Okay so my wonderful husband asked me what I really wanted to my birthday this year. I told him to get my hair done. So on my birthday in January he gave me a card with my appointment written in it. What a sweetheart. So today I got my birthday present. Brendan's cousin's wife has her own shop in blackfoot(bridge street Image) and is forever busy becuase she is SOOOO good. I told her what I wanted in Jessicanese hoping she understood. It turned out better than I thought. So here is a picture of my birthday present. THANKS again honey. I love you. oh BTW brendan also got to watch the boys for 3 hours so i could go get it done. it took forever because my hair was past my shoulders and it's extremely THICK. Have a great week!

Brevan Charles Cox....playing in the snow before church(we have afternoon churc h this year) He reminds us of the little kid from christmas story in this snowsuit. So I am stealing the idea from a friend, I would like to introduce and/or update you on Brevan Charles Cox. Brevan is almost 20 months now. He is full of energy and is our little mischevious guy. He was born on July 1, 2006. He came into this world rather quickly and with lots of joy. For those who don't know, we barely made it to the hospital. From the time our car arrived and the time he was born was 20 minutes! He has been such a joyous addition to our family. He absolutely LOVES cars and his bear bear. The other kids have blankies that they are attached to, He has a bear. He plays well with others and has developed his own mind at his young age. If he doesn't want to do something he will sit down and become DEAD weight. He has a temper....IE if you tell him to get out of the kitchen sink, He will stand in the middle of the floor and stomp his feet rather quickly and scream. It's hard not to laugh, but I gently take him to the couch and he will stop his fit. He will then proceed to fold his arms and puff up his lips. It's rather cute, but we don't let him see our amusement. Brevan also loves to torment his older siblings. He sits on kyle or will touch something of his just to hear him scream. He takes a toy from kenzie and will run away laughing as she chases him screaming. Such a tease. With all of his personality has to offer, we know this little guy will accomplish whatever his mind is set to in life. We his parents wereshocked to find out he was coming to our family so soon after kyle, but we know he was meant to come when he did. OUr lives have been richly blessed by this little spit fire of a personality and he will bless the lives of many others. So this is Brevan. Enjoy a few photos of his life up to this point.(R-L))
1. Just after he was born with mom.
2. Daddy changing the first diaper
3. Brevan, Kyle, and Mackenzie welcome home baby B


4. Brevan on his Blessing day
5.dad and baby napping
6. The Cox family on Brev's blessing day(3weeks old)
7.mackenzie and brevan(months old)
8.Brevan chilling out at 3 mos

9.kyle and brevan after bath time

10.happy baby(he really was always) at 4 mos

11.brevan is ready for christmas sunday at 6 mos

12. brevan at 8 months after his first cross country move eating an oreo!

13. Brevan turns 1!

Okay so I am not this total romantic person, but today my husband had surprised us all and had v-day gifts laying out for us when we woke up. What a sweetheart. Then a friend sent me this email containing a video about a man who had pretty much felt worthless, and then one day he was told how wonderful he was. In the video you can see how his countenance changes. I think as women we have this profound effect on the men in our lives, and we need to let them know that they are of great worth and build them up and not down. I love brendan so very much and know that we can be together forever. We have built a beautiful life together and I am thankful everyday for the life we share together. SO hug and kiss those you love especially today. I attached the video. Have a great day!

http://www.maniacworld.com/Phone-Salesman-Amazes-Crowd.html

Okay, so I am blogging the day and life of Jessica just so I can try to lessen my business by getting feedback on how to cut down on daily things! So this is how my day goes. I get up at 7 am m-f to get Mackenzie up and ready for school. We have to be out the door by 7:50 so she's not late. That means from 7 a. until 7:55 a I have to do her hair, pack a lunch, get breakfast for her, and if the boys are up Get diapers changed and a cartoon (oh yea and their drinks) on so I can get kenzie ready. I pack them up and we are out the door for school. Then from 8-9 I get the boys dressed, Check all my computer stuff(bank account, emails, blogs, and news), read my scriptures and play referee once in a while. From about 9-9:30 me and the boys eat breakfast. After breakfast until 10, I do my daily house cleaning chores. I am very anal about this time and what gets done. I have list of what will get done during these 30 minutes...I.E. mondays it's clean the bathroom , start the kids laundry, and make my bed. After 10 the day is pretty relaxed until 3pm when kenzie gets home from school. When she gets home she (we) has homework, chore(she has one everyday), snack and finish up the kids laundry and think about dinner. Kyle no longer takes naps so I have found things from daycare i use to use to keep him busy with his homework. Brendan is gone late on mon and tues so I get all the evening chores with the kids too. I also work out 60 -90 minutes m-sat, volunteer un thurs at school, have library day, playdates, and brendan is off on tues and wed so entertainment days. Plus i am our family accountant, nurse, house cleaner, launderer, grocery buyer...you know "moms". I now regret ever asking my mom growing up what she did all day long. It's amazing what us moms can accomplish in a few hours each day. It's hard work and some days I am ( as I am sure many of you are too) just plain exhausted when are husbands come home and want that "alone" time with us. How do you get it all done is usually Brendan's question to me.....Well it's like this you JUST DO IT! there's not a lot of tv watching, cross stitching(like I do that...i hate it), sewing, scrapbooking...you know just relaxing. So I think I need to tidbits on how to do it all and have relaxing time. I feel bad cause brendan is so busy and is gone alot again, but sometimes I need mor ethan just exercising for my down time, but what? Anhyways I am just rambling out my incoherent thoughts. I have enclosed a few pictures of other things us moms do on top of our daily tasks:) Have a great day!

