San Diego with my Sweetie

Last weekend, Jason and I got to have a little get-away. Just the two of us. We had an absolutely fabulous time!

We left Friday afternoon and hit some serious traffic in L.A., so we decided to find a theater and go to a movie. We saw Super 8 (loved it!) and then got back on the road. We drove another 60 miles and then stopped for a late dinner. We wanted Chinese food, but had a hard time finding one open at 10 pm, so we opted for some Panda Express.

We made it to San Diego an hour later and checked into our hotel room. We stayed at the BOQ (bachelor's officer quarters) on the amphibious base on Coronado Island. Great price and great view. One of the perks of being a military family.

The next morning we slept in. Is 8:00 am sleeping in? When did I lose that skill? We then walked around the main street on Coronado. We found some breakfast and then headed out to the outlets near the Mexican border. Then we hit a Target to buy a bunch of stuff that J needed to get for his deployment.

The highlight of the trip came that evening. We got to see Sugarland in concert! They did not disappoint! We got to UCSD around 4:00 pm to make sure we could get good seats.

Here's Jason playing with his new toy. He bought an Ipad to take to Afghanistan with him.
Casey James was one of the opening talents. He was on American Idol a couple seasons back. I remembered him. J remembered him as the guy with girlie hair.
Sara Bareilles also opened. She was so great! She did have a bit of a potty mouth, though. I loved how she stood and played the piano as she sang.
And the big show....Sugarland! We had such a great time singing along and dancing! They put on a great show. Jason bought me their latest album, so we've been listening to it for a couple months.

They were so funny and so energetic! We had a wonderful time. Definitely at the top of the "Best Mother's Day Present" list. It was treasured time with Jason before he leaves for a while. I can't wait until we put this deployment behind us and it becomes a memory.

Oh, and here's the view from our room. Lovin' the California life we lead!

Sweet Moment

I wanted to quickly journal something that happened today before I forget about it.

My sweetheart is leaving for Afghanistan very, very soon and I was having a tough moment this afternoon. Graham came into my bedroom to ask for some goldfish (typical) and noticed that I was crying. He got up on the bed and said, "Are you sick?" I told him no, I was sad, and he asked why. I told him that I was sad that Dad was leaving so soon. Right away he asked if he was leaving right now, I reassured him that we had some time left. Then, he asked me if he could tell me a story to make me feel better. He started it with, "Once upon a time there was a princess named Maggie and a prince named Graham." I don't remember all of the story, but I know there was a dragon named Lucy and that the prince and princess went for a walk and found the dragon in a castle. After he finished his story, he asked me if I felt better. I honestly told him that I felt a whole lot better. He then walked out of the bedroom into the kitchen. He explained to his Dad what had happened, "Mom was sad. I told her a story and now she feels better." He was so proud.

A few times a day Graham will ask me, "Does Dad leave for Ann-gan-i-stan today?" He says Afganistan different every time he attempts it. I tell him no and then he starts in with the, "Does he leave tomorrow? Does he leave the next day?"

It's gonna be rough.

The Hickman Half

During our summer trip to Utah this year, Jason and I wanted to do a half-marathon, but we didn't want to get up super early and drive to a random race a few hours away. So, we talked with the fam and organized a family race starting and ending right at Mom and Dad's house.

Here we are at the starting line.

Heidi, Lindsay, Blaine, Jason, Maggie, and Jason

Beth was supposed to run it, too, but she got sick the day before with the stomach trouble that was being passed around.

After the race, my bro. in law, Ryan Thompson, took some awesome pics.

Blaine design the logo for the shirts. They say, "The 1st Annual Hickman Half"

No Hickman family event would be complete without a quote from Adventures in Babysitting, so under that there's this line, "Well can you pick me up?"

Here we are at the end of the race.....aren't we cute?

Awesome picture. My Dad joined Heidi for a bit during the race.

Here we are at the finish line cheering in the kids. Lucy, Abby, and Oliver did a 2 mile run at the end.

Cute, cute Ella.

Ella and Graham

Benny

George, Abby, Graham, Ollie, Lucy

My adorable family

+ Shellie. We were lucky enough to have Shellie come party with us. The Hickman fam loves Shellie and we're so happy when she joins us.

Mom and Pop

The Thompson fam

The Herman fam (They are moving to Iowa on Saturday for medical school. I'm still a little bitter that they aren't moving to Cali.)

The Hickman fam

The Hickman Fam

Bryan, Chelsey, and baby Archer were sorely missed. Hopefully they wore their t-shirts in D.C. in honor of the event.

Sadly, these are the only pictures I have of our trip to Utah this year. I left my purse and camera at a McDonald's in Cedar City on the drive from California. Just know that we had a fabulous time and enjoyed our visit. It's always sooooo hard to leave.

Preschool Graduation

This past semester, Graham attended a preschool that was run by students at Oxnard High School. He loved it! I'm not sure how much Graham got out of it, academically speaking, but he loved the attention he got from all the high school students and he looked forward to it each week. He went on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Here he is with two of his buddies, twins, Zephr and Cypress. We always had to wait at the gate for the students to come pick up the kids and these two boys were always there ready to play as we waited.
Enjoying some grub

Here's Grambo with some buddies from class. Tylei and Kylan. They're also in our ward. It was so nice to be able to have play dates right after school and have their moms to help with carpooling and such. Grant, Graham's best bud, was out of town for the party.

