The Online Baby Gift Registry

I started shopping around online (always dangerous) and it occurred to me that it would be really cool if all the expectant mothers would make a list of baby stuff needed/wanted. We could:
1. Write a blog post just addressing this issue, providing links to all your favorite online stores & products (most of us don't live close, and some of us are in shopping Siberia and do most of the decent shopping online.)
2. Make a sidebar/page-element addition to your blog.
3. Write a whole new blog!! It would be just like the Family Reunion Blog, only dedicated to our Family Online Baby Gift Registry, and anyone could contribute.
4. Please include links and color preferences.

This would be really cool, because not only could we buy new stuff for everyone, we can all keep our eyes peeled at D.I., KSL.com, and other places where we can pick up quality used items for cheaper than new (almost all of my baby furniture was second-hand, even the crib, but it's lasted forever.) What do you think?

My Foggy Brain

Well, it had to come back to this sooner or later, so lets dive in to my foggy brain. Hhmmm... oh, what was I talking about? I got lost there for a minute. Oh, yes, my fogginess. I mix up my kids names all the time. Gil is Connor, Dani is Gil, Connor is Gil, is Gil Dani? you get the picture. Maybe I should just start calling everyone "hey, kid" and be done with it. And I seriously can't get motivated to do anything these days. It's a struggle getting out of bed in the morning Monday thru Friday, I tell you what. Here is my early-morning routine, step by step:
1. Turn off the alarm at 4:50 am. Try not to go back to sleep. Hah!
2. Throw back the covers, sit up, and turn on the light.
3. Walk five feet to the bathroom, use the facilities, then sit back down on the bed and tell myself I just have to get going (this can go on for a while). I can't break my three-month streak of exercising everyday except Sunday (yes, I exercised Thanksgiving morning). I have to be ready for July, because I'm seriously determined to do anything I can to avoid a c-section this time. This is about endurance, baby. And I AM NOT GAINING BACK THOSE 30 POUNDS I LOST!!!!! I realize I will gain anywhere from 10 to 20 pounds for my Summer Guest (yes, that's my average), but I have to get myself set for the four months AFTER the arrival, because that's when I REALLY gain weight. Uughhh. No nursing weight-loss for me, more like the Nursing Hippo.
4. Stand up, go find my exercise clothes. Try not to get distracted by the always-ginormous piles of laundry in the laundry room. I start a lot of loads of laundry at 5 in the morning. I may not get back to it until 9pm at night, hence the ginormous piles of laundry.
5. Put on exercise clothes. Locate MP3 player.
6. Step on my Gazelle striding machine (an infomercial impulse-buy thing four years ago), and start going. I am soooooo slow when I start. It's a miracle I get a mile done in thirty minutes these days. But in my defense, I keep the resistance on, too. When I can get to the rec center, and use one of their elliptical machines, it measures over two miles, so that makes me feel better. If I can make it through the first fifteen minutes, I can usually go a lot faster the last fifteen minutes. I almost double my speed in those last fifteen minutes.
7. Whew! Mission accomplished. Now I shower and get dressed, read scriptures with the fam, then face my day with all the little kids.

Man, exercising is a lot harder now that Summer Guest is coming. My body is soooo not into making an effort on anything. Weird thing is, I either feel inexplicably stressed-out over nothing, or I feel kind of buzzy, just sort of floating. Hyperaware vs. Clueless. Blechhh.

Thanksgiving & Kickin' Off the Season

Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Holidays! Well, we've hit the big season, evidenced by the amount of time I had to stand in line outside GameStop Friday morning, freezing my little toes off. I was not as well-prepared as some of the shoppers were, with their camp chairs, blankets, and thermoses of hot-chocolate/coffee. But, despite the hardships, it was mission accomplished. Whew! Just one of the things I was willing to put up with, living in shopping Siberia, like I do. And I was NOT going to pay an extra $200 to buy the dumb thing on eBay. Period. Isn't Christmas fun?! Let's feel the love and peace of the season, already!

