Snow Much Fun!!!

Here in our little neck of the woods we usually don't get much snow. When we do it either doesn't stick or melts pretty darn quick. Every once in awhile though we get a pretty nice snow storm that allows us to play a little. This last week we had lots of snow. The first day we got about 6 inches and it stayed all day. The problem was that it rained on the snow all day too so no playing. Thankfully we kept getting snow and it stuck around long enough on a nice day to play! Yay! Usually these kinds of fun snow days end up being on a weekday too so KC doesn't get to play with us. (And the number of pictures I get are limited.) This time our play day was on Saturday and oh boy did we play! Woowee!!! Wanna see? I could literally show you about 250 pictures (because I literally took that many) but I just picked a few of my most favorite ones to share.

On with the snow, er, I mean, SHOW! :o)

We had snowball fights - built a snow fort and everything!

KC got a little carried away ...

Who knew how much fun a snowy trampoline could be? The kids loved it when Daddy would "pop" the snow up from the bottom!

We used anything and everything we could find to use as a sled. I'll say, Daddy got a TON of exercise pulling everyone around on "sleds" - including me! (Sorry, no pictures of him pulling me ... I was too busy being pulled!) :o) When we weren't being pulled we were sliding down the handicap ramp at my mom's house. I'll tell you ... having a big backyard is a really great thing in times like these!

Mr. Engineer had to see if a shovel would make a better slide than the "Ice Comet." It didn't. ;-)

And, of course, there were snowmen! (Who knew you could use cake decorating supplies to decorate snow? LOL!)

This is KC's idea of a snowman ...

After all that play we were all tuckered out!

And there you have it! A totally awesome fun family day in the snow! I'm so glad Daddy could play with us this time. Is was way more fun having him play with us! I hope we get one or two more this winter! (It was good exercise too!)

So what's your favorite picture? Leave a comment (I think I have that feature fixed - and you shouldn't have to register or anything ... I hope) and let us know what you think!

Blessings!
KC, Shari, Kalyssa and Kaden

Merry New Year!

Yes, I know that I am probably the world's worst blogger. Not a single post since JUNE! I'm terribly sorry! I guess I had so many pictures that I got a little overwhelmed with all the editing/posting time involved. And since I'm working hard to reprioritze my life and actually get some things done and spend more time with my kids (meaning less time with my computer) that meant blogging got put on the back burner. So, I have decided that I will try to blog again but I'm not going to stress about getting all of those events I never posted (even though many of the photos are waiting in a folder to be uploaded) blogged and just start from scratch. Okay?

You also may have noticed that your mailbox did not receive, yet again, a Christmas card from us. I had a better excuse last year for not getting one done than I do this year. I won't try to make one up so I'll just apologize and hope that I can manage to get one done next year. No worries though, we did manage to take a family photo. Although getting everyone looking the same direction and smiling is practically impossible! Here's the family photo ... Aren't we cute? :-)

And then a few of my favorites of the kids. I think I might be getting better at this photography thing. All of these are taken using the manual settings on my camera in natural light. Would you believe I took these in our playroom? Not too shabby, if I do say so myself. Of course, it helps to have unbelievably gorgeous children to shoot!

If you just come to see the pictures you can stop here. If you are curious about our year then continue on. :-)

Most everyone knows that our year started out with the birth of our 2nd daughter Kelsey and all that came with that. The other kids still talk about her from time to time but we are are healing well and gain much comfort knowing that not only is she with Jesus but that we will be with her again someday.

The end of March brought us a new travel trailer. We've really enjoyed it when we've been able to use it. We really hope to bring it out much more, even if just for local camping, in 2010. The kids love it as much as we do so we hope to be able to see more of our home state.

One of the reasons we didn't camp as much as would have liked is that I had Spinal Fusion surgery in June. I felt improvement immediately! Now, if I can just discipline myself to stretch and exercise on a more regular basis I'm sure I'll continue to feel good.

During our 11 trailer trip to CA in May we bought annual passes to Disneyland since Kaden will be free until he turns 3 this coming May. We've been able to enjoy them on a couple of trips in September and November. We stayed in hotels both times and we're learning the ropes and tricks and all those other little things you only know from being a frequent visitor. Kalyssa is a roller coaster freak. The faster it goes the more she likes it. And she loves "the scary house" too! Kaden's favorite ride is the rockets on the edge of Tomorrowland. I get dizzy extremely easy so I can't go on those spinning rides. Poor KC gets to ride the rockets at least 5-6 times a day. And we usually go for 3-4 days per trip! Kaden is less of a roller coaster nut at this point but I see that changing as he gets older. He loves Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and Gadget's Go Coaster. He'll go on Matterhorn too but only if we take him on the rockets first.

For Kalyssa's 5th birthday trip to Disney she was able to get all dolled up at the Bibbiy Bobbity Boutique. We spent about 2 hours shopping and having hair and makeup done and then a full photo shoot in a beautifully painted fairy tale room with Cinderella's coach in it. She was gorgeous and I actually teared up at how beautiful she was. Once she became her chosen princess (Sleeping Beauty) she really "became" a Princess with a capital "P!" She couldn't really lean back in the stroller so she sat up straight as a board the entire day. She even has the Princess Wave down! I felt like I was pushing true royalty around all day long!

