Update Time!!

WoW!! I cannot believe how quickly two months can go by. Not much more than our everyday craziness has been happening, so I guess maybe that's why I haven't kept up on the blogging, but I will try to give a quick recap so we can keep you informed. We had a busy holiday season, as I'm sure you all did as well. Matt's annual work party at El Mexicano (YUM!!), Ward Christmas Party, school parties, dance performances, weekly YW activities, etc......it seems like we never have a minute to stop and ponder or reflect on the meaning of it all. We had a very nice friend in our ward here take some family pictures for us, and I am so grateful to her for her time and patience. She just went where we wanted to go, and used her awesome camera so we'd end up with a good quality photo that I could blow up for a beautiful project we did at our RS Enrichment activity. You can go to www.poppyseedprojects.com and check out the awesome pictures they do of the temple and families there. I already had a temple, so I just had to have the family one to compliment it!!
And ever since we moved to Monroe I've wanted to take pictures in front of these old theater doors, I think they make the perfect backdrop. I really like this one of the kids :)

So, anyway, we had a wonderful Christmas, though my only wish is that we actually could have spent more time with family!! (Love them all so much <3!!) The kids and I did head to my mom's on Christmas day, leaving Matt home alone (I HATE that!!) because he was on call for EMT. Stetson, Sadie and McCrae stayed with my mom and other family there to have fun and be entertained while Sydney and I came back home to take Matt in for surgery. For about two months he was suffering from some pain under his ribs on the right side, and came to find out it was most likely his gallbladder--so he went in on the Monday following Christmas and got it cut out!! He took that week to rest and recuperate and has felt incredible ever since. I'm so grateful for modern medicine!!
We thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas break with the kids out of school, as we usually do, staying up late and sleeping in daily. For New Year's Eve we spent a quiet and somewhat dull evening at home, that is until the clock struck midnight~that's when we went out on the front porch and woke up our neighbors with poppers and noise makers!!
We had a wonderful and blessed 2010~and only hope that 2011 will turn out as good, if not better!!

Pickin' & Grinnin'

In preparing ourselves for the Halloween Festivities we took a little trip to the local Pumpkin Patch for FHE one night. It was alot of fun, with a hayride through the field to gather our passel of pumpkins, then all of the kids got to try out the whirly-gig (a big hexagon thing they buckled them into and spun them around and around, upside-down).

The pumpkins were so content sitting on the steps of the front porch, but the kids couldn't stand to leave the poor faceless creatures alone. So we finally brought them in a few nights before Halloween and let the kids go crazy, while I was going crazy trying to make cookies for class Halloween parties and making Stetson's last minute costume idea.

Sydney is so creative and artistic, she carved a witches face in one for Sadie, and another one with a fun happy face.

Stetson and even Sadie did an amazing job of gutting the pumpkins, and had a little too much fun playing with the yucky goo.

McCrae wanted to help with the carving too, but since I wouldn't allow him to use a knife he made do with the scraping tool on one of my candles.

How silly of me to not have taken any pictures of the finished products, but at least we got them carved this year...it's actually been a few years since we have.

Sadie-Bug has 7 Spots!!!

My beautiful little Sadie, at just a couple weeks old, she was such a pleasant baby.

Always happy and easy to please...she brings so much joy to our family!!

She has always been a bit mischievous, but we just blame it on the birth order :)

She's a girl after my own heart...who can resist the chocolate!?!

This little cutie thought she could fly, I guess she did,

it was just the landing she wasn't so good at.

And the day she wanted to be like mommy and cut hair,

turned out to be a very bad hair day :(

Now look at her, growing up so fast.

She is so full of life!!

And we couldn't imagine our lives without her.

RAM Pride!!!

We were so excited to have Stetson playing football again this fall, after two years of playing tackle football in Saratoga he wasn't about to give it up. We were lucky enough to get him on the sixth-grade team (although he's only in fifth grade).

In order to figure out where he was going to play they had to do a weigh-in, with Stetson weighing in at 76 lbs. Although he was one of the smallest boys on the team he proved to be one of the toughest, having no fear of just getting in there and throwing those bigger boys to the ground!
He was chosen to play in the linebacker position where he did very well for the majority of the season. Toward the end of the season, coach switched him to corner so he could see the field better. He proved to be a tough defender, and won the respect of his teammates and coaches.

One of the highlights of the football season was being able to learn the Haka from Braxton (a polynesian teammate), and performing it for the fans before each home game and after each win!

The season ended with a record of 5 wins and 4 losses which put them in the playoffs. Their playoff game was against Beaver who beat them during the season with a score of 20-0. But our boys gave them a real run for their money in the playoff game with a score of 24-20; and had it not been for one Referees oversight and negligence in making the call on Beaver 'holding' our boys we certainly would've won...and Matt wouldn't have gotten thrown off the field!!

Girl's Get-Away!!

