12 Months

 Camille is 1 year old! That is crazy. She is mostly the best baby ever and I am nervous for her to grow up and not be so perfect anymore.
This month has been big for Mills. She is cruising around like she owns the joint and pooping with no regard for clothing, bedding or people. When I attempted to take 12 month pictures she would not sit still. I tried giving her toys and books to hold but she didn't care much, so she crawled around her room while I took pictures. Once she realized my phone was out she climbed on me to take it.

 On Millie's birthday I tried to think of things she would like. I came up with... a bath. Her big sisters were so excited about her birthday that they wouldn't leave her side, so it was a Nielson girl bath.

 For dinner we had Cafe Rio and Camille enjoyed her quesadilla. When it came time for cake Camille was curious about what to do. She kept a straight face for the candle and the singing. Then she slowly tasted a bit of the frosting and...gagged. I cut a few small chunks of cake, which she ate, but the cake went mostly untouched.

A few tricks at 1 year:

-signs all done

-waves hi/bye

-gives kisses
-shakes her head no
-gives high fives (sometimes)

-pulls herself to standing on everything- and is very proud of it

-walks along things
-smacks her lips to both signal she wants your food and to blow kisses
-makes a beeline for any book she sees so she can rip out pages
-puts everything in her mouth and gives me a guilty close-mouthed smile when I catch her

-crawls up stairs but not down
-poops up her back at least once a day. That comes from the Nielson side, I can assure you.
-pulls my hair (very much deliberately- picture shows her after pulling my hair and laughing)

-stands alone for 30 seconds
-loves baths
-loves phones
-rapidly tears out baby wipes if you leave the container open


Official 12 month photo

Let's Talk About Warts

If you don't want to read a lot of details about foot warts, don't read this post.

Last December we noticed Sadie had a wart on the bottom of her foot. She said it didn't hurt too much. In January we had it frozen, along with a tiny one near it. Well, it continued to grow and got nastier. In March we had it frozen again. The second time we got it frozen Sadie knew what it was going to feel like. It took 3 nurses and me holding her down so the doctor could spray the warts. 

Again, the big one just got bigger and nastier. Since it was right by her toes it started getting more painful. The crease where her toe and foot meet was also getting increasingly irritated. 

Sadie was very upset about it and I wasn't sure what else to try. I took the picture above to send to my friend Mel, a pediatric nurse practitioner. She suggested trying duct tape and after each tape change, filing down as much dead tissue as possible. Under Sadie's protests (aka freak outs) we tried duct tape and filing. That only lasted a few days before I was tired of fighting her on it. 

 The other night before bed Sadie said her wart felt weird. The girls had been running around outside barefoot that evening (hence the dirty foot) so I figured she stepped on something. When I looked closely, the wart was almost completely torn off. I gave it a little tug (while Sadie protested) and it came clean off. There was a deep divot in her foot where it used to be, but it was all normal skin beneath. 

And that is the story of Sadie's massive wart. 

All Kinds of Weather

We had some crazy weather last week. A massive windstorm came in. Strong enough that it almost blew our grill all the way off the deck. I looked out when it was at the top of the stairs. After retrieving our garbage cans from all over the neighborhood a few times I finally brought everything I could manage into our garage and hoped for the best. The wind was very loud and the girls were scared. Sadie was convinced a tornado was coming. Parts of our already-weak play house were blown apart and we got lots of stray trash, but everything was fine. The next day we got a couple inches of snow that melted by the end of the day. 

Top of The Morning To Ya

Camille loves to snuggle with us when she gets up in the morning and we are not quite ready to rise. Usually within 15 minutes Elise has joined us also. After a few minutes of that crowd Daniel and I are ready to get up. 

Spring Break

We tried to have some fun during Sadie's Spring Break. I am nervous for summer because by the end of the week the girls were fighting nonstop and I had no patience. Sleep-away summer camps are brilliant. Do they do those for 5-year-olds? 

Anyway, on to some of our activities. 

Not pictured: I took the older girls to the new Cinderella movie. We all enjoyed it.

