The Cox Family

Well, it's simple. Christmas. I waited til last minute to get gifts taken care of this year. That is totally out of character for me. I will say that christmas was a fun time. We went to Orlando and spent it with Derrick, Amanda, Riley, Shelby, Maggie, Sam, Dan, Carolyn, Taylor, Jesse, Mia, Bella, Maggie(yes there were two dogs named Maggie), Shirl, GiGi, Yaya, and Pappy. Such fun times. When I can get the pics from Amanda, I'll upload a few so you can see the fun times we had. Christmas Morning, Shelby and Kenzie had me up at 447 am. Oh my gooness did I wanna Kill them!!! I was up til after 1 and up before 5! So they had to wait til 6 to wake the house. When they did, My girls got their santa sacks while Riley and Shelby got to see what they got from Santa. My girls got a variety of toys and games from him. Maddie got a Bike and Scooter from him. Riley and shelby got pogo sticks and a trampoline. So much fun!!! Then we did stockings... status quo... lots of good

This year, I decided that I didn't care for the typical photo greeting card and I wanted to be able to make my own, so I fired up my paintshop and went to work. Here's what i came up with. I love it!!!!! I even may have an order for me to design a card for a friend in Texas!!!

While in Deltona, My friend Mandi gave Maddie the outfit she wore in these photos. I was going to do the black turtleneck and jean thing since we were all wearing black/charcoal and jeans, but then Mandi gave her this outfit and she loved it!!! Amanda posed us in front of her fireplace. IT WAS SOOOO HOT! yes the fireplace was on while the pics were being taken... This is one of my favorite pics of Kenzie. She looks so angellic with the lights reflecting in the perfect way off of the tree and her. Our Family photo in front of the tree. And Maddie took a turn playing with the ornaments so that we could get this photo. Again, Amanda did a great job!!! Thank you so much!

As you can see, Amanda took photo's of the girls with their grandparents. In this first pic, we have Maddie with GiGi. Maddie was quite the little sassy monster during pics. She totally didn't want to take the pics partially because she has such a short attention span and partly because she saw the slide over to the side and she wanted to play. She does love her GiGi though, so we were able to get her attention diverted again to the task at hand. And I do think it turned out nice in the end. Pappy, Grammy, GiGi, Gizmo, Shelby, Riley, Kenzie, and Maddie all ready for a wonderful picture! GiGi with Gizmo and her great grand daughters!!! love it!!! YaYa and Pappy (Aka: Grammy) taking time out for a photo of just the two of them. Nicely done Amanda! Here we have Riley and Shelby with Grammy and Pappy. We attempted to grab Maddie and Kenzie in for this one but Maddie was not having it. Hmmm that girlie!!!

This past weekend was quite the weekend.... Let me break it down for you: Friday, I got Ryan up for work at 530 am. He was off to work and I got Kenzie off to school. I did laundry and packed all day for our weekend. When he got home, he picked Kenzie up from the bus so I could do what I needed to do so we would be ready to go. We then loaded the kids into the van and were off to Trinity. We switched cars and visited with GiGi for a bit. We headed to deltona. Got to Lakeland and needed to feed the girls, so McDonalds got graced with our money. We leave and get 2 exits down the road only to pull in to another McDonalds to trade out the toy. Not fun. Finally, we arrive at our destination at 9:17 pm. Exhausted!!! Albert helped unpack our car. The kids did their thing while Mandi, Albert, Ryan and I goofed off. The boys settled into a movie while the ladies settled in to the scrap room... At around 4 am, we went to bed. I woke up around 730 and on the way to the bathroom I f

so today, we go to the mall looking for something for kenzie to wear this weekend. and i didn't find anything, but maddie caught sight of the piercing pagoda. she declared that she was goign to get her ears pierced. and although i have the 5 year old piercing rule, i caved after all she has been begging for 6 months to do this. so, the piercing pagoda wouldn't do it because they didn't have an extra person around who could do the other ear at the same time. claires told us the same story. walmart refuses also. so we go to merle norman thinking it would be the same story. the lady said she wanted to talk with maddie and see if she thought she would cooperate with the whole process. after a discussion with maddie, we decided to try it. ryan sat down in the chair and let maddie sit on his lap. the lady marks her ears and asks maddie if she wants to really have the earrings put in. maddie says yes. so she does the first one. a few tears later, maddie says that she

Wow! I am honored to have recieved this award!!! Now here is how you play, when you have been tagged, you tag 8 other bloggers and don't forget to tell us 8 things about yourself. About Me: 1. I am a wife to ryan and mother of 2 beautiful little girls. 2. I am a stay at home mom who just opened her own business. 3. I love playing Kingdoms of Camelot. 4. My favorite search engine to use is swagbucks 5. I want a Scotch Pink ATG gun! 6. I went to the mall with maddie today and was in shock! See the next post for why. 7. I love making cakes and baking just about anything for that matter. 8. My best friend is more than a best friend, SHE IS THE SISTER THAT GOD NEVER GAVE ME! LOVE YOU ANGELENA! Now the 8 I am tagging: 1. Maria 2. Jill 3. Megan 4. Mandi 5. Sulayne 6. Angel 7. Karen 8. Debi Can't wait to see all of your responses!

