Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It seems that we have a wonderful Christmas EVERY year. We especially enjoyed having all of my family here celebrating with us. We are getting bigger and bigger in numbers every year, which makes me sad because I know it can't last forever, but it sure is nice to have everyone together. Kent and I need to work on getting a mansion that will accommodate all 27 people, so we can all have a place and space. Until then.... our family room had to do. It was cozy, but so fun to be together.

Camille was excited because she got a sewing machine of her own. Now she doesn't have to wait for me to sew her doll clothes. She can make them herself!

McCray got a space set to add to his "fake" Lego collection. It is nice when they are young and don't know the difference between the two.

Reed got a Geotrax set. He has been obsessed with them for awhile, and was pretty excited to finally have one.

Morgan LOVES the Biscuit books, and got a set of her own. When I take her to the library, she always wants to check them out. I decided that we better give someone else a chance at them. :)

She wasn't getting help from Mom in a timely manner I guess, so she took matters into her own hands, and got someone who would. Thanks Uncle Kelly for filling in, and helping Morgan with her presents!

This is my Mom and newest little niece Clara. She was born on my birthday. How lucky am I? I think it is a cute picture.

I wish I would have taken more pictures of everyone. I guess it was pretty crazy, and I should be glad I ended up with pictures of our kids. We were so blessed to have family here, good friends all around us, and many kind neighbors who made our Christmas very special.

Christmas Eve

When the Payne family gets together on Christmas Eve, we always have the kids act out the nativity. My Dad read from the scriptures, and the kids acted it out. They did pretty well playing their parts. Then came trying to get a picture. It takes considerable effort to get all of these little ones dressed. It takes even MORE effort to get them all in one place long enough to take a picture.

We finally did it, and got them all in the picture at one time. Whew! What a cute little bunch of kids, if I do say so myself.

After doing the Nativity, my Dad a prepared a little presentation on the computer. He had some pictures of when my brothers and sisters and I were younger, and he had the little kids try to guess who the picture was of. It was fun, and we all had a good laugh looking at the old pictures. The kids did pretty well guessing who everyone was.

The kids got to do something we have never let them do before- open a present on Christmas Eve. Grandma and Grandpa Miles got all of the kids new pajamas, and we let them open them up and wear them. They were so excited to have new PJ's to wear on Christmas morning.

Family

My family all was in Salt Lake for Christmas. What a treat to be together. My parents came from Florida, and it was so nice to have them here, and for the kids to get to spend some time with them.

This is my Mom reading to the kids. It must have been pretty interesting to keep the attention of 4 kids. I am sure they were all enjoying the snuggle too.

What a great Dad. He comes to visit, and ends up cleaning our floor and watching our kids, while I was out running errands. I always wish that my house could be spic and span before family comes, but it never is. This picture makes me realize that parents never stop taking care of their kids. Maybe not in exactly the same ways, but how nice of him to try and help make things easier for me. I am so blessed to have such great parents. They are always so helpful and supportive. Thanks Mom and Dad for coming.

Going Home- the LONG way

We just got back from a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We went to a Payne family reunion. We had been planning to go to this for about a year. We were all getting together to celebrate what would be my Grandpa Payne's 100th birthday.

We left on Friday morning. It should be about a 10 hour drive. Well, we took it nice and slow. It took us about 14. I have been on this route from New Mexico to Utah (or vice versa) so many times in my life. I have always enjoyed the drive because there are many beautiful places along the way. And some places that are not beautiful at all. I have not been this way for so many years that it was really fun to get to reminisce the whole way down.

