So I went to the  dentist today and found out I had a cavity.  Ugh!  My hygienist asked if I ate candy.  Um yes, chocolate candy especially is good like whenever!  I’ve done everything right: I use my Sonicare toothbrush 2x daily and I’ve even upped the flossing count per week.  I make sure popcorn kernels get removed and I also like to chew gum.  I guess I’ve got to cut back on the sugary sweets.  I have a mouth full of fillings so it’s not like this is anything new.  It’s just a reality check that I’m not invincible and should maybe start eating less candy sweets to ensure I still have real teeth later to enjoy the sweeter things in life.

Luckily this new dentist trusted me when I said I don’t need a shot.  Just drill and fill and let me go home.  Why do dentists insist on numbing people all the time?  I get more worked up and nervous for the silly little shot than I do for the drill.

I’ve been attending free sewing lessons weekly since before Christmas.  The idea was to start on a rag quilt and dedicate my weekly sewing hour to finishing it.  Well along the way I’ve stumbled upon clothes in this house with missing buttons, hand me down pants for the boys that have holes in the knees and other places as well, shirts that have little rips or tears, dish towels needing mending, some camis that are too long, and hubby’s pants that are shredding at the bottom, because they’re too long and drag on the ground.  Well my mending pile has become so large that I’ve been abandoning that rag quilt for months, because fixing these clothing items have taken over! 

Well I broke out the sewing machine last night and today and repaired just about everything in my large heap.  The good news is I have learned how to successfully fix all of these minor clothing problems.  I can fix my own clothes!  That’s about as exciting as yelling “I’m debt free!” to Dave Ramsey honestly.  I think I’ve fixed 12 things and have 3 more that require some expert guidance before I attempt them. This doesn’t include the 1 or 2 items I’ve been taking to my weekly sewing lessons for the past couple of months!  My theme for year is “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!  I’m hoping the fix it pile is empty soon so I can get back to attending water aerobics (sewing and water aerobics are scheduled during the same time.)  Anyone up for free water aerobics on Tues and Thurs evenings?

So we’ve been potty training on and off again since like, oh, age 18 months.  Well we stumbled upon something today that just might help someone else out there who’s struggling as much as I have!  Make a stop at the casino!  Why?  There’s nothing cooler to a kid than an automatic flushing toilet and automatic sink with an automatic hand soap dispenser right next to it!  We had to call daddy as soon as our hands were dry and ask if we could get an toilet that flushes all by itself for our house!  I think this was a turning point in our toilet training adventures.

Apparently Mikey has never seen a girl’s swimsuit, because as I tore opened the box and was holding mine up (I ordered it online. YES, stupid I know, but it was a REALLY great deal!) Mikey gave me the weirdest look and said, “Mom, that swimsuit isn’t as big as you are.  It’s kind of small and it doesn’t cover you like your shirt does.  And those holes are for… your… legs???” 

I busted up laughing and then preceeded to show him guy and girl swimsuit models in the JC Penney’s ad so he could understand the whole swimsuit look.  All this at the tender age of 3! 

So it’s time to open a new bottle of gummy vitamins and guess who couldn’t get the silly “child proof” lid off the bottle?  I tried and tried and finally handed to Mikey and told him to take it to Mike to open.  Mikey said, “Let me do it” and seriously after a few twists and turns he got the lid off with hardly any trouble at all!  I couldn’t believe it!  Maybe he could balance the checkbook next!

My husband came home with some free RedBox flicks and one was “Twilight”!  My husband, on his own, rented “Twilight”!  I couldn’t believe it!

Now that’s true love right there- renting the most popular chick flick out there all because you want to spend time with your wife!  Wow!  I’m still in shock!

I kind of missed posting about Josh at 13 months so we’ll just combine the 2!

I love babies at this stage.  Sure makes going through the newborn stage hard, but at least the fun stages are not too far off.  Josh has developed by leaps and bounds in the past 2 months!  He is so much fun and keeps us following at a close distance behind him.

- He signs food, milk, and more

- Can pull himself up to standing position and scale along the couch

-Climbs the stairs every night to go take a bath

- Turns onto his stomach to get off of beds, go down stairs, and slide off couches

- Has only worn shoes twice.  He prefers to be barefoot and isn’t afraid to climb over rocks to get to where he wants to be

-Moos like a cow when  prompted

-Covers his eyes to play peek a boo

- Blows kisses and gives slobery kisses to you before going to bed

-Takes a nap at 10am and 4pm on the dot.  (Such a nice good baby for still taking 2 naps!)

