Christmas Festivities!

Ward Christmas Party: Sitting on Santa's lap, whispering wishes for Christmas joy!

Of course Christmas time is one of our favorite times of the year! We enjoy the marshmallow roasting, woodburning fires, candy canes and Christmas tree pickings, (although we opted for our old reliable fake one this year). There's lots of Christmas shopping and envelope stuffing, package mailing and cookie baking. I can't wait to get started...

Last night Justin placed the star on the already bare bottomed Christmas tree. We are now down 4 or more beautiful bulbs that Alyssa took care of for us and the stockings are hung by the chimney with care and lists for Santa of impossible gifts in the minds of our little ones. Sugar plums? If it was only that easy! Hopes have dropped as we have declared a "no electronics Christmas". As we ran down the children's list, Steve declared, "what ever happened to tommy wants a ball?" and my declaring, " and Suzie wants a doll?!" Think we were being silly? Quite possibly, in a seriously incredulous way! We have hopes they will find that the packages they recieve will contain gifts that make them forget that they didn't recieve those electronic devices and rather encouraged interaction and relationship strengthening games and toys instead. As Christmas draws nearer, I have been opting to make my Christmas a little less stressful and focus more on those things that add the Peace and Joy we hear ever so much about this time of year. I have been extremely mindful of President Monson and Uchdorf's talks last Sunday in the Christmas devotional. Let's keep it simple, and full of meaning. So far, it's a lot better than last year's December. At least for me!

Today I am Thankful

Yesterday was Thanksgiving day and also Steve's and my 18 year anniversary. As I look back at those years, my heart is just full of gratitude for the love that has only grown and strengthened and increased over those years. Boy has the time gone so fast! I guess that 's the way you feel when you are happily married to the man of your dreams. We are so blessed in so many ways. All Novemeber long, I reflected and thought of my blessings and tried to figure out what I was most grateful for, only to find more blessings and that it was even harder to figure out which one was the greatest. When it comes down to it, I have decided I'm thankful for the Gospel in my life. If it weren't for the gospel of Jesus Christ, I never would have made the choices I made and been where I am today. So here is to 18 wonderful years and all the beautiful lives that have become symbols of the love which has grown through those precious years! Happy Anniversary to my sweetheart and wonderful children I am truely grateful for all of you.

It's been a fun and festive Fall and we are looking forward, as the weather continues to cool, to those hot chocolate mornings, applesauce canning, apple cider evenings and warm fires in our living room. With children, Halloween always brings an excitement you feel in the air all October long. How wonderful it is to experience the joys they contribute. How empty life would be without them. I'm taken back to the memories of my own childhood and the amazing traditions I remember. That one house that always gave those mega candy bars, the dentist that always gave a new toothbrush, and the faraway house that gave us hot cocoa packets we couldn't wait to get home and put to good use, dipping our glazed donuts as we warmed by the fire and a spooky movie on T.V. Ahhh, the joys of Fall! Farewell for now barbeques and fans, hello apple pies and pumpkin treats, hay rides and visits to pumpkin patches! There's something great about each season...wouldn't you agree?!

Jeremy's Baptism

On August 29th, Jeremy had that magical birthday! He turned 8 years old, so you know what that means...he was baptized. We enjoyed the company of his Grandparents Alger and Gram Mower. We started the celebrations with a wing-bang transformer party with friends and family the weekend of his birthday, and followed up with his baptism and confirmation the following Saturday and Sunday. What a special event! We are so pleased with him. Jeremy is one that is always looking for opportunities to serve and help out. We are so blessed to have you as an important part of our family, Jeremy. We love you!!!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Blueberry Baby

Alyssa LOVES blueberries! She is fun to watch just shoving them in her mouth as if she can't get enough of them. We have thoroughly loved watching her grow and develop. She amazes us daily with new words like "Yum Yum", "Bye-Bye" as she waves (taught to her by her oldest brother, Bryon), and her amazing abilities. She went down the stairs this morning by herself after a couple weeks of our teaching her to turn around at the top of the stairs, much to my relief! I guess I just forget how soon they can do things! She is ADORED by her 5 older brothers, not to mention her parents. What a treat we have been given to be parents to so many wonderful children!

Enjoying Cousins

Yliana loved to hold and help with Alyssa.

Yliana and Justin enjoyed helping with clean-up after the brownies were made!

Kicking off a great July with a family visit!

We continued our festivities throughout the day with crafts, a BBQ, and fireworks. We literally ended with a BANG. Ha!

The Fourth of July began with a breakfast and children's parade at the church. Complete with fishing for prizes and face painting, our children walked away happy!

There is so much that has happened in the last month and so little time to sit and record all of it! We had the pleasure of spending the 4th of July with my brother Danny and his beautiful family! We got them for a week and went hiking, picnicing, park jumping, ball hopping (baseball to be exact), arcade and river crossing. Interpret these activities as you will, just know that we had a great time!

Last Month of the '08-'09 School Year!

Because I haven't blogged for quite some time, I decided to update you on the things that we have been doing lately. Bryon has been taking finals and completes his last one on the last day of school, which is Tuesday. Tyler's last day is Wednesday and he is still busy completing projects and taking finals. Jeremy and Michael have been bringing home art and school work for the last couple of weeks now and are wrapping up for their final day, on Tuesday, as well. Alyssa has cut two more teeth and Justin is becoming more and more vocal about what he wants and how we can help him. The two of them helped me purchase a used couch we found on Craig's list last week and have been behaving well while I have been canning berries to make jam. One of my favorite times of year! Strawberry jam, strawberry/blueberry syrup, and blueberry pies. We have been enjoying the fruits in their season as well as a wonderful visit from Aunt Ginny (my sister) and her two youngest sons, Ryan and Nathan. What a delight! I have also started another paper route and am getting adjusted to the new routine. We also enjoyed memorial weekend in Utah with family and friends as we witnessed our niece (Steve's sister Ruth's daughter, Camille) get married. It has been an amazingly busy but fun filled month! Thank you for letting us share with you all!!!

(Recipes can be found on our "Alger family recipes" blog-link to the right)

Thank you Bryon, for a wonderful time together to celebrate your delightful life as a family. What a blessing you are to us every day!

Of course, you have to visit the Pikes place Market, where they throw the fish to one another when an order is made. This was a fun thing for the children to witness and was the last of the places we visited. Our trip was capped off on Vancouver WA where we ate dinner at Carl's Jr., the Birthday boys' choice!

We were able to drive by the temple. A tradition when we visit a place that has the temple. Beautiful, of course!

After the Safeco tour, we made our way to the space needle. Not going to this site while in Seattle, is like visiting Paris without going to the Eiffle Tour, it is a must and, though costly, worth the experience!

That night we enjoyed some good fun family time at the hotel pool and Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner. The next morning we started off with a tour of Safeco field, home of the Seattle Mariners. So much fun, and well worth it!

We enjoyed the exhibits and a wonderful tour of the boeing airplane assebly!

We tailgated our first meal in Seattle at the Boeing Museum parking lot. Apparently, a pretty regular thing there, because we weren't the only ones.