Big Brother Bryan's Birthday

I wanted to give a shout out to my brother, Bryan, too. His birthday was a week ago today and I failed to give him a post until now. Sorry it's late!

Oh, the many memories I have of Bryan chasing me around and around the kitchen table after I had punched him or something. You may be picturing 5 and 7 year olds. Nope.......picture a 15 and 17 year old. Fighting came easily between Bryan and I, but we have always been really close, too. I remember the evening that I found out that I didn't make student government for my senior year and I truly thought my life was over. Bryan cheered me up and helped me have a little perspective. He's always shown genuine concern when I'm going through a rough patch in my life and he can always help me see that it's really not all that bad.

I'm so proud of Bryan. He graduates from George Washington University with his law degree next month! I wish he and Chelsey lived closer so we could see them more. We love them both so much! I hope you had a great day, Bryan!

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

Today is Jason Robert's 29th birthday! He was an April Fool's Day baby! We celebrated yesterday because he has to go to class tonight. Lucy and I spent part of the afternoon making his favorite chocolate chip cookies (I spent the rest of the afternoon being sick because I ate too much cookie dough). I orchestrated a scavenger hunt that he went on after work. He went to his car to find balloons and a poem that sent him around to friend's houses here on base. I called all of his family, a few friends, and my Mom and Dad to email me happy birthday letters for him to get at each stop. It turned out great! He was so surprised by it all. I could tell he really enjoyed reading the letters. He read them all again as we drove to Red Robin (his favorite restaurant) for dinner. He looked up after reading a few and said, "Wow....I'm awesome!" He, of course, was kidding, but I hope he got just a glimpse of how "awesome" we all really think he is.

Jason is an amazing husband and such a loving father. He's got a full plate at work and church, but he still does so much for us here at home and he always does it with a smile on his face. What a smile he has! I love it! Happy birthday, Jason! We love you soo much!

I'm a Yeller....

I've realized in the last week or so that I raise my voice more than I should. Let's just say it as it really is.....I yell at my kids a lot. It's not that I'm always in their face telling them what they're doing wrong. It's more my technique of choice when Graham is getting into something and I want him to stop right away or Lucy has started wailing because she has to come inside and I choose to yell over her crying and tell her how much trouble she's going to be in if she doesn't stop. It's not just when I'm upset, either. I yell from room to another all the time, too.

This bad habit has been brought more to my attention recently because I see Lucy doing it more and more. It seems like she says something once and then resorts to yelling it if she's not answered right away. Graham isn't a quiet little one either. Even though I don't understand what he is yelling at me (probably better that way), the face that he makes and fluctuations in his voice sound all to familiar.

So, I'm posting this in hopes that it will help motivate me to do better. I have a few friends that I watch with their kids and it seems like they have much more control over their emotions and because of that, their kids are more calm. I want my presence to ultimately bring more peace......not more stress. I know that by working on this, it will welcome a more content spirit into our home.

Wish me luck! More sweet tones and less strained voices!

Easter Festivities

We had a great weekend here at the Ray house. It was our little family's first Easter without extended family to celebrate with. We survived it and actually had a nice time.

Saturday we had Gavin's b-day party. You may remember him from a previous post. Gavin will be remembered in our house as the one with (quoting Lucy) "the best birthday party, EVER!" We had a great time. There was an Easter egg hunt at the end. Graham even got into it a little. He mostly liked playing with the eggs after they were opened.

Sunday morning Lucy came out to find that the Easter Bunny had left her the movie, Enchanted along with some candy. She enjoyed looking for the eggs that were hid around the living room. The bunny put pennies in some, candy in others, and some had words for us to talk about or songs for us to sing. When I told Lucy he did that so we could talk about Jesus on this special day, she said, "The Easter Bunny knows about that! He's so smart!"

