The fourth of July

This girl started off the morning in her festive red, white and blue dress, and she was quite adorable, even with blueberry pancakes smeared on her forehead. 

 In the afternoon, we headed over to Lexi and Scott's apartment to swim in their pool and have a bbq. We had so much fun swimming and playing around!

Unfortunately, Keith was home sick in bed this entire day, but we managed to enjoy ourselves without him.

Scott threw Sareny into the air.

Rhys got brave and put his head underwater.

 Lexi and Sareny played "dishwasher."

Rhys playing around with his dad.

We were happily surprised that the pool wasn't very crowded.

After eating hotdogs and hamburgers, we headed back to our house for some traditional homemade ice cream sandwiches made with chocolate chip cookies and mint chip ice cream. These two decided to be twinsies, and Sareny is playing "headbands."

For the evening entertainment, we headed back to the Knight's apartment, which is conveniently located right by the fireworks show. Keeley chewed on the glow bracelets--not smart, baby!

Scott lit some fireworks. We only had matches, and the slight breeze made it pretty difficult to get anything lit.

We managed to light up some sparklers. Lexi and Scott were dogsitting for Scott's parent's. I love when other people have cute little animals for my kids to play with--they get to cuddle cute creatures, but they don't have to come home with me and live in my house.

Grammy held onto the kids' flags while they did their "sprinklers."

We showed some to Keeley.

She wanted to grab.

I'm not sure why, but Sareny and Finley both sported cheer outfits that evening.

Another shot of the snuggly little dog.

The twins. 

More sparklers.

Cute IJ Isaac.

I love his face in this one!

 Lexi and Sareny swirled them around fast, and I took their picture with the flash off.

They actually looked pretty cool.

Grammy Jo and Bampa.

Some of the kids, and the Ronquillos.

 Keeley wanted out of her stroller. And from then on, she was not very happy.

The group. Some newlyweds (who shall, of course, remain unnamed) may have done something inappropriate right before I took this picture. I did inadvertantly capture it on film but in the interest of all, have opted to post the clean picture.

Me with cute Isaac and sad KeeKee.

Cute cousin Rhys!

Then we settled in to watch the fireworks. 

 

I love Rhys and Fin in the picture! So sweet. Keeley in the background--not so sweet. She was just not happy!

The show. It was pretty decent this year, I thought.

 My favorites were the smiley faces. They were pretty cool.

We had a great fourth of July this year. Except for Keith, of course, who had a miserable one.

Fourth of July Cuties

The kids all looked so adorable on the fourth of July, so I stood them in front of our house for a picture. I loved their matching hairbows. Isaac really wasn't as unhappy as he looks in the above picture...

Lexi found this cute red and blue shirt that was adorable either as a fourth of July shirt, or just for regular attire. She told me I should go get one, so I did, and we were matchy matchy on the fourth.

We had a fun barbecue at our friend the Hobbs' with a bunch of other people from church, then we all headed over to watch the fireworks and do sparklers. Lexi and Scott holding the baby girl.

Not only was this KeeKee's first time doing sparklers, but it was actually the first time any of my kids had ever done sparklers. Until recently, fireworks of any kind, including sparklers, were illegal in Arizona.

I bought some extra long sparklers, and the kids had fun with them.

Again with the eyes...

Me and my baby girl.

It was such a fun night! The City of Goodyear's lame fireworks show was nothing to write home about, but the sparklers and other little fireworks our group lit off were the highlight for the kids anyway.

July Visitors

We were so glad when Grammy Jo, Bampa, and Cassidy and Truman were able to visit us in July. I think they actually got here on Isaac's birthday and left on Fin's. Grammy and Cass had made the kids these super cute fourth of July outfits, and I wanted a picture of the kids with their grandparents.
I wasn't very good at taking pictures while they were here, and that's how I remember what we did, so I'll just have to do my best. I know we went shopping at Kohl's one morning after we dropped Sareny off at reading bootcamp, and we all found some bargains. On Thursday morning, my mom and dad went down to Starpointe to exercise, then me and Cassidy switched off with them. I have realized that I would much rather run outside than use a treadmill--treadmills are just so boring, and the temptation to just step off and be done is too great. When I'm running outside I can't just decide to stop whenever I feel like it, or I would find myself a mile from home. Anyway, later that afternoon we all went to the swimming pool and had a great time.
On Saturday, the day they were leaving, I finally pulled my camera out of hiding and started taking some pictures. It was Finley's birthday, so she opened some presents.

She got some cute toys including a marble run, which Bampa helped the kids set up.

I wanted a picture with me and my little birthday girl.

Then we lined the kids up for a picture. It was pretty tricky to get one where they were all looking approximately the right direction and with pleasant expressions. In fact, nobody is actually looking at the camera in this one, but it was the best one I got.

Cassidy was visiting my mom and dad for a month from Hawaii while James was in Officer Training, so it was really nice to have her visit. How big is Truman going to be the next time we get to see them?? Way too big.

The kids all loved Truman so much, even though Finley called him Rhysie the whole weekend.

Cass played "ring around the rosies" with the kids.

One of our longstanding family traditions is the birthday spanking machine. Everyone lines up and the birthday kid has to crawl through the tunnel, getting spankings all the way.

We had to help her just a little to get under Isaac.

And I noticed that some spankers ran to the end of the line for another go.

We took a mother and daughters photo in front of our house.

And then we went to the movie theater to see Cars 2. Truman does okay at the movies as long as he stays in his stroller.

We had such a nice time with them, and it was so sad when they had to leave. I always hate for fun times to come to an end. The good news was, however, that I would be taking the kids up to visit them in just two weeks, so we tried not to be too sad.