A Salute to All Nations, But Mainly America.

Yes, I love Sam Eagle, he makes me laugh.

Anyway...we had a fabulous 4th of July. Scott had to work tonight so we had to do all our celebrating earlier in the day. We went to Mimi and PawPaw's for some swimming and grilling. I went into the pool for all of five seconds and came right back out. Yes, I have lived in Florida long enough to think that 81 degrees is too cold to swim.

After swimming we came home, did some crafts, baked some cookies, watched a movie and played some board games. I really don't think it gets any better than that. 

I hope you had a great 4th as well!

Way Back When-esday: 4th of July Edition

Datelines: July 4, 2008-2010

Ages: 2 months, 1 year and 2 months, 2 years and 2 months

Happy Independence Day everyone! I thought I would share photos from the 3 years I actually remembered to buy my kiddos 4th of July outfits. 

Wishing you a safe and happy 4th today! A special thank you to all of our military men and women (and their families!) for keeping us free!

Play along with Cheryl at Twinfatuation!

4th of July a few days early

 Since the 4th is during the middle of the week this year, we decided to celebrate early and had a cookout with friends this weekend. To get in the spirit, the kiddos and I actually did some crafts and made 2 different wreathes.  I helped the kids with this foam star wreath:

And I asked them not to help me with this wrapped yarn wreath:

I found both crafts on Pinterest, you can find the foam star one here and the wrapped yarn wreath here.

I'm pretty pleased with myself that a) I actually did a craft and b) it came out pretty decent looking!

Saturday we had a cookout and Scott broke out the smoker. Seriously, this has been the best gift I've ever given him. It's like the gift that keeps on giving. He decided to smoke some pork butts and injected them with Cherry Dr. Pepper. The meat was a little tougher to pull, but was super tender and really juicy. 

I also tried out a new dip recipe that I found on, you guessed it, Pinterest. It's a loaded baked potato dip and is seriously out of this world. The group of us ate all of it, I'm surprised we didn't like the bowl.

You can find the recipe for this dip here. I'm warning you though, it's super delicious and highly addictive. 

The cookout itself was great. All of the kids played and seemed to have a great time. Aaron actually slept until 9:30 Sunday morning. Clearly, he had a good time. 

Hope you had an equally awesome weekend!

Thanksgiving Thursday

For those of you that don't know what Thanksgiving Thursday is, it is the one time during the week where you stop and basically count your blessings. Even if you've had one of those weeks, I promise you can find at least one thing to be thankful for, no matter how big or small.

This week I am thankful for:

• Scott who busts him hump for us. Thank you so much for all you do! Love you :)

• Aaron's facial expression and sheer excitement while he was on the horse on Saturday. It was worth far more than a million dollars.
  

• Jill willing to give anything a try, after her brother tries first that is.

• My MOM coming down for those 10+ days to help me out after surgery. I seriously have the best MOM out and you should probably be jealous, just sayin'.

• The people in my neighborhood not setting our house/lawn on fire when they shot off their fireworks on the 4th.

• The little things in life, like a decent cup of coffee in the morning, or a simple thinking of you card. It totally can change your day for the better.

• July being National Ice Cream Month, who knew? Maybe that's why Magnum Bars are on special at Aldi? Either way I'm thankful :)

What are you thankful for this week?

Mommy and Me Monday

Yesterday was a pretty long day, I'm not going to lie. It's been overcast and rainy here for a few days now so the headaches started to set it. Whenever the weather gets like this I will have a headache pretty much all day. Yesterday was no exception (side note: isn't that the perfect day to have a headache, when idiots set off fireworks? Yup, I thought so too).

In the morning we just hung out and tried to keep our sanity. When I say we, I naturally mean me/I. So I was unloading the dishwasher and it got super quiet, like scary quiet. I looked down the hallway and saw the kids sitting there looking at me like "I didn't do it, he/she did!". For once, I could have believed Jill. Aaron was sitting there with my camera, strap around him and all, the camera was on and they had been taking photos. How many photos can Aaron take in 30 seconds you ask? Over 15, thank God for digital, right? Here's a sampling:


Who knows, maybe those will be worth something someday.

After Scott got home from work we headed to Mimi and Paw Paw's for our cookout and swimming, which because of the weather turned into a cook-in. I made teriyaki turkey burgers with grilled pineapple (when I say I, I mean I prepped it and Scott grilled it). They were super duper yummy in case you were wondering.

Our friend Jenn also stopped by with her boys and Jill proceeded to beat up her 13 year old son the entire time. It was priceless, really.

Minus the headache yesterday was pretty awesome. I can't believe this was their third 4th of July. Time seems to be flying faster than before.


Play along with Mommy and Me Monday with Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious? And while you're there check out her Road Trip Event!

4th of July!

We spent the day by Mimi and PawPaw's to celebrate the 4th. It was a nice relaxing day with bbq and swimming. Here are some photos and video from the day....

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Hope you had a happy and safe 4th of July!