4th of July---Boom!

How is it that holidays become so much more fun once you have kiddos?  I think it must have something to do with seeing everything through your child's eyes, but every holiday since Elyse was born has been just a little bit sweeter.  4th of July certainly wasn't any different and we enjoyed every bit of it! 

 

And also, having children also means a ridiculous amount of pictures for each holiday...so you've been warned of the ridiculous number of pictures in this post!

Elyse & I broke out our patriotic attire on Wednesday---she's an All American Cutie for sure!

We were a little nervous about how she would handle the fireworks so we borrowed some headphones...she didn't end up wearing them, but she looked cute practicing! 

We started our family celebration on 4th of July Eve with a few little fireworks in our driveway.  Elyse has been a little jumpy with other loud noises so we wanted to let her experience some close up before the big show! 

Checking out the chicken after it had gone off! 

Smoke bombs with Daddy!

And some snaps of course!

She definitely got the hang of it...

& then we got brave and tried some sparklers with Mommy...

& then maybe one with Daddy...

&  then she got brave enough to try it on her own...of course I think this was right before she decided she needed to "show" mommy & daddy her sparkler which meant running towards us with a burning stick!  Thankfully the sparkler burned out quickly!



 

Our neighborhood also has a fun tradition of having a bike/wagon parade around the neighborhood with all the children.  The get all decked out in their patriotic best, decorate bikes/wagons, and traipse around the neighborhood for the neighbors to see.  This year we even had one of our older gentleman be the lead car with his Mercedes convertible...such a fun tradition!

Checking out all the excitement with Papa & Josey!

Our little patriotic Diva!

& of course we had to include Bogey!

We attempted a family photo with all 4 of us...

 

but including just 3 seemed to work much better!

Headed down the street...

We struggled a bit because we sacrificed Elyse's morning nap start-time for parading around!

Papa snapped an action shot of the entire family!

But momma wasn't giving up yet...we're getting closer...

Well...I guess that's it, you either get to have a baby looking or a dog butt--what do I prefer?  ha!

All the kiddos in a group...the best we could do! 

One last family photo, with a tired & grumpy baby girl!  She really wasn't grumpy, but she was NOT smiling!

but Gigi gets a smile!

& she LOVED the pinwheel! 

After the parade, morning naptime, and a quick lunch, we headed down to my parents house for the our annual celebration.  We had a LOT of fireworks leftover from last year because we had such a dry summer last year that we didn't shoot off very many...which mean we had this...

Yeah...we had all of that to shoot off!

Comparing Harper's toes & Elyse's toes...Elyse LOVED this!

Of course we had to do some snaps with Gigi & Papa...

We had the guys be in charge of shooting off the fireworks, and they started things off with 4 confetti canons!  Thankfully we live in the country and a lawnmower works wonders to get rid of all the mess!

Setting up the next round of fireworks!

 

Elyse did incredibly well and wasn't scared at all! My mom held her ears when the loud ones would explode but otherwise she did great.  She even fell asleep in my mom's lap towards the end of the show...oh how I wish I could have snapped a picture of that!  While Hubby shot off the fireworks, I spent the majority of the show sitting with our friends & family that had joined us for the annual celebration! 

Elyse Ooohhhing & Aaaahhhing with Gigi & Mamaw!