Goodbye, Justin!

Over Thanksgiving weekend, we got to attend Justin's farewell. He did such a great job on his talk, I was so impressed! He's going to make a great missionary, I'm excited for him to get out there and get to work. :) Isn't he a handsome missionary?

My Dad, my brother, Clint, Justin and his two little brothers, Matt and Carson. I know, I need to edit this picture. I was behind my sister-in-law and got her hand in the picture, sorry. :)

Watch out Utah, here comes Tawny

This is my oldest neice, Tawny. As you can telll, she is beautiful! She's a senior in High School and lives in California, but she's planning on going to BYU next fall, if all goes right. I'm so sad that I'm not going to be in Provo to be there for her when she needs a break from roommates, needs a home-cooked meal, or just needs someone to hang out with. Although, with her in Utah, at least I'll get to see her more often, that will be wonderful!

Thanksgiving

We had everyone in the family here for Thanksgiving, it was crazy!, but also very fun to be with everyone! Here's a picture of my parent's and all of my brothers and sisters and their families:My sisters, Stacie and Lisa live out of state, so it's always exciting for us when they come into town! Poor Stacie was put right to work when she got here. We miss her for more than her hair cutting skills, I promise!

Aubree and McKenna

Lisa, Mom and Sheila, having a great time with the girls!

Patrick

Patrick had a blast over the last two weeks with all the family here. As ususal, I wish I would have taken more photos.

In school, Patrick has been learning about the indians and pilgrims for Thanksgiving. Well, while learning about the indians, he learned different writings that they used and what the pictures stood for. Knowing this, Grandpa decided to take Patrick and all the grandkids that wanted to go, out to the petroglyphs (sp?) close by. Patrick was so excited and running around finding all the pictures that they learned about in school. It was so fun, thanks Grandpa!!

Mom and James didn't go because we heard it was quite the hike to the writings....come to find out, it wasn't at all so we could have gone. Oh well, next time we'll go for sure!

I had a hard time getting Patrick and his age group of cousins to sit still long enough for me to take a picture so here are some of Patrick's cousins that are his age:
Patrick has also been taking piano lessons. He has been loving it and plays around on the piano all the time. I'm impressed at how quickly he seems to pick it up.

Will

Will had the funnest time with constant playing for two weeks. He had so many cousins to play with non stop, he's not going to know what to do with just me and James to occupy his time. Here are some pics of Will over the last couple weeks:

Will Patrick and Damen

Cade and Will

Will and Cade playing with Grandpa's tractors

Connor

Dad and Will hiking

Will, exhausted from the 2 weeks of playing, fell asleep in front of the warm fire.

James

James had a couple of milestones this Thanksgiving weekend, here are a couple videos to show you:

I got to babysit my brother's kids last week and my little sister, Stacie and her family were here too. Stacie has a little girl named Eve and Mike has a little girl names Sidney. The girls are two months younger than James, but very advanced. Sidney taught James and Eve how to scoot. It was fun to have them all together!

James and Eve

Mike and Sidney

Do I not have THE cutest babies in my family?!

Halloween

Patrick (notice his black eye, he did that himself with my makeup), Will, Me holding James, Connor (my nephew, aka Scooby Doo), Missy (Sister-in-law) holding Sydney(neice).

I guess it's about time to post these pictures, I've been a real slacker lately. Halloween was fun, Grandma and Grandpa Roylance were here to see John's nephew, Shaun at his team's football game, Provo vs. PineView. So we got to spend some time with them mostly the day after Halloween, but it was great to see them, as usual. :)
Our plan was to do trick-or-treating here in the neighborhood and then go up to the community center for their trunk-or-treating, but we didn't even make it through our neighborhood before the kids were tired.

Me, James (Pumpkin) and Missy with Sydney (Strawberry).

James waiting for Patrick at the School parade.

Will, waiting for Patrick at the parade.

And here is Patrick (Karate kid, not THE Karate Kid, just A karate kid) in his school parade. One nice thing about being in St. George is the weather this time of year. It was plenty warm for the parade to be outside!

They got the Call!!!!

My mom and dad got THE letter in the mail today so they called all the family over and got the other family members on speaker phone and we all got to watch as they read where they will be living for the next 18 months. If you want to see where they are going, watch this: (This is unfortunately a really bad video because it was so dark, so you can't see Dad and can barely see Mom, but you can hear it really well...)

Exciting huh?!! They go into the MTC on January 26th. I know they will be great missionaries, our family is so excited for them to have this opportunity to teach the Gospel and serve the Lord. They are great examples for all of us.

