Friday, December 31, 2010

Year in Review

It's hard to believe but 2010 is almost over! I think the years go by faster the older you get.

2010 was a busy, busy year for the Cox family! As the annual New Year's tradition, let's go back and see just what happened with the Coxes this year.

In January, eastern NC was again blanketed with another big snow. Owen saw his 2nd snow in his short little life. Again he wasn't sure how he felt about it.In February, I started working at Sylvan Learning center in the evenings. Though the pay checks were sparatic, they helped provide some supplemental income for our family. It also allowed me to get out of the house and use my degree. I also helped host a bridal shower for my soon to be sister in law Jen.
In March, we went back to Wake Forest to visit some of our friends that we missed so dearly. This month also began our year of family weddings. We kicked off the season with Jen and Adrian's wedding in Charlotte. Jeremy was a groomsmen for his brother while Owen and I watched from the seats. We love Jen and are so glad she is part of our family now!

In April, Owen finally started walking at 18 months old. This was long-awaited! This month we also started the evaluation process for Owen's development. We celebrated the death and ressurection of Jesus (Easter) with my family. The big thing this month was that we also found out we were pregnant with our 2nd child!!

May was a HUGE month! First we announced to our families that we were pregnant! My brother Brandon got engaged to Lauren. Jeremy accepted a new job in Charlotte and we began the process of looking for housing and putting our house on the market to rent. At the end of the month, we traveled to Banner Elk to be a part of Jeremy's oldest brother, Jesse's, wedding.

In June, Jeremy started his new job at Clickcom in Charlotte. Owen and I stayed behind to pack up and get ready for the move. At the end of the month, we joined Jeremy and officially became citizens of Charlotte.
In July, we had our big ultrasound and found out Owen would have a little brother. This month we also visited the ENT and Owen had surgery to put tubes in his ears.


In the beginning of August, we spent a week at the beach with the Piner family. This was Owen's first trip to the beach and we all enjoyed the time to relax and soak in the sun. After our return home, Owen had a speech evaluation which resulted in the start of weekly speech therapy. This month, we also welcomed our twin nephews, born to Jeremy's sister and her husband. Jeremy also celebrated his 28th birthday!
In September, Owen turned 2!! We celebrated with a Curious George birthday party followed by a family celebration for my mom's birthday. We also started attending the Church at Charlotte as regulars and I joined their weekly mom's group. I also joined a Bible Study fellowship group.
October brought us to our final wedding of the year. My brother Brandon and Lauren got married on 10-10-10 at her parents' house in Mooresville. We are excited to have Lauren join our family! This month we also had a physical therapy evaluation for Owen which resulted in weekly physical therapy sessions.
November was a month of projects. I did some sewing for the boys and we also worked on restoring a kitchen table we bought on Craigslist. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Cox family.
December was another big month for us! Oliver surprised us all by arriving 2.5 weeks early! We were so excited to meet him and also thankful we weren't at the hospital close to Christmas. We also celebrated my 29th birthday..a little different than originally planned but I was thankful for the best gift, Oliver. My mom stayed with us 2 different weeks and we got ready for Christmas. We spent our first Christmas at home and hosted everyone here.

2010 was definitely one for the record books! Looking back we feel truly blessed at all the Lord did in our lives. It was evident just how present His hand was in each event. We are excited to see what 2011 holds!

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Christmas Morning

Just a few pictures of our morning.

Nana helping Oliver open his stocking
Owen was really excited about his m&ms and bath crayons he got in his stocking.

A play-do set from Mommy and DaddyHandy Manny doll from Nana and Papa
He took his food set into the kitchen and emptied it out to examine it
Nana gets a Rachael Ray EVOO set
Owen's big gift from us...a tool bench
Of course I was behind the camera and there are no pictures of me, but I promise I was there. We all loved our gifts and spent the rest of the day playing with Owen and his toys.


Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas Eve

For the first time ever, we spent Christmas at our house. We were blessed to have my parents spend the holiday with us. Mom spent the whole week with us and Dad joined us on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve, we went to our church's family service, which included the preschool pageant. It was so cute and I can't wait until next year when Owen can be a little lamb. :)

In years past, my mom's mom and sister's family join us on Christmas eve. We normally have a big dinner, etc. Because our whole extended family didn't join us this year, we changed things up a bit. Instead of our normal big meal, Dad and Jeremy grilled up steaks and they were awesome. We hung out and had a really chill night. We did get some pics of the boys though in their cute Christmas pjs.

My mom found the onesie I wore my first Christmas. Since Oliver's birthday is so close to mine, it was the perfect for him. The onesie is a little fruity for him, but I thought it was neat that we could wear the same outfit.

Brotherly love. Picture with Papa
Then with Nana
Now with Mommy and Oliver

Sorry Daddy, we didn't get a picture with you. For Owen, it seemed like any other night. It won't be long for he realizes what Christmas Eve is and will be too excited to sleep. We had a very relaxing night.....well until we got up every 3 hours with Oliver. :)


Christmas Baking

Every Christmas, my mom and I have a tradition of baking lots of sweets in preparation for all the family that will soon gather together. This year traditions kind of changed when the Christmas festivities were moved to our house. We were very blessed that our family agreed to come to Charlotte so we didn't have to travel with little Oliver. Luckily Mom had the whole week off so she came early and we got to do our Christmas baking together.

This year Owen is old enough to join us in our tradition. First he helped Nana make rice crispy treats. Sampling the marshmellows

We then attempted to make sugar cookies. Normally we don't make sugar cookies as no one in our family really digs them, but Owen loves cookie cutters so we thought we would try. Also our friend Shannon sent us some fun new cookie cutters to use.

Owen was very excited to use the cookie cutters..so much so that he couldn't wait for Nana to roll out the dough.Nana finally gets the chance to roll out the dough
Placing all the fun shapes
Placing the cookies on the baking stone...notice how messy his shirt got.

So our recipe was not a good one and our cookies didn't look that great but we had fun making them. We did decorate the cookies the next day (sorry no pics) with icing and sprinkles. Owen really enjoyed shaking on the sprinkles.

Though the sugar cookies were a bust, we did make many super yummy treats. Our new treat this year was extremely easy but so addicting. You melt a bar of almond bark in a big bowl and throw in a box of Golden Graham cereal. You then lay it out on a piece of wax paper and let it harden. You then break into pieces. IT IS SO GOOD! We also made chocolate covered peanut butter pretzels, chocolate chip cookies, and rice crispy treats. Mom also brought her homemade ginger snaps and a variety of old fashioned candies. I think we have been on a sugar high for days!

I love Christmas baking, especially doing it with my mom. I'm happy that Owen can join us now and I can't wait until Oliver can too. :) This is a tradition I hope will always continue.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Our 2010 Christmas Card

Charming Gift Wrap Christmas 5x7 folded card
View the entire collection of cards.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Piner Family Christmas

Today we celebrated Christmas with my dad's side of the family in Greensboro. Originally, we weren't going because it was my original due date. Thanks to Oliver's early arrival we were able to go and introduce him to everyone.

My dad and his mom, my Granny. She is obsessed with babies and I think she would have held him all day if other people didn't want a turn. Owen and Nana
My dad's sister, my Aunt Anne. Granny is looking through her photo book of pictures from my brother's wedding.
Owen got a little guitar...Papa taught him how to use it
Cousin Emma, age 5, wanted to hold Oliver.
Kissing cousins...no we're not from WV
He loves Emma though
More presents
A book and dump truck
Yep we caught you! Dorian playing with Owen's trucks
Aunt Wanda made a great lunch and we loaded up on sweets. I'm so glad we got to go and celebrate with everyone!