Merry Christmas Greeting

Merry Christmas 2009
Leigh and Joyce Cox

We have once again been blessed with a wonderful year. Leigh was able to travel across the country with his brother Randy early in the year.
I got to turn 60 this year and what a celebration we had. Lots of “roasting” went on that night and my head ached from smiling so much. I appreciate all who came and made it such a fun night.
In May Leigh and I traveled to Indiana to visit with Kim and Austin. Above you see us at Lake Michigan shore while on an outing one day. It is a huge body of water with Chicago barely visible across the way.
Our entire trip was filled with wonderful people, sights and scenery. We made it to Valpo, Indiana, Nauvoo and then on to Adom ondi Ahman. Our visit with Kim and Austin was wonderful and they showed us many places of interest in their Valparaiso area. They joined us in Nauvoo, as well.

We met Dale and Mary Jo Christensen at a Bed a Breakfast they own at AOA. This is interesting only because Dale’s father taught me Algebra in Jr. High. He graduated a year or two before I did. They are exceptional hosts and just let me give the Marydale Inn a big plug if your travels are taking you to northern Missouri in the future.


Bryce and Anna added to their family in May. . .Avery was born a little early but she is doing great and is such a cute addition to their family. Summer took up to Idaho/Utah for a little family time, including Tommy and Jill’s wedding on July 8th at 10:00 A.M. (7/8/9 at 10).
Tommy has NO excuse for ever forgetting their anniversary J.

For a few years we have thought about having a Cox Cousins’ Camp here in Lakeside. We were able to pull it off this year when for a couple of day all the grand kids were “on-site”, with the exception of the old married grandkid. What a busy time that way. We really appreciate our children who saw that this event happened, no matter how crazy it was.

(all but Andrew, and Tommy)
We wondered outloud to each other whose great idea it was do to this!!!! When they are a little older we think it will be easier.

We had other travel plans but the H1N1 virus cancelled them. . .then Leigh’s back has been needing surgical attention so we postponed traveling until that could be taken care of. In November he went under the knife and had the operation. . .I will let the picture of his X-ray say it all.

He is doing pretty good. . . .is complying with instructions to behave for 3 months.

The year has held some challenges as well.
Caroline’s mother passed away in May after being diagnosed with cancer.
Austin was laid off at USS.
Thomas and Austin both joined the Army National Guard.
Then, Leigh’s back issues.

Quick rundown on the children:
Troy and Heidi and 3 children, still in Orem and doing well.
Eric and Caroline and 4 children live in Pinetop and are busy parents.
Becky has been caring for her 4 children who are still at home and they await Thomas’s return from Boot Camp. She works 2 days/week.
Justin and Stacy live in Queen Creek and are doing so great. Stacy is astoundingly talented artistically and Justin is taking up metal work.
Bryce and Anna and their 2 children live in Mesa. . . .Those little ones keep them going.
Katie and Donovan and their 3 children are still in Glendale area of Phx.
Kimberly is living with us while Austin finishes up his bootcamp experience.

But we are very fortunate to be here in this wonderful country and able to celebrate the birth and life of the Savior Jesus Christ. We declare Him to be our Savior and give thanks for all that enriches our lives, including the difficult times.


We wish you all a happy holiday season.
Remember the reason for the season

With love,

Leigh and Joyce Cox

Whew!!!

Not only have we had visitors of the human variety, but yes, the bears are back. FYI that is a quarter next to the "gift" which was found in the middle of the driveway. We knew something was up when the dogs were raising such a ruckus during the night. The paw print was found later by Sammy and was only 10 feet away from the dog run. No wonder they were barking.






We had a nice trip to Lagoon July 1st. Becky was not going to take Sariah in, thinking she would be sort of a pain. She relented and we all found that the only crying Sariah did was when the rides were over and she had to get out of the car. . . .There was nothing she went on that scared her. Which is more than I can say for some of us:)




We even found a few dinosaur skeletons on BYU campus to "WOW" the children. This shot is a little blurry but you get the idea. A nice small area, easy to keep track of curious children in and free!!

For years we have been thinking a COX CAMP for all the grandkids would be great. Well this year we nearly pulled it off. 16 of the 17 were in town and at our place for a couple of days. The weather was terrific; the addition of three dogs to our two complicated things a little but all in all it was fun to see the grandkids get to know each other and play so well together. A BIG THANKS to Katie as she was the activities director for the games portion of the camp. Red Rover Red Rover. . . . . . BullDog. . . . .AddOn. . . . . .and let's not forget Duck, Duck Goose. Leigh and I are thinking it should get a little easier as they grow a little more. Lots of little ones this year.

Wow, It has been a while.

