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.

The Big Dance

I decided kind of last minute that I would join Daniel and his team in Tampa for the NCAA tournament. We brought Camille with us and dropped the other 2 off at various friends houses. People were so nice to take them and Kaylie deserves a special shout out for encouraging me to go and volunteering to have them for the weekend. 

 The NCAA charters the flights for every team in the tournament since each team can bring cheerleaders, a band and administration, and it's too many people to get tickets for last minute. So we got to fly on a chartered plane out of Provo. Oh man, chartered planes are so great. No liquid restrictions, no dealing with being checked in super early, getting sweaty walking around the airport, and many more things. When I wanted Camille to sleep on the plane I just paced the aisle and didn't have to worry about disturbing people since I knew everyone and didn't care about disturbing them (ha). 

We got off the plane in Tampa and immediately went to Clearwater Beach. The sand was so soft and smooth. Like butter. A month later and I still can't get over it. 

At first Millie wasn't sure about the wet sand. When we tried to make her stand in it she would pull her legs up. But pretty soon she liked it. 

On Friday morning I woke up and attempted to work out. The resort gym was-- no exaggeration-- 3/4 of a mile away from our room. Our resort had a golf course in the middle of it. I ended up only having time to run a mile and then run back before Daniel had meetings. After breakfast the team had practice and media stuff at the arena so Mills and I hung out at the pool, took a nap, and then walked around the resort grounds.

That night we had a team dinner at one of the resort restaurants where I had one of the best steaks of my life. 

Saturday morning I built the walk to the gym into my workout. Working out at lower elevations makes you feel invincible! Seriously, I could breathe so much better. Then Camille and I strolled around again and took a few pictures. The little marsh had so many beautiful birds. Everything was so green.

We took the team bus over to the arena but they wouldn't let any of the spouses in early. We sat in the sun outside until 1 hour before the game, when they opened the doors. I was so anxious for the game to start. I was feeling so good about the game. About 3 minutes into the game things started to fall apart. BYU just kept turning the ball over. We looked totally outmatched. Louisville had 9 players who could play interchangeably and not miss a beat. It was hard to watch. Camille got really tired so I ended up pacing around the upper ring for the last 1/2 hour. Tough way to end the season. It kind of ended up feeling like a bad season, even though they exceeded what everyone expected this year.

On Sunday morning we flew back to Provo, with everyone a little sad and disappointed. Everyone except Millie, who had no idea what was going on except the fact that it was just her and mom and dad with no annoying sisters hogging attention.

We are all happy to have a few months off from the busyness of basketball season.