Thanksgiving '09

Well, another incredible week in Arizona is done, so here are the highlights:

1: Brandon got sick. Again. I'm beginning to think he's allergic to Arizona because he always gets sick when we go. Oh well. He was still a total champ and took care of the girls every morning so I could exercise. And most days so I could hang out with my family...

2: Both girls were AWESOME in the car, both ways. They didn't sleep, but they were still good. I actually thanked Heavenly Father for the invention of Polly Pocket in my prayers. Those kept Lexi happy for at least 15 of the 20 total hours. Laney coincidentally watched movies most of the time. Yes, she's nine months old.

3: The really good but disorienting step aerobics class on Monday. When you haven't done step for a year, it's hard to get the hang of it again.

4: The Turkey Trot. Oh turkey trot, how I both love and hate you. Another 10K down, and another one to do in two years when we go down again for Thanksgiving. The upside is that Bec and I did pretty well time-wise: 6.2 miles in 1 hour, 3 seconds. That's not bad for two non-runners. Stinkin 3 seconds... Rebecca forced me to run hard the last .2 miles. :)
Here's the pic once we were done- sans makeup, sorry about that.

5: Game night on Thursday night. If you've been to a Proffitt Game Night, you will know how competitive we get. It's not a pretty sight.

6. Thanksgiving dinner and family pics on Friday. 9 out of 11 Proffitt kids were there this year, so that makes 50 total people, with 9 missing.

Here's a pic of all the grandkids, 32 in the picture. We have a pic of all of us including adults, but I don't have it yet. Can you find Lexi and Laney?

7. The food. Ah, the food. Two turkeys (1 regular, 1 fried), 3 kinds of potatoes, 2 kinds of yams, stuffing, 4 kinds of salad, relish tray, and orange rolls. I could eat my weight in orange rolls. AND Joy's pumpkin pie. (Insert Homer's food noise here) Goodness, it was so yummy.

Isn't my mom cute? She's carving her traditional turkey. Look at all that food. Mmmm...

I made the deviled eggs. 3 dozen. My family is notorious for picking at the relish tray before the meal.

8. Proffitt Family Olympics. Oh man, that was fun. Complete with human-made letter P's, obstacle course (I kicked your trash, Joy), and toddler races. Let's all pause and think of Lexi racing... she has a very... special run. She's our special little princess.

9. Only 2 hours out of the 20 driving hours I actually drove. The rest Brandon drove while I took care of the kids. And what do you know those 2 hours were the only time that there was a blizzard. So, my New York native hubbie was with the kids while his Arizona-raised wife was driving through the snow. Nice. It's pretty scary when your car starts skidding a little and everything you hold dear in the world is sitting in the back seat- hubbie included. I white-knuckled it, and we got out fine. Thanks Brandon for giving me tips on how to handle the car.

It really was such a fun trip, and so great to see family. Thank you for being such a great family! You are all so, well, nice. Love you all!

So stinkin cute

These are just a few of the incredible pictures we had from last week. I absolutely love the last one. I didn't post some of the cutest ones because they might go on our christmas card...

I like this one with Lexi talking in Laney's ear trying to console her (Laney was pretty whiny at this point).

I love these girls!

Oh. My. Goodness.

This is just a sampling of some pictures my sis-in-law took yesterday. Isn't it awesome? This is in a field right next door to our house. The girls were pretty good and after just 45 minutes, we got some stinking cute pictures, if I say so myself. She's giving me the cd this Monday, so I'll put a few more up then. I'm telling you, she has seriously got some talent. Just look at her blog for proof. She also makes christmas cards/baby announcements at very reasonable prices that can be looked at here. It's a good thing someone married into the family that has artistic talent. My mom's very artistic, but she hides it under a bushel. :)

