Father's Day

Last year for Father's Day I gave Ben a set of BBQ utensils for the future BBQ we would get him when we moved to Chicago. Well this year, he finally got the BBQ to go with it! I actually let him get it on Memorial Day so we could get more use out of it, which I am glad because we have loved being able to grill! Now he feels like a real man :)

 On Friday we had an early Father's Day dinner/date night at, our favorite place to celebrate, Cheesecake Factory! Here's Ben enjoying his red velvet cheesecake we got to go.

 Sunday I made one of his usual dinner requests, chicken enchiladas, and another one of his favorites, trifle!

It would have been prettier if I didn't run out of strawberries for the top

Ben is a stud and is able to balance work, studying, being ward clerk, his new running routine, and putting up with his pregnant wife all so well. Yesterday I was sitting next to him and the baby kicked so hard he felt it on his side! I think it was her little way of telling him happy father's day :) We both adore him and can't wait to see his "daddy skills" in action...in less than 3 weeks!

37 weeks

Spring time update

We have been enjoying the past couple of months out here, so it's about time I blogged some of the pictures!
           -In May we had some friends, Ashton and Lydia and their little girl, come stay with us for the weekend. Ashton really wanted to see a Cubs game, and Ben and I still hadn't made it to one, so we ventured over to Wrigley Field. It was abnormally cold for May and pouring down rain the entire time, but we still had fun cheering on our Cubs!

      
           -The end of May my mom, grandma, and aunt Gayle came to visit us. My dad had made the baby a bookshelf and other cute things, and my sister gave us some baby equipment, so my mom and aunt drove all the way from WA to Chicago! (Thanks again ladies!!!) Luckily those two love a good road trip. While they were here we hit up down town (although traffic was horrible and we missed the boat tour, we still had fun doing our own little tour, and having our first taste of Garrett's Popcorn!), picked up my grandma who flew in, played games with Bryce and Camille, put up nursery decorations, organized baby clothes, and the highlight of the trip...went to X-FACTOR! The show was doing auditions and the Sears center and we ended up with amazing seats, with perfect view of Simon! The funniest part was that the show required the audience wear "club wear"....let's just say our version of club wear compared to other peoples was pretty humorous.

Ready for the club :)

       -The beginning of June some friends from my ward threw me a baby shower. It was so fun getting together with the ladies out here and I got some wonderful presents for the baby! I didn't get too many pictures, but it was a blast- thanks again Kristin, Janna, Amy, and Joy!

         -Our little town had it's "Community Days" last week and we loved it! I obviously couldn't do any rides, but we walked over to enjoy a funnel cake (Ben's favorite and my first time trying one) and to check out the happenings.

       
         -Baby update: I'm 36 weeks tomorrow and feeling ready for this little girl to be here! I'm really feeling the joys of pregnancy lately (still puke sometimes, heartburn, the occasional Braxton Hicks, waking up multiple times a night, and just feeling large and uncomfortable), and I ended up getting some bug that made me puke so much I became dehydrated which resulted in contractions about 2 minutes apart, and therefore a night in the hospital. We were very relieved that everything was just fine with the baby and it just gave us a tiny preview of our real trip to the hospital that is soon to come!

35 weeks

Baby Shower in WA

At the end of April I had the chance (thanks to my parents!) to fly to Washington for some fun family time and for a baby shower! Camille and her kids flew out with me, so between her, my sister, and mom, they planned an amazing shower.
The food was great and all of it was based around pink!

Becca planned a fun game that included a lot of candy (always a good thing)

So many sweet women showed up, including family from all over WA, Portland, and even Utah (thanks Leigh!), friends from church, where I first grew up, and best friends from high school.

We also used some of the adorable bird things my dad has made for my nursery as decorations.

Everyone was so sweet and generous, it was so much fun and made me even more excited for this little girl to get here.
I was having so much fun with my family that my sweet husband let me extend my trip a few extra days to get in more play time. It was my sister's birthday so we got in pedicures, shopping, eating out, and a lot of fun chatting. I love a fun trip home!

