January Miscellaneous

January flew by for the Ray fam. The weather was fabulous and we had lots of fun days playing outside. Here's a few random pictures from the month that I thought were blog worthy. Look at those chubby hands. Love 'em! Ben does this all the time and it always makes us laugh.
Graham and Lucy wanted to join the fun.

We enjoyed some great trampoline time after homework was all done.

Here's our little pirate at the pirate park with his #1 buddy, Grant. ARRRRR!

31....yikes.

On the 10th of January I turned 31. Yep....I'm officially in my thirties. I had a great day! Jason took off work and we went to lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. My great friend, Laurie, watched Graham, so it was just J, Ben, and I. We had a fabulous view of the ocean and it was a beautiful day. Have I mentioned how much I love the weather here?
After lunch, we went to a little candy shop in Ventura and I picked out some of my favorites. I'm a huge candy fan. They didn't have any penny candy, but I got some lemon heads and other sugary treats.

That night we had hamburgers at home and some cake and ice cream. The fam sent me on our traditional "hot and cold" hunt to find my presents. Lucy bought me a huge bag of Jelly Bellies and wrote me a sweet story. She also wrapped up my flip-flops. Earlier that day, she asked me why I was wearing my flats. I told her I couldn't find my flip flops, so I had to wear them. The night before she had wrapped them up as one of my gifts. She What a goofball!

Jason got me some workout clothes and some cycling shoes for me to wear to spin class. One of my presents was some comfortable socks for the gym. When I opened them, Graham said, "What is it? What is it? Socks! WAH WAH." I don't really know how to explain it, but try to imagine the "Wah, wah" like you hear on a cartoon when something bad happens. He says it every once in a while and we are always impressed that he uses it in the right context.

I had a good day! It's always fun to get calls and messages from family and friends on your day. Jason and the kids did a great job of making me feel loved and special. I am so blessed!

Partyin' at the Beach.....in January!!

We spent President's Day this year at the beach. The weather was amazing and we had a ball! Here's Lucy sportin' her new wetsuit. Our California girl in action. She's hoping for a boogie board very soon. Ben-O loves the beach. Especially the sand. This kids ate so many cookies covered in grit. He was pooping sand for 4 days after. Sandy smile

Graham and his friend, Grant, graciously paused for a picture. We had a spectacular day with our friends. We've had day after day of fabulous weather here. Today was a little to chilly for me at 62 degrees. We are definitely livin' it up! We'll have a hard time leaving the beach when it's our time to go.

Grandma Comes to Town!

My wonderful mother came to town the middle of January. She spent 5 fun-filled days with us and we enjoyed every minute!We spent on of the afternoons in Santa Barbara. We picked up some fabulous cupcakes from our favorite little shop, Crushcakes. We walked over to a park we love and enjoyed our desserts.

Here's Grandma with the kiddos. Ben isn't into sitting still.

On the way back home, we stopped in Carpenteria to check out the animal life.
The lady standing behind Jason is a volunteer that works there at the conservation. She kept asking the kids to talk quietly because she was worried we might startle the sea lions and many of them are pregnant and would "stampede" into the ocean in their fragile condition. She was worried the metal off our stroller might reflect the sun and scare them, too. Yikes. Funny part....there was an active railroad track about 10 feet behind us. Laughing children vs. a train passing every few hours.

We walked hiked down some rocks and made our way to the beach. Ben-O loves himself some sand.

The next day after Lucy got out of school, we went back to the beach near our home.
We could only stay for a little over an hour. My kids are always so ticked when it's time to go. Lucy, especially. She would stay for hours and hours.

On this particular day, the kids were drawing houses in the sand. They marked off rooms and drew beds and couches. Lucy was not happy when Benny walked through a wall and tap danced all over her bed.

Lucy loved having Grandma take her to her gymnastics class. She was able to show her all of the cool tricks she's working on.

Mom and I watched a lot of Say Yes to the Dress. It's just not the same watching it with Jason.

We were, as always, so sad to see her go when Wednesday came around. The days pass too quickly when she's here. I love chatting with her throughout the day and asking her opinion on important things and silly things. The day we drove her to the airport I just kept wishing that we were picking her up and not dropping her off.

Thanks for coming, Mom. We love you!

