Our Daddy!!

Happy Fathers Day/Birthday to our Daddy!!!!
Rory, you are the funniest, most genuine, loving, caring, handsome, giving, strongest, smartest man I know. You make everyday so much better and you make everyone in your life feel like they are special. Your kids adore you, more than they have ever adored me. Everyday when you walk in the door you get a huge welcome party from all our babies, you can see in their eyes how much they love you and its no question why when I see you with them. I am so proud to have you as the father of our children, there is nobody else I could trust or could share such blessing with. You are mine and I am yours, forever. Thank you.

Soaking up Summer..

A very quick, condensed taste of our summer...

Nelly FINALLY graduated preschool! She did some time ago but I haven't been able to post it. She is thrilled about going to kindergarten and can't wait to meet all her new friends. I'm sure she will love it, she is my only child who BEGS to go to school everyday and then plays school time on the weekends. She could sit in a classroom all day and be totally happy. I love it! The possibilities will be endless for her. We have been going to different dog parks and dog gatherings lately. We went to strut your mutt and this one was a dog days thing at thanksgiving point. I love seeing all the breeds and what they were bred for. I love all the puppies running around and there are always TONS of things for the kids to do.

Rori Ana has no bum at all and I think it's funny her little crack is always hanging out because her pants cant stay up! The girls got their face painted but NOT Rori Ana. She is going through this stranger thing where she REFUSES to even acknowledge a person is talking to her, looking at her or flat out even exists unless she really knows you and likes you. She is not friendly at all and it can take a pretty long time for her to warm up to you. Well, she did not warm up to the face painter, she didn't even want him looking at her much less touching her face. Ava and Chanel on the other hand loved it!

Sponge Bob and a Unicorn!!

Thanks to Grandma Teresa all the Royce siblings got a rock climbing pass to Rockreations. I hadn't been rock climbing in probably 7 years or more, it was so FUN!! I loved it! It was funny to watch Rory and Jr playing around, as usual and it was fun to spend time with the family and with my husband for once! Usually we are so wrapped up in the kids we act like neither one of us is there unless its to yell at the other to grab this kid or that kid. This forced us to communicate and to trust each other to belay each other down the wall. This is when I started to wonder if we needed a little marriage counseling?! I didn't trust him one bit to begin with and even then he sent me flying a few times because of our lack of communication or because once again we weren't paying attention to each other. Jr and Kristi kept trying to coach us but as I was watching Jr lift Kristi right up off the ground I started to really think we weren't going to be able to pull this off. BUT, we did and by the time we left we were completely trusting each other. I really had a lot of fun and we will be there again next week!
The girls started summer school! I put them in together to get Rori Ana used the idea and to make going to school a little easier since she would be there with her big sister at first. James and Chanel love school and they have always been really excited to go. They never looked back once they got off the car to go into their school, they just ran. I knew Rori Ana wouldn't be the same. She hates to leave me, she hates when I leave her. She doesn't like change. She doesn't like strangers. She doesn't like other kids much, she doesn't like talking, she doesn't like being part of any team, she really doesn't like much of anything that has to do with socializing PERIOD. So, sure enough when it was time for her to go she grabbed on to me and wouldn't let go, then when we pried her loose she wouldn't get out of the car, then when we got her out she ran to her dad and wouldn't let go of him! She stared at us with that look of fear and anger the whole time her teacher had to pull her into the school. I felt horrible, I wanted to run to her and just take her home, but I knew she had to do this. These pictures are before they left the house, she was a little nervous but not too bad. Yet.

This is her running to grab onto our legs. I know she is smiling right now but about 5 seconds after this it was a whole other story.

She has been going for 2 weeks and she is getting better and better. The first day she laid face down on the ground and went completely limp for about 10 minutes in front of her whole class. She hasn't done that since. And she is starting to listen to her teacher more. She still has a little bit of a hard time getting out of the car but at least once she is out she will walk on her own into her classroom. This is going to an interesting year....

Since the 3 older ones are in school now that leaves just me and Ava for about 3 hours. We have a ball while they are gone! She goes everywhere with me, she has been gardening a lot, pulling weeds, mowing, cleaning, baking, painting, playing without anyone to take her toys or ruin her fun, cuddling, lots of cuddling, going to the park, swimming, riding her bike, going for walks and so much more! I love the time we get to spend together now!

She really is TOO MUCH FUN!!!

The dogs are loving the lazy days laying in the sun. I don't know how people live without animals, I cant imagine that being much fun.

And most of all we have been spending lots of time with family and friends! This is usually what our house looks like all day!! We have about 10-15 kids over most of the time and my kids love every second of it! I love that they have so much fun and they are outside playing and getting exercise rather than sitting in the house like we do most of the winter. Ugh, just that "W" word makes me ill.

My latest project...

Finished!!!!

