A GREAT 4th

Happy belated 4th to everyone! I hope yours was as good as ours was!

We started the day with our parade in town. Yes, A-town has a parade. Taelor rode a firetruck and Addi rode with Jake in his company's "gator". (I am aware of how redneck this parade is sounding...) Both looked so cute. Addi sat in dad's lap and sucked her finger the entire parade while waving at the crowd. Mom and I sat and watched and realized that parade's aren't as much fun to watch without being able to see it through a child's eye. Last year, Taelor was in the parade and Addi was with us. She was SOO EXCITED to see every float, every person, every siren. It was fun getting to see my own kids in the parade, but the rest of it didn't hold quite the same sparkle as it does when you are watching it with your kids.

Then we spent the rest of the day at mom and dad's. Our 4th has always been about spending time with family. This year, it was extra special. A) my grandparents (who are both in the 80's) felt well enough to come and B) my nephew made his first outing since being released from NICU!!!! Brock got to come visit. He is so sweet and such a trooper. It was pretty cool to watch my parents as they enjoyed having all three grandkids around for the first time. And I can't tell you how excited my dad is to have a grandson (though Addi really does have a lot of "boy" in her). It was just a very special day to have the family there and to now have the newest addition healthy enough to come visit.

The evening was concluded with a great fireworks show here in A-town. It's really a fabulous little show. And you don't have to mess with ANY traffic. We sat with several of our friends from here in town and just enjoyed each other's company as we watched the fireworks. Then, since we do live in a small town, we came home from the official fireworks show, only to watch about 12 more going on around us! Only about 4 of them were legal and being done outside the city limits. The rest were going on all around us. So, we didn't get to bed until somewhere around 1am this morning. But you know, it was all worth it. We even let Taelor stay up until midnight watching the fireworks. Back to that "watching things through the eyes of a child" thing. She really loves fireworks, and the fact that she had mom and dad to herself!

Happy 4th to everyone and I hope you all feel as blessed as I do to live where we do and have all the freedoms that we have. God bless America!!!!!!