Lake Powell with the Royce's!!

Finally!!! It is that time of year when we get to go to Lake Powell!! YAY!! We try to make it at

least once a year, this year we get to go twice! Next we will be going with the Alba's (my side of the fam).

We left late last Sun. so we decided to stop in a little town called Caineville, population 24!! We stayed at a cute little motel in the middle of endless canyons and rocks, besides that there was NOTHING! But it was so pretty to wake up to.

Rori Ana found a little bug

She loved that little bug SO much she decided to EAT him?!?! Ok, she didn't actually eat him, but she tasted him.

The little monster! You can see it in her face!

Little Oli playing in the bucket.

Once again, with a little work and a lot of cooperation from everyone, we pulled off getting ALL 8 grand babies together for some serious fun! They had a blast playing together, running up and down the beaches and swimming their little hearts out!

Sweet Charlotte playing hide and seek!

Ava got some new teeth in! Weird thing is she looks like a little vampire baby, I have never seen a baby's teeth come in like this before, but I love it! I cant help but laugh every time I see her smile.

Jameson fished his little heart out! He woke up asking for his fishing pole and we had to pry it out of his hands every night before bed. He gets it from his Grandpa Earl, I'm sure. But I was usually right there with him fishing the whole time. He must have caught easily over 50 fish, ranging in all different shapes and sizes!

And here is little Rori with another poor creature she found. My kids LOVE anything that moves, just like their mama. Poor little lizard, not to worry though, nothing was harmed they let everything go after they're done examining it.

These two are best Friends and worst enemy's!

I found a hole in a rock, so I climbed right in!

I was sitting in bat guano!! EW!!

Ava did NOT like her sunglasses!

Chanel made lots of sea shell pies, she also made mud burgers with stick Fry's and rock soup!

Nelly gave grandma a pedicure!

Everyone did lots of cliff diving!

Ava is not so into creepy crawly things like her older siblings, Im sure in time she will get used to them.

And Jameson learned how to wake board!!! He did amazing, just like he does with most other things!! He is so very brave!

Rori Ana also got to wake board! Maybe she will start young too?

It took a lot of work to get all the babies to sit for a picture...

Ava LOVES the sand!

The whole family helped make this little river...

Everytime we got on the boat the babies would fall asleep.

Rori Ana takes her blankie with her EVERYWHERE!! She drug it through the dirt, mud, water etc...

We all had such a great time! Thank you to everyone for making it happen. It was so nice to spend time with the family and to see all the grand kids playing together. I look forward to trying this again next year!

Chanel's Prayer at Breakfast...

I am going to try my hardest to write this down just as she said it...

Dear Heabenly Fadder,

Pweez help me not to wie (lie) at mom, she doesn't wike it and I don't wike it if she don't wike it.

Pweez help my hair to gwow (grow), so I wook wike ariel.

Pweez help me to not draw on the walls.

Pweez help me to smile so I can wook wike a pwincess.

Help everyone be nice to eachoder and help Wowi Ana to not hit me so hard, I dont wike it.

Thank you for our sweep (sleep).

Thank you for mom and dad's and brudder and sisters and drandma and drampas and cousins.

Thank you for our twampoline.

Oh! and bwess the food.

Amen.

Journal entry #1

As I write this I have little Rori Ana locked in the backyard. Some of you may think that is so mean and horrible of me, and in most cases I would agree. If I heard of someone locking their child in the backyard I would probably shake my head and think of so many other ways to handle the situation. That is usually what you do when your on the outside looking in... But in this case I am the one stuck inside and I am at the end of my wits with Rori Ana. Everyday she does something... EVERY. SINGLE. DAY!!! To me, when she rubs mustard into my tile its a treat compared to some of the other things she has done. I think 'oh good, I can just wipe this mess up' or 'at least this one wont stain, right?', things like that. Little easy messes are a pleasure, matter of fact I have found that I don't even say anything when they happen. I just clean it up, almost with happiness and a smile because I know that this isn't as bad as it could have been or because I compare it to what she has done before (I let Rori back in by the way, she is here. Safe and alive.) I also realize that most of you will probably be thinking 'where is this child's mother when she is doing all this??' Well... usually I am cleaning up the last mess she made, I would say 75% of the time I am busy fixing whatever she just did. The other 25% of the time I am cleaning up after my other 3 children. And on top of that I have things that I have to tend to like the house, school, homework, practices, lessons etc. etc. etc. And as much as I wish, and believe me I DO because it would save me a lot of headache and heartache, as much as I wish I could be right by Rori Ana's side at all times I just cant. Its impossible. I try, I try as hard as I can to constantly involve her in whatever I am doing. Try to keep her occupied and keep her mind off naughty things and keep her distracted. But she is a quick one, definitely the neediest and fastest of all my children. She is smart, she knows what she is doing is wrong and its apparent when I walk in the room and she screams and darts in the opposite direction and gives me this face like 'BUSTED' and giggles as she runs away to find another mess to create.

