A Few Birthday's To Catch Up On

Nate and Drew turned 7 in November. I can't believe my tiny babies are so huge. They weighed 5lb 8oz and 5lb 10oz when they were born and were just under 5lb when they came home. Perfectly healthy little babies. Their heads were so big compared to their bodies and their eyes were huge and dark and they were fuzzy; we thought they looked like baby gorillas.

They are sweeties and always keep us laughing.






Richard had his birthday in December. He is truly my prince charming and hero. He definitely has his human side but mostly he is wonderful. This picture is at his birthday party with my family. This was one of his favorite gifts. It is a plastic nipple extractor. Yes, I did say plastic nipple extractor. And he has already had the pleasure of using it. (It helps to unscrew broken sprinkler risers. It really saves your fingers.)





Sam also had his birthday in December. He is now a TEENAGER!!!! AHHHH!!!! It is a bit freaky to have a teenager, but not so scary with a great kid like Sam. He is mister responsible and loves his mom a ton. I love him too.

My Breakthrough in Handymanliness

or "Holy Handywoman!" from my blog.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Holy Handywoman!

or "My Breakthrough in Handymanliness"

I have serious issues about not being an adequate handyman. Often I get frustrated and/or overwhelmed and then avoid it.

Last summer, our clothes washer (Whirlpool Model #LSQ9544KQ0) would stop in the spin cycle. We figured out that we could put a detergent bottle on the lid and it would continue. The number of bottles and people required to make it finish mounted until it refused to work a few days ago.

I first thought of how much money we would have to spend on buying a new one. I completely avoided the thought of repairing it. It is over 7 years old and I thought it may just be time. Stephanie remembered that we had the same problem some time ago and had a repairman out to fix it. She found the part that he used to fix it. This encouraged me. Thursday evening I researched where to buy it and yesterday morning I stopped by Appliance Parts Co and bought a lid switch assembly for $42.64.

This morning I planned on fixing it together. I am more confident when she is there to support (show me) me. I got our tools out and started looking for things to take apart. Steph looked up instructions and diagrams on how to open up the washer. We found an illuminating video that gave us an idea of how to get it open. Steph figured out I had taken out the wrong screws.

Once we took the correct screws out we were able to flip up the control panel, pop off the clamps and open the front of the washer following the great how-to video we found. It was relatively simple to take off the switch assembly and put in the new one.

It turned out that Steph was the one doing all the handy-work and I handed her tools. It reminded me of when I was a boy helping out my dad. It is kind of like when we are explaining the rules of a game. She doesn't want to start. I get going and then she finishes.

The whole experience was small on frustration and large on satisfaction. We saved several hundred dollars and my handy-ego has been boosted. I am going to do all my handy-work with her from now on. (Like I ever do it at all).

Candy With A Side Of Gingerbread House

We gathered with most of the Ely gang at Gram and Papa’s to build our Christmas Gingerbread (graham cracker) Houses. Gram always decks the table with bowls and bowls of beautiful, delicious candies and cookies to decorate with. We started with our new opening ceremonies parade around the tables marching and singing “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”. The kids had a blast and scored a lot of candy. Thanks to Gram for another great night of tasty, constructive activity.

Thanksgiving With The Algers

The Alger Thanksgiving was on Friday this year at Grant and Joanna's (Richard's sister). They have a beautiful home and splendid yard and garden. Mom and Dad rented a bouncy thing for the grandkids, who loved it. It was yummy and fun to hang out with 44 members of the family plus a few extras. We missed our missionary nephews Phil (Peru) and Chad (Korea) and Richard's brother James, who was away at work keeping the world safe from evil, he is a deputy sheriff.

Bouncin' Mania! At one point the kids figured out that if they all ran to one side they could tip it over. Great idea until it collapsed a bit and trapped them. Nevertheless, they did it again.

They have a great conversational area on their porch.

Mmmm, pie and a huge red bowl of whipped cream!

Papa decorated Laney's hair like a flower princess.

Pretty gardens and silly kids.

Grant decorated Zanna with beautiful leaves. She looked like she belonged in "A Mid Summer Night's Dream".