We had a two week cross-country trip in May. Here we are in Chicago at the park by Lake Michigan (It probably has a name, but it escapes me.) Kimberly and Austin and his brother and sister in law joined us. We took the comuter train in to Chicago and spent the day in the windy city. The weather was jus right for quick walking. We went to the Museum, Garret's Popcorn , Giordano's Deep Dish Pizza place, and the Navy Pier.

The next weekend we went to Nauvoo and spent three wonderful days enjoying the kindness of the tour guides, the entertainment of all the productions they freely gave us and the beautiful spirit that was brought to us by the stories tenderly shared about a people trying to establish Zion in that land. Here you see Kimberly operating the printintg press they have on display. We also enjoyed a wagon ride, four musical productions and lots of walking tour sites. We also got over to Carthage.

Here you see Kimberly and her dad at the Carthage Jail Memorial. Following our visit there, we parted ways with Kim and Austin. They went back to Indiana and we went over the Adam Ondi Ahman in northern Missouri. I met up with a boy (now a man and his wife who operate a B & B Marydale near Gallatin, MO.) who graduated a year ahead of me in Blackfoot, Idaho. His father was my Algebra teacher in 9th grade and I had a crush on his older brother. His sister married one of Leigh's best friends from Snake River High. What a crazy small world we live in.

We returned to find our newest Grandaughter, Avery Elizabeth, who arrived a month early!! There were weight concerns early on but everything is going well now. Isn't she beautiful?

We head up to Utah next week for Tommy and Jill's wedding. I will try to do better at updating.

Finally Retired

Since moving here Leigh has been collecting change in a five-gallon water bottle with the oft repeated phrase, "When it gets full, THEN I can retire." So, although he hasn't been at the hospital for a few years, he recently achieved "retirement" by the filling of the water bottle with coins. It got to be a little annoying, waiting for it to get full because he would always whine if I ever paid for anything with coins. . . .he would insist that I give them currency and obediently put my change in HIS bottle. Not a great plan because I sort of like my own stash of quarters. . .anyway. . .last month it got full and he began the BIG sort. Sammy was right there helping. I even got into the act by trying to find the 50-Quarter state set thingy. If any of you have quarters from Hawaii OR Alaska. . . .we only found 1 Alaska and 0 from Hawaii!! (We were trying to get 8 sets in all).

Hey Mother Dearest

I was finally able to upload the song Justin did for my party. Go to Youtube.com and search for zialanelady. It is the only video that will come up. Uploading it wasn't necessarily hard. . . .it just took forever. .

Happy B-day to ME.

Okay, I realize it wasn't really my actual birthday. . . . so I'm not really 60 . . . yet. However, can I just say we had the best party last Friday night? My long time friend (I've known her since Jr. High!!) Lucy Frost surprised me by coming!! You can sort of tell by my crazy face. All the kids but Troy were able to make it. Kimmy flew in from Indiana unexpectedly (No thanks to Shell Bell). There were special songs and dances and lots of laughing. We found out that 40 is about all the living room will comfortably hold! Thanks again to all who attended. I am STILL smiling!!

I may post a comedy/song that Justin did on facebook. I waited and waited for it to upload here but it would not. If you are related it will be worth all 7 minutes. . . let me know what you think!

We love our Grandkids!

Grandpa's getting pretty brave in his old age. . .He NEVER lets me give him a shave. I think he is trying to "bond" with Sammy.







We had an impromtu sleepover last night when Jared (these three's baby brother) wound up in the hospital overnight because of his oxygen levels. Once again Grandpa is the man as he helped them build the tent and got the movie all set up. He even slept upstairs with them. I, on the other hand stayed up way too late attempting to better my wordtwist score.

We often wish that ALL of our grandkids lived in town. We are so thankful we get to see them all as often as we do.

We hope all of you have a wonderful Spring Break. . . . .we will be breaking later.

A few shots from the last couple of weeks.

Yeah for Uncle Randy and his ride in the Semi. . . we all squeezed in . . .all 9 of us.

I didn't know I raised a cowboy, either. . . but he wasn't going to post this photo so I did. His business partners and staff donned the cowboy get-ups to participate in the POLAR BEAR plunge to raise money for Special Olympics. . .It was FREEZING that day.





Proof that SOMEBODY loves Kim and Austin since they moved to Indiana. . .Leigh and Randy spent a night with them on the cross country trip. (I want to go too.)




Man does not live by bread alone but. . . having a house filled with that sweet smell can certainly calm the troubled beast. Good Job, Heidi.

Ear plugs work!!

