17 Months

As most of you already know, we were blessed to have Nina with us from Austria for a few very short months. She came just before Halloween and left shortly after the New Year. In that time, we saw God work in such incredible ways including drawing Nina to Himself. She accepted His gift of Salvation and fervently sought after Him to learn as much as she could about this great God we serve! We miss her dearly (Elina does too!), but we look forward to her visit in Canada this summer!

This was Elina's Halloween costume...I enjoyed making this, but she didn't really enjoy wearing it!
Nina's first Vernon football game...

Nina made us Wiener schnitzel shortly after she joined our family. No, it's not a hot dog! It's actually pork cooked much like chicken fried steak, and you eat with with cranberry sauce. Yum Yum!!!

Here's my little helper...

We absolutely love bedtime with Elina...she doesn't always love the ending, but at least we all love the beginning and middle! These are the times it seems our home is filled with the most laughter...

16 Months Old...

At the beginning of the new school year Sunday School classes promote to the new grade level...even babies! It was so sweet to have the nursery workers and Elina's new SS teacher "fight" over the babies/toddlers...I love that they love our children...every single one of them! Well, Ellie ended up promoting (I couldn't believe Mrs. Becki and Mrs. Donna let it happen!). But they knew it was best for her. Elina was actually the first in her class on Promotion Sunday (normally there are a few more children in the room with her), but it was so sweet to see Mrs. Jana giving her one-on-one attention. She loves her SS class and teacher! And Mommy loves that she caught this milestone on video!...

We have been blessed to get to live in one of the best neighborhoods ever! We absolutely love and appreciate all of our neighbors. Everyone looks out for each other and expresses such kindness...not just the silent wave when you happen to be outside at the same time. Well, one of the families on our block adopted a sweet little girl from Korea just over a year ago. She's just a little older than Ellie. We don't get to hang out much, but when we do it's so sweet to see the girls interact and share with each other. Mindy let Ellie play on her new tricycle one day, and since Ellie doesn't have any ride-on toys like this she thought it was super special!...

I'm so blessed to get to have Elina! She is absolute joy in our lives...she is thoughtful, loving, entertaining, laughter filled, and so much more. She also lets Mommy play with her hair! This is one of the things I remember always enjoying when I was a kiddo...I loved fixing my hair in different styles (side pony tail anyone??) and of course playing with my dolls' hair as well. (I occasionally got to play with my best friend's hair, but she usually tricked me into letting her do mine and then wouldn't let me do hers!) Ha! Then there was college...I actually had friends that let me cut and dye their hair...crazy I know! I think there might have actually been a few times that my 'clients' didn't end up sneaking away to get my creation fixed by a professional! But, the word on the street is that they mostly always had to get it "fixed". Ha Ha!!

This is Elina's first Pony Tail (Daddy's favorite way for her hair to be done!)


Elina's first French Braid...


Like I said...Elina brings such joy to our home...look what I found her doing one night...

What Happened??? (15 Months)

I love it when Elina says "what happened?"...so cute! Well, I could give you the million and one reasons I have gotten so behind in updating our blog, but I'll spare you. I'll just say that it was really hard to go back through everything to try to pick out the highlights of the last several months! I'm going back and updating (to some extent) for you (our family and friends), but also to have a record of our sweet children's lives (since I'm not a scrapbooker!)...

So here goes...

Since the last time I was posting fairly regularly Elina was about 15 months old (she's almost 22 mo. now!). Daddy gave her pet fishies! It was quite the event too! He took her on a Daddy/Daughter date to the store...they looked at the fish for a while...picked a couple out...went to the snack section and got Gold Fish...and then juice. She enjoyed her treats while Daddy put her new aquarium together...

Some of you already know what ultimately happened to the fishies...one passed on, and then sure enough the other followed. It was quite the moment in the Cox Household when Daddy performed the funeral for Ishy the Fishy...you can check it out on Jason's FB if you'd like. I must say, it's worth a look see!!!

Also at 15 months, Elina took her second plane trip (and did Amazingly well!!!). Mommy and Ellie (and baby brother) went to California for Janina and Jeff's wedding. We were there for about a week, and we had such a great time celebrating with the Ellsworth's (and Mommy actually fit in her dress!...). I don't have great pics of the wedding festivities, but you can check those out on Janina's FB if you want.

After all the festivities, Rick and Kerstin somehow found the energy to bless us with a trip to Lake Tahoe! I'm sure they were exhausted, but they have such a gift and desire for showing their guests a great time! So, off we went....Elina's first "beach" experience...

