Cause Baby You're a Firework

We kicked off the long July 4th weekend with a trip to the pool. After all, Hallie had to try on her patriotic swimwear......

"Picture time is over mom! I see the WATER!"

She was a little bit off her water game today and spent most of her time as a fish out of water. Luckily the weather wasn't too hot so she wasn't floppin' on the sidewalk. Instead she was chillaxin' on the chair....

"Did we pack my shades ma?"

"Ah, much better."

Despite my attempts to walk her to the water and remind her how much she loves frolicking in the baby pool she turned right around and crawled back to the chair. This time for some snacks....

"I think this is where she keeps em..."

"Mmmmmmm, fish food"

"A lil help here would be nice...."

"Nevermind, I got it"

Can't shovel them in fast enough...

She seemed very aware of the "no outside food" rule because she was intent about picking up her fallen snacks.....

Leave no puff behind

Between her many trips for some fishy food she fluttered her social butterfly wings and made a few friends. The oldest of these friends was a 7-year-old outgoing little girl who wanted nothing more than to hold my child. And she made it clear that she "didn't need my help."Lol, I followed the two girls around while she lugged her around nearly falling several times....yet somehow she was still curious why I was helping her hold Hallie. The little girl was maybe a tad bit too brave and told me that she was going to "slide down with the baby." Um, how bout no. Poor girl is gonna make a great babysitter someday but maybe needs to give it a few years.  

Hallie was worn out from swimming, er, eating so she was more than willing to go to bed that night. Riley and I enjoyed the quiet and had a pizza and movie night....we laughed out way through Hall Pass. Funny stuff. On Sunday morning our rooster was crowing bright and early. I have a feeling she was ready to see Ms. Jennifer at church...only two more Sundays with Jennifer since she will no longer be in the nursery. We have our sad faces on about this. :( Jennifer, if you are reading this....IT'S NOT TOO LATE!!! Lol. Hallie Grace slobbered on every surface of the nursery while her friend Harper followed her around with her binky in case she needed it at a moment's notice. :) After church we spent a lazy afternoon at home with Hal since we would be leaving her later that day. She made sure to tear up the house one last time before heading for her overnight stay at Nanny and Papa's house....

"Someone's gotta tear apart this new puzzle"

Poor Emmi

I thought it would be fun to head back out to the pool before we left our girl so Riley helped me pack Hallie's pool bag.......

"I think we got everything...."

She finally emerged from her bag once she spotted the water and slides.....

"This place never gets old"

Miss Independent took charge and showed me exactly where she wanted to go. The girl crawled all the way through the pool and over to the steps to the slide and climbed up all by herself. She spotted some cute little one-year- old boys across the pool and struck her best pose.....

"Mom, is this my cute side?"

"I'm gonna go get their digits..." 

She chickened out

Our swim time was cut short since a storm was rolling in. We made it out to the car just in time. Is that rain I see in Northwest OK??????? It can't be!!!!

Earlier in the week I was trying to come up with fun plans for our little fam for the weekend. I ran one idea by Riley about taking a trip to OKC for some swimming, food, and fireworks. I got a big fat "NO." Little did I know that he would plan a short little getaway for the two of us sans baby. After watching me pout on Friday night he surprised me and told me he had a hotel room and a babysitter....woohoo!!After about ten minutes of trying to talk him into taking Hallie with us I convinced myself that I needed to take advantage of sleeping in the next morning. We dropped Hallie off at Aunt Katie's on our way out of town and we were off to the city. We checked in at the hotel and made our way down to the Brewery. After dinner we took a very hot walk around while deciding whether we wanted to go see a movie or go bowling. We didn't end up doing either of those but did find ourselves at the Red, White & Boom celebration. We found some seats right behind the stage where we got to watch the singers from behind shaking their booties along with the music....quite entertaining. After listening to a very soprano Sandy Patty sing a few patriotic songs we had a perfect view for the fireworks....spectacular!!!!

Oooooooooo.....

Aaaaaaaaaah.......

Now came the big decision. Go to sleep or go out and have a few drinks? I'll let you guess what we chose. Oh man, I think I fell asleep before we even got back to our room...fairly sure I was sleep walking will full intentions of setting no alarms and closing the curtains so that not one beam of light could find it's way in. That is just what we did. Ah 9:00 a.m.....need I say more? We made a quick exit out of the city after eating breakfast....we had plans that afternoon and I was having some major Hallie withdrawal. We couldn't leave without stopping by our Mustang house first. Why must I bawl my eyes out everytime I step foot in that house? I kid you not, I literally wander from room to room picturing moments that happened when we lived there. Each room I find myself in makes me cry more than the room before. I know this sounds absolutely ridiculous and I realize this as I'm wiping away my tears when we leave....but dadgummit I miss that place. We left our "home" and made it back rather quickly to pick up our lil lady. Riley enjoyed making fun of me and my incessant Facebooking by stealing my phone and making his own status updates for me. For example: "I just farted." SO. NOT. FUNNY. This is my dearest husband driving and pretending to be me on my phone....his commentary went something like this: "OMG, like lol, like totally just updated my status, omg you wouldn't believe what so and so is doing right now, like wow I can't believe she did that, bahahaha." He is lucky I think he's funny!

"Like omg, lol"

After Mr. Funny and Mrs. Embarrassed returned home we snatched up Hallie as soon as we got to town. I kinda get the feeling that she wasn't ready to leave and Nanny and Papa weren't ready to give her up. :) She had played hard with Aunt Katie the night before and then kept Papa busy later that night. Hallie, Nanny and Papa discovered the jungle of a backyard we were dealing with and decided to help us out by mowing it down. They then discovered the overgrown shrubs along the front walk that were eye sores....I have to be honest that I have been completely oblivious to this. It made a huge difference and it looks great now!! Now Emmi can be spotted when navigating the backyard and our neighbor won't have to wind through our shrubs to get in the front door. After all of their hard work Hallie was exhausted and didn't get the memo about Matt's birthday swim party. Nap time was imminent so we decided to rest a little ourselves not thinking that it would be for two hours. Usually a two hour nap would be a blessing but not when you are already late to a swim party. We made our way to Matt and Heather's a mere four hours late....oops! Luckily they were still swimming so we got to hang out for awhile. Hallie was itching to get in the pool so she swam around with BJ, Kim, Matt and Heather and begged for Cheetos like she hadn't eaten all day. :)

Stayin' protected under her hat after seeing the birthday boy's nice tan line....

"Cheetos make the world go round"

Yet again, I had failed to pick up some swim diapers so we was sporting her ten pound badonkadonk......

"How do you expect me to walk with this on my behind?"

 She found a friend in Heather to feed her yummy treats. It's kinda hard to say no.....

"I think we could be pretty good friends if you keep this up."

We finished off a very hot 4th of July with a cookout at Nanny and Papa's house. Hallie enjoyed some bananas and ice cream and as always was a good source of entertainment. Fireworks were on the agenda but a certain little girl was way too tired. Who needs fireworks anyway when you have a growing baby to oooooo and aaaaaaah at? We hope everyone had a spectacular 4th of July!