As we traveled along, I told Kent and the kids stories about memories I had in the places that we passed through. I told them about playing basketball games in Price when I played for Ricks in college. I told them that Green River is famous for it's watermelons. When we got to Moab, I explained what people come to Moab for and showed them all of the rafts and rock crawlers. I also told them about how I remember being young and having my Dad stop in Moab for a treat or a hamburger. He would take us to the Tastee- Freeze and get us an ice cream. I showed them where the Tastee-Freeze used to be. It is some kind of restaurant now. I loved getting a treat in Moab. We stopped for gas, so I went in and bought a bag of gummy worms so our kids could get a Moab treat. They thought that was great. Not as good as that ice cream was though! As we traveled down the road from Moab, I told the kids about Hole in the Rock. I have driven past this place for at least 25 years, and have never stopped. I have always wondered how they could have made a house in a rock. The kids were really intrigued about Hole in the Rock after I was telling them about it. As we came up on it, I told Kent to pull over so we could check it out. I am an adult now, and we were already taking all day to get there, so we stopped, because why not? I went in and asked what it cost for a tour. I decided that we were going to do it. That is so not like us. But fun! So we took the 12 minute tour of Hole in the Rock. I guess in the 50's a couple moved there and decided to blast out this rock and live in it. They made it a restaurant as well. It was pretty interesting and cool to see once in your lifetime. I told the kids to look really well, because they were never going in again. What would ever make a couple want to do that? I have no clue. To each their own. They also had a little petting zoo that is free. It was actually a very worthwhile stop. The tour, well, if you have an inquiring mind that has to know, do it once. That will last you a lifetime.

They have a little place that you can walk around. They have all sorts of little displays, and fun places to take pictures. My camera ran out of memory before I was done taking pictures, or there would have been more.

They had a decent little petting zoo. I don't know why they call it a petting zoo though. There were sign everywhere saying don't touch the animals unless you want to donate your fingers. Some of the animals looked a little rough, but the kids loved it.

Who would want to try and pet this ostrich? NOT ME!!! It was staring me down, and I wasn't even that close to it!

They had this neat license plate wall, that is a great place for a photo. Too bad we had been traveling all day and looked a little rough.

After we had explored Hole in the Rock, it was back in the car until we got to Farmington. That was where I grew up. I gave them a tour of the town. I showed them our house on Rosa, the first house we lived in on Yale, the "wilderness", my high school where I spent a great portion of my life doing basketball, the airport, and anything else I could think of to tell them. I love kids. They love to hear stories about when you were a kid. I am glad that I could show them and tell them this now, before they are a little older and don't really care to go down memory lane with you. I loved Farmington. It was a great place to grow up. It is not the prettiest or cleanest of places, but I loved it and was happy there. I had great friends.

I have told the kids about when the boys went to Fathers and Sons how our Mom always took the girls to Long John Silvers for dinner. That was a BIG deal to us, because we never ate out. I have joked about it with my siblings for years. So we were cruising around town, and finally decided to eat at Long John Silvers. Just sitting there pouring the malt vinegar on my fish and fries made me smile to remember back to the good old days. I lived for the fathers and sons outings. Camille loves them already too.

We got back on the road and headed to Albuquerque. When we got to Cuba we filled up at

7 /2/ 11. I bet I have stopped there a hundred times on road trips in high school. We always got out and got a snack there, whether we were hungry or not. I didn't go in this time. I was too tired, and I already know what they have in there! :)

We got to Albuquerque after midnight. Boy, was that ever a long day. But I was so happy and felt like I had been able to enjoy the trip. Kent was such a good sport. He just let me go and do whatever I wanted. And the kids were awesome. They were such good travelers. It is nice to be able to slow down sometimes and enjoy the ride. And that I did.

Family Visit

We love living in Salt Lake . We get to see my family much more than we ever have before. Erin and her husband Kelly live here which is wonderful for us, and it is also a place where everybody comes. The last week in July/first week in August, we were able to spend a lot of time with my family. It was great. My parents were here from Florida at a conference. My Dad was able to stay for a few days, and my Mom stayed until August 9th. What a treat for all of us! While they were here, Carter was here as well, visiting from New Mexico. Jay, Ilene and Andrew who live in California came and surprised my parents with a visit. Everyone knew they were coming, except my parents, and it was a really nice surprise for them. They had not seen baby Andrew yet. Taylor and Krista came from Logan. All but 2 kids, and their families were here. We sure missed those who couldn't be here.

