Apr 1, 2013

March Madness 2013

And no, this post isn't about basketball ;) Sorry! Though we have watched a TON of basketball, I don't have any fun pictures to go along with that :) Soo.....

This post is about the other madness at our house, that is, the never ending chaos that fills our weeks and weekends. Busy can be fun too though! Camille is like her mama... if we get too much downtime, we get out of our comfort zone and wonder when the next activity is :)

We have had a FULL March!

We had lots of birthday celebrations this month! We started out with a Minnie Mouse themed 3rd birthday party for Camille's church friend Victoria. Here is a picture of Camille enjoying the birthday food.

Next, we celebrated our sweet Jack's 2nd birthday. Camille just loves Jack and had been counting down to his birthday party for weeks! Camille & Jack got some special bonding time before the party :)


Camille's PawPaw had a birthday this month too. I won't tell his age, but Camille told him she thought he was 18, so hopefully that made his day :) Camille enjoyed playing with her cousin Haley at our birthday get together.

We got to spend a day in Wilson recently, as we said our temporary farewells to Abe, Christy, Emily, Jacob, and Lucas. They moved to West Virginia on 3/17. We had some good quality time with them before they departed and look forward to making some visits to WV in the months to come. Camille adores her cousins and her adventurous day with them.




Finishing out the month we had our back to back Easter egg hunts. Camille is one lucky girl.... An Egg Hunt at church and then another one the following week with her buddies Mary & Victoria.

Egg Hunt #1




Egg Hunt #2










Feb 12, 2013

The "First Times" Continue Into February


I should have saved my last post..... as we have more and more new "firsts" to add to the list.

Last week was not only hectic, but fun filled as well. Nick had just gotten home Monday morning from skiing out west in Park City, UT.... I turned around and left for Charlotte that next day for work. Given our busy schedules, we decided it was a week to pack in the fun and togetherness once we were both back home and settled. Don't get me wrong, I love always having something to do, but at some point exhaustion takes over!

Well, the night I got back from Charlotte, we took Camille to the circus. It was opening night and Camille's buddy, Mary, had invited us to join her. We had so much fun at the circus last year, so we knew Camille would be even more excited to go this year. Well, I neglected to notice the time. The show didn't start until 7pm, on a Wednesday! Now, I enjoy the feeling of getting my money's worth..... but after over 2 hours, I was ready for the show to end! We didn't get home that night until close to 10pm! We never seem to stress about staying on a routine or schedule too much, its certainly nice to have such a flexible child, but 10 was pushing it for all of us! Here are some pictures from the "Dragons" circus performance. We did get to attend the pre-show, where they allow you to go down to the floor and interact with the performers. Megan & I were hoping Camille & Mary would try on some clown costumes, but instead Megan & I got suckered into it! Camille said that her favorite part was the elephants again this year, but in my opinion, she seemed most into the clowns. I think Nick & I were most impressed by the horses and their riders- very intense tricks going on! I will have to say, they also had some dogs & cats in the show this year that proved to be quite hilarious!




After a long night at the circus... Camille & I had to be at her first dentist appointment early the next morning.  We were both dragging. I requested that I had my appointment first so that Camille could observe everything that was done, in hopes of her being more comfortable when it was her turn. Our hygienist, Claudia, is fabulous! She talked Camille through everything she was doing to Mommy's teeth and answered all of Camille's questions. Camille was very quiet for the first half of my appointment, but then she warmed up and was talking our ears off! She even created a song about how she loved the dentist and it wasn't even her turn yet! Ha! When it was her turn, Claudia let Camille touch any and all of the "tools" that she was going to use to examine and clean Camille's teeth. Camille also got to wear a pair of sunglasses to protect her eyes, which she though was super cool. Camille also was thrilled when Claudia let her pick out which flavor toothpaste she wanted.... of course she chose bubblegum! Camille was almost too relaxed in the chair! She had her ankles crossed, then had her knees up..... in between cleaning, she would even lay sideways and tell me she wanted to nap in the chair! The dentist came in and had Camille help him count her teeth. She will now proudly tell you "ten on the top and ten on the bottom!" He said that Camille's teeth were as good as they could get at age 3 :) He showed Camille how to floss, which luckily she was very impressed with, but bad for me, she now wants her teeth flossed at every brushing...... Here are some pictures of Camille's first trip to the dentist:


As if this wasn't enough in a 24 hour period, Camille had her first ballet class Thursday night. We had been on a wait list for dance, as Camille wasn't old enough to start in the fall. We were both so happy that she got into the spring semester ballet class. The class is a 45 minute session for 3 & 4 yr olds. Camille LOVED it! She was very quiet at first and didn't want to volunteer for anything, but once she was more comfortable, she was bouncing all around the room. All those little girls looked so precious dancing and their teacher, Mrs. Christy, was so great with them. She really helped teach them some basics, while incorporating games, to keep them having fun. Camille seemed very impressed with herself after the first class and loved coming home to tell Daddy all about it. She seemed disappointed that it would be another week in between classes. Here is a picture of our little ballerina.


