34 weeks and counting

Here I am...34 weeks pregnant and 6 weeks to go. It's crazy how quickly it has gone. Andy took this for me right before my shower. I regret that I didn't take any sideways pictures with my other two pregnancies so I've taken a few this time.

Dang-it! I only took two pictures of my baby shower. This is some of my ladies who come to the aerobics classes that I teach. It was so much fun to have them there. I can't even believe that I got a baby shower on #3, but it is so helpful to get some girl stuff. I had another baby shower with the young women and their Mom's in my ward too. I didn't take a single picture there and I even took my camera. Anyway, how spoiled am I?! I had a great time.

November 6, 2008

So I had another doctors appointment with yet another ultrasound. It sure is fun to see the baby now that I am so far along. We got some great profile pictures of her. Everything looks good. My blood pressure has stayed within the normal range. Only a trace of protein this time but I'm still measuring 3-4 weeks behind. The baby however, is healthy and strong and growing beautifully! I still get to check my blood pressure twice a day. Also, the doctor wants to see me weekly just to be safe. That's fun too! Hopefully preeclampsia is not going to creep up on me. We just want a healthy baby and a healthy mama!

Fun in the leaves

Don't you love Gage's morning hair? He had just woken up from his nap and was so excited that we were outside playing in the leaves.

Read was so excited to play in the leaves that he put on whatever shoes he found first. He has on one brown shoe and one flip flop. They sure had a blast! There were so many leaves that the car at the end of our road was practically buried in them. It was beautiful!

This was a few weeks ago but I had to post it. We decided to make sugar cookies for Halloween and take them to Andy and the spring employees. Can you tell that the boys had fun? They were crazy about making cookies. At least they didn't get very messy. HA! HA!

November 3, 2008

We had a great time in Utah and Idaho on our trip. Andy's boss wanted him to work out of the office there in Salt Lake for a few days so we made a trip out of it. We drove out the 24th after work. We had the luxury of driving half way to Grand Junction and stayed the night, courtesy of the company. The next morning we headed to Salt Lake. We were there for 6 days spending time with my family. Then we head up to Idaho for 3 days to be with Andy's family. Aside from Andy working, while in Utah we mostly played games and enjoyed being with my family. Read and Gage spent quite a bit outside enjoying the beautiful weather, digging in the sand, running free. The boys had so much fun seeing Grandma and Grandpa and some aunts, uncles and cousins.

In Idaho the boys really enjoyed a motorcycle ride on Pacha's motorcycle. That was what they were looking forward to the most. They had fun digging in the dirt and getting dirty. Halloween was exciting as it always is. We attended the Glenns Ferry ward trunk-or-treat with some cousins and then took them trick-or-treating just around one small block.

We got one last family picture after all of the trick-or-treating was done. The kids were tired but had a great time!

October 23, 2008

I had a doctors appointment today. Usually it's in and out and super quick! Today there were some complications. There was protein in my urine sample and my uterus was measuring small. Those are the same signs that I had during my first pregnancy when I had preeclampsia. They immediately took me in for an ultrasound to measure the baby's stomach, etc. She looks great! It's just that my uterus measures 3-4 weeks behind. So the doctor wants me to check my blood pressure twice a day for the next two weeks to be sure that it stays within normal range. That will be fun since we're leaving for Utah tomorrow. Hopefully all goes well.

Early Halloween Pictures

My kids are "jumping the gun" a little on Halloween. They are super excited about their cute costumes. Gage is going to be a tiger for the second year in a row and Read is going to be a monkey. What a fun age my boys are!!!

My belly!!

My boys seem to think that my belly button is their baby sister. They love to watch my belly button move all around when the baby is moving. It's so darn cute! Read decided on the name Kate for our baby. We haven't decided yet. Just Read.

I am officially 30 weeks along today. Only 10 more weeks to go. Hopefully it's more like 8 weeks to go. We shall see!

