Annual Payne Family & Friends Saturday After Thanksgiving Tradition!

For those of you who know anything about me and my family...you will know that we LOVE traditions! We have so so many traditions! Some big, some little, some just us, and some involving everyone we know! Traditions! We love them, look forward to them, want to share them, and are always starting new ones!

And this is one of our biggest! We can't remember exactly what year it started and the first couple of years we did things a little different but its pretty set now! We even passed out fliers the last two years!!! It's awesome!

It starts with lunch at El Matador.

Left side of table, front to back: Becky, Nick, Tanith, Hannah (hiding), Jeri, Dave

Right side of table, back to front: Kevin (hiding), Dad, Mom, Craig, Lana, Emily, Cory, Leah

View from the other direction!

Left side of table, front to back: Kevin, Dad, Mom, Craig, Lana, Emily, Cory, Leah

Right side of table, back to front: Becky, Nick, Tanith, Hannah, Jeri, Dave, Nephew

Me & Lana

Leah & I

After the parade we like to walk over and kill time by walking thru the Christmas Tree Jubilee. But for some reason this year it closed a day earlier so there were no trees, no crafts, no warm building to walk around in, and no bathrooms to use. So instead we stood outside and just chatted amongst ourselves while we waited for the parade to start.

Becky, Dad, Nephew, Niece, Kevin, Me, Dave, Jeri, Mom, Craig, & Lana

Me, Amy, Kelsey, & Lana!

More just waiting around! (Can you see Lana cheesing it up in the back!)

After the parade we all head back to my house for my dad's famous milkshakes!

Travis, Nick, Ally, & Dustin

Tanith & Travis

Me, Lana, & Craig

Mom, Becky, Brenna, David (I actually don't remember his name so that's what we are calling him)

My dad at his post!

As you can see there are different people at different parts of the night! Everyone is invited to it all and then they just come to the parts they can! There were even more people who showed up later for milkshakes! It was a GREAT day! So much fun filled with so many great friends! That is exactly why I love traditions so much! A chance to see people! I love people!! Thanks everyone who came!

I could not be more proud!

Lana came over tonight and I helped her finish her beanie!!! Look at what a fantastic job she did knitting it! She even changed colors!

The finished product!

Here she is wearing it! It's actually gonna be a gift for someone but she had to try it on to make sure it works! :) Isn't it so cute!

Seriously. I could not be more proud! Lana - you are awesome!

Wendover!

Friday was such a great day!!!!!! I got to sleep the whole drive there! Be lazy in the hotel room until the concert! See a fantastic concert! Sleep great! And then sleep the whole drive home! Definitely a well needed, even though it was short, vacation!

Now for my review on the concert! It was excellent! The concert hall in Wendover is fantastic! It is very small...I'm not sure how to describe it but i'd say its smaller than a high school auditorium is. So it makes for a very personal (I don't know if that's the right word or not) concert. And it was a Christmas concert so it was very mellow! No standing up and screaming and singing at the top of my lungs...just a good sit back and enjoy yourself kinda night!

And the people watching was awesome! I don't know how to tell stories of the people next to me without sounding totally judgmental so I'll keep the specifics to myself but just know I enjoyed the people watching alot! The one thing I will say is the group next to us kept talking before the show started and kept saying that they hoped she sang mostly her songs and not too much Christmas. Um the concert was called Wynonna A Classic Christmas! (It was even printed that way on the ticket) Pretty sure there will be mostly Christmas songs! And let me just say...it was mostly Christmas. I think she sang for just a little over an hour and I think my dad said she sang 19 songs. I can't remember right now if that's what he said but it sounds right. And I think maybe 3 or 4 were non-Christmas.

I think my favorite part about the concert was how real she seemed. She just seemed very human and at one point when she was supposed to go offstage for a costume change...she forgot and they cut her mic as she was talking and she went "what? Oh I totally forgot!!" then walked offstage! It was awesome! Then when she came back on she said "I didn't change my outfit cuz I chose to fix my hair! That's a woman's prerogative (don't know how to spell that sorry)" So fun! It just made it seem real to me! I really enjoyed myself!

Here are a couple of pictures I took!

Here we are at dinner! (It's the same place we ate for breakfast the next morning) And that bread that they brought us was fantastic just FYI!

My wonderful parents!

This bed was probably the most comfy hotel bed I've ever slept in! It was fantastic!! The picture does not do it justice!

Quick Post

So I know that technically I didn't update on saturday but I haven't gone to bed yet so I'm still counting this!!!! I had a great couple days and will blog all about it tomorrow! Good night!

Happy 50th Mom!!!

Today is the big 5-0 for my mom! Happy Birthday!

Here is the gift I got her! I bought it months ago just for the record!!

Here she is with all her gifts!

Really Quick!

I don't have much time today! We just spent the morning shopping! (Not the butt crack of dawn morning - we're not that crazy - but we did want the sales!) Got some really good stuff for Christmas - it was a very successful trip! Now we (Me, Mom, & Dad) are hurrying to pack cuz we're headed to Wendover to see Wynonna Judd's Christmas Concert at the Peppermill Concert Hall!!! Gonna be so fun! I'm excited for a good concert and lots of being lazy in a hotel room!!!

Thanksgiving day!!!

