Homecoming 2010... Sic 'Em!!

Happy Monday!! I had HIGH aspirations of getting up our weekend recap post last night but I decided to hit the hay a bit early and keep you all in suspense for just a bit longer! And by you all I mean the ten or so family members that faithfully read our blog! :)

This weekend was Baylor Homecoming, so naturally we headed to Waco to take part in all of the traditional BU HC festivities. Most every HC I've attended in my years as a Baylor Bear and now as an alum has started with the Bonfire on Friday night kicking off the weekend celebration, BUT this year the Rangers were playing and we had a toddler who was SUPER excited to be at his Nana's house SO we opted to stay home! SHRIEK!!

I know, I know... and we call ourselves Bears! BUT if you saw the RANGERS WIN on Friday night you'll understand that it turned out to be a not so bad decision, at least for the Ranger fan in us! AND it meant that Caden was well-rested and raring to go for Saturday... and Saturday was sure to be a LONG day! It started here...

At the parade with Paps and the rest of the gang! Here comes the band... the parade has finally made it to campus! Yay!!

Wait NO! I'm not so sure I like the band after all. They are kind of LOUD! It can make a guy's ears ring a bit. Needless to say the start of the parade was a little shaky for Mr. Man... he was not a fan of the sirens... and the band got better as they moved on down the road, BUT then came the HUGE inflatable Bear (think Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade) and Caden resorted to his hand shaking, frightened face, NO, NO, NO, NOing... poor guy! Disney World is going to have to be a graduation gift for Caden, because I'm not thinking he'll be able to tolerate it until then! :) Mascots, inflatables, etc... no good! :)

Once the parade got going Caden headed back to the hill to sit in Daddy's lap for a minute. Nothing makes a guy feel safer than his Daddy. He was starting to warm up to the idea and even started to clap along...

And Nana hooked him up with a Capri Sun so things were looking up! :)

Then it was Aunt Ree Ree's turn to experience the parade through Caden's eyes...

Aunt Ermie and Uncle Josh stopped by to say hi with their kiddo, Griff. It was Griff's first time to the parade and he was doing a little tail-tucking himself... he and Caden were on the same page for a while!

Caden was showing Uncle Josh his SUPER COOL (free) football that his Daddy caught for him during the parade! That thing is still his pride and joy... of course it is only Monday! But with his attention span it seems as if the parade ball is here to stay (at least for a few more days!)!

Silly Unlce Josh STILL hasn't learned that I mean what I say... don't cooperate I'll post you! YOU'VE BEEN POSTED!!

Now he plays along... isn't that the cutest pic?!

Caden showing off his football yet again for Mommy and her camera!

Other side of the fam pic...

And here we are... the Cox Fam... officially!

After the parade, Aunt Ree Ree and I headed over to the Pi Phi Tea where we successfully saw all of FOUR people we knew... or even recognized for that matter. Oh to be old... yikes! Caden and Justin even popped in and got to watch the newest pledge class perform their pledge songs. I definitely had some goose bumps watching those girls perform... they were having so much fun! AND Caden decided that he DEFINITELY wants to be a Pi Phi... if only... ! :)

AND we happened to bump into our blog friends the Olsons... (blog and Baylor friends I should say...) and I finally got to meet her two sweet boys in person!! SO MUCH BETTER! Loved seeing y'all Jerica!!

After the parade we headed over to the stadium to start the tailgating fun! While we were heading over to watch the March of the Bears we bumped into our new friends from our new church (have I told y'all about this yet?! If not, I will... I will). This is Jaime...

And Jaime... was a Pi Phi at Baylor too... AND the other day while at lunch we discovered that not only were we Bears and fellow Pi Phi sisters (ha), BUT we lived in the same apartment complex, in the SAME apartment... and even crazier in the SAME room... Just a few years apart! AND Jaime and her roomie are responsible for giving these spectacular living quarters their name... Pete's Palace! She couldn't believe that nearly 4 years later people were still calling it Pete's Palace... pretty funny! So in honor of Jaime and Pete and his palace of course... Justin and I swung by and took a pic!

Isn't it lovely?! I think it is safe to say that Jaime and I have BOTH come up in the world!

