baptizing

so, when andre and the girls picked me up from the airport on sunday, alexa said some funny stuff. andre was telling me about what happened at church and alexa said that someone had gotten baptized. months ago she had seen someone get baptized and i explained (as best as i could to a just 2 year old) what was happening. she was quite interested! that was the last i remember talking about it.
so, in the car i explained it again (she has more words and understanding at this point, and i felt she somewhat understood). So, i tell her that when she is older she can get baptized. she says okay and andre and i continue talking. a few minutes later she says, "maybe i am too little to get baptized." we tell her fine, when she is older. she went on and on (for like 10 mintutes)about being too little. we assure her that we are not going to throw her in the tank anytime soon. so, she offers her beloved spunky to get baptized. andre explains that dogs don't get baptized and she accepts it and tells us one more time that she is too young. too funny!

i am going to post some videos. they are kinds lame, but we think that they are cute!

straws

alexa got a really cool straw set from uncle matt for christmas. you can make your own straw...and this is what alexa and andre came up with.

fun and fasting

tink has been coming up with some funny things lately. after finding out that your teeth get wiggly and fall out she has decided that hers are ready to do the same. so she is constantly checking her teeth and telling me they are wiggly, when i tell her that they are not she runs to the bathroom and looks in the mirror to see i there are any missing...which she insists that they are! she is too funny!

she is also way into playing 'high school'...which i believe is priscilla's influence. i am not sure what 'high school' entails, but i will find out!

in other news, we are 3 days away from the end of our fast! (yea!!) my original fasting plan did not quite go as planned. i lasted 2 days on the detox drink...i could not get off of the couch due to a horrible headache. so, i switched to daniel fast and did that until sunday. on sunday, andre and i started daniel fast, but only dinner. thursday i started a 4 day juice/water fast. i am looking forward to eating again!
we are already seeing fruit from our sacrifice and know that god is going to do so much more! i was getting headaches daily, and have not had one in 20 days! and andre has had some jobs come through that we asked specifically for! i know that i will continue to testify all year long.

alexa's 'new thing'

when alexa goes to the bathroom she now tells us, 'i need privacy' and reads an oriental trading catalog while going to the bathroom. it is too funny!

snow...again.

we had another snow day yesterday...and did some projects. i am a big fan of 'nonrepresentational art' (maybe because i have no skills)
this is the girl's playing with glue and stuff...



painting. they are not big fans of paintbrushes ;)




this is the face her dad makes when he is concentrating.

debit card

one of alexa's favorite christmas presents was her pocketbook. inside is lipstick, a mirror, keys, a wallet, and a debit card. she is so excited about the debit card. we had let the purse at pop and mimi's house when we celebrated christmas and just got it back. so, when she re-discovered the debit card she said, 'i am going to target to buy toys'. she is funny. the pics are of her showing of her purse.

what time.....

alexa's new thing to say is '8:30'
any question about time and she will say 8:30....it's pretty funny!

tia

we have enjoyed having angela and micah around.(it is nice to get some testosterone in the mix)
oh i remember the days when we had tension(angela and i)...the good ole days. anyway, angela has become a close friend of mine who is such an encouragement to me. thanks for hanging around with us tia!

anyway, at angela's house yesterday, tink decided to wear joe's socks and angela's shoes...cute!

anything you can do i can do better...

i can do anything better than you!

i love that song...i sing it to andre quite often actually.
so, we took alexa out of her 'school'. she was only going 2 mornings a week. she loved it and did great! anyway, due to finances we took her out. i was kind of upset about it because i knew how much she loved going. there was a little girl named lana who alexa just loved(and talked about). i wish we could have kept her in.
then i thought to myself hey, wait, i can do all they are doing. i do some mean leaf art (not really...but i could learn!) so, i decided that i am going to do provide alexa with every activity that school would...except the social (obviously). should be interesting! oh wait..i paid a ridiculous amount of money to be able to do this ;)
but i still would love to send her back.

ha ha ha

i was picking alexa up this morning from her "school" and outside her friends(twins) were walking down the steps. we said hi and the mom asked alexa what she was going to be for halloween....

we obviously do not celebrate halloween. however, we have talked to alexa about it. it is everywhere! especially where we live. i do not believe that i need to hide or protect alexa from it, but to explain it (how she can understand it). then pray that god protects her mind and spirit rom whatever she may see.

at gymnastics a few weeks ago, alexa got bat stamps on her hands. i took the girls right to my dad's and asked him to wash the stams off. alexa come home talking about her 'demon bat stamps' :)

so, i told alexa that there was a day called halloween and it is a bad day that we do not celebrate. we do not celebrate it because halloween does not make jesus happy, and we only do things that make jesus happy.

so, back to alexa's school....the other mom asks alexa and she scrunches up her face and says, "no halloween. not make jesus happy." i said, we don't celebrate it. the mom said, 'good for you, you won't waste money on dental bills' and smiled. i laughed and walked away. interesting.

pictures

presents and surprises

alexa is very into birthdays...she knows it means cake :)
so, i have given her a list of things that i would like her to tell her dad to buy for me. after the first time going over the list she told me 'no, give you cake'. so, now she spits out a list of things she is going to give me...and the first is cake! i am very impressed that she can remember all 4 things, and in the same order that i told them to her. did i mention that she never stops talking????? oh and she knows everything???????


these pictures are really blurry...but it is a great story!
i was taking a shower the other morning and when i got out i yelled to alexa to see where she was...it was quiet...never a good sign. so i went out to the living room and there she was...painting her nails...she did a half decent job. when i asked her what she was doing...she was not sure if she was going to be in trouble. but she could not hide how happy she was with herself. she must have itched her face because it was streaked along her cheek. so i just busted out laughing. in her defense, i had never actually told her that she was not allowed to paint her nails by herself...now she knows. this was great motivation to clean up. i was glad that she didn;t get to joss...

