Fun Times with Family

We had a really fun, relaxing weekend these past few days. Elijah spent the whole weekend with Jason's parents and Jason and I were able to go out on a date for my birthday and spend some time on Saturday getting things done without a child around, which was nice. We still missed Elijah, but you parents know what I'm talking about! :-)


However, Saturday was a hard day for Jason because he sold his motorcycle. He's had it for a year and a half and originally bought it to save us money on gas going back and forth to work. For a while, it proved useful, but then when cold and rainy weather hit, it just ended up sitting there. We finally decided, since Jason is riding the train to work now, that it was time to sell it before it lost its value. He was very sad, but knew it was the wisest thing to do. He took Elijah on one last ride around our driveway Friday afternoon. Elijah always wanted to "ride" Daddy's motorcycle and sit on it. He thought it was so cool, and it was! One day when we're retired, we'll get another one and travel the country - ha! They really are fun to ride and I was a little sad to see it go as well - we had had some fun dates on that motorcycle. Another thing Elijah and his daddy love to do is play guitar, so they also enjoyed some guitar playing time on Friday as well. Then Jason's dad came to get Elijah and Jason and I went out to eat and to see Ocean's 13. I don't know if I've ever seen two movies in the theater in one weekend, but on Saturday night, my mom took my sister and I out for our birthdays and we saw Evan Almighty. Wow, what a great movie! Hollywood got something
right with this one - it was PG and very clean, had a great faith message, family message and "not looking like the world" message. I was very impressed and decided I am going to buy this one when it comes out on DVD. It's one that I'll want Elijah to watch when he gets a little older. If you are skeptical, I highly recommend it - go see it, you'll be as surprised as me at how good it is!









On Sunday morning, Jason and I headed to Gainesville for Jason to preach at his parents' church. Once a month he preaches there, and each time I am amazed at how much God has blessed him in that area. He is truly inspired by God and always touches my heart with His message. The great thing is that Jason doesn't even know how good he is, and that humbleness makes him that much better! When we got there, to the right was what we found Elijah doing! Jumping around in a circle wearing a Bible times robe. I just about laughed my head off, but they were having a dress up play in the children's class. That face is his embarrassed face - he gets that face when I take his picture doing something that slightly embarrasses him. :-)





Jason's grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins were in town as well on their way back from Arkansas so we got to spend the whole day with them as well. We hadn't seen them in probably over a year or more! This is a picture of Elijah playing in Nana & Grangoat's swimming pool. He had been swimming and riding his "own tractor", as he calls it, all weekend long!!






Now this is an old picture, but the only one I can find at the moment, of Elijah with Jason's parents, Nana & Grangoat (don't ask about the name!). :-) He loves spending the weekend with them, not just because he gets to swim, ride his tractor, eat pancakes and gets lots of fun new things, but because he loves being with them!








The next picture is Elijah with his cousin Tricia (whom he called "that little girl") riding on Elijah's own tractor. He was actually really good at sharing it with her and she would drive him around while he sat in the trailer. It was really cute. And the last one is with all 3 of the cousins, Taylor, Travis and Tricia. He had a great time and we did too!

Sunday Drive

Happy Father's Day to all of the Dads that we know! The picture to the right is of Jason's gifts from Elijah - he made him a paper tie, a #1 Dad ribbon and picked out an elephant card. It was all really cute. We just returned from a lovely Sunday drive. Our plan was to drive out to Las Colinas to go eat at a restaurant called Bahama Breeze, which was where we ate for our anniversary this past January. It was really good food and Jason had a cow over their yucca fries, so that's where he wanted to go. We drove 30 minutes to get out there and they had closed the place down - frustrating and disappointing! We decided while we were all the way out there that we'd take Elijah to see the famous Mustangs of Las Colinas and get his picture with them. So we drove to those and the fountain around them that makes them so cool was turned off, so we didn't even stop. Elijah still thought they were neat looking as we drove by, but I was getting more frustrated that my plan Father's Day plan was not working out like I had hoped. Jason said that he'd always wanted to go to eat at Boston's, a new sport's place owned by Babe Laufenburg, so that's where we ended up.....right back by our house. :-) By the time we got there, we had been driving around for over an hour and were really hungry, but the food was good and we enjoyed ourselves. So much for MY plans. God is showing me every day that His plans are far better than mine and that I don't need to get so frustrated when things don't go the way I had hoped. This second picture above is when Elijah was born and in the NICU, just a few weeks before Jason's first Father's Day. It's hard to believe that this is his 4th one and to see how much Elijah has grown in the past 3 years!!! I knew before Elijah was even born that Jason would be a wonderful father. Girls, you know how when you're younger and you imagine one day being married to a wonderful handsome man that will cuddle and play with your children? Jason far exceeded my expectations - Elijah lights up when he gets home and loves being with his daddy. Jason, someone is watching every move you make and I'm so glad that God is the one continually guiding your every move!


