Ski trip to Bogus Basin

Aunt Macy came to stay for a week and we enjoyed every minute. One of the activities we did while she was here was skiing to Bogus Basin. Macy had never been skiing before so we were excited to take her. She did great and we all had fun. It started snowing a lot when we finished and started home. It was pretty slow going down the mountain and we got stuck behind a snow plow until Aaron scared us and passed it! Good times!

Christmas News Letter

Newsletter generated with Smilebox

SNOW DAY

We woke up this morning with a message from the school district informing us that school had been canceled. Aubry wanted to find out if her school was canceled as well so she asked me to help her find out. I found her on the computer googling "snow day" I suggested her looking on her school web site, and to her delight her school was canceled as well. So thanks to the snow there is no school today. The kids have loved being outside playing in the snow. I went out to watch the girls play and shovel the driveway a little, what a pain. My neighbor walked over and said he was headed over with his new snow blower to clear the driveway, what a relief, and what a great neighbor we have!!! The kids came in long enough to eat lunch, enjoy some hot chocolate and help me clean up the kitchen and living room and then back outside they went. It's been great! Enjoy the slideshow!

Anna looses her first tooth!

Anna woke up Wednesday the 6th in a very happy mood and was excited to show us that she had discovered a loose tooth. After school she walked in the house with a tissue in her mouth trying to stop the bleeding, a big grin on her face, and a tooth in her hand. Our neighbor told her she was an expert tooth puller and convinced Anna to let her pull her tooth! Thursday morning she found money left from the tooth fairy along with her tooth. She has decided to keep it forever!

St. Luke's Women's Fitness Celebration

Once again Aubry and I participated in the St. Luke's Women's Fitness Celebration 5k run, walk, and stroll. We signed up in the red wave which was a timed run and we are pretty sure we finished in under 30 minutes, we are still waiting for the results to be posted. It was so much fun and the weather was awesome! We wore the beanie hats my mom made that were Boise State colors and since the big game is today it was perfect, thanks Luke and Aaron for letting us borrow them! We got several compliments on the hats, even Caroline Holly from channel 7 told us she like them, way to go GG! Hopefully later today the KTVB website will have the results and we will be able to watch us cross the finish line from the camera that was recording everyone. What a fun tradition we have going and especially liked going in the red wave. It is the first wave that goes after the wheelchairs so it's not nearly as crowded as going in the others. We also got their early enough that we were at the front of the group so we could see all the entertainment going on before the race began.

After the race


Waiting for the race to start!

Back to School

Aubry started school last thursday, she's in 8th grade. The rest of the kids started today, so it was an exciting morning for us.
Seth is in 7th grade and opted not to have his picture taken.

Anna, our first grader (check out her new haircut)

Luke, our third grader

Waiting for the bus!


They don't seem too sad to be starting school!

Elizabeth's reaction to watching the kids get on the bus and drive away!

Warner Family Reunion

I'm finally taking the time to post our fun Warner family reunion in July. We went to Bear Lake, Utah. We stayed at the Laketown Lodge and it was huge so we were all able to say there. It was a very well planned and fun reunion. Our kids loved being with their cousins and we enjoyed spending time visiting and just hanging out. It's so great to be part of a wonderful family. Here are 3 slide shows to see the fun we had. The second slide show is at Bear Lake and the third is our crazy/funny family skit written by Troy!


The Warner Family


Grandkids are the greatest!

Girl Power

Thanks to Aunt Macy, the girls had a blast showing off their new hair with fun colors. They love spending time with their cousins in Utah!

Trek

I have to first thank my sister Macy for coming from Houston to stay with the kids while we were gone on trek. It sure was fun having her here and having a few days before and after trek to spend time with her. Thanks Macy, we miss you!