Dad

Dear Dad,

I've been thinking about you a lot this week. Mostly because it was the 4 year anniversary of your death last Monday, but also because I've been enjoying my kids a bunch recently and I know that you would enjoy them too.
You were a good dad, but you were an awesome grandpa. Most of my last memories of you had you being tackled by multiple grandkids. You always knew exactly how to get your grandkids laughing. And sadly, that is the main thing that I regret- that you won't be able to play with my kids. You won't ever play Lexi's prince, she will never say "Grandpa Tom," you won't make Laney laugh, and you will never cuddle her. Both my girls are cuddle bugs, which you would have loved.
But there's a good side- I'll see you again! That's one of my favorite things about this religion I believe in... we are part of an eternal family! You played with and cuddled my kids before they came to me, and you will be there to greet me. I will hear your laugh again, I will see your perfect white hair, and I will ask you to tell me scripture stories- you were always so good at that.
Yes, you had some hard times to work through on this earth, that's true. But you fought your way back! You won! And because you worked so hard and because you showed your true love for us and your faith in the atonement, I will see you again. Thank you for working so hard! You made our family eternal again, and that is a gift I will never forget.
Dad, I'm so glad you were my dad. You were so loving, especially toward the end of your life. Even though I didn't have as much time with you as I would have liked, I'm glad that I am linked to you forever.

I love you.

Cassie

(Tell your dads you love them. You won't regret it.)

Wisdom Teeth

I got my wisdom teeth out today. It was kind of spur of the moment. My right upper tooth has been trying to break through the gums and has been causing serious pain. I've been taking my spare percocet I had in the house, and if you know me, you know I HATE taking pain killers. So, I went to the oral surgeon to get it checked out, yes, it was my wisdom tooth, and yes, I should schedule an appt. to get all three taken out (I didn't have a fourth). So, I go to schedule the appt, and he's only in the office every 2 weeks. So, either get them out today or Nov. 5th. So I called Brandon to see if he could work from home today, and being the perfect awesome hubby he is, he worked it out and I got my teeth pulled.

I have to say, it was pretty easy. About as painful as getting a cavity filled. Brandon tried telling me I'd be knocked out for at least a few days, but I got really lucky. They only had to break up one tooth to get it out (the smell of burning tooth is gross), and the other two took the surgeon literally 60 seconds a piece. I was in there for an hour from start to finish. Just laughing gas and novacaine. I drove myself there and back. I'm in minimal pain tonight, and I feel really blessed that this didn't knock me out. It's Lexi's birthday in three days, and I didn't want to be in bed all weekend. Actually, I'm pretty peeved that I'm not allowed to exercise tomorrow.

Anyway, I've been pretty bored tonight cuz it's the 2nd night in a row without a hubbie (meetings), and so I took a picture of myself. I guess I felt I had to document the whole wisdom tooth thing. THEN I remembered that I suck at getting my picture taken. This was me still not knowing what face to make when the timer went off. HA!
And I got my hair cut. Just about 5 inches or so.

And how cute is this girl?! Lexi never has wet hair in the morning, so I never scrunch it. But we took a shower together and afterward I wanted to see just how much natural curl my little girl has.

How cute is she?

Fishin'

Brandon was able to go fly fishing with our friend Ryan on Saturday and loved it. If you know Brandon, you know he loves to fish, and he'd never been fly fishing before.


I love this picture. I know it's blurry, but it's awesome. Brandon needed to bring sunglasses, something that he doesn't own. So we found these that were part of a costume a year ago, and he wore those. Gotta love those aviators...

Trying to eat the fish he caught...

Here's Ryan with something he caught too. Thanks Ryan for taking Hubby fishing! Heaven knows I'll never go with him...

FYI

This is what Brandon does when he's on the phone for anything longer than a minute. He paces. It's so funny to watch him pace back and forth while talking on the phone. And since he was called as bishop, he has a lot more phone calls. So, if you call him, just picture him doing this. A lot.


It's the little things like this that make me enjoy being married to Brandon. The things that only I know. Well, I guess now you know too...

We've been babysitting little Paytyn a couple times a week, and it's been so fun. You should have seen Lexi when she found out we'd be watching another baby. The look on her face was priceless. She was so excited! It was like, "You mean, we get to play with another cute baby? Awesome!"

You will also see that Laney is already a little ham. Whenever I pull out the camera, she gives a big smile. Just like her big sister...

It really is so cute to see Lexi being a responsible little babysitter and to have fun with another sweet little girl.