Today as I was getting the boys in their car seats I said to them, "Mommy loves you so much. Do you know that?" In Read's response to my question he said, "No. Daddy does!" I thought that was so cute. Obviously they are loved! These boys are growing up much too fast! I am trying so hard to treasure these moments which I know will not last long enough. They are so sweet.

The other day I was scrounging all day. I didn't shower until about halfway through the day because I had taught aerobics, then came home and cleaned. I finally got ready and put some make-up on. Gage noticed and said, "Mommy, you look so pretty." I couldn't believe that my 2-year old noticed something like that. It was so sweet and made me feel so good. My boys are two little angels.

It looks like Read is just as excited about football season as his Daddy is. He gather several of the footballs that we had laying around the house and continued to hunt for more. Who doesn't love football, right? Go Denver Broncos! Go BYU!

My side job

Those of you who know me pretty well know about my business that I'm doing on the side. It's pretty funny considering that I am 7 months pregnant. I've been going door to door asking if people want their address painted on their curb. Thanks to my brother Rick, who gave me this idea back when I was about 12 years old, I've been making some extra money. It's quick, cheap and easy and a lot of people want it done. Last time I went out, I hit the jackpot. I did just about every house in a culdesac of about 7 homes. My goal was to paint 5 that night ($75). After my 4th, it was starting to get dark but I decided to knock on one more door. The lady seemed like she was a little confused by some big ol' pregnant lady asking to paint her curb, but she wanted it done. I told her that it was $15 and began painting. When I was finished, I knocked on her door to collect my money and she handed me a check. It was for $50, not $15. I told her that it was only a $15 service. She said, "Oh, I must have heard you wrong" and acted like it was no big deal. I went on to tell her that I didn't feel good about her paying me that much. She said, "Well, I feel really good about it." She was so nice. I could clearly tell that she didn't misunderstand me but that she really wanted me to have the money. I was so touched by that, it brought tears to my eyes. What a blessing it is to have people like her in the world, people who sincerely care about others. I have since written her a thank-you card and inserted a pass along card. I would like to ask the missionaries to take it over to her with a little Halloween treat or something. Maybe there is a missionary opportunity there. Small acts of kindness like that go a long way. I know that blessings such as this are from paying my tithing and being faithful. That night I worked for an hour and a half and came home with $110. Not too shabby! I hope that lady knew how touched I was by her generosity. I am confident that she will receive blessings in return.

My trip to Seattle

Last month I got to go to Seattle to visit my sister, Melanie and her family. The boys stayed home with Daddy and had some help from a friend in the ward. It was so much fun to be with a sister. We mostly had fun just being together and talking but we did lots of fun things too. She drove me around her cute little town of North Bend. We went to the salon. She got a pedicure and I got a manicure. We went on a sweet hike. We went to lunch and talked for hours. We had a bonfire in Bob and Mel's backyard where we roasted marshmallows. We walked along the river behind her house. We attended her church on Sunday. We picked wild blackberries and made blackberry crisp. Her and Bob treated me to a massage at the spa next to Snoqualmie Falls. We ate good food, laughed lots and had a blast! Thanks for everything Melanie and Bob!

Seattle Trip

September 15, 2008

We were so lucky to have Andy's sister, Amy and her husband, Austin here for a couple of days. It was a super short trip but we so enjoyed having them here. We took a walk to the temple like we always do with our visitors. It was great to have some people to play games with! We were also lucky enough to go on a date with them. We went downtown and ate at Chipotle and showed them around down town Denver and 16th street. Then we came home to watch a movie and, of course I fell asleep. I can't EVER stay awake through a single movie unless I am doing something to keep me busy like working on the blog or folding laundry. Poor Andy ends up finishing most movies alone. Anyway, we had a great time with them and only wish that it had been another day or two. We love having company (hint hint!)

September 9th or somewhere around there

After Andy came home from Las Vegas, the day before he let me have some "me" time, he came home from work with a surprise for me. I took dinner over to someone in our ward who had just had surgery and when I got home, there were a dozen roses on the table with a really sweet card that made me cry. He also bought me a chocolate bar and a chick flick (which ended up being really dumb, but that's beside the point). He always knows how to pick me up. It meant a lot to me and I know that he had fun doing it. I wish I knew of something guys liked as surprises. What would replace flowers for a guy? Just thinking out loud.

