Freakin' Leno

R.I.P.

June 2009-January 2010

Bonjour du Mesa mes amis.

Les moustaches sont fantastiques, No?

Some catching up to do.

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update, it was a busy Christmas!

First: we bought our first Christmas tree!  Erik and I promised each other for the rest of our lives we would buy a real tree.  We love the smell in our house, they are simply the best!  So we set out to the Home Depot and bought ourselves our first Douglas Fir.  Because he was our own now, we had to name him.  Without a name he wouldn't be part of the family.  So, we thought it appropriate to name him.....Douglas.  Oh how we loved him.

We came home and decorated him right away (we didn't want him to feel naked).  And of course, we had to start the tradition our first year of Erik putting the star on the tree.

Our finished project.  Doesn't he look so cute?

Christmas came and we had so much fun! "Santa" even ate the cookies I left out for him.  Although I'm curious as to why Erik came to bed with crumbs on his face?..... There were definitely some surprises under the tree for both of us.  This is the look on Erik's face when he opened the new snowboarding jacket I got for him.  He wanted it so bad and he had no idea I got it for him.

Erik bought me a whole snowboarding outfit!  Complete with pants, jacket, gloves and goggles.  I was so surprised I wanted to wear them all day.

The day after Christmas we went with my family to a cabin in Big Bear CA.  Erik and I went snowboarding, and Aubs met us there at noon.  We also went tubing where I broke my tailbone (no fun!), but I still have to steal those pics from my mom's camera so post on that coming soon!

Then for New Year's Eve we went to Mill Ave with some friends of ours.  Let me tell  you it was crazy! Mostly everyone was drunk and you had to be 21 to get in to alot of things.  So we basically walked around and tried not to get beer spilled all over us.

This was us a few minutes before midnight.  All of that fuzzy stuff to the side are people.  There were people everywhere!

We hope you guys had fun on your New Year's Eve!

Happy 2010!

01.02.09

One year ago yesterday I married my best friend.

It is crazy how fast time flies.  It feels like we have only been married for a few months, and this weekend we celebrated our one year anniversary.

The summer we spent falling in love I was convinced I could never love him more than I did then.  A year later I have proven myself wrong. 

He keeps me laughing everyday.  My love continually grows for him.

About 2 months ago I told him I wanted to go to Gold Canyon (the resort we stayed at on our honeymoon).  He told me he would look in to it.  I reminded him a few days later after he still had not called.  Once he finally did call about a week or so later he told me they were all booked for that weekend.  To say the least I was quite angry.  I tried to come up with some other plans we could do but he kept telling me "he would take care of it".  In my mind I thought his procrastination would get the best of him and we wouldn't be doing anything at all.   Little did I know he had called and made reservations a few months before I even mentioned anything!  He even managed to get the same room we stayed in a year ago!  Erik surprises me everyday.  I don't know why he did but I'm glad he picked me.

Erik Payne and Amber Payne in Mesa, AZ

P.S.

Does this picture look familiar?

The Paynes 2010

The Paynes 2009

Happy Anniversary to us!

Not So Silent Night In Oakland 2009

So my amazing Mom flew my brother and I up to her place in San Jose to go to a concert with her. "Not So Silent Night" is an annual concert up here with some top-notch performers. We got floor spots and squeezed our way to the front. We were hot and sweaty as a mofo but we had an amazing time. I got to see two of my all time favorite bands: MUSE and AFI plus some very good others. Also, some girl bit my arm because I was trying to break up their girl fight. Nice!

Me and my bro, Steve

Mi Madre

My favorite security guard, dubbed, "Dirty Santa"

That guy is way too tall for his own good

First band: "Vampire Weekend". They were whatever...

Seconds band: "30 Seconds To Mars."

Mars was great. They got up-close and personal. I miss his musk.

Third band: AFI

We had stellar spots. Davey's pants put off a great silver shine.

Last and definitely not least: MUSE!

Muse was SO good. Matt Bellamy is a grade A Stallion.

