Senior Night

 On February 18th Daniel had his last home game against San Diego. It was a big game because BYU could clinch the regular season WCC title. Also, San Diego was the only WCC team to beat BYU this season. Plus, it was senior night for Kylie and Lexi. Kylie Maeda is one of my all-time favorites of the girls Daniel has coached and I was sad to see her last game.

 It turned out to be a great game that BYU controlled. I was so happy for Lexi and Kylie that they could clinch the regular season at their last game played at the Marriott Center. Gonzaga had not lost the regular season title in 11 years. BYU had never won it in the WCC. 

 The after-game celebrations took a while, with recognizing the seniors, receiving the WCC trophy, and cutting down the nets. I got a terrible photo of Daniel just after he cut the net. I know there are better ones other people took but I am too lazy to find them.

 We took a few pics with Kylie since she is a Nielson family favorite. Her family all flew in from Hawaii and it was great to see them. We are so glad Kylie ended up at BYU despite having never heard of it when being recruited and hating it when she first arrived. 

PS- Kylie, Amanda and I planned matching outfits after a game earlier in February. I like to pretend I am young and cool. I calculated that I only have 10 more years before I could easily be the players'  mom. For now I will pretend I am the same age.

This Month's Miscellaneous

February was busy this year. As I mentioned, I helped with the school reading contest. I helped with a few other things in Sadie's classroom. I was sick with the cold that just would not die, which turned into a sinus infection. All of my kids had a couple of colds. Daniel's team did awesome. We had tons of birthday parties to attend. We hosted a few get-togethers. Here are things I took pictures of.

A trip to Lowe's Airsports. It is always empty on weekday mornings. I met up with Kaylie and Amanda McCoy

Lou let me do a fishtail braid in her hair. Very cute.

Daniel wanted pictures of what the girls were up to. Millie was making the mess pictured in the middle while Elise read scriptures. The middle picture is probably an accurate portrait of what the house looks like when Daniel leaves for longer than a couple days. I get lazy and tired.

The best face painter ever at a neighborhood birthday party. That stuff did not budge all day.

 Attempts to make an angry Millie happier

Elise's second cavity. Again, she got a cavity in a front molar, which is uncommon. She is the world's best dental patient. Just sits quietly and watches tv while they work on her. She hates waiting for the novacaine to wear off the rest of the day.

This is Millie's favorite pose. We take pictures like this often.

Another party, this one back at Lowe's Airsports. Sadie did the super high trapeze several times.

The girls spent several days working on this play house they got from Coco for Christmas. 

Camille's favorite pastime: running back and forth on the island and/or kitchen table until I try to take a picture of her. That usually makes her whine to get down.

A whiny trip to Walmart 

Dinner at the Sullivan's house. Camille was being really funny but these pictures don't really show it. Oops.

Ramen noodle night. 

Snuggles under the new blanket I won at neighborhood Bunco this month.

Sadie's sideways picture about what she would do if she were president. She would make everyone fall in love and eat nachos. She would also make the oldest kid in each family make dinner. I am wondering if she maybe got that idea from a classmate who isn't the oldest child. 

My sketch by Caitlin Connolly was framed. I stressed about choosing a frame and finding this one was a fluke, but I love it. 

A pretty sunset

And lastly- no one can accuse Daniel of not being passionate about his job. I love how much he prepares and gives his all during his games. Pictures like this are easy to get. Can't wait for the WCC tournament in Vegas!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day really snuck up on me this year. Mainly because I was in the middle of a tough sinus infection. The week before the big day we got a package from Mimi and Paco. It included Valentine's themed stuff and a puppet theater. 

 I volunteered to make sugar cookies for Sadie's class Valentine's party. They turned out huge, which was fine since the kids were decorating them. The more surface area the better. 

 On Valentine's Day itself I felt terrible. I stayed home from church and laid around. Sadie seemed to be coming down with a cold as well so I made her stay home too. She made some adorable Valentines for our family. 

We had our family Valentine's dinner on Monday since I was feeling a bit better, but I still didn't cook. We had Papa John's pizza. Sadie worked very hard on decorating the table. 

School Reading Contest

I volunteered to help with Sadie's school reading contest. My neighbor/friend was in charge and I was happy to help her. Somehow I ended up taking on a lot of stuff, but I enjoyed it. It was nice to have something else going on, even if I was really busy some days. The contest went for a month and it kicked off with an opening assembly. I found this acrobat/aerialist and magician to perform. 

It would have been cooler if the aerialist could have performed for longer. The magician was fine, but the aerialist was awesome. His final move was climbing to the very top and then twisting and flipping almost all the way to the floor before the silks caught him.

 The magician did some cool tricks, but it was better for the younger grades. It all went well and I could breathe a little easier that it was over. 

Every Friday for the next month I helped give out prizes to the weekly winners. The kid from each class who read the most got a prize. Then the entire class from each grade that read the most got a reward. One week I got a local bakery to donate donuts, so running around trying to coordinate 21 dozen donuts (while Daniel was out of town of course) was an adventure. But again, it was kind of fun to have something else going on, even if it added some stress.

At the closing assembly Sadie was announced as the overall winner of the contest for her class. Here she is with the winners from the other first grade classes. 

The second place winners from each grade got to decorate Principal Knadler with an assortment of food. The entire student body was chanting "in her face" each time a kid approached. Some of them got a bit violent. The snow cone looked painful. Sadie's principal is awesome. It was a very entertaining assembly.

Sadie's reward for winning was a field trip to Chick-fil-a with the other winners. A friend of mine who chaperoned sent me this picture. Sadie was SO excited. She wanted to curl her hair and wear a "special" outfit. She loves to read so it was a great contest for her. 

She is already talking about next year.