Happenings

We went out to eat last night for our anniversary (our 6th). We went to Krung Thai - a little Thai resturaunt on Menaul. I had squid stir fry and Jason had spicy frog leg vegetable something or other (to get ready for our Florida trip he says). It was sooooo good. We just finished the left-overs. Here's this full on little squid with a head and legs and those tiny little suction cups all over. Although I really like them, it is a bit disturbing to see those things- you sort of expect them to slide off your spoon and long jump into your water. Allie ate the whole thing (really- how many 4 year olds do you know who would eat that- let alone adults... Chris :). Luke went crazy for the frog legs. They were fried cross sections with little femur bones that you had to pick out and Dad just couldn't do it quickly enough. Yep, we have pretty good little eaters at our house. Did I mention this was all spicy?

Jason: We mail ordered a new camera for our Florida vacation. Here are some test shots. (All of these were taken with a 50mm/f1.8 Prime lens, Canon 30D). Hopefully I'll have some better shots to post next week.

Hike Video (see post below)

The Expedition

After a long week on the road, Joy got a chance for some quiet time with Wesley at church this morning (some type of Relief Society lunch). Allie Luke and I (Jason) decided to go on a hike up the street from us. We dusted off Uli's baby backpack and set out. Here are some pics from the climb (I'll post some video when Blogger decides to let me). This first one cracks me up -- it is classic Luke with slobber pouring from his mouth. We started calling him a little Gila Monster with poisionous saliva (or is that a Komodo Dragon?):
For being under 2, Luke did pretty well and had a great time.


Allie kept reminding Luke and me to watch out for the "pokeys." I wonder if we got that word from Taylor?

We'll have to keep training this week to be ready to hike around Grandma and Grandpa Payne's home in Florida. We leave in a week or so!

For Kelly and Erin

Recently I had found myself thinking a lot about Kelly and Erin's cat Scooter. I didn't know why. I thought maybe it was because there was a picture or two of him on their blog. Finally one morning it dawned on me...
Funny how I never remember even reading the name when I bought it or any time after that, well, until I read it.

Valentines Day

I was waiting for this photo to be able to share our Valentine's Day with all of you! We had a nice day. Jason found a surprise homemade Valentine in his truck on his way to work (ya, pretty much just made one this year). We had Moroccan Chicken for dinner- still one of my favorites Lindsay! Jason didn't have any meetings that night so it was a nice evening at home. But there was a surprise. Just as we were finishing dinner there was a knock at the door. These four women are a barber shop quartet (Jason called them the "hair salon" quartet). They brought be a card, a rose and a box of chocolates and then of course they sang! I loved it. It was really beautiful. And it made me cry. What a fun surprise and what a great Valentines Day.

*Side note: One of the songs had a line that went "...we ain't got a barrel of money..." ya da ya da more lyrics "... Side by side..." It was really a sweet song about how we are in this together and that there is no one I would rather go through life with etc. But I must be a mother because for the rest of the week I kept thinking of that song but in my head it kept coming out "... we ain't got a barrel of monkeys..." And that of course is debatable.

Cleaning Tip #23

For a really good clean, try adding all the lids you can find to your load of laundry already in progress.

-Luke

Who's ya daddy?!

You can tell the difference between Jason's blog posts and my (Joy) blog posts because mine are so wordy. That's what Jason says. So I am sure you can tell right away who is writing. We always write about what our kids are up to so I thought I would write about what Jason is up to. Work has been pretty busy (I know- nothing new there). He has a trip to Minnesota planned and this last week he had some customers in town so he was working late and meeting with them. More and more he is unable to play the "random kid in the room". It used to be that people didn't pay much attention to him because he looked so young and they had no idea he was the engineer until he spoke. I think he kind of liked that role. It sort of shocked people. Now, he is starting to look his age and of course people know who he is. I suppose maybe some new customers still write him off at first. And then they find out he's a genius. With work being so time consuming the "honey-do" lists grow and often don't get checked off for awhile. Example below- plastic on the doors. I was thinking about the Thanksgiving where Jay and James put the plastic up for us (so Ilene wouldn't have to freeze sleeping in the family room on the couch). Fun memories. Anyway we should have gotten the plastic up much sooner. Our $335 heating bill last month made it a priority. I know- YIKES! You'd think we live in a 5000 sq ft house or something. I thought this shot was kind of fun because you can see their reflection.
Although work takes most of the time I would say Jason's main "job" is dad (yes, he's my husband first but that's all fun and "joy", not work :). He is a GREAT dad! We put the kids to bed the other night and Jason was holding Wesley. The kids were having a hard time settling down to sleep so Jason went in to check on them. This is how I found them, all snuggled on Allie's bed and Allie was telling them all a bed time story- Peter Pan. They eventually all had to go back to their own beds.
His other priority is his calling which he does very well (so says our ward family . They always tell me what a great job he does as councelor). It has been fun to watch him grow and although it does take time, we receive many blessings for it. That is something hard to describe, just something you experience. Below is a card all the YW signed for his service. They held a special Thank You dinner for the bishopric (and wives but Wesley had just been born 3 days before so I missed out).So I guess this was kind of a brag blog, but I feel so lucky to be married to this man. And I recognize that his parents and family have a HUGE part in who he is today. I am a firm believer that siblings help raise one another and have an enormous impact on who we are as adults. I can think of stories about each one of you to prove my point. So really this is a Thank You Paynes- to each of you.