Wednesday's Words to Remember: God's Timing

 

Day 28

Soda Bottle Collage

Walk for Life, 365 Pictures, etc.

Hi Y'all

My dear brother has been kindly reminding me that I haven't posted anything in a while and that he was tired of seeing the same thing every time he looked at my blog :)

We have had a lot of fun things going on and a routine has yet to find me ;)

Last weekend we went to the West Coast Walk for Life in San Fransisco with some families from our church. The day before the walk we went exploring in San Fransisco with some of our friends. It had been eight years since I was there last so I thought it was very exciting. It was worth getting awakened at 5:30 in the morning :/;)

 We found this little Irish import store on Pier 39. The lady working there even had a thick Irish accent!! :):)

 This is the bakery where we ate lunch. Apparently they are world famous for their sourdough.

 The Walk for Life started on the Civic Center Plaza. I have NEVER seen so many people in one place!! I am so glad we were all wearing matching shirts!!!

 Since we couldn't hear the main speakers Dad reminded us why the cause we were there for was so important.

 This is all of us together!! It was awesome to be there with so many wonderful people :):)

 The walk went great. The opposition was minimal and I think we made a point to the bystanders. And we didn't loose anyone which was great!! ;)

Here are my Project 365 pictures

 The Moon among branches

 Don't Judge a Cake by it's Frosting!!

 BOOKS!!!

 Crazy Domino Player

 My View During Violin Practice

Yummy Snacks.

Wednesday's Words to Remember: Opportunity

Day 14

Evening Colors

What Has Been Happening

Good Evening, y'all!! It has been a busy week here at the Cox household!! But it has been busy in the very  best sense of the word :) At the beginning of the week two of my friends and I donated our hair to Locks of Love. It was alot of fun to get new hairstyles and support a great cause.

 Later in the week  our dear friends, the Gindorfs, spent two days with us. We had a wonderful time with them.  Lot's of late nights, old stories and good fellowship. And our time together is never complete without at least one photo shoot :):)

                                                 This is our really sad attempt at a heart :/ ;)

We were very sad to see them leave but we look forward to spending more time with them in the near future ;)

 My photography project is coming along fine. I am mostly trying to get into a habit of having my camera with me all the time and trying to see things in a new perspective. Speaking of seeing things from a new perspective, the 1000 Gifts challenge has really opened my eyes to all the things around me that I have to be thankful for. And not so much the things I have discovered but also reading what those who are doing it with me are thankful for is also really cool.

How has your new year been thus far? Do you have a favorite activity with friends?

Wednesday's Words to Remember: Lead her to God

 

                                                           Hi from Maddie and me :):)

Musical Monday: Beloved by Tenth Avenue North

Day 4

Today I was playing around with ghosting techniques on my camera. I used Nathan and Elianna as models which was... interesting... ;) Here are a couple of the pictures I got.

                                                                         Day 4

A Little Helper

Day 3

A Little Helper

Resolutions

New Years is the typical time when everyone takes a deep breath, writes some resolutions then dives head first into the new year. But unfortunately by March most people have either forgotten all about their resolutions or have thrown their hands in the air saying that there is no way they can keep them. I think the reason most people give up on their resolutions is because they are not very specific with them. "Exercise more. Read more, Be a better person." are all nice goals but they are not very specific. I don't think many of us remember how much we read or exercised last year so thus we have nothing to compare it to. "Exercise twice a week" is a more specific and measurable resolution. You can easily keep yourself accountable to the resolution of reading one book a week. If you have given up on the idea of making New Years "resolutions" because you can never keep them; then may I suggest trying again this year and making them more specific. There is nothing like a New Year to help you try again, start over or reboot. I wrote my resolutions down in my favorite notebook so that I would see them often. I have also found that trying to get a few friends and family on board helps keep you accountable :):) Here are a couple of the resolutions I made this year.

1. Write down 1000 things that I am thankful for. (I broke this one down to writing 3 things a day)
2. Take a picture a day every day of the year.
3 Read through the One Year Bible without missing a day.
4.Workout at least 4 times a week.
5. Read 60 books this year. (This breaks down to about one and a half books a week.)

Did you make any resolutions this year?? Do you find being more specific with your resolutions helps you keep them? 

Day 2

 Frosty Glass

Happy New Years and Looking Back at 2014!!

Today is the first day of 2015, isn't it?? Wow, I can't believe that 2014 has already come and gone. I seem to clearly recall this day last year. Well a lot has happened last year so perhaps that accounts for the speed at which it has passed. I would like to share some highlights and my favorite pictures from each month.

