Big News!

We got our back door fixed!!! It has been 2 1/2 years since it shattered and almost a year since the shattered glass fell out and the door stopped opening. It is wonderful to have a functional back door again!!! We also got a new sliding screen door since our old one was also broken. I am so happy!!!

For family home evening, Monday night, we had a karaoke night. We haven't done that in a while and it was a ton of fun. We took turns picking songs and sang and danced the night away.

Sara chose Dark Places by JRJR for one of her picks, in honor of Tim. It's a favorite of his.

Sammy came home at the end of it. He is such a wonderful big brother, so loving.

He joined in with the singing.

Later that night, Josh, Leigh and Mikael came over to play Settlers of Catan. They are all a bit obsessed with it right now. Josh and Leigh left after one game, but Andrew, Daniel and Mikael played until almost midnight.

Laney did this beautiful oil pastel piece at school.  She is quite a budding artist!

Wednesday, I had to take Susanna's sax to the repair shop by my mom's. We got to hang out for the afternoon. We went to Takamatsu for lunch to try some Korean food. It was pretty tasty. I got Kalbi Tang which came with all the little side dishes.

My mom got the beef Bul Go Ki lunch box special. It was especially good!

 The sunsets are frequently incredible here. I love our huge sky! This one was particularly gorgeous with all the streaks of fiery orange. Of course my pictures do not do it justice, but I took this for Tim and any others who may be missing the sunsets of home.

Sam told us that evening that he now has a girlfriend, Landrie. She is lovely. We are just getting to know her. She took this cute picture last Sunday of their feet.

Thursday, Laney was exhausted and fell asleep like this in Jessi's car on the way home from choir. Jessi said, "At least she was buckled?"

Andrew caught us snuggling after a long day. There is nothing like being in the arms of your sweetheart!

Saturday, Sara gave Susanna a body wave perm. Susie's hair is extremely curl resistant and straight as a board, so she was excited to get a little extra body to her hair.

It is just barely wavy. We used a gentle strength perm so as to not damage her hair and big rollers so it wouldn't be poodle like, but it hardly curled it at all. We will probably do it again to make it a little more wavy. After this picture, when  it dried, almost all the waves fell out.

Our dear friend, Howard Lyon, has painted Sara several times in the past. Tuesday, he painted this cool piece of Sara's eye. I knew whose eye it was the second I saw it. He is amazing!

 Saturday, he painted this picture of Sara on gold leaf. I cannot believe how gorgeous it is!!!

You can see a timelapse video of him painting it here:
 https://www.instagram.com/p/BbXgf94BZ0Q/embed/?autoplay=1


And the BIG news...

Josh proposed to Leigh, and she accepted! We love Leigh and are so excited for them. They are thinking to get married March 24th, 2018.

They are ridiculously happy. It is so cute! I didn't notice until later, that Grandma and Grandpa Alger's wedding picture is in these shots. How perfect!

After they came home to tell us the news, Richard and I went to the Glendale amphitheater to see A Midsummer Night's Dream. He didn't know where we were going, it was a surprise! In our first year of marriage, he surprised me by taking me to the same place for the same show, so I thought it would be sentimental and romantic for me to surprise him this time. It was fun to be outside together and to snuggle up a little on the grass while we waited for the show to start.

The show was a little to modern for us and the acting was so so. We still had a great time together remembering the days gone by.

We left at intermission and went over to my parents. Josh and Leigh were there to share their news. Ben, Nan, Gavin and Cadie were all there as well. I had fun playing with little miss Daphne and baby Freia. They are adorable!!!

Ain't We Crazy!

Isn't it wonderful how time flies by so fast and every minute of our week is full of awesome activities?! Ok, it can be a bit exhausting at times. I even admit to a couple of my own personal meltdowns this week. Sara has been busy writing essays, some for scholarships, and I have had a lot of late nights helping her. I also have had lots of late night talks with different kids throughout the week. They just needed some extra love or attention and that was when I had time. However, I do not function well without my beauty sleep. We made it all work and we had a great week even with a few crazy mom moments.

The elementary kids all were honored for their great grades this last quarter. Daniel and Laney's teachers sent me pictures, but Susanna's did not. I offered to take a picture of her with her certificate and she said she didn't need a picture. Great job, kiddos!