Okay, let's catch up on the past week. Man, what's up with me and blogging lately? Remember the days when I used to blog four or five times a day? I don't know, I'm in some kind of fog, but let's catch up before I digress onto my foggy brain. Thanksgiving was fun. We had a great trip down, really, but I was glad when we got there. Can't wait until Connor is older. We might be able to handle a road trip that lasts for more than three hours. We'll see. And Little Summer Guest is going to make that even more interesting. Hhmmm... Here are a few pic highlights from Thanksgiving:

Zen's sister, Mickie, had two little baby chickens boxed off in a corner in her livingroom, I assume so they wouldn't freeze in the cold. Anyway Connor just loved the baby chickens, and only knocked their boxy pen over three times, I think.

Dani also loved cuddling the baby chickens. Never fear, I was ready with my little bottle of Germ-X hand sanitizer. I don't know, maybe it was a "summer guest" thing, but I was having a case of the heebie-jeebies about chicken germs.

All the Allred clan, chowing down.

Connor's favorite thing was "punkin" pie.

We also got started on our holiday decorating. Most of us are kind of humbug (I'm reluctant, because I know most of it will be destroyed by the daycare kids if I put it out). Just a tree would be fine. But Dani dragged us all kicking & screaming this weekend to at least get the Christmas tree set up. A few hightlights:

Dani & Connor

Hey, these two actually cooperated on something!

I'm sure there will be more pictures of the tree, we're taking it in slow stages (don't ask), but it will get done eventually. Oh, I also put up my wood nativity sets. They were a curiosity the first day back with daycare, but I'm not too worried. Little kids are why I only collect wood nativity sets, for the time being. Speaking of catching up, here are a few pics from the morning after our first real snow:

Enjoying the school holiday, Dani "led the troops" that morning, urging everyone outside to play in the snow.

Dani introduced Connor to the concept of the snowball fight. I think he liked it, little imp.

Freezing, but having fun!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

It's our first real snow of the season, fallen just in the past few hours. We had a few "sprinkles" in October, but none of it stuck to the ground. So, this is the real deal, and our first snow of the season, in my opinion. Gil and Dani just couldn't resist, although it was ten o'clock at night (no school tomorrow) and freezing outside!

My Little Thanksgivings

Sorry, I'm such a blogging slacker these days! Okay, 'tis the season. Here's my little Thanksgiving list:
1. Zen - Like he said, he's not a woman (i.e. not so good at the "venting feelings" type of conversation, which isn't always contructive anyway), but he's absolutely fantastic at being a good provider, great at getting us to do fun stuff together, he's always so mellow and not moody (unlike those of the XX persuasion in our family, thank goodness), has no vices (unless you count world of warcraft), he's a great dad, has a strong testimony, says kind things, is willing to help, and is just an all-around great guy!
2. All my kids - Gil (Mr. Funny & Responsible), Dani (Best Smile & Loves to Play), Connor (Cars Fan & Loves His Mommy)
3. My testimony - sometimes it seems like I have so far to go, it's discouraging, but I appreciate my Savior and all the sweet gifts the gospel brings.
4. All my family Sister Friends - I love my Mom, sister, Aunts, cousins, and sisters-by-marriage. You're the best!
5. Blogging - pretty much the same as #4, but I am thankful for a place to write my feelings, where I get to interact with the people I love. I've even gotten Zen to leave a few comments - always some variety of "CATS", but it really makes me laugh everytime, thanks Sweetie!!
6. My nice house - not all that outstanding by some worldly standards, but it fits us just fine, and hey, I have a craft room, for crying out loud!
7. My craftroom - grossly underused, but I'm trying to remedy that situation! Major inspiration credits to Katy & Liz! I wish I had a crafting buddy! (You know, like some people have an exercise buddy.) Maybe I'll have to find one locally, you know, come out of my shell, and all that...
8. My job - Okay, I'm honestly not enthusiastic about doing daycare all the time, and some days are better than others, but I'm really thankful it allows us to pay our bills, and hopefully get out of debt in the next three or four years.
9. An almost-tragedy passed uneventfully - I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that last Thursday, something not-very-wonderful happened with Connor and the little baby I tend, and while the baby was fine, it scared the holy monkeys out of me, and I cried about it off and on this past weekend, for no good reason. I am VERY thankful all turned out well.
10. Vacations! - I'm really looking forward to this Thanksgiving vacation, and plan to goof off as well as work in my craftroom, but mostly goof off.
11. Beautiful printed papers & cardstocks - Need I say more?
12. Delightful rubber stamps - Ditto #11, so many stamps, so little time.

