Primary Talk

Sadie gave her first talk in Primary. She spoke about prophets and used the examples of Noah, Joseph Smith and President Monson. She practiced reading it a lot and she was very excited to stand up in front of everyone and read it. She did a great job and even went off script by calling him Thomas Spencer Monson instead of just using the initial S. like was written on her paper. She had me hold up the visual aids and got a little annoyed when I didn't hold up Noah's ark quickly enough. 

We were so proud of her. I hope she is always so excited about public speaking. 

Ice Skating Date

 Sadie and I went on an ice-skating date. Ice skating is much harder than I remember. Trying to help a 5-year-old ice skate makes it even harder. Luckily we got a walker for Sadie. I realized I just couldn't help her. Every time I tried to stop or turn to help her I almost fell. The walker was great because even if she fell she just pulled herself back up on the handles.

After 1 time around the rink Sadie said she hated it. But she kept trying and ended up enjoying it, even with the constant falling. I fell one time and got a massive bruise on my knee and my ego.

I sat on the sidelines and watched a lot. I forgot how much skates hurt your ankles. Sadie was perfectly happy skating around by herself so I just took a million pictures and giggled when she fell, or skated into the wall, or took people out with her walker. We stayed for 2 1/2 hours. That's enough skating for me for the next ten years.

What happens in Vegas...

....does not stay in Vegas at all. It really affects Daniel's season. 

For the second year in a row we joined Daniel in Vegas for the WCC tournament. They beat St. Mary's on a last second shot on Thursday night so I packed up the girls and headed down Friday morning. All 3 kids were champs on the drive. Sadie and Elise have always been good car travelers, but Millie was good too. We stopped in St. George to stretch our legs, go potty/change diapers, and feed Camille some baby food. 

 When we arrived Daniel made a bunch of trips to the car to get all the stuff. Sadie sent some selfies and Camille chewed on the remote. We also hung out with Amber and Tyler Dunn for a bit. They just happened to be in Vegas for a work conference. We miss them. That night we went to the Rio buffet with the team, which was probably a mistake. Our kids were tired and grumpy.

 
Saturday we were at the pool all day. 6 hours. My older kids got a little pink, even with multiple applications of sunscreen. Camille floated around in her shaded floatie and just loved life. Some anonymous kind stranger paid for poolside lunch for us (and the another assistant coach's family) so we didn't even have to go back to the room to eat. It was a great day. Daniel came and joined us for the last hour or so.

 That evening we met up with the Dunns for dinner at Cafe Rio where Sadie choked on a mint, Camille dumped out a full cup of water, and Elise continually declared she wanted to go to bed. Daniel went to the WCC tournament men's games that night and I took the girls back to the hotel to sleep. Camille would not sleep so she and I hung out in the bathroom together. I also spent an hour cleaning sharpie marker off the hotel room desk chair.

 Staying in a hotel room with 5 people gets a little cramped, but I think we made the best of it. Camille slept in her pack and play in the walk-in closet and the older girls slept on an air mattress we brought. We used the stroller as Camille's high chair when she ate in the room. The girls did a lot of coloring and show-watching when we were in the room.

On Sunday we went to church with the team. We rode on the "school bus", as Lou calls it. According to the girls, the second best thing about Vegas (the first is swimming) is riding on the bus with the team. Sadie always finds a player to sit with and ignore us. I can't say enough how great the players are with my kids. We had a quiet afternoon with naps and Sadie took a short dip in the pool. We had a nice team dinner that night.

 I made the mistake of telling the girls on Sunday that they could go swimming Monday. BYU's game was at noon so we rushed and swam from 10 to 10:45 AM (we got there before it even opened) and then changed, ate lunch and drove to the BYU-Gonzaga game.

We got there with about 12 minutes left in the first half. BYU trailed the whole first half and was down by 10 at halftime. It kind of felt like more of the same- they had lost to Gonzaga twice this season. BYU hung around in the second half and came back and won at the very end. I could not believe it. I was SO happy for them. This year I have gotten to know the players a lot more and I not only want them to win because I am competitive, but because I really like them. All my pictures after the game came out blurry. Elise was tired and asked to take a nap.

 Sadie took a picture with one of our favorite players, Kylie Maeda.

 Daniel had to stay to watch the next game so I took the girls back to the hotel for...more swimming! What else? We swam with the Stewarts (another assistant coach's family) until it was almost dark and then went to McDonald's for dinner. The team ate a late night take-out meal from Cheesecake Factory, which was one of my favorite meals. Our kids were all fast asleep in the room and we ate in peace down the hall.