- Prefers touching cats rather than dogs

- Tries to tickle Mikey and enjoys climbing all over him

- Can spot a dessert or soda from a table away and has quite a sweet tooth.  Has taken a liking to Grandma’s homemade rootbeer and can drink it from a cup with some help. (Serves me right for eating sweets my entire pregnancy with him!)

-Stays with Daddy during 2nd and 3rd hour for church, but in a few months he’ll be able to attend nursery with Mom.

- Crawls regular and gets to where he’s going fast!

-Weighs about 18lbs

- Has tried eating rocks on numerous occassions in the backyard.

- Waves bye-bye to anyone and everyone

- Climbs in the dishwasher to help often

- Opens the bathroom drawers to play with Qtips and cotton balls

-Pulls all my shoes off their rack every morning in the closet

-Still prefers Mommy over Daddy, but is becoming more of a Daddy fan every day.

-Loves to play with balloons, pinwheels, and anything with small holes for his fingers.

-Stands and pushes the play shopping cart across the family room and soon I’m sure we’ll be recording his first steps!

I kind of think I should just unload my camera’s pics at the end of the month and then blog a recap of important events to go along with the select few pictures.  Sounds easy and organized in my mind at least!

Well, let’s start where we still remember what was happening:

Anniversary- Mike and I have been married for a mere 5 years.  All is well in the Cox House of Fun.  We spend more time apart than together, but nightschool ends soon and I definitely have more time with my new calling.  Do we argue and disagree?  Of course, but when it comes down to it, we love eachother and have only knocked out 5 years of an eternity.  We are so in this for the long run.  Love you babe!  And since the “traditional” gift for a 5 year anniversary is wood, Mike was creative and got me a gift card to Home Depot knowing I would buy my materials to make my square foot garden boxes.  He also got me a gift card to Michael’s craft store to maybe buy some wood craft project and a gift card to Old Navy to buy something to wear that’s not wood!?!  Combine that with my $45 dollar off coupon and you’ve got a great deal to go shopping!  I love creative thinking for presents outside of the box- ha ha, no pun intended

Daddy’s Little Helper

Easter: We have a tradition to invite Mike’s ATech HS friends and their kids over for an potluck picnic and Easter egg hunt at the park behind our house.  This was our 3rd annual Easter Eggstravaganza and we opened it up to our neighborhood group and church friends and had a record 45 people!  I didn’t even say hi to everyone, because I was making sure the food table was well stocked, but everyone ate, kids got to hunt for eggs, and then they all left!  Worked out great in my opinion =o)

Walking on the Wall

My 3 Boys

 

Sharing the Loot

Maddy, Joshy, Mikey, Rachel

 

My 1st Homemade Pizza

Ta Da

 

Hidden Eggs in the Playhouse

New Calling: On Easter Eve I had a thought pop in my mind before I went to bed that the new RS presidency would be called the next day.  I bawled like a baby.  I have never had such an intense calling that pushed me to my limits, out of my comfort zone, and really made me question my beliefs and testimony.  Nothing can prepare you for a calling like that (in the RS presidency) more than going to the temple and being assured that you are doing this all for Heavenly Father and that He will provide a way and means for you to handle your calling, family, and other obligations.  I have never experienced such excruciating headaches than those on a Sunday afternoon, but I have never been able to say that I know a name and face of more than 75% of the sisters in my ward personally either.  I loved my calling, especially getting out and really getting to know the sisters.  There were struggles- food orders, a never ending revolving door of move ins and move outs like no other, and the occassional overscheduling of meetings on a school night, but I loved it.  I made up the rest of the diaper cakes (Mikey attempted to help) and was so excited to clear out my binders, manuals, and other RS things getting passed on to the new couselor which made some space in my house for food storage- yay!

