25 Random Things

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things,Facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose people to be tagged. If I tagged you, It's because I want to know more about you. I decided to give this a try since I don't easily talk about myself... maybe writing is easier!

1. I guess the most obvious is how much I love my husband. Devin has been the most incredible blessing in my life... he has shown me more love than I could ever know, he has helped me to become a better person (and continues to help me), and only he could understand how absolutely goofy I can get.

2. Another obvious is how much I love Adalyn. She also is an amazing blessing that I doubt I deserve. Her little personality lights up my life, and puts a smile on the face of anyone we meet. She has been the most perfect baby and sometimes I wonder how I will ever love another child as much as I love her (I'm sure I will anyways!)

3. I am afraid that I will not be the wife and mother that Devin and Adalyn deserve. This is something I try very hard to work on everyday.

4. I have never skied or snowboarded. Seeing as how I have lived my whole life in Utah, everyone wonders how this is possible.

5. One day I hope to become a therapist... I have wanted to do this for as long as I can remember, and crazy as it sounds I enjoy working with troubled teens. (I know, they are all troubled, right?)

6. I am deathly afraid of spiders. Even writing this is making me cringe. I cannot watch them on TV, see fake ones, or think about them without getting freaked out... imagine what I'm like when there is a real one in the room... ugh, I have to stop.

7. I am not a morning person... especially if haven't had an ample amount of sleep (ample=9 or more hours). But I am a night person and could stay up all hours of the night. You can see my predicament!

8. I have had 3 broken arms and a broken foot in my lifetime.

9. I do not have my tonsils, they were removed when I was 18 years old after suffering with Strep throat twice (or more) every year.

10. Failure is not an option for me. Unfortunately this sometimes inhibits what things I will try. If I think I will fail, I will not try it. This is a major flaw of mine.

11. I secretly wish I was a professional dancer. If psychology did not exist I would have given dancing a go. Hmm... makes you wonder where I would be now?

12. If I know I will be having a serious conversation with someone, I practice what I want to say in the mirror. Of course, I always practice it more dramatically than it actually turns out being.

13. I am the least healthy person in the world... If I had my choice I would fill my 3 meals a day with junk food, chocolate, and Coca-Cola and I definitely don't buy into all the "organic" mumbo-jumbo.

14. I can still touch my leg to my nose, either by standing and bringing my leg to my face, or by sitting and bringing my face to my leg.

15. I wear my emotions on my sleeve. I feel things very strongly and can only contain my feelings for so long before they spill out of me and land on whatever poor soul happens to be near me at the time.

16. Very few people understand my sense of humor... it is a strange combination of sarcasm, silliness, and pushing limits. I appreciate those who understand me, but I appreciate even more those who don't understand me and laugh anyways.

17. Much to the chagrin of others, I have not now (nor ever will) read Twilight.

18. I suffer from the winter doldrums. Every winter I go through a period of time where I am completely unmotivated. I don't want to do anything but stay in my pajamas, curl up in bed, and watch sappy movies.

19. The above is the complete opposite of my Type A personality. I always feel the need to be doing something and rarely take time to relax. Many a time, Devin has had to coax me into sitting down and watching a movie over cleaning the house.

20. I HATE the cold. Nothing is worse than being cold. If I could make the temperature 85 degrees or higher every minute of everyday, I would.

21. If I had one wish it would be to be able to read others thoughts. Then again, that might be more trouble than what its worth.

22. I love to craft and scrapbook. I would say it is cathartic for me except that as a perfectionist, it ends up adding more stress than releasing it.

23. I have the two best families in the world. I am so fortunate to not only know these people, but to call them my family. I have grown to love each person for their unique qualities and am blessed to have them in my life.

24. I will admit that I cry during movies. I don't think I have ever watched The Notebook or Charly without crying. I only watch these movies by myself because Devin just makes fun of me and the movie which totally ruins the mood.

