Cox & Kin

For Father's Day, Amanda did photo's of the girls with their Pappy! They turned out great! I thought as a way to share with you, I would make them into a Collage for the blog. Really nice I think. It is hard to believe looking at these how big the girls have all gotten! And even harder to believe that come next month they ALL will be going to school! Wow.

so it's been a while since i have posted, but i have good reason. my laptop isn't doing so well. i am waiting to get it fixed, so i use the computer when i can. the girls are getting so giddy! they are excited for a few reasons. * they get to go see aunt amanda, uncle derrick, aunt taylor, riley, shleby, maggie and sam tomorrow. * they both are getting giddy for school to start! Madison is excited that she will be starting kindergarten in the fall. Kenzie is growing so fast! I can't believe she is going into 3rd grade already. * they both are doing a little practice math over the summer. they love it. No, maddie doesnt' quite get it but I am introducing her into the addition she will be introduced to in kindergarten. it will be good for her to practice and get familiar with some of the problems she will see in the coming year. kenzie however is doing good. she is great with her addition so far and although her subtraction is needing work, this is why we are doing this p...

today is a quiet day. it's wierd really. not used to the house being so quiet. but with the girls on a mini vacation with yaya and pappy, it's nice! ryan is sleeping and i am putting around here getting a few things accomplished... gotta do what i can before the girls get back on thursday because we are goign to have max and cathy in town thursday and friday.... so i gotta get things done. kenzie is doing well. she's getting so big! i can't believe how much she has grown... looking through old pictures really jogs the memory... maddie is getting excited about going to kindergarten this year... and ryan is snoozing as he has to work tonight... so things are just about the same... i'm hoping to get some more couponing info together for you all in a little bit so i can post that..

So, with the economy being what it is, and me not working, I decided it was my job to try and save us as much money as I can, so couponing has become a major part of my job! It's amazing some of the deals I can get with doing this. For example, I am going to the store tomorrow for a few things and one of them is Crystal Light. We go through that stuff like crazy! Not only is it great tasting, but it also is a healthier alternative to koolaid. So, it's on sale BOGO (Buy one, Get one) and I have coupons, so I will buy 4. Here's the breakdown: (4) Crystal Light-- 5.98 (4) $1 off 1 Crystal Light Manufacturer Coupon (1) $1 off 4 Crystal Light Target Coupons Total price out of pocket will be: 98 Cents~!!! That makes them 24 cents a piece. Not bad for a product that is normally 2.99 each! So that's a savings of 84% on one item we use all the time. Now, with the TLC show Extreme Couponing, there have been issues of people going and buying the stores out of everything on sale. I...

hey all! i haven't dropped off of the face of the earth, but here's a quick update: i got sick after that last post. i've been on the mend since... :) we had maddie's 5th birthday at the beach (i am uploading pics later today if i can get them all edited by then :) ryan has been working 12 hour night shifts, so sleeping for him has been the priority here as of late. i have begun a few things... one group of my friends calls it the "weightloss wagon", i call it operation weightloss, and another group of my friends calls it "mission slimpossible" i love all three names, so needless to say, i am working on some really healthy options and perhaps i will shed some pounds and make my gerd/asthma better. i also have been invited to go try zumba tonight. i am going to let you in on a secret, i am not really very pumped about it. i am worried because of my asthma, but that's ok, by going i can find out if i will like it as well as meet with someone a...

In between challenges, while my layouts are drying, I thought I would play around here... One of my favorite bands is Jesus Culture! Totally my music. Anyway, this is one of my favorite songs!!! You won't relent until you have it all My heart is yours I'll set You as a seal upon my heart As a seal upon my arm For there is love that is as strong as death Jealousy demanding as the grave Many waters cannot quench this love Come be the fire inside of me Come be the flame upon my heart Come be the fire inside of me Until You and I are one Come be the fire inside of me Come be the flame upon my heart Come be the fire inside of me Until You and I are one What do I love about this song? The happy dance my heart does when it's on! It uplifts me even when I am depressed! I can praise this song at any moment in my day and it will do miracles in my soul! It is on my playlist at the bottom of my blog if you want to listen to it!!

I stumbled across this company blog not long ago and wanted to take the chance to let you all know the details. Quick Quotes has released a blog effective today. As a Scrapbooker, I am always looking for new and fresh quotes to use for some of my layouts. This blog will provide me with some new inspiration for my layouts. I hope you will jump over there and check it out. Also, if you choose to, they are having a give away! For the details, go here Have a great National Scrapbooking Day!!!