Thoughts

Life has been busy lately. Lots of visitors, lots of activities. Blogging is taking a backseat, but it's always on my mind and it seems like I'm constantly feeling behind and not on top of it. I'm hoping to do a better job journaling, without stressing so much about all the big events I haven't blogged about yet. I want to record the sweet moments in my every day life. Maybe I'll give a little news here and there about each of my little ones more often. There may or may not be pictures involved. We'll see. I've stressed a lot lately as I think about all that I haven't recorded, all the pictures I need to post. Is it really that important? The earth will continue to turn and my children will not resent me if the pictures from their day at the beach aren't recorded, right? Why or why must I always find something to obsess about? It's very tiring.........

Today was a tough day for my sweet Lucy. She came out of school and right away I noticed tears in her eyes as she said, "I'm sad today." I asked her why and she explained that her best friend at school is moving this weekend. I saw a different side to my girl. She didn't sob or go on and on about how upset she was. A few quiet tears fell down her cheeks as she explained that Susan won't be at school on Monday. I cried with her. It broke my heart. It didn't help that she got a papercut "right after last recess" and Breanne accidentally poked her in the mouth when she was singing, "Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish". She bled a bit and wasn't sure what to do about it.

My Lucy is growing up. But in some ways, she's still my little girl. I asked her if she wanted to jump on the tramp with me and after a little bit she said, "I feel a lot better.....I almost even forgot about my day."

Graham, Ben and I spent a few hours at the park today. We were heading to the Pirate Park, so Graham asked if he could wear his pirate costume. Every once in a while I'd hear an, "ARRR, Matey" as he played with his friends. I've decided that kid is the cutest little boy in the world. He makes faces that melt my heart and make me laugh at the same time. He's turning into quite the tease and his obsession with butts and poop are a little alarming, but he is just so adorable. I loved listening talk to Grandma on the phone today. "How is your day going at work?"

Benny is growing too fast and keeps me hoppin'. He's turning into quite the Mama's boy and if we're at home, he seems to be underfoot all the time. We call him Monkey Boy because he communicates through grunts and growls. He keeps us laughing all the time and we all get so excited when he does some of the signs we've been trying to teach him.

As we speak, Lucy and Graham are beating on each other and I must once again play referee. Do your kids fight? I feel like my kids take it to the next level. "Lucy hurt my thinger!" I can hear Ben waking up from his nap through the monitor. It's time to go get groceries. Always an adventure. We'll see how many new friends Graham makes today.

More Christmas Memories

I want to make a list of things I hope to remember about our trip. Some items will be very random and won't make much sense. Bare with me.

-Shoe shopping with Beth and Chelsey (may seem like a small thing, but I enjoy those moments away without kids and getting to have grown up talk.

-This was the first year in a while that all 5 of my siblings and I were home for Christmas. Bryan and Chelsey came from D.C. and we had a fabulous time. I hate that we live so far away. My heart hurts this week because I miss everybody so badly.

-The awful stomach bug that everyone in the family had at one time or another. It only lasted about 12 hours, but it was a rough 12 hours.

-Waking up every morning and visiting with my Dad. He works in the evenings, so he was available to hang out in the mornings. He made breakfast for the kids and I enjoyed our chats.

-The obnoxious Orbeez pile in the corner of the kitchen. Even if they seemed like a petrie dish of germs, you just couldn't help yourself. You had to play with them.

-Blaine and Jason Herman's Orbeez art project.

-My Jason's surprise Christmas gifts. He had me convinced that he didn't get me anything. I got a bread maker and a super cute apron.

-Bryan and Chelsey were generous enough to buy all of the grand kids a Christmas gift. Lucy got Disney Scene It (she LOVES it....we've played it every day we've been home). Graham got a remote control car.

-When Graham opened his car, he yelled, "A gremote control car!" Then someone asked, "What is it?" He yelled again, "It's a gremote control car!" We kept asking him what it was or what he got and I'm pretty sure we got him to say, "gremote control car" at least 10 times in less than 30 seconds.

-Abby's endless attempts to get us to take her somewhere cool and her numerous phone calls (wondering when Lucy was going to be back at Grandma's house).