Aaron and I were asked to be a "Pa and Ma" for our stake Trek. We accepted and were excited for the experience, and what an experience it was.
We left on Thursday, July 29th at 7a.m and arrived home Saturday, July 31 around 8p.m. There was a total of 400 kids and 100 adults. There were 8 companies and each company had a different color. Each company had 5 families and a company commander which was a bishop and his wife. Our company commander was Bishop Bingham and his wife and I asked Aaron if they might be related to Jake who is married to Wendy,my cousin. He said probably not and that there are so many Binghams in the church. Well he was wrong and they are related, Jake is his nephew, small world.
We were part of the purple company so we wore purple bandannas. Our family consisted of 5 boys and 4 girls. We were asked to let them do most of the pushing and pulling, which we gladly did. Our kids were great, no complainers and everyone got along really well. They all worked together and seemed to enjoy the experience as much as we did. It was really though and our feet got so tired. Some of the kids got some pretty bad blisters and had to go to the foot clinic every morning. Luckily mine and Aaron's feet did pretty well other than aching from just being tired. I've never sweat so much in my life as each day was sunny with a few clouds here and there, which were enjoyed very much when they covered the sun even for a brief moment. The trek was well organized and the reenactments were amazing and the spirit we felt was so strong. We all have a greater appreciation for our pioneer ancestors.

The hardest part physically for me was the women's pull. On the second day all the men and young men were taken away, reenacting somewhat of the mormon battalion. The women and young women had to pull the handcarts up a gravel hill, while the men and young men stood by watching. They weren't allowed to speak to us our help us, they could only sing. Our family had 4 girls and I was a little nervous about making it up the hill but the girls had no doubt that they could do it, and we did. Along the way were sisters wearing white scarves, they represented angels and would come help us push for a little while. It was very hard for many of the young men and men to watch and several had tears in their eyes. It was an amazing experience and every emotional. It helped reinforce that we can do hard things.

Other highlights included the reenacting of the Sweet Water Crossing, devotionals given throughout the day, frontier night with fun games and activities, hearing about the pioneers each of the kids had researched, and family testimony meeting. We experienced a mob forcing us to leave just as we were about to make camp so we had to walk another 2 hours in the dark to the new campsite arriving at 11:30p.m., apostates trying to convince us to turn around, a family burying a loved one, and more. All of our meals were provided by those of the food committee and it was all very good. What a wonderful experience we will always treasure and that has strengthened our testimonies.


The first day, just before leaving for trek.


These are our kids, they were so awesome!



This is our flag that our kids made on the first day.

Notice the tan line, guess what it's not a tan line, it's dirt. I was so happy to get home and take a long hot shower!

Anna's 6th Birthday

Anna wanted a "Fancy Nancy" birthday party this year. If you haven't heard of Fancy Nancy check out the books at the library, they are great. The party was a lot of work for me but was well worth it. Everyone seemed to have fun and Anna was very happy with it so I was happy as well. I had each of the girls who were coming get me a pair of their old jeans so I could cut them off and make a skirt out of them. I also made curly hair bows and beaded socks to match. Aubry invited a couple of her friends over to help. They were in charge of painting nails and make-up and I was the hairstylist. We had 7 girls come. Check out the slide show to see how much fun we had.

Michelle

Mother's Day

It was a special Mother's Day for me. Aaron and Aubry made breakfast. Aubry surprised me by speaking in church. She wrote her talk by herself and did a wonderful job. Seth, Luke and Anna were excited to give me the cards they made. I recieved a flower at church. We had a delicious dinner made by Aaron, Aubry, and Seth and then we had some friends over for dessert. Aaron gave me 3 more charms for my Pandora bracelet. The kids had so much fun making me jewelry with Anna's beads. They created some pretty cute stuff. It was a great day. I love being a mother and I am so grateful for my mother and mother-in-law, they are very special to me and have helped me become the mother I am today. I am truely blessed to be a mother!

Ice Skating with Anna

May was Anna's month to have a date night with mom and dad. She chose to go ice skating. Aaron has been before but for me this was also my first time to ice skate and I had fun. Anna did really good for her first time, and even though she fell a few times she had a great time. Towards the end Anna even wanted to be by herself so Aaron and I backed off and let her go. We stopped for ice cream on our way home, thanks Anna for a wonderful date!