I can almost count the days on my fingers!!!

I know we've been major slackers lately keeping up on our blog. It happens ;-) I chalk it up to the fact that we've got a big trip planned on the 21st. I'm soooooo excited about this trip. First of all, Shawn and I could really use the break from reality. Also, Oakley's just at such a fun age right now, I can't wait for my family to see him. He shows off, mimics, plays, and even tells his own jokes-it'll be so much fun! We are flying back to PA then driving straight down to VA for my big brother's graduation from UVA Law. On the way down to VA, we are stopping at some long-time friends house and visiting them for a day/night. From my brothers graduation, we are heading straight to a sea-side condo in the Chesapeake Bay where we will spend the week playing games, fishing, crabbing, and playing on the beach with some other long-time friends. From there, we head back up to PA, drop Shawn off at the Philly airport for his return flight, and continue straight up to another condo in the Poconos. There, we get to do the same thing...play, swim, relax! After that week, we go back to my parents' house where we get to go to my little brother's high school graduation, spend a few more days visiting, then fly back to UT. There will be a lot of driving involved, but it will soooooooo be worth it! I can't wait!!!

Sneaky Little Devil

I went downstairs to trim my family's hair and this is what I found.

After searching the entire basement for close to an hour, I started getting a little suspicious of Oakley's toy trike. My suspicions proved correct when I found

this...sneaky little devil!!!

Model Train Show

For the past few years, Shawn has gotten so excited about the Model Train Show at the Union Station. Every year, we've forgotten about it and missed it. This year, I even put it in my trusty phone. It reminded me about it, we hopped in the car, and went! Oakley liked it, but got bored with it pretty quickly. I think he'd appreciate it a little more next year.

Oakley ignored the trains at first and ran straight into the Car Museum. He got a little mad at the fact that he couldn't grab them and play with them.

Watching the trains go 'round

I took this pic, noticed Oakley's face, and tried for another one. I was so focused on Oakley's face that I took another one and didn't even notice my hubby.

This is what I saw when we got home...what to do with him?!

It was amazing to see all the detail they put into the models. I'm glad Shawn's not quite as obsessed with his trains.

My B-Day

It's hard to believe you're only 25 when your body feels twice that old! I got to celebrate with my 3 favorite men. The two that live with me, of course, and my dad got to fly out and visit his grandson! He told me it was for my birthday, but I know the real reason my parents make these semi-monthly trips!!! Shawn teases me every year for being able to drag my birthday out all week. It's just mad skill ;-) Before I knew my dad was flying out, I was a little bummed because Shawn was going to be at work all day, then he had physical therapy right afterwards, and as soon as he got home, I'd have to go coach bball so I wouldn't really get to see him at all. He ended up surprising me before he left for work, then I got to spend the day with my dad. He took me to Ruby River for lunch, and to Target for a little birthday shopping! Anyways, it turned out to be a really good birthweek.I got to celebrate with friends, and lot of family. Oakley's favourite present that I got was a yard full of balloons.

I had some issues with the layout-sorry! The first is of my dad and Oakley at lunch on my bday. They were dancing to the music, but of course, as I pulled my phone out, they stopped. The second one doesn't have sound for some reason, but I like the fact that it looks like an old silent movie. Just imagine him running up to each balloon, and yelling at them in his "tough guy" voice, then laughing hysterically when they wiggle!

Valentine's Day...long overdue!

Due to my pneumonia-induced laziness lately, I haven't gotten around to updating my blog. I wanted to share our Valentine's Day fun. Shawn and I celebrated the Saturday before because we had a free babysitter! On Sunday, it's our tradition to make heart-shaped pancakes and have a red/pink breakfast. My sister got to come up and celebrate with us, also. We were looking forward to a fun sister's weekend, but instead, I was sick so she just got to help with Oakley (which I don't think she really minded!) I had made cookie dough to cook on Valentines Day. She and Oakley got to make the cookies.

