Uneventful Day

How is everything? Well, I have to say that I had an uneventful day. Kenzie didn't have school today because she doesn't go on Fridays. She stayed home and watched the Doodlebops about a million times while picking up some in the livingroom. She decided she would do that while I cleaned the carpet in the Dining room. I used my carpet machine to do that and I really was pleased with the result. She continued to help out with Maddie and what not as I made the cake for dinner. We had a basketweave cake since I wanted to practice the rope border some more. I really was pleased with the outcome. Maddie had a nap and I started dinner. We had barbecue chicken with broccoli and corn. Everyone loved it. Kent came over for dinner again tonight. He really needs the help and we enjoy the company. After dinner, Ryan helped clean up before going to Kent's house to play football with him on the ps2. I put Maddie to bed for the night and gave Kenzie a bath. We then settled down to some tv and that has been the day. Hope this finds all of you well! Have a great weekend.
~Dawn~

Kenzie's first project for school!

Hey everyone! How are you all? We are doing great! As I am sure you are aware, we are comming upon the Kentucky Derby, which is real big here. Kenzie brought home a note yesterday that all the kids needed to construct and take to school on Thursday a Derby Hat. It was to consist of flowers, horses and anything that would say "Derby" Well, Kenzie and I went to the Dollar Tree to get the supplies so we could make it. She picked out a pink and a purple cowboy hat. She had me help her cut dots out of the pink hat which we hot glued to the purple one. Then we attached a floral ribbon to it and put flowers around the rim with hot glue. On the top she put a horse and flowers with leaves under it. She said that the horse on the top was winning! It turned out real cute. I took a couple of pictures for you!

So, that is what we did last night and this mornig before Kenzie went to school. Maddie has been just great today. She does her own thing. When Kenzie got home from school, we took foam rectangles and glued pics of colored objects to them to make flash cards to help her learn her colors, so the pic of the green grass is glued to a green piece of foam. It really does look good that way, and we will be going over them at least daily. I will keep all of you updated on her progress. I am sure that the colors from our dishes help too because since I have fiesta dinnerware, I give her a choice between different colors for her to eat off of. She usually does well with that. I guess that does it for now!

~Dawn~

New Pics Are Here!

I know I know. It has been since easter that you got to see any new pics of the girls. Well, I am trying to not upload everyday. I got some cute pics of the kids in the last few weeks. I also got some interesing pics that you will understand once I put them on here. Now for today's happenings. Well, Maddie almost walked. I think I fooled her. We always walk her down the hallway comming from her room. Well, when I put her down this time, I didn't give her my fingers right away and she took two steps then fell flat on her face. It was so funny. She is getting so much closer to walking. As soon as she does walk, I will video it and put it here for everyone to see. Kenzie came home from school and had made another project. I will upload it for all of you to see. She also had a note that said we have to design a derby hat for her to have judged on the Thursday before Derby. I think it will turn out cute. She is helping me make a cowboy hat with polkadots, flowers and a ribbon on it. On the top we are going to put a horse with a ring of roses around its neck and that will be that. I will definately take a pic of it for you guys to see. I think it will turn out cute. Kent came home from his parents house today. He had the operation to remove the hernia last week and I am happy to say that he is doing real good.

What a goofy little one I have. She was playing a game with me in this picture. She was actually sitting in her high chair, but wanted to try and look at me upside down. I left the pic turned this way because this was really the way she was looking at me. I loved it!

My two little goof troops. They loved having the same shirts on today! They thought it was so cool. Maddie even followed Kenzie around everywhere which she rarely does. Kenzie even started shutting the bathroom door for a few minutes of privacy from her sister. Usually she leaves it open in case she needs me to come help her wipe.

Crazy Maddie. Wait did I say that. She was just so goofy today. It was great!

Mommy, look I can do it all by myself. And here you get a good look at the top the two girls were wearing today. Maddie wore it with the skirt pictured here and Kenzie wore it with blue jean shorts. They really did have fun with it.

Awwwe. Momma had a litter!

Hey crazy lady with the camera, can't you see us running, get away from my kids!

This was Kenzie's school project today. I try and take pics so you can all see them. She made a bunny out of hearts! She thought it was so cool!

Look Ma! I can feed myself! Isn't she so precious?

Well, now that you have new pics, I will try and post them more often. Love,

~Dawn~

Did you pass the Mommy test?

I was out walking with my 4 year old daughter. She picked up something off the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away from her and I asked her not to do that.

"Why?" my daughter asked.

"Because it's been on the ground, you don't know where it's been, it's dirty and probably has germs" I replied.

At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked, "Mommy, how do you know all this stuff? You are so smart."

I was thinking quickly. "All moms know this stuff. It's on the Mommy Test. You have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mommy."

We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently pondering this new information."OH...I get it!" she beamed, "So if you don't pass the test you have to be the daddy."

"Exactly" I replied back with a big smile on my face. When you're finished laughing, send this to a Mom.

Someone sent this to me and I loved it. I just thought it was worth passing on to all of you!
Enjoy.
~Dawn~

Yay! School today!