Fun In The Wild Outdoors

I pruned some of our trees to make it easier for us to remove the vacant beehive. The kids love to have the branches to play with. They also had the big boxes from Sara and Laney's new bunk bed. One evening, a few weeks ago, we all were in the back yard enjoying the cool evening air. The kids had fun building a fort, Rich, Laney and Tim were swinging away and I was relaxing on the porch watching it all with Zanna. The best way to spend an evening, for sure.


Lovely faces!

I hope you are not blinded by the glare off of the back of Richard's legs!

Catching Up On Life

I have been so behind on posting lately. I am trying to catch up and also to make up for not updating my little bro Gavin, he's on his mission in freezing Idaho. I email the posts to him to keep him in the know on everything Alger. (Sorry I missed writing you last week, Gav! Hope these make up for it.)

Boy Kitties

Richard and Laney were laying on the sofa having a snuggly conversation. Laney was talking about a boy kitty. Richard asked her how she knew it was a boy kitty. She said, "Daddy... boy kitties have red feet." It was one of those "Duh Daddy, everybody knows, why don't you" moments. So, next time you are wondering whether it is a boy or girl kitty, be sure to check their... uh... feet!

Sara Got Her Ears Pierced!!!!

Sara has be waiting a long time to get her ears pierced. Richard and I decided that she had to be at least 8 years old and REALLY want them pierced before we would let her. Sara came to her daddy on Sunday morning, a week ago, and asked him very sweetly. He told her to ask him again after church and to write a poem about it. That evening, Sara, who had enrolled Sam and Josh to sing along, sang the poem she had thought up during church and through the after noon.

"Oh Daddy, Oh Daddy please let me pierce my ears.
Oh Daddy, Oh Daddy, it will dry up all my tears.
Oh Daddy, Oh Daddy, you been the best dad for years.
Oh Daddy, Oh Daddy, please let me have fancy ears."

She was so darling that Richard melt like butter. He said she could get them pierced. Then he said it was sweet of her to write him a poem about it and ask what made her think to do it. I thought he was joking but he really had no recollection of asking her to write one. Both Sara and I heard him though. We laughed.


The next day we went to Claire's.

Virgin Ears


A bear to love.


A little more painful than she thought.

Yea, fancy ears! Sam went with for support and bought her a pair of earrings. So sweet!

Oh, and when we walked in the door at home to show off her sparkling ears, we found Laney asleep on the stairs. Apparently, she became exhausted while brushing her teeth and passed out on the bottom step.

Halloween Pictures, Finally

So, my mom gave the photos a while ago but I just never managed to get them posted. I am sure you have all been on pins and needles waiting for them. Here they are...

Sam the ASU Fan and Detective Travis, his friend.

Josh the Mysterious Man.

Tim the Dragon Boy.

Daniel the sort of scary, but funny clown.

Princess Laney and Prince Nate.

Sir Drew the Black Knight.

Tinker Sara.

Richard in his everyday attire and Ballerina Zanna.

Glamorous Jen and Piratess Steph.

Cowboy Caviar

Someone at work asked for my wife's recipe for Cowboy Caviar. It is great as a salsa for corn chips or eaten straight.

Can of Corn, drained
Can of Black Eyed Peas, drained
Can of Black Beans, drained
2 Avacados cut up
Can of Diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 a Bell Pepper, diced
Italian Salad Dressing
Salt and Pepper to taste

The next day it will be even better as the flavors meld.

-Rich

Family Photo Shoot - The Outtakes

We this as close as we are going to get to looking like our Stick Family. I am a bit curvier than my Stick self. This is one of the fun outtakes from our family photo shoot. We took 74 shots and I don't think we even got one where everyone is looking at the camera and smiling; some everyone is looking and some everyone is smiling but never all together. That is just what happens when you have eight kids 2 to 13 years old all trying to time their smiles with getting the 7-month-old baby to look at the camera. It was hilarious trying to convince them to let Gram get Zanna's attention and not to do it themselves. Here are some of my favorite out takes.

In this one Laney is trying to help Zanna stop crying.

I just loved Daniel's roar, and Laney looking at the sky.

Richard and I are the only ones looking at the camera. I think Richard is just waking up though, or falling asleep.