4th of July 2011

 We thought that we would spend the holiday recuperating from the vacation, and maybe go catch up on some movies we when Suzy & Paul invited us to go hiking we could not pass it up.  It was the most perfect day to go hiking.  It was hot, overcast and a little drizzly. 

 We met them at the mouth of Bell's Canyon.  The hike was so pretty, and not very easy.  We got a good work out.  

 We hiked to the first falls.  It is so crazy how much run off there is this year. 

The view was so beautiful.

We had so much fun hiking.  It really was the perfect day for it.  We all got pretty dirty (: 

After our hike we cleaned up and headed to Rick & Stacey's for dinner and to hang out with the kids.

Me & Preslie

It was a pretty quiet night.  Nice and relaxing!

Pays Rick Stacey Talan

Talan Shawn Payson

New Years & Resolutions

2011
Shawn and I had a hard time deciding where to spend our New Year's Eve. We are lucky to have so many friends and family that live near by that are always doing fun things. We decided to start off the night with Kioko & Carl's Brazilian family in Draper. Kioko told us there were just going to be finger-foods, but we should have known better...we had a huge sit-down meal with sooo much yummy food.

We call Kioko our "Brazilian Mom" (ps. she is of japanese decent but is from Brazil). She takes such good care of us!

Shawn eating this yummy Brazilian style pizza.

Around 10:30 we headed to Suzy's school to play some games in the gym. It was soooo cold!!!

Suzy & Paul getting ready for some hockey!

I had so much fun playing wall-ball with Shawn. Ha, it brought back good memories from my elementary days. We had such a great night with these guys!

Goals for 2011:

• Organize & back-up our pictures
• Go to the temple once a month
• Teach Maggie more tricks...she knows one :(
• Lose the marriage weight
• Print & hang more pictures
• Run 780+ miles = only 3 miles/day @ 5 days a week...should be a relatively easy goal
• Ready the scriptures 7 days a week (Sunday church counts as reading)
• Save more! Spend less!
• Find time to read the books that I want to...instead of the books that I have to!
• Make dinner 3-4 x's a week & eat out only once a week!
• Be 80% vegan all year long

Things to keep doing:

• Making green smoothies every morning
• Continue getting 8 hours of sleep each night
• Blogging!
• Keeping the apartment clean and organized
• Spending quality time with the hubby
• Look & pray for missionary opportunities
• Attending church every week
• Writing Curtis every week
• Keep focusing on what we are putting in our bodies
• Making a conscious effort to be more positive & optimistic

Christmas 2010

We decided to sleep at my parents Christmas Eve because we didn't have any presents to exchange at home and my mom said she had something "really fun" planned.

Shawn opening his stocking.
We decided to get iphones this year! We love them, and don't know how we lived with out them!

My dad asked us all a couple of days before what we wanted to eat for breakfast. Everyone had what they wanted. It was great. Thanks Dad!

I requested crepes and Shawn requested french toast that he could eat with his hands (long story short...our big first fight as a married couple was over the way shawn ate my french toast).

My mom made yummy cinnamon rolls.

Kevin bought and wrapped a lot of his own presents this year. He is such a nerd!

Me and my stocking.

All of us...including Swayze and Maggie.

My mom playing Santa.

Kevin always thinks it's hilarious to give me something pregnancy related for birthdays/christmas. He just wants us to have kids so bad.

Maggie and her huge bone!

So after opening presents my mom sent us kids on a scavenger hunt for our big presents. YES, I said a scavenger hunt. My mom is funny. She gave us sealed envelopes and then sent us a text message for where to go. First stop was Bishop Webbs...we had to give them the freshly baked cinnamon rolls and then sing a carol. It was awful. So embarrassing. Then they gave us a clue to our present...poles.

After we completed that our mom sent us the address for the next house. We went to I think 3 or 4 places and had to sing carols at all of them. It was so random. We definitely will not ever forget it! Shawn was assigned to be the video taper...I hope that thing never gets leaked to the public.

We went back and tried to figure out what the clues were. We had no idea.

It was a ping-pong table and a big flat screen for the basement. Yay! I was so impressed because the boys put together the table with out fighting!

It will be so much fun to have!

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After playing at my parents we drove out to Mickie's for brunch.

It's always fun to see the kids so excited to show us what Santa brought them.

I hardly took any pictures. I'm so mad! After hanging out at Mickies for a while we all headed to Rick & Stacey's for dinner, and just hung out and played games. It was a great day!

Christmas Eve 2010

Christmas Eve this year we went bowling in the afternoon with the Blymillers. It was kind of in a sketchy part of town. I was a little bit afraid to go inside but it was actually way nice and so fun.

Pays & Mick

Payson & Talan

Rick & Hayden
Shawn and his sweet bowling shoes.
Preslie & Me
Kallie was obsessed with picking up the balls...but didn't even care once she pushed it off the ramp.

I hate bowling...so I didn't bowl. But I had a fun time running around after the kids and just hanging out!
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In the evening we packed up our stuff and headed to my mom's for dinner. I didn't take any pictures but my cousins Devin and Chris (and his family) came over. It was yummy food!

We got to talk to Curtis around 8pm. We were all so excited!
We tried to skype...but he couldn't hear us. So we watched him while we talked to him on the phone. He looks so good and was so much fun to talk to. He only has a couple of more months!

Shawn & Bryce

Bryson.Spencer.Dad.Mom. all talking to Curtis

Sporting their new bff dog tags... they are such nerds!

Can I just say that I'm kind of relieved that we wont have to do anymore conference calls with missionaries for a while??? It's such a pain in the butt! We all end up mad at each other after. We really should just each take like 10 minutes talking to the missionary...but we all want to hear whats going on. So instead we do a big conference call and talk over each other the entire time. Lame. It's great to talk to them, but it will be more great when everyone's home and we wont have to do it anymore!

After we were done talking to Curtis we did PJ's and just hung out. Nothing too exciting!

Blymiller Christmas Dinner Outing...

This year instead of drawing names for gifts we decided to all go out to dinner and a movie, with out kids. It was so much fun. We were laughing the whole night.

We had a really great chef who laughed at our little conversations we were having.

Shawn and I got sushi...or as Chris would say ... "SHuuushi".

After dinner Shawn had to head out for his Inter Alumni game. The rest of us went to see "Little Fockers". Apparently Chris felt like him and I were on a date or something...he wouldn't sit by me at the movie. ha ha.

Fun night, love you guys!

Thanksgiving 2010

This year Thanksgiving Day was spent at my parents. We woke up early for Shawn to play futsal with friends. After we drove to my parents and watched some movies and prepared for the feast.

I love Thanksgiving...a whole day dedicated to vegging and munching.

I never post anything about Maggie. We just love her. She drives us nuts sometimes but she is so cute!

Precious moments with Maggie & Spencer...

getting ready for dinner...

Kevin insisted that Schwayze be a part of the feast...don't worry he was only up on the table for the picture.
Dad & Mom
After the Thanksgiving feast we all went to see "The Next Three Days" with Russell Crowe.

After that it was dessert time!

...happy "Slapsgiving" (from the show How I met your Mother).

Peanut butter slapped...

My mom and I did some arts & crafts.

The whole downstairs kitchen is my moms "craft" kitchen...she just redid the little nook. It looks great!

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we did a big dinner with Shawn's family.

Chris was picking on the boys so I put peanut butter on their hands and told them to slap him...it kind of back fired. But they did get him!

We decorated a gingerbread house!

Shawn and I have so much to be grateful for. It really is ridiculous how blessed we are!