Moving Along While Daddy is Gone

We're going on day #9 since Jason left and although the time is passing very slowly, our days seem full of things to do.

Last Sunday Lucy was feeling crummy, so we stayed home from church and I tried to think of things to do with the kids. I decided to give them a little mini lesson on the temple and then we built our own little temples out of toothpicks and marshmallows. I was quite proud of mine.

Lucy just kept building and building and we were both very impressed with her end result.

On Monday night we had Family Home Evening. We talked about the true meaning of Christmas and how it's important we focus on Jesus more than the toys we hope to get. Lucy and I made a gift for Christ. I wrapped a present and we filled it up with pictures of us giving service or doing kind things. We'll open it Christmas morning before all of our other gifts. My favorite was Lucy's picture of her cheering up friends. Notice her writing....she's actually getting really good and she loves to practice.
Then we baked some ready-made Christmas cookies that Lucy picked out at the store. I thought they were pretty gross (which is saying something because I'll eat almost anything), but the kids loved them. Here's a picture of them waiting for them to get done.
On Friday night the base had the annual "jet lighting" at the Youth Center. Every year they haul over a retired jet and put Christmas lights on it. Santa and Mrs. Claus joined the festivities. Lucy was pretty excited to be able to tell Santa what she wants. Graham wasn't at all afraid of the couple. Every time we walked away from Santa, cookies or the Christmas music, he would yell, "Der.....Missmus!" Translation: "Over there.....Christmas!"
Saturday night we attended the Lemoore Christmas parade. It was a little stressful getting the kids bundled and finding our viewing spot, but once we were settled we had a great time. Before the parade started, they called up all the kids sitting near the judges table to go on to the street and sing Christmas carols. Lucy had a ball singing her heart out with all her friends.

I hate that Jason is missing out on the build up to the big day, but we're doing fine. I really appreciate the calls of concern and support that I've received. I hope you are all having a happy season!!

For These Moments I Am Thankful

We had a very enjoyable, relaxing Thanksgiving. Our celebration started with a little Pilgrim/Indian celebration with Lucy's class on Wednesday morning. I helped make some "friendship" salad and assisted the kids in getting their costumes on. Lucy and her buddy, Danielle, posed it up for me as they waited for their snacks.


We were lucky enough to have Jason's sister, Shellie, come spend the week with us. It was so great having her here. Lucy especially enjoyed playing with her IPhone the entire time.

Thursday morning we bundled up the kids and went over to the church for the annual Turkey Bowl. We had quite the turn out this year. Lucy and Graham enjoyed playing with all the kids that came.

After the game, it was time to get home and quickly get ready for our Thanksgiving party. We had 4 other families coming to have their meal with us. The Gilberts, the MacAbees, the Magins, and the Sares. It was a little crazy, but so much fun! Jason and I were only in charge of rolls and a veggie tray. Easy breezy! We had a little bit of cleaning to do, but we were happy to host if they were going to be all the great food! We had deep fried turkey, Caroline's awesome English-style stuffing and appetizers, and tons of pie. Good times!

After dinner we pulled out Jason's new game, Rock Band. I don't think I'll ever hear "Should I Stay or Should I Go" again without thinking of Caroline on the microphone.

What a blessing to have so many friends to fill in the gap for us when we're away from family. Not just any friends.....super fun friends who make us laugh and make life better! We felt so lucky to have Shellie come stay with us. We were sad to have her leave on Saturday.

Our week ended with a tear or two. Jason left Friday night for 3 weeks, so I'm flying solo with the kids for a while. Also, there's been a change in plans. We're moving to Utah at Christmas, so when Jason returns from field exercises, the house will be all packed (most of the stuff will be sent to Port Hueneme to be stored until August). We'll make our way to Layton on the 20th or 21st. So much to do.....so little time!!

A Few of My Favorite Things

These past few weeks I've been able to capture a few of my favorite things through pictures.