Well, Kenzie didn't have school yesterday, and you could tell it. She was so upset because she didn't get to go. She loves it so much. I don't know what I am gonna do with her this summer. She just loves school toooooo much. She gets up and has breakfast then gets ready for school. When she didn't need to get ready for school yesterday, that was an issue. She thought that the teacher would be there without her. When she saw that the bus wasn't comming, she started to calm down, but not really. Needless to say, she cried most of the day. I had a headache. It was so bad that Ryan came home from work, dealt with Kenzie and then cooked for me. I was so glad for that.

Madison has been experimenting with different textures. She now is doing slices of banana and loves it. She is just growing up too fast.

I haven't been up to much.

Ryan went to work... that is about it.

Love,
~Dawn~

Wow! What a weekend!

Well, this weekend was not one of my favorites. I had a rough weekend. It started on Saturday when I got to work. I had a rough assignment. I managed to get through it. I had some of the toughest patients. It was crazy, but I was able to escape Saturday without anything major happening, I mean, yes I had to send someone to the hospital and got cursed out several times, but all in all, I got through Saturday. Then came time to leave from work. I had the cell phone, so I couldn't call Ryan and see where he was at. He was supposed to get there at like 9:30 to pick me up, he didn't show up. I was getting quite upset when 10:10 was here and he wasn't there since we had made arrangements for me to leave when the fireworks started so that I could get to the river by the time that they were over so to miss a lot of traffic. I had to be back to work early and I needed to make sure I could be home fairly quickly. When he did get there to get me I learned that he left from Indiana at like 8:30 to pick me up and got caught in traffic. He wasn't able to get to me until 10:15. He said that there were people parked along the bridge to watch ther fireworks display, which in my opinion was rediculous. I mean really, they are concentrating on Broadway cruising, what about the parking on the bridge afterall, they have to know that just because people do still have to work and so the bridges should stay open for the use of those who have to work. Needless to say, we had a very interesting ride home. I had told Ryan that the quickest way home would be to go the Watterson West and take the double decker bridge home. Of course being a man, he didn't think he needed anyone to give him directions! He took Watterson East. He tried to get onto 64 so that he could merge to 65N. Both of those were closed. He continued on Watterson and tried 71. It was closed. He went the wrong way on the Gene Snyder. I finally got him to turn around after he was headed towards Bedford Kentucky. I got him to take the Gene Snyder back to the Watterson West. I told him, you just need to stay on here and go the double decker. He again tried to get off at 64. What a hardheaded man I married. It forced him to stay on The Watterson West. I was glad of that. It took us across the double decker. We went home from here. It took us almost 2 hours to get home. I was furious. Not only did he not listen to me, but they shouldn't have everything shut down like that. It was rediculous. I have decided that I will be requesting off for thunder from now on. Not because I want to go to it because I don't. Just because the wait to get home is absolutely absurd. On Sunday, I got up after the alarm clock scared me to death. Maxx picked me up and we were off to work. I forgot the cell phone, so I had no way of communicating with anyone. I did take the cake that I had made for work. I was so tired that I just couldn't get woke up. It was like I was working in my sleep. Anyway, first shift was ok. Second shift is when it all began. Cynthia and I were passing dinner trays when Ashley came in and yelled Dawn, go get Polly, I need water. We have a fire. I got one of the nursed to get polly. While, Ashley and I put the flame out. We believe that a cigarrette is to blame for this one. It set the filters in the putter outer on fire, which jumped to the mulch and spread to the bush. By the time that the fire department got there, we had it contained, but it wasn't what we wanted to have by the time we passed dinner, we were running so far behind that the kitchen staff were there an hour later than usual. After that, the only major thing that happened wasn't on my shift so I was greatful for that. On our way home on Sunday night, we stopped in at Maxx's house. He wanted me to meet his wife Cathy. She is really nice. Another reason is because of that cake I am gonna be making for his son, Derek. I got to look at a nintendo wii. I loved it so much, I think we will save up and get one. I was very impressed. Maxx also asked us if it was ok if we kind of kept an eye on his son while he and Cathy go on vacation this summer, of course, I told him yes. So, we might have some work this summer, Derek is a teenager and apparently he is a good kid, but since we are the closest, he would like for us to be there if he needs anything. I guess that sums up my weekend. Wow that is a lot.
~Dawn~

The ride

We had a good day I suppose.

Kenzie didn't have school today because she is off on Fridays. She will not have school on Monday, and I suppose that I will be out of my mind by the time that Ryan gets home from work. I have really gotten used to having quiet time while she is in school especially on Monday's after having worked all weekend. She decided earlier today that she needed to go for a walk around the block. She got her shoes on and brought me mine. I asked her where we were going and she replied, walk around block mommy. I put my shoes on and asked her what was next, she told me to get a cup of water for her and one for Maddie. Then she went on to tell me to get Maddie from her crib and put her in the stroller. And we walked two laps around the block. I thought for sure she would want to ride in the stroller about half way around the first time, nope. She did great and listened to me and got to the side of the road everytime a car came by. She was such an angel. A few hours later, she wanted to go for two more laps. This was great! It was such a beautiful day for a walk and both of the girls loved it.

