination about all the kind of animals we were warding off.

 Ava especially loved "coloring" on the ground with a stick.

I love it when Ava makes Coen laugh. Here's a video:

 Coen enjoyed some chocolate cake:

 This is a new hairdo I did for Ava one day. I called it a "crown" and Ava begs for me to do it every day now.

 On a Saturday morning as I was getting ready to go to a baptism, Brent set Coen on our bed while he ran to get a diaper. I yelled to Brent that he couldn't just leave him on the bed, and Brent yelled back that he was fine and knows how to get down. We were arguing back and forth as I was getting dressed, when Coen crawled to the edge of the bed to get down the right way. He changed his mind and sat back on his bum. Except there wasn't much bed to sit on.

I barely missed catching him as he fell, and he just landed on his bum. When I got back from the baptism though, Brent said Coen hadn't been using his arm and cried if it was touched, otherwise Coen didn't seem in pain. I thought it sounded like nursemaids elbow but we knew something was wrong. We decided to take him to urgent care and luckily the Merrells took Ava for us.

At the urgent care they thought his arm or collarbone might be fractured so we had to do x-rays which hurt Coen and it was so sad.

 The doctor told us that she couldn't see any fractures and so it was probably nursemaids elbow, but they had to have a radiologist read the X-ray to make sure before we go about popping the elbow back into place. Since it was a Saturday, the radiologist might not read the X-ray until the next day, and then we could take Coen in on Monday to have it popped back into place.

We were getting ready to leave when the doctor came back and said they got a hold of the radiologist and it was for sure not fractured. She offered to pop the elbow back into place for us. It was just quick, bending his arm like he was doing a bicep curl, and then all of a sudden he could use his arm again! We were so relieved it was not broken and got taken care of that day!

No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Brent and I matched on Sunday and Ava was so excited to take a picture for us:

 We had the Merrells over for dinner and games. The kids have lots of fun playing together.

 Coen's feeling all better after his elbow incident! Yes, that is a huge bruise on his forehead from another accident of falling.

Since I wasn't able to attend my work Christmas party, my boss told me to go out to dinner here. It was so busy at Christmas time that we finally got to it now. Brent and I went out to Outback and got prime rib!

 I joined an institute class for Moms where a couple of the moms take a turn to babysit everyone else's kids and we rotate. The first week a missionary couple volunteered to watch the kids and 26 women showed up, which meant there were over 40 kids in there! And these were all small kids while the older ones are at school. They were seriously brave and all kids survived. I've never really left Coen in a setting like this, but he didn't cry when I left and was happy to play with toys. They said he just played happily the whole time.

 This silly girl loves to tell me stories when she gets home from school. She makes up all sorts of names and detailed things that happen. Usually it involves her being in "high school."

 When I play along, she gets this hilarious shy smile which I caught on camera:

Here's a video and example of her just talking about her pretend situation she's created:

I took the kids on a walk and picnic to the park. There was a little girl that was so excited to play with Ava. When we were leaving, the little girl was crying and kept yelling at us, "hey, come back! Don't leave meeeeee!"

I took the kids to Old Navy by myself while Brent was working on his thesis at the library. Here's what I text him from there:

I'm not even sure what to say about this video except... I bet you'll watch it more than once.

Ava got this new dress as an early birthday present from my mom and she's so cute in it! Here she is wearing daddy's shoes too!

 One day while Brent was at school all day I was so worn out and the kids were just on one. I had been up a lot with Ava in the night, and the kids were being stinkers and making messes faster than I could clean. I was texting my sisters that this was one of those days when you could really just use a hand.

It's fun to have my sisters to keep things light and funny even when I'm in the middle of it, and not just several weeks later looking back. We were cracking up texting each other "#realmotherhood pictures." Here's a couple I sent:
Mess that seems like it might take 5 minutes to pick up, but with two kids going bonkers, it will really take about an hour:

 Sleepy mom, grumpy child:

 One of my laurels was in the play "Grease" at her high school so we got a babysitter and went to see it. It was a fun time, and some of the girls had amazing voices!

 Chris came into town and we met him in Grapevine where he took us to dinner. It was a brick oven pizza place. Coen was in a bad mood so that was hard, but it was fun to see Chris.