Riley Elden Warner

AKA the GREATEST Grandpa and possibly man, EVER!
I have been putting this post off, because I was going to wait to scan in some photos of him from my childhood, but I left them in Thatcher (after I pulled them out of albums of course...sorry mom). then it got close to the 4th of July and I was crazy busy with ward party stuff, more on that in another blog. Anyway, here are some things about my Grandpa.
My Grandpapa, is probably my favorite person of all time (excluding Matt of course). If you don't count my spouse and children, I can't imagine loving or respecting anyone more than I do my Grandpa. Growing up with a single mom, my Grandpa really filled the role of a Father in my life. He did all the Daddy daughter stuff, and also baptised me and witnessed as my wedding. Growing up he was really the only preisthood holder around for me. He was the best example I could have had. He really is the reason I am who I am today. He showed me how to work hard. How to serve QUIETLY. And of course how to make funny comments under my breath! :) His sense of humor and wit were QUICK. And I don't think I was ever around him without smiling and laughing a little. He was a mostly quiet man, but when he did say something it was either funny, or meaningful. He taught me how to be happy. That might sound weird, but growing up, I wasn't surrounded by many happy adults. Except my grandpa. Just that contrabution would have been enough, but he was so much more. Unlike so many people today, my grandpa wasn't afraid of just being ordinary. He never wanted to be in the spotlight or be recognized. But his quiet, humble, ability to be completely honest, hardworking and kind made him extraordinary. Both of my grandparents are the kind of people who are constantly doing things for other people. The amount of selfless service they have given to others throughout their lifetime is unfathomable to me. And most of it people would never know about, unless you caught them in the act. I will always strive to be more like them when it comes to working hard for other people sakes.
I could go on and on. Like I said the kind of love I feel for my Grandpa is unprecidented by any of my other relationships. I would say like some people are from birth "Daddy's Girls" I am and have been a Grandpa's Girl. No one has ever made me feel as special or as loved as my Grandpa has. I miss him more than I can say. I will miss silently sitting beside him in a crowd of people, knowing that we both feel uncomfortable, but glad to be together. I will miss nose kisses and couch snuggles, walks to texas, knowing winks and glances, good advice, loving hugs and smiles, funny phrases, silly jokes and unwaivering support and love. His presence being gone is like the sun has hidden behind the clouds. I know that he is glad to be rid of his decaying body, which became such a burden to him. And I am happy that he is no longer suffering. I know that it was the right time. But I was unprepared for the pain I feel. I thought that because I knew it was right and because of my faith that I will see him again, my pain would somehow be dulled. It is not. I have dealt with loss before, from grandparents and other relatives to young friends. But I have never experienced this kind of grief. He was the only stable rock in my life as a child and like I said before, his presence and example and influence GREATLY shaped the person I am. And it continues to. I don't think I have ever known a better man. He was not perfect, but he was GOOD to the core. Truly. He brought me so much happiness and love and laughter and tender moments. I LOVE YOU GRANDPA.

With my sisters and I, he was the GREATEST tickler of all time! (I am the baby)

Our Wedding Day

With My mom


With Lily
With Izzie

In the Navy 1943

Wow, what a month!

Well, once again I find myself saying, "sorry it's been so long since I blogged, I have a million things to catch up on!" Seriously! I think that the fates just like to sit and wait for me to commit myself to things, (I.E. blogging more often, working out, etc) and then they hit me with it. I am sure it is very entertaining for them! Anyway, May has come and gone in a blur for me.

Unfortunately I was sick for most of May, so I don't have any terribly interesting stories to share. Just that Lily took advantage of me being hopped up on pain pills for half the month and decided to explore her more mischievous side! No, she really is a good kid, but this month she has definitely experimented with naughty behavior. She has been back to her well behaved self the past week or two, but here are a few examples of her silly mistakes. Mistaking the toilet bowl for a toy bin, mistaking her body for a piece of paper on which to color, resulting in pen all over her face and hands (I failed to document with a picture) she then promptly came to me and told me "bad choice color. wash please" while she was hysterically crying. I think she panicked when she couldn't wipe the pen off. I debated leaving it on to remind her of her bad choice, but decided she felt bad enough and washed it in time to only leave the faintest hint of pen marks. She also mistook the couch for a coloring book and covered my ivory couch cover in bright blue crayon (luckily we only have washable crayons). I DID get a picture of this, and every time she sees it she says "oh no! bad choice!", she hit her sister intentionally for the first time, she took off her diaper during naptime for the first time, we had our first "bleeding" incident when she mistook the tile for a good place to throw a fit and smacked her face. She mistook the DVD player in her room for a toy, which resulted in the breaking of her favorite movie "monsters inc" (a travesty). Anyway, I can't remember it all I should have been writing the list down. She is still the sweetest 2 year old I know, but she has had her fair share of days this month!