Actually I finished some time ago but I haven't been able to post about it... You know, with the whole too busy to do much of anything going on.
It only took me a week! I think that is amazing, I cant even finish the dishes in a week! But this was something I was really excited about. I kept telling Rory I wanted to buy old, ugly dressers to redo. He was thrilled by the idea because #1: He was saving a ton of dough (since every new dresser I picked out cost a million bones) #2: He ABSOLUTELY LOVES when I do stuff like this! He gets so excited for me and he is so unbelievably supportive, telling me the whole way through it how good I'm doing and patting me on the back. He watched me work on these bad boys and told me at least a 100 times how good they looked. Even when I was a little discouraged he assured me I was doing it right. The only time he ever doubted me was when I was going crazy at Home Depot and Hobby Lobby picking out random colors and fabric and stains etc. He kept saying "are you sure? Do you think we should see it all together and put some thought into this?" But if you know me at all I don't plan very well. I'm more of the jump in and see what happens type. And so far, this has worked out for me. Here is proof:

Here are some befores, I should have taken some of them all put together but I almost forgot to even take them!

Here are my little helpers, my little neighbor Jeff and little Ava. I had quite a few helpers! I had all the neighbor kids coming in and out and of course all my kids. I would hand them a sanding block and tell them to get to work, they would until they got bored but they would always come back a little while later. This was a good thing because you really have to sand the crap out of these for the paint to look good. I found all these beauties on KSL for a really good deal. It was exactly what I was looking for, something with some curves and solid as all heck! Just how I like em.

And after a week of sanding, priming, painting, sanding, painting, sanding, staining, modge podge and my kids having no supervision because mommy is out in the garage getting high on paint fumes and one EXTREMELY messy house later. This is what I got. I think it was worth it.

Jameson's dresser. It goes so well with the art in his room and all the colors.

I did just a touch of antiquing on his. I wanted his to stay as straight lined and simple as possible.

And Nelly Belly and Rori Ana's dresser. This one was a toughie, it wouldn't take the paint right and I had NEVER modge podged fabric onto furniture. Again, I just kind of went with the flow and hoped for the best. I think there are a few thing I might have done differently but now I know for next time... if there is a next time. I was pretty burned out after all this.

I did a little more antiquing on this one, I wanted it to be nice and shabby.

The original plan was to knock down a wall in between 2 of our kids' bedrooms to make one extra BIG room for all my girls. I was going to have daddy make a triple bunk and put all the furniture in one room and all their play furniture in another, along with all their toys and millions of chests of dress ups. But after 5 sleepless nights of "testing it out" I decide Ava and Rori need to be as far away as possible from each other at night. For our sake and everyone else's. They talked and giggled until about midnight and then they woke up together every hour after that. It was a joke. So, the white furniture went in Ava's room and the blue went in the older girls' room.

Rory made me this little iron crib when I found out I was having my little Chanel. I have yet to see such a beautiful crib. It is a pearly cream color and it looks perfect next to the cream nightstands.

I love them, If I had walked into a store and saw these for sale I would have paid who knows what to make sure they were mine! And having all this extra storage has been a treat!!

Dancing Queen's, Young and Sweet!!

Aren't they pretty?!?! They got their dance pictures done (which cost a fortune) and they had so many other cute ones. I shouldn't even have bought the ones I did but how could I resist?

Here are my own priceless pictures I took with my sometimes blurry camera...

Last week the girls had their dance recital, as usual I was running late. I thought I gave myself plenty of time but then one thing after another kept happening and there I was almost an hour behind schedule! We got there with out a moment to spare!! Literally!! I walked in and ran Chanel up to the front of the stage and she walked out with the rest of her dance class right then. We barely made it, but we did and that is all that matters. Right? I had to stand on the side of the stage or else I would have missed the performance which explains the weird angle of the pictures.

Chanel did her dance perfectly! She has really overcome her stage fright and she is always the leader in her dance now. I was so proud of her!!

Then it was Rori Ana's turn... Rori would not let go of my neck, she was holding on so tight I thought we were both going to pass out! After a minute I pried her hands off of me and put her in the line with the rest of her class and out she went before she had a chance to fight it. She was LIVID!!! She gave me a look like I was going to be sorry when she was finished!!!

Needless to say she took one position and stayed that way the whole time! She just stood there with her finger in her mouth glaring at me. I could tell she wanted to run over and jump in my arms then beat the crap out of me.

Still with her finger in her mouth. She didn't move once.

Then she ran off stage and guess where she wanted to be?? The safest place in the world. Her daddy's arms.

So, what do you do after you just paid a fortune for pictures, paid an arm and a leg for a big poofy dress they will only wear for 10 minutes of their life, paid a years worth of tuition so they could twirl around in circles in a school gym for 3 minutes AND that's IF they twirl at all?? You have fun with the silly outfits and you make sure you get good use out of them that's what!!!!

Ok, I know this is mean but its also a little funny too. I don't know about you, but I cant help but laugh when people fall... Only if its a little fall. Not like the kind that break something or might kill you but the kind of fall that happens when your looking at mom and dad run after you and your not paying attention to where or what your doing... This kind.

OH but don't you worry! She has sister who didn't immediately start rolling on the ground in laughter. They ran to her aid, like good little girls.

This is Chanel yelling at me to put down the camera and be responsible.

And this is Ava's concerned face. OR maybe she is thinking "What kind of parents are you??? This is what I have to look forward to??"

Yep, we will put those dresses to some good use. Not silly twirling stuff... real dangerous kind of stuff and they will still look beautiful doing it too!