Happy Birthday, Lucy!

Lucy-girl had a fabulous birthday! It was more like a fabulous weekend!

We started the celebration Friday with a "friend birthday party". Lucy and I went to the store a couple weeks before and she chose paper and stickers to make her own invitations. She LOVES doing these kinds of projects. She had 9 or 10 girls come over for a swim party.

Lucy is not a fan of cake, so for the last couple years, she has requested brownies and ice cream.

Here's the birthday party crew:

Carly, Tala, Ty, Lucy, Pfeiffer, Graham, Celeste, Sophie

Lucy got a couple packages in the mail for her special day. She chose to open them on her actual birthday (Sunday). Her friend, Lana, sent her a cute dress for her American Girl doll. Grandma and Grandpa sent her some cash (she's WAY into money right now) and some stamps to mail them more letters.

Here she is with her loot from Mom and Dad. Lucy LOVES boogie boarding and she really wanted a boy Barbie.

These two pictures melt my heart. Here's Lucy Skyping with Jason. She's telling him she's 8 years old.

The Thompson's came to town on Lucy's birthday and we had a little party the next night. Jason got to sing with us over Skype.

We spent the whole next week putting the new boards to use at the beach with the Thompson's. More on that later.

Some "Lucy at Age 8" facts:

Lucy loves the beach. She's really good at boogie boarding and would spend all day every day there if she could. She especially likes it when we meet up with friends and she can board with some buddies. She looks like quite the California girl with her wet suit on.

Lucy has to have her cereal in the morning. She's not real choosy about what kind, but she loves it. She prefers "Daddy's Cereal" (Honey Bunches of Oats), Honeycomb, or Honeynut Cheerios. We're working on having her get it herself. She likes it better when Mom pours it all for her.

Lunch is usually Saltine crackers with turkey pepporoni and some apples or carrots. She loves "hot Cheetos" and every once in a while she gets that for a treat. Her favorite dinner would be pizza, hamburgers, or chicken nuggets. She loves homemade breadsticks and meatballs, too.

When people come to visit, Lucy loves to take them to Tutti Frutti. It's a frozen yogurt shop where you get to choose your flavor and choose from a huge variety of toppings. She always gets cookies and cream and chocolate yogurt and tops it with chocolate chip cookie dough and gummy bears.

Every fast Sunday, Lucy is among the first to get up to share her testimony in church. This past week she talked about prayer and how she knows Heavenly Father hears our prayers and sometimes it might take a while to get an answer, he does answer our prayers. She loves giving talks and planning what she wants to talk about.

Lucy loves to sing and dance. She always wants to put on "shows" for people when they come to visit. She gives Graham a part in the show and tries to incorporate different music and different talents.

Unfortunately, Lucy loves to watch her "shows". Fortunately, for me, it makes for excellent motivation when I need chores or homework done or help around the house. She loves all of the Disney channel episodes. Today we got home from volleyball and we had to do homework and dinner quickly so she could make it to Activity Days at the church. She was so upset because, "All I wanna do when I get home from school is relax for a while and watch a show!"

This girl LOVES Disneyland and is always very excited when we are planning or getting ready to go. She's always depressed the next morning because "Disneyland is over. Are we going to go again soon?"

The last couple of weeks, after I've put the kids to bed, I can hear Lucy sneak into the boys room and say, "I'm sorry, Graham" and "I'm sorry, Ben". She then makes her way out to the kitchen to tell me she's sorry for making me upset during the day. Lucy girl is learning about the importance of repentance and trying to do better each day. We've had more than a few talks about how the Lord doesn't expect perfection and he just wants us to try to be a little better. Now, if only I could take some of my own advice.

What else to say about my sweet girl, Lucy Jane. What a blessing it is to be her mother. I know I'm hard on her and expect too much at times, but she is such a sweet, responsible little girl that brings me so much joy. I'm navigating all new territory in parenting her. So far, so good.

What we've been up to.....

Well, today marks the one month mark. It's been the longest month of my life, but we've made it and it's a milestone none the less. Today was Lucy and Graham's first day of school. Graham's b-day is today, too. I'll post more on all of that another day. Here's a few pictures from the month of August. We tried to stay as busy as possible.

That first week, our friends, the Brown's, invited us to go to his work and have dinner with them. He works at the Oxnard Airport as a maintenance guy. It's a tiny little airport and he works alone most of the time. He took the kids and I for a ride in the fire truck they have there for emergencies. The kids loved it!

Here's Graham and his friend, Blake. Although, Graham calls him "Blank". Blake is in his primary class at church.

He let the kids see how the water comes from the truck and watch the water fill up the enormous hose.

I can't get this next picture to flip. Oh well. My cousin, Nate, or as we lovingly call him, Nate Dawg, came for a visit this month. He is a law student at Pepperdine University in Malibu, so we get to see him every now and then. My kids LOVE him. I like him okay, I guess. He's alright.