Pee break. Their set had very studly lighting effects...

and a studly white piano.

As part of Muse's Amazingness, they released big ol' balloons filled with confetti.

So rad...

I can't even describe how amazing Muse was. They're such a talented band and kick butt live performers. If you've not listened to them yet, please, check them out. As you can tell they're kind of like Lady Gaga, Josh Groban and Miley Cyrus.

Amazing bands, Dirty Santa, bitten arm, rainy weather, great night.

(Outside the show they were giving away a ton of new Monster flavors, so Im a little buzzed on energy drinks that's why the 4:00 am post and the 5,000 spelling errors.)

did you notice?

Erik got his hair cut! He has been growing it out for months so he could have it long during the winter but I have been driving him crazy about cutting it. I came home last Thursday and he cut it for my birthday! I will admit I like it a little bit longer, just not as long as he had it. It got a little out of hand.

It went from this:

to this mullet looking thing:

he lost all of this hair:


and he now looks like this!

That is why I have the best husband in the world. Yes mom I know that was sweet and mushy or whatever but I really do! He does so much just to make me happy, I'm kind of spoiled in that way.

Curiosity is killing me, do you like it better short or long?

Please comment!

Disneyland!

If you don't know by now, Disneyland is basically my favorite place EVER ON THS ENTIRE EARTH! (for some reason I felt that if I put it in caps it would make it more true). But I'm not a fake lover of Disneyland, I'm a real one. A fake lover is when they buy the Disney clothes and have been to the land a few times, but they don't know the hidden secrets. Like where the best ice cream is, how to keep dry on Splash Mountain, and how to strategize the usage of a fast pass. A fake lover doesn't know where all of the hidden Mickey's are (don't know what a hidden Mickey is? well I'm not telling you). But not me, I'm a real lover. I know all of those tips. That's why going to Disneyland is so much fun with me (Erik even said so, you can ask him). Well last Saturday was my 20th birthday and Erik surprised me with a trip to DISNEYLAND! When I say surprise I mean he told me a month in advance by casually mentioning it in the kitchen one morning. But I didn't care at that moment, because we were going to Disneyland!

So we packed our bags and loaded everything in the ranger, including the $30 I spent on snacks. (hungry=cranky=no fun!)

One of Erik's mission companions John was nice enough to let us stay at his house for the weekend. His parents fixed us dinner when we got there and made breakfast for us in the morning. It was so wonderful! They were so nice and it definitely helped us out alot. Thank you Skaggs family!

One of the things I was looking so forward to was wearing the Birthday Pin! It said "Happy Birthday Amber" and I sported that thing like it came straight from Tiffany's.

Us on Indiana Jones. I'm pretty sure they wanted to yell at us for taking so many pictures while on rides. Oh well it was my birthday.

Me and my churro. I savored every cinnamon-sugary-butterness-$3 bite. It was amazing.

We're too cheap to buy the pictures, so Erik takes his own pics. For some reason everyone got the biggest kick out of Erik reading that book in the picture. I'm pretty sure they wanted to buy it just to show their friends.


Ice cream from the best place on Main Street while waiting for the parade to start. Yes Erik does have ice cream on his face and yes the people behind us did laugh about it for about ten minutes.


The castle looked so pretty at night! And that was around the spot that an old red headed lady called Erik a not-so-nice word for bumping into her. I punched her.

The fireworks were AMAZING! I think I was bugging everyone around me with my clapping and squealing and "Oooohs" and "Aaaaahs". I didn't care, it was my birthday.

It was the best birthday I have ever had!

My family went out to dinner and had cake to celebrate before we left. My parents got me a Kitchenaid! What's a kitchenaid you say? It's that cool mixer you plug into the wall and it stands all by itself and it's amazing! I was so shocked. My sister and brother in law also got me a Costco membership which I have been needing so I am way exicted. Now I just feel the urge to go bake something! I forgot my camera that night so hop on over to my mom's blog to see pictures (if she hasn't posted them yet she will soon!)

Hope you guys had a good weekend and MERRY CHRISTMAS!