A Most Glorious Afternoon/Evening

Today, we experienced a MOST GLORIOUS afternoon and evening! Wasn't it lovely?! I sure hope that you (wherever you may have been) got to enjoy a sweet taste of this early Spring weather too! Although, if I had had to judge a book by its cover, I would have thought today would have been STICKY, WET and GLOOMY... BUT alas, in Texas the sun can't seem to stay away for too long and for that we are thankful.

We had a no big deal weekend around these parts, which was great! No plans, no to-do lists... just a bunch of family time! AND one BIG, FAT, BRAND SPANKIN' NEW (to us) SURPRISE!!!

A Kangaroo Climber... thanks again to our friend Craig and his mighty list for helping us find this gem for our backyard! Caden was THRILLED when we went to pick it up and even more excited when he got to scale the walls of his new playground! I have a feeling that his preggo mommy is going to REALLY love this extra little addition in the afternoons! Me on the porch with a glass of club soda... Happy Hour mom style! :)

Caden even got to invite his friend Aarin over (from across the fence... literally Justin and his Mommy passed him over) to play on his new toy for a while this afternoon! It was DUDE time in the backyard for sure...

After dinner tonight we went BACK out to enjoy the beautiful weather and ended up with some hilarious video footage! I know that NO ONE else will appreciate these like our sweet family members, especially those g-rents out there! So, enjoy KK, Albi, Nana, Bop, Grandma and Gram! We hope you get as MUCH laughter our of these as we did (and still are!!).

And just for the record, NO, I am not trying out for American Idol nor do I have any false sense of confidence in my voice that would EVER lead me to do such a thing... no worries, friends! Caden, on the other hand... :)

Happy weekend y'all!!

A Pink Party for Kaki!!

Yesterday was a GREAT day! After a successful sonogram, where the tech was 100% sure that she was seeing girl, we celebrated with PINK ALL day long! As we were leaving our morning appointment I knew I had already entered into an entirely different world! A girl... so many new things were on the horizon...and they were mostly in the FASHION department! And I couldn't wait!! :)

After our morning appointment, we came home, updated ALL of the social media programs that we currently participate in and celebrated the pinkalicious news with Caden and Kk! Not soon after I pushed publish on our blog post we headed out the door for a quick bite to eat and for OUR first shopping trip to buy something PINK... well GIRLIE pink... because I have bought boy pink before! :) I must say that it is a little bit overwhelming. There is SO much... ruffles, bows, animal print, bloomers, pink, purple, dots, flowers, hearts... OH MY! How in the world do you decide? But nonetheless I did decide and picked out the most precious pink outfit complete with ruffles and KK picked a similar outfit to purchase too! And of course what is a shopping trip for Kaki without a little something special Caden! We found the cutest BIG Brother book at the boutique and figured it was the perfect gift for our pink celebration day! :) (Pictures of the outfits are at the bottom of this post... scroll down)

After lunch we raced back home only to leave again for my official doctor's appointment. Thankfully, Justin had the day off yesterday for the holiday and was able to come to both appointments with me without having to worry about work! And KK was still on call! :) When we got to the doctor's office one of the first things they do is listen to the heartbeat... and OH MY GOODNESS did Kaki ever put on a show for us! She is an escape artist... they have always had trouble getting her to stay in place long enough to register a good heartbeat reading. And yesterday was no different. We heard her almost immediately... it was a slow and steady heartbeat and then it disappeared... so the nurse moved the wand and we found her again... still slow and steady and then nothing... moved the wand... found her... a little faster... gone... moved the wand... around and around... found her... a little faster this time... then she was gone AGAIN... finally the nurse trapped her in the right corner of my uterus... I could feel her all curled up and WE GOT HER... and her heart rate was PUMPIN'... she was TICKED OFF! WE all three started laughing at her... her heart rate kept climbing and climbing and ended up at 167 and she started in the 140s... what a little turkey!! It was cracking us up!! By hearing her heart beat I felt like I could see her red little face and her puffed out lips and her exasperated eyes... TOO CUTE! She's gonna be a feisty one, that Kaki!