I love spending time with my friends. A group of us went to see Twilight the weekend it came out. Not fan of the movie, but I'm a huge fan of the company I had at dinner and being able to share a few laughs at the theater with some of my closest friends here in Lemoore. My friend, Caroline, is moving next week and I've been thinking a lot lately about how blessed I've been to have such trustworthy, kind, dependable friends that I know will always be there to help me or cheer me up.


Another one of my favorite things is when my kids find their own creative ways to entertain themselves. This is Lucy's friend, Gavin, allowing her to do his hair before they pretended to be in a photo shoot or play or something.

Here's our family at our favorite ice cream place. Fosters Freeze has great soft serve and we love to go and get a cone after family home evening or just on an evening with time to kill.

I love the rain. Especially when we get it here in Lemoore, which is hardly ever. On our walk to school, Lucy and Graham sported umbrellas. Graham came close to talking out a few kindergartners eyes, but they had fun.


Just a few things I wanted to remember about this month. I'm working on enjoying the little things and recognizing the blessing of every day simplicity.

Date Night

Jason and I were lucky enough to go on a little date this past weekend. Our wonderful friends, the Gilberts, watched our little ones while we went to dinner and a movie. One of my favorite parts of our dates is just being able to talk to Jason one on one. We had a lot to talk about this time around with all the changes coming for our family.


Here we are at Mimi's Cafe. We drove 45 minutes to Visalia so we could have a better choice of restaurants. We've been here a couple times and have liked it.

After the movie we saw Eagle Eye. We're big Shia Lebeouf (spelling?) fans. We liked the movie, although I'll warn you, it takes a turn for the stupid near the end.

I am so grateful for the sweet husband I've been blessed with. There is no one else I would rather spend my time with. I'm nervous for the months ahead when I'll be without my match, but I know we'll be okay.

The Next 9 Months........

Tomorrow is the beginning of a long road for the Ray family. Jason leaves to start a new job two and a half hours south of here at Port Hueneme. After weighing a few different options, we decided that the kids and I will stay here for a while. Jason has to go on some field exercises for 3-4 weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so rather than pull Lucy out of school just to move somewhere and have Daddy leave right away, we decided to stay here where we have a good support group and friends. Jason is deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan in March, so the kids and I are moving to Utah to live with Grandma and Grandpa while he's gone for 6 months. For the months of January and February, we'll see Daddy on the weekends and then prepare for him to leave us for a while.

Hopefully you were able to follow that. In summary: As of tomorrow, Jason won't be living with us permanently (we'll see him on weekends for a while) until we are reunited next August and move to Port Hueneme. It's gonna be awesome.......

Last Day on the Job

Today was Jason's last day at work here at NAS Lemoore. He'll drive to Port Hueneme tomorrow to report to Naval Mobile Construction Batallion 5.

Last Thursday the people at Jason's work put on a little party in honor of his last week here in Lemoore. He was given a Navy Accomodation Medal for his accomplishments while working here. It was nice to hear his bosses speak so highly of Jason. I'm so proud of him and I've always admired his strong work ethic.
It will be interesting to see what Navy life is like at a different base. We've been a little spoiled here because his work is less than 2 miles away from home and his bosses have been very family oriented and accommodating.

The next 9 months are going to be a challenge for the Ray family. I know we'll get through it, but I'm a little anxious to see exactly how.

Little Buddy

My little buddy has been sick the last few days. Nothing too serious, just some stomach trouble. I've decided there is one bonus to having a sick kid. He'll snuggle with me and let me hold him while we watch TV. Graham is usually moving all the time, so even though he's grouchy and not feeling too hot, I love feeling so needed.

I also wanted to document a few things that he's been doing lately. It seems the last few months I've wanted to just freeze time. I don't want him to grow up so fast!

This picture is of Graham eating his breakfast. He hasn't been willing to sit in a high chair for well over 6 months now. He prefers to stand at the bar on a stool or chair. Here he is chowing on his breakfast of choice, a waffle.

He continues to get better and better at all his letters and their sounds. He points them out all the time and never really mixes them up or makes mistakes. We have a hard time understanding a lot of what he says, but his letter and the sounds they make come through loud and clear.

He also can count to 13! It's so dang cute to hear him do it.