A couple of weeks ago us girls had the opportunity to get away to my mom's cousins family cabin. We were so excited to go spend time with just the girls and do what girls do best...

talking, laughing, shopping, and just plain having FUN!!!

This is far from what we were expecting by a "family cabin".

This place was top notch, absolutely beautiful, situated just overlooking Midway.

The home features 7 bedrooms/7 bathrooms, a family room on each of the 3 levels,

full kitchens and laundry rooms on the main level and in the basement,

a sauna, club house with swimming pool and hot tub (too bad we didn't know to bring our swimming suits), you name and it's got it...aMaZinG!!!

Here is a picture of us girls on Memorial Hill.

~Sydney, Sadie, Rylee(my niece)

my Mom, and Me~

We were missing my sister Racquel, her oldest daughter Lexi,

my sis-in-law Heather and her daughter Shelby.

Although we were missing them, they were definitely the ones missing out!!

And here's a shot of me and Syd enjoying dinner and entertainment at Bear Dance Cafe in Midway. After spending the afternoon shopping the outlets in Park City who feels like cooking dinner? Not us!

We had so much fun getting to know our cousins better, learning a new game called Chicken Foot and laughing and carrying on. We can't wait to do it again!!

My Baby Boy turned 5!!

I cannot believe how the time has gotten away from me! Where did these last five years go?

It's just crazy how quickly my sweet little dearies have grown up, especially McCrae...don't these caboose babies know they are supposed to stay

little!?

Here is my little guy on the day he was born, weighing in at

9 lbs. 1 oz.

He was so CUTE!!!! And he still is!!

Even though he can be a little monster at times!!

And make a fine mess when he wants to!


And never under estimate the mischief he can get into!!

He really is a great kid, and brings such a wonderful spirit of joy and happiness into our lives.

We LOVE our Crae-Crae more than words can say,

and we hope this year brings many great and wonderful adventures your way!!

still ALIVE...and kickin'

Hey, all my long lost blogging friends!! I'm back, after far too long of a blogging break. We finally got our own internet connection set-up, so I figured I better get back on top of this little bit of history I'm trying to keep for my family. I don't even know what to say, I think I might have forgotten how to do this. We still don't have a camera to liven up my boring old blog posts with great pictures, so I'll try and do my best to bring you all up to speed on what's been happenin' around the Cox household.
Sadly, it's been six months since my last post, which wasn't very expansive itself. So I don't even know where I should begin. We are still loving it here in our new home, the quiet little town we live in, the ward, the neighbors, and of course all of the new friends we've made here in Monroe are so great!! I'm really enjoying my calling in Young Women's, I just hope I'll get it all figured out here pretty soon. We had a whirlwind summer with Girls Camp, Youth Conference, baseball, and trips to Nana's and Grammy & Papa's. It's kinda nice to be back to somewhat of a routine with school back in. I'm gonna try and post some of our old news for histories sake in the near future, but for now I'm just happy to be getting back to an old hobby I love so much!

Well, well, well...as if a call into the Bishopric wasn't enough!!

I've read on a couple of other friend's blogs just this week about how they must have jinxed themselves, and I believe it must be true for myself as well. Shortly after settling into our new ward I was called in and asked to serve as an Activity Days Leader, and as I mentioned before, I was a little disappointed with the calling. I really wanted to be put in YW where I would be able to work with Sydney!! So, can you guess what's been added to my plate recently?

That's right!! I've been called to be the YW President!! I'm still a little shocked over this one...after all, the reason for reorganizing the YW presidency was because our Bishop's wife was the president, and I certainly didn't think they would be replacing her with the 1st Counselor's wife!! It's been a very spiritual roller coaster ride for me, realizing mostly how evident my Heavenly Father's hand is in my life...first of all, for directing us to this place where we truly belong, and secondly, for inspiring me with amazing sisters to serve with, to love and teach his beautiful daughters. We were sustained as a new presidency on Feb. 21 and was able to take part in New Beginnings on Feb. 28. The girls that took part in putting on the program are so full of the Spirit and have such strong testimonies, I couldn't help but be overcome with LOVE and JOY for them. I am so lucky and so blessed to be able to work with them!!

So, if any of you have any great advice to give, or fun activity ideas...please, send them my way!!

And it came to pass.....

.....that Matt has been called to serve as the 1st Counselor in the

Monroe 4th Ward Bishopric.

(I just had to steal that title and first line, along with the photo from

Matt's mom's blog...THNX!)

Yeah, we thought he was feeling a little overwhelmed before...HaHaHa!! We were definitely surprised by this call, considering the fact that we moved to Monroe a mere 3 months ago. It just goes to show that the Lord is all knowing, and when we trust in Him and follow the promptings of the Spirit amazing things can happen. It is something you never really hope for and you wonder how you will ever survive it. But the sense of peace that comes over you and the increase in Spirit that abounds is just AWEsome!! And when I already had so much love and admiration for my husband that I couldn't imagine loving him any more, it increased ten fold. To see him as a servant of the Lord and putting all his trust in Him has been very inspiring. I am so grateful for the wonderful man I get to spend eternity with!! I know our lives will be greatly blessed because of his service.

