Come See Us!

On Saturday we decided to head to the beach to watch the sunset. We barely made it in time. My goal is to show you these pictures so you'll want to come visit us.






It was Benny's first time seeing the ocean. It was a little chilly, so we didn't last long. It's been raining like crazy here, but hopefully we'll be having sunny skies for a while. So.....who's coming to see us?

3 Months Old

I can't believe our little guy is 3 months already! Every time I get him out of the crib in the morning, he seems bigger.





He's doing really well! Sleeping much better and he smiles all the time. My newest favorite thing is Graham's greetings to him. "Hi Benny! Hi, Benny! Hi, Benny!" He gets right up in Benny's face and says it super fast. Then he proceeds to laugh his head off at whatever reaction Ben does or does not give.

3 Decades Old.....YIKES!

30 year-old me

Well, I turned 30 yesterday. There wasn't a whole lot of drama on my part regarding this milestone in my life. Sure, I've got a few more wrinkles than I'd like and I'm pretty sure my metabolism got the, "she's turning 30" memo, but I'm just not too concerned about it. I guess I've known it was coming for a while (30 does come after 29, ya know).

I didn't get any good pictures of us celebrating, but we had a great time. We spent Saturday in Santa Barbara with our good friends, Erin and Tom Rendulic. They hired a babysitter for us at their house, so we just had little Benny with us. We shopped and had lunch. Santa Barbara is just such a beautiful place and it's only about a 45 minute drive. The weather here is absolutely FABULOUS right now. I think it was like 72 degrees on Saturday. I love it!


Yesterday we had the Rendulics, along with all of our neighbor friends over for cake and ice cream. It was nice to have people here to help us celebrate. I'm always a little bit sad on my b-day because I miss the extended fam, so it was fun having a houseful of kids running around and friends to visit with so was too busy to think about it as much.


All in all it was a great weekend and a fun birthday!



With the new year here and my 30th year beginning, I've decided to get serious about setting some goals and sticking to them. I was pondering my new age yesterday and thinking about whether or not I am the Maggie I want to be at this point in my life. In some ways, yes, but in far too many ways, there is definitely room for improvement. So, tonight for Family Home Evening we are talking about goal-setting and self-improvement. I hope to chart my course and come up with specific ways to reach my goals. Maybe, if you're lucky, I'll share them with you at a later date.

Beam Him Up!

Graham is now a Sunbeam at church, starting last week. It's been a rough start. The little guy misses the toys and snacks from his nursery days. Who can blame him? I miss them, too!
I peeked in on him during Sharing Time. The teacher had him on her lap and it looked like she really enjoyed having Graham trying to shove her necklace into her mouth and poking his little fingers all over her face. It was a step up from the,"I want my Daddy!" scream he was belting the first 10 minutes of Opening Exercises. Sweet.

100 Club!

Lucy made it into the 100 Club in November! That means she can read all 100 of the most used words in the English language. She worked hard on them every week. She is becoming quite the student. She gets excellent scores on all of her spelling tests and even though she "hates school more than anything in the whole world" she is excelling at it.

Wonderful Waffle Cones Whenever We Want!

Mom got Jason a waffle cone maker for Christmas and Jason thought we should give it a try before we head back to Cali. Here he is workin' his waffle-cone magic
Aren't they pretty? The cones....not Blaine and Jason.
As you can see, they were a big hit!

Benjamin's Blessing

We were lucky enough to have Benny's baby blessing while we were home for Christmas. I was so happy that we could be surrounded by family during this special event in his life.

We feel so blessed to have this sweet little guy in our family. He smiles the minute anyone starts talking to him and loves to be able to look around and see everybody. His little cooing noises make me grin every time- I love to hear him try to talk. He gets more and more predictable every day and is sleeping much better. Even though he's only been here 12 weeks, it's hard to imagine what our lives were like without him.

I am so grateful to have a husband that honors the Priesthood he holds. He gave Benjamin a beautiful blessing.

