Tis the Season

Well, Thanksgiving and Black Friday have come and gone and the Payne's are in the Christmas spirit.  We had a great time at Thanksgiving visiting with family and there is nothing I look forward to more than my mom's awesome dressing.  I don't like most of the stuff in it by itself, but mixed all together and cooked, it is DELICIOUS!!  Colleen got to see her cousin's Kayle and Shelby, who she just loves to death!

Right before Thanksgiving, we decided to beat the crowds and visit Santa early.  Colleen was ready and had her list of what she wanted planned.  There was no fear and she sat in his lap and visited while we checked out and paid for the picture!

Putting up the Christmas tree is now a family event as well and Colleen is excellent at decorating!  She was so excited when it came tree time.  She wanted to help get it out of the storage shed and be involved in every aspect of the tree!

I am looking forward to a great Christmas, so stay tuned for more postings and pictures!

Colleen School Pictures Fall 2010

I have never been so in love with school pictures as I was this time.  Usually, school pictures are around Colleen's birthday and I have birthday pictures done and the school pictures are just "ok".  Well, this year, we decided we were going to combine birthday and family Christmas pictures, so no actual birthday pictures.  But, no worries as the school pictures were FABULOUS!!!  Not only did the photographer get one good pic, but they got THREE AWESOME pictures!  I had to order the CD to have them!  Check them out below!!

Halloween 2010

What a Halloween this was!  Although we didn't get to take our little fairy princess to all the festivities we had planned thanks to what appeared to be food poisoning and dehydration, she had a great time with what she did do!  The first activity was her school party.  Colleen took over photographer duties at this event most of the time and snapped away pictures of her friends.  I did manage to squeeze the camera from her and snap a few of her and her friends.  Below is a slide show from that party.

Next of the agenda was our church's Fall Festival.  The church had carnival type games where the kids could win prizes...aka, CANDY!  Boy, did she rack up on some candy!  By the time we got there, the festivities were winding down, but there was lots of candy left, so Colleen usually got to take as much candy as she wanted with each game!  Some of the folks manning the games even taught Colleen a trick or two to help her "win" at the games!  It was at the church that dehydration set in for me and we had to head home.  I am thankful our church has paramedics that are members and were at the fall festival and helped me recover enough to make it home!  Below are the pics from the school party and the church Fall festival I did manage to get!

Last Soccer Game

Well, soccer season came and went and boy did we learn alot!  Russell and I never had any experience with soccer, so we learned alot about the sport.  We met some really great people and kids and look forward to many more soccer seasons ahead of us.  Not knowing much about the sport or really about the Huntsville YMCA, we didn't know what to expect coach or team wise.  But, I have to say - we sure got lucky!  We got a coach who has played soccer since the age of 7, and even played it in college.  She was a wealth of information, but was also extremely patient with the kids.  She just didn't teach them to kick the ball in the net, but she worked with them on true techniques of the game.  Luckily for us, her youngest son is the same age as Colleen and we will hopefully have her as a coach for many more years!

It was a great experience for Colleen as well!  She not only learned about soccer, but she also experienced teamwork and learned more coordination!  It did "toughen" her up a little bit too!  She took on the challenge of goalie during most games and although she saw very little action because her team kept the ball on the other side of the field, she still had an awesome time. 

Russell ended up being the team photographer!  At the last game, coach Dena told Russell she wanted pictures and boy did he give her pictures...almost 170 of them!  Below is a slide show of all the pictures from the last game...so sit back and enjoy!