4th of July weekend

Wow am I late posting this!!  We've been having so much fun though (summer fun post in the works) that I just need to sit down for once and get some blogs done.

Ok, so I'm aware that 4th of July is just one day, not a whole weekend... but we had a lot going on the that weekend that I want to get it all jotted down.  It was a GREAT weekend, exhausting, but so great.

Let's back track slightly.  So we knew ahead of time that our dear friends Josh and Kencee were coming up from Utah to visit with their new twin boys.  We were so excited to see them but knew that their time was limited because they had lots of plans with both sides of their families.  So we offered to host a lunch here on Saturday to include some of our other friends from high school and their families.  Knowing that this was going to take place got my ass in gear and got me cleaning my house... now really it's not that dirty, I've done ok keeping it up during this chaotic time of our lives.  BUT, it did need some serious deep cleaning because I haven't done that since I was pregnant and my mom was in town helping me out.  So the week leading up to 4th of July/ and our lunch plans I went CRAZY cleaning.  What was really great was my little miss Natalia found a cowgirl doll she really really wants, and since her puff ball jar is almost full she wanted me to give her all kinds of chores to earn more puff balls.  **We have what we call good girl jars, and they earn puff balls for various good behaviors.  Once it's full they get to go pick something out (within reason).**  Anyway, she did all kinds of things for me such as wiping down baseboards, wiping down the kitchen cabinets, wiping down the dinning room chairs.  Anyway, I was looking forward to Friday because I knew Charlie had the day off and I could get some help with the kiddos and get my cleaning done.

Fast forward to Friday the 4th.  I did some cleaning, the girls played, Quinton was adorable... you know.  After lunch I sent Charlie out with the girls to pick up fireworks and some groceries for our contribution to dinner at Stephs' house.  They come home with their finds and roses for me! I'm pretty lucky that Natalia always wants to buy me flowers, it's pretty darn cute.  After the kiddos rested we headed over to Stephanie and John's house.  We had lots of yummy food and got to chat with family (ours and John's family)

My adorable little sparklers

We set off a bunch of little fire works.  Natalia was really into it this year and loved doing the sparklers.  Lydia was a little timid at first and sat on Charlie's lap, but got the hang of it.  Quinton on the other hand, well he got hot fast (he hates being hot) and after one slightly loud one that upset him I went into the house to watch through the window with him.  Of course the rest weren't nearly as loud, but at least we got to cool off.  The kiddos were up way too late and went to bed exhausted that night.

Saturday morning we ended up missing swim class because they actually slept in and we didn't want to wake them.  We finished all of our last minute cleaning and meal prep and then our friends started arriving.  We had Josh and Kencee with their twin 5 month old boys Ben and Adam.  Then there was Bobby with his wife Angela, their 2 year old Sam and their week (yes week!) old baby girl Paisley.  Hans and his wife Kendra came with their kids, boys Jaime and Jace (8 and 11) and their little girl Nora who was just a couple weeks younger then Quinton.   Then there was Matt and his girlfriend Amanda.  We were a house full and it was so much fun.  I loved sitting with the gals and discussing mommy hood, births, and just kids in general.  The guys were outside with the kids (who had all decided to get soaking wet fully clothed)  Natalia did awesome and held her own with the two older boys and they got in a water gun fight.  At one point Bobby pushed Charlie into the little kiddie pool and it was hilarious.  Lydia had a total meltdown that day (it had been a busy week of hanging out with cousins and skipping naps) and I think she was just intimidated with our houseful of strangers.  So we ended up just letting her hide upstairs in the toy room watching Mickey with her lunch.  Poor thing.  We got some fun pictures of the guys with all the kiddos and I got a picture of Quinton with the twins (someday they will be great friends and I'd love to show them a picture of them as babies hanging out).  It was a huge success!

As usual I took a ton of pictures and made a Facebook album so that I don't have to post them all here.  =)