When Graham falls down or hurts himself somehow, no matter how upset he is, if I say, "Are you okay?" he'll say, "I okay." He says it in this pitiful mumbly voice. It cracks me up every time.

He loves saying hi and bye to everyone. He never just says it.......he yells it as loud as he can. He throws in a "how are you" every once in a while, too.

Graham HATES holding my hand when we're walking (what 2 year old does).

He loves to sing and one of my favorite things is to hear my kids singing from the other room.

That's all I can think of right now. Maybe I'll add more later. Love you buddy! Hope you get feeling better soon!

Halloween in UTAH!!

Jason and I decided to load up the kids and head to Utah for Halloween weekend. We left Thursday afternoon and made it all the way to St. George and stayed the night with Jason's sister, Shellie. My neighbor and her two girls tagged along, so we had a van full of kiddos to entertain, but we survived.
We decided to surprise everyone and not tell them we were coming. We got into town around 5:00 pm on Halloween evening. We stopped at the Perry's house to put on the kids costumes and then headed over to Heidi's house (my sister). We parked the car a few houses down and sent Lucy and Graham to the door. Abby and Oliver happened to be walking out their front door about that same time and when Abby realized it was Lucy walking up to her, she was so excited! Her reaction alone made the whole trip worth it. She hugged her and lifted her up. It was so great! She ran inside to tell her mom we were there. Heidi didn't believe her until Lucy walked in. Heidi made Jason and I feel so loved. The surprise factor made it all the more joyful.

We finally got to meet our new niece, Ella, too!

We gathered up all the kids and trick or treated our way over to Mom and Dad's house. We sent Lucy up with her cousins and all the neighbor kids. We told her not to say anything until Grandma noticed her. She was so shocked to see her there and it made me so happy to walk up to the door and give my Mom and Dad a big hug.

Here's Graham in his 3rd Halloween costume of the year: Nemo

Our trip was short, but we packed it full of fun and games.

Saturday morning, Abby was baptized and confirmed. We were so glad we got to spend that special day with her. She's growing up so fast. We love Abby and we're so glad she's a part of our family.

That night we went to dinner with Jason's siblings. Jamie and Marty didn't know we were coming, so it was fun surprising them, too. It was so fun catching up with them and just hanging out.

Sunday morning we went to see Grandpa and Nana Ray. It was nice spending time with them and having the kids interact with them. After that, Jason took the kids over to Jamie's house to play with her little ones.
We spent most of the time just sitting around my Mom and Dad's house visiting and eating too much. Good times! I love spending time with family! We got a couple days filled with lots of laughter and memories. Even though the drive was long, we are so glad we went! Only 44 days until we drive back for Christmas!!

Beth and Lindsay posin' it upHere's George and Graham enjoying some ice cream together

Trunk or Treat and more

I'm a little late on the Halloween post, but here it goes.

Our Halloween started with a trunk or treat with our ward the weekend before. Lucy was an adorable fairy. She wanted to be Tinkerbell, but when she spotted this purple number she decided to be "Tinkerbell's friend". Isn't she adorable? She was soooo excited about wearing a little makeup or "eyeblash" as she calls it.

We attempted to put an alligator costume on Graham that we had borrowed from a neighbor, but he would have nothing to do with it. We decided to put him in his favorite Spider-Man pajamas and he was ready to party. Whenever we put them on him, he says, "MAN!" meaning, of course, "SPIDERMAN!"Our friends, Gavin and Hayley joined us for the evening. We had a great time showing off the costumes. A lot of the primary kids were wondering what I was dressed up as. Not a good thing to hear when you aren't wearing any kind of costume. They were confused by my hair. They hadn't seen it dark yet and I wore it curly (which I rarely do). I had to let a couple of the kids pull on my hair so they would believe it wasn't a wig! Check out the shorts and flip-flops I'm sportin'. I think it was like 80 degrees that day.

Later that week, a bunch of us got our kids together to take a group picture outside. The kids all cooperated very well. Graham let us put on the alligator costume, but as you can see, it was a little snug. He didn't seem to mind too much.