In September Kalyssa started preschool two afternoon's a week. She really loves it. And I really hope she still feels the same way about school a few years from now. She has proven to have my theatrical tendencies. At the end of her Christmas program she curtied and bowed and blew kisses over and over to the crowd. I think we just might have an honest to goodness drama queen on our hands!

Kaden has grown by leaps and bounds. Just in the last two months of the year he added an inch to his little frame. He's still a bean pole and on the very low side of the growth charts in weight but he eats well so I don't worry about him. He's just got my Dad's tall/skinny build. He's growing in his speach as well. He's gone from speaking just a few words at the beginning of the year to speaking full (and loooooonnnnnggggg) sentences every second of the day. Many (way too many) nights he's in his room talking/singing for a good hour or more after being put to bed. He knows the words to many songs and can almost complete the alphabet song. He can count to at least 10, sometimes 12 if he's in the mood. He's also a little troublemaker who loves to see just what he can get away with. Just yesterday he stole 2 lollipops while we were at Kalyssa's gymnastics class. And the other day he grabbed a flashlight while Daddy wasn't looking and went running after he said a resounding "Ah Ha!"

Speaking of trouble, I must tell you all about Kaden's Christmas present! This is definitely a story that has, and will continue to be retold for many years to come! Kaden's big gift this year was a new Lightening McQueen racecar bed from my Dad. (I almost think it was more for Daddy than son but we'll just move on, shall we?) Anywho, on Christmas Eve we put both kids down to bed in our room (that was a process ... too excited to sleep, you all know how that is, I'm sure!) Then KC and my Dad put together the bed in Kaden's room. After all the toys were put together and the stockings stuffed with care we finally decided to go to bed at about 2am. We gently put Kaden in his new bed, figuring he'd sleep until 7 or so. (Most days he gets up anywhere from 7 to 9am.) At about 4am (yes, only 2 short hours later) KC noticed the livingroom light was on. Kalyssa and I were still sleeping soundly next to him so there was only one suspect remaining. KC goes out and notices that most of the lights in the house are on. (Kaden has to stand on something to turn most light switches on.) Then he noticed that the lid to a storebought coffee cake was sitting on the coffee table. He goes down the hall, looks into Kaden's room and sees this ...

He'd eaten the centers out of at least 3 of those rolls before we were able to catch the little stinker! Now when we tell him to get in bed (although he's not actually sleeping in it yet since he gets put in the crib every time he gets out of his big boy bed) he says, "gonna go get food" with this sheepish grin on is face. I'm telling you, we've got our hands FULL with this one!

Now that you've gotten a quick update (yes, that was quick ... I honestly could have gone on for hours!) I will leave with with heartfelt prayers for a blessed 2010 for you and your families!

Here's hoping I can keep up more than every 6 - 7 months!

Many hugs from us to you!

♥ The Payne's

Uber long blog update ... part 2

On to our next camping trip! We started out in Desert Hot Springs because we drive much slower towing a trailer and needed a place to stop. We decided to stay 2 nights because once you get unhooked and set up if we left the next day we'd have to turn right around and pack up again. We found a great place called Sam's Family Resort and Spa. Like the name suggests ... Desert Hot Springs is, in fact, HOT! We discovered that our brand new trailer's a/c didn't work as well as we had hoped and it froze up! In 100+ degree heat! We called a guy out and he fixed it. We've since had some warranty work done on it so hopefully that won't happen again. We also probably won't stay 2 nights and just move on to the next spot so we can spend more time with family and friends. But we did have fun in the pool! As you will soon see ....
Kaden was not at all fond of the pool the first time we introduced him to it last year. He had much more fun this time.

He especially likes to jump into our arms from the side. We had to come up with a rule for the kids though otherwise they'd just jump in whether we were ready to catch them or not. They have to ask us if we are ready and they don't get to jump until we say we are ready. We tested them a few times and they did great!

Kalyssa is a little fish. She'd stay in the pool all day long if we let her! I guess we better get her into those swim lessons this summer. Hopefully my recovery won't mess that up for her..

I just love the look on his face here! Makes me laugh!

Kalyssa started off wanting her life vest, Kaden most certainly did NOT want that thing on. Kalyssa eventually warmed up to the idea that we would keep her safe so she took it off and had more fun. We tried to teach her how to float and stuff but just like school stuff ... she doesn't want to learn from us. I'm sure she'll do better learning from a complete stranger. Go figure.

Spitting image ... don't you think? Kaden is going to look EXACTLY like his Daddy when he grows up. I just know it!

Our next stop was to visit Grandpa Lester for lunch. We stopped in to the shop first where he is building a new race car. I'm sure you can imagine the pure joy Kaden found in that! Kalyssa liked it too!

They both got to "help" a little bit too. Happy campers!