So, as you know in years past, I have been all over being ready for Christmas. NOT THIS YEAR! I haven't done hardly any shopping. And I really am feeling the rush, but no fear, I will have everyone satisfied come Christmas Morning. Kenzie has a list a mile long, Maddie, I am going to wing it. Ryan is 1/2 way done. Taylor is done, Amanda is done, Carolyn is done, Riley and Shelby will be done this week, Derrick i am winging it on him and Dan as well as Roy. Carol is done. Mom is part way done. My sister I have to mail out. Cards are 1/2 made. None have been sent. The tree is up needs to be shaped and decorated. And I am still sane... Oh, I almost forgot, I sort of adopted a family for christmas, so i have 2 beautiful little girls to buy for as well. So in all of the hustle and bustle, I am totally doing well with my stress levels. How you might ask? I can sum it up in one phrase: THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD I SHALL NOT WANT Psalm 23:1. I am standing on that phrase and

Hello all!! As of Today, I will be making a new blog. I will keep this one for family and personal type stuff, but I will be running one for my business. I am currently on facebook. Look me up if you like. I will be specializing in Gift Bag Mini Albums. I'll add pics to the new blog and link here for you so you can find and follow if you like. I just wanted to give a heads up so that you weren't surprised when my craftiness was moved from this blog and it turned back into what I wanted it to be when I created it. So, for now, I will go. I'll be seeing you all here and there and everywhere! EDIT: THE BLOG SITE IS www.flutterbyedesigns.blogspot.com head on over to check out some of my work. See you there!!! There will be a follower contest to see who can win a free album on that page starting January 1. For this week, my facebook page, the link is on the business blog, is having a referral contest. See the rules in the first post on my business blog. See you over there

you may be bigger than me shelby, but i am sneakier!!! we had so much fun at sunset beach with you on spring break!!! running in for the splash! kenzie's gonna get it if maddie has anything to say about it! gi gi and mi mi posed with maddie for a pic! i love you mi mi! Mi mi is gi gi's friend mary. she came down to drive gi gi home from florida and we spent the day with her at the beach. kenzie and shelby had so much fun! they are the best of buds when we get a chance to be around them. check out the shirts shelby found for her and kenzie! yeppers their arrows pointed at each other! they were so proud of them! easter bunny was so very nice to us this year! so this is what mommy was talking about when she said that we were going to the easter egg hunt at church. look ma, it's sand! howard park with my bathing beauties on spring break. had to take a minute to pose with my girls!

Kenzie had tons of fun working word searches with GiGi! And I took advantage of the moment!!! Kenzie, Shelby, and Maddie went for a walk with me to the Playground. A fun bonding moment for the three of them. Gizmo decided he wanted to play dress up. he was tired of being a dog and wanted to be a fairy princess!!! Maddie went with Denise, Gene, Shawn, Seth, and Kenzie to the Chasco Fiesta! Time for a snack before the boat Parade.

looking super cool in her shades and winter coat! she decided to play like i couldn't get a good pic of her!!!! Maddie enjoyed our time with little shane. he loved holding him. and of course, mommy had to make sure she got a good pic of the two of them. "I love you little shane" says maddie! this was just too cute not to post! Pappy took Kenzie to the Sweetheart Dance. They had a blast. Complete with a pink corsage because she was wearing a pink dress! From what I hear, she was the dancing machine!!!

Mandi gave birth to Natalia Rose! Isn't she a cutie!!! I can't believe it has been almost a year already!!! My friend Jessica and I had a habit of staying out til about 3 am scrapping!!! We have since scaled back our time as we are both busy mom's but we still enjoy playing in our scrappy stuff!!!

