Thompson Time!

We had a fabulous weekend here in Lemoore. My sister, Heidi Thompson, and her two kids, Abby and Oliver, came to visit us. They flew in on Thursday afternooon and we partied the whole weekend through.

On Friday we hung out here at the house and then went to our ward's Trunk or Treat activity. Abby was Hannah Montana, Ollie was a pirate and Lucy was a witch with purple hair (she was very specific in her descriptions). Jason, Heidi, and I dressed up as ceiling fans. Let me explain.....we wore shirts that had big letter 'C' 's on them and hats with things like "Go Ceilings" or "Ceilings are Tops". We were ceiling "fans". We thought it was pretty funny. If you don't get it, don't worry, lots of people at the party didn't get it either. It was fun to have Heidi meet my friends here in Lemoore and see what our town and ward are like.

Saturday morning we went to Lucy's first soccer game and then made our way to the coast. Morro Bay is about 2 1/2 hours away. It was a very cold when we got there (about 60 degrees), but that didn't stop the kids from going in the water. We couldn't keep Graham out! The waves kept knocking him down and he'd cry and then go back for more. Crazy kids! I was so cold!! We stayed for less than an hour and then made our way home.

Sunday morning you would have thought these kids lived together with all of their fighting! The newness had worn off by this point. We had a hard time getting them to go to sleep at night and they all woke up super early, so they were out of control cranky!

Monday we drove to Sequoia National Park to see the Giant Sequoia trees. They are crazy big. The drive was about twice as far as I thought, but the kids were troopers. We had some car sick issues on the way home, but it was good day.

Some of the highlights of the weekend for me were: listening to the kids sing along to the High School Musical Soundtrack that we played over and over again in the car (especially 'Fabulous'), watching TV with Jason and Heidi and laughing way too hard at our own jokes, Heidi and I playing some serious Ultimate Hopscotch (this is not your sissy-style, pick up the rock, hopscotch). We let Jason play with us on Sunday afternoon and he beat us...beginners luck!

I'm so glad that they came! We had such a great time. Lucy and I are trying to snap out of our state of depression. We miss them already!

The Good Example Jar

We're attempting a new strategy to try and encourage better behavior from little Lucy. Like I've explained before, we've been going through a bit of a rough patch as far as obedience and there's been a whole lot of whining going on here at the Ray household. Last night at FHE we presented our plan. Lucy has this little container that we lovingly call, "The Good Example Jar". She gets to fill it with one or two of the colored rocks when she has exhibited "Good Example" behavior (don't worry, we didn't use the word 'exibited' when explaining it to Lucy.) We have to take one out when she is maybe having not so good behavior. When it's filled to the top, we'll take her to Chuck E. Cheese (my favorite hang-out spot). Jason and I did a role-play where I was Lucy and he was Mom (or himself) asking her to do something. She thought it was hilarious when I threw myself on the ground screaming when he told me it was time to clean up and get ready for bed. I had the most fun acting out her usual reaction to having to come inside after playing. Classic. This is a picture of Lucy after she happily got her jammies on and brushed her teeth.....she got to put a rock in. So far...so good. We'll keep you posted. Get it? Posted! Ha!

"Lucy! Go kick the ball!"

Yesterday was Lucy's first soccer practice of the season. As I was helping her get her shoes on, she said, "I don't want to play soccer. It gets me all sweaty!" I went into a whole speech about how fun it's going to be and how much I love soccer, so she should love it, too. She was not at all interested. We signed her up last season, but as you can see from the picture, there wasn't a whole lot of soccer playing. There was, however, a whole lot of grass picking and prancing. All of which was nowhere near the soccer ball. Last year she spent almost an entire game standing in the middle of the field, yelling her friend's name. "HAYLEY......HAYLEY........HAYLEY...." Imagine her with her hands cupped around her mouth. Turning the direction that Hayley was in.

She had a great time at practice and even kicked the ball a few times. Maybe this year there will be a little less dancing and singing on the field and a little more kicking and goal-scoring.

Cute face...quick temper!