Graham and Lucy seriously attack him and treat him like he's a jungle gym the whole time he's here.

He made "Lucy and Graham Burritos" for over an hour. They were in heaven.

We love Nate Dawg!

Later in the month, we went to the Ventura County Fair for the day with some friends.

With all of the amazing fair food we could have gotten, the kids chose Dippin' Dots. Seriously?

The kids each got to choose a couple rides to go on.

Graham loved this handmade toy exhibit. He would have played there all day!

Of course we had to go see some smelly animals, too. The kids were excited to be able to get in the pin with these sheep.

We spent a lot of days at the beach this month, too. I didn't catch many pictures, though. We had a week of the beach when the Thompson fam came for a visit. Maybe someday I'll post about that, too.

Surprise, Lucy!!

So, for the last 2 years, Lucy has been asking to get her ears pierced. Jason and I decided she would have to wait until she turned 10 (that's when my mother let me, so it just seemed like the right thing to do). Well, rules change when your Dad is getting ready to deploy.

Lucy's 8th b-day was 2 weeks after Jason left. I told Jason that I was going to surprise her for her birthday and let her get them pierced.

A couple days before he left, we went to his favorite restaurant, Red Robin. As we were eating and chatting, Jason and I decided that it would be fun to surprise her that night, so that J could be there. So, we told her that Dad had an early b-day present to give her before he left. The restaurant was at the mall, so we finished up dinner and walked down to Claire's. Lucy had no idea what the present was and even when we walked into the store, she didn't know.

Jason told her after we got the attention of the sales clerk. At first she was shocked, then excited, then nervous.

Here she is, pre-piercing.

And an after shot.

She didn't cry at all and was very brave. She was excited to call everybody to tell them the big news. She paid very close attention to the clerk as she explained how important it was to clean her ears three times a day for 6 weeks. Lucy has been doing a great job taking care of them.

Miss Lucy is growing up so fast. She really is such a sweet girl. She tries very hard to make good choices and be a kind example for her brothers. She loses her patience quickly with Graham, but she is always quick to apologize and wants to try harder to be sweet to him. Since Jason left, she has become even more of a help and comfort to me. She gives me lots of hugs and cheers me up when I'm down. A couple days after J left, I woke up around 7:30 and was super worried because Ben is usually awake by 6:15. I got up quickly to see if everything was all right and found that Lucy had gotten up with Ben and fed him breakfast. What a sweetheart.

More about Lucy to come when I post about her birthday party and weekend!

Don't go!!

The week before Jason left for Afghanistan was very emotional for me. We filled up the week with lots of fun activities to help distract us from the sadness.

We spent one day at the beach. I didn't get many pictures, but here's one of Benny climbing out of the sand fort.

Jason took both of the older kids on their own little date. Graham got to go miniature golfing with Dad all by himself. Lucy and J went bowling and then got some frozen yogurt. It gave him time to talk to each of them one on one about his deployment.

There was lots of time on the trampoline. The kids absolutely love jumping on the tramp with Daddy.

A couple nights before he left, I made his favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Here's Benny enjoying his treat.

We also had a special Family Home Evening the night before he left. We talked a little bit about Afghanistan and showed some pictures from his last deployment two years ago. Jason gave each of us a priesthood blessing. A friend from the ward came to give him a blessing earlier in the day.

The Sunday morning that he left was horrible. We had decided a couple weeks before that we weren't going to drive Jason to the base and say our goodbyes there. We wanted to just do it at home, so one of J's friends came to pick him up around 9:30 am. I can't even describe how sad it was. We had a family prayer and then Graham started with the tears about half an hour before he left. When the doorbell rang and it was time for him to go, Lucy started up and it was just like a scene from a movie. I'm sure Jason's single friend thought we were insane.

The first few moments right after he had driven away were very, very dark for me. Lucy and I were having a hard time. I was trying to reassure her. A special thing happened after that. I decided that we needed to say and prayer and before I had even finished, my sweet friend, Joan, knocked on the door. She is our Relief Society president in the ward and I serve as her 2nd counselor. Joan is about my own mom's age and she reminds me a lot of her sometimes. I opened the door and she just gave me the longest hug and let me cry and cry. Then, she helped me get my kids ready for church while I curled my hair and put on my makeup.

We made it through church. There were a lot of tears from me and I spent a lot of time in the bathroom, but there were lots of friends that cried with me and I got many, many hugs from a very supportive ward. Another dear friend of mine invited us over for dinner (another answer to a very specific prayer) and we made it through our first day.

This Sunday marks our 4th week of Jason's deployment. 4 down and about 26 to go. To be honest, it has been tough. Very tough and very long. I'm told that the first month is the hardest, so I'm hoping that the time starts moving a little faster in the next couple weeks. I just don't ever feel completely whole. My other half is gone for 6 more months and if I think about it too much, I get way too sad, so I'm going to stop now. Peace out.