This Week In Pictures (7/5 - 7/11)

Picnic Lunch

This week has been really busy for our family and time with John is scarce. Especially with him leaving for the weekend to help family with their home remodel. So I pulled together a picnic lunch! The kids and I drove up to Quantico to pick him up from work and then we drove down to a little grassy area next to the marina on the Potomac River. It ended up being a beautiful day to have lunch outside and the kids had fun seeing their daddy!

Fun In The Sun (& Shade)

Due to the 4th of July holiday, John had today off of work and so we thought it would be fun to take the kids to the park - together! It's been awhile since we've done that because I usually take them during the day while he's at work. Had high hopes of getting Andrew in the swing to show his daddy his recent bravery. Let's just say, he had other plans! :) There's no doubt that being a parent requires flexibility. And this is no exception! His sleep is a lot more important than playtime SOOOO the girls hopped on the swings while their little brother snoozed in the shade. I love watching them laugh and have fun. They're so cute! It was a great afternoon and I'm so glad John was able to have some fun daddy time with them.

This Week In Pictures (6/28 - 7/4)

The kids have been loving summer so far. We've made it pretty low key as most of our fun vacation days are being saved for August when we're back in Oregon visiting family. The nearby friends, parks and lakes are keeping us plenty busy though!

{Andrew sitting: 6 months old. He loves this new look on the world around him!}

{Tickles from daddy.}

{We were visiting my cousin and her family again for the weekend. The kids were having a great time together.}

{Aubrey playing some tunes at my cousin's.}

{So adorable! I love his cute face.}

{This picture was taken on the 4th of July. Jocelyn here is stepping on pop-its and as you can tell, she hasn't let me get her hair done yet. But I like this photo because you can see our neighbor's flag hanging in the distance.}

{The next few pictures were really cute of Aubrey reading to Andrew. The many faces...}

{"Ugh. This book is too long. Is it ALMOST over?"}

{"This hair is a great distraction!"}

Fourth Of July

Every year, I love when the 4th of July rolls around. The patriotism, family, friends, food, get togethers, fireworks, red.white.blue, the United States flags being proudly displayed - to name just a few.

{Prior to the 4th of July festivities: the girls threw pop-its outside with their Dad. Jocelyn isn't strong enough yet to throw them and get them to pop so they ended up just throwing a bunch on the sidewalk and she wore herself out jumping on them instead to get them to pop. She really liked the sound. Let me tell you, it was really fun watching her spazz out to get this accomplished. :)}

{HAPPY 4th!}

We spent this 4th of July with our friends, the Smiths and some of their neighbors. We juggled talking, eating, (feeding Andrew), the kids played with sidewalk chalk, decorated cupcakes, (put Andrew down for a nap), played a game of Catch Phrase, ate dessert and last but not least....watched fireworks!

{Our family at the Smith's. We pulled it off! Red-white-and-blue!}

{I love this picture of Aubrey. She really had fun icing and decorating the cupcakes we brought. But I think she had an even funner time serving them!}

{Jocelyn's 1st sparkler! 10 more to go...}

{Aubrey loves sparklers - if this picture didn't tell you that already!}

{Andrew clinging to his daddy. I love this cutie pie of mine. He's such a sweetheart and looks like a big boy in this photo. He was out there until the fireworks started going off and making noise. Got startled and started to cry. Then we went inside for a little while. We had fun watching them from the front window instead.}

{Girls playing with sidewalk chalk. Good times!}

{In Virginia, the fireworks aren't supposed to (by law) leave the ground. Many neighboring areas showed us they thought otherwise so aside from our show, we got to view some high in the air from their sideyard hill. It was so fun to watch all the colors and different variations.}

(Me & my girls towards the end of the fireworks show.}

Awesome 4th! We had such a fun evening with our friends and built many good memories.

Happy 4th!

{Photo via Living Locurto. Go there for some FREE tags!}

We're so thankful to those that proudly serve our country! We'll be celebrating this day with friends: bbq & fireworks. Come back tomorrow to see pictures of our festivity. Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July! :)

Andrew's 6 Month Photos

We took Andrew to get his 6 month photos taken on the 20th - just 1 day past his 6 month mark. I think they turned out really cute! And he was so good and always smiling. Of course he learned to fully sit just days after this photo shoot. That's how it's supposed to work, right? :) What a ham he is. I just love this baby boy of mine. He really is such a delight and I'm glad we were able to preserve these memories.

{Please excuse the black specks/markings on the photos. They were smudged on our lovely scanner and I didn't notice it until AFTER I scanned them all. After I cleaned the screen, I had no energy to rescan. So there you have it. Smudges and all, he still has the cutest smile!}