After the heart beat hilarity, we talked with the doctor and got the A-OK on the sonogram results... everything looked normal and GOOD! Praise God! After the multiple things wrong with Caden and I during his 20-week sonogram, we were OVERJOYED to get that bit of news. Kaki is measuring smaller than her brother, which is was a bit surprising and coming in right smack dab in the middle of the pack in the 50th percentile! She is exactly 1 pound and doing great! We are so very, very thankful... the fact that this could have gone very differently is certainly not lost on us. For every day we are normal/boring we are THANKFUL!

After our doctor's appointment we headed home to relax before our BIG PINK PARTY DINNER CELEBRATION!! We all got dressed up in our pink and headed to The Domain for a super YUMMY dinner and pink celebration!

Here I am at 21 weeks! In my pink! With my girl... :)

Caden asked for a pic with KK... doesn't he look thrilled?! I think he forgot it was HIS idea!

Before we sat down to dinner we decided to take a few pics... the weather was warm and delightful... in stark contrast to today where the clouds and cold have returned!

WIGGLE WORM... FORGET IT!

Put him on the animal... keep him still! :)

So KK and I were talking... I always called Caden my squirmy worm when he was in my belly... and so the worm became his thing... the thing we measured him with month to month and kind of the mini-theme for his room, first birthday, etc. So what about Kaki?! After listening to her get all feisty with us at the doctor's office and knowing that she is all about being incognito... we thought what better than a peacock?! They hide when they draw their feathers in, they are FEISTY and not afraid to show their colors and they are uniquely beautiful... what could be better than that?! So for now, we're thinking peacock might be her THING... and guess what? There just so happened to be a peacock bench at The Domain... hmmmm! :)

All three Katherines...
And her sweet pink...
And big brother's new book! :)

Pink, pink and more pink... Justin and I agree if we are going to do this girl thing, we are going to REALLY do it! Kaki is going to be 100% girl so watch out world... I think Justin might be just as excited about all of the frills as I am! That girl is going to rule his world... and I love it! :)

Thank you all for your sweet emails, texts, comments and facebook messages yesterday! We are so blessed to have such loving friends and family who celebrate BIG with us! We love y'all!!

Introducing... Baby GIRL Cox!!

Sugar and spice and EVERYTHING nice!! Baby Cox #2 is a girl!!! Check her out...

And... I know we have ALL agreed that Baby Cox #2 (as a name) has GOT TO GO, so without further adieu... let us introduce you officially to...

Katherine Murray Cox

or as she'll be known

Kaki Cox

I am a Katherine who goes by Katie and Kk is a Katherine who goes by Kim, SO Kaki will be the THIRD in a line of Katherines who will go by something other than her given name! :)

AND Albi is a Murray who goes by Bruce and my granddaddy (his Dad) was a Murray who went by Murray, so she will also carry the THIRD line of Murray through our family as well!

SO our little Kaki Cox is chalk-full of inheritance, just like our Caden is with carrying the names Ford and Cox on through Justin's side of the family! And there you have it... a little history of the name game! :)

We are BEYOND thrilled for Kaki to be a part of our family of FOUR! She ALREADY has us wrapped as TIGHT as our little man! Caden was RIGHT on... he's been saying sister from the beginning, and lookie there... WAY TO GO Cade-man!!

More to come...

Babymoon Staycation

In August of 2008, Justin and I traveled to Dallas for a friend's wedding. The wedding happened to be at the Four Seasons hotel so we decided to make a weekend of it and call it a Babymoon. It was the weekend before we found out Caden was a boy, in fact, it was the weekend that we decided that Caden wouldn't be Mason if he was a boy and would be Caden. It was a special weekend in the life of our family and one I will not soon forget.