These are Oakley's cookies-he'd grab the extras, roll them into "balls", and throw them onto the pan. He also was copying Larissa cutting out the cookies by stabbing them with the spatula after they were on the pan. They still tasted delicious, though!

She took him for a walk afterwards and he came back all sweaty. This is what we do to him when his hair's wet like this...poor kid!

Pics finally!

Here are the pics I've been promising ;-) This is a glimpse into our lives last month.

I added this one just because it blows me away every time I see it. It doesn't look anything like the Oakmeister, but it's him!

The real Little Man


Helping Bobshi shovel the driveway the day of Shawn's surgery. Yes, that's my crazy hubby in the shorts!!

Bobshi helped Little Man build a snow slide to play on...it was his favorite!

Bobshi spoiled me rotten...we got to watch movies on her computer

and she bought me a new bike to ride around the house

He got to play with Grandma and Grandpa, too. (Shawn's parents)

Here's the gang vegging after our surgeries-Oakster's helping us feel much better

Helping Daddy do his stretches

Oakster entertained us while we vegged

This is his favorite hat-it's half of his shapesorter!

Our "basement dweller" had carpet put in our basement-it looks so much better!!!

My life as a game of Charades

I'm starting to feel really guilty because every time I check up on friends' blogs, I see my blog on their list of blogs, and see "1 month ago" under ours. Shame on me. I really don't have an excuse for it, either-we've been doing nothing but sitting around at our house! We just haven't quite felt up to it, though-here's the story.
Back in November, I needed to get my tonsils out, but we decided to wait until the new year to start out fresh on our insurance since I was no where near meeting our maximum out of pocket for last year. I scheduled it for Jan. 14th because my mom was flying out to help with Oakley and she found a good deal then. I had everything ready for my surgery. The Saturday before the 14th, we went sledding at a park near our house. Shawn decided to go crazy and blow out his knee. It was actually a recurring problem from his mission, but this time, he couldn't get his knee to "pop" back in place. We took him to the doc and he said he needed surgery asap. (yay!) Luckily, my mom was here to help out ( I don't think she minded being around her grandson for 3 weeks!), and we have an awesome ward that took great care of us! Did I mention we thought Oakley broke his ankle during this time, too? He had a lot of swelling, but luckily it was just a sprain. (It sure was fun to hold him down to take the xrays!)

There were many good things that came from my silence and our surgeries, though.

1.)It took such an effort to get my point across, that I only tried when it was really important. It forced me to realize what was truly important.

2.) I realized my sweet hubby knows me so well that I didn't even have to say anything. He was really good at predicting my needs and taking care of me sometimes before I even knew I needed anything.

3.) Oakley because very good at reading body language as well. It pained me to not be able to say "I love you", but he knew I did ;-)

4.) Shawn and I were both "couch-ridden" and unable to pick Oakley up, so over the last few weeks, he has become extremely cuddly. I love it! He'll randomly walk up to us all the time now, and just give our legs great big bear hugs.

5.) We are all healthier now!!!


P.S. For anyone needing a tonsillectomy, here's a word of advise. If you ever feel the urge to cough, simply take a drink instead. Life will be so much better!!!

E-I-E-I-O

During our trip back East, we got to visit with some good family friends that made the trek down from NY for Chocolate Days. One of their little boys was singing his new favorite song, Old MacDonald. Odie Toadie here picked up on it, and has been saying E-I-E-I-O ever since. This video shows the first time he actually said it at the appropriate time. Now we're working on the animal sounds ;-)

About Time!

Due to the fact that our camera has been kaputt for the last few months, I have failed to post anything new. I have a hard time posting without pictures...even this is hard for me! It just seems pointless to post without pictures to add to the stories (and show off my little man, of course). But, I've neglected it for so long, I need to add something. Maybe Santa will bring me a new camera so I can start back up for real.

