Ho...Ho...Ho....

And how many times did you watch "The Christmas Story" in the 24 hours it was on this year? I think I managed the whole movie one time through, but it took 3 different showing times! One of my favorite parts is the mall scene where they stand in the long line to see Santa Claus. Santa, who is clearly sick of the holidays already, keeps repeating, in a very mechanical tone, "Ho...ho...ho..." I think this is a good way to explain my feelings by the end of the day on Dec. 25th. Not that I don't love watching my children enjoy the innocence of Christmas from their eyes, but let's face it; there is a lot of preparation that goes into these two days. Too much. I'm already trying to figure out how I can make the holidays less hectic next year. Any suggestions? Send them my way.... In the meantime, a few pictures from the joyous season:

This was actually Thanksgiving night, before all the real chaos started. How it's supposed to be!

Eating M&Ms at 7:00 am. Hey, it's Christmas.

Isaac's favorite gift: all of the tissue paper leftover.

The Twelve Days of Sickness

Back in March of 2006, our family went through a little episode of illnesses where all four of us managed to be sick at the same time. It was completely unbelievable how many doctor visits, medications, days away from work/school we experienced, so I wrote a little song about it, to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

Fast forward to December of 2008. Not all of us are sick this time, but we've definitely had a week of illness lurking around, which has included many of the same things as the previous adventure: doctor visits, medications, days off of work/school. I thought it would be appropriate, and since it's the Christmas season and all, to reprise the song I wrote in 2006. Hopefully by the time Christmas rolls around, this will all be a distant memory!

"The Twelve Days of Sickness"

Twelve days of sickness,
Eleven sleepless nights,
Ten medications,
Nine loads of laundry,
Eight combined missed days of work and school,
Seven trips to the clinic,
Six temperatures taken,
Five barfing incidences,
Four crabby Algers,
Three strep throats (one recurring),
Two hacking coughs and, (deep breath....)
A yeast infection on the neck (yes, you read that correctly) turned bacterial spread to the armpit, ears and belly button!

Merry Christmas everyone!:)

My back hurts, Dad!

Steve did something to his back when he was reffing a basketball game on Friday night....Let me back up a bit, his back has been "bothering" him for some time now, to which I would say "why don't you go to Dr. Uhler (the chiropractor) and have it checked out?" "No! It's not that bad!" I guess running up and down the basketball court isn't good for a back that's just bothering you (who knew?) So, after coming home from the game Friday night barely able to walk, he was finally convinced he needed to go see Dr. Uhler, which he has done twice this week. Part of his regiment is applying a heating pad to his back for 15 minutes or so. Isaac has caught onto this whole experience quite quickly. Today, when Steve picked him up from daycare, Isaac informed him that his back hurt and he needed to go home and put the heating pad on it. Complete with the pain-staken look on his face. Too funny....

2008 in Review

I can't believe how quickly this year went by! Here are some Alger Family highlights. See you in 2009!

Just being goofy....

Momma's boy :)

Bocce Queen!

What're you looking at?

Happy 40th Birthday Grandma and Grandpa Alger!

My sister did this to me.

Halloween with Cousin Ian the Cowboy

Christmas Day with G.G.

Family Photos

So, we had family photos done back in October, but I'm just getting around to posting some of them. I know it's hard to remember now, but we had some pretty warm days in October. This was not one of those days. Because of that, the kids were not quite as cooperative as we would have hoped, but we still managed to eke out a few good shots of them. (Steve and I are just "extras" :)

Finally, some pictures!

Here is a couple pictures of Mr. Reid Wills, one which includes proud big brother Ian!

The Thanksgiving Watermelon

Tonight Steve was prepping the turkey by soaking it in a "brine" of salt, brown sugar and water. This is why he is the master chef on Thanksgiving. I would never be this creative. Not the point of the story, though, so moving on. He brought the turkey in from the garage, still wrapped up in it's Jenni-o packaging, mainly green in color. Isaac could not get over this thing sitting on the counter and kept telling Steve (in a tone of voice like he had just seen a ghost) "Look at the huge watermelon!" :) We thought this was cute, so I was going to post a picture of him standing next to it. Do you think I'd charged my camera battery yet, though? Ugh! It's charging as we speak. Since I can't capture that one after the fact, you'll just have to use your imaginations!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends! Enjoy your Thanksgiving meal, watermelon included.

