Spring Break

We stuck around home for spring break. I think Daniel was out of town for part of it anyway. We didn't do much.

1. Millie begged for 2 toothbrushes

2. The older girls played with oobleck, AKA goobleck at our house, for a long time. It is one of those things I always forget about it and then my girls get distracted by it for hours when we do make it.

3. Sadie and I went to see Zootopia. We liked it, but then Sadie couldn't sleep for the next 3 nights because she was scared. She also woke up with nightmares after she fell asleep. 

 

4. This booger stole my drink. 

5. We sold this table on KSL. It had several holes in it and I found a guy who would make us a new table for a great price so we went for it. 

6. Sadie got a ginormous knot in her hair that I had to cut out. 

7. Sadie came home for spring break with this address written down from her friend Hunter. I told her she needed to get his phone number so we could set up a playdate beforehand. It also turned out this was kinda close to his address, but not correct. 

8. Shopping at Old Navy is never complete without harassing the fake dog

9. A park playdate with the Sullivans. We played for a while and then had dinner at our house.

10. Makeup with their friends Lexi and Madi Hawley. Makeovers are always a hit.

 11. Tea party. We used coupons for free bundt cakes at a new bakery and had a fun little party. Millie broke that teapot an hour later. RIP teapot #2.

12. Swing set time after church

13. Millie had taken all her clothes off when I got her up one morning. Little booger. Now she has to wear onesies to bed.

Other Stuff

Odds and ends of the month

1. Just your nightly dance/gymnastics party in the family room. Millie enjoyed being carried around like this.

2. The Y Awards. The athletic department awards for athletes/coaches. Kind of like the ESPY's on a small scale. I most every college does something like this. Several members of the women's basketball team were up for awards but the only winner was Kylie. Totally dumb of me to include this blurry photo of her accepting her award. Then we took a cute picture and got totally photo bombed by Jarom Jordan.

 

3. Millie lets me do cute things to her hair, but by the end of the day it looks like the picture on the right. 

 4. Our floors are finished! I really am going to do a longer post where I detail all that we have done, but for now enjoy our gorgeous, non-yellowed natural hickory floors. I love them. 

Easter

Easter came so early this year and we had traveled so much in the weeks before that I didn't do much. Luckily, Mimi sent the girls an adorable Easter package. The girls were thrilled. 

We were planning on having the annual Saturday-before-Easter Faucette-Nielson egg hunt at our house, but our floors were re-finished the day before and we still weren't supposed to have furniture on them. So we moved it down to the Faucettes.

Daniel had to make an appearance at the football team's spring scrimmage on our way to the Faucette's so I took the girls down to the team room. Daniel ended up taking almost an hour so I was very happy we weren't stuck in the car. Sadie and Elise found this sign and insisted on a picture.

When we got to the Faucette's the dads hid the eggs around the yard while the kids waited not-so-patiently.

It was very exciting when we finally told them they could go search. I didn't get any pictures of Sadie because she was too fast. Millie had pretty much no interest. She would occasionally pick up the eggs and put them back down. This left me with Lou as my lone photo subject. She did a great job.

When the hunt was over we forced the kids to take the obligatory shot with their baskets. Look at that adorable shot of all 8 participants. Too lazy to crop out the shadow of me taking the picture. 

Sadie and Hunter giggled their way through unloading the egg contents into their baskets. I love that they have known each other since birth and they are genuinely good friends. They play so well together.

I didn't take any pictures on Easter Sunday. I was tired Saturday night and then when we woke up we realized the Easter bunny forgot to visit. While the girls were watching a show that tricky bunny snuck into the house and hid their baskets after filling them up. Sadie says she heard bunny hops but didn't check them out. Now she wishes she did.

PS- Sadie made this picture for Hunter before we went to their house but forgot to bring it.  She told me it is her and Hunter in Bunny form.

Yard Care

For Daniel's birthday this year I paid a landscaper to do a spring cleanup on our yard. My parents chipped in for it too.

Best. Decision. Ever.

Last year it took us 6 weeks to do what they did in 6 hours. And our yard was in bad shape this year. We never did a 4th round of raking at the end of fall so there were leaves everywhere and dead growth from last summer. It was looking ugly. I wish I had a before picture. Now we just have to maintain it and bring our grass back to life after the winter cold.