Maddie figured out that apple juice is really good. She also figured out that very small cut up pieces of meat are great to eat too. I have been reluctant to give it to her up until now because I thought that the baby food was enough, but I gave it a try and she loved it. I guess it is the new texture that she likes. I took the spill proof thing out of her sippy so that she could figure out that like a bottle the cup is to drink out of. She loved it once she figured it out. She also grabbed sissy's cup which had juicy juice berry flavor in it later on and she stood there not hanging on drinking out of sissy's cup. I thought oh dear. She will walk anytime. She is getting braver and braver. She keeps wanting to walk, but is afraid to take that first step to get herself going unless she is holding on to me. Well, it will come soon enough.

Ryan worked this morning and then Max picked him up and they went to a scrimmage game in Louisville. It sounds like they were having fun. He just called me to say that they would be heading home soon. I guess that means that the game is almost over.

I have been busy making roses. I finally got the details on the wedding cake for next month. She wants the one I did for the last class. The tiered one. She also wants the roses to be peach. I decided I better start making the roses sooner rather than later as they take a while to dry and you have to do them in stages. I have three different shades of peach to do these flowers in and so, I needed to get as many done now as I could. I got all of the light peach ones started. I will do the medium ones next week and the dark peach ones the week after that. This is a big cake for me as it is my first wedding one. I am pretty excited about it. I do hope it comes out good. I am so critical about the wedding ones. I will keep you posted and post a pic as soon as I get it done.

God bless!
Love,
The Cox Family

What does your favorite color say?

What Your Favorite Color Purple Says About You:

Intuitive --- Seeking --- Creative Kind --- Self-Sacrificing --- Growth Oriented Strong --- Very Wise --- Rare

What Does Your Favorite Color Say About You?

"Na, na, na, na, na na"

Kenzie has started singing her new favorite song. It is by Hillsong and I think the name of it is I Adore. She starts bouncing up and down when it comes on and declares "Na, na, na, na, na, na" I love it! She is so cute when she does it.

She had a great week at school. She made the bus everyday. The teacher e mailed me today and told me that she has come out of her shell so to speak. Meaning that Kenzie is no longer the quiet child who she has to pry everything out of. Instead she is the chatterbox that you want to shut up if you could find the mute button on the remote, but it is nonexistent.

Maddie is enjoying her time with just mommy. She tried to walk again tonight. She is so close she can taste it. She wants to, but she is still a little afraid of doing it on her own. She will in her own time. She went to bed tonight without a cup or bottle or anything. Yes, she cried for a few minutes, but then took hold of her gator and played with him for a few minutes before falling asleep. How do I know that? Well, the gator makes noise that I can hear from the other side of the door. When the noise stopped, I waited a few minutes and then peeked in on her. She was sound asleep.

Ryan had a good day at work. He is still in love with his new job. He will be going to a U of L scrimmage(I hope I spelled that right) game tomorrow evening with Max and Ty. They got tickets for free and so he will be enjoying that.

I am starting to plan the cake for Max's son's birthday. I have to figure out how to do a Nintendo Wii. It is the new game console that Nintendo just came out with. His son has it and loves that game console. I will have to do it for him on June 22. Yes, I know I am planning early, but I have never done anything like this before. I am really looking forward to it. I will also be doing a bowling cake for Mindy. I need to start that planning process also. I can't wait to get them done. I will definately be putting pics on here when I get them done.

I guess that sums up the Cox Family Update for today. I love you guys and will update again when I have time...
Love,
The Cox Family

The Completely Horrible Totally Bad Day

Amusing title? No! Completely honest title. Yesterday here we had a very bad day. Kenzie woke up very whiney. She cried over the simplest things. I needed to go to the store and Ryan wasn't home, so I had to wait. She threw a fit because he didn't come home right then so that we could go to the store. Maddie was playing with one of her toys. She threw a fit about that. Then when Ryan did finally get home, I had a horrible headache, so I told him what I needed and sent him with Kenzie to the store, what does he do? Buy her a reward. It toatlly baffled me. She had been such a hard case all day and had been told that she wouldn't be allowed to have anything when we went to the store, what does he do? The exact opposite. I was really upset by this. I know that it sounds trivial, but when I tell her one thing and he goes behind my back and does the opposite, it really demeans me and makes me feel like what I say doesn't matter. Kenzie has to have boundries and he doesn't agree with that statement at all. I almost feel like he thinks it is ok for her to totally run over us. Needless to say, I had a very bad day. I am hoping that today will be much better.

Hello Everyone, Maddie here, I am 11 months old. I know how to stand by myself now. I am still a little scared to walk by myself. I hold on to Mommy's fingers and walk up and down the hallway with her. I took my first step last week. I think I scared myself. I haven't tried that since. I love to play with my big sissy. She is so fun. I love to jump in my crib. I can feed myself crackers but my favorite is small pieces of cereal bars. They are so yummy. I have 6 teeth now. Four on the top and two on the bottom. Mommy says that she can feel more ready to come out any day now. I love napping with my lion. He sings songs to be before I go to bed. I love you all!

