Merry Thanksgiving!

Well, this is a little bit of a late post, but still worth doing. We spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house with my sisters and mom and dad. Thanksgiving morning started in the traditional way of my sisters being dragged out of bed, but this time it wasn't me! It was Robert C. dropping by wearing his shorts and boots to tell us Happy Thanksgiving! I will take hugs from that guy any day of the year. =)

Later on Thanksgiving day, my Meme and Papa came up as well as my Aunt Joyce and my parents' best friends Curtis and Marie. It was a HUGE spread and one big giant table that we got to sit and chat around. It was so wonderful to all be together. Big kudos to my Mom for the amazing dinner she prepared. It was a perfect Thanksgiving!

P.S. Check out my Dad's sweet goatee!

Franklin

When we were in Tennessee, we had a morning with no wedding events, so Blake and I headed to Franklin, Tennessee, USA to enjoy the fall colors and the really cute main street. We had been there before (when we were engaged!) so it was fun to see it again. We really enjoyed strolling and looking in all the little shops. It was beautiful and the day could not have been any more relaxing!

Tennessee Bound

We never go places in America, so when our good friends Michael and Erin decided to get hitched in Tennessee, we started making plans to go! They were both j-men in North Africa with us and we got to know them each really well. So, when they began dating, we were so excited for them! Anyways, here are some pictures of the first day, which involved the 11 hour drive and a fun bachelorette party for Erin! It was so fun to see all of our friends again. More pictures to come!!

What Blake Was Doing

You may have noticed that Blake was in none of our pictures from the race. He's not really into group running, or running at all. He has a really high metabolism! So, he became our race photographer. But

from the gun until we got to the finish was about 40 minutes (it took us 10 minutes to get to the front!) so he had to do something to pass the time. Well, he took his camera and went to the river where he found these statues and made good use of his spare time!

Racing For The Cure

A few weeks ago, Oklahoma City had the big Race For The Cure to benefit breast cancer research. My work had a team participating, so my family decided to join up. We had a blast! We got to run/walk a 5K and it was just so much fun to do something as a family. Kudos to Katie coming in first and to Mom and Dad for walking half of what they do on a normal day! Check out some of th

e sights and sounds:

By the way, how beautiful is my Mom

Reunited!

The Paynes are home! On Tuesday we took the day off and drove to Yukon to meet them at Gary's parents' home. The reunion's were sweet! I honestly didn't expect Emmy to be so excited to see us. I arrived first (we had to drive separately) and was so surprised to see Emmy so excited. And the other shock is how big Logyn is! Wow! She's walking around. And then when Uncle Blake showed up, it was so sweet to see her running across the yard yelling "Uncle Blake! Uncle Blake!" He is so excited to see those girls. And little Logyn was going "Bake, Bake!" I don't think she knows who he is, but Emmy was yelling it so she was too!
We loaded up the vehicles and drove over to the house they will be staying in. After a great lunch at Chili's we went back to their house and cleaned and unpacked. After 5 months, it was so nice to be together again!

A Very Botched Birthday (Cake)

I usually use this online forum to make fun of Blake, but since it's his birthday week, I'll make fun of myself. Blake's 26th birthday was a week ago and it was a very busy week, so other than going out to eat, we didn't get a chance to celebrate until Friday. So Thursday night, I set out to make a cake for him since some friends were coming over. So, I made the cake (which tastes really good by the way) and I bought a little bag of icing they sell at Walmart. My plan was to write "Happy Birthday" in blue icing. Well, I started on the "H" and messed up. The icing wouldn't come off, so my next thought was to spread the blue icing over the cake. Well, turns out, there was not enough icing (see in the picture!). I only made about a third of the cake blue. Blake laughed really hard at me. I got really mad at myself, but if Blake can get a good laugh out of the deal, I'm okay with it. =) At leasted it tasted good.

The candles on the cake are in honor of his inner age. I always tell him that he acts like an old man!