And here is Grandpa Lester with 3 of his grand kids. (Notice Kaden's shirt? It says "My daddy is faster than your daddy." I just love that shirt! He and Kalyssa can say that to most people that they meet - except me and their Auntie Debbie. LOL!)

The next part of our trip involved parking our trailer in front of my best friend from high school's house for 4 nights. That was so perfect! Shannon's house is so kid friendly! The kids could go in and out as they pleased and they are close enough in age (except for Savanna who played so sweetly with them all! I really want a Savanna full-time! Not kidding ... Shannon, feel free to send her over here anytime!) that they all got along so well!

So the first night Shannon and I got to do something that we've been dying to do together for ages ... make a cake! It was so much fun. The problem was that neither of us were able to be as prepared as we normally would be so it didn't turn out quite as we pictured in our minds. But it still turned out really cute and it tasted even better! :o)

Kaden's birthday was the day we arrived. We had a little birthday party the day after (Mother's Day.) It was so perfect. Shannon has a jumpy house so we put that up. It was mostly just her kids and mine (with a too short, but fun visit from Jim, Mich and little Katie) so it was pretty much an all day party! It was the best Mother's Day ever! Spending it with my best friend and her family! The only thing that could have made it better would have been to have my mom and m-i-l there with us!

The birthday boy getting his tattoo. His shirt sings so he spent the day showing anybody and everybody. (How did he get to be 2 so fast anyway? Time is just speeding by!)

The sweet and adorable little Katie! That kid ... holy cow she's cute! You should hear her talk ... it's the cutest thing ever!

Another view of the cake. So, the part that we didn't plan too well was that we forgot to buy black fondant. If you've ever tried to color white fondant black you'll know that it's practically impossible. So we (or I should say Shannon) painted the black parts. I think it worked pretty good. :o)

The birthday boy blowing out his 2 candles.

Just in case you were wondering ... he loved the cake. :o)

After naps we set up the pinata. I've never quite understood this particular party pastime since one needs to smash to bits their favorite cartoon character. But the kids didn't seem to mind. Kaden got to go first. Neither of my kids had ever done the pinata thing before so they really enjoyed it.

The kids took turns in order of their age. Here are the older ones, waiting in line so patiently for their turn.

And Kalyssa managed to break it open!

Kaden needed a little help scrounging some candy in the frenzy. See how sweet Savanna is with him? Seriously ... I want a Savanna!

And just because I think it's funny .... my daughter has this thing about wearing her clothes backwards. She loves to do it. You can almost always tell when she dresses herself because of this particular fondness she has. So I had to include a picture of her backwards shorts. Once they are on like that there is no convincing her to fix it. It's too funny!

I thought this was funny. A little back story here ... Shannon and I have been singing together since the day we met. So we were putting on a little show for the kids (there are pictures but none of them are good so I'm not sharing them. You're welcome Shannon. LOL!) KC caught the dog, Tucker, sneaking a little sip from Shannon's drink. Silly dog! Apparently the pup loves to sneak in after any meal and "clean up." He's really a cute dog, even if I'm not really a "dog person." :o)

They have this great toy ... they are called Magna-Tiles. They are the coolest building toy! Savanna would have little school lessons where she would come up with a building project and set out all the needed tiles for each kid and go through step by step. (Have I mentioned how much I want a Savanna? I really, really do!) It was the best way for Kalyssa to learn how to use this toy. She loved it! This particular building came about when Dylan and Kalyssa decided that they needed to create a building that's taller than me (since I'm the tallest of all that were there that day.) Here they are showing off their creation. Do you see how Dylan is hugging my daughter? He's so in love with her! And she feels the same way. They both totally believe that they are going to get married some day.

See? This is what we pulled up to. Dylan wrote this on the sidewalk right where he was patiently waiting for us when we first got there. He also made sure to tell the little boy across the street that Kalyssa was his love and nobody else's. And they are betrothed too ... Dylan asked Kalyssa to marry him at the Grand Canyon 2 years ago. Don't you just adore young love? It's so sweet!

They live in this great neighborhood. It's not a cul-de-sac but it's tucked away so there is hardly any traffic. So they put up these "Slow Children Playing" signs and let the kids ride their scooters and bikes in the street. My kids don't have a good place to do these things so they haven't learned how yet. But I assure you that now Kalyssa insists she needs her own scooter! Maybe for her birthday.

Okay ... there you go ... part 2 complete. I'm working on finishing up beach pictures next. After I get those posted I'll finish up Disney pictures and then Palm Springs. Then I should be caught up.

Pine Cone and LightRoom 2

Just as promised ... my pine cone picture. I will continue to work on the pictures from our trip to California last month and get them posted soon.
Here is the original shot ... straight out of the camera. The following is the same shot with different techniques applied to in in Adobe Lightroom 2. Man I love that program! It's so much fun!

See? Wasn't that fun? Okay ... I'm sure I had more fun than you did but that's just the way it goes. If you want to have fun too you should go a download the free trial from Adobe.