Birthdays!

For lack of a better excuse, let's just say I didn't post about any of the girls birthdays this year, because I wanted to do them all in one post together.  Yep, that's why...   It's not at all because i have barely had enough time to breathe much less think about blogging about how/why/when and where I'm breathing.  

Anyway, with a New Year is, as always, the realization that time is marching on.  With each passing year, I get more and more desperate to make it slow down.  Of course,  I'm excited about the futures the lie ahead for my girls, but, especially as my Abbey gets closer and closer to leaving the nest, I want to grab on to each moment and soak it in.  The thought of her leaving always has me just moments away from a complete emotional breakdown. So as I looked back on moments and pictures from the fall of things I wanted to post about, I realized that a post focusing on my baby's 16th birthday might not be good for my emotional well being.  

Then I realized that I hadn't posted any of their birthday celebrations.  Solution!  One post about all the birthdays we've celebrated this year will keep me from being overly sappy and emotional about any one individual milestone...  Right?  We'll see.

I really can't think of enough superlatives to describe the ways each of these little ladies have stolen my heart.  Each in their own unique and special way.  

I was chatting with a friend recently about daughters and drama.  She asked me which of my 4 was the most dramatic and I quickly responded, "Naomi!" without missing a beat.  She is our comedian, our entertainer.  She marches to the beat of her own drummer and challenges me in the best possible ways.  Love this girl. 

Naomi was very excited to celebrate her birthday in America this year.   

She wanted neopolitan cupcakes.

And cake.

We had fun figuring out how to make that happen!

With a February birthday, the weather is not very cooperative to plan on something outdoors.  The house we were living in was a bit too small to host a large crowd of giggly girls.  So we opted for a putt-putt birthday across town.

Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the finished cake before attempting to carry it across town in a torrential downpour.  (good thing we didn't plan for an outdoor party!)

It was ok, though- still tasty good even though the presentation was a bit lacking...

Pretty sure these crazy girls didn't notice!

I really didn't get many pictures at all.  Can I just say Putt Putt is a very loud place?  Sensory overload!  AND since it was raining, the girls missed out on the many outdoor activities (like, well, putt-putt).  Thankfully there was lots of fun to be had in the video arcade...

Anabelle loved the bowling alley!

There was also laser tag fun (no pictures), lots more video games (no pictures) and pizza.  There was also a ropes course up above the video game area.  This was as far as Naomi got on that...

Some of the girls made it but mostly there were tears and few willing to venture out on the ropes!

Overall a very fun party in the good ole USA.  

Fast forward a few months to May and we celebrated Miss Anabelle's b'day.  This little girl is such a joy.  She may give Naomi a run for her money as reigning drama queen of the Cox family, but for now, it's hard to tell what is true drama and what is just being four.  

Talk about no pictures from Naomi's b'day- ALL I have from AB's day is the above collage from my phone!  Oh well.  We got her a new b'ball goal (that stayed in the US at mom's house) but she loved it for the few months she had to play with it.  I was also off the hook as far as cake, because she wanted a hello kitty ice cream cake that she saw at the store.  Score!  

AB's birthday occasionally falls on Mother's Day which was the case this past year.  We had a fun family day celebrating our little princess!

July rolled around and it was time to celebrate Maddie's 14th birthday!  (Seriously, where does the time go?!)  This girl is pure sweetness.  I love seeing how God is growing her love for creating beauty whether it be on a canvas or in the kitchen.  We spent the week of her birthday at Papa and Nana's farm so she was able to spend lots of quality time in the great outdoors doing things that she loves.

Picking blueberries and other gardening.. 

 Fishing in the pond...

Helping Papa and Nana take care of the animals.

We spent Maddie's actually birthday with all the family at Lake Winnie, an awesome family amusement park in Chattanooga,

So we had Maddie's birthday celebration the night before.

She requested carrot cake and the ever versatile birthday punch (this time green to match our plates and napkins)

Anabelle was a great helper to her big sister, as I'm sure you can imagine!

August came and went like a blur as we traveled back to Jordan from the US, then traveled some more for some meetings and finally made it back to Jordan to stay around the beginning of September,  just in time to prep for AJ's 16th birthday.  So amazingly hard to believe! 

Abbey Joy.  My mini-me.   I get this girl down in the deepest part of me. She is talented in ways I have never been and never will be as far as natural leadership and love for theatre and the stage, but I can relate to her deepest struggles and fears without them even having to be verbalized.  Can't wait to see where the Lord takes this one!   I can't believe it will be less than 2 years until she officially spreads her wings and heads out on life's great adventure.  And that's all I have to say about that. (for now).  (emotional basket case, much?!)

Abbey reminded us all several times that she was the "ONLY FAMILY MEMBER" who didn't get to have her b'day in the US this year.  Woe is her! 

She requested fish tacos and a mexican fiesta bar for her birthday.  

And lemon cheesecake to finish it off!

As the ONLY FAMILY MEMBER with a non US b'day, we had to draw Abbey's birthday out a bit.  So we had our family celebration and a few days later, she and one of her besties had a double slumber party.

These 2 are 4 days apart and have been having birthdays together long enough that they had a Littlest Pet Shop cake back in the day...

They've moved on to more sophisticated mint chocolate chip cakes...

So thankful for life long friends!

OH, and I didn't mention that this was a multi location party.  They only came to us after having a pizza dinner at Taylor's house before coming to us for the cake and sleep-over part.

Anabelle was never too far from the center of activity.  Especially when it came to helping "Tay Tay" open gifts!

Abbey made Taylor this painted canvas with pictures of their 10 year plus friendship.  Love these girls!

