Guilt. It's a powerful tool

       Guilt really is a powerful tool! You know the first brother I waved off on a mission got weekly letters from me! I was probably the most consistent letter he got for his whole mission aside from my mom! Then I waved off the next one and wrote him every few weeks at the start... then it was lucky if he got a letter once a quarter... Now I have waved goodbye to my last brother and the poor guy has only gotten maybe two letters or emails from me in the last two years!! WHAT KIND OF SISTER AM I!?!?! I mean sure there are many excuses for why I haven't taken the time but really it's not like it takes that much effort to write him a quick email! Thankfully he has been patient, understanding, and now demanding. So now I get a blog update and a letter all out of the same!

HI Alan!! Did you learn your lesson that you didn't really want to read that journal I sent you!? It's a sad sad story!

We are doing really well! We have had many adventures over the last few months! I will mostly post a whole slew of pictures and tell you that we have had tons of fun making memories!

Ben- happy and mostly healthy. He probably wont ever be fully healthy again. It just doesn't appear to be in our story that he will be back to what he was! He is doing a treatment called photopherisis to help with his chronic GVHD. He is working full time now which is amazing! He amazes me every day as he manages to work a full work week and spend 8+ hours a week in the hospital doing treatments. Poor guy works so hard the weekends are when he tries to catch up which makes for nice relaxing with the family!

Sarah- Happy summer has been so good to me! I have loved having the kids home with me! We swim at least once a week which I used to think was a terrible amount of work but as my kids have gotten bigger it has become so much more fun! I still stink at cooking and cleaning but I try to get better at it each day and remember that I don't have to be perfect to be happy with it! I am still working with a therapist about once a month for the side effects of having a sick hubby. I am very thankful for the people who are so skilled in that profession! It keeps me going and much more leveled!

Eliza- is so excited for school to start in a week and a half! Second Grade here she comes! She has gotten TALL! She's all legs and when she runs she can actually outrun me now! (don't tell her my ego can't handle it!) She has been a fantastic helper all summer long! She has started developing a real skill with little kids! Its amazing to me to watch her when I ask her to go play with the younger ones who seem sad and how much they all just love her! She is going to make a great babysitter and mommy one day!

Alayna- If we thought Eliza was excited for school Alayna is well beyond that! (kindergarden) She knows who her teacher will be and is excited for that! She can't wait for everything about school to start. Books! She loves the idea of reading and is going to catch on so fast once school starts! She is my kid who I walk into her room and her bed is always full of books! How she sleeps in that mess is beyond me.

Parker - will  be doing preschool 2x a week this year! His speech is coming along nicely but he still has things that people can't understand which is irritating for him. He loves all balls, bats, superheros, and weapons. His sisters are his best friends and watching them all play is the best thing in the world! He even happily plays girly dress up with them...hehe... someday he will be sad we have photographic evidence of that!

Disclaimer: All of these pictures loaded reverse of time so it's most recent to oldest... sorry.

 Parker playing dress up with the girls!

 Back to school Hair cuts

 Post camping trip the poor boy was distraught that we had to wash his "gripper" so he sat in front of the dryer waiting for it to be done!

 4 wheeling... me and my girls!

 camping was so fun!

 dress up again! so fun

 Parker likes to rock climb but he LOVES to go just high enough that he can jump and let the rope catch him!

 swimming

 mermaids!

 Alayna is my brave one! she climbs the highest!

 family hike and someone had to bleed...

 Elzia taking Alayna for a ride on their cousins 4wheeler. It's a little gas powered one and goes up to 25mph

 I made the girls swimmable mermaid tails! They love them

 My good deed of the year: I made 15 soccer ball hats countless hours. I was crying by the time I was done but the girls at camp apparently liked them!

 I also made these headbands for the Stake leaders at camp!

 4wheeling with daddy!

 Exhausted from the Waite Family Reunion!

 Mesa Verde with cousins!

 'Layna!

 Emily (Rachel's youngest!)

 Grandpa and Parker

 Sand dunes! Happy as a clam!

 Alayna: pre near death by drowning.

 This is the face of someone who fell asleep with face paint on and mom didn't have it in her to wake her up to wash up

 Mother's Day... right after I gave him a bath. Stinker stamped himself everywhere!

 note the little tornado above the red truck... it touched down in Berthoud took out a few houses

 Alayna's first pedicure

 Ft Collins Temple! it was super windy!