Last Saturday we heard that Boz the Bear was going to be at Family Christian Store in Richland Hills. Elijah LOVES Boz and so we decided to take him out there to meet him and get his picture with him. If you don't know Boz and you have preschoolers, check out the website here. It is the cutest Christian show and not annoying at all - the characters are cute, the music is cute and the lessons are great! My brother-in-law co-created a computer animation company called ReelFX in Dallas and they teamed up with the people who created Barney to make this show. We are lucky, since we are related to Dale, to get lots of free Boz stuff! This picture above is of Elijah and his aunt Lauren (or Laur-Laur) as Elijah calls her. Lauren is Jason's little sister who's going to be a junior at OC this fall (I can't believe it!). She came down to spend last Saturday with us and went with us to see Boz. Elijah always has tons of fun with Aunt Laur-Laur! This picture is from the spring when we went to see her in Spring Sing at OC.

The latest news in our family is that Jason's little brother, Brad, is now engaged to his girlfriend of one year, Nova. They are getting married next June 7th, on Jason's birthday, at Lake Travis near Austin. We had them over for dinner and a game of 42 last night, and are so excited that Nova is going to be part of our family!!! Nova, we love you and are so happy you will officially be a Cox now - we just hope we don't scare you off! :-)

I will try not to wait so long in between posts next time - it is birthday month around here and so we are busy, busy, busy! First Jason's, then my niece turned 13 last week (Katherine, you are making me feel so old!), then my dad's and sister's next week and then mine the next. Add Father's Day in there and that makes for a very busy and expensive month! Happy Father's Day again - hope you enjoy the blessing of your children!

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Yesterday was Jason's birthday. For 3 weeks out of every year we are the same age, but on the 28th I'll be older AGAIN and believe me, Jason never lets me forget that!

We decided that instead of getting each other gifts this year, we would do something together that we both enjoy. We haven't been able to find something yet. Does anyone have any suggestions of some fun things to do together in the D/FW area besides going to see a movie?

Yesterday I decided to make him a birthday cake. I don't remember ever making him a birthday cake - I have bought some birthday cakes but never made one. This is a yummy strawberry recipe that Lori gave me and helped me with, and yes, the icing is made from scratch - wow! Go me! Jason said last night that he didn't know I had it in me. Thanks a lot! :-) It was really yummy and Elijah was begging me for some ALL DAY LONG, so we were really glad when Jason finally got home at about 7:30ish last night. It had been a long day for Elijah waiting so patiently to eat the cake - he was really excited to finally get a bite!
















I remember the first birthday that I knew Jason. It was the summer of 2000 out at Camp of the Hills (the summer we started dating later on). We were just friends then and had been for about 6 months. I remember on my weekly trip to the Marble Falls Walmart with a group of co-counselors, I asked Amy Austin what you might want for your birthday since she had grown up with you and knew you a lot better than me. She suggested this A&M baseball hat that we found, so I bought it (for $5) and gave it to you. You still have it. It's hard to believe that was 7 years ago and how much has happened since then. We started dating about 3 weeks later and it's been the happiest 7 years of my life! Happy Birthday, Jason! I hope you had a wonderful day and enjoyed your homemade cake. You are a wonderful Christian man and Elijah and I are blessed to have you as the leader of our family. We love you!

