Happy 4th of July!

We had a great 4th of July spending it with great friends!  I love this holiday so much!  I love summer and I love the traditions that come with the 4th.  We started the morning off having breakfast with all of our neighbors followed by our annual 4th of July parade.  The kids always get to decorate their bikes, wagons, or anything they want to ride.  Cohen chose her bicycle this year and Kate was in the big wagon.  It seems like Cohen was just in that wagon!  After the parade we all relaxed with some swimming.  It was just so nice to sit out and enjoy everybody.  The weather was nice too!  I love getting together with everyone and just enjoying the day!
Around 1:00 we load up and head over to the Burton's where we spend the afternoon with more swimming and being around so many of our friends and family.  There are lots of people to talk to and play with.  Nothing beats good food and friends!  Its even entertaining to watch the adults play the kids in a baseball game.   We came home for afternoon naps for the girls then headed back around 6:30 for supper and ended the night with a beautiful fireworks show!  A great way to end the day for sure.  Cohen was still scared of the fireworks this year.  She has been talking about fireworks for days and she has always associated the 4th with fireworks.  She dreaded it all day even though I told her I would give her ear phones to listen to music with.  When the fireworks started, sure enough she started to cry and we had to sit her in the car with music in the headphones.  She said she really liked them once she was in the car :)  Kate was amazed by it all and took in the show with wide eyes.  I don't think she took her eyes off of them.  Maybe she will stay that way!

Neighborhood picture!!

Kate was enjoying her pancake!

 

love my babies!

Ready for the parade!

 Only Denny would sit in our yard as the loyal parade watcher!  I love him!

Kate waving back to Denny

Just relaxin!

I loved the girls' 4th of July bikinis!

Swimming at the Burton's 

Kate & I...this also shows how full the pool was!

Kate LOVED this puppy

Lets Go All-Stars!

So proud of these boys!  This is the 2012 Franklin County Minor League All-Star team and I'm very proud that Brock has had the opportunity to be apart of the team.  This week has been full of All-Star fun along with July 4th fun :)  Saturday began the All-Star tournament, 100 degree heat and all.  The boys brought home a win against Rabun Co.  We headed back to Rabun Co. on Monday night for a late game!   What was supposed to be an 8:30 game started at 9:30.  The boys fought hard against Madison Co. but ended with a loss.  The game was called for time after midnight so to say they were tired would be a big understatement!  I know I sure was.  Tonight they will play against Toccoa so we are still in the middle of baseball fun.  Good luck boys!
Before Monday's game we took Cohen to have a picnic.  The tournament is being held in Rabun Co. so we decided to visit Tallulah Gorge State Park.  Cohen loves picnics so it was perfect timing.  Sug & Pop were having a sleepover with Kate since the baseball game would be starting at her bedtime.  She was a trooper at Saturday's game though.  On a funny note, Cohen continues to love taking pictures with my camera.  I think it takes up her whole face when she tries to use it.  She was wanting to take pictures of me and Kelly and she would tell us to do funny faces, smiles, and serious faces.  It was quite entertaining.  We also managed to do some with her in them.   She was excited to see some geese as well.  It was a long night but we enjoyed it all!

Enjoying the picnic

Funny faces...not sure about the fist she's holding up :)

Cohen's picture of us...a little crooked but I think its great for a 4 year old!

Our All-Star!

Brock's #1 fan

Cohen had to get a picture with Eli :)

Proud Grandma!

Picture Pride at the new Hospital

The new Ty Cobb Regional hospital has officially opened and its only a mile from our house.  I think this new hospital has been the buzz around Lavonia for over a year now.  The hospital asked for photo submissions a few months ago, and were looking for pictures to hang around the hospital and in the rooms.  I was very excited to have 3 pictures chosen to hang in the hospital, 2 in the mother/baby area and one in a patient room.  I got the letter a few months back saying 1 or more pictures had been chosen but I did not know which ones had been picked so it was fun going to see which ones were chosen and where they would be.  We got to go to view everything about a week ago and the official open house was on Saturday.  I was even more excited when I found out one of mine chosen was Kate's newborn picture.  I took her back to the open house to get a picture of her beside her framed picture.  She has really grown in a year!

She loves it!

Maybe she recognizes it from her bedroom :)

One of my pictures was my best friend, Rebekah's, son Nolan.  Nolan was born in September and he was so sweet at his newborn session, as you can see from his sweet smile in his picture.  I hate that the flash is reflecting in this picture but you can still see how sweet he looks.  The one with my phone isn't quite as bad.  This was a big one so I was very excited when I saw it.  It will hang in the mother/baby consult room.

This last picture was the only scenic photograph I submitted.  That was really what they had asked for with the pictures but I don't take very many of these at all, in fact this was at an engagement session I did.  I was still excited to see it in the patient room though!

Cohen also got some picture love recently!  She was in the photo section of the June issue of the Georgia EMC magazine.  We aren't EMC customers, but Sug, Pop, and Bebe are!  Lydia had showed me this magazine one day and I noticed they were having a fishing theme for June and I had the perfect picture to send in.  Not long after emailing it in I got a response saying they were wanting to use her picture.  I still remember this moment last summer!  Cohen was so cute wanting to hold a fish but the fish decided to jump as soon as it touched her hand.