Monkey see, Monkey do

Eliana loves Nicholas. She REALLY loves Nicholas. She loves everything about him - his clothes, his dog, his blanket, his toys, his cup of milk. Anything Nicholas has, Eliana wants. As I type this, she's throwing a fit because Nicholas has a granola bar and she doesn't. Does she like granola bars? {No.} Will she eat a granola bar? {No.} Will she stop crying if she's holding a granola bar like Nicholas. {Yes.}

Yesterday, two things happened that took her love of Nicholas to my breaking point. Nicholas woke up grumpy and all around disagreeably opinionated. I know, that doesn't sound at all like Nicholas. I digress . . . I told him it was time to get dressed. He looked at me and in his deepest demon voice said, "No! I don't wanna get dressed!" And then stomped off. So, I turned to Ellie and told her it was time to get dressed. She looked up at me and unleashing her inner Nicholas screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" And stomped off after him. I suppose I shouldn't have laughed, but it was so shockingly funny.

Second story: At Walmart yesterday afternoon, we happened to be perusing through the toy aisle. Eliana noticed a display of dolls. She kept saying, "baby! baby!" in her cute little voice. How could I resist? {thankfully, she wanted the $3.00 Walmart special.} I have been waiting for her to want a doll for forever. I began to dream of all the quality mother/daughter play time we could have. So I bought her the doll. She hugged it the entire time we were in the store. She hugged it all the way home. She hugged it all the way into the house. She hugged it all the way to Nicholas room. She hugged the baby until she saw him playing with airplanes. Then she stopped hugging the baby and demanded an airplane. Nicholas gave her a plane, she threw the baby on the floor and played planes with her hero. The baby has been forgotten, along with all my hopes and dreams. I am, after all, no Nicholas.

A Mother's Right {OR} The Cycle is Repeated

When I was in the third grade, I had bad hair . . . it still pains me to talk about it. My mother liked to curl my hair with her hot curlers.

{A short bob cut + a million hot curlers = bubble hair.}

My hair stuck out like an inner tube around my head. To make matters worse, my mom knew her way around a can of hair spray. That bubble hair stayed in one place ALL day long. I got a lot of compliments about my hair - you know, the kind of compliments only 9 year old kids can make. The hairstyle of '86 still haunts me. I'm sure my mom had my best interests in mind. She was only trying to add some volume to my practically bald head. And I'm sure she thought it looked good. It wasn't her fault that she wasn't privy to the Turnagain Elementary fashion world.

Relevance?

I'm sure, years from now, Eliana will tell me that I scarred her for life because of all the silliness I insisted on putting in her hair. But in my defense, the flower is so obnoxiously large, it's cute. So without further ado, may I present for your viewing pleasure

Eliana at 13 months

Alaska in a million pictures

Nicholas, Eliana and I were lucky enough to spend a few days in Alaska last week. It was a quick trip, but we had so much fun. My brother Jacob and his son Garion were visiting the same weekend, so my parents had a houseful. We've been home a week and Nicholas still hasn't adjusted back to Texas time. Today, Nicholas told me that he didn't want to go to our house - he wanted to go Grandma's house in Alaska. So here is a little photo journal of our trip. It may seem like a lot of pictures, but I'm only posting a tenth of the pictures I took {I love digital cameras!}

Eliana and my Grandpa. {There are a million pictures of the two of them . . . I'll try to limit myself to only a few.}

Garion, Eliana and Nicolas with Grandpa . . . you have to love Nicholas' face!

All the boys. Nicholas is, of course, cooperating just like we asked him to!

I love the look on Grandpa's face in the picture.

How much we miss out on by living so far away from family!

Four Generations of Cox Men.

Doggie, meet Doggie.

Nicholas meeting a future Iditarod sled dog champion.

Part of the beauty that is Alaska - Summer Flowers.

Taking the fox for a walk at the Alaska Zoo.

Now, how would you like to have this creature scrounging for food in your backyard? This is from the zoo, but black bears are common sights in some parts of Anchorage.

Check out the claws on this Grizzly!

Nicholas had fun chasing the mountain goats at the zoo.

Here's a picture of Mt. McKinley. On a clear day, you can see it from Anchorage -- which is over 130 air miles south of the mountain. Pretty impressive, no?

Mt. Susitna, otherwise known as Sleeping Lady. Can you see the sleeping lady? {Her hair is flowing off the top of her head to the left.}

The Legend of Sleeping Lady: Legend tells us that a millennia ago, the Great Land known as Alaska was inhabited by a race of giants. Among these people was a beautiful young maiden and a handsome young man whose devotion to each other was admired by all the villagers. Wedding preparations were underway when word reached the village of a warring tribe approaching from the north.

After a village council it was decided that the young man would bring gifts to the invaders to show the peaceful and friendly intentions of the villagers. Keeping herself busy while waiting for the young man's return, the maiden eventually grew tired and laid down to rest.

Soon after, word reached the village that the invaders rejected the offer of peace and a battle ensued in which the young man was killed. The villagers, gazing at the sleeping maiden, did not have the heart to wake her.

So there she rests today, still waiting for news of peace and the return of her love . . .

A shot of downtown Anchorage.

A picture of the Inlet.