September 10, 2008

So much has happened in the last month that I figured I better document although I don't have pictures to go with the text. I forgot to mention that while Andy was in Vegas at the beginning of September, I worked on potty training Read. He has done really great with the whole "pee" thing and we are so proud of him!!! However, he will not even attempt to "poop" on the toilet. So we get dirty underwear all the time. It's lots of fun on the parenting end. Andy and I have about had it with cleaning poop out of underwear. Any suggestions?

My day out

On Saturday the 13th, I went out all by myself to do whatever I wanted. It was so nice after Andy having been in Vegas for so long. Needless to say, I really needed some alone time. I went and treated myself to a pedicure and a manicure. I meant to take a picture of my fingernails because they looked so good for once in my life but I forgot. My nails are long and strong while I am taking prenatal vitamins so it was fun to get a french manicure. The first toilet I scrubbed, they chipped. Bummer! What a waste of money. I was gone for nearly 5 hours. The funny thing is that I shopped a ton, but I didn't even buy one thing! I was proud of myself.

Tomorrow I leave to go visit my sister, Melanie in the Seattle area. She really needed some company so I am going for one last "hoorah" before I have the baby. I am really excited for the break even though it's only 3 days. Out of my 3 sisters, she's the only one that I didn't get to see this summer so it'll be fun to catch up and see her and her family.

Andy's trip to Las Vegas

Andy had a great time in Las Vegas with his buddy Mike Dunn from college. They went last week and were lucky enough to be without their wives and kids for 5 days! They, of course spent some time on the strip, caught a roller coaster or two, ate some yummy food and won some money here and there. I know Andy enjoyed sleeping in every single day. These aren't very good pictures taken with his phone but they are better than nothing.

September 11, 2008

I took the boys to the temple the other day to get some pictures by the beautiful flowers. It was a cloudy, cool day and was perfect for pictures!

My baby girl!!!!!

It's a baby girl!!!!



This is a sweet picture of our baby girl lookint right at us!



Here's a great shot of our baby girls' profile. Isn't that sweet?

Old Fashioned Grilling

Our last night in Utah we decided to grill up some shishkabobs. We didn't know that my Dad had taken his grill to a cousins party that he had gone to that night. So Andy and Brian (my brother-in-law) made a make-shift grill. They put charcoals on the ground and used a rack from the oven. It was so yummy and fun to watch! Read and Gage had such a blast in Grandma and Grandpa's yard too!

(L-R)top row: Natalie Fuller, me, Andy
Bottom row: Jake and Wendi Bulkley, Niels and Natalie Griffith, Hillary and Jeremy Luke

We went out to Utah for my 10-year highschool reunion. It's amazing how time flies and how people change. At first it was almost nerve-racking. I felt out of my comfort zone. But as I saw old friends and got back in touch, I had a blast. It was so much fun! My friend, Natalie put it together and did such a great job! These are my closest friends from highschool and some spouses.

We just got back from Utah after being there almost a week. My boys had so much fun with Grandma! She took us to "This is the Place Heritage Park." I had never been there but the boys had a blast! They were mainly excited that we rode a "choo choo" and had some ice cream. It felt like it was 100 degrees. Grandma spoiled them while we were there. We wish we lived closer to family. As we were packing up to leave, we told Read that we were going home to Colorado and he cried. Then Gage started crying. They know what home means...no Grandparents, cousins, aunts or uncles. Sad! But we had a great trip!

On August 11th, I had my 20-week ultrasound and....(drumroll, please) It's a baby GIRL! Andy had his hopes up for a boy, but he is happy with a girl and I am thrilled! I had to buy a couple of pink outfits and it was so fun. Girls are so fun to shop for. I'm excited about the cute headbands, bracelets, etc. I guess I'll put my boy clothes up in the attic.

Sugar pie!

