4th of July

 Here are a bunch of pictures from our 4th of July party!  We had a lot of family come, but we missed having two of my brothers (and families).  My Dad's mom and sister from Colorado were able to join us!  It was a lot of fun having so much family around, I was sad to have them go.

 Roasting Marshmallows was a big hit!!!

 Nathan really took to his Great Aunt Judy (my Dad's sister).  He kept calling her Grandma!

 This is my Grandmother (Dad's mom), and of course Ashley in her undies!

 The morning of the 4th was a little slow getting everyone up and out of bed.  :)

 A tribute to Bryan

 Nephews!!!

 Let the swimming begin....or the relaxing in the swimming pool!?

 Okay, my head looks fat, but it's because my hair is blowing!  Here, I am teaching the kids how to make a whir-pool!

 Ronin started walking at our 4th party!!  So exciting!

 I should have made more of this (7-layer bean dip) cause it was REALLY good!  I'd never made one before, but it was all everyone wanted to eat! Yum, yum, yum

 You can't see Daniel, but he's across the yard playing catch with Uncle Matt.  Matt would jump into the air and Daniel would throw it to him!

 I bought Daniel some smoke bombs...he put on his own little fourth of July Show for the kids.

We had a great time going over to a friends home for a HUGE firework show, and then came back for our own firework show...which almost blew everyone up!  What can I say!?  Im not used to Washington fireworks!  It was a learning experience.

Why I shouldn't be left home alone! ;)

This is what inevitably happens when I get left home alone for long periods of time.  I start "doing things".  This is only one of my projects!  

Im also taking out the door to our laundry room and replacing it with a pocket door (which meant taking down a wall), ripping out the counter and cabinets and building a bench with cubbies for the kids--making it more of a mud room you could say.  That project is currently in the works.....everything is put back together, I just need to re-paint and build my bench!!

So, then I decided to rip out our deck and have a patio put in.....

 Nice and big, plenty of room for friends and family to come over!  We can actually enjoy our backyard now!

 Then I got a little bored....so I decided to dig up the sod around the patio and replace it with flower beds.....such hard work!  It took me  one afternoon to dig it up....

 Another afternoon/evening (I basically stayed up until I could no longer see) spreading the garden soil....

 Then yet another day buying, arranging, and planting some.....shrubs.

It all turned out really nice.  I like it a lot.  There aren't any plants planted anywhere else in my yard (front or back) so it's kind of funny.  But at least around the patio looks nice!?  Right?!

Our American Flag

 My parents came up this past weekend to help me with some yard work, and to see one of Daniel's baseball games!  It doesn't look it now, but it had been pouring rain all day!  So the game was canceled.  But my Dad worked super hard on my hard! Way too hard!!  And it looks great!  

Anyway, I've been wanting an American Flag to hang at our home for some time, but just haven't gotten around to it.  Since I had a "man" around the house (thanks Dad) I had him help us hang one up!

 I told the kids that we were hanging the flag for Daddy.  They all thought it was pretty cool!!!

 These were the potted  flowers that my mom helped me with.  I've never really planted flowers before, and Im always afraid I will kill them....so she helped me.  These flower boxes were supposed to go under the front window, but I bought the wrong brackets....so now they are on my little back deck!  Which actually looks kind of nice.  They are, however, the only plants growing in my yard currently! ;)