*ryan started his new job on sunday *the girls have been status quo * our tomatoes and sunflowers are doing great *yesterday i woke up sicker than a dog. *tomorrow is NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY so ryan is taking kenzie to his mom's house (maddie is already there) and i am going to attempt to participate in the events that are being held on scrapbook.com * mothers day so far has been great. ryan gave me some scrappy supplies and kenzie made me a really cute pen that has flowers coming out of the top of it. it is stored on my desk in a little flowerpot she brought it home from school in. totally cute. she also wrote a story about me... i'll get it out of the car tomorrow and post it. I do have to say that her handwriting is improving so very much! she is reading up a storm and now we just have to focus on her mathmatics ability. i loved math, but ryan hated it from what i understand... kenzie doesn't mind it she just struggles with it... and that is all i have the energ...

The Law of Priority Matthew 6:33 But seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all things will be given to you as well. The word first means: -first in priority -order of importance What are the priorities when it comes to families? 1. The LORD is always first **Spending time with the Lord is vital** -it keeps you in the spirit -it changes your heart -it gives you wisdom -it keeps you in humility -it keeps your speech and thinking in line -it helps you follow the word of God 2. The family is second -you are married to your spouse and not to your parents or other family members -you are married to your spouse and not to your grandchildren -even though the Lord is #1 in your life you are still married to your spouse 3. work is third 2 Thessalonians 3:10-15 For even when we were with you, we gave this rule: "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat." We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we c...

Here lately, I have been getting into music again :) This song is one that got me through a very depressed childhood! I can't begin to tell you the number of times I cried myself to sleep listening to this song. I hope you enjoy the words. For the music to accompany it, go to you tube and look for Mariah Carey Hero. There's a hero If you look inside your heart You don't have to be afraid Of what you are There's an answer If you reach into your soul And the sorrow that you know Will melt away And then a hero comes along With the strength to carry on And you cast your fears aside And you know you can survive So when you feel like hope is gone Look inside you and be strong And you'll finally see the truth That a hero lies in you It's a long road When you face the world alone No one reaches out a hand For you to hold You can find love If you search within yourself And the emptiness you felt Will disappear And then a hero comes along With the strength to c...

I love that my girls are so very photogenic! And they are usually pretty good when I ask them to pose. Maddie even put up with me adjusting her!!! Here, I have adjusted the light as it wasn't the best photo, but when I adjusted the light and removed ALL saturation, it turned out pretty good. The girls love yaya's Magnolia tree, so I took advantage of it. I didn't like it in color, but it looks really nice in black and white! I can't wait to get these printed! And now for the regular check in. Ryan is working 12 hours today. It's nice for him to get the long hours! Maddie is not really doing anything different... Just hanging out. Skye is being very quiet today.... Kenzie wasn't having a very happy morning but I am hoping that will change by the time she gets off of the bus. And I am running around this Condo like a chicken with my head cut off! I have company coming over this weekend, so wanted to get some regular chores out of the way so we can just ...

Today, I received, by e mail, the easter pictures I took of the girls. Below, you will see them. I have edited them to reflect my personal taste. I am also including a small caption below each of them as is my favorite thing to do. This first photo is of my lil Madison. She had a blast finding eggs that were hidden. They found eggs in bushes, on garden hangers, in trees, under bushes, on the fence, under the hot tub steps... you name it... that's where they were hidden! The had a blast and I was able to just barely capture the moment of Madison finding her first egg. So priceless! But, before we went out to find eggs, I had the girls pose up for some modeling. Honestly, Maddie wasn't into it, but Mackenzie was. She is such a ham! Here she is laying on the couch in the front room at my mother in law's house. I have applied some spot light to this photo and walah! Here, I took that same picture of Kenzie and turned it black and white while adding a black vignette ...

so, one of the gifts kenzie and maddie got for easter from yaya and pappy was to get little "greenhouses" maddie got sunflowers and kenzie got tomatoes... so guess what's in our kitchen window! can't wait for them to start sprouting and then get big enough to transplant to the patio! maddie is doing great here lately! she know's that she is about to be five and that she will be going to kindergarten this fall. she is getting really good with her colors and has even started recognizing some letters! i can't wait for her to really get it when she starts school. there has been a lot of contreversy as to why i did not put her in preschool. let me clear this up: the main reason, we didn't have enough money to pay for it. and you will argue that we could have gotten prek for free here in the state of florida. and my rebuttal is this: IF I CANNOT FIND A SCHOOL I LIKE THAN I WILL NOT BE FORCING HER TO GO TO IT. afterall prek is VOLUNTARY not mandatory!...

after that last post, we had our spring break. we took the kids camping for the first time in a tent. they loved it! the only downfall was that my camera got knocked off of the picnic table and covered in sand... it is ruined! i called the camera shop and asked about getting it fixed... it will cost more to fix it than it would to just buy a new camera... so what is momma going to do? UPGRADE! it may take me a little extra time to get my new camera because I have decided to upgrade to a digital slr camera. some may ask why I feel this necessary... well see below: * my other camera was good, but i want to be able to start doing the manual settings on the slr type cameras. * i want to be able to switch the lenses out as desired. no this isn't a necessity, but i really want this! * i have been asked by some friends over several occasions to do their childrens pictures for them. a slr will make that much more enjoyable for everyone involved. (due to the camera breaking i had to call an...