Some people might have different ideas on how I should punish her, and PLEASE FEEL FREE TO TELL ME!! Like I said, I am at the end of my rope. I feel that I have tried and done everything but I am always willing and open to new ideas. Rori Ana spends a lot of time in time out, in her room or in the backyard sitting on her chair. I find that if I can find her a quiet spot to relax and think about what she has just done it seems to calm her down for a bit. Or maybe that's just me, maybe I'm the one who is searching for the quiet time out so I can relax and calm down. Either way, that is the route I have been going on. And then trying to explain to her what she did was wrong. I don't think she is listening though, pretty sure she is looking over my shoulder at whatever else she has in mind to destroy. This child of mine is pure evil! She searches out and destroys whatever she wants! And if you put it away or out of reach, it just makes it that much more fun for her to find and get to. I put her in time out because if I don't she might not make it another day. Sooooo... I have decided to start documenting everything she does through out the week. Who knows, maybe someone will read this and have a brilliant idea that I could try and that I haven't thought of because my brain is fried?! Or maybe one day I will be reading this and a light bulb will go off. Or maybe this is just for memories sake and I will let Rori Ana read this one day so that she might understand why her children are hellions. Or when the cops show up on my doorstep wondering why my baby is outside covered in her own feces and I'm squirting her with the hose I will be able to use this as evidence so they can see that it wasn't me that did this! It was her!! I am going to start today and then post at the end of the week, I will try to do this every week. I wont mention how last week she hid my favorite necklace, shaved her own head with Rory's clippers, sprayed my leather couches with sunblock and dumped hand sanitizer all over my kitchen. I will start fresh today... here we go...

8/10/10 This morning Ava woke up trying to go potty, she has been pretty constipated and having a hard time going because she tenses up. So I decided to put her in the bath to try to calm her down and relax her so she might have an easier time. Well, Rori saw me do this. A little later on I put Rori Ana in the bath, guess what she did?! Yep, she pooped! And then stuffed it down the drain so now it is clogged... WITH POOP. Daddy Rory will have to deal with that later :) So, I took her out of the bath and cleaned what I could and put her in the shower in the meantime. She somehow figured out a way to use our shower squeegee to knock down the hair conditioner. I have no more conditioner now. I took her out of the shower got her dressed and started on lunch, while I was making lunch she got a hold of a snack pack pudding and went up to her room so she could make her mess in peace. I had no idea of course. I went up there about 5 min. later to find that she was sitting on her WHITE lamb skin rug with her dark chocolate pudding!! I told her to wash her hands and as long as it took me to put the rug in the washer she had dumped out the hand soap and smeared it into the bathroom mirror. Later that day she dumped out the nesquik on my carpet while I was helping Jameson do his homework. I'm going to get my hair done now... She is daddy's responsibility.

8/11

Today has been a pretty good day, nothing major. I kept her busy for most of the day by filling up her swimming pool. However she did find the time to dump all her noodles onto her napkin, for some unknown reason, color all over her walls in her bedroom (but the marker was washable so it came right off). Then she dumped all the Q tips in the toilet but I made HER fish them out. Other than that she was a good girl today! Yay!! She only had to spend about 5 min. in time out, that is success to me.

8/12

Today while I was putting little Ava Lyn down for a nap Rori Ana decided to go out to my car... and poop in her pants. She also got into the cookies and hid them in her bed.

8/13

Today I leave for Moab!! Yay!! Good luck daddy :)

To be continued....

First Grade!!

On July 27th, Jameson had his very first day of first grade!! I'm not sure how that came on so fast? I remember cradling him in my arms just yesterday, and now he is a big boy in first grade!? He loves every minute of it, which is a good thing because there are a lot more minutes of it then when he was in pre school or kindergarten. He goes to school ALL day now! I find myself getting pretty antsy to pick him up right around 1, he doesn't even get out until 3:30! This year is not only different because he is in first grade, but he is doing things a lot different than most other first graders. He is in a "Chinese immersion program" that he will be in until he is out of elementary and hopefully beyond that as well. He starts the day by going to Miss Shumway's class, where he is ONLY spoken to in Chinese. Every answer given to him, every instruction, every story, EVERY WORD is in Chinese! He learns the Chinese language, writing, traditions, culture etc. all in Chinese except his math (which will also be in Chinese eventually) and so far he is doing great and he loves it! He can sing a couple songs and say a quite a few words. Chinese probably wouldn't have been my first choice of language for him to learn but every school that is participating is assigned a language, they don't get to choose. It has been a difficult language to learn for myself, so many different tones and ways to say things even though is sounds so similar! You can easily insult someone by just using the wrong tone or something! But Jameson is much smarter than I am, and much more open minded. He is catching on fast. I cant wait to see what doors this might open for him...
The second half of his day he goes to Miss Merritt's class. She is his "English teacher" and in this class he learns everything in English, just like any other class room. He loves both of his teachers and they have both done a great job of not making this overwhelming for the kids or the parents. It all sounds so complicated but it is so simple and the kids will still be on track just like with any other 1st grader except they will also speak Chinese. Miss Merritt has been amazing so far! I wish I could be more like her, she is so organized and on top of everything! She also has a class room blog (it is in my blog list) so the parents can know everything that is going on with the kids and what they will be working on that week. And James says she is the "nicest lady ever". So far our school experience has been wonderful THANKFULLY!!