So there you have it.  The Cox girls birthdays in one simple post.  Just in time for the 2016 cycle of birthdays to roll around!

Anabelle's Ariel Cake

Anabelle is really not that into Arial anymore, but for whatever reason she has been dead set for months that she was going to have an Arial cake for her birthday.  We had no intentions of planning a big party for our 3 year old.  Just figured I'd ask her which friends she wanted to come and have cake with her and we'd do cake and ice cream one evening after dinner.  Well.   Her list literally included about 20+ people- all her little friends and their big brothers and sisters and parents (her favorite "aunts and uncles"- our overseas family)  So we had a crowd.  Still tried to keep it simple and stick with cake and ice cream but Maddie got in on the action so our menu expanded a little...

As for the cake, Anabelle had a very specific idea in mind.  For WHATEVER reason, I decided it would be a good idea to let her sit in my lap while I browsed through pinterest to come up with some ideas.  Good grief.  Of course, she immediately went for the cake that had the actual Ariel doll IN the cake and incorporated into the design.   Those have always kind of creeped me out, but I couldn't persuade her otherwise so I decided we'd have to go for it.

Naomi and Maddie had the idea to paint some of our shells pink and purple for decorating the cake and cupcakes.  We have TONS of shells in our craft drawer from various beach trips so I was glad for an excuse to use some of them!  Here they are painting shells.  

 For the Ariel cake, I made 1 large 9x13 and 2 smaller round cakes that would be the mound that Ariel is sitting on.

We were all a little concerned about the end result when I got started.  And despite the fact that she CHOSE the design, AB was a bit freaked out that Ariel was stuck in the cake...

A little icing (ok, a LOT of icing), and several toothpicks later and it's all coming together...

The "sand" is brown sugar held on by a crumb layer of icing and we also decorated with the painted shells and Anabelles' Little Mermaid squinkies...  That's what the Sebastian and Flounder and Scuttle on the cake are.  

We made cupcakes with the leftover cake batter and decorated them with the painted shells.

And Maddie wanted to make starfish cookies so our menu expanded a little more...

We also had THIS birthday punch that has kind of become a staple at our birthday parties- so yummy!

I've also started adapting THIS popcorn recipe for just about every birthday party or other event involving kids.  It's so versatile and fun to do with different colored sprinkles and you can dye the white chocolate to match what you're doing.  And it's SO yummy..

So the final spread was a bit more than I originally intended but it's a good thing since AB had such a long list of invitees....

Happy Birthday Bella Rose!  You are loved!

MY story, MY song, second verse

Or third, or fourth verse- I'm not really sure!  

If you've been reading for a while, you may have picked up on how much music has been part of my journey, or even, OUR journey as a family.   I typically have a song that has been my theme for particular seasons of my life- not even really on purpose,  it just kind of happens.  I'm not exactly musically gifted- that's Jason's area, but I love music and the way certain songs take me back to certain places and experiences.  For example, HERE I talk about the music that was a part of our IVF journey.  

So anyway, I've been feeling nostalgic lately.  Or sentimental may be a better word.  (or possibly hormonal but let's not go there)...  Our sweet little Anabelle just turned 3- THREE!  Is that even possible?  And in the midst of what has been a very busy few weeks, I was able to take some moments and reflect on the miracle that she is and just praise Jesus for His gift.  (HERE is the Anabelle part of our IVF journey that still makes me weep and probably always will)  

A few weeks before her birthday, we were at our weekly worship time where we gather with other friends, our overseas family,  in our homes and do church together.  We were singing "Blessed Assurance" and I was immediately taken back to a similar time of worship, different city, many of the same friends, some different, almost exactly 3 years ago.  On that day, "Blessed Assurance" spoke to and soothed my soul in the midst of my grief over a lost IVF cycle.  I wrote about that HERE.  On this day, almost exactly 3 years later, as I held AB in my arms and sang those familiar words, I was totally blown away by God's goodness and grace, and by the way He is continuing to write the story of our family.  

THAT day, I mourned the loss of a child I would never hold this side of heaven.  THIS day I wrapped my arms tightly around one of the four miracles God has lovingly placed into my care.

THAT day,  I was overwhelmed by the way God weaves even the most painful circumstances into the fabric of our lives to help tell the story of His love.  THIS day, I rejoiced at the beauty that has resulted from that pain as I once again looked around the room and soaked in the gifts of my husband and my daughters and our friends, all such an intricate part of MY story and MY song.  

THAT day, my tears were birthed from pain and a lack of understanding of why God's timing couldn't align more with mine, yet I chose to praise Him anyway.  THIS day, my tears came from a place of joy as I reflected on the journey of our family, OUR story, OUR song, and I praised him for the gift of our children and the music they bring to our lives.  

You see, in our house, you could say life is a song more often than not.  There are days when I have to ask one (or more) of the girls to just stop singing for a few moments so I can gather my thoughts.  There is music as we clean, singing as we do dishes, humming as we do homework.  

You get the idea. At times the song is a bit off key, often times we are wondering WHEN a verse is going to end, and other days we all joyfully sing together.  Whatever the case, we rest assured that with God as the composer, the end result will be a thing of beauty that only He could create.   I praise Him for each of our girls who add their unique melody (or harmony) to the song He is writing for our family,  and this month in particular we celebrate the melody of Anabelle and the joy she brings to our lives.  Whether it be belting out the lyrics of "Let it Go" (again), attempting to sing along in our worship time to a song she has never heard, or humming along (in perfect pitch) to the tune of Jason's coffee grinder, we are all beyond thankful for this precious girl and the music she brings to our lives.