Leigh is off on an adventure, with his brother Randy, so it is just me and the dogs and the cat . . . . and the neighbors (The Montoya Family). I went to bed late last night. I didn't lock the dogs into the house but allowed them the option of going out into the dogrun; this required ear plugs for me because the banging of the doggie door is distracting, annoying, irritating, etc. Sometime in the night I became aware of an odor. .which I didn't identify right away. I don't know when it became clear what the smell was but when it finally registered (SKUNK!!) I was perplexed how the skunk would have gotten into the dog run. As morning approached and my earplugs worked their way out of my ears, I became aware of the dogs barking. Rather than get up I just yelled at them to be quiet, which seemed to work. Long story short: The dogs' dogrun gate had been left open and Ginger and Pepper had been roaming; they had been sprayed, and by 12:30 A.M.they were barking and barking at the neighbor's house. :( Becky had to move to the back bedroom to get some relief from the dogs. Thomas suffered in silence murmuring threats against Pepper specifically. When I woke up at 8:30, I called Becky and left a message for them NOT to get too close to the dogs as they seemed to have gotten sprayed by a skunk. Then I noticed that I had 12 missed calls with the bulk of them from . . . . . the Montoyas, beginning at 12:40, 1:00, 2:05, etc. Becky didn't get my message but about 9:00 she and Thomas came down to the patio and cautiously stepped into the house. . . .thinking that something must have been terribly wrong at our house since I hadn't answered the phone and the dogs had been so persistent. Crazy night for them but a testimony to me that those 200 pair of red earplugs that I bought all those years ago wasn't such a silly purchase after all; they still work.
Sorry Montoyas.

Old Habits Die Hard

For years (probably only 3 or 4) our YW made and sold Valentine Cookies as a camp fundraiser. Each year since, I make a few to give away. I had some good help this year in Joslin as she really has the knack for decorating. I was saddened to know that there are so many I would like to give them too but can't because of the distance. So check out the results. . . .know that if you were here, you'd have gotten one and make plans to come visit next Valentines so I can deliver it in person!!

I send you all my wishes for a happy Valentine's weekend. Hug tightly, those you hold dear. We all need each other.

Happy Ground Hog Day

Just doing a shout out to Becky and Katie for hauling wood in for Dad a week ago.
To be honest I was a little nervous to use our stove again. You know, since we had
that chimney fire on Christmas Eve 2007. Yeah. Well, we are using it and it has
made our livingroom such a cozy, comfy place; our heating bill has been cut by
more than half . It is a little messy AND it proves difficult talking Leigh out
of the whole "charcoal starting fluid" means of fire building, I like it!!

Isn't he cute?

Leigh is very agreeable to some of my Photo Requests. He ,being a horseman, helped


this time, I'm sure. We were about a block up from the fish market in Puerto Penasco


in front of a store labeled "muebles". I know what it means, just wondering if any of


you do. The time of day could not have been better for the outcome of the previous


post's shot. We were in Mexico over the New Year holiday.





New Year's Eve we watched. . . . "Ghost town" which I LOVED. The


humor cracked me up. Be advised in the opening scene the main character is talking on


the phone to his wife (a conversation you can listen to with no concern) however when he then calls his realtor you might want to mute it and just know he cancels his deal with the


realtor. Also, towards the end of the movie when the dentist has a heart to heart with his


business partner. . . .some phraseology is used that totally describes him but is not


something you would necessarily want said in your home (you can listen until he is led to the dentist chair and asked to sit down). He is told by his partner that he is a total jerk and self consumed and no wonder he has no friends. . pretty much. I watched it 3 times. Laughed everytime.

To make the NEW YEAR memorable Trudy Rawlings, Lacey Rawlings and Shanlee Finch all jumped into the unheated swimming pool at the place were were staying. Well, I got in too but a little more slowly. We FROZE. Gave me an appreciation for those folks on the jetliner who were stuck in the river waiting for rescue. I thank them for the chance to travel to that beautiful place.

Wordless Friday Who and Where?

Post gift chuckles. ... . .

I already shared with you Sammy's confiding in me about future Christmas present desires. . . .Probably won't influence me much as there is quite a lot of comfort in knowing EXACTLY what the grandkids will be getting. Not such a bad thing for me to deal with. For our own children this year I tole painted quilting frame stands. Okay, I admit this is not a "hot' item on most people's want list but personally I have come upon situations when I really needed a set. . . . .so. . . . in case any of them are up against that "need" in the future. . . . . waa laa. . . .they are set.

+ + + + + + + + + a few interesting conversations are listed below+ + + + + + + + +

Thomas: (the Sunday following Christmas) Mother, I forgot to thank you for the quilt stands.

Becky: Oh, my gosh, he can't keep his hands off of them. . . .he's finished 3 quilts already this week.

+ + + + + + + + +

Donovan: (To Katie as he is looking in the back of their new truck, after receiving the "gift") Hey, Katie, what's with the fence?

+ + + + + + + + +

Bryce: Mom? Remember last year when you bought me ammo for my guns for Christmas. . . . .and then this year you got us those quilt stands? Well . . . . . . . . . .I just really like stuff for my guns.

+ + + + + + + + +

Love you guys. . . I will try to think of gifts next year from your perspective. . . K?