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.