we have place mats that we use when eating....our new one is a map of the usa. on different states there are different pictures. we were showing alexa different places that people she knows lives. if you ask her where uncle matt lives she will tell you that he lives in the pretzel.

testifying

so, we have always prayed with and over alexa. as a baby, i she'd have a crying fit we'd speak in tongues and she would chill. she has been in the presence of god (both in utero and post birth) so much! a month or so ago she was really not obeying and it was so frustrating. i asked god what to do and i felt him tell me that 1 i needed to consistently read the bible and pray with her and 2 to write out rules so she knew exactly was expected of her. we did it and her attitude really changed.
leza ( a lady from our church) gave alexa a flag to worship with at church. she loves it and dances all around with mimi. she closes her eyes and yells hallelujah!
i was reading with her yesterday and we were reading about god wanting her heart. she really seemed to 'get it' and said, 'jesus wants my heart, mommy's heart, daddy's heart, jossy's heart'. i told her she was right. we talked about it again when andre got home. so, this morning we were doing our devotions and and she kept saying, 'jesus in my heart' over and over. so i asked her i she wanted to ask jesus in her heart and she said yes. so i explained a few words like forgive, save, etc. she repeated the sinner's prayer and is saved! after we prayed she said, jesus in my heart. so awesome. next we are going to get her filled with the holy spirit. i know that she is little, but i beleive that she made a decision that she wanted jesus....we have created an environment in our home (and lives) that she can understand who jesus is. wait till i post about her prophesying!

a few pics of my girly girl. she is so into shoes! it is great!


the pic of micah is for all you micah fans out there. angela and i did some kid swapping today. i was trying to get a picture of alexa kissing him (he had the cutest smile) but she was kissing too fast.

random

this is going to be a somewhat random post.
yesterday, we watched micah and joss did not know how to properly channel her excitement and was trying to body slam him :) we watched jossy have her snack



you may (or may not) be wondering where alexa is in these pics. well yesterday i took her to her first day of 'school'. while pregnant with joss i was looking for some kind of program to put alexa in so i could have some time blah, blah...but instead we chose to have sara come (which was a great choice). i am finding that i still would like some of that time! and alexa, being the social kid that she is, needs some stimulation. we thought it would be great for her. so, she goes to the y 2 mornings a week for a few hours. so i took her yesterday and she did great. i hung out for about an hour and she seemed comfortable so i left. the teachers said she did great and had a great time.
then in the afternoon i had decided that i wanted something chocolate...and since i don't make box cakes anymore i decided to make some black bottom cupcakes....this is dedicated to you aunt cheryl. only a few minutes after i had started BOTH kids woke up. we are now in the process of transitioning jossy to 1 nap. i kept them occupied with cupcake liners. it actually worked. so, thanks to priscilla and andre (and possibly anne) i only have a few of them to enjoy for myself.




then i was off to a meeting. as you can see the lip has healed nicely. thanks anne for babysitting...

did i tell you all that we took alexa on a roller coaster?
yes, we did. i did not think it was a good idea, and since alexa has a dad who is just as much in charge of her, she went.
it was andre, alexa, jim and tristan. andre said that she was into it the first 2 times, but was done by the third time around. it was hilarious! and i will admit that i was a bit more nervous than i ever like to be!

boo boo

growing up, my brother was always the one who was getting hurt...i mean he broke stuff, got stitches in his tongue...it was always something. from what i have heard andre was kind of the same way...if someone was going to get hurt...it was him. well, i think alexa may be taking after them :) in her short little life, she has gotten 2 burns, fell out of the car, fell down the basement steps...and that is only the major stuff.
while a nice, casual trip to the grocery store with andre last night (he loves to go with me, but i rarely take him because he wants to buy everything that he sees!) alexa tripped and bashed her lip on the shopping cart. it was very dramatic, an employee ran over with ice, and antibacterial stuff and there was screaming and blood...and yes, jossy was laughing. anyway, she was fine, but has a fat lip. here is a pic ( a bit dramatic, but she wouldn't stop making that face) it has been a very long week getting back to normal life.

love

i absolutely love alexa!
it is so amazing how a little person can change you so much.
alexa is beginning to really talk (put 3-5 words together) and repeat everything! we have begun spelling things....the other day andre said ' can she' (paused) and i said 'spell it' and he said 'watch t-v'. i was like good one! people other than us still have a hard time understanding her though. she is hilarious. she especially loves to tell jossy what to do, then narrate it for us.
she is in a mommy phase where all she wants to do is make me a picture, hold my hand, sing a song with me...you get the point. it is great.
we have started up some new devotions together, and man the kids likes to pray. she names people and we pray for them (over and over) and she is beginning to memorize scriptures (like i'll say children and she will say obey...not whole scriptures). it is so great. anyway, just wanted everyone to know that i Love my kid!

bump

alexa went bump...but it was more like CRASH last night.
we were hanging out after church with my dad and gwen and getting suitcases. we said our 'byes' and went to our car. andre opened the door for alexa to climb in and i was at the other side putting jossy in her seat. andre dropped something on the way to the car and went to get it. all of a sudden i heard a bang and a scream...alexa fell out of the car (we do have an suv). gwen came running from the other parking lot and we prayed for her. she is all scraped up and had the beginnings of a black eye last night. it was so sad. on the drive home she kept holding her head and saying 'head hurts mommy'. we asked her all kinds of questions and she was answering them so we figured she was alright. poor kid.
also, jossy had 3 teeth pop through yesterday!