Alex's 8th Birthday

On Sunday, November 8th, Alex turned 8. Since we skipped a big birthday party for the kids, she was allowed to choose one friend to invite for her birthday lunch on her birthday. Alex wanted Liberty and we were happy to invite the Forehand family. Alex chose hot dogs for her special mealt. I personally don't care for hot dogs, except an occasional one at Costco, so I also make Taco Soup.

We let Alex pick out a new dress for her birthday as well. This dress is what she chose and it fits her exuberant personality. The dress is full of sparkles and a vibrant pink. We had to make a quick stop at Fred Meyer on our way home from church on Sunday and she received several kind comments on her outfit.

We had two birthdays at church on Sunday and Matt had us sing Happy Birthday. Alex absolutely loved it. She is not shy at all being the center of attention. She is often the first one to volunteer whenever it comes to making a presentation in front of people. She's not shy in these types of situations-she has confidence. I hope she keeps that confindence as she grows.

Alex is a leader. You can't talk her into misbehaving if she doesn't want to, but if she does, she is usually the one leading it. Our prayer for her is that will use her leadership skills for the good of God's kingdom and that as she grows, her skills will improve in kindness, compassion and care.

Alex loves animals. She has wanted a real dog for at least a year now. Oystein and I just aren't ready. She did get a hamster this summer and is doing a good job being responsible for it.

Alex's favorite toys are all her stuffed animals (well over 60). She can tell you the names of every single one and they are all special to her. She may not say her stuffed animals are her favorite but they are what she plays with the most. After her stuffed animals, she loves Littlest Pet Shop and Puppy in My Pocket.

Alex loves her family. She loves to make and give gifts to everyone.

Oystein and I love her and are so thankful that God gave her to us as our earthly child.

Nathan made this door hanger for Alex knowing how much she loves dogs.

Alex looks like she is crying in this picture, but it's just a funny smile.

Alex wanted a wolf cake. She kept telling what it should look like so I had her draw a picture for me.

Here's her picture. Here is the cake. I think I followed the directions pretty well. (Thank you to my sister, Nichole for frosting the cake for me first.)

The cousins, Alex and Madeline.

Somehow, I didn't get any pictures of Alex and Liberty together that weren't fuzzy. :-( Hopefully next time.

Art, Ellie and Lapbooks

Since Amy asked what lapbooks were I thought I'd post a bit about them. Lapbooks are essentially several mini-books together in a folder. Here is a link to a good explanation:
http://lapbooking.wordpress.com/lapbook/

The kids enjoy doing lapbooks. I give them a lot of freedom of what they write or draw in the mini-books, occasionally requiring some information.

After 4 weeks of missing Ellie between her being sick and us being sick, we picked her up from preschool today. We actually picked her up early because the kids were so excited to see her. We stopped at the Dollar Tree on the way home and I let each of the kids pick one item. Alex also used her own money to buy something for Ellie and a pack of foam door hangers and stickers. She shared with everyone and the kids made their own door hangers. Alex and Ellie played well together all afternoon. I joked with Angel that I would have to pay Alex for babysitting. :-)

Yesterday we had friends over for art class. About twice a month we are trying to get together for art. I meant to get pictures of the kids with their drawings but I forgot and hung them on the wall. We did leaf oil pastel pictures from here. I really like this blog. She has so many good ideas and the links on her sidebar are good too. The top picture is Alex's and the bottom one is Nathan's.

Princess Leia and lapbooks

Alex asked me to do her hair like Princess Leia yesterday. Then she used a towel as a Leia outfit. Sorry the picture is dark.

We finished up lapbooks on the New Testament a couple of weeks ago. The kids did a great job.

Pictures

It is hard to find good costumes for the kids for Halloween. So much is scary or completely inappropriate. Alex wanted to be a wolf. She's been enamored of them since we went to the Great Wolf Lodge and studied them in our science.

We couldn't even find a dog costume in her size; only toddler sizes and although she is a bit small for her age, she's not that small. She decided to make her own costume. She wanted to be a grey wolf so we bought a grey sweatsuit, and grey socks. She used the grey socks on her hands and used permanent markers to make them paws. She made the ears and her tail out of construction paper and yarn. I love that she wanted to do her own thing and make it her own. She didn't have anyone teasing her for a homemade costume.

Nathan decided to be a knigh which was what he was last year. He was perfectly happy wearing the same costume. He even made a sword holder for the sword he bought when we were in Europe. It did break off part way through trick or treating but he handled it just fine. No big deal to him.

House update, more illnesses and Alex's play

We have running water again (since Monday) but no toilet in our downstairs bathroom. I forgot to mention we also bought a new sink for this bathroom. It had a hole and would leak if the water went into the overflow holes in the old sink. It was only a problem when I changed the water in the fish tank-I would pay one of the kids to watch the sink to make sure the water didn't get too high. The plumber had to cut a hole in the wall to fix the toilet pipe, so we have someone coming today to fix the hole. Then the plumber will be back, hopefully tomorrow, to put the toilet in.

Oystein has been home for two days because he has been sick. I was so thankful he was home this morning. I woke up sick. He feels awful but since he was able to sleep in, he was awake by the time I needed to go back to sleep. I went back to bed until noon. My body aches! Big sigh.

Alex put on a play for us after my nap. She started working on the script and props last night. We really enjoyed her creativity. I took pictures but don't have the energy to deal with getting the camera and finding the cord to upload them. I'll do that later.

The House Conspiracy

Our house is in a conspiracy against us. In the past two years we have had to fix two toilets (one which overflowed, ruined our bedroom floor needing it to be replaced, pouring down into the ceiling of our kitchen requiring holes in the ceiling and repairs), fix our microwave (which then turned itself on at 11:00 at night; you can read about that here), replace our washer, dryer and refrigerator, and have our dishwasher fixed.

We are now needing our dishwasher fixed for the second time in a year (Sears is coming Friday) and our third toilet broke. So my husband, in attempt to save us money and make things better, went to replace the water on/off switch to the toilet. Plumbing does not like my husband; the PVC pipe broke. This is not my husband's fault. He didn't do anything he shouldn't have. Oystein had the water turned off and he had cleared the pipes so we only a little residual water to clean up-not bad at all. But we couldn't turn the water back on. This happened yesterday-Sunday-the day that plumbers charge double (and understandably). After talking to a plumber we decided to just go out to dinner, head to Lowe's for a new toilet (not completely necessary-the one we have is fixable but with all the other problems this toilet has the potential to cause, we decided to do it) and then stop at Fred Meyer for several gallons of water to last us through the night and today. We have a plumber coming today.

It's a conspiracy, I tell you.

Illnesses

We seem to be in a run of sickness around here. After canceling our trip to Liz's house last Saturday because Nathan was sick, he came down with another cold on Tuesday. He woke up with a stuffy nose and sore throat. Then yesterday, Alex woke up with the same. I canceled everything we had going on yesterday (except a quick trip to Fred Meyer) and thought I was overreacting. Both were tired a bit and Alex was a bit whiny but otherwise, they were doing ok in the morning. However, at 4:00 Alex was asleep on the couch and she woke up with a mild fever. Also, she's been complaining a lot about her throat. So glad we canceled everything yesterday.

This morning we have been laying around, watching TV and videos and reading. Hopefully one more day of rest will be enough and both kids will be better tomorrow and no one else will get sick.