Tornado

The past few days have been unimaginable.

Luckily, my family and I did not experience any damage from the storm, but I can't say the same for some communities just down the road from us.

This picture was taken from another building downtown Wednesday afternoon, but thankfully, I was already home (the words in the picture are sitting right on top of my building).

Sitting at home watching the tornado just rip through Tuscaloosa was just heart breaking...and praying that we were not in the tornado's path. When the local meterologists are at a loss for words, you know it is bad. The coverage on damage has just been devastating...complete destruction for so many areas.

Saturday, we did a little shopping and dropped off a nice load at one of the local drop off locations. I still feel so helpless and wish there was more that I could do. Hopefully in the coming days, I will have a chance to serve in some capacity.

Bring on the Blue!!

If you haven't heard...Steven and I will be an aunt and uncle to a precious little nephew in September. Head on over to Kristen's blog for the full story. She and Matt had a very fun way to tell us all!

Happy Easter

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!!

We had a great day today celebrating Easter!

Steven's parents came into town yesterday, so the four of us went to church together this morning...then we headed to Mom & Dad's for lunch.

No egg hunt again this year :(

The temperature was pushing 90 degrees and I think Kristen was ready to go home for a nap after we ate lunch :)

But....next year, we will have a little one to celebrate with...oh how much fun that will be!

Hopefully this year wasn't the Easter bunny's last visit to see me.

Tuberous Sclerosis Walk 2011

Last Saturday was the 4th annual Tuberous Sclerosis walk-a-thon here in Birmingham.

The day was beautiful and we had a great turn out for the walk. I might have even scored a few things from the silent auction :)

Thanks again to all those who donated to TS...it means so much to me and to the Cox Family. Team Michael raised almost $20,000!

I slacked a little on the picture taking this year...but I did get manage to get one of the star himself...in the top right corner of the collage.

Looks like we all were at a LSU pep rally or something with all that purple and gold, doesn't it??

My Birthday

Since my birthday was almost three weeks ago, I figured it was about time that I blog about it. I just haven't been in the mood to blog lately...and truly have not had time.

Anyways...

this is what I saw when I arrived at work on Thursday (two days before my actual birthday). My co-workers were so sweet to decorate my office and put balloons EVERYWHERE! That night I celebrated with my fam at Firebirds...one of my fav places!!

We all shared the creme brulee cheesecake...

I think this empty plate speaks for itself! It was wonderful!!

Friday, Steven's parents came for a visit and we went to lunch at Sumo...I hadn't been there in a while, and it was so good! (sorry no pictures from our lunch together :( )

Friday afternoon, Christie arrived! She and I hung out together on Friday night and just caught up on all that was going on...

until Saturday morning, when Mere and Ellie joined us! It was so good to finally meet Ellie! She is the sweetest baby!

Christie teaching Ellie all about facebook :)

Getting ready to head out for some lunch and shopping...being with these two girls makes me so happy...reminds me of such great memories when the three of us lived together...fun times for sure!!

me and my cake pop from Starbuck's...if you haven't had one of these, you must!!

TSaturday evening we met up with some friends at Beef O'Brady's... the Cox Family, Julie, Amy, Matt, Julie, Christie, Mere...and Steven, of course.

and my wonderful husband got me a much needed new laptop that I am typing on right now! I LOVE it and I love him for getting it for me!!

Thanks to everyone that made my birthday so special!!

St. Patty's Day at the beach

We took decided to take a last minute trip to the beach weekend before last...well Thursday before last really. I called Steven on Wednesday at work and was like, hey, you want to go to the beach tomorrow?

We rolled into town, dropped our stuff at the condo and headed down to the Hangout to celebrate St Patrick's Day with the Beasley's. The had a great band playing and we all enjoyed "hanging out" with each other. We love having this fun place so close to the condo.

Sorry, not very many pictures...but you didn't really want to see me by Saturday afternoon, I was little red. My snow white skin had not seen the light of day in quite some time...hope I did not scare anyone off the beach.

Also...it's been quite a while since I've been to the beach for Spring Break, so that was interesting to see all these "kids" running around down there that looked way too young to be without their parents. I know, I am getting old (stayed tuned for the next post).

