Angel Baby

There are times that I think it would have been more suitable to have named Amy "Angel" instead of Amy.

                                         She is truly a wonderful baby packed with such a great amount of patience,

                                                                                                                    endless smiles

sweetness,

                                                                                                

                                                                                                joy,

      and purely great nature. She is yet another testimony to me that the Lord not only knows us. But knows us well. He knew we needed our little

Angel Baby.

I'm Blue

One of the children left food coloring out on the bathroom counter that they had been using for...I don't remember what. I don't think I need to tell you what happened from there. The pictures are pretty self explanitory.

The one thing I couldn't stop thinking about as I was cleaning up the mess....

That song, "Blue" by Eiffel 65

Couldn't help myself...I had to laugh as I was cleaning up the mess. As the bathwater turned increasingly blue. AND periodically all week long as the color was slowly fading from those adorable faces. Just in time for Sunday. *Whew*

 ;)

What They Say Wednesday

"Mom, that lady at church really liked that flower really much.

                                      Her didn't rip it. She just liked it really really much!"

                                                                                                                  (feedback is always nice!)

What are your children saying? Please share!

Baptism day

Last weekend our 4th son Michael was baptized. He turned 8 December 5th just ONE DAY after the Stake baptisms, so we waited until the next stake baptism date. Saturday January 8th. His Grandma and Grandpa Alger came the Tuesday before (they haven't missed ONE baptism yet!). Although I would love to say that it was a wonderful weekend and all went smoothly and was spiritually uplifting, in reality, Satan was working hard against us. The day started off on the wrong foot with one of his brothers grouchy and locking him out of his room when he needed to get ready - his reason being that if he let him in, he would throw his clothes on the floor. With all the fighting and chaos of trying to get all the littles ready in time, of course Mommy was stressing (just a tad) where I had actually been quite content and peaceful beforehand. Michael managed to be ready in time, however, since Bryon was baptizing him and has a great sense for being on time. 

Bryon has been looking forward to this event for some time now, well...since Michael was born. The program went smoothly. Grandpa Alger gave the opening prayer and Tyler gave the talk on baptism, which I'm glad I got the opportunity to hear from him the night before since this is my second running baptism for spending the majority of the time in the foyer with a crying/screaming child. Michael was the second of four children baptized. He was baptized twice since his hand didn't go under the water the first time. It was beautiful and special, of course. And Michael felt wonderful! After his baptism he wanted to play in his team's first basketball game. He was more than thrilled to have so much family there cheering him on. He was on fire scoring 6 points for his team. What a way to play on such a special day! The family then celebrated his special day at the Home Town Buffet where he wanted to eat Lunch. It was a lot of fun to see him enjoy his day so much.

The Alger family after the baptism



Our family is so blessed because of these men!



Post baptism-notice what Michael is holding (you can barely see them)? His new scriptures! He was SO excited!

       Sunday Morning Steve confirmed Michael. Unfortunately I was a rather grumpy Mom the whole rest of the weekend. I'm grateful to have such an amazing family that managed to ignore my grump attitude and have a wonderful time anyway.  I'm grateful Michael made the decision to be baptized and am delighted at how well he understands the covenants he's made with our Heavenly Father. His Confirmation blessing was beautiful and left no doubt as to what kind of spirit Michael has. He is truly a special son of our Father in Heaven's and I'm grateful to be blessed to be his mother in this life.

P.S. I'm no longer grumpy. What a relief.

15 years

*I wasn't on the computer that much yesterday and didn't have a whole lot of time between sick kids and clean up, so I am posting this today. A day late:
     Happy 15th Birthday to our dear Tyler. The boy who brings so much joy into our lives. Who holds the door every time he sees us coming. Lightens a heavy mood with his great sense of humor. Invites the spirit through his gift of music.  Endures a heavy load with the strength of faith. Helps us reflect on what's really important through his sincere desire to know about spiritual matters, and shares his amazing testimony through action and word.  

  

 

 

What an amazing gift Heavenly Father sent to us through the incredible intelligence so adorably packaged into a grand Tyler. We are grateful for how fulfilling our life is because of his life in ours!

  Happy Birthday Tyler!!!

January's book

I'm excited about this month's book because I haven't read it. I don't really remember the selling points of it at the annual book sell, but I know it was convincing enough we all voted for it. That was also the second time it was presented to our book group. There are two things I know about it. Okay, three:

1) It' setting is in South Africa

2) It's about two men

3) There is a movie made from the book (gotta be good if they wanted to make a movie off it, right?) 

Are you gonna read it too? Let me know what you think of it!

A Happy New Year

Is it possible to have too much fun when celebrating and bringing in the new year? If so...then we did! Although we invited quite a few families to our New Year Celebration, only two could make it, but when Steve and I found out who could come, we were completely content knowing that it was going to be thoroughly enjoyable and a lot of fun...we weren't disappointed!!

 

Unfortunately we don't have pictures of how we started out the night, but the Larsens came with their three children and played games and graciously ate our homemade cheeseball and chocolate sauce (or did they have the sauce? I've been working that off ever since!) We played a few rounds of "Rate your Mate" until the Stewarts came over and the Larsens had to leave for the youth breakfast they were hosting after their dance. Judging from what our older boys said, that was the breakfast to attend (which unfortunately they didn't). We were delighted they came and stayed as long as they did!! (again, SO wish we had pictures of them.)

With the Stewarts, there was a lot of laughing, eating, playing games, and goofing off...

can you tell this was the late part of our night? :)

I think you can see that the guys goofed off more than the girls. These two are hilarious when they get together!

(Jacob Stewart)

The kids had a great time doing the same things. They were so happy, and enjoyed each other's company so much that 12a.m. was not a difficult hour for them to stay up for. The littles didn't make it though...Alyssa, Justin, and Amy were out by 9 and 10 p.m.

with so much fun to begin with, we anticipate a wonderful year!

Jeremy. This boy loves to celebrate! I think he had the most fun.

Steve distributing party hats

Jacob Stewart

Happy New Year!