4th of July

I love the 4th of July.  I love patriotic music, barbecues, summer nights, family time, fireworks and I LOVE this country.  I'm so grateful for our freedoms that we enjoy.  I'm grateful that people are willing to fight to protect those freedoms.  I'm grateful that God was involved in the founding of this country.  It is scary to watch the government try (and succeed in a lot of cases) take away some of our freedoms.  I pray this country will stay the free, wonderful country that it is!

Keith gave the kids a history lesson for family home evening this week to try and help them understand how this country came to be and all of the great men who were willing to sacrifice to make it so great.

We usually go to my parents for the 4th of July, but we had to cancel because mom was sick.  Tiff and Paul invited us down and we jumped at the invitation.

The kids were so excited to go!  I love all of these goofy kids!

It was overcast and cooler than it has been so the kids could play outside.  It was so nice to have the cooler weather.  Caitlyn loved playing with the girls.  She was really excited when Tessa warmed up to her!

Jonah had fun with the boys.  I was really proud of him.  He gets so rambunctious sometimes, but he was really calm and helpful.  He is always good with little kids.  He had Tessa laughing hysterically while he was pushing her on the swing.

Is Hallee the cutest or what?  She is so cute and has the personality to match it.

Keith was excited to see Damon. 

I hogged Damon most of the time.  Look at that face, he is so cute!  I loved holding him and rocking him to sleep.

We had a yummy barbecue and the kids played while the adults visited.  It was great to have time to visit with Tiff and Paul.  The kids were all so excited to start on fireworks.  They all had fun throwing pop-its while we were waiting for it to get dark.

Tiff and Paul bought a big pack of fireworks.  My kids were so excited.  Caitlyn and Jonah were thrilled when Paul said they could light the fireworks!

Paul was so patient with Caitlyn.  She had a hard time with the lighter, but he would sit and work with her until she got it.  I was so grateful to him, she feels bad about herself when she can't do something, but she walked away feeling great!

It was funny to watch her make a run for it after she lit one.

Jonah loves lighting fireworks, anything to make him feel like a big kid!

Wyatt was thrilled when Keith asked him if he wanted to light a firework.

He was pretty excited to light one with dad.

We all had fun watching the fireworks. 

Tessa kept pulling this face so Hallee copied her!

Poor Wyatt hates loud noises.  He covered his ears for every firework after he heard a loud one.

After that we did sparklers.  Hallee doesn't look so sure about them, but she said she liked them.  My sisters reminded me that she got burned last year on a sparkler, I think I had blocked that out! 

We had such a fun night.  Thanks Tiff and Paul!