Its so hard for me to believe I have a first grader?? He has gotten so BIG and so smart. He is my best buddy and my little partner in crime most of the time and my worst critic. He has been my toughest challenge in life. He has taught me how to be a mom and is still teaching me everyday, he makes me want to be a better person and try harder with everything. He teaches me true love, patience, forgiveness, honesty, happiness, how to have real fun and so much more. He paves the way for his 3 beautiful little sisters by being my little guinea pig and because unfortunately I learn from my mistakes with poor James and he is so patient and kind about it all. He is mature far beyond his years and understands more than most people know. He is already on his way to becoming a great man! My little man! He will always be my baby boy and I am so very proud of him.

Happy 1st Birthday Ava Lyn!!!

Well, its official... I no longer have a baby under the age of 1 anymore. My sweet little Ava Lyn is growing up, slowly but surely she is. She is a whole 1 year old now! She has been the sweetest little thing since the moment she was born, so kind, gentle, happy, loving and always full of smiles. She is the icing on our family and she was the one who completed us. She came into the world fighting and she probably will be for the rest of her life with all her crazy older siblings! I cant believe how big she has gotten! She was less than 5 lbs at her smallest! She is still pretty small, every time I tell people how old she is they do a double take on her and say something like 'Oh my! She is so little!!'. I know she is small but there is a lot of love and personality packed into that little package! Don't let her size fool you! She hasn't mastered walking yet, nor does she really want to. She gets along just fine with her speed crawling. She only has 2 little tiny teeth, but she doesn't mind. She will still eat a nice juicy bite of steak, just like anyone with a full mouth of teeth. She says mama, dada, baba and that is all she needs to say. She gets her point across and we all understand her just fine. She loves her older sisters and has yet to miss an important tea party, she plays barbies, babies and is always in on all the princess play. She really loves to play with her big brother! She follows him everywhere he goes and does a great job of keeping up even though James has 6 yrs on her. She plays trucks with James and bites the heads of his super hero figurines off quite frequently. She usually plays the villain or the bad guy and does a great job of it. She is so loved by so many and she returns it to everyone she meets. She is all eyes and smiles all the time! I couldn't imagine life without our sweet Ava in it. She brings us all so much joy!

For her birthday we had a little family birthday party. We had a pool set up for the kids thanks to aunt Bekah and uncle Curtis! And all the kids went swimming and played their little hearts out! Its was so much fun!

Rori Ana kept trying to sneak licks off the cupcakes! Naughty!!

Here are all the grand babies except little Lottie who will be here soon!!!

The BIGGEST, BADDEST princess of em all!!!

Poor Emerson got stung on BOTH ears by bees!!! His little ears were so swollen and red, we had to take a picture! But that didn't let him stop his fun! He put on a helmet to protect his ears!

OOwie Nana and Memers (in their words)

Thanks to everyone that came! Happy birthday to my littlest princess Ava! I love you so much and thank you for all the joy you bring to our lives everyday.

Fun in the Sun!!

We have been having so much fun this summer. Seems like we are always doing something but still doing nothing (if that makes sense). We have been boating pretty much every chance we get, the kids love it and its so easy to grab a swim suit and a towel and hit the lake. A few other things that have been going on... Jameson had his kindergarten graduation finally! He didn't get much of a summer break because his first day back to school is tomorrow. But he had a fantastic kindergarten year. He learned so much and grew in so many ways! We will miss Mrs. Bishop very much and will always remember how kind she was to us! She was a wonderful teacher and she made going to the "big school" easy for all of us. Next is first grade!! And we have already met Jameson's first grade teacher quite a few times! More on that later... Chanel will be starting dance soon and James will start soccer again. The lazy summer days are quickly coming to an end. But at least we can say we soaked up every minute we had! Here is an overload of pictures...

Ava LOVED the sand! She hasn't set foot in sand since Costa Rica so I don't think she remembered much of it. She couldn't get enough, and she didn't mind the tastes and textures of it too much either!!

My little beach belly!!

(We call her Chanelly Belly sometimes)

Apparently something happened that she just thought was HILARIOUS!! She thinks everything is funny, she is so light hearted and makes everything fun!


My beautiful girls! Gotta love em!

I love that there will be a million kids around and my kids will still play together, you would think they would get enough of each other?? I'm sure I only have less than 10 years to enjoy this.

Aaaaaahhhhh!!!

Rori Ana doing her job... She is the flagger of the family!

Notice Ava's hair just blowin' in the wind! Ava is co pilot.

2 of the cutest smiles EVER!

This kids can do ANYTHING he sets his mind to! And make it look so easy at the same time!

My baby BOY!

Hopefully we can make the most out of the rest of our summer days... Before we go into hibernation!