While we were waiting for the March of the Bears, Caden decided he wanted to party with his Uncles and head over to the "cool kid, young alumni" party tent area! Caden LOVED their dude cave and was having the BEST time playing catch with the boys! All of the guys were asking for high fives and totally firing him up... he was LOVING it!

Caden and Daddy tailgating... dude juice...

Caden was going for the remote... he was curious if Uncle Tag had any Elmo videos with him!

More tailgating...

After the big boy tailgating, Caden did a little running around on the practice field with his new football. I never could capture him with the ball in his hand... always after the release! :)

Here come the Bears... the March of the Bears...

RGIII... such a stud!! :)

After nearly two straight hours of tailgating it was time to head into the game! We were geared up and ready to go... Caden was tired and was sitting SO still on Daddy's lap... we were thinking we were in for the long haul... then THUNDER, LIGHTENING... delay of game! Ugh! So Caden and I took that as our cue aka sign from God to pack it up and head home for a nap... and so we did... barely making it back to Nana and Paps' house before the big storms rolled through. Two hours later the game started again and I was VERY glad that Caden and I had decided to head home. So the rest of our afternoon was pretty low key... BUT for the rest of the crew it was a HUGE, history making afternoon full of celebration!! Baylor's going BOWLING!!! YAY!!! SO SO SO exciting for our Bears and even more exciting for it to happen on Homecoming Weekend... Baylor was due for a weekend like that... we were long overdue!!

Sunday morning after all sleeping in a bit, we headed out for a quick bite to eat before frolicking around campus and visiting the floats from the parade! I had to take a pic of the Pi Phi plane... ha!

Caden was still believing in his FEAR of all things make-believe and decided that he wasn't into taking pictures with the floats this year... ah well... we tried!

So instead we decided to let him run around campus like a banshee... SO FUN!

Pictures on the swings... Caden's Daddy and I may have had a few romantic talks on these swings back in our day... just sayin'! :)

You'll have to excuse the SCARY looking me... I was boycotting make-up that morning... I had worn full make-up two days in a row... RECORD!! :) My face needed a break!

Next we were on to the ECHO circle... Echo, Echo...

Pictures in the Baylor flowers... NOTHING like it!

Headed down the last stretch... back to Judge Baylor for a family pic...

And there you have it folks... another Baylor Homecoming come and gone! BUT this year will be especially memorable... Baylor's going to a bowl... AND we were ranked in the BCS polls by Sunday afternoon... GOT. TO. LOVE. (and cherish) IT.

Happy Homecoming!!

Sic 'Em!!

Claw, Antlers, Bears, Cowboys and Punkins

A weekend at home... finally! Phew! And it couldn't have come at a better time... we were all ready to hang out around this house this weekend! It was a much needed break from our fall hustle and bustle!

We didn't do too much of anything, but there are a few things to note... we watched some baseball Friday night (eek) and then again on Saturday (yay!), we got to have dinner with one of my greatest friends from college, Meli P on Saturday and we finished the night on game tracker keepin' up with our Bears! Today was church, r&r, Cowboys (boo!) and playing outside... CAN'T BEAT IT! It was a GREAT family weekend!!

Here are few highlights from our weekend at home...

Claw and Antlers!! Go Rangers!! My boys proudly sported their Ranger gear to dinner on Saturday night... what a handsome fan club they make! :)

And Caden has been SO inspired by the Rangers that he has really been practicing his skills! It is hilarious to watch him scurry around and pick up his ball after he hits it and set it back on the tee... funny story... when we tell Caden, "hurry, get your ball and set it back up on the tee..." he puts the ball in his mouth... teeth and tee sound too close... so we have reverted to calling the "tee" the "stand," and this has seemed to clear up the confusion. Ha! We were laughing at the thought of him playing tball as an elementary kid and still putting the ball in his TEEth before putting it on the TEE. Silly boy!

The next set of pictures were taken before church this morning. KK bought Caden this super sweet Fall Jon Jon several months ago and today was our first of MANY days to wear it! He looked SUPER cute! Oh and KK informed me that the brown socks were NOT okay with the brown shoes, so I apologize for not having white socks on the Chade... he's outgrown all of his nice white socks... I'm going to pick up some this week though... don't you worry! :)

Caden was definitely more concerned about his precious punkins than the camera... BUT I tried... thus is the plight of capturing the sweet smiles of a toddler! :)

Last but certainly not least is another shot of our lil David Murphy smacking another homer! :) Notice the red socks... they are part of Caden's Halloween costume that we tried on today... he did not want to take them off... too funny! AND a video of Caden's kisses... he's been "kissing" forever, but it was always pushing his cheek to our lips... HE HAS FINALLY gotten the concept of putting his lips to whatever it is he is kissing and then adds a HUGE MMMMWAH for impact! :) So sweet... we LOVE getting REAL kisses from our lil man!!

