4th of July

We hit our first holiday away from home. Knowing that both the Morgan and Edwards families were all together doing the traditional 4th of July activities and such, I thought for sure it would be tough. It is not that I don't miss my family and don't care to be with any of them, but I have totally shocked myself!  (Trust me, I LOVE my family and would love to be closer!) I feel like we had so much going on for the 4th and different fun activities planned with friends that there really was no time to have that yucky homesick feeling. I called my cute nephew, Luke, to wish him a happy birthday and Conner asked if it made me homesick knowing everyone was together besides us, and I actually felt totally okay! That one time where I did get a wee bit sad and almost had a tear to my eye was at our BBQ when there was a cookie salad sitting on the table! I would love my Grandma Red to make that at family get togethers so it was kinda sad/exciting seeing it there all at the same time. That sounds super weird...I will tell you this though, if we have not had the friends that we do then I know I would have sat home crying wishing so bad that I was home with my family. We have been SO blessed to be surrounded by loving friends from the second we went to our ward the first time and met people. It makes such a big difference and has really helped me LOVE living here in Texas. So, I do feel mighty lucky and blessed to have the wonderful friends we do!

My friend Emily planned out our day to keep us busy! The first 4th of July event was the bike parade in our neighborhood. We met the evening before to decorate the kiddos bike's. I felt like a spaz aka awful bike decorator....at least Nixon is 3 and thought it looked cool anyways!

 Emily has been my running partner on Saturday's for our long runs because we run at the same pace. I asked if she wanted to run in my 4th of July 10k for a $30 dollar registration fee. She asked if there would be a shirt and at the time I was at the grocery store so I thought it would be funny to pick her up one. It was a $2 clearance shirt! ;) So to start our 4th of July off we met for a nice little run! (Emily is from Alanta where the biggest 10k is held every year on the 4th, coincidence eh? )

After the run I hurried home to get the kiddos ready to head over to the bike parade. Nixon was pretty pumped for the event and being our first child (and first time doing stuff like this) we were pretty excited too! Our friends are all older than us and have 4-6 kids each....so they get a good laugh at the things that excite us! :) After the bike parade they did some awards at the best decorated bike. In Nixon and Lexi's age division there were only 6 kids. I thought for sure there bikes would NOT be winners. I even told Conner that before they announced the winners. Well, it totally shocked me when they said Nixon won 1st place and Lexi 2nd! They each got a ribbon and gift card. Nixon's gift card was $20 to Target. Yeah Buddy!

After the bike parade we went home to get ready to the pool. I made homemade oreos for everyone but I learned quickly that homemade oreo's+ Texas= no bueno! The frosting melted quick! Luckily they were a hit (a lot of people have never had them) so they were gone pretty fast! Mmmm, that sounds pretty yummy right about now!

We headed over to the Heaps for a BBQ after the pool. 

Conner & Conner! Baby Conner LOVES big Conner! :)

We then headed to Georgetown for the fireworks. We didn't last too long. Addie was super tired so she would not stop crying....and once the fireworks started and were super loud Nixon had a little freak out , so we left! He has always been weird about loud noises and covers his ears and says it hurts.Even with my blow dryer! Is that normal? Anyways, once we left....both kids were out cold! You could definitely tell we had a busy and fun day!!!

My cute little firecrackers!!!!