Happy July 4th!

I can't believe July is already here-June just flew by so very quickly! Between birthdays, anniversaries, mothers/fathers days, and more, mid-May and June are just crazy times for us; so the days have flown.

And this weekend (tomorrow for my town) we celebrate the 4th with fireworks and fun. The 4th always has me reflecting on our founding fathers (and mothers, you know their moms had to be amazing women to raise such men). They were so brilliant, and forward thinking, and carried such deep perspective that still holds strong today.

Our favorite founding father? Benjamin Franklin (one of our sons might have that name, though I vetoed Franklin as the middle name. Yes, my husband tried to get me to agree to that...)My favorite quotes from Ben:

All the property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.
Benjamin Franklin, letter to Robert Morris, December 25, 1783

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.
Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, November 1766

Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.
Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1738

Such a wise man.

Happy 4th of Juy!!

F-A-M-I-L-Y

Kids make time go by more quickly, I think. It seems like every so often, I'll look at my kids, and realize they are getting bigger!

Then I break out the camera, in my desperate attempt to make sure I have 1000's of pictures of their special looks and actions because one day soon they will be teenagers, all too busy to let me chase them with a camera. Though I'll be that parent that is. They are going to hate it, but that's OK, for the pain of childbirth I get the right to chase them with cameras. Pretty decent trade off.



The trouble with having more than one kid? It is almost impossible to get a photo that has everyone smiling and looking at the camera.
It never fails that you end up with pictures your kids can use later to prove they were tortured.
But then you can come back with pictures showing how they used to sit in your lap.
And how they just used to utterly adore you. This should be a good one to show JR's first girlfriend, don't you think?

Happy 4th Of July from Mobile

We had a great time out boating around the Gulf Shores area with some of Bill's co-workers. All the kids that came did great and were so super cute in their life jackets, too!

Today I had planned on sharing a video of my toddler reciting "The Pledge of Allegiance", but as you can see, there is no video.

We practiced all week long, saying the pledge a few times a day, and Little Dude has done GREAT memorizing it and being able to say it with only a little prompting. I am super proud of him. And we even got the hand-on-heart part going, too.

So, I felt he knew it well enough to get it on tape-but every time I pulled out the Flip, Little Dude would shut down and walk away. Not only would he NOT say the pledge or put his hand on his heart, he wouldn't even look at me.

Sigh. Toddlerhood.

Anyways, we did work on it, and he does, for the most part have it down, but for now my toddler is not doing any photos, so maybe later. In the meantime, we are going to eat a fun flag cake I made, cook out hamburgers, and check out the best place for fireworks here on the Gulf Coast! I'm super super excited for the boys to see the fireworks. Little Dude lost it last year-just like me-and was just amazed with them. Last 4th was our first family outing after JR was born-he was only a few weeks old at the time-so I am really excited to see how he enjoys the celebration this year.

And I'll work on getting another family photo together so I can finally update the one I have on here that was taken last year before the fireworks started.

Happy Fourth Of July to all of you from my family!