Randomly Friday

Well, not much in particular to talk about today, and there's not much activity on the family blogs, so I thought I would post a little something.




Kind of disturbing isn't it? This is the sight that greeted me when I walked in the door from my Cub Scout Pack Meeting. It had been a long, hard day and I was so glad it was over. Apparently, it all caught up with Connor, too, and he was so tired he sacked out on the stairs, maybe waiting for me to get home. Warms my heart.

The Cowboy Memorial Bloopers

I'm saved! I'm saved! My camera has been found! And, I win the Doofus of the Week Award. When I couldn't find my camera yesterday, and Zen said he didn't remember unloading it from the car, I assumed that meant it didn't make it home. You see, he's pretty thorough about the unpacking, not wanting a bunch of junk in his car. So, it never occurred to me to look in his car. Dumb, I know. But it slipped into my head to look today, and there it was, in the back of his trunk!!!! Aaaaarghhh!! All this drama over nothing! (Cheeks red with embarrassment.)

Oh, and an honorable mention goes to my mother, who so willingly and graciously drove out to the State Hospital today and looked for my camera. FIVE Gold Stars for you!

Here are the Don Cox 100th Birthday Cowboy Remembrance photos from this Saturday. Some of these are just begging for additional captions (hint, hint) -


Now you know why it took us forever to get out of town Friday night.


Battle of the Century at Grammie's house. Hi-yahhhhh!


The cousins chillin' at Grammie's, playing dominos.


Connor and his favorite toy, Lightning McQueen. This is just sooo "little boy".


The cutest "seefood" this side of Texas.


Do I know you? Are we related?


Four cousins at the State Hospital church. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall... well, we are at a hospital, of sorts.


Did you say, "cheese"? I thought you said, "booger"!


An awesome cowboy cake!! Good thing there were so many kids to help eat all that yucky yummy icing.


Let's not think about how much extra love got spritzed on top of that cake.


Yum! Let's eat a bunch of sugar, and then sit quietly and respectfully for a very nice and heart-felt program. Hhhhmmm...

Okay, there are almost no relevant cowboy photos in here, and this is all very tongue-in-cheek for such a special day, but at least the pics are about Don Cox's descendents, so it's all good.

P.S. Okay I just read all this before posting, and I feel somewhat disrespectful. After all, it was a nice program, and I'm glad that we all decided to remember our great cowboy forefather. But, I guess our tongue-in-cheek humor is a family trait, too, so I'll let this blog post stand. Yee-haw!

P.P.S. Mom wanted me to put a note on here about more pics on the Reunion blog. Here's the link:http://coxfamily07.blogspot.com/

Back in My Day...

Thanks to Jenn for giving me my first "rattling pitchforks" comment. It's some kind of status symbol, right? I feel so special! I was going to blog the Saturday get-together, but lo and behold, I think I've lost my camera. Aaaaaaaaagh! The last place I remember seeing it is the church at the State Hospital down in Provo, so I would appreciate any help you could give me. And, yes, I already emailed Liz, so hopefully I will be able to recover my camera. But I hate the idea of losing those pictures, because some of them were really cute, and I wanted to blog them. Darn it! Anyway, there probably won't be any pictures forthcoming until I get a camera, one way or another.

So, despite the camera drama, today's blog post is about a funny comment Zen made to the kids on the drive back to Wyoming Saturday night. We'd had enough of the dvd player, and turned it off to listen to the radio. There's not a lot of selection in Rock Springs, Wyoming, so we were reveling in the variety along the Wasatch front. I made everyone listen to disco, of all things, on B98.7. That's when the kids started complaining. So Zen, in all his Dad wisdom, says , "When I was a kid, we didn't have dvd players. Sometimes, we didn't even have radio. We had to sing songs - both ways!" For some reason, that just made me laugh, and laugh, and laugh... and I knew it would end up on my blog. Sometimes, parenting together can be wonderful.

Lack of Cultural Refinement

Do you ever feel left out when people start quoting the classics? Do you sometimes feel like a hick? Not feelin' quite genteel? Do you stick your foot in your mouth frequently? Well, come join our family!

