Rewind: Happy 4th of July {in photos}

Fireworks Cake I baked for our church's 4th of July Festival!

FREEEEEEDOM!!!!!!!!

BBQ Chicken cooking all day. Good thing. It was raining most of the day.

Hanging out on the should of a bridge in Downtown Birmingham read to see the show!

With every "boom!" from the sky there was a "wow!" from the little guy

A nice and cozy 4th of July. Just perfect!

Oh, and this is perfect, too! 

Lindsay Letters - In God We Trust Print

That will definitely be going up somewhere in the new house next 4th of July!! Though, I may get the blue version. Either way, it is perfect!

Hope y'all had a great 4th of July!!

4th of July Fun {In Pictures}

Note: If you follow us on Instagram, you may have seen these :) Happy 4th!

 

 

 

 

Welcome July!

I was thinking that July was going to bring out those horrible days of summer where you just want to enjoy the sweet tea and A/C. But, sadly...no. Mr. Weather Man had a better idea. Excessive amount of rain. WHAT?! I swear...it has been raining for a week. And, those percentages just won't quit...

Luckily, we did get in some play time and we even enjoyed fireworks...in OUR backyard. Yep, that is right, y'all. I do believe...I am - gasp! - an official Alabamian. Oh. My. Word (I can say that now. Ha!). Though, I guess I have lived here the longest now and it is just time to let it go... I am no longer - sigh - a Floridian.   ::enter tears::

Eh, I'll get over it. While I figure out a way, want to see our super cool 4th of July fun?! Yeah, you do!!

{MONDAY}

 Library time! And, wow! This was the QUIETEST they have ever been at this place. I'm going to hijack these one day... Kidding. I do need to get to this store though and get a few of these magnetic maze boards. Very cool.

 We ran over to the mall for lunch (Yes, Kristi, we ate Chinese Mall Food!!!!! And, it was awesome!). But even better was finding these super cute football pajamas for my boys!!! Now, they will be ready for the NFL football season (Hey, just because I'm an Alabamian now does NOT mean I will become a college football fan. I'll do that when a college pays for my kid(s) to attend their fine establishment. But, not today...)

{TUESDAY}

 

 Rock painting - why not? We have a million back here. Might as well make them pretty :)
Only, if you have preschoolers...they tend to use ALL of the colors. Which, if you mix all of the colors... Well, then, you get brown. Hmm...We need to work on our coloring mixing a bit more.
 

The best of brothers and the best of friends.

 Crazy hair after a great nap

 Mama's afternoon pick-me-up - a wonderfully good iced coffee :)

 I hate this book... (though it is not NEAR as evil as Fox in Socks) "Where's Waldo? Hollywood" something book. Andrew is AMAZING at this book. How he finds ALL of the people (Waldo, Wenda, the Wizard, Woof's tail - just the tail...ugh - and Odlaw) I have no idea. He is awesome at these books. Can you find Odlaw in this picture? HINT: You will only see his face. Who the heck is Odlaw (black and yellow)? Click here for a reminder.  Good luck. I keep losing him...

{WEDNESDAY}

Cake time! It is that time of the year again to get my cake on. This is now my 3rd year helping our church's Cake Walk at the 4th of July Festival. I make a cake "for" each of my boys. They like to help out with the cake making and they get to choose which one to make. The top one is Alex's - it is a "Lemon-Poppy Seed Doughnut Cake" YUM! The bottom one is Andrew's - a Captain {Chocolate} America! Love it!

{THURSDAY - 4TH OF JULY!!!}

 Ready for today's festivities!!

 4th of July Festival

 Heading home after a fun rest-of-the-day at Kristi's - which...how I didn't get ANY pictures is beyond me. We had so much fun, I guess I never thought of it :/ But, getting fireworks for the 1st time (for me and the boys anyway...it was illegal everywhere else I lived) was something to take a pic of, apparently... LOL!!

As you can see, Jason had so much fun show us newbs the firework fun! He LOVED it!! He turned into quite the pyro within a few moments of the first sparkler! 

 Some pics of our backyard fireworks - we had a blast!! Har-dee-har-har!! :)

{FRIDAY}

 Love Craigslist!! I got this BRAND NEW (with manuals and everything) Graco SnugRide Travel System for $75!!! HELLO! Awesome. They boys love that both of their favorite colors are on Baby Austin's stroller and car seat!

 Make me so happy... Andrew just LOVES Austin already. He kisses my tummy more times than I can count. They both do, but Alex is much to quick to get a good picture...stinker. ;)

Well, that is all for tonight's updates! Tomorrow, I hope to share with you the 2nd portion of "The Shared Bedroom Adventures."  Have a great evening, everyone!

Our Fourth's Festivities!

Hope that everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!! :D

We had a super fun weekend!! First we celebrated Sunday afternoon by making some impromptu cookies. It started storming like crazy - just thunder and lightening. I don't really think a drop of rain came... the clouds were celebrating, I suppose :) So, Andrew and I, of course, had to make cookies. What better thing to do during a storm? Napping, yes. But, he just woke up so that was a big "no-deal". LOL.

 My cookie tis of thee :)

Looking quite festive in his patriot polo :)

Such a serious little cookie guy....

 But it is only because he needs another one :)

Then for the actual 4th, I had to rush in the AM cuz I forgot to ice my cake for our Church's festival. I made a yummy devil's food cake with triple chocolate chunk icing for the cake booth. YUM!

Don't you just want to eat that right now?!

But, while I was icing a delicious cake that I could not eat, my hubby and Andrew were eating a very festive breakfast of red and blue pancakes!

I dont know why I can't fix the colors right...but the blue pancake is really a turquoise not some weird green color. That annoys me. Stinkin' camera...I must have had the wrong setting or something. 

Once breakfast was done, the cake was iced and the boys dressed, it was time to head out to the Festival. It was so much fun!! We signed up to volunteer for the putt-putt booth. Jason ended up walking around with the kids in the "bus" (our mega sit-n-stand stroller has been nicknamed the bus), and I worked the booth for our shift. It wasn't busy to begin with. The festival started at 10 and I stayed there til 1130. It was a lot of fun! The tiny kids, including Andrew, were so cute trying to hit the ball into the hole. Our friends, John and Rachel came out with their kids, too!! Jason was such a big help with the boys. He had changed both diapers, fed Alex, got Andrew a snow cone, and took him around to play a few games at some other booths. Andrew even got the 1st prize duck at the duck pond booth. He won an airplane :) I saved it after his nap to put in his room somewhere.  It was such a great time, but it got pretty hot by the time we were ready to eat. And, we all decided to go somewhere with air condition Rachel and her family met us at Chili's for a mid-celebration LOL :) Then, thankfully, it was naptime - whew!

Only for the boys though. It was time to get the house put back together and the burgers made for our cookout later. And, somehow, I forgot a dessert...so I somehow just came up with one. It was delicious and I am thinking I may enter it in the Better Homes & Gardens contest. I dunno... Anyhoo! Kendra, Rachel and her family, and our family had some goooood food and some good times! I wish I had taken more pics, but ya know. Being a semi-hostess, a mama, and obsessive picture taker is hard work. So here's what I did get:

Rachel says John's the Baby Whisperer :)

Best buddies!

 Enjoying a story with one of his favorite people, "Gace" aka Grace :)

I'm totally the coolest mom. Who else has an after dinner basketball game in their living room?

Ah, good times :) I wish I had taken more pics, but then this would be an epic-long post... So, enjoy your July! :D