Happy Fourth of July!

Tonight we went to see fireworks. It was so exciting! There is a couple named Rocky and Norma who have a fireworks show in their yard. They spend thousands of dollars on fireworks every year. It's awesome! The best part about it is that you don't have to fight the crowds or anything. They live north of town - basically in the country - so you can take a blanket, sit in a field and watch it with just your family. We didn't go last year, because Pete's brother got married over the holiday weekend. So, this was the first time we had been there in a couple of years. The word has gotten out, because this year the road was lined with cars and there were people parking in the fields just like we were. But, we were still able to sit on our own and enjoy just having family time. This was Livie's first fireworks experience and she was nervous. Noah brought earmuffs to help with the sound (as you can see in the pictures), but eventually decided he didn't need them, so he gave them to Livie and she loved wearing them. After a few fireworks went off she was loving every bit of it! She kept saying "Wow!" or "Boom". Except "Boom!" came out more like "Bome!". hehe It was cute. :-) All of the kids had a great time. We got there a little early, so they ran around the field looking for lightning bugs for a while. Noah found the biggest bug and kept it in his hand basically for the entire 45 min of the show. I don't think the bug recovered. :-) But, as I was sitting there, enjoying the fireworks and hearing my kids laughing and exclaiming, "AWESOME! WOW! BOME!", I thought to myself - this moment is the type of thing I dreamed about as a child. I wanted to grow up, get married, be a mom, and have these special times with my family and here I am living it. I sat there and thanked God for the blessings He's given me. It's so easy to get caught up in the craziness of every day things: shuffling kids here and there, working on projects... whatever it might be. But, once in a while, you get an hour where you get to sit back, enjoy the laughter of your children, and look up to the sky and say, "Thank you Lord for this moment". What a wonderful fourth of July it has been!!