I just wanna celebrate

The longest month of the year is almost over! January is my least favorite month. In January I am the anti-new years resolution. I feel like I am always tired from the holidays, the weather is terrible, and then Daniel is hardly home so we just endure it. The changing of seasons (both literal seasons and basketball seasons) is always much more motivating for me. 

Here is January

Meredith got me a gift card to Stitchfix for Christmas. I loved this outfit but I could only afford one thing so I went with the jeans when I realized the sweater was dry clean only. 

One Saturday we spent half the day playing with Legos in our PJs. Millie settled for the Shopkins since she still puts Lego pieces in her mouth. Elise played with those sets all week until I finally dismantled everything.

Daniel forgot his suit on one of their road trips. He went to a couple stores and no one had his size so he wore sweats. I asked Norma, everyone's favorite Chilean sports marketing employee, to send me picture of him before the game. I laughed every time he was in view of the camera. They won the game so the next game on their trip he wore sweats too. They won again, but Daniel decided to look professional for subsequent games. Too bad.

 Camille....she is still exhausting. She whines. A lot. She is a wrecking machine. She giggles uncontrollably when she does things she isn't supposed to. She already talks back to me. In the lower left picture I had caught her dancing on the sink and licking the mirror multiple times. Now that she can open doors I can't keep her out, so I caught her a third time and she just smiled at me and sat down on the edge of the sink like it was totally fine. 

Sadie lost her first tooth! She has been seriously anxious to reach this milestone, but once her tooth was barely hanging on she was terrified. Daniel finally convinced her to let him pull it. We didn't have any gauze, so a tissue did the job. Elise may have been more excited than Sadie. She asked to see the gaping hole constantly for a few days.

Sadie and I went on a weeknight date to the BYU-Gonzaga game. BYU got a great win and the team gave out autographs afterwards. Sadie sat on Kylie's lap and "helped". We are going to miss Kylie so much when she graduates this year.

Sadie has been working on her handstands nonstop. It is fun to see her love gymnastics and work so hard on it. She practices at least half hour each day.

More basketball games. The Sullivans come to most of the Saturday home games. Millie and Andrew are 2 weeks apart in age. Please note Millie wearing Elise's jacket. One of her favorite things right now is to wear her big sisters' shoes and coats.

Just a pic documenting the 6 Nielson-Faucette kids eating lunch on MLK day. Kaylie is now 6 months pregnant with her 4th boy. We have always been pregnant together, but I have no desire to be pregnant, so our streak of having kids born within 6 months of each other is over. 

Teething beauty. One of the many recent nights she wakes up screaming. But this is the first time since she was tiny that she fell asleep in my arms. I managed to take a picture and get her back in bed without waking her. It was very sweet and I completely forgave her. If this happened every time she woke up in the night I wouldn't mind it. 

 Sadie did a cheer clinic at Pleasant Grove high school. On performance night Millie was enthralled with their warm up performances. I had to tear her away when it was time for the girls to take their places.

 They performed at half-time of the PG-Lone Peak boys basketball game. Sadie is on the front row of the little girls, in the center of the frame with bright pink shoes.

 

Lou and Millie have been playing and fighting a lot. On this day Camille was feeding Elise apple sauce and laughing her head off after each bite. 

One morning while Daniel was gone he wanted pictures of the girls first thing. Sadie and Elise wake up around 6:30 each morning and read, get dressed, etc. while I sleep. Lately I have been sleeping until 8 AM and then I get them breakfast/do hair. Camille wakes up around 8:30. 

I chopped off my hair! It was long overdue. I love it. I wish I could replicate the way she curled my hair. Maybe with practice. But it still looks nice straight and I can curl it a little bit.

Sadie lost her 2nd tooth! She can make cool whistling sounds through the big gap.

Elise went a Star Wars birthday party for her twin friends. She has talked about Dark Vader for the past week.