This is the new Spidey cake. I really liked it better than the first one because the green kind of made spidey jump out at you. I had originally decided after doing the first one that I wouldn't be doing this particular cake again, but I think that with this one comming out as good as it did, I will continue doing this particular pan if someone wants one. I have a wedding cake commin up, so I will just have to see how it comes out.

Lots of Love to Everyone!

The Cox Family

Happy Belated 11 month birthday Madison

Bad Mommy! I had to work on her 11 month birthday. Thank goodness that I took a couple of pics on Friday. Madison decided that she would show me what an 11 month old growing little girl can do. She stayed up and refused her naps today. I still made her stay in her crib though. She was in the crib and cried for a few minutes but when she figured out that I wasn't going to get her out of there she made her own game of playing with her lion and aligator in between her jumping spells. She was so funny. She would jump and play then yell "MOMA" and start it over again. She was so cute when I got her out too. She wanted to walk down the hall way holding on to my fingers. I just know that she will be a walker soon.

Kenzie had yet another great day at school. She came home from school with a pasta neclace. She informed me that "Amanda helped me make a necklace" I said really. She responded with "Zachary and Sydney made one too mommy" I am so happy that she is having such a great time at school.

Ryan had a good day at work. He called me this morning to say, Kathy wants you to make her wedding cake next month. He brought the order home. It is the same wedding cake I did in class only with peach roses. I think I will really enjoy that. I will be calling her tomorrow to confirm it since he took the order, I really want to get a feel for what it is that she wants. I always feel like that it is good for me to talk to them so that I can find out what exactly they want. I am so excited because, my neighbor wants two cakes and will give me the details, Max wants a cake designed based on the Nintendo Wiii. Marybeth wants a lion cake. Mindy wants a bowling cake for june. I am going to be making cupcakes for work later this week. I am starting to really get busy. I like that.

If you live in the Louisville Metro Area and are interested in a cake, let me know and I will work something out for you.

Oh yeah, I am going to do farm animal cupcakes for Madison's birthday!

Anyway, enough about my cake stuff. I will chat later!
Love,
The Cox Family

Mommy and Me!

I am looking for a group of ladies with children ranging from 1-5 who are interested in forming a mommy and me group to do play dates at a local park. If you are interested, please comment to me. I am located in Jeffersonville, In. I would really like to keep it located right around here as when my husband is at work, if I need to go somewhere I put the kids in the stroller and walk them to and from our destination. Thanks and have a great day!

Surprise!!!

Surprises are nice every now and again. I promised that I would put the Easter pics on here as soon as I could get them done. Thank you Beth! You did a great job editing them! They look Great! Need I say more! Happy Easter Sissy! I love you this much! "Mom, she won't kiss me!" "Mama, I wanna egg!" Mommy, is this what you mean by play with the eggs while you take my picture? Isn't she so cute with the mischievious smile on her face? She totally has the Cox thing where when she smiles, the eyes go shut! So innocent, until proven guilty. Oops did I say that! Laugh out loud! Kenzie was such an angel this day. She did everything I told her to when we were taking the pics. I loved it. Beth, you did a wonderful job with this pic. I love it.
Love my pics in black and white so I just had to share with you!
Cool effect! Black and white with color selection. It really looks great! And Maddie loved her empty plastic eggs. She still finds them and tries chewing on them.
Love it!
Another black and white. Hope I didn't duplicate there. I can't remember.

Love you too Maddie!
Color selection one more time...

Color selection with border. I think Beth did a great job! I almost cried when I saw them. Now on to other things. I worked like a dog this weekend. It felt like I was working alone on the unit. Ryan had the weekend off again. Mom decided to take the girls. Now back to my weekly routine. I will post more tomorrow! Love you all!

The Cox Family

Eventful Day

Well, after I posted the bible study this morning, I had a somewhat eventful day. It started by my Mom comming to watch the kids so I could go to Kenzie's school. I arrived at Spring Hill Elementary for this meeting so that I could get Kenzie all set up for a complete evaluation since her speech seems a little behind and we want to know exactly where her learning is right now so that we can help her best that way. After I got there we had to wait for Sharon, she is the one who does the paperwork for this evaluation. She was running late, she arrived and we went over everything. She told me that it might be September before she can actually get Kenzie's eval complete. The reason is coz we are comming up on Summer Break. If not for that we would get the evaluation completed a lot sooner. Anyway, I stayed and chatted with Amanda (her teacher) for a few minutes then I was off to the homefront so that Mom could return home because she needed to put in a few more hours work. She works from home now. I had developed a headache in the last few hours, so I put Maddie down for a nap and Kenzie and I did the same, when I woke up two and a half hours later my headache had gone away. I decorated another Spiderman cake. Which I feel like came out better than the first one. As I was cleaning up, Ryan noticed the Fire Truck came blaring into the neighborhood and stopped two houses down, I ran next door and got Kent, we went to check on Mike together as Ryan brought both of the girls out, he stopped and checked on Ann across the street and as the firetruck went to find the fire, I went across the street and down one house to check on Devra. When we made sure everyone was ok, we returned to our home, I came thankful that everyone was so nice in our neighborhood. I mean, how many times would someone check on you in some neighborhoods, Me, Ryan, Kent, Robin, Mike, Ann and Devra, we all came running out so that we could check on each other! That is great! Anyway, I am off to bed so that I can work this weekend. Have a great one!
The Cox Family

Wealth

I normally don't post these here, but I felt like this lesson was really important. I hope you all feel the same way. Enjoy and I will do the actual post later today.