My grandfather also passed away on the 6th of June. I won't say much about it at this moment. Those of you who know me well know how much I love my Grandpapa. The next blog I write is going to be a tribute to him, but I thought I would get this "catch up" blog out of the way first.
Anyway, Things are going better at my house, except that I have a cold right now. I am really getting frustrated with my immune system! Isabel is pushing up and rolling all around and smiling so much and laughing and a real joy to be around. I have the best girls in the world. Matt is doing well, work is going good, he is trying to rearrange his schedule to have Wednesdays off since he just got called into young mens. I will admit that I really love his current schedule so it is going to be a tough adjustment, but he is really enjoying working in YM, so I am sure that it will all work out! :)

Anyway, here are a million pictures!

Some of the evidence from the afore mentioned couch incident

Hank and my mom with the girls when they came for a temple trip

Just Isabel being her sweet self

Lily sharing with Izzie, what is a big sister for if not to teach you all about being a girl and talking on the phone!

My mom came to help with the girls the days Matt worked after I got out of the hospital, she was a HUGE help to me. Lily LOVED to help her with her cross stitch.

She loves to be a pirate lately

Still trying to figure out this eating off a spoon thing!

Playing at the park with the cousins one day

Getting pushed by her 3 year old cousin Langley. This pic cracks me up!Matt hanging out all dizzy after spinning on this awesome spin-ny seat the park has. I know that was a pretty amazingly articulate description, but I don't know what else to call it, you sit on it and spin and the way it is molded/angled it makes you spin faster and faster. Whatever it is fun. and nauseating.

Matt spinning me faster AKA trying to make me puke.

Matt and I playing volleyball, I love this pic because you can see lily really thinking that she is playing too

Lily holding out her arms to bump the volleyball

Playing coy

who me?

this is her serious face

This is the smile I see most often

we went to a friend's "James Bond" themed party, it was alot of fun

this is kind of a weird pic, but it was the first day we started doing the top knot pony on Iz so I wanted to get a pic before we left the house

Izzie in the hat her auntie Heather bought her for when we go camping next month! CUTE!

My family

My GG and her living children

Lily being a good girl at the luncheon

hugging her cousin Ben

GG snuggles

Happy Birthday Matthew!

Happy birthday (yesterday) to my incredible husband! I can't even begin to express the depths of my love for you, so I will leave it to the words of my close personal friend Billy Shakespeare!

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

(Shakespeare's Sonnets #116)

I am so glad to know that our love is made of the stuff that Shakespeare speaks! I know that no alteration our lives may find, no storm or doom that faces us, though our "rosy cheeks" might fade with each year, our love will always be my guiding star. A truth that shapes my life. You have permanently changed who I am, and thus you are as much a part of me as I am of myself. Truly the other half to my whole. SO glad that you are my best friend! I am sorry that your Birthday was not a great one, but here's to the deep happiness and lasting joy that lie beneath life's daily frustrations!

[****TO THOSE WONDERING AN UPDATE POST IS COMING SOON, FILLED WITH LOTS OF PICTURES AND A MUCH MORE ATTRACTIVE ATTITUDE THAN MY LAST POST! :) BUT THIS ONE WAS FOR MY MATTYPANTS AND I WON'T DO THE NEXT POST TIL I AM SURE THAT HE HAS READ THIS!*****]

So much to blog about, so little time!!

So It's been about 3 weeks since my last blog, but it feels like forever, because there has been so much going on. And to be honest I just haven't felt like blogging. So as most of you probably know I am a pretty private person as far as any kind of personal struggle, I am not usually one for sharing, but I have been having such a hard time that I figured this might be therapeutic. You ready for some honesty and whining? Here it is :) I have been having a pretty rough couple of months. I have been dealing with lots of personal issues that have left me physically and emotionally exhausted. It's been an ongoing battle and I am usually not one to wallow in anything, so it is hard for me not to feel better already! I am doing better than I was a month ago, which is REALLY great, but most days I still feel like I am barely keeping my head above water. There are some days where just getting out of bed and breathing in and out seems insurmountable. Have you ever felt that way? I feel like every time I make progress something drags me back through the mud. I am SUPER grateful however for the peace and love that I feel deep in my soul. I feel like the holy ghost and the power of the priesthood has kept me in decent shape. If I didn't have so much faith in the Savior and so much love for my husband and my girls I don't know how I would get by. I have never been more grateful for my family and for my testimony as I have been lately. I have been trying to stay service oriented and focused on the important things in life and less on myself and my problems, but sometimes I am so exhausted. However, I know that the Lord is blessing me in my efforts and I know that he is aware of me. I am sure that He is hoping that I will learn some patience. I know that He will heal me emotionally and physically from my burdens, I am just not sure how long its gonna take and I am so not good at waiting!!