Speedy Delivery

We have another new baby to report in our extended family. Signe's godparents and my good friends, Kelly and Mike Kennedy, welcomed their daughter Tatum Jo Kennedy on November 25th at 6:15 am. Why the title to this message? Because they got to the hospital around 5:50 am! Dr. Penkus was swimming laps at the YMCA when he got the multiple pages from the nurses. Kelly said the nurses were speaking in code so she didn't know what message was actually being translated to him. We figured it had to be something along the lines of "get up here now!" We were trying to figure out how he would have gotten the page if he was in the pool, though, and Kelly decided she was going to ask the nurses to find out. (Kelly's family has had some exciting childbirths this year. Earlier this year, her older brother and his wife had their second child....in the car on the way to the hospital!) After all of the quick-paced panic, though, everyone is doing well. And I haven't charged the battery in the camera yet. I will have to post pictures later.

Welcome Reid Loren Wills!

This morning at 12:35 am, Steve's sister Ann, husband Brian and our nephew Ian welcomed a new addition to their family. Reid Loren (Loren is Ann and Steve's dad's name) was 8 lb 15 oz and, I think, 20 1/2 inches long (I could be wrong on that last stat). Steve and Brian's mom, Meredith, were at the hospital when he was born and got to see him right after they wheeled Ann out of the operating room. Where is the picture, you ask? Here's a word of advice to everyone: check the batteries in your camera BEFORE you leave the house. Once I get some I will post them. He's a cutie and everyone is doing great!

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Buddy! I can't believe how fast time flies! Dad, Signe and I love you and hope you have a great year learning lots of new and exciting things!

Happy Halloween!

We had quite a full day on Halloween. I helped out at school, we carved pumpkins (nothing like waiting until the last minute), Cousin Ian came over to visit and then, of course, there was trick-or-treating. Isaac even did a couple of his scary dinosaur impressions when he was out and about.

Signe and her Big Partner, Chantell, from Gustavus, before heading out to a Halloween party on Thursday.

Here I am, helping out a group of Second Graders explore the inside of a pumpkin on Friday. As you can see, I definitely do not have control of the situation. We'll see if Mrs. Bly invites me back:)

Mrs. Bly and Lathe read "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything" to the class.

Mrs. Bly's Second Graders (Signe is in the back row, second kid from the left- the tiger)

Isaac the Dinosaur, Ian the Cowboy and Signe the Tiger

Excited for trick-or-treating!

Halloween Fun Run

This morning Steve, the kids and I went to watch the annual Halloween Fun Run. They have a costume contest as well, so you always see a lot of unique outfits! Laurel and Seth were running and our neighbors were walking, so we wanted to go cheer them on! We also saw a lot of other people we knew too. Good job everyone! Signe wants to do it next year, so maybe we'll be in the photos next year:)

Uncle Seth as Lt. Dangle from "Reno 911"

Auntie Laurel as a bunch of grapes- she won "Best Female Costume"- way to go Laurel!

Linda Zuhlsdorf- Looking good, Linda!

Noelle Neubauer- this cat broke away from the rest of her group and is racing to the finish line!

Joyce Harvey as a tiger and her daughter Maddie in the background.

The rest of the cats- Kim and Kaylee Neubauer and their friends Heidi and Heidi's daughter

Sam Stuewe as Buzz Lightyear. Not technically part of the race, but decided to join midway through with Mom! Hey, if everyone else in costume is running, why not me?