Justin also got his mission call--a couple weeks ago, he is going to Dallas, Texas! I am so excited for him, he is such a great guy and will do a lot of good. I'm excited for the life-changing experiences he will have..

Perspective

My brother-in-law's father is dying. For some reason I find myself crying a lot. I feel so bad that his family has to see their dad go, I find myself thinking more about me and my dad and how I do not want to see him (or Mom) go and how sad I will be when that day comes.
It also brings back all the feelings I had when Britt and Taye died.
Death just brings a new perspective to life. I wish I had something really profound to say, but all I have to say is that all that is important in this life is how we act, what we DO, and how we treat people. It really doesn't matter what "things" we have or how much money we earn, etc.
I have a lot of regrets in life, I just want to start fresh, with a new goal to be positive and happy no matter what situation I am in.
I give you all permission to help keep me on track, just give me little reminders if I start to veer off course! :)

Jealousy...inevitable with the "Middle Child"

I've been feeling really bad for Will lately. I can see him fight for attention. While I'm rocking James to sleep and John is helping Patrick do homework, Will is literally running from John to me or vice versa trying to get in on the one on one. It's heartbreaking for me to feel unable to give my child what he needs.
Tonight, Patrick was on the computer with a camera hooked up so he could have a video phone conversation with his best friend, Haillie. Will really wanted to talk to her too, which he did, but it was only a 2 minute conversation, definitely not long enough for him. On the other side of the room, James got a new toy to try out since he is now old enough for the "Johnny Jump Up". Poor Will, he needed something new to do too!
Here is an example of how Will was feeling tonight:

Luckily, we needed a few groceries, Will got to go to the store so he could have his daddy all to himself!!!

Hope it helps.

My old Friend, Drew

This is Drew (about 11 years ago) probably after some craft night we just had! :)
Drew and Matt eating breakfast that we made for them. I love Jana in the background!

I have an old friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer. He's a very funny, very cool guy and my first couple years away from home would not have been as fun as they were if I didn't have him in it...Anyway, here's a link to a blog that explains more and has the info if you feel like you'd like to help out...

http://laptop4drew.blogspot.com/

Oh Happy Day!!!

It's been way too long since I've posted, but better late than never right? :) This has been kind of a fun week; full of milestones for us.
On Sunday, James' first tooth broke through, so he's not sticking his tongue out as much as he had been the week before.

Today Will went #2 on the big potty all by himself (2nd day in a row, but yesterday was in the little potty). After about 5 days of going in his underwear, we're finally here! I'm so excited to only buy one size of diapers, it's definitely a huge progress for Will!!!


This isn't really a milestone, but it's a change for me. For over a year I've been growing my hair out. I liked it but then it just started getting too heavy, especially for St. George so I got it cut. It was a horrible experience, so this week I chopped it. It feels nice to have my hair out of my face and having a specific "hair due" is nice. I'm weird, I know, but I like it better than just letting it fly all over the place and ending up like I didn't even do it....Ayway, here is my new due:

Sometimes we get a little bored down here cause the kids haven't really made close friends yet, we have to get creative so the boys don't kill each other. I love this picture of Patrick and Will. They had a lot of fun playing with these cans. I was actually surprised that Will could do it so well, he caught on really fast.

Last week my mom accidentally bought grapefruit juice thinking it was orange juice, my dad's been trying to come up with some ways to make it taste better so everyone will drink it. Well, yesterday there was some left over Black Cherry Koolaid in the fridge, he added the grapefruit juice and then to sweeten it up some more, he added Sprite. It was drinkable, but still bitter and not really a juice I'd like to drink for breakfast....Anyway, Will really took to it and calls it his Happy Drink -- it makes him happy. The "zip" really is only Sprite, I promise! ;) Here's a picture of Will and his Happy Drink, which is now all gone, guess you'll have to make some more, Dad!

Oh to be bald

So James had a pretty bad case of cradle cap, or as I like to call it, cradle crap. John got some baby oil, so we plastered James' head with it but he looked so greasy and gross. My good friend Jen, told me to put the oil on, then bathe him and scrub his head with a very, very soft comb and it would clear up in a couple weeks, so this is what we tried. It would have worked too, if I would've just been more patient, but he looked so gross.
Sunday morning I gave James a bath. His head looked a little dry still and a few flakes were stuck in his hair so I thought I'd get a comb and see if we couldn't get rid of those flakes. Once I started combing, more flakes were appearing and not only that, (his hair was getting patchy already), but it was coming out in clumps while I was trying to comb away the flakes. Wow, this is sounding like he had a really bad case of dandruff. He doesn't have dandruff, it's called cradle cap and it's very common in babies, just because the definition is exactly the same as dandruff, doesn't mean it is dandruff, my baby is cute and not gross..... :)
Anyway, to make a really long story not so long, here are pictures of John shaving James' head. I just couldn't handle the flakes, did I tell you it looked really gross?