 Playing shooting games with mommy

 Someone lost her two front teeth!

 Helping daddy. no matter what he is doing.

 Meeting our newest cousin Hunter!

It's time

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate getting back into blogging. I have this crazy urge to back track and try to record everything that has happened over the last few months or years and tell you all the grimy details of my life but then I remember... I have a horrible memory. And I can't remember it all much less take the time to write it all down. So here's to another attempt and desire to being blogging again.

I could completely overload this with photos.... and caption everything but that would take me forever. So instead you get a quick update and next week will be a weekly update!

Eliza went to school every day. She is doing really well. We had parent teacher conferences this week and learned that Eliza is doing great in everything except her reading. She seems to struggle a little with phonetic reading which is hard since that is really what they teach at this age. But we have been working on it more at home and she is showing excellent improvement! She loves to write and has recently started writing notes to everyone. My favorite are the notes that she writes to me but that's probably because I'm just that self centered and there is nothing better in life than a love letter from your 6 year old! She is also doing soccer this season and has shown huge improvement! She used to be terrified of getting in the mix to get the ball but now she will fight her way in and it is so exciting when you see her get in there with the ball and make good progress! We just got her pictures back and they are so stinking cute! I'm in love! 

Alayna is busy with school. She is at a new school with new teachers this year but she LOVES her preschool teachers and the experience as a whole! She has recently learned how to spell her name and she can even write it now too! I'm thankful that she has not taken to labeling everything with her name but I find it on lots and lots of paper! She is my little mellow child. She has bursts of heated emotion but otherwise she is so chill and she has that same chill effect on just about anyone she plays with. She is not doing any sports currently because she didn't want to do soccer and we aren't doing dance this year. We recently had our primary program at church and Alayna willingly stayed in front and even walked across the stand. OK, so she had the biggest scowl I've ever seen on her face and she didn't say her part, BUT she walked across the stage without bursting into tears! If you didn't already know, Alayna is very very shy and she HATES to be the center of attention in a crowd. She doesn't even want to open her presents at her birthday because people are watching her. So to do what she did at the Primary program is a huge deal!

Parker, well what more can I say about Parker. He is such a 2 year old its frightening! He is stubborn and funny and adorable and he has these big blue eyes that are the perfect mask for all of the little mischievous things he does. He is learning quickly that washing walls is not as fun as coloring them. Screaming is more fun if it is coming from your sisters mouth and everything (literally) should be done at a dead run.I am learning that If it has wheels or is meant to be thrown then it is bound to be a cool toy! He has a little three wheel scooter that he loves to ride to take the girls to school every day and he is really good at it too. People often comment on how adorable and impressive it is based on his size! He loves to play soccer and has some pretty impressive skills based on the knowledge that he is only two! 

Sarah, I have been busy with my own little business. I finally caved and started selling my crochet hats and shoes that I make. I quit using etsy to try and sell things because I wasn't ever actually selling anything which was irritating to me. I've come to the conclusion that etsy is where other crafters like myself go for ideas not where people really shop very often! So I now have a facebook page that is keeping me comfortably busy with hat making! I have been working out more often these days because I've put on a few more pounds than I want to admit. But much to my dismay the extra exercise has not helped the weight but has identified a different strange problem. I have very low blood pressure and I have also started blacking out while exercising so my doctor is putting me on a heart monitor this week to see if we can record what is happening to it when I blackout. We already did a bunch of blood work and an EKG and everything from all of those came back 100% normal. So hopefully the heart monitor can answer some questions and if not then we will just keep plugging along, and manage the workouts differently!

Ben, is doing amazing! He is working over 30 hours a week and we have submitted to be taken off of disability which is awesome! We also this week celebrated his 2nd Re-Birthday by going out on a double date with Mallory and Evan. His actual re-birthday is not until the 25th but we are grown ups and reserve the right to celebrate when its convenient! Ben also has officially been taken off of all of his immunosupression medication (tac). THIS IS HUGE!! we are so excited now we have two more weeks to let it flush from his system and another two weeks of watching him to make sure we don't have to start them up again and THEN he will get to have his central line taken out! I am unrealistically excited about that! for some reason that is the sign to me that we really get to start moving on with our lives.