My dad caught some salmon while we were there. Nicholas was fascinated with it.

Here we are posing as tourists.

We got to visit some reindeer. Nicholas called them antlers and thought they were great!

Nicholas feeding the reindeer. {This one was a little gross - he was still loosing the velvet from his antlers and it was disgusting!}

Again with the tourist poses.

Eliana didn't quite know what to make of the reindeer. She was pretty brave, though, and petted them anyway.

We couldn't resist . . . :)

Nicholas and the chocolate waterfall. He was dying to jump in!

My Grandpa.

Eliana loving the bear skin that hangs on my parents wall . . . you HAVE to love Alaska!

Embracing my inner NERD

We had a theme dinner the other night . . . we've had them before . . . but none that made us laugh so hard. A few months ago, we watched the movie Nacho Libre for the first time. And then we died laughing. There is just something about that movie that gets me laughing every time I think about it. If you don't like it, I don't think we can be friends. {I'm serious}

Anyway, if you haven't seen the movie, there's this one part where they make character salads for the orphans. So we started out our dinner that way. Sam's salad had a caterpiller on it, and Benjamin and Nicholas had happy face salads. Then we had nachos for the main dish {duh}. And for dessert, we had these in honor of all the corn on a stick munching in the show.

I looked around, but I couldn't find any ski masks, it being summer and all. If I had found some, we were going to decorate our own wrestling masks. See, the title of this post says it all - Embracing my inner nerd.

We spent the entire dinner quoting the movies. I'll leave you with some of our favorites . . .

Chancho. When you are a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room. It's for fun.

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They think I do not know a buttload of crap about the Gospel, but I do!

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Well, my favorite color is light tan. My favourite animal is puppies. I like serving the lord. Hiking, play volleyball...
You gotta be kidding me. Everything you just said, is MY favourite thing to do, every day!

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What is this?
Leftovers. Enjoy.
There is no flavor. There are no spices. Where are the chips?
Somebody stole them.
Did you not tell them that they were the Lord's chips?
I was trying to!
You are useless Ignacio!
Silence brothers! This is the worst lunch I ever had.
Your only job is to cook. Do you not realize I have had diarrhea since Easters?
Ok... Maybe I am not meant for these duties. Cooking duty. Dead guy duty. Maybe it's time for me to get a better duty!

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Summon your eagle powers.
What do you think I'm doing?
[Losing badly, about to take a big hit] Eagle powers... come to me! Please!

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Those eggs were a lie, Esqueleto. A LIE! They give me no eagle powers! The give me no nutrients!
Sorry.
I don't want to get paid to lose. I wanna win!

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I am a-singing at the party / I am singing it's my turn to sing at this party / Everyone is dancing, happy party / But Ramses is not dancing he does not dance at the parties / Ramses' number one he knows the secret of desire / Ramses is the one, he puts the people all on fire

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Where are your robes, Ignacio?
They were... stinky. These are my recreational clothes.
They look expensive.
Thank you. I mean... they might have the appearance of riches, but beneath the clothes, we find a man... and beneath the man we find... his... nucleus.
Nucleus?

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I hate orphans!
Say it to my face!
I hate them!
Come again?
I hate all the orphans in the WHOLE WORLD!

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Hug hug, kiss kiss, hug hug, big kiss, little hug, kiss kiss, little kiss.

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Back to School . . .

I join with a million other moms this morning and post about the inevitable end of summer. We're pros at back to school - this is our fifth year of the first day of school. This morning we just fell back into old routines. Tag were ripped off new clothes. Shoes were tied for the first time. Hair was gelled and combed {for the last time if Sam has his way}. Pictures were suffered through.




If I'm honest, I've been looking forward to school. Things at home have gotten increasingly chaotic, and I'm tired of playing referee. I've been eagerly anticipating a quiet{er} house. So it came as quite a shock to me when, watching my third grader sing all the words to the National Anthem, I started to tear up. In that moment I saw Sam's life flash before my eyes and I saw him growing up faster then I was ready for. I suddenly longed to have one more day of summer vacation. One more day of my kids all to myself. One more day of having them safely tucked in our home. One more day to make sure they knew how much I loved them. One more day to enjoy the miracle that they are. And as I watched my big, brave first grader tell me that I could go, I felt envious of the boys' teachers. Envious that for the next nine months they will spend more time with my boys than I will. Envious that they will get to watch the boys grow and discover daily. And for the first time I saw homeschooling in a different light.

So to Sam and Benjamin -- may you have a wonderful year of school. May you conquer the mountains of learning that await you. May you be blessed with wonderful experiences. May your lives be enriched with new friendships. And may you always be eager to come home and share every second of it with me.

I {HEART} Michael Miller

*Disclaimer -- I show these photos, not to brag, but to reaffirm my love and utter devotion to all things Michael Miller. His fabric is so perfect that even I, Mrs. Can-only-sew-straight-lines, can make something look good.

Recipe for a fantastically cute baby blanket.
{1} Take some of this:

OR This


{2} Add a little of this:

OR this


{3} Top off with a bit of this:

OR This


And before you know it, you've created this!

AND THIS

Now do you believe in the magic of Michael Miller?

For Claudia

Here are my favorites from Chloe's backyard bubble extravaganza.