Family Photos

Back around Thanksgiving, we had our friend Courtney Navey at Always Autumn Studios take some family photos.  Courtney and Jeremy worked together at Southeastern and we are happy that the friendship has sustained over the years. The Naveys really are the most precious couple!

Courtney met us at NC State's Arboretum (we were in town for the holiday) and we were able to get some great shots.  Unfortunately Owen was in a funky mood and didn't want to smile for pictures. He finally warmed up to the end.

There are way too many to post so you can find the album here on Facebook. 
 

Oliver @ 13 Months

"My baby" is Owen's most used phrase lately when referring to Oliver.  Sadly Oliver is seeming more and more like a toddler these days than a baby.

At 13 months, he:

• is taking 2 1-hour naps a day and sleeps about 12-13 hours a night.
• wearing 12-18 month clothes
• can walk about 3 or 4 steps before lunging at you to catch him.
• has developed a huge appetite; many nights he can out eat his older brother.  He has been refusing/spitting out most of his veggies now, but we're not giving up.
• can say the following words: Daddy, uh-oh, no, nana, mama, done
• loves the Little People farm set and balls of any size
• like most kids..loves to throw items of his tray at dinner and say uh-oh. He loves to get a reaction from you.
• wants whatever his brother has or wants to do whatever he is doing.
• starting to finally sit still and listen to an entire book.
• really likes to color/scribble

DIY Laundry Detergent

It's no secret that I like to save money and am obsessed with Pinterest. This past week I was running low on laundry soap so I decided to try one of pins on Pinterest. My sister in law Lauren passed on a recipe she found too that was similar.

Seriously this couldn't have been any easier. It's 3 ingredients, all on the same shelf at Harris Teeter.

The recipe is:

1 cup of Borax
1 cup of Washing Soda
1 bar of soap (It called for Fels-Naptha, but others said you could also use Ivory, Pure & Natural or Zotex. I used Pure and natural because I had some already)

First step is to grate the bar of soap.  Fels-Naptha supposedly looks like cheddar cheese when you grate it, but Pure and Natural made a fine white grain, which I liked even though it easily went up your nose.)

It grated to about one cup. I then added the cup of borax and a cup of washing soda.  I stirred it around really good. 

I put the final three cups into a Rubbermaid container and volia, I have laundry soap.  You use 1 tbs. per load of laundry and it makes 64 loads. I used very little of the Borax and Washing Soda, so I can make TONS more.  I think somewhere said you would use 10 bars of soap for each box. 

The results: I think it did a good job! My clothes came out clean and fresh. 

So I've had people ask me does it really come out cheaper than buying laundry detergent on sale with coupons.  YES! I figured even with coupons and a good deal, I would spend about 6 cents a load.  With this, a PENNY a load! 

I mean really it was so easy, why not make it and save a little money in the process?! I know exactly what's in our laundry soap...it's a natural..and cheap...can't get much better than that.

Project 365

We are attempting it again this year...Project 365. We are attempting to take a picture every day for the year of 2012. Hopefully this year it will be easier this year with my IPhone (sorry if the picture quality isn't as high quality because of this). So head over and check it out. The Coxes' Project 365.

Christmas Day and After

Another tradition we want to institute is having the boys wake up at our house on Christmas morning. We would love for all (both sides) to join us if they can (knowing it's not always possible).  This year my parents wanted to join us to be able to experience Christmas morning with the boys. If you're going to be here to see it you have to be here early as our boys are early risers.  Christmas morning we were up at 7 and my parents actually made it over before the boys woke up. :)

**A little side note: We have decided not to do Santa.  I know this is crazy to people (including my parents) but we really feel like we want to keep the focus on the true meaning of Christmas, which is Jesus' birth.  Luckily Owen doesn't really understand the whole Santa thing yet and hasn't really asked who he is.  Our main points against Santa is that we don't want to lie to them and we want them to be able to have a spirit of gratitude to those who give them gifts (and really it's just kind of creepy that a man knows your every move and then comes down your chimney).  We really want Christmas to be about Jesus and not just presents.** If you would like to read, some of these blogs have summed up pretty well our thoughts. My friend Courtney summed up some of my thoughts and answers to questions others have asked us. You can read them over at her blog The Sheltons. **

Though we don't do Santa, we did have the kids presents set up waiting for them when they woke up.  Owen's big gift was an easel while Oliver got 2 ride-on type toys. They had some smaller gifts wrapped under the big ones.

Here we are coming down the stairs (this is an AWFUL picture of me, but I wanted to document the moment)

 Oliver loved his rocking motorcycle 

Owen asking what's going on

Checking out Oliver's presents

Owen got the Melissa & Doug cutting food set

Oliver opening his presents with Papa

Owen loved his new Toy Story lunchbox

"A bright flash Mommy for this early in the morning." :) 

 Another set of Lincoln Logs (he got 3 sets this year!)

 Oliver loved the paper more than the presents sometimes

Owen got cowboy boots and hat (He calls them his Woody (from Toy Story) hat and boots)

  More presents

 The rest of us got presents too, but it was definitely more exciting watching the boys.  The boys got so much stuff this season that they didn't know what to do with it all. They were very blessed by all those who loved them.

We spent the day playing with all our new toys, eating, napping, and eating some more.  Brandon and Lauren joined us the next day for round 2. Sadly I didn't really take any pictures.

The boys love their Uncle BP (thought their faces don't show it here).

Lauren knitted Oliver this adorable owl hat.  It's a tad big so Owen has gladly taken it over.

It was a great Christmas and we loved being able to share it with the ones we love. 

Christmas Eve

This year Jeremy and I decided we want to start our own family traditions.  One thing we felt like was very important was for the family to go together to Christmas Eve service at our church.  I grew up always going to Christmas Eve service and we liked how it really put us in the mind set of the true meaning of Christmas.

This year our church had multiple services, but we chose the family friendly service with the kids' Christmas pageant.  Owen enjoyed watching all the little ones dressed us as angels, shepherds, and farm animals. It was neat to see him connect the Christmas story we had read over and over this season to the characters.  Next year he'll be old enough to participate and we are hopeful that he will want to be a part of it.

We attempted to take some pictures in front of the tree while we were all dressed nicely, but of course the boys didn't cooperate. Therefore we did them in shifts.

After the service, we can home took naps and prepared our big Christmas Eve dinner of lasagna and salad. My parents and grandma joined us for dinner and they watched the boys exchange gifts from each other. We again attempted to get a cute picture of the boys in their matching pajamas, but as you can tell they weren't interested. 

The boys luckily went to bed very easily that night.  After they were off to dreamland, Jeremy and I worked to get their presents ready for the morning.

A Cox Christmas

Please forgive me for the delay in posting about the holidays. We are having computer issues around here, which make it difficult to download pictures from our fancy camera. :) I have to forewarn you that I was horrible about taking pictures this Christmas season. I guess I was having too much fun being part of the moment. :)

First up, the Cox family Christmas. Sadly the whole gang wasn't together but we did enjoy celebrated with Emma, Morris, and the Caparolies.

An attempt to get a picture of all 5 grandkids.  Seriously this was the best one out of 10. It's hard to get everyone looking, let alone sit still.

 Landon, Nathan, and Bryson

Owen opening his present from the Caparolies

 Owen got his 1st set of Lincoln Logs from his grandparents

 Oliver got a super cute digger from his grandparents, but he decided to steal his cousin's present

We had a great time celebrating, though we took very little pictures. Hopefully next year we can get the whole gang together.