Anyways, to update since then, we've been staying pretty busy. I got to go back home to PA for our family's annual Chocolate Days. This event cannot physically be missed by any sane person. We spent the entire week with chocolate covered hands...yum! I felt bad having to leave Shawn home alone, but I made up for it when I brought chocolates back for him. We were there over Halloween, also. Oakley was dressed as Bam Bam and his little girl friend was a cute red-headed Pebbles. My mom is supposedly sending a CD with some pics of them on it, so I'll "supposedly" post those later.

We decided to put a new, wider garage door on our garage. In order to do that, we (by we, I mean my hubby and his cousin the framer) had to clean out the garage, and reframe for the wider door. The cleaning out the garage part took about a month for us to actually sort out. It was all worth it, though. We now have a beautiful new garage door, the boat is out of the snow, and we'll be painting our house in the spring when the weather cooperates.

During this garage ordeal, we decided to rent out half of our basement to a friend of ours. We have never used the apartment as that, so we had 4 years worth of storage, aka junk, sprawling all over the apartment. I have spent every free minute down there sorting and tossing and organizing and cleaning...yay fun. I'm excited to have her down there, though. She'll be the perfect renter-she's rarely home. It will be nice to have the little extra income, as well.

And now that Thanksgiving is almost over, it's time to start the Christmas prep. My sis is up visiting, and we're going to put Christmas up tomorrow (the earliest I've ever gotten around to it!). That is, after Shawn and I get our Black Friday shopping in! That reminds me, we're getting up early...I better start thinking about bed time.

P.S. I need everyone to tell Santa that I've been a good girl so I can get a camera!!!

Wipeout!

I posted this video on Facebook, but it's good enough for my blog, also! We headed up to Bear Lake over this Labor Day weekend and had a blast!



Bear Lake is my all time favorite place to boat because I'm a fanatic about having to be able to see my feet in the water. I hate stepping on mushy, slimy things without knowing what it is. At the lake, nothing is mushy! It's just super fine sand and crystal clear water-no wonder they call it the Caribbean of the Rockies. It was a little different, however-the water peaks at about 70 degrees. That never stops us, though. We camped all weekend and had a wonderful time boating. On Monday, Shawn't cousins came up with a few other friends and rented wave runners, so we got to play on them for a little while also.
This video I made for my sister and her roommates to remember the trip by, and I have another video of Oakster, but my computer is acting up, so I will have to add that in later. Enjoy!

Ready to Take on the World!

After only 4 months in the making, the Oakster has finally decided to take his first real steps. Since he was about 11 months old, he was walking (assisted of course) pretty well. We kept saying, "Oh, it'll only be a few weeks til he's going on his own". Month after month, he was still at the exact same place he had started the month before. After awhile, we realized he was going to start walking as soon as it was his idea. That's exactly what he did. Just yesterday, he let go of the couch and walked acrossed the room towards a toy. He tried about 4 or 5 times and that was all he needed. As soon as he woke up today, he would do nothing but walk. He was exploring everything. He loved transitioning between the carpet and tile...back and forth and back and forth. So, for all you family members that have been harassing me about my blog updates-this one's for you!

R & R

I'm not sure you'd really call it rest and relaxation, but it's vacation at least! We have been crazy crazy since June. As soon as girl's camp was over, Shawn was laid off temporarily. This actually came as a huge blessing in disguise we're now realizing.

My parents and Ian flew in that next week for a visit. It's funny-before we had Oakley, we saw my family once a year (sometimes twice if they came out for a grandparent's birthday). This past year alone, we've seen them four times and we already have another trip planned in August! Anyway, with Oakley now being "detached", my parents were able to watch him all they wanted. Shawn and I definitely enjoyed that! Although, my camera decided to break on me so I'll have to post pictures of everything when I can snag them from my mom.