More basketball. We brought Sadie's friend Bentley. They played on the court, colored all over the white boards in the film room, drank the team's powerade, and got autographed posters.

On the way home from gymnastics we stopped for donuts. I love Elise's friendship with Madi. 

Sadie was playing school and made a take-home reading packet for Daniel. This is exactly how they do it at school. She wrote out a list of books we have. 

Camille loves to see herself on the camera

Sadie celebrated the 100th day of school by dressing up like a 100-year-old. She was mad at me for not getting her a cane, but I think she looked the part just fine. I drew some wrinkles on her face, but then she wanted me to blend them in more so they didn't show up much for the picture.

We got a small snow storm that the girls played outside in for a couple hours. I heard the girls yelling for me, but I ignored them like any good mother would. When Elise started banging on the mud room door I came outside and found Sadie stuck in the sunroof of the car. Since I am such a great mom I ran inside and grabbed my phone to take her picture. She was so wedged in there that it took me several tries to get her out. 

2015

I've been reflecting on 2015 tonight. Nothing major happened and that is just fine by me.

Some highlights of the year:

-going to Las Vegas for the West Coast Conference tournament...and BYU winning the whole thing! The most exciting game was the semi-final against Gonzaga, but it was fun to be on the floor to celebrate the win. The highlight for the girls was, as always, swimming at the hotel. We got to drive with the huge tournament trophy strapped into a seat belt in our car, which made that girls laugh a lot.

-Millie turned 1. That is always a big birthday. The first couple years of life are full of rapid change and growth. Camille certainly became a whole different girl during 2015. She learned to crawl, walk, talk, dance, fight, scream, and hug.

-roadtrip to Austin. The drive is kind of ridiculously far, but Daniel's family has done it so many times that it doesn't phase him too much. Our kids are awesome in the car. We are very lucky. We never have to make extra stops for potty breaks (for them- for me it is a different story if I am drinking soda) and they are happy with some small toys, coloring, and movies. It is wonderful to relax with the Nielson extended fam. They all dote on our kids and treat them like they are the best things to ever exist. We got to do a bunch of fun stuff without completely tiring ourselves out. Everyone is happy to participate in activities for our kids and then we do a few grown-up geared things too. Since Tom's Parkinson's diagnosis, spending time with family has been that much more important. (Not that he is doing terribly. He is pretty much the same old Paco, but it is a life-altering diagnosis for sure)

-running my first 5k and 10k. I now know that so much of the challenge of running is mental. I am currently somewhat out of shape, but running 5 miles does not sound crazy like it used to.

-hitting the 10 year mark of marriage. We didn't really do anything to celebrate. I coached Sadie's soccer game that night. Daniel and I had already gone on 2 trips (with Daniel's team- to San Francisco and Tampa, FL) and we knew we were going to Hawaii so we left it at that.

-the John family reunion. Trips with the entire John family (13 adults and 10.5 children) are quite different from those with the Nielson family (9 adults and 3 children), but they are still wonderful. It made me sad that I don't get to live by siblings. I would just love for my girls to see their cousins on a regular basis or get to harass the Salazars as much as they want. The reunion went about as great as possible. The lodge we rented was perfect for our needs, we had great weather, and no illnesses made their way through the group, That is a miracle by itself. I am already looking forward to the next one. I am also crossing my fingers that the Maxfields end up within reasonable driving distance when Steven is done with residency.

-Elise in preschool and Sadie in 1st grade. So huge for both of them. It has been so beneficial for Lou to be in a classroom setting and she has made great progress in becoming a fluent reader. She can sound out any basic word and is now starting to work on differentiating long and short vowel sounds in words. Sadie is thriving with her teacher and lots of new friends. I felt a little bit sad for her when she didn't have any of her 10 close friends in her class, but it has been so good for her. She comes home every day with a new phone number scrawled on a tiny sheet of paper.  Then she asks me to text her friends parents.

