So I know that it has been way to long since I updated my blog and those that followed at one time are probably thinking that we have fallen off the face of the earth......well we are still here......life has changed a lot for us.  In April we moved into our own place, Mommy and Katee took a trip to Utah and helped celebrate Grammy-Greats birthday, Daddy took an awesome motorcycle ride with Grandpa Ray in June, Mommy and Katee went back to Utah for Grammy-Greats funeral and well we just keep going.  Mommy decided to stop working outside the home and stays home with Katee which she loves and she also watches other kiddos as well which gives Katee an opportunity to play and have lots of fun.  She loves spending time with her cousins and new friends that come to the house.  Mommy is still working on getting her teaching degree and she is working on her final class and getting ready to take the Praxis II in the next few months.  Daddy is working at Alaska Sales and Service and does a really great job of providing for our family.  Christmas came and went and we still haven't taken a new family picture yet.  Maybe by Valentine's Day it will happen...if  not know we are happy and making things work!  Brandon is serving as the Asst. Executive Ward Clerk and Mommy is the Primary Chorister.  Katee is adjusting to nursery.  We have started taking Katee to the swimming pool and she is loving it.  This last Monday night she even started pushing herself away from us and trying to swim to the other parent.  We are having so much fun watching her grow and develop.  We are looking forward to celebrating Katee's 2nd birthday and Mommy completing her class.  Here are a few pictures that will help catch you up of the happenings of the life of the Ray family!

watch for more updates...I will try harder to keep it updated more!  That's all the time I have now!

Growing Too Fast!!!

Katee has grown so much...she is learning to sit in her bumbo more and is loving eating baby food...I don't know if she has a favorite yet but she loves most of them...she has tried apples, carrots, peas, and squash.  She is getting bigger by the second it seems...we are already going through and taking out clothes that don't fit her...she has been learing to stand with miminal support and is actually even big enough to sit by herself for a few seconds...she is loving her toys and is making more and more sounds that indicate that she is going to be a great talker...we took her to the airshow and she kept her headphones on the whole time...she actually slept most of the time...she is loving the juper at the daycare and is loving her ostasaucer (walker/jumper toy that doesn't move)...she has a jumper that you put in a doorway that she is absolutely loving as well...Katee is starting to roll over as well...she does it mostly when mommy and daddy aren't looking...we will put her on her tummy or back and let her play for a while and usually within moments she is rolling over...we are so excited about progress and can't wait to see her start crawling and walking! It has been really fun putting her hair into pony tails and daddy is even learning to remember to put a bow in each day...she is loving spending time with her cousins as well... We hope that you enjoy the pictures and video!

Brett Layne Ray

Brett Layne Ray (Bretto), from Wasilla Alaska, passed away at age 26 in Wasilla due to injuries suffered in a motorcycle collision.


Brett was born on July 25th, 1985 in Juneau Alaska to Dean & Ann Ray. He was the fifth of five children and has lived in Alaska for most of his life. He was a graduate of Wasilla High School and graduated with a 4.0 GPA at Universal Technical Institute in Phoenix Arizona where he studied to become a Diesel Mechanic. Brett was married on June 1st 2008 to his beloved wife Laurie West in Big Lake Alaska. He was employed by Schlumberger as a diesel mechanic for nearly six years. He was an avid outdoorsman and enjoyed hunting, and fishing but most especially riding motorcycles, snowmachines, and four wheelers. He was also actively seeking his pilot’s license so that he could fly airplanes. He was most happy when on top of a mountain in deep powder or on a sand dune rippin’ up the dirt. While Brett played hard, Brett was a model of safety. Brett loves his family, especially his wife Laurie. He lived to have play time with his family. Brett was very conscientious about how he took care of himself and worked hard to be physically fit. He was a rock. He was naturally shy in public, but to his family and close friends he was a true clown. From dressing up as the Incredible Hulk and trying to scare his mother, to his constant funny voices and phrases; with quick wit and smile, he was a joy for everyone to be around. His brother and sisters would often squabble about who got to spend time with him because of his naturally relaxed and fun personality. He was the truest of friends, and had a deep respect for his family.

Brett is survived by his wife Laurie West-Ray of Wasilla, his father Dean Ray and his mother Ann Ray of Wasilla, his older brother Brandon Ray and his older sisters Susie Ray, Deana Ray Bowen, & Leanne Ray Sierra, and by his beloved puppy Kenai.

Funeral services will be held at the Wasilla Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at 901 E Bogard Road on Thursday June 7th with a viewing at 12pm and a memorial service at 1pm.

Services will be conducted by Bishop David Breshears of the Settlers Bay Ward. Pallbearers will be: Dean Ray, Brandon Ray, Bates West, Michael West, Doug Bowen, and Troy Eberline.

Honorary pallbearers: Duff Ray, John Ray, Richard Howard, C.J. Bowen, Doug Mason, and Luke West

Brett will be laid to rest at the City of Wasilla Cemetery.