Verse for the Day:
Judges 6:15
"But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."
Passage for the Day:
Judges 6:1-16
Author: Florence Littauer
Some of us feel that it is a lack of money that holds us down. Gideon replied to God's request, "But Lord... how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least of my family" (Judges 6:15). With no finances behind him at all, Gideon was turned into a wise prophet by God's commanding power. Many times I have had sweet Christians tell me they cannot have friends in for fellowship because their house is too small, or because their talent is too slight. But these are only excuses for our unwillingness to do as God has asked us. "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling" (1Peter 4:9). I would enjoy a peanut butter sandwich if someone else prepared it and handed it to me.
The world tells us that we need money to be happy, but as God told Gideon, "I will be with you" (Judges 6:16). Should not his presence be assurance enough?
Additional Scripture Readings:
2 Corinthians 8:1-7
James 2:1-5
Dear God,
Thank you for this lesson at the perfect time in my life. I have been stressing about not having enough money, thank you Lord because YOU are enough! Help me to remember that material things are just that, material. Help me to remember that my wealth is in YOU. Thank you Jesus.
Amen

Quickly, before the outage.

Today was a blah day. I will make this quick as I see the scheduled outage. Kenzie went to school. And had a great day. Ryan had a good day at work. His knee is still hurting from the other night when he got hurt as we were playing outside with Kenzie. Maddie learned that she loves cereal bars today. I break them up real small for her and she loves them. I made a Spiderman cake tonight. I already have a pic of it on the blog, so I will not be doing that one again. I guess that is all that happened today. I will post again if I think of anything. Lots of love!
The Cox Family

Walnut Ridge Baptist Church

Well, Ryan and Kent have been going to the church on the corner for a few weeks now and seemed to like it, so I decided to give it a try. We had Kent over for dinner again tonight and after we ate, I got the girls dressed and we all went to church. Kenzie got enrolled in a club there called AWANA. It stands for Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed, which was taken from 2 Timothy 2:15. She loved it. She was so in love with the fact that this church unlike the one we were attending not on a regular basis has kids her age she can relate to. While Kenzie was in Cubbies (her age group for the AWANA club) Ryan, Kent and I took Maddie into the sanctuary with us. She of course got vocal, just talking up a storm, and out of respect, I took her to the lobby and sat her down, all she wanted was to crawl everywhere. When I did that she piped right down and crawled and crawled. She was in baby heaven being let down. They didn't have a nursery worker tonight, so she had to be with us. I think that we will alternate one week, if someone has to step out it will be me and the next week will be Ryan. When we came home, I changed Maddie and put her down, after a few minutes of protest she was asleep. Kenzie and I watched Charlottes Web for the 15th time. Ryan and Kent had a prayer session next door. And now I am working on some of my computer stuff. I have several posts to do, so I am off to do that. Have a great night!

A Little Sport Star in the Making

Tonight after I had already posted once today, we had quite a lot of fun. We had Kent over for dinner and then we all went into his back yard for some after dinner fun. It started with us just playing monkey in the middle with Kenzie. She brought her ball over and the three adults would kick it to each other to try and keep it away from her. The it transitioned into teaching her the different things for soccer. And finally T Ball. She loved it! She bat's Left handed! We had so much fun. I just had to put this in here. Though Ryan hurt his knee by hyperextending it. He will be just fine. We will try and get pics the next time, we were all just having so much fun that the camera was the last thing I was worried about at the time.

Easter

Yes, I know I went the cheaters way out, but I think it was well worth it. I only put one pic here today because I am working on something with the others. I decided that I would wait and take the pics of the girls in their dresses when it was a little warmer. I love the outcome. When I get my little project done, I will put more in here.

Kenzie had another great day at school. She loves going and gets up early to get dressed just because she wants to ride th bus.

Maddie decided she would stand on the grass when we were outside getting pics today. It was so cute and yes one of the pics I have is with her standing. I will get another on soon that I can put on here if the project isn't done soon.

Ryan has to work late tonight so I will be here for a while by myself again.

I have so much to do this week. It is unreal. I have three cakes and a meeting with the school not to mention Uncle Ivan is in the hospital.

Pray for him and Love to you all

The Cox Family

I got my exercise today that is for sure!

Well, I have to say, I got my exercise today. Kenzie was getting ready to go to school and ran to the bathroom, while she was there, I was putting her shoes on her and she missed the bus. He didn't even honk. I immediately got Madison dressed and put them both in the stroller. We then took off for a long walk. I walked her to school. It is about a thrity minute walk each way. Needless to say, I have been a little tired since getting home. Maddie took a bottle and went to sleep. I laid down and tried to nap, but was afraid that I would miss the bus bringing her home if I fell asleep. So, I stayed awake. Kenzie got home from school fine and we are now having a good afternoon. I am going to try and go to the hospital to see Uncle Ivan tonight when Ryan gets home from work.. Speaking of which I need to call the hospital and see what he wants for dinner. I think I will take him some dinner tonight instead of just visiting. Anyway, I will let you know how that goes at another time.
Love you all!