We've entered a new stage with our little Lucy-goose. Like most, if not all, of her other stages, we're not sure how to handle it. Whenever Lucy gets upset or disappointed (friend has to go home, we have to leave, etc, etc.)she proceeds to tell me that she does not like me and occasionally hits me. When she hits, we do the immediate time out and take away something she enjoys playing with for a day or two. But, the "I don't like you, Mom!" I'm not so sure. She has started saying the same things to her friends when they make her mad, too. She's even been known to hit a friend or two in the process. Lucy never went through the biting or hitting phase early on, so I'm not sure where it's coming from. I can tell she's testing me because the few times she has swung at me, she has this look in her eye that I'm sure many of you have seen before. It's like she's saying, "Yep, I did it....Now what are you going to do?" She's quite the character!

Pizza with a side of influenza...

Friday night we went to Chuckie Cheese (spelling?) with some friends. It was fun, but I always have a hard time getting over the germs that I am sure are covering everything. Lucy had a fabulous time. Graham loved climbing on the cars. When we got there Lucy said, "Mom, it's like Disneyland!" Good to know. Next time we're thinking about driving 3 hours and spending over $200 to go to Disneyland......we'll just head to Chuckie Cheese.....aka Germ Fest.

The BIG Fresno Fair

For Columbus Day, the fam went to the Fresno County Fair. Jason had the day off, so we wanted to do something fun. They've been advertising it as The BIG Fresno fair. We weren't super impressed, but we had a good time. We saw lots of animals. Lucy loved the lambs and baby pigs. She kept asking why the flies were all over the animals. I think she was worried that they were bothering them.
Graham was a champ in the stroller. He was content and happy almost the whole time. He loved the kettle corn we all shared. (Kettle Corn is definitely one of my favorites now-a-days).

Lucy got to ride some of the carnival rides, too. Her favorite was the "worm roller coaster". Dad took her on the big ferris wheel. That made mom a little nervous, but she had a good time. Graham and I played peek-a-boo while they rode.

I think one of my favorite parts of the day was when we found the Kiddie Karaoke stage on the way out of the fair. Lucy got up their and belted out, "Boom, Boom, Ain't it Great to Be Crazy". She sang me proud!This is Graham and Dad on their way to the van after a long afternoon. Notice the matching shirts......dorky, but kinda cute, too.

Grambo's First Haircut!

Graham got his hair chopped for the first time last week. I wanted to try it on my own, but I chickened out. We took him to the beauty shop here on base. It took her less than 5 minutes, but they still charged us 10 bucks! He wiggled and jiggled the whole time, of course. He wanted to see what she was doing. Jason held his head for a while and Lucy and I sang the "5 Little Monkeys" song to try and help him stay still. I need to learn how to cut his cute little head of hair, but in the mean time.....doesn't he look so handsome?

Air Traffic Control Tower

One of my construction projects is a new Air Traffic Control Tower. This is currently the biggest project on the base and things are going well. I went out to the project to take pictures and a couple of the Blue Angels Jets were there. Aparently they were headed to a show over here on the west coast and for some reason they stopped in here. So I got to get some pictures of the planes while I was taking pictures of the tower. In the top picture you can see the tower behind the jet. The middle picture is taken from the roof of another building and the bottom picture is taken from the top of the tower looking over the hangers and parking aprons.

Oops....

I'm so depressed! I was trying some new stuff on our blog and somehow erased all of my elements. Very upsetting!! Stay tuned for a new look. Hopefully I can remember what I had!!!

I should never leave my house!