Just checking in quick! i'll be uploading pics from the whole year in 10 different posts at some time today. why am i doing this? to make sure you get the best of the best of the moments here in the cox world! before i head to big lots, i do want to share something with you though, as you know, we LOVE CHRIST in this house! and we try to show it. last night, i came home from my mil's with her Explorer for the week. Since fil is out of town, she is driving his car and is letting me use hers. feels really good to have a second car so that we don't have to worry about getting ryan to work and us to CCWC. Anyway, after the neighbors thinking we had bought a new car and declining that, I was outside talking to them. They stated they were trying to get their lives straightened out, so I invited them to Church. One of the ladies looked at me like I was crazy. So, what do I do? How can I show the love that Christ has given me? It took a split second to lighten the moo

do what you might ask... well i get myself so busy that i sit back and wonder why i do it... like all of the projects i have going on right now and i keep adding to the list. there is the normal mommy duties, wifey duties, household duties, then there are the volunteer duties and i did something i normally don't do. i started volunteering at two schools not just one. i may have to drop the second school it is a bit much. then there is the scrapping for memories thing and the making bookmarks for fun thing..... then i am entering challenges for some of my layouts... and then there are the swaps and to top it all off, i am throwing a halloween party in a week! woah. thats a full plate... i must slow down before it overtakes me i think. so this week, is clean clean clean, shop shop shop, cook cook cook, cake cake cake, decorate decorate decorate, party party party, and pics pics pics. and in the middle of all of this we are looking at some houses when we can and ryan is going to

since i have been mia, loads has happened... i will start from today and work my way back.... today, wednesday, was a status quo day... nothing major going on... yesterday, we picked up roy's car for him from the shop and dropped it off at his house.. hung out a bit with yaya and then rushed to beat the bus home... to get kenzie from school... monday, not a lot to report. sunday, anyone close to the family knows what happened there... so i am not putting it in here. too tragic right now.... and we spent the day at the park with yaya, riley, shelby, and the gator... yes, we saw a gator in the water!!! the girls thought it was pretty cool. saturday, maddie wasn't feeling well, so i kept her home with me and kenzie went to the new childrens museum in tampa with yaya and riley and shelby. they had a blast. pics to come for that post... friday nothing really new went on there... thursday i went and volunteered and on my way home found a horse on the side of the road. i called t

hi all. it's been a busy few days. and today will continue. i'll try and post a full detailed update after things start to calm down. just wanted to pop in and say hello!!!

Verse for the Day Colossians 1:9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Passage for the day: Colossians 1: 3-14 TIME has a way of defining true friends. I have discovered that passing years and growing distance are ineffective obstacles to the mutual love between my friends and me. Perhaps it is because of our common walk with the Lord that we can just pick up where we left off whenever we are together. And these are the dear ones I will spend eternity loving. Of course, prayer is an important part of continuing that bond. Colossians 1:3-14 is and eloquent description of a Christian's prayer for her friends. Even though Paul had not even visited the Christians at Colosse, his love for them through Christ was strong and arent. One Sunday afternoon soon after our wedding, Michael and I were getting ready for the weekly Bible s

ok, so i normally don't do this, but i feel a tug and need to ramble for a few minutes. firstly, this passage keeps coming to me: But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. So you are wondering why this passage keeps coming up aren't you. Well, look all around you and what do you see? I will tell you here what I see, I see the end times! I see lovers of money and contriband. I see people who are afraid to admit they love the Lord and act on the power that is given to us as CO-HEIRS WITH CHRIST. I see all of the things listed in so many places in this world around me. Most of a

A couple of years ago, I had a cd by The Afters this song has stuck with me since that cd. It has since been scratched and I don't know if I can find it anywhere anymore, but I felt like I needed to share the lyrics with you all. A situation occured last night and this is what I feel God is telling me to share with those involved in the situation that happened. Look outside It's already light and the stars ran away with the night Things were said, words that we'll try to forget it's so hard to admit I know we've made mistakes I see through all the tears but that's what got us here If love is an ocean wide We'll swim in the tears we cry They'll see us through to the other side We're gonna make it When love is a raging sea You can hold on to me We'll find a way tonight Love is an ocean wide I'll stay right here It's where I'll always belong Tied with your arms Days like this I wish the sun wouldn't set I don't want to forget W

God has been giving me words more lately. I love it when He speaks! Today, he gave me Psalm 139. Here is what the New Intenational Version sounds like: PSALM 139 (NIV) >1 O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. 5 You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, a]">[ a ] you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fas

So, I have been doing the yo yo thing when it comes to dieting... I'll do the healthy food thing for a while and then not. Well, a friend of mine suggested that I do this website that is a food journal thing. Well, it suggests that to be at the weight I want to get to, I need to loose a pound a week. That's entirely healthy. So, I started journaling my food today, and even with making a bowl of homemade veggie soup (with ramen noodles in it) I still have to find a way to get up to 1870 calories per day. This is going to be a challenge for me as I don't eat breakfast on a regular basis. I know that my body is in starvation mode, and I have to coach it out of there. I will do this!!! I will be doing a weigh in on Wednesdays at 10 am. This way I can kind of keep track of my weight better and see where I need to improve. In addition to a food journal, this site also does an exercise journal, I am going to be taking advantage of that too. In fact, I am finishing up my