Some kid (cough Gil cough) accidently reset my desktop yesterday, and I went back through my selection of desktop backgrounds to pick one that matched my mood, and this one struck my fancy:



Reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes, our favorite! You can tell by this mangled pile of books:



I soooo wanted to put a Calvin and Hobbes clip up here, but I figured I'd get busted for copyright violations of some kind sooner or later, so I won't bother. But trust me, Connor was totally making a Calvin and Hobbes face. Here's another Calvin tribute:



Katy recently had a blog post about her favorite holiday movie, White Christmas, and it made me laugh, because our favorite holiday movie is Christmas Story, with Ralphie's quest for a bb gun, his mother who hasn't had a hot meal in 10 years, and his dad's eternal war on the furnace. Classic!

So, as you can see, we are a supremely culturally refined family! Especially with our appreciation for gassy humor and redneck jokes!

P.S. In our defense, we at least read scriptures together at 6:30am every morning, Monday thru Friday. We're not totally hopeless!

Chicken Bacon Fried Rice

There has been a wonderful flurry of recipes lately on the family blogs, so I thought I'd post one of my own. Please excuse the detail here, but I'm one of those annoying fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants-hardly-ever-measure-anything type of cooks, so when I made this recipe tonight, I tried to measure everything and take detailed mental notes, so it could be duplicated by anyone. Again, the English-major wordiness is coming through:

Chicken Bacon Fried Rice
cook these separately:
8 cups cooked white rice (start with about 2-1/2 to 2-3/4 c. dry rice, then add double the water & cook until the water is absorbed & the rice is soft)
3 chicken breasts, cut into chunks and cooked in skillet with 1 or 2 Tbsp. oil
8 oz. bacon, cooked, drained, & chopped
5 eggs, scrambled, season with salt & pepper (cook 6, if you really like eggs)

cook these all together:
3 stalks celery, chopped
4 to 5 stalks green onions, chopped
3 teaspoons minced garlic (I buy mine pre-chopped in a jar), or 3 to 4 finely chopped cloves garlic
1-1/2 cups frozen peas & carrots (bag of veggies in the freezer section)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce (add more if it's not salty enough)

cooking directions
1. Cook the rice. Completely cool and set aside. Otherwise, you will have a mushy mess when you combine everything in the end. This is a step you can do ahead of time, or the night before, so that it all comes together quickly when you get home from work, or running errands. Ditto for the chicken and bacon.
2. Cook the chicken, bacon, and eggs each separately and set aside.
3. Put 1 or 2 Tbsp. oil in your main cooking pot. Stir-fry all the veggies & garlic until they are heated through and a little soft, but still mostly crunchy.
4. Add the brown sugar & soy sauce. Cook for about a minute or two, just so the sugar dissolves and it heats & coats everything.
5. Add the chicken, bacon, & eggs. Mix.
6. Add the rice. Turn off the heat and toss everything together.
7. Enjoy!!!

Recipe alterations - Take out the chicken or bacon and add ham, or just add more veggies and make it a vegetarian dish. Take out veggies you don't like, and add some that you do. Whatever. As long as the rice to sugar/soysauce ratio stays the same (plus/minus some soy sauce according to your saltiness preference, I think you can alter anything else.


This recipe made a huge pot of fried rice, and this was all that was left! Sorry about the non-professional-cookbook photo, but trust me, it's totally yummy!

What Do You Do When You Need to Cry?

I'm having one of those totally random days, when I feel like running away for about a week. I think I just need to cry my eyes out over something. But realistically, my life is pretty good. We're all safe and healthy, employed, able to pay our bills, and don't have any major drama going on. So, what do you do when you need to cry and let off steam?

P.S. Sue, you still have a comment to leave on my "troubled rear end" post!

Hi, My Name Is Bob

Okay, it's probably a teenager thing, but Gil has adopted a phrase that indicates any number of things. And that is, "Hi, my name is Bob." (Sorry, Zen's-brother-in-law, it's not personal, I don't know where he got it, it's a mystery) What does it mean, exactly? Well, I'm not entirely clear on the issue, but here are some of the uses:
1. "Yes, I'm a dork."
2. "Just wanted to say hi."
3. "Needed to have some random words fall out of my mouth, pressure release thing."
4. General random nothingness.
5. Another variation is "My name is Jimmy."