Now he has a smooth cute head, but it is weird to see him bald, I've never had such a bald baby. At least his hair will grow in a little more even than it would have before. Let's look on the bright side of things eh?

Bald is beautiful!

The 24th!

On the 24th of July we started the day off with the Washington Pioneer Day Parade, which Patrick was able to be a part of with the primary in our ward, he was pretty excited that "this was the first parade he was going to ride in." I don't think the excitement lasted much into the parade when he realized how hot it was even at 9:00 a.m. and especially that he couldn't ride fast. He was really wobbly because he had to ride so slow. All in all, the parade was a little disappointing to Patrick. :)

Will had fun gathering candy and waving at the people in the parade.

James slept through it all...what a good little boy! :)

We Made It!

Well, we are in our new home and it feels great to finally be here and actually mostly settled already.
On the drive down, Will got to ride half way with John in the truck, then he and Patrick switched so Patrick could have a turn. James did so great, I couldn't believe it, he was perfect, he's been so good all week, another blessing in my life.
On the way to Grandma's, I told Will, "Hey, you know what? Your room has pink carpet, it has a pink floor!" He got all excited and said, "Awesome!" Then, when we got to Grandma's house, he wandered around exploring and saying how awesome everything was. He took me in my parent's bedroom (the master bedroom) and said, "Look, this is awesome" and then took me in the master bathroom like he'd never seen one before and said, "And look, AWESOME!" It makes it a lot easier to move when your kids are excited about it, that's for sure. :)
When we got here, Mom and Dad were waiting and ready to help. Kurt and Garrett came right over to start unloading too. We really appreciate all the help everyone gave us, I know I've said this before, but John and I really do have the best families.
After we unloaded the truck, Sheila came over and she and Mom helped me unload boxes. We only have about 4 boxes left. It feels so good to be pretty much settled already. I thought I'd be unloading stuff for a couple weeks!
Anyway, we're here, we're safe and we're happy! Now we just need to find John a job and we'll be great!!!!
Thanks again everyone for all your love and support!

Happy Birthday Mack!!!

Mack is the hardest working guy I know. And I think he really enjoys it. He has his own landscaping business and has always loved driving tractors. My parents must have been inspired when they named him! :) He is such a kind, patient, fun guy. I really have the best family in the world! When I was little, I remember Mack getting asked to dances all the time, there were always girls coming over to decorate his room. I know I was a really annoying little sister, but he was never mean or rude to me. When I think of Mack, I just think, good. He is just so GOOD, but not in a "preachy" way, in a "I want to be like you" sort of way. Mack has so many friends too, he's very friendly and inviting to everyone he meets. I remember I was dating a guy no one wanted me to date, but when I talked to Mack and his wife about him, they were nothing but supportive and accepting and I've always appreciated that about them/him. I love you Mack!

Streaking

It was time for haircuts again...
This is how Will killed time waitung for Patrick to get out of the shower. What? We didn't want to get hair all over the house!

This weekend...

This 4th of July weekend, I really was going to take pictures, but didn't really get much. Oh well, at least I have proof of John swimming with the kids. He hates swimming, but I guilted him into it. He had a lot of fun, so did the boys, despite what Will looks like in the pic. He really warmed up to it and ended up crying when we had to leave because he didn't want to get out!



















John's brother, Gary & his family always come up from AZ for the 4th. It was so great to see you guys! Here are a couple pics of the fam:

Kammie & Stacey

GaryCadeJasonJeep rides are always among the favorite thing to do with Uncle Mark:

I just wanted to take some pictures of James, he's getting so chubby now. I told my mom she's not going to recognize him when she see's him! Anyway, here are some cute pictures of him, can you tell it was just about his nap time?

Also this weekend, we blessed James. I was sad not to get pictures of him with Great Grandma and those who came to the blessing, I really am not on top of it. But here he is in his blessing outfit with some goofy hair, but he's still cute...




Oh yeah, Patrick lost his other front tooth a while back...