Funeral home services will be provided by Kehls Mortuary of Palmer.

A memorial fund has been established for Brett’s wife Laurie to assist with her needs. It is requested that rather than flowers that a donation be made for this cause. We wish to thank all of the family and good friends who have sent out their thoughts and prayers to Brett, Laurie and the rest of our family.

For more information please call (907) 357-7088

As Brett would say in a Pirates voice, “They’re more like guidelines!” His philosophy in life was: Live like you were dying.

Katee's first photo shoot

Click the below link to see Katee's newborn pics!
http://video214.com/play/7VaaPHEj23RSopdq8bwYTQ/s/dark

Announcement....

Well the blessed event has come.....

Katee MayAnn Ray was born on February 25, 2012 at 4:02 pm. She weighed 6 lbs 3 oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. She has lots of dark hair and is doing well. As you can imagine our house is very busy with all sorts of new little first and long nights. We are so blessed to have her here with us and are loving every second of it. We will try to post more pictures later....here is a sneek peak at this beautiful angel sent from above....

Exciting News!!!

Ok so the exciting news is that we are ADOPTING!!!

We found out shortly after Christmas that we had been choosen to be parents to a sweet angel. The birthmother is a sweet young woman who is make the most selfless act we know. She is an amazing person and we are enjoying getting to know her. She is beautiful both inside and out. She will be considered an angel in our book for all time. Brandon and I are realy excited and nervous all rolled into one. We have really tried to keep our heads about us incase things turn out differently than what we are planning on.

Our birthmother is part native and we are very excited to learn more about her culture so that we can instill some of her culture and upbringing into our daughters life. We don't know too much about the birthfather but we know that he is an amazing youngman. We hope to be able to keep intouch with them through this amazing journey.

We have started putting the nursery together and each time we add something to it we get that much more excited. We don't hav much time to prepare...she is due to make her entrance in March...so we are working very hard to get everything ready!

We are so amazingly grateful for this wonderful, amazing, young woman and hope that she knows how much we love and admire her. We will try to keep you updated with all of the exciting details.

If any of you have any advice for the new parents to be please share it with us...we make look like what we are doing all the time with neices and nephews but we can always use good advice... Thanks for all of your love and support.

Please keep us all in your prayers as we keep you in ours.

More Anniversary Fun!

Well I know it has been way to long....just thought I would share a few more pictures from our adventures....

Yep we took time for a movie....

we took time to cook... and boy did we cook....

I would have to say this was one of the most delicious meals we had during our whole trip. We also had a lot of fun just playing around on the beach and exploring...

Isn't he handsome....

Do I make a pretty cute Pocahontas don't I...

Yep even the dog had fun...

Yep we found some flowers and .....

Lots and lots of rocks....we had so much fun! We also decided that we should take an adventure to Seldovia....we started on the ferry...

we had a lot of fun there....here is a look at what we did...

Brandon making the arrangements to use one of those fun carts...

We rented this for an hour and we drove all around Seldovia and still had time to spare...but oh it was fun!

and we had a lot of fun eating there as well...the little place we ate at was very cute and very delicious...

After we had the delicious sandwiches we had wonderful icecream. After that we walked the docks, as many of you know is a tradition, it was a very nice day...

We truly had so much fun and enjoyed just spending time with one another. We hoped that you enjoyed what we shared, of course their was so much more but we are keeping those memories to ourselves!

Anniversary Fun 2011

Ok so I know that this is way over due, but I had some family and friends asking to see our Anniversary trip this year, so here it is......

We started out camping on the side of the river, right on the road...definitely as first for both of us

Then we started to fox Island bright and early the next morning.

To get to Fox Island we took a water taxi with all of our gear, we even took Drake (the dog) and he seemed to enjoy the boat ride, he did really well actuallly....

After we were dropped off onto the Island we decided to go on an exploration of the Island....

We found this starfish which was very amusing to watch....

It was fun to walk around the Island and know that it was just the two of us...we found so many fun stumps and of course a lot of rocks to take fun pictures by...

and more stumps and rocks.....

You know you can never have to many pictures in front of or on or by a stump or log or rocks....

We had so much fun just exploring and spending time with one another....

I think that even Drake enjoyed our walk around the Island. It was fun to see that the Island was so diverse from one side to the other....one was filled with lots of large rocks and the other was small rocks and sand...but it was all beautiful in its own way...

After we explored we decided to set up camp and get something to eat....

I did say something to eat right...well this is Brandon's idea of food...I had a different idea....

I think that he had one thing on his mind and that was it.....yep you guessed it "FISHING"! I think that he could have stayed there forever if he could just fish all day and all night....
After dinner, which is much easier made with utensils..yep we forgot cooking utensils...we had a very interesting time cooking on our adventure, we had fun fishing. The next day we went exploring and this is what we found.....

We found this amazing rock...with an amazing view....

We had a lot of fun taking pictures.....

more to come later......