She really seemed to enjoy herself, and I know I did! Thank you Rick and Kerstin!

New Update...

Hey it's me, Jason!

I thought I would jump on here and give an update. I know it's been over a month, but a lot has happened.

Our exchange student Nina has to go back to Austria on January 7th. We are very sad about this. We originally thought that she would be with us until we move to Canada. Sometimes things change and we have to accept them. Nina is loving being with us and adores our Church so much! She's loving school (if you can believe that) and she's making straight A's.

I am so proud of Sarah! Her new business (Arbonne) is taking off! I'm so stinkin' proud of her and all of her hard work and commitment to this new adventure that God has us on. She's had at least two parties a week since she started (thank you Jesus).

We're both so excited that Elina will get to actually participate in the unwrapping of gifts this year. Last year she just sat up and dangled the Christmas Tree ornaments that hung from the bottom (it was way cute!). I'm thinking this time will be completely different. I'm trying to get her to drink Egg Nog, but don't tell Sarah! Shush... :)

As for me... who cares, right? jk.

I'm still going strong with church ministry as all ways. I enjoy what I do so much! Kingdom things are so much better than worldly things ever will be! Our Worship Team is about to record their first CD this month into January, so that's exciting! Anyways, I won't bore you with my stuff, after all, I know you just want to hear how Sarah and Ellie are, right? :) They're amazing!

Hopefully Sarah will jump on here and give you all the "details". I'm not a "details" guy.

I wish all of you a Merry CHRISTmas!

Blessings,

Jason~

Time for an Update!!...

Hello everyone! Once again I'm sorry it's taken so long to update our blog, I'll try to get more done on it this weekend. Also I'm sorry that this post will not have any new pics! However, hopefully some fun news will make up for my short fall...

Baby News...It's a BOY!!! We are so excited and looking forward to welcoming this little guy into our family! Now the search for a name is on!!!

Family News...We welcomed a new "daughter" (if you can even say that since she's only 11 years younger than me!) into our family just this week! Her name is Nina, she's an international exchange student from Austria, she speaks English incredibly well, Elina Loves her!, she'll be with us until we move to Canada, and I can't wait to tell you all more about her as we spend the next several months together!

Business/Work News...I started a new job! After not working for more than three years (outside of the home anyway), I became an Arbonne Consultant just one day before we heard about Nina. We had several huge changes in our home last week, but we are excited about what God is planning in all of this! As far as Arbonne goes...our goal is for this to help off set some of the expenses we will be facing in our transition and future life in Canada.

Thank you all for sharing in our lives...Blessings!!!

Animal Noises...

Up until this moment, Elina would only make noises for a dog, cow, and lamb (I think that's all). Anyway, then in an instant she began making noises for any animal I asked her about! Crazy! I asked Jason to grab the camera in an attempt to get her to do it again, and sure enough!...she did! She does such fun, cute, random, histerical things all the time, and while I do catch many moments...rarely can get her to something exactly the same as before! Whoo Hoo! I love this video! A parent can't help but be so proud of their child when they learn or do something brand new!
Even now, I am reminded once again that we are so extremely blessed to have Elina Faith in our lives. It's so funny that on a weekly basis we have people tell us that they just want to keep Ellie here when we move, or that she is going to be passed back and forth between two different families (custody battle), or that we are going to have to fly her down to Vernon on the weekends, and on and on. We laugh about it (and honestly sometimes it's a little freaky! Ha), but it's a constant reminder that we are so blessed...that we get to keep her...that she is ours...Thank you for this Huge blessing Lord!..Help me, though, to remember also that she was/is yours before she was ever ours!

Baby Cox Sonogram...

We had our first sonogram a few weeks ago! It was so sweet to get to see and hear his or her little heart beat for the first time. I thought I would try to get Elina to show you all her little sibling, but she knew the paper was backwards from her and kept turning it around! Elina had just turned 15 mo. and our itty bitty baby was about 9 weeks gestation.

Elina's First Lake Trip...

At the end of August our Canada Team got together for out first retreat. It was a lot of fun and productive as well! We were blessed to get to stay at a lake house and went out on the boat a couple of times. Elina didn't really think too much of being on the lake. She was mostly quiet and clingy...just taking it all in...that or just holding on for dear life...poor thing! While it was Elina's first lake trip, it was also Jason's first time to water ski...

Or attempt to water ski! :) He did so good, just couldn't quite make it. We all had more fun with the tube though. Josh of course had to throw Jason out of the tube, but he was gracious enough not to flip me when I took a turn.

