Benson Family Christmas Letter

This year I did not do a Christmas letter. But then I realized how much I like hearing about how everyone else's year has been, and I decided to take a few minutes and write one. So here goes:

Benson Family Christmas Letter

This year has gone by really fast

All our expectations have been well surpassed

Larry and Jen have been really quite busy

Hope has started the "2 year old tizzy"!

Lauren and Josh have been doing so well

They're growing up fast, I'm sure you can tell.

Lauren is 11 going on 20

Aeorpostale clothes...she has plenty!

Lauren loves to shop & shop & shop

And Josh is full of energy and goes non-stop.

He's eight this year and a wonderful boy,

He brings our family so much joy!

He was baptized this year by his Dad.

He played football..yes tackle might I add.

He loves to play with Lego's and loves to read.

His favorite is Captain Underpants if you can believe.

Hope..well Hope, she is two

You just never know what she's going to do.

She's absolutely adorable, cute as can be.

We just know in our family is where she was meant to be!

She's talking non-stop, we understand most.

She is really smart..I don't mean to boast.

She loves Strawberry Shortcake and Winnie-the Pooh

She loves to say her colors, her favorite is blue.

Jen has been healthy and feeling so good

Someone's looking out for me, I knew that they would.

This years CAT scans have been great; my doctor is amazed

That I continue year after year and seem unfazed.

I just try to do my best day after day

and as for the cancer...I continue to pray!

I am thankful and humbled by my family and friends

The love I have felt from you knows no end.

Larry is amazing, and this is no lie!

He has no limits...well, maybe the sky.

He's still with Sutherlands, going on 20 years

It may be 20 more, or so it appears.

He's the go-to guy for all our friends

His home improvement knowledge never ends.

He's out of the bishopric, time for a break

Now on the High Council, for goodness sake.

It's been a great year for us, we feel really blessed.

We're ready for a New Year, I must confess.

We hope your Christmas is Merry and Bright.

And your New Year is also "outta sight"!!

Three Black Shoes

Today I looked down at my kitchen floor and saw 3 pairs of black shoes. All 3 had little black bows on the toes. One pair was on my feet and had high heels. Once pair was on Lauren's feet and were black ballet flats. The 3rd pair were on Hope. They were also little black ballet flats with a strap across the top. I never grew up with a sister. I always asked my mom for a sister, and she always said.."Go ask your dad". I think we got a dog instead. But this morning as I looked at all the little black shoes, I thought how lucky I am to have little girls growing up in my house. Both are my girls are so sweet, and adore each other. And I adore them. I never did have a sister, and that's OK. I'm loving every minute of raising sisters.

Our Scarrrrrrry porch.....

OK, I guess it didn't end up that scary. Lauren and Josh wanted to make our porch scary for Halloween this year. Last night was our "family decorate the porch night". We went and bought some bales of straw, and then we went to Family Dollar and picked out some decor. Even though the kids picked out tombstones, they didn't look so scary :) And Lauren said..."Really, who's going to be buried on top of a bale of straw?"
But when we turned on the motion detected howling ghost, Hope ran inside as fast as she could. So I said, "There you go...someone was scared!" Mission accomplished.

Building Hope for a Cure

On July 31st I had the privilege of participating in a American Cancer Society Relay for Life. Our team name was "Building Hope for a Cure". To start off our fundraising, Larry's work (Sutherland Lumber) made a very generous donation to our team. So we decided to base our team name around "building". Larry built a frame of a house that said the word "HOPE" inside to display at our camp.

We also had a lot of support from my mom's work (Swire Coca-Cola) in Salt Lake and Grand Junction. They donated water to our team. We even had a group drive up from Salt Lake to participate on our team.

We started the walk at 6pm. It started with a "Survivor's Walk" 9or as I call it...the purple shirts". I was honored to walk with a good friend, Tina Hart, who is a cancer survivor as well.

After that, all the teams started the 12 hour walk. I was amazed at how long some of the people actually stayed on the track. it meant so much to me to have their support, but to see them out there all hours of the night really touched my heart.

At around 9pm there was a Luminaria Ceremony where bags were purchased and designed to honor or in memory of those touched by cancer. Lauren was our official bag decorator. She made a very cute bag for me. She also made a bag for my Dad (Grandpa Kelly) and Larry's Grandma (GG). She also decorated a couple of bags for other friends. One of the bags was for my friend Michelle, who has a friend that lost her sweet little boy to cancer last year. It was so touching as the names were read and the bags were lit to light the track throughout the evening.

I could not have asked for a better group to participate with, not to mention all of the many, many donations made to my team by wonderful friends and family. It does go to a wonderful cause..the cure for cancer. Something I plan to see in my lifetime!

First Day of School

Well, I can't believe it's finally here...My baby's last year of Elementary School. Her first day of Kindergarten is still fresh on my mind, and here she is the "big dog" of elementary school. And Josh is going into 3rd grade. Wow! Time flies too fast.

When I woke up at 7:30am, Lauren had already showered and was ready to head out the door to school (they leave at about 8:40am). I could tell she was excited to get back and see her friends. Josh was excited as well. I made my "traditional" 1st day of school breakfast. And then they headed out the door. I was sad to see them go, I love having them home for the summer. But my sadness did not compare to the sadness another little friend in the house was feeling. Hope was so sad to see her "guys" (as she calls them) leave for school. But we went out to wait for them when school was over, and she was thrilled to see them heading back home (and so was I)!

My update is Out-of-Date

So, this will be a long update, because I think I took the summer off. :) Our summer seemed very short for some reason, and school starts tomorrow for the kids, so I should be able to keep up a little better.


We went to Utah for a week this summer. We were able to go see Stadium of Fire at BYU. The Jonas Brothers (or as Lauren calls them..The JoBros's) were in concert. We had really good seats in the stadium , but I still snuck her down on the field, almost up to the front row so she could get a better look. She had a blast. Josh's favorite part was the military flyover at the very beginning. He thought that was awesome.

We also went to Lagoon. Hope was able to ride a lot of the little kiddies rides with her brother or her cousins. She loved it.

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We also went to a new water park in Draper called KowaBunga Bay. It was another very fun day.


When I got back from Utah, I was feeling very run down. I talked to my Oncologist about it, and she moved my September CAT scan up to July. She said the cancer is stable, my lymph nodes have not grown any, so that was good to hear. She did think I might want to consider a round of Rituxin therapy. It is an immunotherapy, and is not as harsh on your system as chemotherapy. She said it would shrink all my lymph nodes down, and could help with some of the symptoms I've been having. The down side is, it would be a 2 year treatment. It is a 4 hour IV drip once a week for a month. And then 2 months off. I'm just not sure I'm ready to commit to that yet. The last month I've actually felt great. So I'm going to wait until my follow up appt in September to discuss that option. Not sure I'm mentally ready for any treatment. I'm liking this "watch & wait" because it allows to me to live a normal life. But I'm not opposed to the treatment if I start to feel like the symptoms are getting worse. I still take it one day at a time! And so far...the days have been pretty darn great!

Summer Splashin'

Hope has been so excited to go swimming, but the pool just hasn't warmed up enough this year. We did get one really hot day and decided to let her try it out. She LOVED putting on her new swimsuit. She LOVED kicking her feet in the water. She LOVED getting in the pool...but only for a few minutes. It really isn't very warm yet. I think she'll really LOVE swimming, when the water gets up to 85 degrees. We're still waiting for those "hot" summer days...hopefully they'll be here soon. I feel like we're still waiting for summer to start. Either way...we're having FUN!!