Christmas

Well Christmas is officially over with. It is kind of sad all the work you put into it and it goes so fast! Jackson had a great Christmas. This was the first year we stayed home on Christmas Eve and I LOVED IT! I loved waking up on Christmas morning with my two favorite boys and having our own little family Christmas, it will definitely be our new family tradition. Justin and I got everything ready Christmas Eve, drank hot chocolate and watched a Christmas Story. Jackson helped up put out cookies and milk for Santa, he actually ate the Hershey kisses off Santa’s cookies and spilled a little of his milk but I got pictures so it was fine! He actually was excited about his presents when he woke up, Santa left him a battery operated four wheeler, a shopping cart and a work bench!








After that we packed up and headed out to do it 3 more times! We spent Christmas morning at my mom and dads, everyone had a great time opening presents and listening to Austin beat his new drum that mimi bought him! Jackson wasn’t too into opening presents but we did like the boxes and the toys once we got them out of the box. He really liked his new rolling tool box that he can drag behind him. The best part was we all got to sit down and have a calm lunch together and enjoy Christmas!




We then headed to Andy and Julie’s for Christmas night. Jackson had fun playing with his cousin Hannah and opening a ton of presents. He stayed up way past his bed time but took some time to relax in his new recliner in between presents!





Saturday we spent with Bebe. I think he actually had the best reaction here because he was the only kid and all eyes were on him. He opened a truck that the Yandell’s bought him and threw his arms up and squeeled, he did the same thing with the next present when he got to the box!





We came home Sunday and unpacked everything and realized how blessed we are and we talked and made the decision that next year we are going to adopt a family for Christmas and pass some of the million toys that we received on to some kids that are not as fortunate as ours our. We would really like to make this a family tradition that we do every year.

Monday Justin had his tonsils removed. The surgery went well but he is definitely not feeling well. His pain was pretty controlled last night but the pain pills are keeping him up so he is not sleeping much. His mom came down to help so we are making it through. Hopefully he will feel better in a few days and in the long run this will help his sinus and throat issues. It is really hard to see the people you love hurting so bad and not be able to do anything to help.

Great Wolf Lodge

I am behind on blogging but I had to make sure to go back and include this one. We went to Great Wolf Lodge the weekend before Christmas as our annual Christmas outing with the family. We are brave since we have a 9, 5 and 3 year old plus 3 one year old’s! It all ended up going great and being so much fun. It is a really neat hotel and the water park is great. The best thing is when your kids want to scream and yell no one notices because there is about a million kids there. Jackson loved playing in the water and swimming. He somewhat listened to story time and thought it was pretty neat when it snowed in the lobby. This was in between him hitting two kids that we didn’t know! I noticed how different he was this weekend from other kids his age! Julie’s boys sit in her lap, are calm and cuddle with you, mine runs around 100 miles an hour non-stop and never runs out of energy. He also had radar for any cell phone, remote control or staircase! The kids had a blast all weekend, Jackson made his first letter to Santa and they all made crafts and ornaments and had milk and cookies delivered by elves before bedtime! We shared a room with Julie, Michael and the boys and as usual Jackson got up around 5:30, we tried to get him to go back to sleep but by 6:00 he had successfully woke everyone but Michael and Austin up, so we snuck out of the room to get some breakfast and let them sleep. Barrett and Dylan could barely keep their eyes open, they were wondering why we were up, Jackson was full steam ahead, running the halls and climbing the stairs. About 30 minutes later poor Barrett and Dylan couldn’t handle it and went back to sleep with no problem! We have decided for any future trips, separate rooms would be best, especially since Dad snored so loud Jamie and Derek got their own room at 1:00 in the morning! Overall the weekend was great and we all enjoyed ourselves. It was definitely a weekend full of great memories and can’t wait for next year. Mom wants to do Disney World but I think we might have to settle for Sea World!

New words!

Jackson is learning new words everyday so I thought I would share some of them! When I picked him up from school on Tuesday the teacher was so excited to tell me a story, normally this starts with Jackson bit someone or Jackson tackled a little girl then sat on her and bit her or something to that effect. Luckily this one was sweet. They go on buggy rides everday to get out of the classroom and when it is cold they stay in side and go look at the christmas trees, she said everyday they point at the tree and say look at the angel, well on Tuesday they turned the corner and Jackson beat her to it and pointed and said clear as day "Angel".

Last night after he finished walking around kissing the reindeer card Cristal sent him in the mail, he picked up a picture of himself and said baby and started kissing it!

My favorite new word of them all though was this morning. He had the remote control as usual and I bent down to take it away from him and he jerked it away from my hand and said MINE! These are the moments were I have to remember how sweet it was yesterday when I got home from work and he ran to me with his arms open and gave me the biggest sweetest open mouth kiss and sat in my lap for 10 minutes! He is the sweetest little boy ever, just has a little stubborn streak, I think he gets that from his Daddy!

Well we are preparing for a fun weekend at Great Wolf Lodge this weekend so I should have tons of pictures and great stories to share by Monday!

Wow what a weekend!

Well as usual we had a crazy but fun weekend. We started it off by hosting a Christmas party at our house on Friday night. Our schedule was already so crazy but being me, I just had to throw a party into the mix! It turned out great and everyone brought stuff so I didn't have to do too much. Jackson who normally goes to bed no later than 7:30 refused to go to sleep! He was right in the middle of everything until 10:15 when I think he actually just passed out from exhaustion. The nice thing was we didn't hear a thing from him until 8:00 the Saturday morning which was wonderful.

