January 11

Sophie was the star of ALR! Seriously... everyone loved her and commented on her beauty, good nature, sweet voice, etc. She was SUCH a good baby the whole time we were gone. Sadly, I learned that red vines have gluten... the hard way. She had such an upset tummy when I ate them. Poor girl.

January 10

Sophie rolled over! I laid her on her tummy on our bed at the resort and she rolled over! The days of leaving her on beds unattended for even a moment are over!

January 9

Sophie's first limo ride! Sophie and I left the morning of January 9 for Usborne Books & More Advanced Leadership Retreat in Vegas. It was a long day for a little girl. After a 7 hour drive (including a stop for lunch) we arrived in Vegas. She did awesome the whole way down. We had a couple of hours of down time, then I needed to get ready to leave for Cirque du Soleil~ Ka. (A gift from the Usborne Home Office for making President's Club.) They don't allow children under 5 at the show, so my friends Bobbi and Suzanne and Suzanne's sister Crystal brought Sophie to the theater and entertained her and then we switched off. Watching and interacting with Sophie led Crystal to decide to pursue the adoption of a soon to be born baby girl the state offered her family. :) On the way home from the show we strapped Sophie into the limos we rode in. FYI... you know you are in Vegas when the limo has a pole for pole dancing... I'm glad she won't remember anything she saw on this little trip.

January 8

Jeremy decided it was time for the kids to start participating in the reading during family scripture study. We are little surprised with how well they read the scriptures out loud! I have listened to so many adults read aloud at church with less fluency and expression than even Ashton. We are very pleased.

January 7

Calvin got a Lightening McQueen potty for Christmas from Santa. Let's just say it was the best money Santa could have spent. We could not motivate him to even try potting training, but this did the trick. He has mastered #1 and still working on #2. :) The crazy thing is he is already waking up from naps and waking up in the morning to go potty. Yay... FINALLY!

January 6

 Jeremy bought "Insanity" work out videos. It is killer! Will and Calvin were doing it with us. Will actually had the best endurance of us all. After a few minutes, Cal was exhausted, but didn't want to admit it. He said, "I'm too busy to exercise right now." And then he went off and played with his trains. ;)

January 5

Bronson dressed up as Santa... yes those are underwear he is using for a beard. HAHAHAHA!

January 4

Katie and her friend Tamyra play dress up EVERY SINGLE TIME they get together. Today they even dressed up Kit to match! I took this picture because for a few hours Katie was actually acting like a little girl... not the teenager she *thinks* she is.

January 3

 Today William brought home his Gingerbread House he made in school. I am glad we got a picture right away because it was devoured within minutes. :)

Katie and Kiersten also got haircuts. They are donating their hair to locks of love. They turned out really cute!

 Tonight at Pack Meeting, both Ashton and Matthew received some awards. Ashton earned some belt loops and Matthew received the highest award in Cub Scouting... the Arrow of Light. He worked really hard in Cub Scouts and had a wonderful experience. He is so excited to move on to Boy Scouts and start working on his Eagle. I am really not ready for that! Arghhh!... one more thing for me to deal with! We are SUPER proud of him though!

January 2

January 2, 2012 was the first time Matthew and Katie had to go to school on their birthday. When they were younger they thought it was horrible that they didn't *get* to go to school on their special day. This year they realized they preferred a day off.

Matthew and Katie's present from Kiersten was a coupon book filled with things like a trip to Sip It, Harry Potter craft night, Psych marathon, etc. They LOVED it!

 Jeremy took the kids (minus Calvin and Sophia) and Keenan and Tamyra skating at Ephraim's new ice rink. It was SUPER cold (like 10 degrees) and they all fell a lot! Once when Katie fell her pants split from the calf to the knee! Hilarious!

This is my favorite picture of my birthday kids. We were getting family pictures taken 5 years ago and were struggling to get the littlest two (Ashton and Will) to cooperate. Matthew and Katie were tired and the photographer captured this candid shot of them snuggling. I LOVE this picture. Back then they were simply best friends. They rarely fought. Now, they can be so competitive and contentious. It makes me so sad when they fight. Although the other day I did overhear Katie, Matthew and Ashton talking and they were discussing why they fight when they are really best friends. :) Oh... that made me happy!