January: This is the one month where I honestly don't remember anything happening. I also don't have any pictures on my laptop from that month. I probably filled my time with school and violin lessons. We had recently switched to taking lessons from Mr. Nixon which I have loved!! It was a very dry winter so there was no snow, rain or skiing.

February: This was a very exciting month. Hannah, Sean, Tobin and I joined the Mariposa Symphony Orchestra. It has been a great learning experience as well as a lot of fun. Dad took Han and I on a three day trip to Disneyland. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!! It is definitely at the top of my list of highlights from the year.

March: At the beginning of March. Han and I traveled down to Southern California because Dad was going to the Shepherds conference and Han and I were going to visit Lacy. We had an awesome time together full of Dutch Blitz, photo shoots, baseball games, malls and talking. The next week Han and I traveled down to Southern California again to visit my aunt and uncle and their family. We celebrated Clay's and my birthdays at the beach. While we were gone we received a call from dad saying that our house had flooded. I don't think we realized how much that would effect our next three months. We spent the rest of march and half of April adjusting to hotel life. It was a blessing to have place to stay while we were displaced but hotel life has a good amount of challenges. Having the same cheesy breakfast every morning was one of them. But Han and I had fun living in town and being able to walk to Starbucks and the library.

April: We started off the month still living in the hotel. We drove daily back and forth to our house as we worked on restoring it. Our first orchestra concert was also at the beginning of the month. We performed in the Awahnee hotel which was really cool. In the middle of the month we moved into a beautiful vacation home in Bass Lake. It was so nice to be in a real house again. During this time I was also desperately trying to finish school between house projects. Towards the end of the month we were blessed to meet Peter Hammond and Dr. Jay Grimstead. Peter Hammond is a missionary in South Africa. He shared some incredible stories with our church.

May: This was definitely the craziest month of the year for me. I had three different music practices each week, we finished fixing our house and moved in, I did my first senior photo shoot
and I was cramming school in all my spare time cracks. I also finished my year long 313 photo project. Dad took me to the Glacier High School dance which was lots of fun. I finished school the very last day of May and oh wow, I am sooooo glad to be done!!!

June: I graduated the first week of the month. A lot of my extended family came and it was so much fun to have everyone together. I was able to shadow a photographer at a wedding. I learned a lot doing that. We spent most of the month unpacking. Lacy and her mom visited us while the rest of their family was hiking. Our entire church came down with the flu during the last week of June.

July: We kicked off July with an old fashioned 4th of July celebration with our church and Lacy and her family. We had a watermelon eating contest, a history quiz, water games, ice cream and fireworks. The next day was the MSO's 4th of July spectacular concert.  Mom, Han and I traveled down to Southern California again to visit our aunt and uncle. We babysat our little cousins while our Aunt had her baby. We were very happy to welcome baby Nora into the family.

August: Sean and Scott celebrated their 15th birthday. The first school year in which I did not have school started :):) We traveled as a family to Colorado for a family reunion. It was awesome to have all of our extended family in one place. At the end of the month we went to Magic Mountain to celebrate two of our friends birthday. We had a blast there!! August was a month of fires as well and one fire burned through our town though only three buildings and a few outbuildings were destroyed.

September: In September another large fire burned by our town. This time the fire destroyed 31 homes including some of our friends' home. Our annual church camp was fun as usual. At the end of the month I got my drivers license which was very exciting for me! :)

October: Some of our extended family on Dad's side came for a memorial service for my great uncle. We went to Yosemite alot with them. Hannah got her braces taken off after 2 years and 5 months. Our whole family prepared for our big October/November adventure.

November: We spent the majority of the month of November in North Carolina which was amazing. We had a wonderful time there. My favorite memories from that trip were going to a Celtic Thunder concert with mom and Hannah, spending extended periods of time with Aunt Alana, Uncle Spencer and their kids and touring the USS North Carolina with Grandpa. We came home just in time for Thanksgiving which we celebrated as a family.

December: I love December because it is such a festive month and we did lots of festive things in it. Hannah celebrated her 17th birthday. We went to Sugar Pine Christian camp for their open house. Our church's annual hymn sing is always something I look forward too. Christmas was a lovely day spent as a family and New Years Eve was celebrated with a very noisy celebration with church friends :):)

 

Now here we are back at 2015!! HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYBODY!!!!!! I pray that this coming year is filled with blessings, adventure and new experiences :):)

Day 1