Edit: I forgot to add this earlier. Since it was so cold, we decided that in a few weeks when it is warm again, I will dress the girls in their dress and take them in the back yard and hide eggs. Then take pics of them finding them in their easter outfits. I thought this way, we could get some good pics outdoors. I am sort of getting tired of the indoors pics. I want some with nature involved. Thanks for understanding!

Please no shots Mommy!

Well, today was Kenzie's four year check up and I was regretting it yesterday! I knew that she would have to have shots, I just didn't realize that she would have to have a cbc also. I took her in and she was like, "Mommy, why we at Maddie's doctor." not realizing that they have the same doctor. They checked her in and the crying began... First the nurse and I had to talk her into getting on the scale to be weighed and measured. After that, we had to talk her into letting the nurse give her arm a hug. That was our big mistake. You see the hug was a blood pressure cuff, and Kenzie freaked out when it got tighter. She wasn't expecting that. We called it quits and they documented that she refused a bp to be taken. They used a thermometer that you rub across the forehead and got her temp which was fine. We then went to the room to wait for Dr. Morgan. It wasn't long before she came in and here was the drama once again. Kenzie hulled up in the corner not wanting to let the dr. look at her at all. After some persuasion, we were able to coax her into talking to Dr Morgan. At the end of the visit, Dr Morgan said, she is well above average on her height for her age, and she is slightly above average on her weight. She said this could be due to just comming out of winter and that she will probably trim down thru the summer, I have already seen some trimming down. We now waited for Elizabeth to come in. When she did, she pricked Kenzie's finger to get blood for a CBC. She said she would call me with the results. Then while I chased her around the room to get her and put her on the table, Elizabeth blocked the door coz Kenzie was exit bound. When we got her on the table, I held her top half down while Elizabeth got her bottom half. She did the shots in her leg first and then her arm. It was so hard to hold her down with knowing that she didn't like this one bit nor did she understand how much these shots would really do for her. She thought we were being mean to her, but really they are so very necessary. After we left there, she got really happy. We went home and she pulled her pants down to show daddy her bandaids and said, "Daddy, I got shot" and up with the pants. It was so wierd. She almost acted proud of having the shots.

Now on to Maddie. She has been quite the character. I have started when I get her out of the crib, we walk with her holding my fingers down the hallway to the living room. She thinks this is the greatest thing. I stood her up this morning and let go of her. She stayed standing for a good thirty seconds on her own. Then this evening, she used Ryan's empty golf bag to get to standing and then let go. I screamed with delight which scared her and she immediately got into crawling position. Darn, I couldn't get a pic. Me and my big mouth!

Ryan went and hung out with his friend Max today. He had a good time.

I will be working a double on Saturday and Sunday, so this is it for this week, I will fill you in on the happening over the weekend on Monday.

God Bless and Happy Easter
Love,
The Cox Family

Mommy's Mothers Day Present 2006!

We found out we were pregnant on 10/12/2005. I knew because I am regular and I was late. I took an over the counter test that came out positive. I then made an appointment for the obgyn. He also confirmed it. We kept it a secret until after we got home from our vacation to Indiana. While we were here, I had my mom to pick up a t shirt for Kenzie from the hospital that she works at. The shirt said "I'm the big sister". When we arrived back to Florida, we had Kenzie wearing the shirt. We parked the car and let Kenzie go running into Yaya and Pappy's house. Aunt Amanda saw the shirt first! She was so excited for us. Yaya saw it second and looked excited, but unsure at the same time. Pappy wasn't home yet. When we heard them comming in the driveway, I held Kenzie up while Amanda videotaped it. Kenzie was screaming "Pappy" while he was reading, "I'm the WHAT?" "No, Ryan is this a joke" Ryan says no. I had what they considered an uneventful pregnancy until May 14, 2006. It was mothers day. My water broke, and we were waiting for contractions before we called the doc. They never came, I called the doc the next morning who told us to go to the hospital so they could check my fluid sack. It was broken, they induced me. I got an epidural and at 501 pm, Madison was born. She was having some issues with her breathing. I got to hold her for like two seconds before she was taken to the Nursery and I didn't get to see her until the next morning. I got some well needed sleep. The next morning she was transferred to Kosair for supervision, probably a good move. She collapsed her left lung on that evening, therefore she ended up with a chest tube, ngt, vent, and a picc line in her head. Eight days later, we had our baby girl at home. She has done nothing but improve since. She did have to be followed by an ortho for a while due to a hip click. She came through that easy enough. She is now almost 11 months old and thriving!

Madison,
You will always be mommy's little mothers day present! I just wish you would have stayed in a little longer. I hated that you had to go thru so much in the first hours of your life, but baby God has a plan and in his time everything comes out!

