Independence Day

We had such a great day on the 4th of July! We feel so very blessed to live in this beautiful country! And we are grateful to all of those who sacrifice to keep it that way! 

 We started out the day going down to see the hot air balloons go up. This year the wind was really different and they all went up and north pretty quickly so this is the best picture we got. 

Can you even see the Bank of American for pig in the background? 

 The kids were really tired so we headed home and put them back to bed. I decided to whip up something festive for the girls to wear. I picked up a yard each of 2 cheap fabrics at Walmart and planned to make little ruffly shorts, but ended up switching last minute to making these simple little dresses. 

My cute kiddies ready for the day! 

 The dresses came together fast and I am really happy with how they turned out. I kind of followed this online tutorial from my amazingly talented cousin Anneliese over at Aesthetic Nest. If you have never seen her blog you have to check it out. She is unbelievably talented!! 

Vela wanted to do a little posing! 

Cora wants to do everything Vela does! 

We relaxed and did some things around the house and neighborhood, then headed down to my grandfathers house to BBQ and watch the fireworks! My grandparents both passed away, but my aunt Kris lives there now and it is the PERFECT location for 4th of July festivities! We had a big BBQ and got to visit with lots of our Hawkins family. 

When you hear and see the jets do the stadium fly by, you know its time to move to the front yard and put the blankets out! 

There go the jets! 

 We busted out the Snowie machine and served up about 100 snow cones. Definitely the perfect treat for a ward summer night! But I didn't get any pictures since we were busy making them! 

Our little family celebrating! 

 My brother Jason and his cute family! 

 I love love love taking pictures with the fireworks in the background. Here are a few I took.

My sweetie!!!  

Little Hema super happy to be taking the picture! He was mad
that he was missing seeing the firework. 

Vela loved playing with all of my cousin's kids. She ran around non stop all night with the girls and almost tried to load up and go home with the Mahoneys!

Mylee and Vela had so much fun running around together. 

Vela and cute Becca had fun too!

 Cora didn't quite get the concept of looking at me for the picture so I got about 50 of the back of her head. (Which is pretty dang cute anyway!) 

 She almost looked in this one. 

All in all is was a fun day filled with food, family, fireworks and festivities! We feel so blessed to be part of the Hawkins family and love them all!