My first motherly Mother's Day

This year I definitely felt I counted as a mother for Mother's Day, and I reminded Ben of this often. He did a great job making me feel special. My first present was letting me extend my visit home a couple of days to play longer with my family. Then when I flew back to Chicago we stopped for a pre-Mother's Day dinner at Cheesecake Factory. Saturday we went and picked out a new camera! We got one with fast shutter speed so I can catch every cute baby moment. Sunday morning he made me cinnamon rolls (my favorite) for breakfast, had chocolate and diet coke on hand, and then made fajitas for dinner. He was such a good sport and made it such a fun little celebration for me. I can't wait until next year when he'll get to take care of a little 10 month old while making me breakfast :)

Looking very motherly at 31 weeks

Little bunny foo foo...

           We had a great Easter this year, complete with an egg hunt, church, and family dinner.I felt very grown-up having to fill the eggs myself (with limited candy since Ben and I ate 2 of our bags the week before...no self-control). We headed to Bryce and Camille's in the morning for one big hunt. I got tired after bending over a few times, Graham preferred to throw his eggs, Camille was taking pictures, so therefore Ben and Bryce collected most of the goods (which they hid).

Then we made ourselves sick on candy and Ben and I headed to church. We had a great lesson on the Savior, reminding us what Easter is all about. Then I passed out fun birds in a nest treats (peeps in rice krispie treats) to my young women. We finished the day with Easter dinner at our house. I made my first ham and it turned out delicious! All in all, a great Easter.
         

Atlantis!

The beginning of April we headed to Paradise Island, Bahamas for a Warning family vacation. It was so fun to have everyone there and to get to soak up the sun in such a fun place. Atlantis is pretty much like combining an amusement park, aquarium, and tropical island, all in one! I absolutely love it! This is a bit of a picture overload, but I am trying to fit it all in one post.
Aquarium pictures (there's pretty much every kind of sea creature you can imagine there and amazing tanks that surround you):

Grace and Graham and the Grouper

These eels look like Ursala's creatures on Little Mermaid...so creepy!

Taking a little rest

Slides (Atlantis has awesome water slides. There's even conveyor belts that take you up to the slide so you never have to leave your tube. Since I was pregnant (like I was last time I went), I couldn't really do much, so Ben had to enjoy all the slides for me. Cute side note: Kyle kept saying he liked the "bunnies". We finally figured out he thought we were saying "rabbits" when we were saying "rapids", and got rabbits confused with bunnies. So cute.):

Leap of Faith: Ben dropping down into a tube in the middle of a shark tank

The Abyss: This is almost a straight drop and most of the slide is pitch black. You end up in this aquarium type thing

Challenger: The boys did this almost every day. I think Ben is racing Brandon in this one

Some of us on the "Crazy River" as Kyle called it. I thoroughly enjoyed being allowed to go on this

Around town (We rode everywhere in a stretch hummer because it was really the best way to fit all of us...we thought we were cool until we realized everyone could see from the windows that we were watching "Spongebob" on the tvs :)

Love Graham's look in this picture

Perfect entertainment for all of the kids

Dinner at Twin Brothers in the Fish Fry

They had all these outfits and instruments laid out for people to use, so of course we took advantage

Ben loving his skirt

Kyle showing Bahama pride

Love Bryce's facial expression

Pool side (We LOVED playing in the water everyday. There was a great kid area we camped out by, we hit up a good majority of the pools and slides, and Ben also got in some snorkeling with my dad and Evan)

Family picture on the kiddy play area

Ben and Graham getting a snack

Grace with a model pose

Uncle Ben and Grace

Dad and Evan

Baby Claire enjoying her vacation

Brandon and Ben

We had great weather almost the entire time...except for this little bout of rain which resulted in our own tent city

Kyle and my little baby catching a nap

Around Atlantis and family pictures (since it is becoming more rare these days to get all of our family together, we made sure to get some pictures of all of us)

Looking at the hammerhead sharks down below

Couldn't leave Atlantis without one of these pictures

The whole Warning family

Camille was nice enough to take some pictures for our little family

27 weeks

All the grand kids (and a future little girl on the way!)

My cute parents who made the entire trip happen

We had a blast being all together. From playing all day in the sun to cards at night, we loved every minute of our trip. THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM AND DAD for such an amazing vacation!