Saturday night we headed to Dallas for Cristal's 30th Birthday! We had a great time and as much as I love my little man it is nice every once in a while to get out and go to a restaurant without having to worry about him throwing his sippy cup or talking so loud everyone stares at us. It was great to see all my friends and celebrate Cristal's birthday. I still can't believe we are turning 30 but we all seem to be handling it better than expected! I have to mention a big thank you to mom and dad for keeping Jackson along with Barrett, Dylan, Austin, Macie and Ally! They insisted they could handle it and they did. Mom even had the older ones decorating cookies and still managed to handle it all!

Sunday we had christmas with my dad's family at my parent's house. Every thing went great until I went to check on Macie and Austin in the playroom and smelled something burning. I kept asking them if they smelled something and they insisted that the smell was "someone went poo poo" and they thought it was so funny to keep telling me that. Well as they were laughing the smoke alarm went off so I started freaking out and yelling. The smoke looked like it was coming from upstairs so me and Julie ran up there to check and nothing was on fire. When we came back down Julie noticed flames coming out of one of mom's candle holders on the dining room table. By this time everyone is screaming, people are running out of the house, mom is in the kitchen crying and yelling call the fire department. Julie grabbed a pitcher of water and put it out as dad and Justin came running in. So Julie put out the fire but somehow in Macie and Austin's eyes Justin is a hero b/c as Austin said 1000 times "we were going to call the fire department, but Uncle Justin IS the fire department so we don't need them". It was so cute. No matter what there is always drama at the York house.

We got home about 7:30 last night and all crashed. Poor Jackson was so worn out he slept until 8:15 this morning and then laid in bed with daddy until 9:30 and got to skip daycare today!

Our Crazy Life!

Well this year we started out with ear tube surgery for Jackson, we then moved on to 3 ER visits for Justin's kidney stones and finally ending in surgery for him to have one removed, then Jackson had eye surgery in August and so we decided to end the year with Justin having his tonsils removed and possibly his sinuses unblocked. This has been the year of doctors and hospitals for us to say the least! Justin found out yesterday that all the sinus and throat issues he has been having are only going to get better if he has his tonsils removed December 28th. He his having a CT scan today to see if they are going to work on his sinuses while they are in there. The good news is we are very close to our out of pocket maximum for the year on our insurance so surgery is going to cost $22!! I guess that is what happens when you pay for 4 surgeries in 1 year.

On happier news, Camryn is due 3 months from today! I can't believe how fast this pregnancy has gone. It has been a little harder than it was with Jackson just because chasing a one year old around pregnant is not near as relaxing as taking a nap after work everyday but I wouldn't change any of it for a second. My belly is growing everyday and it doesn't seem to bother Jackson in the least bit. He just crawls over it or steps on it! I posted a picture that kind of shocked me when I looked at it but the doctor swears it is right on track!

Jackson did the cutest thing last night. We were playing in the living room with his new favorite toy, my muffin pan and he was putting a ball in each hole and then dumping them out when he stood up and smacked his head on the table. Well of course I picked him up and held him, kissed him and he laid his head on my shoulder. Well as soon as I put him down he walked back to the table put his hands on it and gently smacked his head on it again, looked at me and started fake crying then walked back to me with is arms out, got his kisses and laid his head back down! It was the funniest and sweetest thing ever. I posted a picture of him sleeping too because I just thought it was so sweet. We started doing his breathing treatments after he goes to bed now because he doesn't like to sit still for them and he never even notices. Once he is out, he is out!

My 1st Blog

My sister Julie has inspired me to start a blog! She recently started doing it and even though I talk to her at least 10 times a day I still learned something new about my nephews every time I read it so I thought with as many people that love to hear stories about Jackson that this would be a neat way to keep everyone up to date on the happenings in the Cox household!

We actually stayed home this weekend! That is amazing for us since we are always in Dallas or Van. It ended up being a great weekend at home and we got some Christmas shopping done. Jackson was in a great mood opposed to the issues we had last week with the steroids and 4 teeth coming in. He played with all his toys and entertained us all weekend. We went to a Christmas party on Saturday night and he had a great time. He walks around and touches and talks to everyone like he knows them and played with the other little kids, then passed out about 8:30 in his pack and play without making a peep! Sunday, a miracle happened. He woke up at 6:30 (normal) and Justin went and got him and they fell back asleep in the guest room so I could catch up on sleep, when I woke up at 9, I wondered where they had gone b/c there was no way Jackson was sleeping, well I was wrong, I peeked through the door and there they were both fast asleep until 9:30. This is a miracle for Jackson, 7:00 on a weekend is sleeping in to him, if we are lucky.

Since he had such a rough week last week with his asthma and teeth we decided to treat him to Chuck E. Cheese on Sunday. He had a great time, even though they don't have many rides for little kids, he rode the Chucky car at least 10 times and was perfectly happy. We of course then had to play the race car game and Daddy and him went down the slide. He is having a really hard time with this cold weather because he loves to be outside in his car or on the lawn mower so we thought this would be a good alternative. All in all it was a great weekend at home and allowed all of us to get some much needed rest.

Today he is home having a Jackson/Daddy day. I called to check in and so far they have slept until 9:30 and then Jackson had 8 little smokies for breakfast. We might be having our first case of one year old heart burn soon! He is growing so fast and getting so big. He is now saying a ton of new words: mama, dada, bye-bye, no no (with finger shake), points to his nose and says nose, duck and his favorite, ball! When he pulled one of my ornaments off the Christmas tree the other day he made sure to scream ball before he launched it onto the tile floor and shattered it!

Camryn's nursery stuff came in too, we don't have a crib yet for her since Jackson is still using it but I can't wait to eventually set it up!!