Happy weekend everyone! MMMMMMWAHHHH from the Coxes! :)

A Punkin Huntin' We Will Go

We went punkin' huntin' today... with KK! It was a Friday Fun Day mini road trip out to the Elgin Pumpkin Patch. KK drove in from San Antonio this morning and pulled into the parking lot just after we arrived... it was perfect timing for a perfectly perfect day to punkin' hunt!

As we were driving out there this morning I was thinking about my little punkin-faced man at the pumpkin patch last year! Sure, he is BIGGER and WISER and OLDER obviously...but that sweet little smile is still lighting up the world around him all the same!

When we first arrived at the Pumpkin Patch we decided to go in the opposite direction from the TONS of school buses that were unloading for the day... no offense to them of course, BUT we kind of like our space to roam... AND ride...

A bike ride...Caden loved taking his turn on all of the OLD OLD OLD tricycles that were out on the lawn!

And he even asked (suckered) KK into pulling him along... giddy-up girl!!

Next up was YET another tricycle ride... the tractor kind of tricycle ride... complete with bales and bales of hay! Caden loved the hay ride... a first for him and maybe even for me if you can believe that! :) Of course, KK said that Albi was concerned for us to ride the hay ride because of all of the mold spores that live in hay and then it became ABSOLUTELY clear why I had never ridden a hay ride before today! Sweet 'ol Albi, always playing Doctor Dad! :)

KK and Caden!!

The hay ride made a few stops along the way and one of them was at a VERY cool playground with lots of other activities for the kiddos to enjoy... Caden went straight for the slide of course! He bounded up the ladder (making KK a bit nervous I think!! ).

And then on to the next level he went...

He decided that he needed a bit of a thrill and decided to go down the slide on his belly, feet first... and BOY did he come spiraling down with some serious speed! It was hilarious! He was all smiles at the bottom, BUT he didn't choose to do it again... I think the speed was a bit intense for him! :) Ha!

So he decided to slow things down a bit with a nice, long boat ride...

He was the lucky passenger to a very good driver (an older boy) who was LOVING the boat... and was animating the ride very well as most boys tend to do... VROOOOMMMMM!

Then Caden got a turn to drive... beep, beep!

Then Caden took on KK in a little game of bean bag toss... BUT Caden had a hard time with the whole get the bean bag in the hole concept and preferred just to THROW the bean bags around... it was pretty funny! KK said he was too much like his Daddy... just wanting to show-off his studly arm! :) Haha!

And then we came to the perfect little punkin picture spot and this was the best we could do... rubbin' the eyes already... sweet, sleepy boy! :)

BUT we still had some serious PUNKIN HUNTIN' to do...

They weren't too hard to find... luckily!

After we rounded up some Chade-sized punkins Caden decided we needed to head "ober der"

And so we did...

What's ober der you ask?? The SWINGS, of course!!

After some SERIOUS swinging we went and hunted a punkin for Caden to decorate... and let me just say... it is the PRETTIEST darn punkin I've ever seen... truthfully!

Caden's pretty proud of it...

Our last stop of the morning was at the CRAZY MAZE! KK and I were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to find our way out, BUT Caden assured us that his "ober der" skills were excellent and he would lead the way... okay Caden, whatever you say!

Now which way??? Ober der...

Well he did it... he was right on! Caden got us through the CRAZY MAZE! :)

After the punkin hunt we headed down HWY 290 to the 290 Cafe... it was our first time to visit this infamous homecookin' joint and it was GOOD! Really good!

Once our bellies were full up on some goodies we parted ways with KK and headed back to the ROCK where Caden is sound asleep dreaming about his adventure at the punkin' patch, no doubt!

Thanks for coming all the way to Elgin to spend the morning with us KK! It sure was fun to punkin' hunt together! We love you!!