Mommy and the Boys

A friend of mine that I grew up with in Ogden Valley is starting her photography business and I was fortunate enough to find a few free minutes to get some pictures of the boys. Unfortunately poor Ryker was not feeling good and it was pretty cold the day we met up so it was one of the shortest photo shoots ever; but Amy did a great job and I'm so excited to show off how cute my boys are!! Enjoy!


Karsen - 7 months

Ryker - 3 years old

Best Buddies


Mommy and Karsen


My sweet Ryker

Happy Halloween!

The older my boys get, the funner the holidays seem to be! Ryker is starting to get very in to Halloween and got to pick his costume for the first time. He really wanted to be Thor; I thought it would be really easy to find the costume - not so much! I finally found it online and when I got it Ryker had to put it on right away - then watch Thor! All through the movie he kept asking "Mom, can I pick up cars?", "Mom, can I fly?". LOL!

Karsen still doesn't know what is going on, but I will never miss an opportunity to dress my boys up in funny costumes. Karson was a little dragon and looked adorable with his chubby little cheeks!

Karsen stayed home with Rick while I took Ryker around the neighborhood. At first he was a bit reserved and didn't want to approach a door unless I was with him. After a while he got the hang of it and was running from door to door like a pro! Every time I'd ask him if he was done he would say, "after this house."

Ryker and our pumpkins - pre-carving

My cute dragon- Karsen- 6 months

Mighty Thor - Ryker, 3 years old


My Boys!

Thriller - year 3!

After our salon adventure we made it home in just enough time to shower off, get dressed and run out the door. Totally worth it!! I love Thriller, it gets better every year I swear! The zombies come out before and after the show - and 1 always seems to take me by surprise making me curse very loudly! Sorry to all the people I offended! The dancers are so talented and the show is so well put together. And Tuachan is the perfect background - an outdoor amphitheater in the middle the mountains. We had such a blast - I'm already looking forward to next year.

Zions National Park

So October is usually a crazy month in the Payne household. Rick does his Elk hunt and is gone a good portion of the month and when he gets back I get to go on my girls weekend with the Payne women. I am breaking it into a couple parts so that I can post lots of pictures!

To start, Rick's hunt was not successful this year. I know he's disappointed but I also think he just enjoys the time away from home and being out with the guys. I will say that he didn't stay as long this year as he was extremely anxious to get back to the boys - and they missed their Daddy too!

After he got home we had a week in between and I went on my girl's trip to St. George. I went with my Mother-in-law Allison, Rick's sister Nicole and Jessica, sisters-in-law Amber and Christina and my nieces Lexi and Taycie. The drive down was a little slow due to construction and a bit claustrophobic with 5 of us in a car but we still made pretty good time, we made it in time to eat at the traditional spot- Poncho and Lefties. Truly we just go for the fried ice cream - ummmmmm!

The next morning we headed over to Zion's National Park for a little hiking. I have to say - Christina was a trooper! 8 months pregnant and scaling rocks - wish I was as adventurous as her! The scenery was absolutely beautiful, I live in such an amazing place! But the company is what made it so fun!

After hiking and lunch Amber, Nicole, Jessica and I decided that we would try and find a salon to get out hair washed and styled then we would be able to get ready for Thriller faster. Well, as it turns out not many salons are open or staffed on a Saturday - who knew? So we ended up at the WalMart where there was only 1 girl working. She took pity on us - (after driving through Zion with the top down we looked a bit scary!) and let us use the salon. I wish I had pictures to show because this actually turned out pretty funny! When I went to wash Amber's hair I didn't realize that the sprayer was pointing up - so when I turned on the water full force - I got soaked! Needless to say, after out little adventure I will always have fun memories of a Wal Mart Salon!


My Mother-in-law led us on quite an adventure! Jessica provided the comic relief!




I am one with nature - but who wouldn't be in a place like this!



Jessica's got some captain in her - no surprise there!

Christina, me, Jessica, Nicole, Lexi and Taycie