So much for "Doing Better"!!

Sorry to say, I'm really not doing any better. I haven't been keeping you all very updated on here, I haven't been cutting back on the chocolate and Dr. Pepper I'm so addicted to, I haven't started any kind of exercise routine like I was hoping to do, and I think I've become lazier than I ever have been!! Wow, that feels like a real slap in the face to actually write it out and read it...maybe that's what I should've done a long time ago!! Well, enough of my wallowing in self pity...let's get around to the updates, shall we?!!!

Matt, is still really enjoying his job and the people he works with. He is having a lot of training right now, which means 2-3 days a week driving down to Cedar City for meetings and that can be a real drag, but it will soon be over!! He has also started the EMT Training Course down here so he can start running on the ambulance for an additional income whenever possible. That's been a little trying on him since it is every Friday from 5-10 pm and Saturday from 8 am -5 pm for the next month and a half, but it will definitely be worth it when it's over!! And to top it all off he's been called to teach the adult Gospel Doctrine class in our ward...can you say "oVerWhelMed"!?! He has alot on his plate right now but he is doing so well dealing with it all...and we know it will all be worth it in the end!! Hang in there, Babe!!

I have just been doing the regular wife and motherly duties...wishing there was more I could do to help take away some of Matt's burdens, but all I know to do is keep supporting him; so, that I will!!! I also received a calling in our new ward to be an Activity Days leader (which I must admit I was a little disappointed with at first, only because Sydney is going out just in time for me to be going in). We had our first activity last Friday and it was pretty fun, I know I will enjoy working with those girls. I am also training to become a Peer Parent, through the DCFS Program. I will be trained to go into homes of families in crisis and help teach the parents basic parenting skills...i.e. , communication, nurturing, disciplining, budgeting, cleaning. I am feeling a little intimidated by it, but I think it will help me alot just in dealing with my own children, and I really hope I can help some of those poor families.

Sydney just had her 12th birthday!! We celebrated by having a sleepover party with eight new girlfriends, it was definitely a FUN, but wild and crazy night!! She finally got the cell phone she's been asking for, we'll see how long she can keep it!! She also just completed her first term at SS Middle School, and I am very proud of her accomplishments. We had a pretty rough transition with moving into a new environment and curriculum part way into the school year, but she seems to be getting it much easier now!! She is dealing with her broken arm very well, can do just about everything with her cast on....and we were very lucky that it didn't have to be reset after the break, just cast. And lastly, with Syd turning 12 she has graduated from Primary into YW and you'd think she's died and gone to Heaven!! She absolutely loves it, and of course, who wouldn't!! She also worked hard to earn her Faith in God Award by memorizing all the AofF and passing off many other goals, way to go sis, we're proud of you!!

Stetson has just been keeping busy playing with his friends, and dominating the rest of the boys in football at recess!! He seems to be constantly bruised and banged up somewhere, but he loves it....it just shows how tough he is I guess. He did have a little run in with a dog 2 weeks before Christmas, and it taught him that he's not invincible!! Him and a friend were walking home from school on Friday, Dec. 11th when a dog came running from a house and just took Stetson down. He jumped up and tried to run but the dog grabbed hold of him again, and because the roads were snow-packed and slick, Stetson couldn't really get his footing to try and get away. His friend was kicking at the dog trying to get him off Stetson, but wasn't having much luck, until the owner of the dog came running out to the street to rescue him. We just happened to be driving up the road and saw the whole thing go down (unfortunately, just a minute too late to prevent it from happening). We took Stetson home to investigate the extent of his wounds, he had a bite mark and big bruise on the inside of his right bicep and an L shaped gash on the back of his right shoulder. Matt called the Sheriffs Dept. immediately and they asked us to meet them at the hospital to fill out a report. So off we went to the Hospital; Stetson luckily didn't need stitches or a shot, just bandaged up and we were good to go. The dog was taken into custody by the Sheriffs Dept. and checked for rabies, and then was put down. (Too bad that wasn't done after one of the other two times this dog bit other people!) Anyway, Stetson now has two good scars to show off to his friends, but it unfortunately has taken away any trust he had in dogs.

Sadie is still doing awesome with her reading and writing her #'s 1-100, she's constantly sounding out words and doing things to prove to us how smart she is! Her and Sydney have been doing the Mini Cheer Clinic with the High School this week and she just loves it, I love watching her do something she has so much fun doing!!

And McCrae is still bored with mom and can't wait 'til he can go to preschool. He loves to do Sadie's homework with her and knows way too much for a kid that can't start school for another year and a half. He's also made a couple of friends that he loves to play with any time he gets the chance!

So, that's pretty much it....the low-down on the Crazy Cox Bunch!! We hope all is going as well for the rest of you, XOXO!!