Family Pictures, Papa's Birthday, & Easter

Easter weekend we headed up to Dallas for a BIG weekend! I had my first Good Friday off in 4 years so we headed up to Dallas on Friday morning. Bella was so good in the car, she watched her movies and played. We stopped by Corsicana on our way up there so Terry could get his mom to help us with our taxes (THANK YOU, GAIL!). Bella got a good break from the car, insisted kitty was a "buppy", and got to hang out with her big cousin Taylor. Late afternoon we continued up towards Denton. We were worn out when we got there so we hung out with Tiffany and went to bed. We had to be up early on Saturday morning for family pictures. When I say family pictures I mean ALL 23 of US. I'm so happy we were able to do this with all of us. We had a great photographer Paige Pearson. Our sneak peak is the one dated April 10, 2010. She got some great images of our family that we will cherish for many years to come. After our photography session it was time to get down to business with an Easter egg hunt and celebrating Papa's 85th birthday.
Bella started off the hunt for "aggs" trying to get this one out of the brick wall. She had some difficulty and asked for help with her favorite phrase "hep me". She then proceeded to walk around the yard, point at "aggs" and say "hep me" to every single "agg". I think she thought maybe they would all be stuck and she would need "hep".
She was cracking me up because she really would not bend over and pick up an egg.


She even got Mema in on the action. When you hear this very pitiful "hep me" come out of her mouth, you just can't help but "hep" her.

Beautiful Courtney. I don't have any pictures of her hunting eggs because she was very serious about it and couldn't be bothered. She had a TON of eggs!

Papa is giving RyRy instruction. Papa is RyRy's favorite person. Seriously. While taking pictures Dad pretty much had to be holding him or he was not happy. He LOVES his Papa.

I LOVE this picture of these two! I can't believe she actually smiled at me for the picture. Notice how they are both holding her basket. She has everyone wrapped around her finger. Can you blame us?

Ryan is wiping his hands. He doesn't like to be dirty. He is such a cutie boy.

It's possible that there wasn't anything in his bucket. Not because he needed "hep" picking up eggs. But because he would pick them up and throw them. I'm pretty sure his big sister would them grab them :).

She might have wanted to eat her "aggs".

Sweet sugars. Get them while you can.

After we hunted for eggs it was time to celebrate Papa's 85th birthday. Bella helped him unwrap his presents. She was just practicing for her big day next month.

There is something in the Cox gene that LOVES m&m's. Especially peanut m&m's.

Papa showing off his new birthday duds!

I hope you had a great birthday, Papa!! We love you!

After presents and cake we got this special treat. There really are no words. This suit that Blake is wearing was his dad's (Uncle Jerry) "leave from the wedding" outfit 35 years ago. There was an attempt to make Katie put on the matching dress. Maybe next time.

Easter morning Bella had a surprise. She got a new baby with a potty. Hmmmmm.

She was very interested but at first did not want the baby to sit on the potty. She did not like sitting on the potty so why should her baby.

She did such a good job changing her baby. Luckily Daddy came to the rescue and talked her into letting the baby sit on the potty. This potty flushes so we got to listen to that all the way back to Houston.

Then we headed to church and Bella wore her new Easter dress.

My sweet loves....

Mommy and Bella on Easter morning.

We had a great EASTER weekend and really enjoyed getting to see all of the family. It doesn't happen very often where all 23 of us are together. We must cherish those times.