After our retreat we all went to Adeline's second birthday party. They had a jump house, and I was pleasantly surprised that Elina was more than willing to play on it. Up until this party, anytime we were around one she didn't want anything to do with it. If you notice on top of the TV behind me in the video, you can see a precious painting of Adeline. This was a gift from one of their friends...I told the lady I wanted to put my order in for Ellie! :)

One of Nana and PaPaw's visits...

Daddy was watering the lawn (back before we gave up on wasting the money for a green lawn!) and Elina decided to just run out in the water all on her own. She's never done that before. We always have to 'show' her or encourage her that she is allowed to go get wet! So cute!

After playing in the water and getting a bath,Nane got some snuggle time with Ellie...
I think this is such a funny picture...

I hope this isn't a foreshadow...

Dance

As you may or may not know by now, we don't have cable but we do have the entire collection of The Cosby Show! Elina has gotten quite used to Daddy watching his show everyday for lunch, so we got a good laugh out of watching her on this particular day. She just kept dancing so we kept letting the theme song play over and over and over again. This seriously went on and on, I was so sad that my cutest video of her 'dancing' is too long to post on blogger...oh well...enjoy...

Stop and Smell the...

Books!?!

Can You Say Jesus?

We're back and I have several fun videos to post and some sweet pictures as well. I'm pretty sure this was recorded when Elina was still 13 mo. (maybe she just turned 14 mo)...
We kept asking her to say her words and then tried to see if she would say Jesus, after several times I finally thought to get my camera out (imagine that). So by this time, she was pretty much done, but if you listen closely she actually says Jesus...

Right and Left...

Look what her Daddy taught her...

ElleBows...

I added a new little button to our blog...It links to one of my new favorite places on the internet! This little Etsy shop has some of the most precious little girly items I've laid my eyes on in a while. One of my other favorite blogs is having a giveaway and one of the ways to enter is to post about ElleBows and to add their button...

so there you have it...

I'm holding my breathe...crossing my fingers... :) ...it would be so much fun to shop in this Etsy shop!

Sign Language...

Ever since the first time I witnessed baby sign language, I planned to teach it to my babies. However, I never ended up getting any books or anything to teach myself. Elina has always been so vocal that I really thought she would be an early talker (which in some cases she really is). She hasn't really been the type to grunt and point in order to get what she wants. So in a way I suppose that made me feel better about not teaching her sign language.

However, now that she is eating better, I have noticed some grunting and pointing. I really thought it was a little late to start signing with Elina, but on the contrary she has taken to it very quickly. It has really added so much fun to our home, especially at meal times! We love seeing her sign! She knows and frequently uses four signs now (please, thank you, more and all done). These videos were taken 7-27 (she just turned 14 mo.) and 'please' was all she knew at the time. Within days she picked up on the other three signs all in one day! I'm hoping to get video of her other signs soon.

She loves to sit and eat off of Daddy's plate. While he was feeding her I noticed how much she was using 'please'...sometimes even with both hands (which I turned the camera off too soon on one of the videos or else you could have seen that!) Disclaimer: Jason would like everyone to know that he doesn't normally have that much food on his plate!, but since he and Elina were sharing.... :)

Our 14 Month Old...

Again...I could just eat her up...let's face it...I do...every chance I get! These were taken a couple days after Elina turned 14 mo, and she had just started sporting these adorable pig-tails (inspired by one of her nursery friends!). BTW I know that the last picture looks like she has to go, but although she is amazing at everything...we are no where near potty training! :)

First Trip to the Spray Park...

She didn't really fall in love with the place until it was about time to leave...poor thing! Doesn't it stink when that happens to kids!

This, however, was our second trip to the spray park (about five days later)...Thrill my heart!!!

She looked especially sweet...

in her new dress from Mrs. Paula. So I tried to get a good picture on this particular Sunday morning. She had her paci (which is really just a toy to her) in her mouth so I tried to take it for
just a second...

After several pictures that looked just like the one above, I decided a decent pic with a paci in the mouth was better than none at all...you know the whole choose you battles thing...

(I love how her little feet are crossed...my girly girl!)
Is it me or does this just look soooo outta place on my little girl...the only baby I know that never really took to her pacifier!

Yummy!

Couldn't you just eat her up!?!?

We were playing beauty shop in the bath tub again. While experimenting with those luscious locks of hers, I found that she had enough hair to pull back in her first pony tail!
(pics taken 7-11-09...Elina was 13 mo.)