This time around it was our plan to do something similar. To go somewhere or do something the weekend before we found out more about Baby Cox #2. Things have changed since 2008, things are no longer just about Justin and I... we have another little guy to consider. So, when we heard Sesame Street Live was coming into town the weekend before our BIG appointment we decided that it was ONLY appropriate to make that the MAIN event in our Babymoon Staycation! We bought the tickets over a month ago and have been anticipating it every day since. One, because we were SO excited to see Elmo and TWO, because that would mean we were only days away from learning more about our sweet Baby Cox.

Caden has been anticipating the "show" all week and was so excited when he woke up this morning... saying, "Elmo Show!" That's right... today is the day...we FINALLY get to see Elmo and all of his friends!

We had an entire day of fun planned for our Babymoon Staycation...

But first we had to make sure we had THREE tickets! Caden's got his...

Then it was on to Einstein's for a bagel!! YUM! YUM! They have these new bagel bites that Caden loved... they are donut hole sized which is perfect for the Chade! He LOVES cinnamon sugar bagels... but they are a tad bit rough on the face! :)

The dudes...
Chocolate Milk! YUM!!! Nana is to blame for his love of this! :) Just like his Daddy and his very own love for "cha-cha mi!" :)

Sweet boy, resting his head on his Mommy's shoulder for the pic! :) Love that he is already learning to pose! Hahaha! He's certainly had some practice!

After we scarfed down our bagels it was time to head to the BIG SHOW at the Frank Erwin Center! Caden and Daddy were READY to get in there and head to the merch stand! It was a bit rainy this morning BUT we didn't let it rain on our parade!

We saw some sweet friends from church/school on the way in and said a quick hi, but NOT much could keep us from the merch stand! Daddy was OVER-EXCITED for today and definitely SPOILED Caden rotten! We came home with so much stuff! It's not often that we get to spoil Caden with things like this... it's usually the grandparents who are doing the FUN, BIG spoiling, so we were excited to be able to do this for Caden today! It was probably an even bigger treat for us than for him!

Caden and Elmo!!
Of course, we had to buy a shirt for Caden to wear to the show, so after we pulled over to the side and got our new shirt on, we were ready to find our seats!

A quick interview with Caden after we got to our seats! (Justin just got a new iPhone through work and he is ONE excited guy to get to try out his new toy!)
We had great seats... and truthfully there wasn't a bad seat in the place... it was really nice the way they set it up... every seat had a GREAT view of the stage! Once we got to our seats, Daddy and Caden hit up YET ANOTHER merch stand and came back with a Big Bird stuffed animal... Caden was SUPER excited and didn't let go of him the entire show!

Fam pic!
Caden mostly sat in Justin's lap and was quite content through most of the show. Only in the last few songs did he get squirmy!

Big bird... and Zoe...
Oscar...
The show was GREAT! They did a great job and Caden really enjoyed the music and dancing! And truthfully so did I... the music was fun for the adults too! :) And best of all, Elmo and his friends taught us how to be Healthy... and what parent wouldn't love that?!

Oh my... I almost forgot... one of the other highlights of the show was seeing his friend Kennedy (remember the prom pic girl from the Valentine's Party post?) We took a few pictures with Kennedy but I don't have those yet... I will post as soon as I do! It was definitely icing on top of the cake! :)

After the show we went to a FUN lunch with our good friend and adopted Aunt Rach! :) We went to a new place to Justin and I but one that we'll definitely go back! They had a playground that was full of LOTS of kids with Elmo shirts on... all having come from the show too! We had some YUMMY burgers and had fun spending time with one of our favorite Austin friends!

We were hoping and planning to head to Hey Cupcake down on South Congress after lunch for an afternoon snack and then off to Zilker to ride the train BUT... OMG... the traffic was ridiculous!! The Austin Marathon is tomorrow and people are EVERYWHERE! So we SLOWLY made our way to Hey Cupcake only to find a 3 block long line and we kindly said no thank you and decided to head back up to G-town to Galaxy Cupcakes... Double YUM! The sun finally made it's way out and the weather was delightful...