Yesterday, we had a great day!!! We got to see Dee Dee, Dave, Gilly, and Chase. It was the first time we have seen them since Grandma's Surprise 80th Birthday Party! Here is a recap of the day. 7:00 a.m. Dawn wakes up and Kenzie gets up too. 8:00 a.m. Time to wake Ryan and Maddie up. 9:00 a.m. Take Shaun, Seth, and Deborah to Calusa on our way to Roy and Carols. 11:00 a.m. Leave in 2 cars to go to Clearwater Beach. While on the way, Ryan drops a pill... Then Ryan and Dee Dee switch cars incase there was seperation. On the trip, we took a wrong turn, but we all got there at the same time so we are good right! Time for swimming, sunbathing, building sand castles, and burying the kids. It was a good time! Kenzie even got to see dolphins for the first time. (See, the beach we usually go to, you don't get too many dolphins surfasing, but at Clearwater you do.). 2:50 p.m. Load up the cars and see who can get back to Trinity first LOL! We all made it at the same time! C

since i last posted... well here goes: last thursday, i posted the challenge lo that i did. I have since then done 2 more challenges. they are on another forum and they can't be posted here yet. not because the rules say that but because i don't want them put here just yet. so here's the update: friday: ryan worked and kenzie went home with yaya from school. maddie and i got cc from the bus. we all three then cooked chicken broccoli spaghetti alfredo and garlic toast. it was soooooo good!!! saturday: we watched isabel for angelena and took her to yaya's house so i could print the bible verse that i needed for bookmarks i made for my church am womens group. i'll be uploading the pics and doing another post about that. kenzie, kaylie, and maddie got in the hot tub and isabel swung on the hammock. i am not sure, but i think she was scared of the jets in the hot tub. sunday: we went to first/second services at church. i have to say the special was wonderf

So, here's the challenge. And above, you can see my entry. Kenzie had done crosswords or circle a words (I can't remember) with Gigi and I snapped a pic of her doing it. I absolutely love the design of the sketch we were supposed to use for this lo. It allows for a simple, yet stunning layout. It allows room for journaling as you can see that I added as well as plenty of negative space! And the breakdown goes like this, picture was taken from my collection, background paper was from k and company the best of k and company pad, the circles were literally just picked out of my scrap box. I didn't even look at the papers, i just did a random pick. the lettering was taken from an old sheet of alphas i had and I think they worked out great!!! Simple yet Stunning! Thank you Scrap Fit for the challenge.

So, how are you this morning? Do you want me to make your day? Well, here goes my attempt... Star Rork is having a give away!!! Go check it out! Its a beautiful scrapbooking kit! I know I fell in love with it. The instructions are this: Follow the above link to Star's Blog. Read the post about the give away. Follow her blog. Comment that you followed it. Then post about the give away on your blog. See how easy that is. And the drawing is Sunday!!! Get in while you have a chance to! Good luck. Happy Blogging. Awesome Scrapping! Have a great day! I'm off to Church !!!

Last week, I entered a blog hop. You go around leaving comments and becomming followers of blogs for the entry. Well, there were tons of prizes. I was able to win one! It's a Making Memories Calander! So thank you for making this happen for me! It was really nice to win something and not just enter and never hear anything back. I had tons of fun with it! Now for the regular stuff: The girls have been really good letting ryan sleep this weekend given he has been working night shift to help his employer out. I got up andtook them to church today and they loved it! It was a fabulous service. If you would like to see some of our video's, go to CCWC and click on the video links, otherwise, you can tune in live on Thursdays and Sundays. Kenzie wants to go to the lock in on friday... we shall see how she feels at the end of the week....

Ok, so I crashed! yeppers! I decided to join a challenge blog! Twice a month, I will be posting scrapbook pages that I have done for a challenge. This time it was this challenge. It was quite fun. I had wanted to do another Halloween page for some time and had enough left over pictures to do this with. As you can see, the orange paper is all glitter paper!!! We had to use black, therefore the trim and the black cat along with some black stickles. I also have more sparkle in the way of green stickles on the shutters that are falling off of the house. As well as the purple stars have been stickled with purple stickles. This house has a rope coming from the window because Cecilia being a witch decided to sneak out to go Trick or Treat! I loved doing this because it was a challenge, but all in all, it was really fun and I will be doing this more often!