Anyway, something that I CAN change is my weight! I am realizing how judgemental I used to be, in my mind, of people who struggled with weight now that I am one of those people. It has been hard for me to work out due to said exhaustion and to be honest, depression and low self esteem lately, but I am re-committing myself to work out. I used to love working out and if I didn't do it everyday I couldn't sleep at night. My body loved it, needed it, and it made me feel good. Now I am more out of shape and heavier than I have ever been. Here are my stats, I have decided not to be embarrassed of my weight anymore, this is where I am and I AM going to get better and not feel hopeless about it! I currently weigh 145lbs, I know that I'll probably never get back down to my old under 120 weight, but my goal is to weigh at most 125. I feel like that is a healthy and physically fit range for me to be in. It's hard because back in the day I had friends to work out with and facility access and dance and other activities to keep me physically active and my endurance factor was great, so working out felt good. Now, I don't really have any local friends and I am SO out of shape that working out is actually hard work! So doing it is a factor of me making myself do it with no outside motivation, and having 2 sweet girls constantly interrupting! But I know that it is worth it and I will feel better once I truly commit. That is why I am putting this on here, so that I am officially accountable!

Anyway, enough whining, if you read all that you are a true friend! Now on to the pictures and videos (you know that's the only reason you actually read this :)

Easter Pics, we had a GREAT Easter

Isabel and her adorable cousin Eve, Eve is just 6 weeks younger than Izzie

Egg hunting at Nana's!

Our ward did an Easter picnic which I was in charge of, I didn't get many pictures unfortunately, but we did a pinata (Janeal can you send that pic of Lily hitting the pinata?) and an Easter Egg hunt for the kids and barbecued a LOT of hamburgers and hot dogs. The primary and Young women's helped out alot with this activity and they really saved my life! We have a great ward. This is Brother Brady the counselor over my committee, he did the cooking of the meat (which was SO generous of him). And Lisa made him an awesome durag out of a reusable shopping bag!

As a thank you to brother brady the activities committee made him a personalized grillmaster apron and gave him some sunscreen! While I was at it I decided to make an apron for my sweet husband, since in his words I have been at times "crust-i-licious", and he has put up with it so well. Seriosuly, he really is my BFF and I love him an immeasurable amount. Anyway, here is how it turned out.

My birthday came and went pretty uneventfully. I got to see my sister and my mom, they came down for Andrea's ultrasound which happened to be on my birthday. My sister is currently being a surrogate mother and only has a few weeks left. She is carrying triplets! so my mom drove her down. She is staying here for the next few weeks since she will deliver here in the valley. It was really good to see them and I resolved some of the family issues that have been causing me serious stress. My fam is so crazy and dramatic I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a normal family! (for example my sister Emily got married in Vegas last month on a whim and it was no big deal at all, something has to be WAY bigger than that to make a wave in my family pool! I literally haven't even talked to my other siblings about it, I am sure that they know and I talk to them at least weekly, it just isn't a big D). Anyway, my mom brought me a gift and my sister got me flowers and my AWESOME visiting teachers Sara and Dianna got me something too! It was a nice day. My mom made me a cake :)

Reading to Lily before bed

I got together with some of my girl friends from college at the end of March for lunch, it was SO good to see them, they are a great bunch!

Lily and Tonya, my friend Kristy's baby playing in the backyard. This is the only pic I have with them both in it, but I am SURE that my great friend Elisa is going to email me with hers soon :)Lily loved Tonya SO much, this is over a month ago and she still asks everyday if Tonya is going to come over and share with her! I feel bad because she doesn't interact with other kids much, but she really loved Tonya!

Izzie's about to fall asleep face

This sweet girl really is my sunshine baby, everybody should have one

Below are a BUNCH of videos, Isabel being her sweet self, playing peek-a-boo with Lily, Easter Egg hunting, and singing songs before bedtime. Sorry to overwhelm you, enjoy!

In Honor of General Conference this Weekend...

I haven't posted in a while and I have had LOTS of drama and busy-ness and am overwhelmed, but I thought I'd post this new trick of Lily's. Our internet has been really shotty the past week, so I won't post the other videos and pics, but know that A LOT of pics and video are coming this next week, when I get a sec!


We are trying to teach her all the 12 too :)