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!