Thanksgiving: Part Mesa

It's no secret that I like Thanksgiving more than Christmas. This year was double the fun because we got to celebrate Thanksgiving twice. It was an "off" year so we celebrated on Friday instead of Thursday. As usual, we continued our tradition of the Proffitt Family Olympics. This year my brother Chris joined us.

Getting ready to compete in some Survivor style games...






For this game, we had to transport water to fill a bucket...






Looking for paperclips in a haystack...






And we ended the competition with a giant game of girls vs. boys dodgeball...


Plus there was a bouncy slide...


Chocolate covered pretzels...


Cousins to play with...


Horseshoes...


And best of all- perfect outdoor weather...


We ended the night with an outdoor movie. Next year I'll have to get a shot of all the delicious food. Thank you to the Garns and Dunyons for hosting yet another fun-filled Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving: Part Prescott

On Thanksgiving day we drove up to Prescott to join my sister and her clients for a delicious meal that she cooked entirely on her own! It was amazing. I particularly loved the triple berry pie. I ate sugar and carbs for the first time in three weeks. My body quickly entered a strange state of shock... delicious, glorious, calorie laden shock.



After dinner we headed over to see Prescott's famous Valley of Lights.









The next morning, I tried and failed to get a good cousin shot. My camera had been sitting out in the cold car and steamed up when I brought it inside. Plus, Amara was having none of it.













Thank you Marie and Kyle for letting us crash your Thanksgiving!

Forget the turkey, bring on the fatted calf

My brother Danny showed up after being gone for quite some time. We spoke on the phone. Sometimes when there are things too difficult or painful to say, I find it's best to make your kids do the talking for you. Ike told Danny he has curly hair just like him. Then he got off the phone and argued with Booker, insisting that Uncle Danny and Uncle Chris are one in the same. Booker remembers. Ike is confused. Asher has never met him.

What have we been up to?

Oh, you know just...

Running half marathons

It's unfortunate that Clark crossed the finish line at the same time as all the family fun runners. Check out that lady texting and running at the same time. She sucks.


It's also unfortunate that Clark is married to someone who doesn't mind posting embarrassing photos of him on the web... bwahahaha.


Team of brother-in-laws. Cute.


Waiting at the finish line was tiring.


Throwing baby showers

... in Tucson on the same day as the half marathon which was in Phoenix. Somehow I was able to be in two places at once.


I have no shame in stealing other people's creative food ideas. Thank you Pinterest!


And a big thank you to Vicki, Renee, Robyn, Kati and everyone else who made this party so much fun!


Unfortunately, I was too distracted to get any photos of the adorable mom-to-be. Grrrrr. I'll just have to file away a mental picture of Cherise looking radiant in red.

Taking photos of cute families

Maybe if I busy myself taking other people's photos, I won't have to worry about my own. I hate getting family pictures taken.

And growing hair







Didn't I just cut this kid's hair?

Random Thoughts on a Tuesday Morning, aka Procrastination

- I just sat down to write out my to-do list for the next few days. It has some unpleasant and tedious things on it. Time to blog, right?

- Last night during a discussion with the boys about what we can learn from the scriptures, Ike declared that "Jesus is spooky." Hmmmm. I blame Booker. Earlier he was explaining to me how Jesus uses "magic" to heal sick people. That conversation plus too many episodes of Scooby Doo may have caused some confusion for Ike.

- Clark started a fun new tradition in our home- the talking throne. Whomever is sitting in the talking throne (the recliner) gets to speak uninterrupted about whatever they want. I wish I had video of Ike on the throne last night as he timidly prattled on and on and on and on and on. "I... love... couches. Uhhhhh. I... love... babysitters. Mmmmm. I... love... puppies." We finally had to cut him off to get ready for bed.

- Here's a video I enjoyed watching. It has a wonderful message. It also has a shot of this young Bishop standing in the foyer of the Hyde Park Ward. It brought back a flood of happy memories for me. I turned 12 and started attending Young Women while we lived in London. This man explains that his knowledge of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon came gradually. Little experiences here and there, accompanied by the Spirit. I'm grateful for the small experiences I had as a youth that helped build the foundation of my own testimony.


- For my birthday, I asked my sister to give me some of her favorite skin care products. She did and my skin is looking better already. Thank you, Marie! It was a sad day when I realized that I'm getting old and I can't continue to use the same products I was using when I was 15. Noxzema doesn't touch my adult acne. Sigh. Have you got any good skin care tips to share?

- This picture warms my heart. My husband, the inventor. Last night, I curled up under the covers while the scent of soldering iron wafted through the room. Memories like these are dear to my heart.


- I'm on Day 5 of a no sugar, no carb, no dairy and worst of all, NO SODA diet. It's been really hard. I've always been a huge fan of Weight Watchers and I always will be, but I'm trying to switch things up. Even on WW, I was eating a lot of junk food. It's amazing what effects bad (and good) food will have on your body. Got any favorite recipes that involve lean meat and vegetables? I might even get brave and start incorporating more fish into my diet.

- Speaking of my beloved soda, I saw one of these at the Five Guys in the Atlanta airport. I want one for my kitchen. Here's an article that reviews all 127 different flavor combinations. I'd kill for a cherry coke zero right now.

- Lastly, it seems like I've been having a certain conversation with Clark over and over again lately. It starts with me complaining about how I dislike having any responsibilities outside the walls of my home and ends with Clark reminding me that it's good for me to get out of my comfort zone. I can handle the pressure of three little boys relying me, but my anxiety grows and grows with each new church assignment, photography shoot, drawing project, classroom responsibility etc. that I add to my plate. If I were the breadwinner for our family, I would probably die of a stress induced heart attack. I need to remind myself that it's good to have other people relying on you. How else can I expect to grow and change? On the flip side, I'm trying to master the art of saying no. It's a hard balance to strike. I have a lot of room for improvement. Here's to a holiday season that has the perfect balance of serving others while still creating happy and lasting memories with my own little family.

Halloween and Birthday Love

Halloween is a great day to have your birthday. If you absolutely have to get older, I say do it on a day when everyone is hopped up on sugar and distracted by kids in cute costumes. It's fabulous.



When it comes to birthdays, I like to keep my expectations low. This year, my mom remembered to call me and we had a really nice conversation. I could have declared a birthday win right then and there, but there was so much more. Clark took the day off work, made arrangements for the kids to go somewhere, booked me a massage and met me in town for lunch. I felt like we were young and dating again. Why did we decide to have children?

Oh now I remember. So we can dress them up like this...





... and parade them around at our neighborhood block party. Our neighborhood rocks. A few emails later and we've got a super fun potluck dinner, some fireworks, a movie projection and all the candy you could dream of.



Ike looks rather sinister with that mustache. After watching me paint Booker's face, he insisted that Woody have his face painted too.



(I should show this entire series of photos. Ike is sitting in front of our neighbor, Cannen who is dressed as a zombie football player. Ike's eyes are wide with fear and glued to Cannen the whole time).

Once dark, we headed out trick-or-treating. Actually, we just went around the block once. That took about 45 minutes and earned the boys enough candy to last them a week. Did I mention how much our neighborhood rocks?





Asher was eggggggggg-zausted. But this tootsie roll "chew toy" kept him awake until we got home...



...where I forced my children to sing to me and watch me blow out a candle on a slice of pumpkin pecan cheesecake (which I did not share and may have finished off for breakfast this morning). PUMPKIN PECAN CHEESECAKE!!! It was two of my favorite types of pie in one slice. Heavenly.



Thanks to all who made my birthday feel so special!