Finally

Chandler cut his hair.

Winter Formal 2009

Chandler and Hanna were both able to go to Winter Formal this year. Hanna turned 16 just a few days prior to the dance and it was a girls choice so she was ready. Ashlee came to pick up Chandler so we did get a few pictures while she was here. They were a cute couple.

Then with Hanna's group, parents were invited/allowed to come take pictures before dinner. Hanna's date, David was over a foot taller than Hanna. I loved Hanna's dress and it fit her perfectly.

Kylee, Hanna, and Kathryn

The table settings were beautiful.

Hanna's and Kathryn's corsages

The whole group, ten couples all together.

It was a great night!

Cupcakes for Boutiques

My friend asked me if I wanted to make some cupcakes or other baked goods for her boutique. So I decided to go for it. I made some honey wheat bread, big m&m cookies, pancake mixes and over 100 cupcakes. I made five different flavers of cupcakes, Tres Leches, Double Chocolate, Cranberry Almond, Vanilla and Coconut. My sister-in-law, Margaret (resident photographer, and artist) made these awesome labels for me. She is so creative and artistic! They turned out so cute, everyone commented on my labels.

Rebecca loaned me all her platters and stuff to display my cupcakes.

And my friends came and bought my cupcakes, thanks guys!

When one boutique was over, I still had quite a few cupcakes so I put them in another boutique by my sisters' house for the rest of the day. I came home with only 20 cupcakes with no chocolate or coconut (my favorite). They were yummy for dessert today, no one was sad that they didn't all sell.

Sweet Sixteen Hanna

Hanna is patient, kind and fun. Her sisters love her because she takes care of them and is nice to them. Hanna is great friends with Danica. Their relationship is a joy to their parents! She is level headed in all circumstances which is why she is great in sports medicine. Hanna works hard at school and her grades show it. She is creative, crafty and has a great sense of style. I like to go shopping with Hanna more than anyone else because she knows what looks good and won't let me buy something ugly. It is a great blessing to have Hanna in our family. Hanna is our newest driver, yikes! er I mean yea! It is nice to have another driver but it would be even nicer if said drivers had their own cars. Save that babysitting money!

We had our favorite triple layer chocolate cake with fluffy frosting and a hint of orange, delicious.
We are serious about our desserts :)

ELP Project

Maranda had to do a project about the middle ages and the four groups of people; peasants, clergy, knights and royalty. She did a great job. Of particular interest are the two horses which she made out of modeling clay all by herself (as if I could make a model horse!) She is very creative and artistic.

Thanksgiving 2009

For Thanksgiving we usually get together with the Proffitts on Friday instead of Thursday because some of us have in-laws in town as well. This year we decided to take some family pictures even though we were missing Jacob and Russell. Here are all of us girls and two of our brothers with our mom. Me, Cassie, Rebecca, Sherry, Wendy, Joy, Callie, Clark, Mom, and Spencer. Here are all the cousins except for 6.

This is Margaret. She is our awesome resident photographer. We asked Chandler to take some pictures with our camera while we were taking group pictures with the adults. So Chandler took pictures of Margaret. I guess we weren't specific enough. Anyway, this is such a cute picture of Margaret.

Hanna and Laney, sooo cute!

Teenage girls: Rachael, Breazy, Kinsey, Kylee, Danica, and Hanna

Maranda and Janee like the turkey legs, they each ate a whole one!

Rebecca organizes games for everyone after we eat. It is so much fun. Here is one three legged race, we do one for the big kids and one for the little kids.

Gunny sack race: Kindyl, Andria, Maranda, Jarem

Big kid gunny sack race:

What a great day after Thanksgiving! Nothing is better than good food and family!

I posted pictures of all the food last year. It was the same this year, tried and true, all our family favorites. Delish!

Kathryn's Birthday Cake

Hanna made this cake for her friend Kathryn. We learned a few tricks on the last cake one so this one turned out pretty great. A cake like this takes several days to make. First, the cakes were all made from scratch. Then we made all the fillings and frostings (from scratch). Then, we built it layering cakes and fillings (each tier is four layers). Last, each tier is topped with homemade fondant and decorated with cute designs. Ally came over to help with the fondant, Hanna thinks that is the fun part. Here are a few pictures of the last step. I wish we had some pictures of the earlier steps, oh well.

