happy 4th to you and yours.

our celebration began with our friends at the beach and ended at Mt. Trashmore for some killer fireworks!









beautiful Mackenzie.


and beautiful Savannah.








this is Conner, cutie of our friends, Pete & Colleen.


extreme frisbee...
our awesome friend, Joel.... even more awesome photo. no offense Joel, this is just cool. :)



mid-air. Brian has had an awesome time getting to know you Pete.


and MY cutie. so handsome. :)


on the 4th with Dada!


love this photo!








fireworks!
"Jersey, what do the fireworks do?" "pa! pa!" (translation: Pow! Pow!)
















saving the best for last... We honor you today, our brother Joe, who has given so much to serve our country and preserve our freedom. Thank you! and welcome home for good!

an evening outside after a little yarkwork.

just look at those curls... LOVE them!















a view from the top...

jersey says...

jersey is a little talker these days... here is her repertoire:

juice - "uice" and sometimes "juice" - and she'll point to her cup when she says it.
please - "dis"
thanks - "dee" with the nod of the head :)
fish - "ish"
duck - "du-ahhh"
dog - "da"
mama - "baba" and sometimes in the right mood it's "mama"
dada - "dada"
star - "ta"
out - "ah" and she points to her high chair buckle, or in other circumstances, her invisible buckle. she's really communicating better and better.

jersey what does the...

cat say? "meahhhh" with the sweetest most delicate little voice, ever so quiet and meek.
dog say? "uhhh"
bear say? "aghhhhh" with mouth wide open
snake say? "sssssss, sssssss, ssssssss"
elephant say? I couldn't begin to spell that one, but I promise she does it way better than me. it's that typical sound and she'll even lift up her arm if your lucky! tooooo funny!

anyway, there's a few more, but a proud Momma like me couldn't leave this out.

park fun on family day!

helping Momma find a camera.

and I did! long story short, the camera I ordered kept being delayed and since the day I ordered it I wondered if I'd made the right decision. I'd been haunted by the fact that I had just spent so much money on something I wasn't excited about, and wished I had ordered a different one. Well, I was able to cancel that order and get the camera of my dreams! The Canon 5D along with the Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 lens is on it's way to my house. Sigh.

For all my photographer friends out there you know this is a sweet camera. All of the sudden my little G6 is not so inspiring. I won't become a camera snob, I promise. :) but I'm completely siked about my new toy!

there's just nothing like it.

watching them giggle together. she's a dada's girl for sure. THIS was one heck of a moment. too sweet for a Momma heart like mine.






she LOVES to hear him play guitar and worship. She instantly joins him.





in fact, just today as I was rocking her to sleep for a nap, he began to play in the other room. her drifting was sweetly interrupted by the desire to worship. her little arm went straight up and she began to hum along... with her Dada.


she is his and he is hers.

nothing could separate.


.

can't get enough.

of this girl learning to walk...



and seeing her in this toddler size shirt.


I kept her in it all day just because it's too adorable. Brian and I can't get enough of it ... for some reason.

fries and cherry flavored water.

If it becomes "necessary" to hit McDonald's or one of their counterparts, I typically start out being good. I order chicken tenders and pull off the fried part, get apples instead of fries and of course juice or water instead of soda.



...but in order to keep her happy in her high chair for much longer after she's finished eating, we usually break out the french fries.


In this case they were introduced by my friend Raechel. Thanks Rae for a fun day at the park and Mickey D's with your 2 beautiful cousins. Hi Savannah & Mackenzie!!!

i'm ashamed to say...

I always said that I wasn't going to let my babies watch "tv" until they were at least 2. And Brian and I even decided that's what we would do. So much for that!



She doesn't watch it alot, but still. I do feel guilty... just a little bit. You know it's bad though, when you say to her, "Jersey, do you want to watch Praise Baby?" and she smiles and lifts up her hand to worship. She loves it! :) Oh well, at least my girl is learning to worship. Can't so much complain about that.

please tell me your kids do this too.

one day, she can't get enough of something...


the next day she spits it out wanting nothing to do with it.









i guess it's normal. i hope. :)

even though.

even though these pictures have a terrible grain issue, I still really love them.

pool days.

family day.

jersey LOVES family day!


until Mommy wants to lay her in the grass for a cute photo...


my daughter is going to have issues someday. a photographer friend once said that she was going to start a support group for photographer' kids. probably a good idea.

book worm.

well sort of.