Caden of course didn't have a cupcake... BUT he did have a cookie... a flower cookie (he picked it, not us! :) ).
And Justin and I had an assortment of cupcakes... so good!

By the time we got home, into comfy clothes and onto the couch the reality of our tiredness started to set in! Now, Caden is playing happily with his new "show" toys and trying his hardest to stay busy so he doesn't fall asleep! :) And Justin and I are having the best time watching his excitement... knowing that we did a good thing today... no, a great thing! :)

Next time you hear from us we will have some NEWS to reveal... stay tuned and Happy Weekend!

Three's Company on Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day (belated, apologetically)! It took me a few days to compile all of the heart-shaped fun that made up our Cox Family V-Day celebrations. Like SO many other bloggers I've been reading lately... most of us agree that Valentine's Day is WAY more fun when you have a little one to spoil! Although, if I am to be fair, I've always been a fan of the love holiday... I remember as a kid my mom giving us little boxes of heart-shaped sweet tarts... and not the normal chalky sweet tarts, but the kind that were made ESPECIALLY for Valentine's Day with the sour candy coating on top... y'all remember those?! Oh, did I EVER live for those sweet n sour little bites! They came in red, pink and white... and I am sure that red were my favorite. I've never really understood the chocolate craze that Valentine's Day experts buzz about... BRING ON THE SWEET TARTS and you'll spoil this girl SWEET! :)

Regardless of where my Valentine's Day love comes from, I tend to get a bit excited about the holiday and even a bit domestic... hence making Caden outfits the past two years... :) Since Caden got to wear the homemade goods for his school Valentine's Day Party, I figured it was ONLY appropriate for him to wear his NEW PINK duds for our family Valentine's Day date on Sunday night.
Goldfish, my PINK iPhone, my PINK duds... I'm ready for fam date night! :) Melt my pea-pickin' heart, do I EVER love a man in pink! Or a toddler as it may be!

We are big into FAMILY date nights... it is one of our most favorite things to do and we BRAVE a lot of restaurants to make it happen and thankfully, since we've been doing it long enough, Caden is pretty good when we head out and about. Especially, if we hit up a place that has chips and queso!! Are you kidding me, who isn't entertained when you've got a basket of chips in front you, right?!

Before heading in to eat at one of our favorite places in town... GLORIA'S, we tried to get a few pics of the pinkie-boy!

He was being SO serious... or artsy... or something... I'll get him a few points for drama but come on... crack a smile!!

And then a few of my two boys... both in pink! :)

Kind of close...
WOAH... look over there...
How about with black beans on our faces at dinner?! Yep, I think that's as close as we'll get to a good pic!

After eating two BOWLS of hot sauce all by myself, and of course all of the other yumminess that comes with dining at Gloria's, our fam date night came to close... BUT wait... what about dessert?! Oh yes... how could I forget?! As soon as we got home we cut a piece (or quarter) of the fudge pie I made earlier in the day (an Aunt Emily specialty) and scooped Cade-man some ice cream with a few M&Ms on top and and clanged our spoons to a LOVE-LY date night... one for the records books!

On Monday, the OFFICIAL day of LOVE, Caden and I celebrated with a Valentine's Day THEME day! Wa-hoooo! Of course, my inspiration came from none other than The Poe Fam blog that I have mentioned several times before, but as always I did adapt some of the activities to fit the resources I already had available to me and the interests of my little man!

The day started off with the BEST of intentions, but before 9am I had already hit the "reset" button twice on our day. (If only there was such a thing, huh?) It started out with a little heart-shaped pancake catastrophe, complete with a MELTED cookie cutter and a PERFECTLY red, heart-shaped burn on the bottom of one of my frying pans... oops! :) Apparently, even LOW heat will melt a plastic cookie cutter... go figure! :) It's PLASTIC, Katie... should have been my first clue! Ah, well the show must go on! SO then I switched pans and things were ROCKIN' until I went to make my first flip and COMPLETELY flipped the pancake OUTSIDE of the pan... onto my stove... DOUBLE OOPS! RESET! RESET! SO after WAY too long of a wait, Caden finally got ONE heart-shaped pancake... and I considered that a HUGE victory!