Today was a pretty fantastic day! It started out this morning with Turkey Bowl organized by Leah! (was earlier than I normally would have gotten up but totally worth it!) She did a great job and there were tons of people there! And many of them were Aida cast people and although its only been like 2 weeks since we closed...I've missed them so it was SOOOOOO good to see them again!
Now if you know me at all...you know I'm not really athletic in ANY way shape or form! So I just sat on the sidelines and enjoyed watching everyone else play! They seemed to have a great time and there were no injuries so I'd say it turned out pretty well!

Here is Sami keeping me company before she went in to play!

And here is Meganne when she first got there!

I couldn't really see the screen of my camera cuz it was so bright out so I just took a ton of pictures hoping when I got home and could load them on my computer, that there'd be some good ones worth posting! I think there are a couple worth posting! I'll point out anything I think is worthy!

Okay - I had to post this one to show the awesome short/pant thing Jake has going on! Fantastic!

Leah tackling Candace...not sure why but fun to watch!

Just a little Jamila & Cory

Eddie with the ball!

Eddie getting pushed out of bounds! And notice how much Leah and Cory are into the game...just standing there watching!

Great action shot!

After Turkey Bowl I headed home and then we (my family) headed to Smithfield for Thanksgiving dinner!

Chris, Me, & Becky

The day consisted of alot of this...

and this....

We really like to sit around and talk...so that is what most of the day was! LOVED IT!

After we had eaten and were full...no one wanted to move

Then for the highlight of my day! My cousin Tiffany (the one I was closest to growning up) and her family came over! And she has a cute 3 month old named Owen! This was the first time I'd actually seen him so of course the moment she walked in I went straight to the baby! And she pulled him right out of his carseat for me to hold! (She knows me so well)

Me with Owen

Everytime I would hold the camera up he would lift his head up and look right at it! So great for taking pictures! I didn't get any of him smiling so you could see his cute cute dimple though.

Owen

My cousin Chris and his friends the Dinosaurs!

So that was my Thanksgiving! I have spent the rest of the night being lazy, laying in bed, reading! Makes for a pretty great day! I LOVE people! So my main Thanksgiving thoughts are I have the best family and friends and am thankful everyday for being so blessed!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Best Calling In The Church!

Okay, I seriously have the best calling in the church! So good in fact that I hate to even write it here for fear that you will read this and want my calling for yourself!

I am in the Young Womens in the Weber Valley Branch. The Weber Valley Branch is a branch that gets to go to the Youth Correctional facility that is located in my stake. Oh my goodness...I LOVE my calling! We get to go in on Sundays for an hour and have a basic gospel lesson and then again on Wednesdays for an hour and have Young Womens/Boy Scouts. Anyways...I love these kids! I can not tell you how much I love to be able to go there and just share with the kids that they are loved, to teach them basic things like faith, repentence, and to help them learn basic life skills and help them know they are worth the fight! Some kids we see only once and they never come back, and some kids are 'regulars'. They'll be in for a few weeks then out for a while then back in, again and again. And even though we hate that they are there (it means they've messed up big time) we love to see them and get the priviledge of loving them unconditionally. And I have to say we even get a couple favorites! One of the best parts is that we are not allowed to ask them what they did to be there so we never have to see the bad side of them! Anyways...I could go on and on about all the little things I love about my calling but I will save that for future posts! So I will get to the reason for this post...

Occasionally on Wednesday we'll have a combined activity. Tonight we tied fleece blankets to donate to Primary Children's Hospital (see previous post about how much I love Emily & Cory for helping me cut blankets all day) and it went FANTASTIC! There were only 14 kids in the center tonight but we were able to get over 50 blankets tied! We showed them a video that had been made a couple of years ago with some people in our stake telling stories of their kids who have been in Primary Children's and having received things that were donated. Then we let them tie blankets...everyone tied atleast two and some tied three or four! It was awesome to be a part of! Then we fed them pie (We called tonight 'Pie & Tie') and just had a good time!

Seriously...best calling in the church!

More Cute Kids!

So I had no idea what I wanted to blog about today so I started looking through my pictures trying to come up with something fun! And when I got to these pictures I knew this was my blog for the day!!

I have been friends with Star since I think it was my sophomore and her freshman year! We were in marching band together and both played the flute! As time's gone on we've stayed pretty close! We don't see each other much but we get together occasionally and are able to get caught up on our lives! She now has two totally cute and adorable little kids! When Aiden was only about a month or so old she let me come over and dress him up in my build-a-bear clothes! So much fun! Unfortunately that was before I had my digital camera so I don't have any of those pictures to show off. But about 3 months or so ago she let me come over and dress her couple week old little Brynlee in build-a-bear clothes! Oh my gosh! So cute!!! Here are some of the pictures from our dress up party!

This is my favorite one! I LOVE her little grin!

Dressed up as a Christmas present!

Dorothy! Complete with the ruby slippers and a toto dog!

Snow White

A valentine's fairy

So cute! Look how happy she is!

She didn't really like this outfit! But her little sad face is so cute!

Princess Aurora

She really didn't like this hat!

This was the last dress up we did and although she is not happy...she is still dang cute!

After this we wrapped her up in a blanket and I got to hold her until she fell asleep! That is one of the best things in the world! Holding a little baby while they sleep!!

Thanks Star for letting me play Build-A-Bear dress up with Brynlee!