Here's my buddy with his graduation certificate.

Here's one of the teachers that always got a kick out of Graham. I can't remember his name.

Graham turns 5 in August, but we've decided to have him do another year of preschool. We would rather he was one of the oldest and not the youngest. Besides, I'm not ready for him to be away from me every day. He's still my little side kick. He's going to start at another preschool in September.

Lucy's Extra-curriculars

Lucy has been taking a music class this past year. It's called "Let's Play Music". It's a program that teaches them the foundations of music in a fun, new way and gives the kids a strong base to start on piano. We've loved the classes! Lucy was kind of ahead of the game because she had already taken 6 months of piano lessons, but she still enjoyed the classes. It's a 3 year program and sadly, our teacher isn't going to be teaching next year. So.....it's back to piano lessons this fall.

We attended Lucy's end-of-the-year program in May.

This is Lucy with her teacher and my dear friend, Alexis. We love her and her sweet family. Lucy once asked me why I can't be a nice Mom, like Sister Thunell.
Here's Lucy and Cameron in between songs. In this song they were doing the hand signs for do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do. My favorite song was called "Bugs". It taught the different timing for all the notes.
Check out this awesome dessert! It's a piano made out of Twinkies and Kit Kat Bars.

Lucy has also been taking a gymnastics class since January. She is so good! I'm always very impressed as I watch her. She flew right through level 1 and she's excelling in level 2.

The pictures are a bit blurry because the studio is kind of dark. Here she is on the uneven bars. She has such a wiry little body and she's quite strong.

Here's the balance beam.

One of her favorite things is when they climb the rope. She can get all the way to the top and she's super quick.

It's so fun to see her develop her talents and try new things. She's also our little fish! She'll be taking swimming lessons next month.

Family Home Evening with the Rays

Back in May, the Ray clan had a couple Family Home Evenings that were picture worthy.

The first one is of our Missionary FHE. We talked a little bit about what full-time missionaries do. We spent the majority of the time discussing why we need to be good examples and share the gospel with our friends. I wrote down some questions down on slips of paper that people might ask us and we practiced answering them. We thought it would be fun to have the kids practice being missionaries and asked them the questions and come up with answers together.

Here's Elder Ray and Elder Ray

Here they are answering one of the questions from the bowl. Graham looks so deep in thought. He really took this role seriously ;) .

The kids would go into the room under the stairs and knock on it like it was our door. We answered and they introduced themselves. Here's Sister and Elder Ray.
Cheeser Ben-O was an awesome investigator.

These other pictures are from a lesson that Jason gave on the importance of work. He really just wanted help getting our nasty back yard weeded and cleaned up. He shared some quotes from Pres. Hinckley and then we all got in our grubs and worked.

Ben cheered us on as he played with his super heroes.


As we dug through the dirt, we came across a whole lotta snails. Graham started a "snail collection" of his very own. Here they are with a couple of their finds. Notice the two of them found it necessary to wear their soccer cleats (we had our first practice that same week).

Funny Lucy strikin' a pose.

As our kids get a little older, I'm finding our Family Home Evenings to be more enjoyable. There are still many times when I wonder why I bothered because it seems that I yelled at them more than I taught them. But, the more consistent we are, the more effective and worthwhile they become. Yes, we miss more than we should and sometimes it's just a quick little review on what they learned in church that week and then we just play. But, I know that we have been promised that if we put forth the effort, our families will be blessed.

I know that our Heavenly Father wants us to be successful as parents and wants our children to thrive. He gave us families to help us through this tough life. I'm so grateful for my little family and my extended family. I am truly blessed.

Benny Boy's Ear Trouble

Poor Ben-O has had a rough time in the ear department. Since he was about 9 months old, it seems his nose has never stopped running. He had many ear infections during his first year, but he got a whopper of an infection in September and it wouldn't ever clear up. So, in December, he had tubes put in.

Here's the cute little guy pre-operation.
Waiting with Daddy

Well, we had hoped that tubes would put an end to our woes, but no such luck. His nose continued to run like crazy and at every follow-up appointment his tubes were plugged up. No bueno. At three different appointments, I had to hold him down as they used a little hook and vacuum to clear out each the plug and mucus. He would scream and scream while I tried not to cry. Absolutely horrible.

We are going to the doctor every 3 weeks now in hopes of avoiding that traumatic experience. We do a saline spray twice a day and occasional drops to help keep his ears clear. For a while I was convinced that he has allergies (my other two kids do), but his doctor is not convinced. The boy never goes longer than a few days without a runny nose and then it comes back and he's leaking like a faucet again. Needless to say, I no longer judge the parents of snotty-nosed children. I used to think, "Could you get the child a Kleenex already? Is it really that hard to wipe your kid's nose?" Now I understand how hard it is to keep up with a nose that never stops. I don't usually even notice it anymore.

Luckily, this kid is so darn adorable. The snot just adds to his charm!

Here he is, rockin' the ear band that keeps his ears dry. It doesn't get much cuter than that!

Here's another one of his cheesy grins. I love my little man!