Tuesday morning we started to pack up a bit before the game because the WCC sends the women's teams home immediately following the championship game, no matter the outcome. I actually bathed the girls (yes, that was their only bath the whole trip- swimming totally counts as a bath, right?) and we arrived early for the game. 

We sat 4 rows up from the team. The people behind us offered to take a picture. I was so anxious for the game. Just wanted it to be over.  BYU shot amazingly well and dominated San Francisco the whole game. It was kind of anticlimactic championship game when the previous 2 games were so exciting. 

 Last year Sadie cried when BYU lost to Gonzaga in the championship game, so seeing that BYU got the trophy was a big deal to her. We joined the team on the court for some celebrating and pictures. Elise played with the confetti and ended up making a big mess with it in the locker room later.

Elise's favorite person is the team's former trainer, Andie. Lou latched onto her at the tournament in 2014 and this season she always looks forward to seeing Andie after the games. Andie is awesome. After the Gonzaga game she walked me and the girls all the way out to our van, carrying Elise most of the way. Sadie also sat with her for all of the championship game.

We went back to the hotel, finished packing the car, and got on the road by 6:15 PM. We got to bring the trophy home in our car since the team was flying back. I laughed as Daniel carried the big trophy out of the hotel and seatbelted it into the back seat of the van. With a 1/2 hour stop for dinner and the time change (1 hour later in Utah) we got home by 1 AM. For the first time ever on a family road trip Daniel let me drive. That makes him sound dumb, but he doesn't like to be the passenger on road trips. He was exhausted so I convinced him to let me drive and I did the last 3 hours home. He kept saying that it was actually kind of great.

 The girls were sad to watch Daniel bring the trophy into the Marriott Center a couple days after we got back.

Shenanigans

The end of February/beginning of March brought several new and interesting experiences. 

1. Sadie drew all over Elise and then tried to clean it off. This is why it is all smudged. They told us it was pirate day. Elise has a treasure map drawn on her legs.

2. More sign making, but the first love notes to boys. Inspired by Valentine's Day, Sadie made these signs for a pair of twins in her Kindergarten class. The one of the left says "I love you Tannr. I theeak [think] you are seeat [sweet]. To Tannr. Love Sadie. Sockr ball". The one on the right is just awesome. A big heart filled with the words "kiss" and "kissing". Then there's "you have to kiss camp Todd [kiss cam- as in the kiss camera they show on the big screen during Daniel's games] or sad Sadie will come. I love you so so so so much. You have to chase me. To Todd. Love Sadie" These notes somehow disappeared before Sadie could bring them to school.  The greatest part of this is we saw these twins outside of school and none of them would talk to each other. The twins and Sadie all hid behind their parents' backs. 

This next note is also very sweet. One Sunday everyone was napping but Sadie. She made this for Xo, a player on Daniel's team, telling her she wants to be a basketball plaer. 

3. A trip to the Puppy Barn. They have all these bins of puppies that parents can hold and kids can pet. They are so cute. Elise has been terrified of dogs lately and this really helped her to see they are nice. 

4. Not new and interesting, but more dance parties.

5. Our second biggest snowfall of the year, which will likely be our last real snow of the winter. The girls threw snowballs at whatever window I stood by and then ate lots of snow.

6. Inspired by a youtube kids channel, Sadie has started crafting by herself. She has made lots of things with just random stuff glued all over, but this globe, as she called it, was actually clever. She went and got some small toys (barbie shoes and doll accessories) and filled up an empty container with water. She also ripped small pies of aluminum foil for sparkle. 

7. Elise wouldn't stop pulling down her pants. I was playing will Millie on the floor and Elise would run by with a bare bum. Everyone time she ran by I would try to pull up her pants, which she thought was a great game. 

8. And lastly, some illness. Sadie's first bout with pink eye, which coincided with a strange rash on her hands. The picture doesn't show it well

And a selfie of Sadie for good measure

Be Tough with 2

One of my softball coaches used to always tell us to "be tough with 2, kid!" if we got 2 strikes on us when batting. That doesn't have much to do with this blog post, except I have been enjoying the time with just 2 kids home when Sadie is at school.

Camille is usually napping for at least half the time so really it is just me and Lou. We play games and work on her letters. At first she really struggled with writing letters, but she has gotten much better since also practicing with the Letter School app. It's kind of a crazy improvement.

Of course sometimes we run some errands too. 

And sometimes Lou just takes a nap and drools all over the couch.