My F-18 Ride

FYI This was posted by Jason not MaggieMonday I had the opportunity to take the ride I have been trying to get since I got here 3 years ago. My time here in Lemoore I have had multiple projects working around the jets. From building a new air traffic control tower to replacing the lights on the runway. I have been around them, watched them take off and land, felt the ground shake as they fly over and felt the heat from the engines as they fire up. I finally got the rare opportunity to actually take a back seat ride. It was a pretty amazing experience. I gained a whole new appreciation for the pilots that are able to fly these jets while experiencing the extreme stresses that are placed on the body while performing the maneuvers.I flew with an instructor pilot who was participating and training evolution with the student pilots. The student pilots would find us, lock on their radar and then we would try to break the radar lock. I survived the take off and some of the initial maneuvering pretty well, but once we got into the consecutive maneuvers, trying to break the radar lock, I was not able to handle things quite as well. That being said, this was an amazing opportunity I am so glad I was able to experience. Definitely one of the best perks that have come with being in the navy.

Copy Cat

I've seen this on many a blog the last few days and decided to join in. You're supposed to go to your fourth file and then the fourth picture in the file is what you post. This is what I got:

This is December of 2005, so Lucy was about 2 1/2 when this was taken. I absolutely loved this outfit that my cousin Jaime gave her. I hope we have another girl someday that can wear it.

Staying Connected

After a bath and an Oreo or two for dessert, we decided to give my niece, Abby, a call to wish her Happy Birthday Eve. Lucy loves talking to Abby and Oliver on the phone. She laughs her head off the whole time. I just love the look on her face as she waits to hear what they'll say next.

Little Miss Lucy

Lucy begged me the other day to "PLEEEEAAASE play barbies" with her. As I've explained to many of you, I really do not enjoy playing pretend with Lucy's little toys. I would much rather play 100 games of Go Fish or read 60 books to her than sit down and play barbies. But....being the amazing mother I am, I gave in and tried really hard. Well, I devised a plan to get out of pretending. My barbie (AKA Princess Aurora) decided it was time for a family photo shoot. So for 15-20 minutes, Lucy and I put the barbies in different poses. Here are the results:
Lucy has been cracking us up lately. The other day she was pulling on both sides of her belt and trying to get it to reach up by both of her shoulders. I asked what she was doing and she said, "I'm trying to make Olivers!" What she meant to say was overalls. She has a cousin named Oliver.

Yesterday she came up to me and said, "Hey, Mom! Is this giddy-upping?" Then she proceeded to gallop down the hallway. When I told her what it was called, she said, "Oh yeah, that's what I meant."

YES on Proposition 8

Many of you may not know about Proposition 8. I felt I should do my part to get the word out. Even though most of my readers aren't California voters, this is something that will affect all of our lives in the years to come.

Proposition 8 is an initiative measure on the 2008 California General Election ballot. If passed, it will be an amendment to the state constitution stating that only marriage between a man and a woman will be valid or recognized in the state of California. A few years back, 61% of the people voted these same words on another proposition, but recently the supreme court over ruled it and made same sex marriage legal. If Proposition 8 passes, this amendment will not allow that to happen again.

Jason and I have been working alongside many of our ward members on the "Yes for Proposition 8 Campaign". Many other churches and organizations are taking part as well. We've gone door to door to registered voters in hopes of educating people about the Proposition, encouraging them to get out and vote in favor of it.

When the campaign started a few months ago, I had my own small, personal struggle with the idea of going around and telling people my beliefs and how I felt regarding the issue. I was extremely anxious about starting conversations with neighbors and going door to door. But, after hearing the leaders of our church express it's importance and after studying out the repercussions of legalizing same sex marriage, I know that it's something I have to give my full support and time to.

Please take the time to check out the following websites: www.preservingmarriage.com and
www.protectmarriage.com . Articles at these sites explain things much more clearly than I can. It's not simply about allowing gay marriage or not. It will be required to be taught in the schools as equal to heterosexual relationships. Age appropriate information regarding sexual relations within those marriages will be taught. It will more than likely lead to religious liberties being questioned and taken away: bishops unable to perform civil marriages because they won't perform same-sex marriages, religious adoption agencies shutting down because they will not place children in same-sex marriages, etc., etc.