Monday evening, Andrew and I went to the West MEC open house to check out all the programs he could join next year as a junior. Freddy was asleep or he would have joined us. We learned about the Dental Assistant, Physical Therapy, Medical Assistant and Security programs. He thought he was only interested in the Dental until we had our tours of the other programs. He loved the Physical Therapy and Medical Assistant Programs too. He also learned that he is not interested in police work or security. They had a simulation machine and he ran through a couple of different scenarios. One was an upset lady in a bar that had a weapon and the other was an aggressive man in a school office. He did not enjoy it at all. Although he appreciates the work that those people do, he discovered it was not for him.

Tuesday was Halloween! The kids went out through the neighborhood in 3 groups; the teens, the tweens and the little ones. Gram and Papa came and brought Ben's Madi, Ryan and Ella. Madi had fun running around with Daniel, Laney, Heidi, Averie and Kendall. Gram, Papa, Jessi and I took Susanna, Gwen, Tori, Ryan and Ella around. The twins were with their friends, Brandon, Rachel, Jackson, Blake, Kyler and Josh. Poor Richard got stuck with handing out the candy at home. He was a good sport about it. They all had a great time.

We have a great neighborhood for trick or treating. There are a lot of neighbors that go all out with the decorations, one does an awesome haunted house and there is a group that does a chili cook off every year and has the neighborhood taste test and judge.

We found the Andersons along the way and a bunch of other friends as we walked the streets.

Susanna and Corbijn

When we got back to the house the teens were all watching the old cartoon Alice and Wonderland, so the little ones joined them. Many of them had never seen it before. The tweens were all upstairs bartering and trading candy.

Leigh and Josh came and joined us after being out for the evening shopping and Sam was at the Glendale Institute for the evening with his friends.

Thursday evenings at choir are the best! The Christmas concert is going to be amazing!!!

Andrew, Freddy and Daniel are just to the left of center. Rachel Smith is in the front row of girls to the third from the right and you can see part of Lilli's face in the back row about six girls from the right.

Here's a clip from rehearsal. Prof. Stewart has amazing piano skills! https://youtu.be/iwCs-G2E77M

After choir we went to Costco, which of course means shenanigans for the boys. This time they ran across the tops of the carts. I couldn't believe they didn't break any ankles.

Sara and Brynn went to 2 concerts while we were at choir. They went to the Phoenix Zoo to meet Borns at signing event. She said he was super sweet and didn't mind talking to them and taking pictures.

 Then they went to the Borns concert which was "AMAZING"! He played Sara's favorite song first, followed by her second favorite song. The crowd was friendly and since it was a free concert, a lot of people didn't know who he was. Sara and Brynn were more than happy to educated them on one of their favorite bands. They left early and...

...then they went to the LANY concert late. As they walked in, one of their favorite songs was being performed. They wiggled their way up through the crowd and got pretty close. It was awesome because they could see the emotion in his face. They LOVED it!

A picture with one of the band members

After the concerts, they ran into KenaDee and Mikael Anderson, Lilly Jensen and Lauryn Berry at In-N-Out. They had been at the Borns concert and just happened to stop at the same place for food.


Friday night, we went to Valley Vista High School's production of The Wizard of Oz. They had some pretty incredible leads. It was impressive to have so many strong guys! Our friend Isabelle played Dorothy. She did a beautiful job! Such an amazing voice!

One of the munchkins was a friend of the boys from when they did Into The Woods at Legacy a couple of years ago. She is a super tiny and adorable freshman now.

Tyiss Goodman was in the chorus. He is one of Richard's seminary students and is a friend to several of our kids. This was his tornado costume.

When we came home the kids watched Rapunzel. Freddy and Laney were sound asleep and did not look comfortable at all. Love the snuggles though!

Saturday afternoon, Brynn took Sara out for some fun and she took these cute pictures of her!

Saturday evening, the young men and women from church had a bonfire at the Beals' house. Sara, Lilly, Brynn and KenaDee took charge of the music after Brandon attempted and asked for help. They leaders got a kick out of their jam session. They were really boogying!