Also yesterday, Lori and I took Elijah and Annalee swimming. This was Annalee's first time and she really seemed to like it even though the water was a little cold. Here are a few pictures.

The past few days

I love this picture of Elijah from the water park in Thailand so I thought I'd post it since I don't have any new pictures to put up yet. This is also a preview of what's to come this summer since he LOVES swimming and being in the water!

I don't have anything in particular to blog about, so I thought I'd talk about some fun things we've done in the past few days. I can't believe we've already been back from Thailand a week and a half - almost as long as we were gone! On Friday, Jason and I went on a date to eat at Chili's and see the Pirates 3 movie. It was a good movie but the ending was very frustrating. It leaves you hanging again and makes me hope that there is a 4th movie coming out in the future. I didn't think I'd ever say that there needed to be a 4th movie of anything, but I need to know that there's a better ending than the one they left us with. :-)

We had a very lazy weekend of unpacking and getting things done around the house. Boring but kind of nice. Sunday night we met Jason's parents for dinner at the Cracker Barrel in Denton. They live in Gainesville, and Denton is halfway for both of us, so a lot of times we'll each drive 30 minutes to meet for dinner. We, especially Elijah, always enjoys when we're able to get together with them. And Elijah left with a new toy airplane, so I think he was happy!

Monday was spent doing things around the house except for a quick trip to meet Elijah's buddy, Ellie, at the park. We had not seen Abbie or Ellie since we got back from Thailand, so it was fun to catch up with them at the park, and Elijah had really missed Ellie. They only live about a mile or less from our house so it's very convenient for us to get together often. Abbie and I both went to A&M together and were at Fortress together for a while. Also, my good friend Jill came over for dinner that night. We have been friends since Jr high at church and it was so good to spend some time catching up with her.

Yesterday, Elijah had his 3 year old check-up at the doctor. He was less than thrilled about that, and I had forgotten about it until the night before so I had little time to warn him about it. I knew that he was caught up on his shots since he got his last Hep A before we went to Thailand, so I convinced him he was not going to get stuck this time. He seemed okay after that, and was very brave at the doctor's, letting them weigh and measure him, look down his throat and in his ears, and listen to his chest & back. He weighed 31 1/2 lbs and is 37" tall - in the 50% for both and is estimated to be 5' 10" when he is an adult. I thought all was going very smoothly until the doctor said that they had not done any bloodwork in a while! My first thought was, "Do you people want children to hate the doctor? The one time he doesn't need any shots and you want to do bloodwork!" So I had just a few minutes to prepare Elijah for that, and surprisingly, he seemed okay, but kept saying that he didn't want to get stuck. First he got to pee in a cup, which he thought was cool, and then just had his finger pricked - he was okay with that part until they came at his finger with the little tube to collect the blood and then he kind of freaked out and thought he was going to get stuck again. I calmed him down and then all was okay. All in all, it was not as bad as I had thought it might be. He was a very brave, big boy.

After the doctor, I got him some ice cream at Lori's house, since she lived close by and I thought he deserved something for his bravery. We decided to take a picnic to the Botanic Gardens and walk around at the new nature displays they have set up for children. It was a lot of fun and a very nice day - Elijah especially enjoyed pushing Annalee (Lori's 5 month old) around in the stroller and seeing the turtles in the pond. When we left, we decided that it was perfect weather for a sno-cone so we stopped on the way back to her house to get one. Elijah got a small pina colada and accidentally dumped the whole thing in Lori's front yard as soon as I gave it to him. So Lori and I both gave him part of ours and sat on the front porch enjoying our sno-cones. Lori and I have been best friends since the 5th grade, and it's so neat that both of us have a child now and can spend our days together again hanging out. It's so funny how things circle back around like that! We didn't go to college together and Lori has been working up until she had Annalee, so this is the first time we've really gotten to be together a lot since high school!

Up until yesterday, I thought I was going to Tennessee by myself this weekend for my cousin's wedding, but the airline prices went up and it didn't work out like I had hoped. Sabrina, I hope that your wedding is beautiful and that you have a wonderful day to remember forever!

Until next time....