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!

Personalize a slideshow design

Keeping the focus

Truth be told, the Christmas "vacation" was challenging. No matter how I try to put it or go through it in my mind, there are no better words to describe it. Christmas always seems to hit me in a rush EVEN THOUGH i prepare for it by shopping on black Friday, arrange "fun charts", organize "job charts" and create incentives. Now, I'm not saying that I don't enjoy the break altogether, I'm just saying that overall, it isn't usually what I would envision it to be. Honestly, the first week was a week of catch up because my Christmas cards were not all out (and still aren't, and truthfully does anyone care?!) and I was bound to get them to everyone on my list (which seems to be a computer challenge each and every year) and my stress levels were high since the decorating was still in swing. Part of this was because we had decided to buy a tree and couldn't due to Steve's overwhelming work schedule. So instead of the anticipated "great experience" of picking a tree together as a family and chopping it down, we ended up pulling out the back up plan fake tree from the attic (thank you Bryon) a week before Christmas and decorating it for family home evening that night, since Christmas was fast approaching on Saturday. In my "emergency mode" I must say I wasn't feeling the true spirit of the season and was looking forward to it ending with great anticipation where I should have been looking forward to it. Since the older boys had the week off, Steve decided to take advantage of the opportunity to have them babysit Thursday so we could make a trip to Portland to go to the temple. As the week progressed and I got increasingly overwhelmed and scroogey, I told Steve I didn't think it was a good time to take an extra 6 hours out of my week. Steve was fine with my decision and let me know that regardless of my choice, he still needed to go and was still planning on it if I should change my mind. It was nice to be aware of my options and helped me feel free. Thursday morning, I found myself praying that I could make the right choice. I didn't remember this prayer until the following day, however, after I realized how I had made the right choice in what ended up being a wonderful temple trip and that desired feeling of peace and joy had finally entered my heart for the first time in weeks. Just in time for Christmas. My testimony of the power of prayer and the peace that comes through properly prioritizing our time was strenghthened. While on our 2 hour trip home, I was reminded of a recent & favorite general conference address given by President Uchtdorf that reminds us to slow down and think about the things that are more important in our lives. "Of things that matter most". After this trip, I was able to have a wonderful Christmas and make it through the following week of refereeing, entertaining, negotiating, and maid service with more enthusiasm. Finally I felt as if I didn't want the break to end (until Sunday when the children were so unmanageably wrestless that I was ready to hand them off to anyone else for awhile and get my house in order).

Now we are enjoying our visit from Grandma and Grandpa Alger as we look forward to Michael's baptism this Saturday.
I'm grateful for the many blessings in my life.

What they Say Wednesdays

Mom (creating upcoming weeks menu): "Jeremy, what would you like to have for dinner one night this week?"
Jeremy: "Pizza!"
Mom: "We're having Pizza on Friday for our New Year's eve celebration..."
Jeremy: "Well, I'm dying Wednesday at 7:36p.m."

Mom: "What?!"
Jeremy: "I can predict the future"
Mom: "Well, we're having pizza on Friday, is there anything else you want?"
Jeremy: "okay, fine. Subway sandwiches."
Mom: *sigh*