We attempted to get some pictures of the kids in their new outfits before church. I was disappointed that we couldn't get a family one. Oh well. Church was very nice. Lucy got to sing with the primary. Following sacrament meeting, Lucy looked at me with a tired face and said, "I don't feel good, Mom. We better go home and rest and watch Enchanted." I had to tell her multiple times that we weren't going home. She wasn't too happy.

Jason made us a nice steak and potatoes dinner after church. That evening we had some friends from our ward over to help us finish off the cinnamon rolls. We missed our family, but we had a nice day. I'm loving that Lucy is at the age where she can grasp some of the gospel concepts. It was sweet helping her and seeing her understand why we have Easter.

Side note: Check out Lucy's quotes on the side bar. She's had a few good ones this week.

Our Cinnamon Roll Adventure

I did it! I made cinnamon rolls for the first time! This may not seem like a big deal to some, but my baking abilities have never attempted anything of this magnitude. I made them ALL BY MYSELF! Jason and I had planned to make them together on Saturday afternoon, but he got called into work around noon and didn't get back until after 11 pm. The experience was definitely full of many highs and lows.

I learned many things....here are the top 5 in no particular order:

1. While baking, always have the phone within your reach. (I called my mom at least 20 times. No, I'm not exaggerating. On about the 17th call, no one answered and I panicked! Luckily, she called back within 30 seconds and I was okay.)

2. Don't put your little boy in the tub when the dough is ready to be rolled out.....no matter how ridiculously dirty he is.

3. Feed your children some kind of snack or small dinner before you begin rolling out the dough. Otherwise, you risk having little people at your feet holding up food they want you to feed them. All while you are racing with the clock trying to get the rolls done.

4. Give your 4 year old the sugaring job....not the cinnamoning job.

5. Cinnamon rolls are hard and it will be a long time before I make them again!

They didn't turn out as pretty as my mom's, but I have to say they tasted pretty dang good! Practice makes perfect. Although, after spending all that time making them, I found that I wasn't as quick to scarf them down. I had a sort of reverence for them. Only for a while, though. We were all very well fed in the cinnamon roll department this weekend!

Win, Lose, or Draw

Lucy and I have been playing Pictionary a lot lately. We got this white board from our neighbors when they were moving. We use it for Family Home Evening frequently. Many of our lessons end with Pictionary.

Yesterday Lucy drew this picture. She said it is she and I in front of the washing machine. Some of her pictures are very entertaining. She'll draw a box and then be ticked off when I can't figure out that it's a "rag". Sometimes she has a hard time coming up with things to draw. She said to me yesterday, "Whisper and tell me a secret of what I should draw." I tried to explain to her why that wouldn't work because then I'd know what it was and I'm the only other one playing. She replied, "Just pretend you don't know and then guess!"

Sometimes I have a hard time being motivated to get down and really play with my children. But when I do, I always end up enjoying the time spent and the conversations had. I need to make an effort to do it more often.

Easter Celebration Ideas

Easter is fast approaching and I am curious to know how you all celebrate. As we are away from extended family, I'm hoping to start some traditions of our own. (Although, I'd rather be in Utah doing our this with the fam. I'm having a rough couple days.....very homesick!)

Anyways, we thought about having the Easter bunny come on Saturday so that we could have more of a spiritual day on Sunday. But then I worried that Saturday would always become the big day and Lucy (and the other kids) wouldn't get excited about Sunday.

So........what do you do for Easter? Do you have an Easter bunny come to your house? We decided that this year we'll do it on Sunday morning, but some of the eggs that the Easter bunny hides for the little hunt will have words in them (like resurrection, tomb, crucified, 3 days, etc, etc.) so that we can talk about the words as she opens them. In the future the eggs might have scriptures instead of words. We're going to keep the bunny part of it all pretty simple, but there will be candy. Oh yes.....there will be candy!

I may attempt to make some of my mom's amazing cinnamon rolls tomorrow. Maybe each year we'll have cinnamon rolls for Sunday morning breakfast. My mom makes hot cross buns every Easter and I looked forward to it each year. We'll see if it really happens.