The landscapers mentioned that they also install compost if we were interested. We have needed new compost since we bought our house 3 years ago. Last year we got some quotes from other landscapers for new mulch and it was crazy expensive. But this landscaper's compost quote wasn't much more expensive than putting the compost in ourselves so we hired him. Again, great decision. I think it made a huge difference. It doesn't hurt that our flowers are blooming and greening up more.

This is what my life has come to: being ecstatic about a nice-looking yard.

Bonus Austin Trip: the NCAA Tournament

I really struggled with whether or not to go to the tournament with Daniel. Anthony and Carrie would be in Utah another day, so it meant cutting the time I got to see them. It was also complicated logistically for friends to watch Sadie and Elise and then get rides to all their activities. The NCAA tournament is also further complicated by the fact that if they lose the first game you are gone for 3 days and if they win you are gone for 5 days. So I had to ask my friend to potentially watch my kids for 5 days. That is a long time for a trip that isn't necessary. In the end Anthony kept telling me I should go and I am glad I did. And I am even glad we brought Millie. She got to have crazy amounts of attention with the Nielson family.

We flew on a charter out of SLC. Chartered flights are so great and this year the plane had a first class section so we had tons of room to spread out.

We went to dinner in Austin when we arrived. Tom, Carolyn and Courtney met us there. Millie showed off her love of all things sauces by eating mainly ketchup and my leftover salad dressing, along with a few bites of bread dipped in butter for her dinner. 

The next day while the team had practice/media stuff Millie and I hung out with Carolyn and Courtney. Our hotel was on the south side of Austin, which is the opposite direction from the Nielson's, so they had to drive 30-45 minutes each way to see us.

 We walked along the Boardwalk Trail around Lady Bird Lake. The weather was super muggy and I found myself wishing I had worn workout clothes. Millie was showered with attention and praise, but she mostly gave us the cold shoulder.

Mimi got a smile out of her when she got to climb on the railing.

Afterwards we went to Chuy's where Millie drank the creamy jalapeno dip and generally caused a scene. Paco attempted to distract her while the ladies finished up our lunch. 

He headed back to work and we went back to the hotel so Millie could nap. Courtney, Carolyn and I hung out in the hall outside the hotel room for the next 2 hours while Camille slept. We had a fun time. Seriously.

Once Millie woke up she got lots more love and attention. Tom and Whitney arrived to bring our total to 6 adults and one toddler hanging out in a small hotel room. 

 That night we went to The County Line for a delicious dinner with the team and Nielsons. The weather was still foggy so the view wasn't as clear as usual. 

Millie mostly ate bread and butter. What a surprise.

 When we parted ways on Friday night the Nielsons left one of their cars with me. Saturday morning I drove out to hang out in Round Rock. Millie renewed her love for Ruby the dog. I love this picture of Whitney and Camille.

We ate lunch at Hoody's where Millie showed off her straw skills.

 After lunch Millie napped at the Nielson's with Paco while the women went shopping at Target. I was nervous all day for the game, so it was nice to be doing things instead of sitting around waiting.

The picture below is Millie doing her "BYU" chant with her hand motion. It is adapted from the BYU fight song. She started doing it in Vegas and now she does it all the time at home. She just really feels the love for the Cougs.

 When the game finally started we looked stiff. The team played alright, but not nearly as well as they can. They still kept it relatively close, and were only down by 2 points with 2 minutes left, but they couldn't pull out the win. It was disappointing, but in a different way than the WCC tournament. I was so sad for them. 

We waited for the team back at the hotel so we could go to one final dinner before our flight back to Utah the next morning.

On Sunday morning we flew back to Provo, but the flight was not without it's....complications.

First, Millie was in an angry mood. In an attempt to make her happy at the airport Daniel stuck her up on this ledge and then she didn't want to get down.

Next came the digestive issues. About 15 minutes into the flight Millie got diarrhea. We moved out of our first class seats so the other coaches didn't have to deal with the smells of the constant poop/diaper/clothes changing (the airplane bathrooms didn't have changing tables). We took over a couple rows back by the cheerleaders and BYU band. It was a flight to remember. As fate would have it, her worst 2 1/2 hours of diarrhea coincided with us flying. Once we landed it slowed down from every 20 minutes to every few hours. 

When we got back Sadie and Millie were very happy to see one another.

Special shout out to Whitney who drove 6 hours each way to see us/watch the BYU game. Of course, if BYU had won we would have been around a couple more days, but it was still awesome of her to get the time off work and drive out.