The Holiday Season

Winter came early - and suddenly - with an early November storm that was a forewarning of things to come. Our porch and stairs are buried with every storm...



But Thanksgiving in Arizona was all sunshine and fun! Suzie (and everyone else too, though we only shot the kids)spent time in the sun... Including a quiet moment with David...
...who met his new cousin, Myles......and did his August Rush impression. Mel, Suzie and Natalie also took time to enjoy Gibby's cool piano together...


While Andrew and Charlie enjoyed mud together!



We all enjoyed seeing Martha, Sarah, Scott, and Abra...

...just cuddling and having fun... ...and letting a little hair down. Yes, Emily's alter ego showed up!

We can't wait for more family fun at Christmas!

Let's move to Portland --- October was full -- November is too...

Anyone viewing our blog knows our kids and the recent excitement in their lives -- new babies especially -- and can check their sites for the delightful evidence. But since most of my October was spent away from home, spending time with Shan's family (who were joined by Glenn's parents before I left), as well as AJ's (she had dental surgery, not a baby, but got a visit from me nevertheless), and though I can't add pictures of Ben's li'l spook (I wasn't there for Myles, but Em's wonderful parents were, so all is well), I will add some views of Seattle (including Dan, Emmi, and their little Reid!)and Oregon, where I went with Tim for just over a week. And because we're well into November (shaping up to be another busy month, for various reasons, including my return to teaching gymnastics) before I even manage to blog the October fun, well... we'll see if I can crow about November before Christmas arrives. Are you (in between the parenthetical phrases)getting the message here, or is clarity even possible from this brain or these hands?? Never mind... On to the pictures!




AJ advertising her liquid diet after wisdom teeth removal - but no chipmunk cheeks!


AJ and Josh both enjoy that James is getting SO big! (But Stella knows he's the little guy - she even tried to help mommy by changing his diaper...)







Here's Isaac showing his Adamz sense of humor; Shan enjoying time with her new baby before returning home to the overwhelming joys found in mothering two;






And the bigger-just-means-better, new improved Adamz family, along with their Bishop and Grandpa Adamz, just after Isaac's blessing.




After spending time with the Packards and Adamzes, I went home to make sure Mel and Suzie remembered me before leaving again... Tim and I headed for Seattle, saw the sites and the sweet little Fillmore family.
Thanks, Dan and Emmi, for spending time with us - and for sharing your honey of a boy!


Let's all move to Portland! I just couldn't drink in enough --it was so beautiful there! (But of course, Autumn is gorgeous almost anywhere...)




I made friends with a 70-yr. old Russian immigrant named Havel the day I visited the rose garden, so I asked him to pose with one of the roses. He was running for public office, but I'm pretty sure his ideas and style didn't win him a position...
One of my favorite things was the Pittock Mansion, a uniquely beautiful home on a hillside overlooking Portland, where the forest literally surrounded the homes and streets. I took hoardes of pictures there, but these are a sampling. Notice the flaming red tree through the glass in the house... So much breathtaking scenery, I was ... breathless. ;-}




Sorry, I still don't have the hang of picture and caption placement. In my next life, I plan to be brilliant...

Happy Birthday to the Youngest! And please don't disbelieve in us...

Happy Birthday to Suzie, the youngest of the Cox Clan! Today you enter the teen years: so fun, but so full of pitfalls... You're beautiful, you're good, you're committed, you're strong physically and spiritually, you're talented, and you're the baby of the family! Don't let that last aspect mess up all the others! Know, every day, that you have a large mob of family and countless others who love you and are cheering for you today and always!

This entry is from a hotel room in Portland, Oregon while I'm traveling with Tim and not with Suzie on her big day. (Thanks, Packards and Mel, for making it fun in our absence!)As Mel declared last time, we are the worst bloggers - Dan and Emmi even verified it when Tim and I visited them. The truth hurts, but it's still the truth... Well, I'm not promising to turn over any new leaves, but I am promising there will be a new highly visual entry soon - and it will be worth the wait for anyone who still bothers with us - after I am through traveling and can sit down in front of the computer to update.