Yesterday, we went to Wally World for some "window shopping" for about an hour. I needed to get out of the house and needed to price a few things anyway, so as soon as we get there what does Maddie see? A Port Richey PD car sitting right out front. "MOMMY, A COP IS AT WALMART!!!!" she scrams so the whole world can hear her. So, I acknowledge that there indeed is a police officer in the Walmart and continue on putting her in a cart and going about my business. As we are heading through the store, the two officers come around the corner and Maddie points to them getting really shy. I said, "Yes, Honey those are the officers who's car is out front." and they stop to talk to her. One of them gave her a badge and told her she was his "special police officer for the day" It was so cute! Of course, I did not take my camera! We were only going to walmart afterall! I didn't expect being able to get a pic of her being the officer for

So, yesterday I did a really cute lo and I couldn't wait to share it here with all of you! Here it is and the story can be found under it! Bubble Time got its name because Maddie had been out playing it was time for a bath and I said, lets go get you a bath. I go to her room to get her Jammies and head to the bathroom and this is what I found! So I ran for the camera and snuck back in the bathroom to shoot the pics. She had put the plug in and started her bath water. She just forgot to take her clothes off! So adorable! I used all scraps for the strips of paper and the mats. I used Gold stickles for the designs around the photos and for the "all smiles" I then used some bling that I got in a kit that was on clearance from walmart some time back. The letters were punch outs that came in another kit. These kits were a collaboration of several different designers, and I do not recall who the designers were. As for yesterday, we had a sleepover with Kenzie, Maddie,

So, my friend from high school Maria Tibbs gave me a little idea a while back when she blogged about Brian and Brooklyn laying under the tree looking up at the pretty lights. Maddie did it last year and I scrapped it!!! Thank you Maria!

So, Kenzie started school Monday. No, I didn't take first day pictures. I know, bad mom! But really, do you want to see traffic running by her on a major road for her first day pics? I am choosing to wait until the weekend, take her to a park or beach and do some cuter pics of her there for her second grade pictures. Maddie has been so happy to not fight with Kenzie this week. She does miss her sister, but it is so quiet and we are enjoying that. I did get to do a couple of scrap layouts this week. I am waiting it out on uploading them here though. I think I want to start uploading a month worth of lo's at a time or something like that. More to come on that later. The funny story for today. I mop the kitchen. Sweeping the hallway so I can mop that as well and somehow maddie falls into the mopbucket. Pinesol and Water went everwhere. so while ryan cleaned that up, I gave maddie a bath to get the chemicals off of her! She was upset because she thought she was in tr

So, it has been a busy week! I have managed to get a lot done though. On Monday, we just kind of took a lazy day. Tuesday, we started a few projects. Wednesday, we went and had our orientation and learned where Kenzie's new class is. This orientation was quite interesting. It was totally disorganized compared to last year. It was like the new principal had no clue how to run an orientation. I sure hope and pray that this is not an indication of how the school year will go. First, they announce that if you already know who your teacher is you can by pass the 20 or so teacher's who were bouncing off of the walls to tell you who your teacher is. We bypassed because we knew who kenzie's teacher was, but they didn't tell anyone where to bypass to, so everyone ended up going straight into the unregistered children line. After quite a long wait we were then told, if we were registered to go on to the bus/car rider lines and get our bus passes or car tags. after thi

So I came downstairs after showering and getting dressed to leave yesterday and Kenzie gasped, "You look pletty!" Ryan and I burst out laughing! She is so funny most of the time. I just had to share with you! We went and spent some time with Pappy yesterday. Nothing major. And I decided on what I am doing for some of our family for Christmas. You will have to wait to find out though. Because I can't drop a line here and have them find out. LOL. And that's the update for the am.

This is my current favorite picture of Maddie! We did do our fair share of goofing off this summer and I happened to catch Maddie on camera! She had these glasses left over from a birthday party loot bag. Simply popped out the lenses and she became the cutest little Nerd I have ever seen! After a long day in the sun, the girls were tuckerd out! If you don't believe me just look at Mackenzie. LOL! She fell asleep before her head hit the pillow I do believe! Go ahead, call me a mean mom. Yes, I held them both under the bucket until it dumped! It was so much fun! But I do have a partner in crime. My friend Debbie was the one behind my camera here! Mommy, this is so much fun, I can't stand still! I am speechless. Perhaps she was taken by surprise by the water spraying from all directions! Just Beautiful! That's all I can say to sum up my daughters! Taking time for a walk and a picture by the sea oats. Maddie had so much fun at the beach that day. She kept trying

