Roylance Halloween Party!

Once again it is time for the annual Roylance Halloween Party post. We went up to Utah a couple weekends ago for my parent's mission farewell. (more on that in the next post.) So we had the Halloween party while we were there. With so many things going on, sick kids, possible swine flu in the family, mom and dad packing, sister-in-law about to give birth ANY day, amazingly everything worked out and everyone was better by the party, and we had a great time. So this year Jerry and I only decided the week before - as we were driving home from Disneyland- what we would be. It's getting harder and harder to think of something creative and new every year. Everyone is so creative. We decided on Burt and Ernie from Sesame Street. Don't know if it's the most creative we've gone, but I know it's DEFINITELY not the most attractive. Yes, my outfit is not flattering on me at all, but it did the trick. I went to the DI to look for some sweaters that would work, but couldn't find anything, so I'll brag here and tell you that I sewed our tops... without a pattern... in one day... with three kids... blindfolded... uphill both ways... :) anyway, moving on. Hayden changed his mind several times on what he wanted to be, but finally settled on a clone trooper from Star Wars, and Rebecca of course had to be Cinderella, and Sydney was a cute little Tinkerbell.

My Sister Ruth Ann flew in from New Jersey for the weekend. It was so fun to have her there. Her little baby was a darling pumpkin to go along with Cinderella.

My Sister Rebecca and her family were characters from Toy Story. She was a great Mrs. Potato Head along with Woody, Buzz, Tour guide Barbie, Army guy, and Lil' Bo Peep.

Yes, it's true. My sister Elizabeth and her family are "Trekki's" (I guess it's not that much worse than being Star Wars fans.) She is amazing and made all of their outfits. Awesome. They looked so good.
My sister, Esther surprised us all and flew in that morning from Seattle just so she could be there for the wonderful weekend. She was a great Glinda the Good Witch! I'm so glad she came!My Brother Dave's family came from Colorado for the weekend. Great hippy family! I could hardly recognize Dave at first!

Mark's family dressed as puppeteers, and a scary gorilla, along with beautiful little Kaleah that was a ladybug.

Joseph was an extremely flamboyant Richard Simmons, and a 9 month pregnant Angela was his "pupil Cheryl." Can you believe she had her baby one week later. (Just last weekend) She looks great!

Their two boys, Ethan and Alex.The girls - yeah, not flattering in the least!
Such pretty sisters.

The kids had fun fishing for toys and playing musical "footprints"

Then we played mafia. SO FUN. We had to drive to locations to get previously placed IBC root beer. If we saw another car from our party we could flash our lights at them to pull them over and steal any root beer that we found within one minute. Whoever had the most root beer at the end of the allotted time for the game won. Then we went back to the church for root beer floats. It was a great party. After the party we went to a post party at Joseph and Angela's house. We put the kids down to bed- and boy it didn't take long, they were exhausted from such a fun day - then all the adults that could come stayed awake talking about fun memories. Those are the moments I cherish when we get together as a family. It was a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday to ME!

On the 14th I turned the ripe old age of 33!! When did I get to be that old. Really it isn't old at all, and I feel the same as I did when I was 24, but when I was 13.... anything above 29 seemed ancient. I had a great birthday. I am a mom, so I had to do the regular mom things, preschool, library, etc. but people were so wonderful to remember me. Honestly, on my birthday I really don't care if people get gifts or anything like that, it just makes my day to be remembered. My friend Marlo and her kids, and other neighborhood kids made me my very own birthday sign. So Sweet! And of course some ice cream because she knows my major weakness.
That night Jerry's family came over for cake, ice cream, and presents. It was a wonderful day and they are always very good at making me feel so special. Thanks!

Happiest Place on Earth!

A couple weekends ago we went on a fun fast trip to Disneyland. SO FUN! Two of Jerry's brothers were there as well and it was great to hang out with them. I can't tell you how much we love Ebay! This is the second time we got our tickets for Disneyland off ebay and we had no problems at all, and saved a LOT of money.


Here we are on the trip there. You can tell Hayden got a little bored and had to get creative:)

Right before going into the park! Full of excitement and anticipation!

Stopping for some lunch with the whole group.

Hayden riding with his cousin Jacob.

Cute little Sydney

We drove home on Sunday, but stopped off at Knott's Berry Farm to walk around a little bit. The kids had a blast playing in the fountain, and it helped them get energy out so they could sleep the majority of the way home.

Harvest Day 2009

We had our annual Harvest Day celebration again this year. It was the first Sunday in October. We have so much fun ringing in the holiday season every year!

The language of love :)

Yesterday after General Conference Jerry came into the living room and held out a HUGE bbq spatula for me to take, with his "I'm up to something" smirk on his face. I looked at him, very confused, trying to figure out what he was "up to." Then he innocently said, "During conference we were reminded to say 'I love you' often, and..... what better way to say I love you than with a spatula."

He must love me a lot because that spatula was GINORMOUS!


(If you've never seen UHF this means absolutely nothing to you - so go watch it. It's extremely stupid, but SO funny.)

Possibly TMI

So, Sydney has started this new thing lately that when I nurse her she pinches my arm. It hurts SO bad. Honestly I have bruises from little 7 month old fingers. I was complaining and showing Jerry my bruises tonight and Hayden thought for a minute. Then he said to me, "Mom, I know why she is pinching you." I asked why. He responded that she is pinching me because the milk inside my body is old. Such a funny boy, and so clever to come up with that reason.

prayers and patience

For the longest time I have been praying for more patience in dealing with Rebecca's 2 year old behavior/tantrums/talking back/ attitude. But it hit me. If I pray for patience - I'll be given situations to develop that patience. So now, I'm changing my prayers. I'm just praying that she'll stop behaving badly. There we go. I'm fine without learning patience:)