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.

Time goes too fast....

I was planning to post my Halloween photos, but I haven't gotten them from my mom yet. She came over and took a bunch of shots for me, but she has been swamped with a stake play and being sick the last few weeks. So, maybe I'll post them for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Here's our pumpkins. The kids did a good job designing this year.

Anyhow, life has been speeding by. I really feel like time is going faster. Things I used to be able to get done in a day seem to take longer. It isn't that I am slower, if anything I am working harder but it just seems that the day is over after it has barely begun.

Someone, the other day, mentioned hearing a quote from Joseph Smith about time literally speeding up in the last days. I cannot find such a quote. If any of you have heard it or can find it please comment on it.

I did find a quote from Spencer W. Kimball. "In my estimation, the Lord’s time table is directed a good deal by us. We speed up the clock or we slow the hands down and we turn them back by our activities or our procrastinations."

I guess because I am procrastinating less, time is going faster?? This must be good news, it just doesn't feel like it, right? I am working on being balanced, but I am not really doing anything extra. Laundry, bathrooms, grocery shopping, yard work, organizing the pantry to fit all the groceries,

homework, preparing Sunday School lessons, loving and playing with the fam, mopping, cleaning up thousands of dead bees from the beehive we had treated in our tree (Sam is deathly allergic),

nursing the baby (Boy, bottles are tempting!), making dinner for our small army, holding a sad baby girl...etc...

I love my job, I just wish sometimes that I could be finished with everything and feel free to do other good things. Or even just to stand back and look at the finished product of all my labors. I guess I won't be doing that until I die, which I am not planning to do for a long time (I want to see my gazillions of great-grand kids.).

Pretty much, my life is wonderful, just a little overwhelming at times. I am happy to have so much to do!? I am never bored!