Fourth of July Weekend

Happy (late) Fourth of July! Hope everybody had a wonderful weekend. I enjoyed a fabulous weekend at the pool, BBing, and enjoying time with family! And this year, more than any before, I also was feeling especially grateful for this wonderful country that we live in...the best place to raise my two precious boys. We are so fortunate for the freedom and rights that we have. I was remembering back to an Oprah episode I saw not too long ago in which the Invisible Children Organization was gathered to raise awareness about the war in Uganda and the children who are stolen from their homes at night and made to be soldiers. Hard for us to even imagine a life like that. We are truly fortunate. And I hope that God not only bless America, but the rest of the world, too. I hope that someday, children around the world will be fortunate enough to exerience freedom the way that we do.

Here are some pictures from our fun weekend...

Jaden's ready to go swimming. It took some convincing to remind him that he always has to wear his swim jacket, but once we got it on, he was ready to go!

Jaden loves to swim - daddy's trying to teach him how.

Asking me not to take a picture of him!

Wow, they look like they are performing in an aquatic show.

Splashing is always the best part

There's Elijah with sleepy eyes, fighting an outdoor nap. I put his feet in the water and he didn't like that one bit!

Happy Fourth of July (and birthday to Aunt Maureen).

My brother Jeremy trying out a neat firework stick. It looks like he's juggling fire.

Front row seats for the front yard fireworks display.

Jaden was terrified to go outside and tried to stop everybody else from going out too. As everybody snuck out to do fireworks, Nana convinced him that it was safe to watch from inside his playroom.

My cousin Connor got to see the babies for the first time and just loved holding them. Jaden was especially attached to him and wanted to

Sound asleep.

There's my sweet and smiley niece, Aubrey.

My sister Angela, cousin Colleen holding Aubrey, sister-in-law Melissa, Aunt Kathy, and cousin Connor holding Elijah.

The beautiful sky and mountains just after a thunderstorm.