Happy Fourth of July!!

We love the Fourth of July!  It is a special time for us to remember how blessed we are as a nation to have so many freedoms that other nations only dream of having.  I can worship and praise Jesus freely and raise my kids the way I choose.  Thank you to all those that fought for our freedoms both in the past and in the present.  We are so grateful!

We celebrated the 4th with some of Anthony's family, who drove out from Austin to be our 1st official overnight house guests.  As usual, I enjoyed preparing lots of great food with Noah (including our traditional 4th of July cake) and Anthony spent some time on the grill making BBQ ribs, baked potatoes, grilled pineapple ... it was the best grilled pineapple ever!!  We also enjoyed homemade cinnamon rolls, BBQ chicken quesadillas (to die for!), freshly juiced OJ and apple juice.  We even enjoyed some pizza one night with Anthony's long time friends, Troy and Betty Philly. They used to babysit Anthony and Catherine when they were very little. It was so great for them to come and visit us too!

On Saturday the 3rd, we got to see our 1st parade together as a family!  The boys were so excited!  The weather was perfect -- not hot, cold or rainy! (We have been getting a lot of rain this week due to the hurricane that hit Mexico and South Texas.) Gray especially enjoyed the fire trucks! It is great living in a small town.  No major traffic, things are so easy going and it makes the experience so much more fun and relaxed.  We rarely have to rush to get anywhere!






























We also got to enjoy some great "small town" fireworks.  We intended on going to the Dallas FC soccer game, however it was way too rainy -- so again, we were happy to be only 5 minutes from the Coppell fireworks display.  As our family tradition continued, we curled up on blankets (yes, the grass was wet, but who cares?) and watched the sky light up.  This was especially exciting to Gray.  We had such a great time this weekend!  Thank you Mom and Cat for coming to visit.  We love you both dearly and are so glad to be closer to y'all!