Small Moment Monday x2

We missed last week cause we were out of town, but I have blogs from the kids for both weeks...so here we go!

Monday the 4th
NATHAN

I went to see fireworks with Emily and Ben. I went up on the roof to watch the fireworks. I also went swimming at Grandma's. It was really cold in the water but the second time I just jumped off the diving board and went down the slide a lot.

ARIA

We woke up in the morning and had no idea what to do. Everybody was going out of town so we went too. We got to Fish Hook and went boating. I went swimming in the freezing cold water with worms on the bottom. We had a party with our cousins. It was fun seeing the family.

GABE

My favorite thing was the fireworks. I liked shooting a bottle rocket and the other fireworks. I really, really liked swimming too. I liked the goats too.

CLARA

I snuggled Emma and den Dada and den we went to Grammas and I started to slide and den I jumpeded and den....um...did you jumpeded? Nope. Den Nathan jumped off the diving board and den he slided down. The fireworks blewed up in da sky. Yeah, they flewed up and den blewed up! *giggle*

Pictures from the weekend of the fourth...



Uncle Bud teaching Gabe to shoot at bottle rocket.














And from Grandma's house.

Swimming.




Helping Grandma with the goats and in the garden.








Tubing


On a walk by Rooks park


We saw a blue heron


The girls got too tired to walk


And todays small moments....(this is a really long blog, sorry about that)
NATHAN

I went to see a baseball game with Will. I liked the game. I got two signed cards from Recycle Man and Otto. And then I went to an arena football game and I didn't like it. (funny story...he came home with a couple flags from the game. I asked him if he wanted to keep them or toss them and he said KEEP! So I said "I thought you didn't like football?" And he said "I don't. But I like flags!")





ARIA

I went to my friends house and we went swimming but I was the only one who got wet!!!

GABE

I like everything about the BBQ. Roasting marshmallows was really fun. I like to make them golden brown and make s'mores.

CLARA

Mama's birthday. What did you had? Cake. You had cake and den hot dogs and den ice cream. I gived you a princess ball with a lot of princesses over it. Right?

Our Summer Schedule

The kids and I were talking about our summer schedule and we came up with a plan to keep us busy and having fun.

Small Moment Monday - The kids will each blog a small moment on here since this is our family journal.

Take a hike Tuesday - We'll find a trail or nice area for a hike or walk.

Water Wednesday - Splash Pads and pools!

Throw a ball Thursday - We'll play any game that uses a ball.

Field Trip Friday - We'll find places to go. Nathan has requested the temple to walk around the grounds and I was thinking about one of the old mining towns in the Idaho Panhandle.

And Saturday we'll do family activities since Dave won't be working.

So watch for pictures from all our fun activities!

And without further adieu...

Our first "Small Moment Monday"

Nathan -

i saw dad playing this


i can play this


bye

Aria - She prefers to write with pen and paper, so she wrote it down and I'm typing it in.

One time I went to Boo Radleys and I saw "fart in a can" and "finger tentacles" and it was fun. (P.S. I went with my Grandma and fun fun)

Gabe - Gabe and Clara both dictated their small moment to me. I'm writing the way they said it.

I like going to swimming lessons. Today there was a garage sale at swimming lessons. We got a bunch of stuff for free. I kept putting everything in the car and my mom never know'd it til she went in the front yard. After that we brought it all home. My favorite thing was the stomp rocket.

Clara -
I like roasting mushmellows and hot dogs and making graham crackers and making stuff. My favorite part was going to Maggie's too. (oh hey! My shoes both match and they're pink!) And my favorite part too is going to the libary 3 times. And then my favorite part....I like that picture you made....*and she wandered off*

Rainy days

I love the rain.

Especially when it's raining hard enough to get wet, it's a warm rain and the sun is still out somewhere.



Yesterday I was cleaning the kitchen when I looked out the window and saw the kids soaking wet in this great downpour. Then I noticed the sun behind them and rainy pictures are awesome when they're backlit so I ran and got my camera.











So fun!

Moms

Moms are everything.

Moms make food like a chef,
when dad screws up at cooking
mom always is a fire woman,
she gives us our medicine like a nurse,
she builds shelves like a builder,
she teachers her kids stuff like a teacher,
she would need to get married and have children,
she would do everything she could.
I want to be a mom to help and raise kids! I love my mother!

-Aria Alger

Miss Clara is 3!

I sat down at the computer just now to blog Clara's birthday pictures. I'm holding Hyrum and he's fussing a bit and Clara shows up to do what she's been doing every single second since he was born 3 weeks ago.



She grabs his hand a bit roughly and I start to stop her and she says "I'M JUST TRYING TO KISS HE!" So I remind her to be gentle and she gives his hand a kiss. Then she goes to pull him off my lap. I start to stop her and she says "I'M JUST TRYING TO HUG HE!" So I remind her to be gentle and she gives him a hug. Then she grabs his binky and jams it in his mouth. I start to stop her and she says "I'M JUST TRYING TO GIVE HE HIS BINKY!" So I remind her to be gentle and she gets the binky in his mouth. Then she goes to grab his head and I start to stop her. She hollers "I'M JSUT TRYING TO PET HE!" So, again, I remind her to be gentle and she pets him on the head. Then she tries to touch his eyeballs. I say "don't poke his eyes" and she says "I JUST LOVE HE!!!"

Then she joins him on my lap and tries to snuggle in and make sure she's getting most of the mama lap love.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

So we've been playing up her birthday and making sure it's all about her and she's loving it. One day I got balloons and we did a little photo shoot. (don't you love how I'm so lazy I take my kids pictures on the street in front of our house?)













Then we had her party at Chuck E Cheese. She's been talking about this for months! Nearly every day she'd ask if it was her birthday yet and I'd say "when's your birthday?" and she'd say "May 4th" and I'd say it wasn't May 4th yet and she'd put the question on hold til the next day.











And this morning we woke her up for the traditional birthday breakfast and a present in bed.



And tonight she gets to pick dinner and we'll have cupcakes.

I love you, my Clarabelle! Happy Birthday!

Blessing Day!

We blessed Hyrum on Sunday. It was a lovely blessing but Hyrum wasn't too excited about it. He cried through the whole thing. Not just fussing. Really crying. I had hope because he's my first kid to take a binky so I figured we'd pop it in and he'd be fine through the blessing. Nope. He spit it out as soon as the blessing started and that was that.

But he was cute! And I have pictures!

The super soft and gorgeous green blanket was knitted by my mom. I love it!



































One of our awesome sister missionaries was able to hear past the crying and wrote some notes about the blessing for me. He was given his name and told that his parents love him and are thankful for him. He was told that he was close to the Savior in the pre-existence and his desire is to follow Him. He came to earth at this time to fulfill the Saviors will. Life will challenge him but he was blessed to be able to bear up those burdens.

We sure love him! He's already brought so much joy to all of us.

Thanks to everyone who came to support us on his blessing day!