The chaos continued into the weekend.... I had been needing to get Camille's haircut for some time, but hadn't found the right time or the courage to take her. She has had several haircuts up until now, but all of those have been trims, no more than half an inch or so.... and then I've done by own touch-ups to her hair at home. Well given that her hair has been growing so fast and that the daily tangle spray treatment and shampoo with conditioner wasn't helping much, I decided it was time to do her first "major" cut. We took her to a kid place, Snip-Its, that she has been a few other times. I let them cut off 2.5 inches, but got a little panicked thinking of more coming off. I was very happy with the result..... the shorter cut was still long enough to braid and put up, but short enough so were wouldn't be getting it caught in her carseat buckle, hang in her food, etc.... :) It's the little things...... Here is a before and after......


While we are on the topic of firsts.... I'm so excited that my brother John and sister in law Andrea are expecting their first child. They had a reveal party this weekend, so Camille got to debut her haircut at the gender reveal. She & I both sported our pink in hopes of a girl :) We were right!! John & Andrea are having a little girl this summer!! We are very excited and Camille is already calling her "sister." How cute is that?!
Here is a pic from the party.... While Nick did show up in blue, I think he was on the girl bandwagon too, but in his defense, he doesn't own any pink :)


Jan 23, 2013

2013 is already a new year full of firsts.....

We are only a few weeks into January, and already we have had a lot of excitement going on in the Cox household..... and some firsts as well.....

Nick & I attending our first ever Inaugural Celebration. I bought tickets for Nick for Christmas to the Inaugural Celebration for Governor Pat McCrory. We have been big fans of his for a long time, and have even heard him speak at several different events in years past. Well, I knew this celebration would be a hit with Nick. We loved getting to dress up and "hob-nob" as Nick likes to call it.


A first for Camille this year... She attended her first Children's Church this past Sunday. Our church has a time for the children during the service for them to come up front and hear a bible story. They then go to Wiggler Worship, which is like Sunday School for toddlers :) They allow kids age 3-5 to go to Children's Church, but we had waited a few months to send Camille since we know what a little chatterbox she can be :) She did great. Her buddy Mary went with her, so that helped and Camille made sure to be quiet while up front. We were proud of our big girl!




Another first for Camille.... she made her debut in our church newsletter..... and being that we attend a very large church, I was shocked! This is a picture of her during our Stop Hunger Now mission event where she volunteered packaging meals with me. She describes it as when she "helped mommy cook rice and wore a chef hat in school."


We have also had a lot of play dates already this month! We got blessed with a few warm weekends in between some freezing cold weekdays, so we took advantage. Camille had play dates with her M&M friends.... Madelyn, Mary, and Molly :)


So 2013 is off to a great start for the Cox family..... hope yours is too!

Jan 7, 2013

Merry Christmas 2012 From The Cox Family

We hope that all of our friends and family had a very blessed 2012, we sure did!

We always have several Christmas celebrations each year to get in a visit with each side of the family. This year we kicked off our Christmas celebrations in Sanford with the DesVergers side. We had a great time and Camille sure loved her play time with the cousins.

Our next celebration was in Wilson with the Cox side of the family. Camille and Emily found their fun through the new crimping iron.



We celebrated with Mom, John, and Aya on Christmas Eve, where one of Mom's gifts from us was a Mimi, Mommy, and Millie day trip to Old Salem. Always a favorite spot of ours, mainly for the bakery! Camille seemed most impressed by this big tree, oh and the hotdog she got for lunch.


Also on Christmas Eve we attending the Family Christmas Eve service at church. We took our sweet neighbors and the kids loved getting to participate in the service by being angels, shepherds, or wise men. Extra special this year was getting to see our friends Clint, Meagan, and their new baby Sam, play the holy family during the service.

We followed up the service with having our neighbors over for dinner that evening. The kids sure had fun as you can tell from the picture!

On Christmas Day, we celebrated Jesus' birth as a family of three. We don't do Santa at our house, which has proven more challenging than expected, but we were so happy that Camille is learning the real meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate with presents. She got several Barbie related items, clothes, shoes, and food for her play kitchen, but she seemed most excited about the gummy worms in her stocking. Go figure. Pops and Marla surprised Camille with a new playhouse for our backyard. Daddy put it together later that day since the weather was so nice. Camille played in it for almost 2 hours!



The adventures continued on our holiday break as we took in a couple of NCSU basketball games. Camille was excited to debut her new cheerleading outfit!



Our final celebration was with the McNeill side. We enjoyed the time together and Camille always enjoys the extra attention :)

We are looking forward to 2013!