I just wanted to take a few minutes to recap our summer. I will post the pics that I have chosen for the summer recap in "A Summer of Pictures" after this post. We as you know spent the summer without a vehicle, none the less, it was a fun summer. School starts in a week and a half, so here goes: We spent many days this summer at various beaches. We went to Fred Howard Park Beach, Sunset Beach, and Green Key Beach for the most part. You are wondering how we managed this aren't you? Well in between Roy and Carol allowing us to use their car, we were invited to ride along on many of the occasions with our friends. The girls loved it! And Kenzie has managed to almost perfectly figure out how to doggy paddle in the water! She is doing so good for not having any swimming lessons. We spend most of our hot summer nights in front of the wii. We have come to love this system. We have many games we love, but Mario Kart Wii is Kenzie's favorite right now. She only

it is amazing how quickly you can get sick but how long it takes to recoup! and that's all i have to say about that! i don't know if i said this yesterday or not, but kenzie and maddie are getting soooo excited about modeling. kenzie even asked if she would get to keep her dress! and i have decided that we are going to do a red dress, white monogram of their initials with santa hats! i think it would be perfect.

Let me start out by saying that in the last 48 hours, I have been updating on facebook via my cell phone because I have been couch bound! I've been feeling so bad that barney has been the babysitter. I am however, feeling much better today. With that said, the rest of my post: I am having dresses made for the girls for Christmas by my friend Stephanie's sister Tina. She runs a business making coture for babies and lil girls and boys. I got the idea because we haven't had formal christmas clothing ever and i wanted them to have the chance. I got a message from Tina this morning in my fb. She asked if I would be interested in Modeling the girls with the dresses! Of course I agreed to do it. I never got the chance to do anything like this when I was a lil girl, so I am very excited for the girls to have this chance. I just have to find a place to do it that doesn't look to summery! Too bad I don't live in Santa Claus, Indiana! It's Christmas all the tim

i am getting sick. if you didn't see it on my facebook, i am feeling worse this am. i was up about every 1/2 hour last night. i have dry nasal passages, etc etc etc. i am boosting my hydration and vitamin c to try and combat it. now for the other part of my post: the definition of frugal: 1. likely to try to save money; careful with spending 2. small in amount or cost; meager this is my new goal. to be more frugal. i am researching ways i can do this. i will probably start making most of our food from scratch like the ladies did back in the olden days. and that's that. to assist, there are tons of make your own recipies on www.budget101.com that i think will help me out a lot!

So, here I go. Blog number 2 so far this week. I am trying to get back to blogging as when I was blogging, I felt like I was a happier person. I haven't been blogging due to a number of reasons, but I am hoping that nothing will stop me now. As you might imagine, yes, I plan on putting pics on here soon, but I need to get them on a cd to do that. I also imagine that you wonder what all we have been up to. Well, our van had broken down. Ryan got a ticket for not clicking it, but that has now been paid and the van is fixed awaiting us to pick it up from the shop. When it broke down, we were unsure of what was wrong with it, so we didn't pay for renewing the registration. We now need to get down there and do that so we can have our car back. I miss the "Ole Blue Goose" as Pop calls it. Speaking of my van, what does everyone have against mini vans? Mine is awesome and we even got a queen size sleeper sofa in it with the hatch closed the last time we moved. Mi

We decided we would take the girls camping this weekend with our friends Kevin, Deb, and Little Kevin. It was so much fun. Friday: Ryan worked 3-11 with Kevin, so he caught a ride out to the campground with him. At about 2 pm, I met Deb, Kenzie, and Little Kevin at the Campground with Maddie. We rented a cabin for the weekend. It was big enough to sleep 8 and so we were totally comfortable in there. Except for a storm rolled in and cut what little power we had off and let me tell you 6 hours with no fan in 100 degree weather and 3 cranky kids doesn't make for a good night. Saturday: We woke up to low water pressure in the Shower House. It didn't get restored until 9 pm. Gah!!! So we all showered, the kids went to bed and I did too.... Sunday: We got up and left. We had had enough. We did get some cute pics of some wildlife. I'll have to upload them when I get a chance.

we get our car back this week. i wanna do some back handsprings. (although, physically, i don't think i could handle that) i am just super excited about it. maddie is maddie. talking more and more every day. kenzie is having her last week of school.... and avon is picking up. so that's the update!