-Our scary drive to Logan in the snow. Jason got out in the blizzard and helped a lady whose car was stuck on the side of the road.

-Kalleen's phone call telling me she and Jared were stuck in a ditch and we needed to go help them out. I reacted as one would expect and she followed that with a laugh and said she was just kidding. Thanks, Kalleen.

-Looking forward to Mom's return from work. Everything is always more fun when my Mom is around.

-The Body Pump class I went to with Tanna. Ouch. I was sore for almost a week.

-Our couple of visits to Grandma Ray. We sang her a few songs and she was so touched. Grandma's hearing is failing, so we had to talk and sing really loud. It was so cute to see Lucy trying to sing her little heart out so Grandma could hear.

-Sleeping through True Grit at the theater. (We went to the 9:30 show...I'm pathetic).

-Chillin' with Beth and the babies while we waited for Jason Herman to get off work.

-The leopard print hat we saw after the concert followed by the leopard print coat.

-Mom's cinnamon rolls. LOVE Mom's cinnamon rolls. Wish I had one right now.

Christmas in Utah

Our holiday season was absolutely fabulous! I'm going through some serious depression right now trying to revert back to normal life. I'm missin' the fam and friends more than words can say. I need to snap out of it, ASAP.

I wish I would have taken more pictures. I have quite a few, but the quality is so, so. Maybe next year I'll get a nice camera from Santa :) .

Our vacation started with a horrendous drive. I decided to go 5 days earlier with the kids so I could go to the David Archuletta/Tabernacle Choir concert with my fam. Jason joined us later in the week. We left our house and hit extreme LA traffic only one hour into the trip. Not cool. We were making our way to Aunt Shellie's house in St. George. The trip should only have taken 7 hours. It took 9.5 hours. As soon as the traffic let up, Benny started screaming. Rock on.

When we got up the next morning and started driving from St. George to Layton, we realized our good friends, the Sares, were on the road, too. They actually started their trip less than a half an hour before us the day before and they stopped in Cedar City for the night. So, we decided to have lunch with them in Beaver.

Here's Graham, Audrey, Caleigh and Lucy at Lassen's Diner. All of the kids were excited about the fry sauce.

We finally made it to lovely Layton. I had an incredible time with Beth, Heidi, and Mom at the concert. David didn't disappoint and the Tab Choir was great, too. We were hoping for a little more David, a little less choir, but oh well. It was a fun night out.

The rest of the week up to Christmas was spent playing the Wii (I think Graham punched in at least 3 hours a day. Don't judge, I was on vacation), last minute Christmas shopping, and just hanging with the fam.

Christmas Eve was fabulous. We had an amazing meal with almost as amazing company. Here's almost all of the kiddos in their costumes for the program:

George, Graham, Lucy, Ben, Abby and Ollie.

Thomas and Freddie were indisposed at the moment. George, Graham, and Lucy were the shepherd for our Nativity. They really got into their characters when it came time to be afraid of the angel.

Cute Ben wanted in on the photo action.

Here's me and my sistas singing, "Oh Hush Thee My Baby". We sing it every year as part of our Christmas Eve program. Apparently we're all too cool to make eye contact with the camera.

Lucy sang a couple songs for the family this year. In this picture she's singing "Little Stranger". She learned it in her music class she's been taking this year.

Had to include this picture just because I love me some Jason Herman (Beth's husband).

After our fabulous program, which included many a musical number from members of the fam, we opened up our jammies.


Graham and George in their matchies.

Abby and Lucy in their matchies.

I'm ticked that I didn't get our annual picture of all the adults in their pj's. Bummer. Somewhere in there we had our pie for dessert. Jason made one of our faves, Kentucky Pie, for the event.

Here's Lucy in all her Christmas morning happiness.

She was so happy and grateful to see that Santa granted her all her wishes. Here's her list:

-a pocket watch (gold on the outside, blue, purple and red on the inside)

-a red, heart-shaped locket with diamonds on it

-a diamond shaped crystal necklace

-Orbeez

How's that for specific?? Let's just say Santa had to improvise a little and Lucy came to understand that Santa has a lot of kids to think about and custom orders aren't always filled to exactness. She got a gold pocket watch, but it had purple flowers on it. She got a heart necklace with diamonds, but it wasn't a locket and she got the diamond-shaped crystal necklace, too. As well as the Orbeez. She was happy.....Santa was relieved.