So the other morning this is what I woke up to. The boys had woken up very quietly and went into the kitchen. They dragged a chair from the table over to the kitchen counter to reach the sugar. They opened all 3 canisters of flour, sugar and powdered sugar and made me a pie. How sweet of them! WOW! Although I was a little ticked off, I laughed and spent the next hour cleaning up the huge mess and giving them a bath!

Sugar mess

Here's the result of their sugar pie that they made

More sugar

Just a little more of the mess.

The Birthday Boy

Andy is now 27 years old! I've know him for 9 of those years which seems crazy to me! Since Andy has never been a cake lover, he requested an apple pie for his birthday. So being the domestic little house wife that I am, I baked it homemade and didn't even get to eat it! Ahhhhh...I hate celiac disease! Anyway, look at my belly! I am officially in my 5th month of pregnancy and will have my ultrasound in just a few days now. What's your guess? Boy or girl?

Brooklyn, Nicole
Gage, Read

These are 2/3 of Read and Gage's girlfriends, Brookie and Nicole Betts. They sure love to spend time together.

Andy's birthday party

Read, Jessica, Nicole, Brandon, Gage and Jon

This is a part of our family away from home. We get together with the Betts and Bowens for most holidays and birthdays. We always have a great time and my boys love to play with their three girls.

The Rice Family

Unfortunately this is the most recent picture I have of the Rice's. They took all the pictures while they were here and I slacked off. This is my sister, Celest, her husband Breck and her four kids Tayzia, Talon, Kallie and Jackson. They passed through Denver on their way from SLC to Memphis! We got to have them for 3 nights and all we did was party hard! We went to the park, went up the mountains to hit the Vail biking trail, went river rafting in Idaho Springs, CO, went out to dinner and went to see the movie "Swing Vote". We partied! For Andy's birthday they bought us a hotel in Idaho Springs looking out over the Arkansas river which we rafted the next day. They are so sweet! We had so much fun with them. After they left I cried. It was sure hard to see them go. We so miss having family around.

The Stahmann's visit!

We are so lucky to have siblings who pass through Denver on their way to visit family and back! Andy's sister, Emily and her family came and stayed with us for two nights right after girls camp! We had fun playing games and catching up. We took them over to the temple Sunday evening and for some reason the gate was closed. We managed to get a decent picture anyway. We're so glad you got to come Stahmann's!

Girls Camp

This is our awesome Young Womens President and my dear friend Lisa Ericson. A butterfly decided to just land on her nose at girls camp. Funny! Anyway, she is amazing. She is such a great spiritual leader and I have learned so much from her. She's so in tune with the spirit and so sweet and kind and caring of everyone. I feel so blessed to be serving with her and the rest of the presidency. Thanks for everything Lisa!

Girls Camp

This is me, Taylor Gannon and Lexi Franks. I got to go to girls camp this year and it was such a blast! The girls in our stake are so dang cute. We did an obstacle course, swam in the lake and tons of other fun things. We did a high ropes course and I even did it (4-1/2 months pregnant!) The downside of girls camp is that someone stole my wallet out of my car...and $150 cash! I was supposed to go to the temple yesterday and realized 30 minutes before that I didn't have a recommend...it was stolen too! Bummer!

Our summer has been way too fun so I need to start documenting more often. Our ward primary had a "pioneer trek" around the temple on July 22nd. It was so cute. Some of the kids even did covered wagons with their radio flyers. Some made handcarts with cardboard boxes and wheels. A lot of them dressed up like pioneers and Brigham Young (Brother Greebe)guided them. My kids had a blast!

Warner family reunion

We had a family reunion in Soda Springs, ID with Andy's parents and siblings and a ton of grand kids. There is too much time in between our gatherings so it is so much fun to see everyone. We got T-shirts to remind us of our reunion. We swam at lava hot springs, played night games, ate lots of good food and enjoyed eachothers company. Thanks for all the hard work Sherie!

My birthday

During the afternoon on my birthday, our Relief Society presidency showed up with boas, sunglasses and a ukilaili to sing happy birthday to me. It was so cute and made me feel so special.

