Back to Blogging???

So you may have noticed that I haven't blogged in a while. Yesterday Nate asked what my plan was, and I told him I was shutting it down. Thanks to the caffeine I had at dinner last night and a really odd dream I was awake around 2 am. I was thinking about my to-do list today and shutting this down.  I started it right after Piper was born as a way to document our lives (much easier than scrapbooking). This last year I stopped loving it, and it became a chore. I also felt that no one reads it, and it made me grouchy. I started working about 30 hours a week recently and this just seemed like one more thing on my endless list of things I didn't really want to do. Last night as I was thinking about it I remembered why I started it. So often I feel like I've failed at the end of the day. I remember the hard moments. This gives me a reminder that I didn't fail all the time, that my kids didn't spend the entire day fighting and crying. Even if no one reads my words, it's ok. This was for me anyway. So I think I'm going to keep it. I need to be able to look back on the good moments. This will be something I hope my kids will look back at someday.

At the beginning of the summer we went to the botanical gardens again. We all love it there. The paths and wide open spaces give the kids plenty of places to run. It's just beautiful there.

Piper really wanted a picture of us with the roses, since that is both of our middle names. 

 This guy, he is giving me a run for my money these days.

 Pipes is definitely our most fearless one.

 Little Emmy Lu. She has a nickname at the Y these days - The Tyrant. It's her way or the highway. She wants to dictate what everyone is doing. I tried to explain that she is the fourth child, and is supposed to be easy going. She didn't get the message.

 Asher is still well Asher. We started running again this week and I love the conversations we have. We hope to do two more 5ks in the fall.

 Nate adores this one. I think the feeling is mutual.

I'm going to try to be more consistent and maybe use my voice a bit more.