January 1

Calvin sat on his new potty for 6 hours... yes SIX hours... before finally "going." I really need him to be potty trained, but I wonder if changing diapers is just easier!

2012

Well... a full year has gone by without a single update on this blog! And my goal for 2013 is to take a photo every day to document our family history. At various times in my life I have had very distinct impressions that I should record my family history and the spiritual experiences we have. And sometimes I do okay, but for the last year or two I have not. But, rather than try to catch up all the way and/or beat myself up, I am deciding to just move forward from this point on. Having said that, here are a few highlights from 2012!

Katie learned some sewing basics and made this skirt for herself on her 9th Birthday. Jeremy made Katie and Matthew a fancy Mickey Mouse cake which set a standard... he had to make fancy cakes for the kids all year!

Jill went to Florida for Usborne Advanced Leadership Retreat and visited Universal Studios and Epcot. Disney during the Holidays (it was just after the new year) is amazing!

Katie received a Gold Cup in piano. She also won Reflections for her poem for the 5th year in a row.

Jr. Genius on Big Cats. Calvin adopted the stuffed tiger Jer bought for their display and named it "Baby Tiger." He sleeps with it every night, cuddles with it to watch TV and read books, and loves it! We went to the zoo for their Jr. Genius field trip.

We took an Usborne trip to Vancouver and Victoria Canada. We just had to pay for food and airline tickets for Jer and the kids... everything else was free. We had a WONDERFUL time.

A couple of months later we all went to Disneyland. We spent four days at Disneyland and California Adventure. We ALL had an amazing time and can't wait to go back!

Matthew earned his Duty to God religious square knot in Cub Scouts.

The best and most important thing that happened to us in 2012 is the birth of our sweet Sophia Belle Cox on September 15, 2012. She is such a joy and SO loved by all of us.

Here she is in blessing dress. She was blessed on the same day as Levi's mission farewell.

 

We did lots of other really fun things like ride on the North Pole Express, visit Temple Square, go on cook outs in the mountains and more! We felt the tender mercies of the Lord so many times in 2012 and are so grateful for the knowledge of His Gospel and Plan.

Even More Funny Things!

Today, Ashton and Will went to the farm with Jeremy. He had to turn some bulls into steers... if you know what I mean. The boys had seen this before, but they had never watched a "teen-age" bull get de-horned and it was a little traumatic for them. At one point Will said despairingly, "Daddy is that a nice bull." Jer said, "Yes!" and he said, "Then, why are you cutting off his horns?" When it was all said and down Ashton told Jeremy very seriously, "I hope that I forget the bloodshed!"

Later, they were cleaning junk (equipment parts, scrap metal, wood, etc.) out of an old shed to haul it away. Ashton said to Jeremy, "What you call garbage, I call building supplies." Ha ha! He is such an engineer... junk really is the best toy for him. :)

More Funny Things...

Will: I am so, so, so grateful for my family.
Me: Why are you grateful for your family.
Will: Because I love my whole family, and that includes Ashton. Ashton, I love my whole family including you.
Ashton: Thanks Will. If I didn't have my family I would just ask someone to kill me because I would want to be with them.


A few minutes later Ashton randomly said, "Mom, who invented the Internet?" I resisted the temptation to say, "Al Gore." And said, "A bunch of people who worked in the government." This was not satisfying... he wanted to know their NAMES. :)

Funny Things...

With 5 kids at our house, there is always someone saying something funny. But as I was reading the news on my computer, I *just* heard Ashton tell his cousins (as the walked in the door), "Welcome Aboard the U.S.O." I guess they are pretending our house is a ship. And that reminded me of an exchange that happened yesterday. After a not so great dentist appointment, (Katie has one cavity, Will had one filled, plus still has 3-4 more visits to get them all done, and Ashton has 5 cavities) I was driving home and heard this...

Katie: Ashton, no offense, but you don't brush your teeth good enough. That is why you have so many cavities.
Ashton: OFFENSE TAKEN!
Katie: I said, no offense!
Ashton: Well, offense is still taken!

I admit... I was laughing a lot!