WMHH

Andria recently finished a school play that she was in. It was a play done by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders about 1930's radio shows. Andria had several parts throughout the play and had a great time! They pretended to be the radio station WMHH (We're Mesa Highland Hurricanes) and had different radio shows such as Annie, Highland Ranger, Pop Quiz show, etc. A school play takes a lot of time and dedication. Andria was super busy for several weeks, but she memorizes quickly and likes to be on stage, so it was worth it.

These pictures are mostly from dress rehersal. Waiting for their turn on stage, Andria on the right.

The Highland Ranger show, Andria is the train conductor on the right.Mr. Clean commercial Pop Quiz with Ms. Whiz, Andria is the returning champion.

Dream of You dance from the movie Singing in the Rain. Andria in the peach dress on the right.

The Dream of you dance was right after the Highland Ranger part so Andria had to change from the conductor costume to the Dream of You costume in only a few seconds. It was crazy! Way to go Andria, we are so proud of you!

Halloween 2009

Every year we have a Proffitt family party for Halloween. Ruthie and Zan are cheating on the apple bobbing by biting on the stem. Maranda shows us how it's done. Rachael, Kinsey, and Danica

Hanna and her cousin Kylee.

We had a soup bar with corn muffins at the Proffitt family party. Ruthie loves pumpkin soup.

Maranda and Sadie carving pumpkins. I am so sad that I didn't get a picture of Maranda's!

Ruthie and Zanya with their pumpkins

Andria got sick the day before Halloween so she missed her school party, the Proffitt family party, and the ward party. We did let her go trick-or-treat just on our street, but she still didn't look very well.

Hanna and her friend Kylee. Hanna's shirt says: "There is no charge for awesomeness or attractivness."

Harry Potter (Jarem), 2 Hermiones (Maranda, Janee) and a bat (Trigg)

A Visit From Brittney!

Brittney is Dan's niece. She and her husband, Phillip were in town for a few days and came to say hi and visit for a few hours. We were so glad that they stopped by! It was fun to hear about past Halloweens and how they finally got together. We love you Brittney and Phillip, please come again soon!

I am so behind in blogging! But I need to get some activities recorded before I move onto more current events.
For October break, we went to California. We brought our tent trailer and camped near the beach. We went to Knotts Berry Farm for the first time as a family. We had a great time!

(Sidenote: I HATE the way that you can't move pictures around inside a blog post. It makes me crazy!)

Our tent trailer is very special. It sleeps all nine of us. Here are the girls eating breakfast at the table. We had lots of rain while we were there so the outside campground table was all wet. We were grateful to have a dry option.

Here are the sleeping quarters: Maranda, Andria and Ruthie on one end king size bed, Chandler on the bench bed, Hanna and Danica on the table bed, Zan, Jan, and Dan on the other end king size bed. Everyone slept great.

We stayed at San Clemente State Beach. It was a short walk from the campsite to this path down to the beach. It was a pretty steep path and I wouldn't want to do it too many times.Here is the beach when you get to the bottom of the path, gorgeous!

The campground: a table, a campfire, lots of dirt, what more could you want? The water hose to the sink in our trailer broke as we were opening the trailer so we had to do dishes outside. Chandler and Dan were awesome dishwashers. We realized on this trip how much we will miss Chandler when he leaves us. He is so great to tie stuff, start fires, move heavy objects, and do the dirty work. Plus he is always so willing to do whatever awful thing I don't want to do or can't do myself. It is great to have another man around. We will really miss him! We went to Knotts Berry Farm for one day. It was so fun. It was empty maybe because of the rain or just because it is off season. Anyway, it worked for us. We could ride every ride with no wait, as many times as we wanted.

There was a little place there with live frogs, hissing cockroaches and other creatures. My girls had as much fun there as on the rides. The sure love animals, all kinds. After a long day, we ate dinner at Mrs. Knotts Chicken Dinner Restaurant.

Our day at the beach started out cloudy and rainy. The girls woke up early so we took a walk down to check out the ocean before breakfast. It was chilly but they didn't seem to mind. After breakfast we played in the fire and had smores. Then we decided to put on swim suits and take boogie boards and head down to the beach and hope for some sun. Our wish was granted and the sun came out for several beautiful hours. What a perfect day on the beach almost all to ourselves.