California law gives marriage-related benefits through civil unions and domestic partnership to homosexual couples. They lose nothing if this proposition passes.

If you have questions, please check those websites out!! California voters........get out and vote!

General Conference Tidbits

General Conference was fabulous! I had a very uplifting 2 days. So many talks that were given seemed just for me.

Side note: For those who don't know, General Conference is a meeting held twice a year by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (of which we belong). We hear from our beloved prophet as well as his apostles and many other leaders of our church.

It seemed like a lot of the talks had some good one-liners. I found myself listening for them with each speaker. Here are some of them that I've been thinking a lot about today and I hope to be able to put into practice and make stick:

"Seek to simplify"
L. Tom Perry

"You don't know everything, but you know enough."
Neil L. Anderson
This one spoke to me. I sometimes feel overwhelmed with the idea of missionary work and sharing what I believe with friends. I worry my knowledge of the gospel is too weak and I won't know answers to questions. I need to remember that although I don't know everything, I know enough and how can I not share what I know! Which leads me to the next quote:

"In the strength of the Lord I can do all things."
Elaine S. Dalton
Lots of overwhelming things are coming my way. Jason is deploying the beginning of next year and if I think about it too much, my heart starts racing and I can't breathe. I know by myself I would be in trouble, but with the Lord's help I can do all things.

"We cannot afford to be superficially righteous."
M. Russell Ballard
This one hit home. If I really evaluate my life, I find myself falling into this trap. I go to church, we pray with our children and have family home evening, I fulfill my church calling. From the outside looking in, I'm doing pretty good. It's the times when I'm alone that I fall short. I need to have consistent scripture study and more meaningful prayer. The time is now!

"In the process of waiting for these angels, may we all be a little more angelic ourselves."
Jeffery R. Holland

"Never let a problem to be solved be more important than a person to be loved."
President Thomas S. Monson
So powerful! Sometimes I need to just chuck the to-do list and sit and listen to my kids!! He also said in that same talk "Choose not to focus on what is missing in your lives, but on the abundance." I can most definitely work on that!

I hope all those who got a chance to listen to the talks enjoyed them as much as I did. Interested in reading more? Visit www.lds.org

The boots make a comeback......

Lucy is in love with her boots all over again. She insists on wearing them nearly every day.

The Dark Side

Well, I did it. I went and got my hair cut and dyed. I needed a change and a change is what I got. I usually go a little darker in the fall, but this is oh so dark for me. I like it a whole lot more than I did yesterday. I was told it will fade a bit.
It feels a little like Halloween came early for me and I have a wig on. I'll try to enjoy the brunette life for a couple months and then bring back some of the blond I'm used to.

Future Missionary

We had an exceptionally fun family home evening last night. Our lesson was on missionary work. We showed Lucy some pictures from Jason's mission in Australia. She almost couldn't believe that he was a missionary! We talked with Lucy about the importance of missionary work and how she can share what she knows about the gospel and Jesus with her friends.

We gave her a little homemade badge like the missionaries wear and she and Jason went knocking on doors (around the house) pretending to share the gospel. I would answer the door and she introduced herself to me as Sister Ray and then she and Jason would proceed to answer questions I had about "her" church. I was very impressed by how much she knows! She had a great time pretending with us and I felt like she really understood what we were trying to teach her.

After the lesson we had some cookies and milk with the kiddos. In this picture Jason is behind me making crazy faces trying to get them to smile for me.
Family home evening has become such a fun time for our little family. We look forward to Monday nights and I really try to think about what the kids need to hear that week. I'm amazed at how much they soak in even with just the short little lessons that we do.

Before bed we played an intense game of hide and seek. I hid Lucy on one of the shelves in the pantry. After finding her, Graham decided to join her.
We then told Lucy that she was going to have to sleep there that night and so Graham decided to help her out. He kept bringing her toys and laying his beloved blanket on her. Then he gave her a hug and a kiss and told her good night. It was so sweet! That kid sure keeps us laughing!