Why not.

I never intended to have a matchy-matchy family picture. I  don’t even put the babies in completely matching clothes that often. But how could I resist the cute little Old Navy baby flag shirts. And since I wanted one too, KC would just be left out without one, right? And since we were wearing  them at the same time,why not just take a picture? Just trying to rationalize our nerdiness, I guess. Buying them was a last minute decision while doing some returns on Saturday, not some scheme to start an annual tradition that my kids will tease me for later. That’s just not me anyway. But don’t we look so. . .familyish? As cliche and hokey as we are here together, I still can’t believe that is me in the middle of all this sweet chubbiness. Holidays always make me think about the past, and I can remember specific Independence Days when I would’ve wanted this picture taken more than anything (in silly matching shirts, or not).  

Now onto Sunday and Monday. Church on the 4th of July just sounded so patriotic, so we decided to all go, even though it wasn’t ideal for our nap schedule. KC had meetings, so I packed the babies up and met him there. We can always count on a young woman in the ward to help, but a friend just sat by us and offered instead. Everyone is always so kind to lend a hand. It was great to sing those patriotic hymns with the congregation. We made it through the meeting with only a tiny bit of fussiness forcing Ruby and me into the hallway for a few minutes. It’s so funny what kinds of things they can enjoy now, like turning pages in the hymnbook. I love it.

The rest of our 4th of July Sabbath was just relaxing and fun. My friend Christina loaned us this tiny pool that is just perfect for us right now. I think I have a few water-babies on my hands. They love to splash each other. Especially Ruby. A, B A  BR       

We were completely at a  loss of what to do with ourselves on Monday. I didn’t want to waste having KC home and not do anything fun, but we seriously had no plans, and hadn’t really talked to any friends about making any. I got in touch with Christina, and we joined them for a ward picnic. It was great to chat with some friends from the stake I don’t see too often, and we got to say the Pledge of Allegiance with the crowd, which was refreshing.

After naps we joined our friends again for a little pool-popsicle-party in their back yard. The babies, again, loved the water, and though it was hot, we adults had a good time catching it up and laughing at the kids. A great impromptu festive time. Bennett took a pretty short nap earlier, so I put him down at Christina’s, and you know what, he slept like a sweetheart. I only wanted a catnap since bedtime was only a couple hours away, so I woke him up a little while later. It is great to know my babies will sleep in unfamiliar places. I feel like we could actually take a trip or something in the future. Thanks for the crib accommodations, Christina. 

Our spacious van comes in handy once again.

Bennett

Alex

The little girls.

So this turned in to a long, drawn out post anyway, but I didn’t want to miss anything with these fun family times. Probably not too exciting for you, but memorable for me. My kids just make me smile.