Mommy and Daddy Love you so much baby girl!

The Story of Mackenzie Lynn

I thought that since I haven't done this, I would try and give you as much as I can possibly remember of Mackenzie's story.

The year she was born, we were living in Clearwater Florida. Ryan and I had gotten married in October a few months before she was born. I was unaware of being pregnant due to some circumstances, first, I had my period every month, second, I didn't gain weight, and third, I didn't feel her move and the doc said that she was very active probably but that because I was heavy, I probably wouldn't feel her move.

I worked the day before she was born at the nursing home and lifted someone I should have used a mechanical lift with, but we always lifted her manually because she was skin tear prone. After work, Ryan and I went to an arena footbal game, I figure that walking all the steps caused labor to set in. I was up and down all night. The next morning, he said that's it we are going to Mom's to get in the hot tub, that will make your back feel better. Keep in mind the water was like 102 degrees in there. We got in and in a few minutes I could feel her head crowning. We rushed to the hospital where they spent another 45 minutes trying to figure out whether I was having a baby or not. Finally when we got in a room, the doc said to put me on a heart monitor, that would tell them. As soon as i laid on the bed, she came flying out.

The doc came in and did what he does and they took Mackenzie from us. She didn't come back in the room for hours. Then when she finally did, we didn't let her out of our sight.

She was born on Saturday, and they didn't let me go home til Tuesday. When they finally did release me, we went to Carol's house. My sister in law and her two girls were there. Riley immediately dubbed the baby "Kenzie" and it stuck. She has been the best surprise we could ever get!

She has grown up so fast that it is almost unreal!

I will continue to update you on her from the age she is now on out!

We love you so much Kenzie! You will always be Mommy and Daddy's Baby Girl!

EDIT: THANK YOU YAYA! YES I DID FORGET TO ADD THAT RYAN'S MOM, WHO KENZIE CALLS YAYA WAS AT THE END OF THE BED WHEN KENZIE POPPED OUT AT HER. I BASICALLY DECIDED THAT CAROL DELIVERED HER. SO YES YAYA, YOU WERE THE FIRST TO SEE HER! SORRY ABOUT FORGETTING THAT PART! LOVE YOU!

Kenzie had a great day!

I got an e mail from Amanda Monroe today (she is Kenzie's teacher). She said that today was the first day that she has seen Kenzie initiate a conversation with the kids in her class. She also said that they studied the color purple today and that Kenzie showed them all her jacket. She had worn her purple Ariel jacket that Yaya and Pappy had given her. She was so excited! The teacher was so pleased with Kenzie today. She came home from school telling me about her day.

Maddie is pretty much the same as yesterday.

Ryan is taking sick time tomorrow since we have to take Kenzie for her shots. That should be an interesting venture. I am so not looking forward to that since she is 4 and can fight back when they come at her with a needle.

I don't have anythign new for today I don't guess. I think that things have pretty much been the same, just wanted to mainly update you on the Kenzie school day thing!

Take care and another update will come soon!

Love you lots!!

How many teeth did you say?

This morning, I noticed Madison was chewing on things more than normal. I decided I would take a peek in her little mouth, quite the job I might add. I found that she has two bottom teeth right in the front and not one, not two, not three, but four top teeth. Wow! She is getting chompers really fast here lately! She was so close to taking a step a couple of days ago. Now she acts like she is scared to do so.

Kenzie came home from school today and told me "Mommy, my boyfriend's name is Zachary!" I just started laughing at her. We have teased her a little about sitting next to a little boy in the pic her teacher sent me on her first day of school. She has now decided to tell me who her boyfriend is! It is so cute. She also told me that she had a corndog and milk with katsup for lunch and that her teacher's name is Miss Amanda. She also went on to say that she wears her seatbelt on the school bus and that she loves riding the bus (it isn't like we didn't already know that) Kenzie has been a bubble of words here lately! I really think switching her schools was a good step on my part!

Nothing really is going on for me except that I got an order for 20 or more individual cake purses for a pre teen birthday party! I will love this! I will post pics when I do the purses for the party!

Nana had her surgery today and the doc thinks he got everything.

Papaw Sonny has surgery to remove one of his kidneys tomorrow. I just found out that he has kidney cancer and that they have to remove one of them. I guess that he went to the hospital over the weekend with blood in his urine, they tested and found cancer. Please pray for the both of them.

Ryan went to work today and came home. Nothing new there.

And last thing's last. I have decided to make a list of everything I want for my cake decorating and just keep it updated to use for my wish list when someone asks me what I want for my birthday or Christmas. This way I get both something I want and need at the same time. Anyway, I hope all is well and I will post again soon!
Love,
The Cox Family

Course 3 is Finished!!!

I just got home from my last class and thought I would share the pics of my cakes now.

This is the cake I did tonight. I loved the outcome. I thought it turned out great!

This was the first cake I did in course 3. Kenzie loved this cake. It turned out very nice I thought. But then I am very hard on myself when it comes to cakes I make, so I judge very harshly. Like the border could have been much better, but I had been sick and the car had troubles and all of that stuff.