This is a different kind of entry for me; why must I always blog with pictures, you may ask -- Why not just some comments now and then, so at least there are entries? Good question, since many of you do that and I enjoy YOUR entries. I guess I have to confess that I am a kid when it comes to reading: I like pretty pictures in books, and I always read the captions under the pictures before I read anything else on the page -newspapers and magazines especially. Yes, the truth is, I am a visual junkie, perhaps even more than a word bird. No wonder I'm no longer a journalist. I savor others' words much more than my own, but feel mine are unworthy without a picture to go with them.

So there you have it. No tag game, just true confessions from an unfocused blogger and computer user. So don't give up on us or cease to believe that we exist. Just don't expect much and you'll never be disappointed! Talk to you soon (with pictures, of course)!

Your healthy dose of North Dakoota

Well I think we will just admit it: we are horrible bloggers and so(again) the responsibility falls to me to post. These are a bit random, but just some pictures from the end of the summer and beginning of school and such.


Here we are celebrating Xander's birthday with him. It was a pretty good party. :D


These are the sister that were living with us before they were taken out of our area, Sister Kozlowski and Sister Parkinson. We miss them.

A North Dakota storm, unlike any other place. We had hail...well I'll just show you!

Reading Breaking Dawn, yes at the same time. At least we were able to share.


FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!! For those of you who weren't aware, Suzie started 7th grade and I started my sophomore year, both of us transitioning to different schools.


Here are a couple of Suzie being all cute and sassy. :D
...And her 18 inch long hair!!

(Flash backs AJ??)

And we cannot forget Abi, the most neglected member of our family(though mom would disagree on her being a "member").

I thought you would all like to see mom's reaction to her amazing present. Thank you to all who contributed. It "made her day" (yes, she said that).

Memories...May be Beautiful and yet...

I got this from Leona (as all you family bloggers already know), and like the idea of trying it. However, you all know I'm not as loyally online, so I won't be as good at it, but I'm willing if you are!

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I had together. It can also be a family memory - whatever comes to you. Anything goes! (Well, within reason...)

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, no worries. It is, after all, just for fun!

alright alright!...efy and youth conference

I have had some demands to put up picures from efy and I'm going to put up some from youth conference too. I don't know why you all want to see these so much, and most of them are not candid, but I will try to just pick the good ones. :D

My company's name was may be perfect(the names were all random phrases from scriptures: under a bushel, in the house, common to man etc.). I was rather proud of our flag but unfortunately they gave no awards for flags this year. Our cheer made it into the finals, but we didn't win.(it wasn't that good :D)

This is our entire group the night of our formal dance. Unfortunately none of us got extremely close...sad.

Yupp me and emily vz made it on the cover of the new era(cough cough)

Me and Adam Howard from Bountiful. He is my age and weighs like 10 pounds less than me(he is a wrestler).

Here's me and all the guys. All nine of the guys. Escorting was a joke because we had 22 girls so there were always some girls who didnt get escorts.

This is my roomate, Emily VZ(veazy..I think...the letters are just easier :P). She lives in Minot, and is still in our stake. We grew super close that week since we were around eachother almost 24/7. She drove back to Bismarck with us.

Me and Spencer Fennemore. He was probably one of my favorite guys there; he was a great dancer and really easy to talk to, but sadly I have hardly talked to him...once I think.

Now for Youth Conference. It was a tri stake conference in Fargo with about 250 kids. Unfortunately I hardly took any pictures from the three days we were there. Here are my favorites:


This is Demory Nunley and I at the formal dance. She was my roomate and we were basically inseperable, not too differnt than normal. I wore mom's old homecoming dress and she wore Kim Frakes's Prom dress from this year. Hers was a little hotter than mine. :D(I'd meant hotter as warmer, but you can interpret it however you like.)


Again, before the formal dance. Sara Anderson, Me, and Demory all fit in the backseat whenever we traveled(we somehow managed it with our prom dresses as well :D). It was a good time.

For some odd reason, I didn't really hang out with many people outside of our stake. I do regret that and I think I would have met more if the conference would have been longer than 2 days! However, Zach B..(something), from Fargo, I did kind of get to know. I have kept in touch with him very well(thank you Facebook :D).

Well now that you have had an extreme overload of my greatest and most spiritual parts of my summer, I hope you are satisfied. Of course, if not, or if I didn't portray something well, just ask me and I'll try to clarify.
Love you ALL!
Mel