Gil has been teaching this phrase to Connor for a while. When Dani got home from school yesterday, Connor was in the tub. I didn't hear the start of this cute bit, but I'm guessing she got Connor to start saying it, and then he wouldn't stop! He kept screaming at me to come watch him say, "My name is Bob" over and over and over. Of course, it didn't help that we kept giggling. At one point, I made Gil go in the bathroom and sit with Connor - "This is basically your fault, so you get to sit in here and listen to your brother."

Thank goodness I'm not very fertile!

Sorry, I took a break for a few days, and ignored my blog and everyone else's. I wanted to leave my Halloween post up for a while, but now I'm moving on. Plus, I had ELEVEN kids in my house Friday! It was a flashback to this summer, when I had days like that, too. Some days the universe converges, and I have everyone here at the same time, and Friday was one of those days. I had my three kids (there was no school Friday) and eight daycare kids. At least it was good money that day. Thank goodness it's over. Whew!! I'm so glad I don't have a busload of my own kids, and that mine are spaced a good ways apart. I was really glad to see the weekend, and even though I had a lot of things I could have done Saturday, I spent it vegging instead. Mental Health Day. I figure I spend all week picking noses, wiping butts, doing laundry, serving five meals a day, and cleaning house, and a lot of Saturdays I hang up my housewife hat and just veg out with the kids, generally doing nothing constructive, except exercising and a little grocery shopping.

Wanted - Some Experienced Advice

Could the more "mature" women in our family give me advice on something? About the last six months or so, I've found that I literally can't sit on my rear end anymore! If I sit on a surface that is not really padded, my tailbone hurts a lot when I get up! What can I do about this? Do I have to start carrying around a special orthopedic pillow, or something?!!! It's so irritating!

Sorry if that was TMI (Too Much Information), but I need help!

Still Going!

I'm a little afraid of packing on the pounds these days, due to my summer guest. My appetite has really gone up, which is unusual, because all the times before, I lost interest in food the first three or four months. I was really afraid to step on the scales this week, but I finally couldn't stand the suspense, and weighed myself this morning. Still the same, thank goodness! I guess my body is just compensating for the needed increase in calories by making me hungrier. We'll see what happens. If I can just keep exercising, I'll be pleased with whatever happens. I've totally got my daily routine down now, where I get up at five, exercise, then get ready for daycare. I'm just waiting for the extreme exhaustion to hit me, and I'll have to drag myself out of bed to exercise. I hope I don't have to deal with that, because I know how easy it is to break the exercise habit. Sometimes, all it takes is just one missed session, and a whole string of excuses follow, and before you know it, you've lost the habit. So, my one healthy goal right now is to just keep exercising!

Say Boogers!

29 Oct - What a handsome bunch! They were all looking shaggy, especially Connor, so I sent them all to the hair salon barber.


There are no normal picture faces in my family. I kept trying to get a smile out of Connor, so I told him, "Say boogers!" to get him to laugh. So, what did he do? He stuck his finger up his nose!

A better picture of Connor's "do". He's just so cute!

My Little Summer Guest

This was my revelation at Girls' Weekend, which is probably common knowledge by now. Maybe this is a test, too, to see who, besides the bloggers, is actually reading the family blogs!

I just can't keep from blogging about this. I'm holding off telling the kids for now, mostly because I'd like to see this pregnancy "stick" before I tell my daycare parents and everyone in our ward. So, the blogging code will be Summer Guest, because my kids read my blog occasionally, and I'm going to hold off telling them until January, if I can. So, I'll change my home page away from my blog for a while, and add some extra blog posts, so the kids won't see this particular post. Then, the rest of my posts can be about my pregancy, but still be in secret code. I'm not too worried about discovery. Gilean is very perceptive, and will probably figure it out anyway, but he can keep a secret. Dani can't keep a secret, but is mostly clueless. She just read my response to Sue's recent post, and didn't get it at all. Anyway, our little summer guest is due at the end of June, but will likely be here the first week of July. That will make four summer babies for me! I guess there's just something about the fall...