One afternoon we went to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point with the Sullivans before it officially started. It was a little windy so there was hardly anyone there. It's rare to find something kid-friendly during spring break that isn't packed.

 Whenever we go to the Thanksgiving Point gardens one of the biggest attractions is feeding the fish. 

 We miss living by the Sullivans. Our kids are such good friends. I am confident with time that Andrew and Camille will be just as close as the older sets of kids.

 The kids enjoyed a roll down the huge hill and then we went back to our house for dinner.

 

Hair cuts. Both girls needed at least a trim and I was tired of the hair brushing tantrums so I had them chop Lou's hair. Elise had been throwing huge fits about hair brushing. Like, she would hit, scratch, and bite me when it came to brushing her hair. If you go back up to the first picture in this post her hair was getting really long and it looked beautiful when it was actually brushed and done. I was a little hesitant to cut it all off, but I am so glad I did. It looks adorable! And the best part? Minimal crying about hair brushing. 

The main thing she cared about was the lollipop and balloon.

 Two happy girls with healthy hair, even if Sadie was a little jealous of all the attention Lou got.

Pajama pizza party movie night! We invited a few of the girls' friends over. Sadie really wanted everyone to wear their pj's, which was a lot more adorable than I anticipated. They all giggled while they ate their pizza. Sadie picked The Tinkerbell Fairy for the movie, which only 2 of them ended up watching. The rest of them played in the basement, which was fine. 

A park trip. 

The best part of the break? Daniel was home! 

Easter

Daniel went out of town at the last minute for Easter weekend so we didn't do much. 

 I mentioned we continued the tradition of the Faucette-Nielson Easter egg hunt. It was a smashing success, due to Kaylie's plastic egg preparedness. We didn't have a ton of candy so we put stickers and pennies in some of the eggs. It doesn't really matter much to the kids anyway. The most fun part to them is finding the eggs.

 On Easter morning the girls got some great stuff. I had bought some dress-ups that I planned for birthdays, but since Daniel was gone I didn't have the chance to get different Easter basket fillers. The girls got up early and checked out their loot before waking me up. The tag on the Tiana dress said "Petal Princess" so Sadie kept insisting to Elise that it was absolutely not Tiana's dress. 

 The girls both took to the Cinderella cleaning costume. They both actually cleaned for a long time when they were wearing it. Elise got very mad at me that I wouldn't fill a bowl full of sudsy water so she could clean the floor and have bubbles float in the air while she sang.

I also gave Sadie her first journal. Journal-writing was one of my favorite things growing up. I have, I think, 15 journals filled with my thoughts starting at age 8 until now. Sadie has recorded some great thoughts and has even written some questions to her journal, like "what do you like to do?". I look forward to seeing what else she writes., 

We baked and decorated some Easter-themed sugar cookies that afternoon. Sadie's cookies were actually decently decorated. Elise's were topped with as much decoration as possible. 

Daniel arrived home that afternoon and the girls made him eat the cookies they had made just for him. He loved every single, frosting-covered bite.

Old Pals

A few of my long-time friends were in town recently with their kids. 

I got together multiple times with Julia and Jennifer when they came out to see their parents off as he leaves BYU-Idaho and starts in a new important phase. It just wasn't enough time with them.

Edie and Camille enjoyed sizing each other up the first morning we hung out. 

Another morning we got together at the twins' older sister's house and the kids had a lot of fun. That is, until Elise declared her tummy hurt and she wanted to take a nap. She doesn't do that very often so I fully believed her. We went home.....and she was totally fine. I am still mad at her because I needed more time with the Clark twins. 

 During the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference Jen's kids, Felix and Edie, came and hung out with us.

 We were already planning on our annual Easter egg hunt with the Faucettes so Kaylie brought some extra supplies and Felix joined in the fun. 

Edie and Mills stayed inside

 We also got to hang with the Cottles, who, unfortunately, came out for Nick's grandma's funeral. 

Camille set to work yanking out Wembley's hair and the girls really bonded over drinking their bottles in sync. 

 We didn't see much of the older girls, except when they came to show off their baby sisters and compare notes on what it was like being the biggest sister.