After breakfast I needed a break (HA!) so I decided to do a couple of our "sit on the couch" activities. We started with another FUN heart game on Starfall. Click here if you want to play!

THEN, we watched the Valentine's Day line-up that SesameStreet.org did especially for the day! It was really good... so we watched it twice! :)

THEN we read some of our FAVORITE books about LOVE and Valentine's Day. We also talked about God's love for us... and "memorized" the verse, "God is LOVE!" 1 John 4:8. Shamefully, I didn't do any more with the Bible verse than that...

After couch time with our computer games and books, it was time for Caden to open his special Valentine's Day gift from Mommy!! A box of chocolates with SHAMU on the front!! :) Thank you Target!!

Notice, Shamu (the REAL thing) was near by! :)

Caden took a bite out of every piece and decided that not one of them as a whole piece was worth the calories... smart boy! :) Next up, we did some sorting with conversation hearts!

This activity was pretty much a bust. Caden was TOTALLY not into doing anything structured with the hearts, BUT he did have fun putting them in and out of the muffin tin. I tried counting, color-sorting, etc. BUT after a few tries with each I figured it wasn't worth the battle... it's supposed to be a FUN day!

Next up, find the HEARTS! Caden LOVED this! I was surprised after how uninterested he was in the conversation heart games that he enjoyed this as much as he did. I used an old issue of Real Simple and placed heart stickers throughout the magazine and asked Caden to find them! He went page by page until we were finished... and Real Simple is a BIG mag! Go Caden! :)

Around lunch time we took a quick break and headed to Sonic to grab a drink to accompany our "romantic" Valentine's Day picnic at the park! Thanks Aunt Ree Ree and Uncle Tag for the yummy gift card!! Think we'll be stopping by Sonic a lot this week! :)

And now to munch on some grub! We used Caden's lunch box in lieu of a fancy basket... I think it did the trick! :)

Lunch was of no interest to the Chade... and of course it wasn't with the PARK staring him in the face... GO PLAY! Lunch can wait! :)

I cannot get over how OLD he is looking these days. Climbing, playing, swinging... all with limited help needed from Mommy... he's one of those independent playground kids... when did that happen?!

"Uh... Mommy... I'm a little higher than I'd like to be... and the curve is comin' up! HELP!!!!" Okay, so maybe he does still need me from time to time! :)

After some fun at the park, it was time for a NAP! Once Caden arose from his nap... we had a Heart Scavenger hunt with some CUTE stickers KK bought Caden for Valentine's Day! Thanks KK!

He did a great job finding the hearts and had a fun time showing Daddy all he found when he got home later that evening!

Speaking of...

Justin and I DID manage to have a little date night of our own after Caden went to bed on Monday night. We all ate a YUMMY dinner... Caden had a special pizza and Justin and I had YUMMY wild salmon and asparagus and THEN... Justin gave me the GREATEST gift ever... TRUE shoulder to shoulder time on the couch SANS computer! He did NOT work all night! He even left his computer at work so he wouldn't be tempted!! Now if that doesn't say love then I don't know what does! :) Seriously, it was such a treat to sit and laugh together at the drama unfolding on the Bachelor... without me having to repeat myself or say, "did you hear me?" "are you paying attention to me?" "can you stop real quick, I have GOT to tell you something!"

During half-time of the Bachelor we toasted with a little Champagne (Club Soda for me) and the last HALF of our fudge pie! :) See why we had to eat salmon and veggies for dinner?! :) We knew what was comin'...

Cheers to a wonderful Valentine's Day (weekend) celebration with my SWEET boys! I love y'all!