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.

Hiking the Y

Sadly, both Brandon and I have been living here 7 years and have not climbed the Y. I did when I was 7 years old, so let's reminice with me...

I was 7, and my sister Rebecca and her hubbie Greg were going to BYU. My family visited for some reason, and she took my twin Callie and I (and maybe a couple other siblings, Sherry maybe?) to hike the Y. We ate Subway while sitting on the top. It is one of the few memories I have (bad memory), and I remember it being a blast. I even remember the shirt I was wearing...

So, we have carried on the tradition. Brandon and I hiked the Y with the kiddies and ate Subway at the top.

Lexi was a total rockstar. She climbed almost the whole way, except the last 300 feet or so. And she was happy the whole time.

The gang. Poor Laney. I promise she smiles...

I had Laney on my back so Brandon's shoulders would be available for Lexi. Laney was so tired in this pic.

This last picture cracks me up. They have the same expression on their faces in this. This was on the way down, and it was getting HOT.

All in all, it was really fun. Lexi is still talking about 'sitting on the Y' and eating chips. We probably won't be doing it again any time soon, but it was really fun. Maybe when it gets a little colder...

More Georgia '09

Here are some more pics from my mom-in-law's camera from Georgia...


Our new family picture. Laney looks like the Godfather in it, but oh well.
Lexi playing with Brandon. I believe they were looking for rocks. I'm not sure... all I know is that I feel like most of the time I was inside nursing Laney.

I got to wakeboard! Yeah! It's been years and years. I even jumped a couple of times.

Lexi lookin so cute...

A mommy-daughter moment. Aw.

Is anyone surprised that Lexi was able to find the only two princesses brought onto the boat?

Sorry, Brandon and I are both very white and very awkward in this picture. But it's one of the only pictures we have just the two of us. Oh well.

We made a lot of sand castles.

I'm too lazy to look up any more pictures. Sorry. But Georgia was so fun!

Bishop, again

So, when my hubbie saw my last post, he kind of complained that I use the same two pictures of him whenever I blog about him. Then I looked in my picture archives and found out exactly why I only have two good pictures of him. Enjoy. If I were you I would click on the photo to see it more enlarged. You get the full effect that way.



Love you, Hub!