Take cute pictures of our dear children!

Kyle in November

planning that perfect birthday party. Mackenzie's 8th birthday

Cleaning up those unexpected messes,and then capturing them on camera. So you can ENJOY them much LATER!

fdcBrevan letting me know he was finished with breakfast!

So the last few days have been filled with sickness in our house. On wednesday of last week, I couldn't find Kyle. I went downstairs to the family room, a found hime curled up in a corner with a pillow and blancket sound a sleep at 4:30 pm. I laughed at his ability to make his own pallet. It was so cute. I was a littlke scared he wouldn't sleep taht night, but he did. Then thursday he wouldn't eat and started running a fever. In kyle's case a fever is never good, Because HE never runs one even when he had strep last year. So i was a little worried and called my brother-in-law who is almost a NP. He brought over a strep test for kyle, and sure enough he tested positive for strep. Friday we were suppose to go to boise for brendan's monthly drill, but he was able to get out of it. That evening kyle feel alseep and i figured he's slep all night since he was so sick. NOPE he woke up at 10pm, and didn't go back to sleep until 4 am. I was SOOOO tired but managed. It was niced to have brendan home for the wekend and go to church with us after months of not having hime due to work. Kyle is feeling tons better(at least better enough to be honory). Iam so thankful for my dear husband who took vacation to help me out and for kensie being a big help for brevan. It proves once again that we all have important family roles. i love my little family so much. Have a great week.

So I usually don't do these anymore, but this is for my dear sister-in-law melissa. I have been tagged.


A:The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B: Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C: At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

What were you doing 10 years ago?
fEB 10, 1998...I was taking the semester off from Ricks and probably going through one of the worse events of my life.....Rape counseling...I am okay about it now that it's been 10 years!


5 things on my list today:1. Clean the bathroom
2. wash the kids laundry
3. Make a few phone calls
4. work out(did I mention I was training for a hlf-marathon the end of april)
5. Bathe the kids.


5 snacks that I enjoy:
1. Jello pudding snacks with reddi whip(yummy)
2. SF jello with r eddi whip
3. carrots and ranch
4. Crackers
5.fresh fruits and Veggies


3 bad habits:
1.picking the skin around my fingers when they crack which is always since moving to idaho!
2. Being anal about cleaning days(what gets cleaned when )
3. Repeating myself at least 3 times before it clicks that I've already asked or said this before

If I were suddenly a billionaire:I would pay all of our debts off. Then I would pay off all of our families debt off, then food storage for everyone! Then I would finally take that cruise to the bahamas with brendan alone!!!

5 places I've lived:
1. Blackfoot, Id
2.Hanover, Pa
3. Ft. Meade, MD(near Balt/DC)
4. Bicknell, In
5.San Angelo, TX
6. Sorry there's more.....Monterey, Ca
7. Rexburg, Id


5 jobs I've had:1. Stay at home mom (by far my hardest)
2.Nurse for a pediatric home health agency in maryland
3. Family Child Care provider in california liscensed by the good ol' US army!
4. preschool teacher in rexburg.
5. shift manager at mcdonalds(yuck!)

5 things people don't know about me:
1. I have 2 sisters named LISA!.
2. I used to be a girl scout!(me too melissa)
3. I kissed brendan first when I was somewhat engaged to a real jerk(a non member who I never intended on marrying).
4. I broke off an engagement from the SLC airport....all for my new love Brendan!
5. I had my gull bladder removed at the young age of 17 and have it on video!

People I'm tagging whoever reads the post and feels inclined to follow suit!

So do you all want to know what a dimwit I am....Last friday school was canceled and I din't even have a clue. I took Kenz to school and she asked, "mom why are there cars here?" Of course I said we just took a nice ride. LOL then today my mother-in-law called to let me know school was closed again, but guess what I was already gone. ARGHHHH! So the moral of the story is that Idaho schools have no consistencies with school closings! Or I need to be more aware. This whole thing of Brendan working FT and in school FT is making me feel like I am running around with my brain half gone(maybe I really am!)
So Kyle finally pooped in the toilet this past week, but just one..hey atleast it's a start even if it's a slow one! He is getting so big and maybe one day his good personlity will help him actually stay in primary! if only...that would be too easy for mom on sundays if he'd stay.
Brevan is now 19mos old, and it's nice to not be thinking about a new baby like i was when kyle was this age. He is alot more independent than kyle was and sure likes to talk and we can actually understand it!! what a miracle considering the other 2 were over 2 before we understood. anyways we are doing great and enjoying life again that things have slowed down emotionally. Have a great weekend and for all the idahoans....enjoy the snow and WIND, jess

I just wanted to let everyone know that my sister-in-law sent me this awesome tribute video to Pres. Hinkley and I posted it at the bottom of our family blog. Be prepared to have some tissues ready. Enjoy and thanks Melissa.