My birthday

I had such a fun birthday. To start off the day Andy let me sleep in which was awesome! I woke up to the smell of hashed browns, eggs, bacon, waffles with strawberries and whipped cream on top and orange juice, all cooked by the chef himself, Andrew Warner. Amazing! A couple of my young women had come over early and decorated my house and my car and they joined us for breakfast!!

Gage's birthday cake

Here is the famous birthday cake that I promised to post like 3 months ago. It turned out cute and Gage was pretty excited! It was sure fun to clean up the frosting from the black tires.

4th of July

Despite their best efforts (ha! ha!) I got a decent picture of the boys. This is Brandon Bowen, Andy and Jon Betts (Andy's two best friends). They put on quite a firework show for us that night!

4th of July

We had a fun 4th of July. Our tradition has been to go to the Douglas County fair for some reason. Every year we pay way too much for hot dogs and soda. Then we wait for a firework show which was not the best this year. But we had fun with our friends. Afterwards we went to our close friends house and did our own fireworks. The adults definitely had more fun than the kids.

Intro

Welcome to the new Warner family blog. This is all new to me so we’ll see how it all turns out. While trying to decide which of all the cute picture of Read’s birthday I should email, I couldn’t pick. So I finally decided that I will create a blog and eventually get lots of the cute pictures up that I would like to post.

Andy and I live in the Denver metro area and have lived in Colorado for four years now. This month we will celebrate our 5 year anniversary! We have two adorable boys, one of which is screaming himself to sleep right now. Read is the oldest who just turned three at the end of March. Gage will turn two this week. If you're trying to do the math, they are 12-1/2 months apart. They are amazing and have brought more joy to our lives than we could have ever imagined.

As for me, I am enjoying being a stay-at-home Mom. I am convinced that there is nothing better in life! On the side I teach aerobics classes for 24 hour fitness and an currently teaching about 6-8 classes per week. I absolutely love it! It's a nice break for me and the boys love going to the kids club while I teach. I was released from my calling as primary pianist and called to serve in the Young Women's presidency in December. I miss primary so much but love YW. This is my 3rd time in the YW program in the last 4 years. I've been in YW in every ward we've been in here in Colorado. However, this is my first time in the Presidency and it is a time consuming calling, but I just love my girls and the presidency that I serve with.

Andy is still working for Spring Communications and is going on his 5th year. It's a wonderful company which is based out of Utah. When he has to go out on business, we often times will pack up the family and head out together and the company pays for gas. We've had so many opportunities to see our families. What a blessing! Andy has had several positions with the company, beginning as a store manager, then territory manager, then corporate sales trainer and is currently covering the training department here in Colorado. He is very talented and good at his job and is enjoying his work. Andy was recently released from the Elders Quorum Presidency and is now serving as the 16-18yr. old Sunday school teacher. He really enjoys working with the youth. He team teaches and is thrilled about teaching only every other week!

Read, as I mentioned earlier, turned three at the end of March. He had been telling me for months that he wanted a monkey cake. My boys really like that movie Curious George. So I made him a monkey cake and he was just thrilled! The look on his face when he was it was priceless. We had just a relaxed get together with some friends. We visited the downtown Aquarium in Denver and that was neat! He loved seeing the fish. Read is growing too fast, as all kids do. It seems to me that he learned to talk overnight and is a little chatter box now. He enjoyed his speech therapist, Stacy, but finished with his sessions when he turned three.

Gage is getting too big too fast as well. He turns two this week. He has also been telling me for months that he wants a tractor cake. We'll see if it turns out as good as the monkey cake. Gage knows every single letter of the alphabet which blows me away! A few months ago he was in the bath tub playing with sponge letters and he rattled off each letter by sight and out of order. He even knows what sound they each make. Well, I can say that he must have gotten his brains from his Daddy! He is talking as much as Read.

I am completely overwhelmed by how much the Lord has blessed our little family. Not a day goes by that I am not amazed at how blessed we have been in our lives. My testimony of the gospel has grown immensely since I have become a mother. My love and faith in the gospel grows more and more every day.