The kids and I had a rough morning. It began with a primary presidency meeting at my friend, Kelli's house. Graham usually naps around 10 am and the meeting started at 9, so I knew the end of the meeting would be a bit rough. (Does anyone else feel like their lives are ruled by naptime?) Well, as I predicted, the end was a battle, but we survived. Following the meeting, a bunch of my friends were meeting at 11:00 at a restaurant in Lemoore to surprise Caroline for her birthday. I had a feeling that I should just not do the restaurant, but I didn't want to miss out....so on we went. The kiddos did okay for about 15 minutes and then it was an all-out "Mom vs. Kids" showdown. Graham screamed in between Cheerio refills, Lucy demanded rootbeer after being given water, Graham pulled the table cloth up over his head and onto the floor, Lucy pulled her infamous dinosaur-raptor screech whenever Graham touched her. My next mistake was letting Graham out of the high chair while we waited for our food. He nearly tripped 3 different waiters. After that, Lucy thought she should be able to run around, too. That was it...I was done. I asked the waitress if we could have our order to go and we packed up and went to the van. Lucy did the before mentioned screech all the way to the car. It was awesome. Definitely a proud mother moment.

Graham fell asleep on the way home and so I put him to bed and Lucy and I had a picnic in the front room with our "to go" food. Graham woke up a couple hours later and has joined Lucy in her 4th hour of TV today. Did I mention I'm being nominated for mother of the year?

Graham found me....I better go!

Celine Dion.....The Final Year

I had quite the eventful weekend. I drove to Las Vegas to see Celine Dion with my friends, Tanna and Jed (Jason didn't want to pay to see her....and he had to work anyways). We had a great time! Tanna and I have been talking about going together for years. Now was the time because she's done with her Vegas show at the end of the year.

I left Saturday morning and drove the 6 hours to meet them. I listened to my Celine Dion Greatest Hits so I could be up to speed with her music. We stayed at Melinda and Jason's house (Melinda is my brother's sister-in-law). They were so nice to let us crash at their place. After we got there we went to the New York New York casino and rode the roller coaster. YIKES!!! It was very scary! I use to be quite the dare-devil, but having kids has made me lame and boring. I sat by a Korean lady that was visiting a friend. We made small talk while climbing the huge hill to the top of the coaster.

Following that, we went to dinner at Macaroni Grill and then headed to the concert. We had some parking issues, but we pressed on and made it to Caesars Palace. Celine was amazing! Tanna and I kept saying how gorgeous she is. She sang all the songs I was hoping she would. She also did a little tribute to Frank Sinatra. I really like one of the songs she did for that, "All the Way". I put it on my playlist so I could listen to it. One of my favorites was "I Drove All Night". The stage was huge and there were so many dancers! We had a fabulous time. It was a fun memory made with Tanna and Jed. I always enjoy hanging out with them and talking about life. I also tried to add a song from High School Musical 2 to the playlist, but all the songs sounded funny. I downloaded the soundtrack album to my ipod for the trip to Vegas. The movie is ultra-cheese, but you have to admit it's entertaining. Many of you are now rolling your eyes,laughing, or thinking, "typical Maggie" but hey........I like the music and after 6 hours, I have them all memorized! Good times! I really like running to "Bet on it".

Painting with a side order of chocolate!

We've been looking for new projects for Lucy Goose to do in the afternoons. It seems I'm always hearing, "Mom, what can I do now?" or "Mom, will you play with me?" I will color or paint until the cows come home, but I absolutely hate pretending with the Barbies or her toy princesses. So, we bought some Play-Doh and some paints at the store. She painted while I made some brownies for a baby shower I was going to that night. In between pictures, she licked the beaters from the brownies. She was in heaven!Side note: I think I've baked more in the last week than I have in the 6.5 years we've been married. Does anyone else have the "You-must-eat-all-of- the-cookies-that-are-in-your-sight" syndrome? This is why I don't bake!

Forget green eggs and ham.....blue pancakes it is!

We decided to have breakfast for dinner on Friday. The grocery store here on base closes at 5:00 on Fridays.....ridiculous! Obviously, we weren't on the ball enough to plan ahead, so blue pancakes it was! Pancake/waffle making is a fun little tradition that Jason and Lucy have together. Lucy gets to pick the color. On Friday, it was blue.....so appetizing!! The two of them make a big batch and then we stick the leftovers in the fridge so we can toast them for breakfast the rest of the week.

Here's our hungry Graham waiting semi-patiently for his dinner.