-Tyler and Michelle's wedding. Two trips to Texas in one year is a treat for us. Daniel tried to tell me that only he should attend the wedding- FAT CHANCE. It was beautiful and so important to me that we all be there. Elise totally redeemed herself as a flower girl. Sadie was unstoppable on the dance floor. Millie was her typical menace self.

-Hawaii. It was a highlight for me since I got to relax without my kids and it was a highlight for Daniel since the team did so well. Don't know if it was a highlight for Carolyn, who was, yet again, watching our kids in Utah. We got to spend more time than normal together, although it wasn't near as much as you would expect on a week-long trip to Oahu.

-Christmas with my parents. It was fun for us (and I hope fun for them) to have my parents here. Elise has mentioned several times since how we got to have a grandma and grandpa here for Christmas. Having my parents here while I annoyingly made my kids wait at the top of the stairs just like they used to do and having them watch my kids open their presents felt very "big picture" for me. Cue Circle of Life.

When I reflect on our year, and our lives in general, I am humbled and kind of astounded. How exactly did we get here? We have so much to be grateful for.

Christmas Break

On December 23rd the John extended family started arriving. Matt came to stay at our house from BYU, my parents flew in from Boston, and the Salazars flew from Detroit. The Salazars were trying to balance seeing a ton of different family the whole time so they were in and out a lot, but my girls put them to good use. 

 The cutest bedtime scene.

I had visions of all this fun stuff we'd fit in with my parents, but it ended up being a quiet visit. My girls weren't excited about going out to do stuff and my mom was sick, so we were homebodies much of the time. 

 On Christmas Eve we had a delicious dinner with ham, funeral potatoes, rolls, etc.

Then we watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas and a short video on the birth of Christ. We opted out of reading it from the scriptures because Sadie is the only one who sits still during scripture reading. 

 The girls carefully and excitedly laid out their stockings in the front room...and Santa came! Elise got a fold up castle and dragon costume, Sadie got a gymnastics mat and 2 leotards, and Millie got a baby high chair, crib and stroller set.

 One of my favorite pictures every year is the girls waiting at the top of the stairs. 

We gave the girls a 7:30 present opening time which meant we had to wake up Millie. She was very confused for the first 15 minutes of present opening. She finally got off Daniel's lap and started to get excited about her presents. Sadie and Elise still opened all her presents for her because she didn't care much about opening them. She wanted them after they were open.

I was super excited to give this framed print to my mom. Me and 4 of my siblings went together on it. It is so hard to get presents for parents so I was looking forward to giving my mom something she wouldn't be expecting. I stressed out about picking the frame and matte, but it turned out beautifully. The picture is titled "I got it from her and she got it from her". Basically a comment on generations of women. I love Caitlyn Connolly's work so much. Daniel was smart and bought me one of her sketches for Christmas. It is called "growing up girls" and I relate to it for obvious reasons. I haven't framed it yet. I don't know how I want to do it. Help!

The other thing we woke up to on Christmas was a ton of snow. The biggest snow storm I have seen in Utah in a long time. Daniel spent a couple hours shoveling our whole big driveway. 

 

One of the Christmas highlights was this huge playhouse from Nana and Papa. I have actually been looking to buy one of these for a couple of years. They are the biggest plastic playhouses you can buy. Full price they are around $600, but one of our neighbors happened to be selling theirs in December so I snatched it up. Lou was with me when I went to check it out and I told her we were buying it for her cousin Addy. She completely believed it and told me Addy was going to love it. We will move it outside in the spring because it is way too big for our basement if we want to keep other toys in that room as well. 

Another exciting present for the girls was Build-A-Bear gift cards from Daniel's aunt and uncle. We had never been there so we thought it would be a fun activity to do with my parents. Well, it turns out December 26 is not a great day for visiting Build-A-Bear. The line took almost an hour, but since we had 4 adults it wasn't bad. I waited in line while the girls checked out other stuff in the mall. 