25. I had the amazing opportunity of knowing my Great Grandma and Grandpa Deem. I had them until I was 12 years old and they made such an impact on my life. They were the two best people ever and they always made me feel so special and loved. The other night I had a dream about them... they were holding Adalyn.

I now tag anyone who dares to attempt this. It really isn't as easy as it seems!

More Time Out Than In

It's hard to believe, but Adalyn has now been out of the womb longer than she was in it. She turned 9 months old yesterday and has kept us quite busy lately. Here are some videos of what she has been up to in the past month...

At exactly 8 months, Adalyn decided that it was time to get moving. Now that she has started, there is no stopping her. She follows me around the house and quite naturally gets into everything she can reach.

Adalyn is already learning and understanding what words mean. The next two video clips will show a few that she has learned so far.




Adalyn is such a sweet girl and loves to share anything from food, to toys, to her binkie. She gets so excited when we ask her to share (as long as she gets the item right back!)


She also had her doctor's appointment today and we found out that she is as little as we thought. Her stats are as follows: Weight-17.3 lbs. (21%) Height-26.5 in. (16%) Head-17.5 in. (64%). Everything else looks great and we are loving her sweet and happy personality. She is truly the joy of our lives.

What if...

I like watching Sportscenter almost daily, just ask my wife. I have seen the difference between soccer highlights and basketball highlights. So, I would like to make a list of "what if basketball highlights were the same as soccer highlights?"

• After every made basket, basketball players would take off their shirts and run around for 5 minutes until the announcer stopped yelling "baaaaaaaaaaaasket"
• The highlights would show a bunch of shots that almost went in
• Every time there was a foul (which would most likely be a flop), two little men would come out and take the player away in a stretcher. The player on the stretcher would then come back into the game about 5 minutes later.
  
• The announcers would be excited about a tie

Okay, the second "what if..." goes like this. I was having a conversation with someone awhile back. They were saying that eating too much ice cream or sweets was just as bad for you as drinking too much beer. Needless to say, we argued about it for a little bit, but then I thought to myself, "what if eating Ice Cream and sweets were like drinking beer?"

• Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) would have to be changed to Mothers Against Sweet Substances (MASS)
• Instead of a sobriety test, policemen would have to perform "sugar variety" tests.
• Linger longers would just be out of control
• The breathalizer would stay pretty much the same, except the better your breath was the more trouble you would be in.
  
• Too much ice cream would lead to a hangover of the love handles the morning after
• After winning the World Series the players would simply throw cinnamon rolls at one another

Please feel free to comment about any other "what ifs..." that you've thought about.

Payne Files

Well, it has been quite some time since I have posted to the Payne Nation. I have let my better half take care of those duties for many moons now. After multiple internal struggles, I have decided that I need to share my thoughts and observations with the diligent readers who frequent the blog.

A few funny observations that have come up recently (some are thanks to other people):

• Why do they put caution signs on automatic doors... shouldn't they put them on doors that don't automatically open for you?
• Why is the SLC New Year's celebration called "First Night"... shouldn't it be "Last Night?"
• CC Sabathia (the new pitcher for the NY Yankees) will make roughly $7,000 dollars every time he throws a single pitch this season.
• Howard D. Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks, made more than my 2008 annual salary when he worked an 8 hour day on January 1st of 2008.
• Isn't it weird that I spend a lot of time and money watching over-grown men shoot a round leather ball into a circular metal thing? Krystal spends time watching under-grown people listen to music and move all their limbs at the same time.
  
• Finally, why do I find that everything my daughter does is awesome? No matter what it is I think it is the best thing that any little kid has ever done... she sneezed the other day and I clapped for her.
  

Many outlandish thoughts and observations flutter through my head everyday. I plan to share some of them with you, but the others will be kept to myself to someday make millions of dollars for my clients in their Ad campaigns.