On sunday we did our thing. Ryan was working another double. (Hey, he makes more on that double than we would for both of us to work single shifts.), so the girls and I just had a mommy daughter day. Monday I had a teleconference with Ms. Zapp. She and the ESE counselor and I discussed Maddie's IEP. She will get speech 2 days a week starting in August. I also checked in on a pre k for Maddie. It is all coming together. Tuesday we paid the deposit to get the van finished. We are picking it up on the 8th. Yay! Can't come soon enough for us. Maddie had a sleep over with Yaya! Wednesday was a routine day. Nothing major going on there. When Yaya dropped Maddie off, she took Kenzie and I to Sonic for dinner and we got Ice Cream Cones from McDonalds. Thursday nothing to note. Friday Ryan worked another double. Saturday I worked at the Flea Market in my friend Ginny's Avon Boutique. She needed me to handle it for her since she worked night shift and needed some sleep,

thursday, kenzie went to school and had a great day. she came home with another super star athlete award! go kenzie! ginny picked us up and we went to church. pastor dave and cynda were back. we welcomed them warmly. praise and worship rocked like normal, only it wasn't normal because the spirit was flowing like you wouldn't believe. i love my church because we are on fire for the lord! friday, ryan was off of work and i had some avon stuff to do yesterday afternoon. eventually i put the kids to bed and at 530 this am i got him up. he works doubles most weekends because he makes boo koo's on those shifts. it's nice! we get our van back around the 8th of June. i am putting in orders on my website now, and the kids are doing their thing. monday i have a volunteer thing at school (i won't make it) and a party with my district manager to go to (mel is picking me up for that one), then tuesday evening i have a recruit meeting to go to with Virginia. i probabl

Hello all! Last night I had an Avon Meeting. It was the first one I had gone to. It was called Awaken the Leader In You. Let me tell you, I had a great time meeting some of my fellow reps as well as my District Sales Manager. Jevonne is AWESOME!!! I came home with some of the best information ever! Some incentives for getting my business off the ground. I also learned about some of the ladies stories. I am not the only one who needed avon just for added income, but when Barb did it, she did for added income and 2 years later, she is making 72k a year! Awesome! I came away from the meeting on fire with a belief in the company I work for (which by the way has been in business for 124 years) that I didn't think would happen. I also learned that prospecting isn't as hard as we all thought it was. I met one of the senior exectutive leaders who used to teach special needs kids. This touched my heart because Kenzie is a special needs kid. I learned that if I need something, I have ton

It's hard to believe that Madison (aka Maddie RoRo) is 4 already. Where has the time gone? Since we have Riley and Shelby today, we thought we would make Maddie's cake from Riley, Shelby, and Kenzie. Maddie was totally excited! So, I baked a dark fudge chocolate 2 layer cake with peanut m and m's in it. Then Riley iced it Blue and piped an M on it. She said the M was for Maddie and because Maddie's favorite candy is M and M's!!! Blue because Maddie's eyes are blue! (Not to mention Riley's eyes are blue and it's one of her favorite colors). Then after Riley, it was Shelby's turn. She placed 1/2 pack of peanut m and m's on the outside of the cake. Followed by Kenzie placing the other 1/2 pack of peanut m and m's on the cake. It's really cute! Maddie is so excited to cut the cake tomorrow with Yaya and Pappy because the girls made it for her. I just love how children get excited more over the homemade gifts than they do the store

it has been 2 weeks since i posted last. hmmm doesn't seem possible... but here goes: carol went to ohio and we came and spent the weekend with roy for mother's day weekend. Mackenzie gave me the best mothersday present. She made a pen at school with a flower flopping out of the top of it with a card she made and then she wrapped it all up making her own bow and all! so adorable. Maddie... well what can I say, you continue to grow. Please slow down a bit! I am doing fairly good with my avon sales. We towed the van to the shop and they are working on it. Should be up and running soon. Grandma was put in the hospital for respritory illness, but she is home (as of today) and resting... Carol has come back from Ohio now and we gave her her mother's day present. A really pretty beaded bracelet. Derrick and Amanda have gone on a cruise, so we are watching Riley and Shelby tonight so that Roy and Carol could go to a wedding... I baked a cake... see the next post for more on

there has been a lot going on since i last posted. i will post here the most important features of what is going on in our lives. our only car broke down. we blew a head gasket the day after we had the car looked at and found that our motor mounts were wearing out and needed replacing... i started selling avon. although the economy has been rough, i am really getting a good start with this business. my website is www.youravon.com/dawnellacox feel free to shop it even if you are out of state. you can have it delivered to you and i still get my commissions. kenzie has had a great school year so far... she mastered one of her goals on her iep! maddie is 2 weeks from being 4 years old, but I really can't believe that my baby isn't a baby anymore! let me see... oh yeah, my in law's intrepid decided to die on them, so in the mix they were down to one car at the same time. they bought an 06 chevy malibu and let me tell you, i love it! really, that is all i can think of at th

without a car. yep. my van bit the dust. it needs a head gasket job and motor mounts as well. that will be completed by the end of this month. along with a tune up and few other minor jobs. not my idea of a good time, but it has given us time to think about how fortunate we are to have a car at all. i borrowed a car this weekend so that we could take the kids to the easter egg hunt. and that really is all that is going on here.... more to come when i get my blogging mojo back.

