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)