So, today I got a chance to go over to Jessica's for some scrapping. I got some more challenges out of the way! Up first you see the 2 page layout challenge and the Dr. Suess challenge all in one :) I wanted to scrap some of Maddie's baby pictures and the quote I had chosen for the Suess challenge worked perfectly with this sketch! So I was able to use the design from the sketch to do both challenges. I loved making this layout because I so often scrap Kenzie because we have so many more pics of Kenzie for some reason... Maybe it's because Kenzie has been around for an extra 4 years... but anyway, I took the time to do a multi pic layout of Maddie instead today... Love it! The sketch had stars where the flowers are on mine, but that is the beauty of the sketch, I take a sketch and make it my own. I love using flowers, so it worked perfectly that i could just substitute them for the stars. The quote: "You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You...

For the month of March, I have entered into several challenges on a scrapbooking website I frequent. The challenges keep my creative juices flowing. The above picture is of the layout I did for the March Colour Challenge. We were to use Blue, Lime Green, and Orange as the dominant colours in the layouts. I used one of my favorite pics of Mackenzie for the pic on it. I took that pic a few weeks before her 8th birthday and it really pops off of this page! Love it. As the month progresses, you will see layouts from me for the following challenges: 2 page sketch challenge dr. suess challenge-- here we are to use a quote from dr. suess or a pic of our kids reading a dr suess book. monthly sketch challenge- for this one i have 4 sketches for the month, then a bonus sketch each week as well. the one pic layout challenge is to scrap a lo with only one pic on it. this shouldn't be too hard since i prefer showcasing 1 pic at a time. scrap your favorites-- we are to take our favorites ...

So, I have been doing some challenges here lately. This layout was inspired by a sketch challenge I joined this month. I absolutely love the way it came out. I had swapped some of my paper that i had multiples of with my friend Jessica for some of hers that she wanted to get rid of. We both came out on top and the printed paper you see in this lo is one of the papers I got from her. I love it! the butterflies were a last minute addition as jessica and i had gone to michaels, she was going to get the butterflies and then decided not to so I did. They really make the layout complete! I'll be getting a good current pic of ryan and i put on it in black and white for this one. I'll be working on a bonus layout today for this same challenge. One of the twists for the layout above was to use bling... and you know I just HAD to add stickles! They looked amazing! Now for the bonus layout the twist is to use flowers... hmmm that might be difficult NOT! i love using flowers o...

just thought i would recap a very busy weekend for us... friday, ryan worked but when he got off of work we left for deltona. we love our trips to deltona! it's only 2.5 hours away and we have so much fun visiting mandi and albert; jessa, aj, and tali too! we got there at 130 am. went to bed around 3, then spent saturday morning lounging around and playing around in the scrap room... headed to longwood at about 4. time for the surprise party came faster than you might think, but it was fun catching up with so many people and meeting some new people as well. at about 1030 we headed back to deltona and then in the am back to longwood... played some cards with riley and shelby, headed to the outlet mall on the way home. we didn't actually get home yesterday til bed time... we were beat.... then this am, i got up and went to jessicas! i guess i hadn't had enough of being busy over the weekend... we decided to scrap a little which was very nice!!! i got a lot of work do...

it's been a busy week, but that doesn't compare to the days to come... next week, i have a swap to go to so i can help my friend jessica... baby shower cake to make... camping supplies to get together... grocery shopping... running to the car lot to pick up spare keys... and the list seems to continue growing... good thing i have a car that can handle it now :) i know that was short, but i am short on time right now.. dinner is calling my name wanting me to prepare it... so i guess i'll see ya later

Here is the album I made today. I was inspired by my friend's monthly kit challenge. I used all papers from Die Cuts With a View. They had put out a paper pad called The Christmas Combo 180 Stack. It is 3 of their stacks in a combination pad. I used many of the prints in this little book I am giving to my mom. For the front page, I used fibers to tie it together and used a few of them for a little border along the edge of the binding. I got my inspiration from a Christmas Carol. The wording for this front page says: Christmastime is here Happiness and cheer fun for all that children call their favorite time of year For page one, I wanted to keep it pretty simple, so I covered the back of the title page with pp and then added the next verse to the song. It says: Snowflakes in the air Carols everywhere Olden times and ancient rhymes of love and dreams to share The next page I have in the book is where the photo's begin. The photography was taken by Angels Touch Photograp...