The girls picked out their animal "skins" (worst term ever). Sadie had a hard time choosing but she went with the special edition Elsa bear. Lou picked out 2 characters from How to Train Your Dragon. The girls helped pick out a dog for Millie since she loves real ones so much.

So after we got our skins we waited in line for the stuffing machines. You can see Millie's dog being stuffed above. At this stage you put a fabric heart inside. The employee had Sadie and Elise kiss the hearts to breathe life into them and then stick it on their forehead to make a wish and then put it inside the stuffed animal before it was sewn up. It was very cute. Elise was enthralled with every step. Since Sadie only picked out one animal I let her pick out 2 outfits for her Elsa bear. 

 All in all, even with the long line the girls thought the whole thing was magical and they both still sleep with their new animals. Millie is terrified of the dog. I think the fact that it is fake freaks her out.

That night the men all went to dinner and the Jazz-Clippers game while the women (me, Hillary and my mom) went to dinner and shopping. We ended up talking a lot and hardly getting any shopping in, but it was very fun. 

Sunday was spent at church, taking naps and eating delicious food mostly prepared by my dad.

 Millie insisted on lots of books from any adult who was sitting near her. 

 On Monday the 28th we spent the day visiting my grandparents. First up with a visit to my Grandma John. No trip to see Grandma is complete without a huge meal so we stuffed ourselves with a delicious lunch. I had to keep my eye on Camille the entire team since Grandma's apartment is full of beautiful, breakable items. After that visit we went to my maternal grandfather Bobpa's house in Salt Lake. The girls were excited to play in his basement toy room again. We also visited with my uncle D and his partner George. George and I had somehow managed to avoid meeting each other in recent years so it was good to finally get to talk to him.

That night Hill and Ben stayed with us. We stayed up entirely too late eating and watching Making a Murderer. 

My girls just love those Salazars. And it's easy to see why. They play with them constantly. 

While my parents stayed in SLC for a few days we hung out with the Proffitt family. Margaret brought her 2 youngest kids to my house one morning and then we met up at Lowe's Xtreme Airsports that afternoon, which again, was packed. I guess maybe everything kid-related is packed during Christmas break. It was slightly overwhelming, but fun. The younger kid area wasn't too crowded.

I like that Millie stayed on this tiny slide for much of the visit. Probably perfect for her.

Sadie did the trapeze several times, but I couldn't get her to catch it in the air like she has in the past. 

After that we couldn't bear to part with the Proffitts so we went to Chick-fil-a for dinner and more playing. Lou refused to be in the kid picture. Here are 6 of the 7 kiddos. My kids match up with Margaret's youngest 3 kids. 

Sometimes I hate getting together with good friends who live far away because it makes me sad. It was so fun to talk with Margaret and Clark for a while. We hadn't seen Clark since he fell off a cliff (literally). We decided they should just move to Utah.

Another major adult activity during my parent's visit was this 2,000 piece puzzle of Neuschwanstein Castle, which my parents are going to see in person this summer on a trip to Germany. It was incredibly difficult and we didn't end up finishing it. Another problem with it was we had to keep it in the office with the doors shut during the day so Millie couldn't get to it. We could only bring it out at night, although some of us isolated ourselves in the office during the daytime hours to work on it. It is still sitting in my office 2 weeks later in the exact same state. I keep telling myself I will finish it.

Several days after Christmas we received the Christmas pj's Mimi handmade for the girls, complete with personalized tops. SO adorable. The USPS lost them for a few days so they didn't arrive in time for Christmas, but I made the girls recreate a Christmas morning photo before bed the night we got them. 

On New Years Eve we went to Daniel's game, which they won, and then went to dinner at Ruby River. The kids were very well behaved and the adults barely made it to midnight.
It was a fun Christmas. We haven't had visitors at Christmastime since Sadie and Elise were really young. We didn't do a whole lot, but it was great to visit with family.

Let's go, 2016! I look forward to seeing what happens this year.