My new calling is a Primary worker specifically in the nursery.  I’ll admit that I was a bit resentful at first since I would go from knowing everything about events and happenings in RS to knowing nothing since my 2 hours of the block would now be spent with 18-36month olds. But thanks to a wonderful Bishop who gave me a blessing, I can now rest assured that this is where I am supposed to be. All my worries and doubts have faded away and I honestly look forward to my huge classroom with 12 little kiddos ready and eager to learn of Jesus. The Lord needs me at this time to help foster the bity testimonies of His little ones.  I love a challenge and this is for sure a challenge!  So far I’ve relied on my college degree to help me in this area, but more importantly I’ve relied on the Lord.  That’s an important lesson right there!  I’m ready and anxious and seriously want to teach these kids to read!  I’ve got the 1st hour down as far as books and singing songs and now we just need some fine tuning to the second hour to make this little ship run smooth.  I am 1 of 3 teachers in this class actually so the extra help with crowd control really works wonders, thankgoodness for that!  This coming Sunday will be my 3rd time in there and it gets better (less behavior problems) each and every time!  Another important lesson is to take the initiative to still do the things you did before as far as reaching out to other sisters to make them feel welcomed to the ward.  And knowing about the RS activities might be a bit more difficult, but I still do what I can to find out and attend and do my part.  I am enjoying my Sunday calling and while I do miss my RS calling at times, I do know that it’s someone else’s turn to shine and serve the Lord to improve the education in RS at this time.  It’s someone else’s turn for serving and dealing with everyone else’s issues!

Diaper Cakes GaloreYum Strawberry Group Order

Murder Mystery Dinner: Did you know that the Hotel at Mt. Charleston is super cheap and is starting to offer discounts and fun events to Las Vegas locals?  Well Mike is director of IT (fancy name for being their computer fix it guy) for the company who owns and runs the place and he came across their deal to attend a Murder Mystery Dinner up there.  Add on the employee discount, invite the Lee’s to come along for the fun, get a room for the Stevensons so they could babysit the kiddos for 2 hours, get all fancied up for a real date without kiddos in tow and you’ve got yourself a really nice grown up party! 

We were told shirt and tie, but apparently our idea of formal dress and the rest of the guests ideas were way off!  Oh well!  We were the best dressed couples that evening and had fun socializing with strangers and figuring out if Cougar the golf star, London the rich movie star, the cupcake baker, or the recently unemployeed lawyer did it in the ballroom with the snow globe!  None of us won, but we had fun trying!  Oh, and Mikey got sick on the way up and puked all over my car!   And then it happened in the middle of the night on the comforter, but at least he was in his own bed at the hotel and not sleeping between us.  I don’t handle vomit very well, but this poor sick kid I think has gotten me over being afraid of puke- I didn’t have a choice really!

The Sitters-Working for Food (and a Free Room)

My Hot Date!

The Bar- 21 and Older

The Morning After

Little Cheifs

Rum Tum Tum Banging on Our Drums

Whew!  That’s a bunch in April, but I think I’m on to something doing this unload pics and blog all at once!  Stay tuned for more!

So the list grows and the spare time diminishes.  BUT.  I’m listing these so I won’t forget what’s on my mind that I need to get pics for!

Best Mother’s Day Ever!

Joshy turns 13 months AND 14 months

Easter

Coupons and my cereal addiction

My new church calling

Facebook, I’m hooked

Murder Mystery Dinner

I’m not really a fan of the restaurant like the rest of the world, but this recipe is really good and feeds a crowd.  It seems a little weird to pour a green sauce on my burrito, but the sauce is what makes it oh so good!  Thanks for the recipe mom!  Thanks for the fun evening friends and family.  While I’m at it, thanks creator of the crockpot!

Cafe’ Rio Burritos

Ingredients:

2 dz. Unbaked tortillas – buy them at Smith’s

3 lbs. Pork Roast

Cook roast with 1 cup of water on low for 9 hrs. (overnight) in a crock pot (or on high while you’re at church b/c you didn’t read the recipe the night before!!) 

When done, drain the water if there is any left.  Shred roast with two forks

Add:

¼ Cup Honey Barbecue Sauce (add more sauce if you want it juicer)

¾ Cup Catsup

½ Cup sugar

½ tsp. Garlic Salt

GREEN SAUCE – make in blender 

2/3 Cup Salsa Verde - (green salsa)

1 ½ Tbs. sugar

1 tsp. Salt

2/3 Cup Mayo

2 Tbs. Lime Juice

¼ tsp. pepper

Slowly add 1 Cup oil

¼ Cup Cilantro – BLEND

Serve the meat from the crock.  Serve green sauce from pitcher.

Mix Romaine lettuce, cut up tomatoes and cilantro in one bowl.

Serve with bowls of shredded cheese, black beans, onions.

Cook unbaked tortillas on a pancake grill until bubbly and brown.

Make the burritos with hot tortillas, pork, green sauce and sides. 

SERVES APROX. 24 

Yum yum yum delicioso!