Now, to put an end to this first chapter of my blog resurgence, I would like to share a few facts about my wife and me that you may not know (I don't plan on "tagging" anyone afterward).

• I am watching Krystal break the hula hoop record on the wii fit right now.
• We both have the same middle name (I'm sure it is something manly), which is pretty much the reason we got married.
  
• Although we read every night, Krystal has never read a single word in any Twilight book
  
• We don't mind eating processed foods... we are kind of skeptical of the word "Organic"
• About and hour ago we had a contest to see who could kiss Adalyn the most
• We try to find the positive aspects of any situation
• Neither of us voted or wore an "I voted" sticker (obviously), and we don't think that we are bad citizens because of it... although many others have displayed their disgust.
  

Your first dose of my ranting and raving. Don't worry, your headache will subside with time. Thanks to the slowing economy, I am getting home from work at a decent hour and I have more time to reflect on the little things that make life interesting and enjoyable.

I'm outta here... without even a photo of Addie. Alright, I better put up just one. This may be what most of you are doing right now.

Tag Your It!

I was tagged by my sister...Question and Answer: Answer the following questions with ONE word answers and one word only!Then pass it on..

1. Where is your cell phone? Pocket
2. Where is your significant other? Work
3. Your hair color? Dark
4. Your mother? Thoughtful
5. Your father? Hard-Working
6. Your favorite thing? Family
7. Your dream last night? Weird
8. Your dream/goal? Therapist
9. The room you’re in? Office
10. Your hobby? Crafts
11. Your fear? Losing
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Anywhere
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. What you’re not? Mellow
15. One of your wish-list items? Washer
16. Where you grew up? Roy
17. The last thing you did? Skype
18. What are you wearing? Blue
19. Your TV? Silver
20. Your pet? None
21. Your computer? New
22. Your mood? Content
23. Missing someone? Yes
24. Your car? Honda
25. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes
26. Favorite store? Target
27. Your summer? Tiring
28. Love someone? Absolutely
29. Your favorite color? Pink
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Unknown

I now tag Angie, Sara, Shannon, Becky, and Jenny.

Cousins

We had so much fun over the holidays watching Adalyn with all of her cousins. She absolutely loves all of them. It was great watching them all interact and seeing their different personalities. We can't wait to see the younger ones in a year when they are talking and running around with the older ones.


Addie and Maddie(6weeks apart)

Adalyn and Kayson (2 1/2 months apart)
Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of the other cousins... but Adalyn really loved playing with and watching Natalee, Carson, Eleanor, and Isaac. She has some really great kids to look up to.

(Side Note: For those who are keeping tabs, Adalyn pooped a different color today and of course I wanted everyone to know!)

Our Christmas Fun

Our Christmas was extremely eventful this year as our family on both sides was in town. It was so much fun though... especially getting all of the cousins together. Adalyn had so much fun playing with all the kids and we really enjoyed spending time with everyone. It really made the holidays so much more fun. Here are the many pictures of the season...


The Reed and Ruth Payne Christmas Party... The Great Grandchildren Eleanor and Isaac pushing Maddie around the church.



This family is so big the party has to be held in a church!



The kids do a wonderful reinactment of the Savior's Birth.



Right before the warring of the White Elephants begins!



The Wayment Christmas Eve Party...
This party is an annual tradition and it is not a party anyone would want to miss. My parents go all out with yummy food and fun games. We also have the tradition of the Christmas Eve pajamas as you can see with Adalyn modeling hers.


Christmas Day...
It was fun watching Adalyn open her presents, although I think she was a bit overwhelmed in the end! Opening presents with Grandma and Grandpa Wayment


Kayson Olsen... Check out those big blue eyes!


Christmas Dinner...


A tradition for Christmas dinner is to open "poppers" and wear the hats found inside. That's what you get with an African Mother-In-Law!


After dinner Adalyn and Madalyn had a chance to play together. It was fun watching them interact. Another post on the cousins will follow.