4th of July 2019

Our first 4th of July in Meridian ... it also felt like Lyla's first 4th of July ever this year because she was so much bigger and able to participate more! A special one for sure. We hosted my dad's side of the family and kicked it off with an annual bike race around our new neighborhood. Thankfully all the cousins showed up with their bikes and scooters all decked out otherwise it would have just been these two cuties out there! Hopefully a few more neighbor kids join next year. Lyla loved riding in her beep beep and Liam just might not ever give up his favorite strider bike that he can successfully go 100 mph on now!  

Even Pa decorated grams bike to the nines and joined them. haha He was hysterical toodling around on that thing! One of my neighbors posted a video of them during the bike parade and goes, "Oh look, there's the adult chaperone" as my dad rode by!

Poor Grandma was nursing a shoulder surgery for the holiday but was a trooper for joining in on the fun and made the most epic s'mores platter ever!

Their facial expressions crack me up!

The other trooper of the bunch, my sister-in-law who was about 34 weeks pregnant with twins! She lapped the neighborhood a couple times with all of us in the 90 degree heat. Best decoration award goes to ... Olivia's helmet!

My brother got me this hammock swing for my birthday and we finally got it hung up for the holiday! When the kids actually give me a turn (rarely) I've been loving spending time in it this summer!

Two of my FAVORITE pictures to date of these cutie pies ...

We used our fire pit for the first time and my dad helped me "grill" on it ... hot dogs and hamburgers! They turned out so good!

The cousins had a blast in the swimming pool together! They took turns racing and jumping in, making silly faces, and playing with squirt guns!

After dinner they all had bomb pop popsicles and it might have been one of the most entertaining things to watch that whole night! Those red lips!!

We followed up that dose of sugar with ... MORE SUGAR! S'mores!

We moved to the front yard for fireworks but the sun wasn't even close to setting and my sprinklers went off and chased everyone away. haha So we moved the party down the street by the park in a big patch of shade to pretend it was dark outside. 

Whoever thought of this Pinterest idea is an absolute genius!

Goofy Uncle Josh!

I handed out glow sticks and brackets for the festivities ...

Olivia and Liam are two peas in a pod covering their ears from the noise ...

Girl time with my sweet nieces and Lyla ...

Even more than the popsicles, the most entertaining part of it all was seeing Lyla's reaction every time a firework went off! Complete surprise, amazement, excitement, and joy all wrapped into one big squeal and gasp!

Baby you're a firework! The cutest girl I've ever known!

After we got the kids down for bed and our guests left for the night, Nic and I pulled out some lawn chairs and had an incredible view of the city firework show on our very own driveway! We talked about how much has changed in our lives in a year and how good we both felt about where we were watching fireworks this year. Our new home <3 p="">