This cake was made for one of my mom's friends at work. Pat was having a birthday for Bill. He loved this cake and said that he wants me to do his cake every year. Pat gave me free reign on this design. She said that as long as it said Happy 39th Birthday Bill she didn't care what I did. I wasn't very pleased with the little man, but he was the first one I had ever done.

This was the final cake in course 2. I loved the basketweave and rope. My flowers need some work, but that comes with practice and now that I am out of classes, I will be able to concentrate on them. This basket of flowers was for one of my friends to give to her daughter for her 16th birthday. I loved how it turned out because I was just playing around with the basketweave when I did this one. I hadn't gotten to that part in class.

I was messing around with flowers one day, and this is what I came up with. This cake was just a play cake. I was fooling around, so it isn't real good, but the flowers turned out ok I think.

I made this cake for my mother in law who came in town in Feb. She tells the girls "I Love You This Much" and that is why I put it on the cookie.

This cake was made for valentines day. I loved making these.

I did my own alteration with Spiderman and it got great reviews. The birthday boy loved it!

This was a spiderweb cake that I put a spiderman figure on. It was for my husband's birthday. Kenzie picked out the theme for him. It was great!

This was the first cake I did in course 1. I loved the outcome. It was so fun to do and my teacher was great!This was the second cake we did in course 1. I think it was very fun. Mind me, my clowns would have popped more if i had of used yellow icing and used blue, green and red for the stripes.

This was the final cake we did for course 1. I sent it to work with mom and she got the next cake order that same day.

This was the cake I had to make the day after the last cake for course 1. I enjoyed it.

This was Kenzie's birthday cake. I really was pleased with the outcome. Kenzie loved her cake too.

I did these cakes for Valentines day this year too.

There you have all of my cakes for right now. I will post them from now on as I do them so there aren't as many to do!

Mrs. Cox the Mechanic

Good evening all! Yes you read that right. I had to help fix my car tonight. It has been doing this sputtering thing for a few weeks now. My brother was supposed to come and fix it for me, but he was a no call no show. Anyway, Ryan and our neighbor Kent decided they could do it since it was only a fuel filter. The guys couldn't figure out how to turn off the emergency fuel intake. So I came to the rescue. After a few minutes, I had it done. We started the car and let it run out of gas so to speak. We had to let what was in the lines run out so that they could change the filter. Kent got that done in a few minutes and as we drained what was left in the old one, we could see nothing but black! Yuck! We really needed it to be changed. After running the car for a while after I enabled the fuel intake again, it was still sputtering, so I called Pop. He said, go out to your car and open the gas cap. After I did that, there was no more sputtering. This wasn't the end of the mechanic though. We went to Walmart and I got a few things including a new digital camera battery charger and batteries. I am charging the batteries now so, we should be back in picture business. Anyway, Ryan got some wiper blades to change, again I came to his rescue. He couldn't figure out how to change them. I guess you could now call me the certified nursing assitant, cake decorator, wife, mommy, and mechanic!

Kenzie got a little camera of her own today. I will be teaching her how to use it and I will hope to have some of the pics she takes put on the net soon. It will be a little wait for that tho as it is a 35 mm camera, so she has to use the film before I can get it developed for her.

Maddie just about took her first steps today. She was standing and tried to step but got scared so sat down and crawled to daddy instead! Bummer! Only a few more days til she will be walking tho I think.

I guess that does it for the update. I will upload a pic of the new cake that I do in class tomorrow. I will also upload the cakes I have done so far soon. Hope you all have a great day!

God Speaks When We Need It Most

I know that title is strong, that is just what I wanted it to be. I had an experience that I really needed tonight while I was at work. I had a situation that angered me really bad and had earlier asked a family memeber who was going to have their church do a bible study in the dining room to write the verses down for me so that I too could do the study at a later time, he did and right after the bad situation that angered me, Jackie (one of the girls I work with) walked up to me and said "That man told me to give this to you" I folded the piece of paper without looking at it and put it in my pocket. I got it back out later when I had had the chance to cool my jets a little. I looked at the paper and it said:
Anger
James 3:2-5
James 1:19-20
John 2:13-22
Luke 19:45-48
Proverbs 15:1&18
Genesis 49 & 50 all verses

I truly believe that God was putting my anger in check. When I saw this I cried tears of Joy because at that moment I realized that God loves me for me and he doesn't want to see me doing things that would make Satan jump for joy like the anger that was boiling up in me. I immediately thought of a passage from the bible that I remembered from when I was in sunday school as a child "be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger" It turnes out that that passage is one of the verses listed in James. I just couldn't belive it.

Now on to other things, Ryan has been trying a new church out for a few weeks and he took the girls to it for the first time today. He said that Kenzie went to childrens church and Maddie went to the nursery, something that the church we were attending didn't have due to the one being so small that we didn't have enough members to do that with. He said, I was so lonely sitting on the pew without the girls, but they had a blast. They went to my Pappy's birthday party yesterday, he said that they all had a great time. And I think that is all the updates for tonight. I will try and update you tomorrow after Kenzie gets home from school since that starts back this week Yay!

Lots of love and prayers,
The Cox Family