Graham was so much fun to watch Christmas morning. I was worried about the ratio between Lucy's number of gifts and his. Ridiculous to even have thought about it. He was thrilled with everything and just wanted to play. Santa brought him a train set, a couple light sabers, and a couple other things I can't remember. Graham's wish list changed daily or even hourly, so Santa went with his gut.
J, Lucy, and the pocket watch.

Ben-O claiming his new tunnel tent thingy.

We had big plans for Christmas day. My uncles and their families were going to join us for dinner. They decided to stay home after we told them about the stomach bug we were passing around at Mom and Dad's house. We still had a houseful with my little family and my siblings coming and going with their families. It made for a fun, relaxing day.
Ella and Heidi were so tired, they took a little nap on the couch together.

Benny had his first haircut on Christmas morning. I absolutely LOVE that Shellie spends Christmas with us every year. It would be weird if she wasn't there. It also made it very convenient for her to put an end to Ben's mullet days.

My two adorable nephews, Frederick and Thomas. Benny was given the same jammies, but he was way too cool to sit and pose with his peeps.

"Happy Holidays!" Love, Blaine

On Sunday, we went out to Eagle Mountain to spend the evening with the Ray family. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so no pics. We enjoyed visiting with them and had a great dinner.

Later in the week, Lucy spent the night at Jamie's house (Jason's sister). The next day Lucy proudly told me she stayed up until 1 am and slept in until 11 the next day. The Ballesteros girls know how to party!!

We loaded the family up and made our way to Logan for Wednesday night. It was the day a storm hit, so a 1 hour drive took 2 and 1/2. It was worth it, though. We went to a USU basketball game with the Wrights and Grunigs and stayed overnight at Tanna and Jed's house. Good times.....no pictures to prove it, though. Thanks for having us, Grunig fam! We love spending time with all of you!

Thursday night was spent at the Perry home visiting with their fam, the Wrights, and the Kameraths. I thought the kids looked cute sitting there at the table.
Funny Graham

Trent, Jason, Benny, Joseph, Tami

Tami, Kalleen, ME, Lichelle (great friends, lousy picture)
I was so grateful that Lichelle and Trent opened up their house to all of us. I really enjoyed visiting and catching up with everybody. We love all of these families!

We were back with my fam for New Year's Eve. We took the kiddos to the store and let each of them pick any treat they wanted to share. This tradition dates back to the early Hickman days when we went to California most years to stay with Aunt Bev and Uncle Jim. Jim would take us to the grocery store and let us get whatever food we wanted for our New Year's party. We thought it was the coolest thing ever. We limited our crowd to one thing per kid, but they still thought it was awesome.

Lucy has a tough time with decision making, so this was rough. She finally decided on some Chocolate Chips Ahoy cookies with M&M's. We had quite the assortment. Gushers, AirHeads, sour gummy worms and StarBursts.

Here's Abby, Ella, and Heidi checkin' out their options.
I think this picture is hilarious! George is such a crack up. He was absolutely soooo excited about his Gushers. Graham held on to another box of Gushers for a while, but then settled on a 5 lb. bag of sour worms. I had to talk him into 2 smaller bags instead.

We went home and played a few games of Spot It with the kids (a new game the Grunigs introduced to us). Then we sent the rugrats downstairs to watch movies while we partied upstairs. We played a few games and ate way too much fondue (an assortment of deliciousness dipped in chocolate or cheese).

I love this picture, too because if you look close, you can see how annoyed Lucy is. She fell asleep about an hour before midnight and she wanted Abby to wake her up. She was sooo irritated by every noise. Notice the folded arms.

Jason, Josh, and Beth ringing in the new year with some sparkling cider.

It looks like we're a couple of drunk chicks with Beth's cup next to her face. But, aren't we cute?

What a fun trip! Our holidays are always pretty busy and we pack a lot into 2 weeks, but we are always glad we make the trip. There's been times when we've gone back and forth about whether or not we will go home for Christmas. But, seriously, I can't imagine spending the time here without the extended fam. Although, maybe I wouldn't have to deal with this gloom that stays with me for a few weeks after leaving.