Was on 2/21. I will be getting a cd with the pics on it. My friend Scott took pics for me. I brought my camera, but somehow forgot to put the memory card in it. It's funny because I think the same thing happened last year! LOL anyway, I can't wait to be able to share a few of my favorites here. She loved her 4 in 1 combo jumper. And we are getting one for Maddie's birthday as well. She got a cupcake smashed in her face! I just couldn't resist. I asked her if I could have the top cupcake since it was pink and that is her favorite color. I then had scott get in place and slammed her good! It was so funny! 7 Years Old. My baby is 7 now. You are so very independent. You are in 1st Grade. You love school more and more every year I am finding. You are very caring. You love going to church and it saddens you if one of us is sick and can't take you. You love playing with your wii. Which is a good thing!!! You enjoy reading to all of us. We can't wait to se

i've been busy. church keeps me busy with teaching. the kids keep me running as well... hope is in the air for slower times.

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so i am getting ready to head out for a scrap with angelena, dawn ryan, brenda and melissa. i am loving this little group of ladies. i am sad that jessica can't be there with us, but i am sure that fun will be had by all of us. it will be an early evening for me though because ryan is keeping cici and izzy for angelena so she can go with us and angelena has to get chris from work at 11 not to mention that ryan is working a double tomorrow, so i am sure he will want me home at a decent hour. i could do the all nighter and be fine tomorrow, but he on the other hand couldn't. so, i talked to brenda (a different one) about me going on into 1st grade for my thursday nights and she has agreed to start weaning me out of 4's. I love my kids in that class, but i have always felt led to be in the first grade room, so in march i will have 1 of my 3 weeks serving in 1st grade, 2 of them in april and then from may on i will be in the first grade class. i know that god will be doing grea

So, it's been a busy time since my last post. Maddie had her evaluation which has led to a referral for district to take her in the sound room to check her hearing. She wouldn't cooperate the last time, so we will be traveling to Wesley Chapel for the sound room. Then after we get the results from that, Mrs. Lavin will be sending in a referral for the Pre K team to do a full evaluation of her. From there, we will keep you posted. I am taking her in to get her eyes checked so that we can have that under our belts as well. Kenzie made Citizen of the Month for last month, so we had a nice celebration for her 2 weeks ago at the school. We also made Super Star Athlete in the last few months. I volunteered on Spring Pics day, so that was lots of fun getting to meet Mr. Poll was quite the treat! He's a great guy! I am teaching 3 thursdays a month, so I am a busy girl (at church). Kenzie is now in Missionettes at church while Ryan and I are in Mens and Womens. Maddie is in

with life. will try to post here soon... have to be at kenzie's school at 3, so maybe after church tonight i will post about that... and maddie's appointment.

kenzie wasn't feeling well on sunday and today she missed school. she now has a fever blister on her lip. poor babe! she will pull through this. i know she will... let me put it this way, she fought with maddie, so i know she can't feel that bad. she is also watching cartoons smiling right now.... i am sure she will come through just fine!

i went over to my friend jessica's about 3 months ago for a scrap meet. it was the first time i ever scrapped... so this was the reason i got into it so heavily. i had so much fun that i started into it big time. well i recently went back to pick up some stickers she had for me. we had a nice long chat and planned for a "crop" tomorrow. i am also going to go to her house next friday since ryan is off and then we will be heading over to moon lake to do some scrapping with a friend of hers who has every machine imaginable, so i hope i will be able to get some cool lo's done and maybe be able to cut more images than i currently can. i am loving this hobby so much. an update on the other things going on right now: *kenzie starts back to school monday (she can't wait)! *maddie has an evaluation for speech on 1/27 (i can't wait to see what the outcome is) *maddie continues to go potty on her own (she poo'd in the potty without me asking her to this morning

so, kenzie has had her days where she doesn't want to have a happy mommy and daddy. well. i just looked over at her (sitting on the couch watching hannah montanna smiling like you wouldn't believe) and she said, "mommy, i had a happy day" that just makes my day! Mario Kart Wii: Yes, this was bought for ryan for christmas, but i'm telling you, i play it more than he does. we both have licenses (basically accounts) on there, I have won us (on my acct) all 32 tracks in the 50cc grand prix. I will start working on winning the last cup that I just unlocked in the coming days since it is the Special Cup and the tracks are very hard. Then on to winning the 150 cc ones and the 100 cc ones... Lastly, I have to win all of the time trials against ghosts in order to unlock the remainder of the items and drivers on the game, then, game on during parties! it's a really fun game to play with friends! maddie continues to grow like a weed! she told me last night "I