We were able to do some fun things while everyone was here. We had a couple of picnics in the park, did some shopping, hung out, and had a cookout up Big Cottonwood canyon one night. It was beautiful. Erin and Kelly cooked Jambalaya, and it was SOO yummy. They never disappoint when they are in charge of the cooking.

Camille was Aunt Krista's little shadow. One time, when asked what she was doing, Camille said that she was going to "go hang out with Aunt Krista." Is she old enough to "hang out"? She was so good to her. Our kids are so blessed to have aunts and uncles on both sides who are so sweet to them.

The kids had a ball playing in the dirt and rocks. There was a cave nearby, so they got to do a little exploring too.

Jay, Ilene, and Andrew. Andrew is the cutest baby with the best smile! It was so much fun to get to see them all for a few days!

Mom is the best! It was so nice to have her here for a little while. Poor thing, she got put to work! She helped me tackle my never ending laundry nightmare, and gave some good suggestions to help me. Also, a challenge to actually DO IT! She must be my Mom, because she knows me well. :) I loved getting to visit and just spend time together. We used to always do projects together when she came. We chuckled at the fact that life is so busy now, at the stage that I am in with our kids, that there never seems to be enough time to do those fun projects anymore. Someday.

It is always so nice to have Carter come visit. He and Erin were so good to me- they took the kids to the movie and the park one afternoon, and I had free time for a few hours. It was heaven! Guess what I did? I finished sewing a project that I have been working on. Ahh! What a thoughtful thing for them to do for us. We are so blessed to have great families. We are having a Payne reunion in Albuquerque in September. I am really looking forward to getting together again!

The Party is Over

Wow, where has November gone. It must have been whirlwind month because I can't seem to remember why I was so busy. This past week has been so fun, and now the party is over and it is back to life. All of my brothers and sisters, their families and my parents were here for Thanksgiving. We had such a nice time. The kids had a ball playing with their cousins. It is so nice when they get to the age that they just play and play and you hardly even see them. We have a playroom downstairs and the kids played down there, which made it easier to visit upstairs. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my sister and brother in laws, and it was AMAZING. Think of the best food ever, and multiply that by 5! My favorite was the stuffing. WOW! It was really nice. Our kids had colds and I am afraid we gave them to the whole family. A parting gift, I guess you could say. Sorry everyone. I love my family so much. It is so nice to be together and just talk, laugh and do whatever else we can find to do. Lindsay and I even braved a couple of early Friday morning sales. We went to the fabric store and boy, I have never seen so many flannel hoarders in my life. Thankfully we were just able to buy a bolt of fabric, didn't have to wait in line to get it cut, and we were out of there. WHEW! Seriously, we could have been there for 5 hours waiting in the cutting line. We also braved Roberts crafts, and that wasn't bad at all. It was fun to brave it together. Thanks to all of you guys for coming. It was so nice to have you here!

I started a new job last night. I am working at a job called myanswering.com. I am a "receptionist." Basically I am a receptionist for lots of different companies. When a call comes in, the company pops up on the computer, and there is a script so you know what to say and how to answer the peoples questions. Interesting. I am working M,T,TH,F nights for 5 hours and probably every other Sat . I started training last night. There was 3 of us there, and it was pretty dead. I just listened in with another girl. Let me just say, I am grateful that I won't have to have jobs like this forever. The people I work with were nice and well.. interesting. I hate to say it, but kind of what you would expect when you work for $8.00 and hour. I guess the bright side is they are entertaining? There are not many calls that come in at these times, so I think that I will be able to bring a project in or something to keep me sane while there is nothing to do. We'll see how it progresses. Let the adventures begin.