The first major happening was the first ever Cox Family Reunion. Everyone on my dad's side of the family met down in Fairview (where my grandpa grew up) for a weekend of fun and games. The cabin we stayed in was some distant relatives and it was HUGE with a pool table, ping pong table, and air hockey table in the basement. My cousin also thought to bring his pistol for fun so we got to shoot at some makeshift targets. There were also horses to see and a lot of hiking trails to visit. We also were able to make it down Manti for the last performance of the Manti pageant this year. None of us had ever been, so it was a good night. (the Hill Camorah pageant is still my favorite, though!) We got to spend a lot of time with our cousins the live in Vegas so it was really fun to get to know them better and play games!

The next week was filled with a lot of visits. It seemed like my parents had Oakley almost every day, so Shawn and I were able to spend time alone and get a lot of projects done around our house. A lot of the visits were to the doctor, though. This was another we're glad Shawn had the time off work. He finally had no excuse to not go the doctor. He's had a recurring problem that was starting to happen a lot more frequently. He would lose feeling and muscle control in both his legs and just drop wherever he was. The first few times it happened, I actually just laughed at him (it was really funny-you would have laughed too!). But when it kept happening, I knew something wasn't quite right. So, after a month of XRAYs, MRIs, MRAs, EMGs, and LOTS of blood work (Shawn never even passed out-I'm so proud of him!), he still loses control and we have no idea why! But, we can relax because the neurologist has ruled out all of the "really bad" things and has just determined that for some reason, Shawn's spinal chord isn't getting adequate blood flow and simply told him to take baby aspirin. Which, trying to get Shawn to take any kind of medicine is almost as hard as pushing a rope-it's just not going to happen! But hopefully he'll start taking it and notice a break from the symptoms.

While Shawn is still off, we're just enjoying the freedom we have. Our camper is loaded and packed so we can (and have)just get up and go whenever and wherever we choose. We've also enjoyed spending time in our boat, which Shawn definitely enjoyed restoring the shine to. We've been up to Bear Lake, Pineview, and Willard but love to explore new boating places. So, if you know of any-share the wealth! We even got my parents to go camping with us up to Bear Lake! They were such troopers. Honestly, I think the fact that Oakley was up there with us sealed the deal ;-)

They left last week but we never really had to say good-bye. We have a trip planned to go see Brady in Dallas the first week of August. We'll be in a condo by a lake with nothing to distract and bother us (besides each other!). I'm definitely looking forward to it. Shawn and I are acually going a few days before my parents, Ian, and Larissa get there so we will get some good visiting in with Brady and Casey before we leave for the condo. Oakley was just about 6 months old when they saw him last, so they'll have a little more fun with him this time!

Oakley saw his first firework show last night up at Weber State. They have a huge production for the 24th of July (which is a holiday here in UT for 'something'). I thought the loud noises would scare him more than they did. He was waaay tired by the time they started, but he loved every minute of them. At one point, he started shaking and I couldn't tell if he was just so excited or scared. I then heard him laughing and clapping, so I was relieved! He absolutely loved them, and crashed hard last night!

Other than that, we're staying busy this week making our apricot jam. I love the smell that lingers in my kitchen! My neighbor is going to give us a bunch of her grapes when they ripen, also-I'm excited to do those! I'm definitely looking forward to our peaches, too. They'll be really ready in a couple years because we just planted them last fall. I did leave just a couple on each tree this year as a "sneak peek".

Well, until next time (when I have pics)! Keep smiling!!!

Oakley's Portraits

We finally went and got professional portraits done of Oakley. It's been an entire year, and we hadn't gotten any portraits until now. It's not like he doesn't have enough pictures of him (taken by Bobshi primarily) plastered all over our house! He was getting really tired and was ready for a nap as soon as we got to the studio. And the photographer (whom I had little faith in until after I saw the pictures she did get) kept trying to get him to sit on her red light. Now, imagine how hard and frustrating it was to try to get him to stay still-all he wanted to do was rummage through all the props. On top of that, she wouldn't take the picture unless he was looking right at her, so I thought she bypassed so many good opportunities to click just because he wasn't looking. But, like I said, they turned out wonderful-I was so surprised!!!