It's almost time...

...time for the annual walk for Tuberous Sclerosis

The 4th annual is just a few weeks away! In the past 3 three years, we've been able to raise almost $200,000 for TS research! This is all because of wonderful people, like you who have donated to this worthy cause.

Michael has progressed SO much...even since this time last year! His vocabulary is getting better everyday and he is adjusting to life with a little sister.

My fundraising page has been set up and if you would like to donate, please visit my page...

http://www.firstgiving.com/step-forward-to-cure-tsc-mountain-brook-al-18c9ae

Or if you are in the Birmingham area, come walk with us on Saturday, April 16th in Crestline.

And for your viewing pleasure, here's a picture of Michael and his friend Tyson (from just a few weeks ago)...notice the stickers that Tyson is sporting.

Happy Heart Day

Kristen and Matt had us over for dinner last Sunday night...we hadn't all seen each other in several weeks and hadn't seen their new countertops. I had found some heart shaped cake pans and wanted to bring dessert, but Kristen was very insistent on making a cheesecake...so I was like, ok whatever...that's fine...

Little did we know that they had a little something up their sleeves when it came time for dessert. Kristen kept telling us that she didn't know how the cheesecake was going to taste, and then wouldn't take the lid off the darn thing forever! Finally she did, and I immediately started screaming when I saw it!! But, I did have a slight advantage, because where I was sitting at the table, I had the best view of the cake and everyone else was reading it upside down and sideways.

Needless, I am a very proud Aunt!! Uncle Pete is pretty excited too!!


Steven and I both took off on Valentine's Day and spent the day together. We did something a little different, and went to DeSoto Caverns. We pretty much had the place to ourselves, other than one other couple that was there. It had been over 20 years since we both had been there, so it was fun re-living our childhood. Steven was a little bummed that he could not pan for gold, but he got over it. The tour of the caverns was pretty interesting and the pictures I took just don't do it justice to what the inside looks like. One thing I had forgotten about the caverns since my trip in the fifth grade (I think) was the 100% humidity inside. Needless to say, there are no pictures after we came out of the caverns since I resembled a poodle :) I told Steven there were no more stops and we had to go straight home.

We came home and cooked dinner and Steven enjoyed using his VDay present (from me) while while he prepared dinner :)

Steven gave me these cute bottles! I just love them! Haven't decided exactly where I will use them yet.

Hope everyone spent their Valentine's Day with the one you love!

The past few weeks...

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged. We've been busy the past few weeks, so here are some pictures...

Steven and I helped Michael celebrate his 4th birthday a few Saturdays ago. The weather was absolutely perfect for a bouncer. Some of the adults might have even gotten in there after most of the children were gone.

Michael loved everyone singing to him and had a good time blowing out the candles on his jello cake. Margaret's family brought a king cake to share and it was delicious! Those cakes are the best!

Michael got some really cute stuff...don't miss the adorable set of scrubs with Dr. M Cox on it...which Michael will be able to pass down to his little sister one day

Is Marie not precious?? She will give you some "serious" looks, but such a sweet girl! She even let me feed her some yummy peas...although she made it a challenge for me as she had her thumb in her mouth most of the time.

The Cox Family of Four


The next weekend was Wendi's "sprinkle" for Baby Nicholas that will be joining us in the next month or so...if not sooner :)

We had a great lunch and Nicholas got lots of cute stuff. Can't wait to meet him!

Then a few days later, we woke up to this white covering. I don't care too much for snow, so I wasn't too excited about this. Luckily, it did not mess up the roads too bad, so we didn't get stuck at home...but I did have to go to work :(

Then three days later, the weather was in the mid 60's! Gotta love the weather in Alabama!

Happy Birthday to my dear husband!

Steven's birthday was last Wednesday. We celebrated at Gian Marco's with a wonderful dinner.

I had great plans to celebrate a few days before his birthday when we were getting together to watch the championship game with friends...but the stupid weather just messed everything up. So Steven was stuck just me on his birthday :)

Happy Birthday Steven!