Ray Christmas Party

After Ben's baby blessing, we got together with all of Jason's family for a little Christmas party. It was such a fun afternoon with everybody and we loved seeing Marty's beautiful new house.

Benny smiled so big for Grandma Ray every time she held him.


Lucy loves her cousins. Here she is with Sarah and Raegan. She always talks about these girls and loves spending time with them.

Ben-O took one of his naps with Nana. She was so sweet to feed him and hold him during breakfast so we could have a break.

Jason, Marty and baby Ben
Raegan, Lori and Benny
The Ray Fam

Notice I am wrestling with Graham. He was SOOO ornery nearly the whole time we were there. Not a good day in the life of Graham Ray. He slept for a couple hours after the get-together. Too much partying for the Grahamster.

Sweet Sarah and Ben. Jamie's girls get prettier and prettier every time we see them!

It was a crazy party with all the kids running around like maniacs, but it was fun to finally get together and visit. I wish we didn't live so far away from all of our family. It makes it so hard to leave!!

The Festivities

We had a fabulous Christmas this year. We traveled back to Utah to spend it with the fam. We were nervous about making the drive with a 9 week-old, but Benny did great! Graham and Lucy on the other hand....

Of course, the highlight of the trip was celebrating Christ's birth with our family. We had a Christmas Eve filled up with our family traditions. Our camera didn't cooperate very well, so I don't have any good pictures of our nativity play, but I got a few others. Here's some of my favorites:

George, Abby, Ollie, Benjamin, Lucy, Ella, Graham

Here are all of the Hickman grandkids in their Christmas Eve jammies. Aren't they adorable!!

Blaine and Lindsay are starting a "birthday cake for Jesus" tradition. We all took part this year. We sang "Happy Birthday" and the kids blew out the candles.

Every year after the nativity play is done, different people in the family get up and sing songs for everybody. Lucy and Abby sang, "Silent Night". My sisters and I always sing, "Oh Hush Thee My Baby". Blaine and Lindsay always each sing a song (they have AMAZING voices) and the program always ends with my Dad singing, "O Holy Night" and a family prayer. I always look forward to this part of our celebration.

Here' s Ben-O and I with his new jammies on.


I was a huge slacker in the photography department on Christmas morning. I did catch one of Lucy with her new Easy Bake Oven. She asked for that along with a toy dog that barks and walks. I figured since it will be a very, very long time before she gets a real dog (if ever), Santa could come through on her request. She also wanted a new dress for her American Girl doll, Kit. Jason and I gave her some scrapbooking stuff that she's been wanting for a while. It's been so fun to watch her journal and put it together. Graham asked for a Buzz Lightyear (big shocker). Santa surprised him with Buzz, Woody, RC and some toy story soldiers.

Here's just a few of the highlights I want to remember:

-Christmas Eve dinner with all 18 of us at the same table.

-Mom's cinnamon rolls

-Our night out without the kids to see Avatar (thank you Elvis!)

-Playing games at the kitchen table

-Hearing Lucy laughing with Abby and Oliver

- Shellie and Grandma Ray at the party. I feel lucky that they get to spend it with us each year.

-George walking in the door and asking for Graham right away.

-Ella's jabbering

-Lucy's explanation for why Santa HAS to be real. "Because you and Dad would NEVER buy me and American Girl doll!"

-The American Girl doll photo shoot the girls requested

We really enjoyed our holiday. We saw many of our friends and we were able to catch up with Jason's family as well (more pics of that to come). We always wish we had more time to spend. There were many people we didn't see this time around. Maybe they will all just have to come see us! I have to say, after spending 10 days in the cold, I was ready to head back to my 70 degree weather here in Southern California. Come see us at the beach!

Christmas Outfits

Every year Mom buys all of the grandkids Christmas outfits to wear to church the week before the big day. I loved her choices for this year!

Thanks, Mom!