Signe's Birthday Pizza Party

We've gotten into the routine the past few years of having Signe's birthday party in October. With the start of football and school the end of August, we never seem to find a good time to fit it in then. I think Signe likes this though, because it makes her birthday stretch out over a month and a half. (If you know Signe, you know that her world revolves around her birthday). This year we took some friends, Mom, Dad, Isaac, Grandma Cindy and Auntie YaYa (Laurel, for those of you who don't speak "Isaac") to Dino's Pizzeria in lower North Mankato. It was wonderful! They got to make their own pizzas and ice cream sundaes and boy were they creative! So, while my mom was reminiscing about the good old days of simple birthday parties, I was sitting back and enjoying the kids having fun and making a huge mess in someone else's domain! :) Check out the pictures below:

The whole gang (from front left, going clockwise): Sydney, Abbey, Adeline, Signe, Trinity, Lexi, Amelia, Isaac, Carter, Jeremy and Rebecca

Isaac, enjoying the party from the next table!

Isaac, Carter and Signe, anxiously awaiting to make their pizzas!

Jeremy, Rebecca, Sydney, Abbey and Adeline getting instructions on pizza making

Trinity, Lexi and Amelia

Sydney, Abbey and Adeline

Trinity, Lexi and Amelia get pizza making tips from Master Chef Steve!

Bon Appetit!

Making ice cream sundaes

We hope everyone had a great time! Happy Birthday Signe!

Monday morning

Usually the kids are pretty good about getting up in the morning, but we had a particularly busy weekend so it took a little more time to get going than usual. Here is a picture of them after the third time I had gone in to wake them up. Notice that they both somehow ended up on Signe's floor in the middle of the night, which also may have contributed to their early morning grogginess!

Steve Junior

Steve spent a good deal of time of Saturday aerating our lawn. Isaac was completely fascinated with the concept of aeration and since he couldn't join Dad he decided to "help out" by doing a little aerating himself on his big wheels....

Isaac's First Bike Ride

It never ceases to amaze me that you can hardly turn your back without your children reaching the next milestone. Would you two please slow down a little bit??? You're going to be teenagers before we know it and I don't think we're at all prepared! Anyway, we reached another milestone on Saturday. Isaac took his first ride on his "new" bike. It's still a little big for him, but you can't pass up a freebie from the neighbors. He was a little frustrated at first because it wasn't as easy to manuever as his trike, but before long he pretty much had the hang of it. I just have to hold onto one handle bar to help him steer. As you can see, he's pretty excited about his new set of wheels....

Congratulations Steve and Laurel!

I'm happy to announce that the Rasmussens are gaining a new family member next August. My sister Laurel got engaged to Steve Sturlaugson on September 13th. That's right, there's at least 5,000 names you can choose for your son (based on the 10,000 baby names book), and my parents are going to be two-for-two with son-in-laws named Steve. Good thing we're already used to this idea and have been calling them Steve Lee (Alger) and Steve Todd for some time now. Welcome to the family Steve Todd! Are you sure you know what you're getting yourself into? :)

We have already been dress shopping twice, and Signe has quickly discovered how to make this process all about her! She has found a number of "perfect dresses" and has even drawn a few for her teacher on her "Weekend Sharing" assignment she does each week at school. Laurel kept asking Signe which wedding dress she liked when she would try one on. Each time Signe would say "That's my favorite one." Finally Laurel pointed out "you say that about every dress I try on!" Signe's response? "But I like them all!"

Here is a picture of the newly engaged couple. They celebrated by going to Perkins with Mom and Dad. I don't know how they stood that kind of excitement after the big proposal....

First Day of School

We have been taking a picture of Signe on the front steps each year on the first day of school. (I've offered to take Steve's picture as well, but he hasn't taken me up on that yet). This year, she started 2nd grade. I've posted the picture below, although I do have to say that the smile is probably forced because she was upset with me for making her come outside since it was cold out! (Signe, when you read this someday I just want you to know that you really, really, really wanted to wear that Hannah Montana shirt to school, versus something a little warmer!) Anyway, you don't realize how much your kids change until you look at pictures and compare them year to year. Check out her kindergarten picture below that. (The 1st Grade picture is evading me at the moment).