Happy Independence Day!

We had a great 4th of July. First of all, Jon and I got to spend the day together which, in itself, was the greatest treat of all. We don't get whole days anymore just hanging out. It's usually a few hours in the evenings where we're both running around like mad trying to get things done before bedtime. Even though we love his new schedule working days, I feel like I might even see him less now! Well, that's not possible, but still... When he gets home he's almost always got a bunch of school work to do, and I've always got a million things to get ready for the following day, plus dealing with the baby, and one of us is somehow fixing dinner and paying a millisecond of attention to the dogs. Dinners together hardly happen anymore, and if they do, I'm most likely eating one-handed while putting the baby to sleep. A night when dinner happens before 8:30pm is a miracle.

ALL THAT TO SAY - Friday was great. If we had done nothing, it would've been fine. But, as it goes, we did manage to get a few things done. We went to breakfast at a so-so place nearby where we had a coupon for $3.99 breakfast. I had the coupon special and he had the chicken fried steak which he said was the worst he'd ever had. blech. Jon realized he had been there before a llooooong time ago and remembered they had gigantic cinnamon rolls. I asked the waitress if they still served those and she said "not too often, but you can call ahead and see if we've got some before you come next time". Ummm.. yeah, no thanks. I can barely remember to brush my hair these days, let alone call ahead somewhere.

We then went to find me some new pants because I had a coupon (surprise, surprise!), and am shrinking out of some of my current pants and jeans. I found a few really cute pairs of capris on sale (score!) but they were my old size and way too big. I almost got them because they were so cheap but Jon talked me out of them and said "just because they're on sale doesn't make them right for you". blech. He's right. But I have such a hard time turning down a deal. Nevermind the fact that I probably wouldn't have worn them because they pretty float-y on me. So I got a pair of jeans capris and found a couple new pairs of black shoes. Yeah! For some reason my Crocs have started making my feet and ankles hurt after I've worn them all day. I think maybe it's because they got a little stretched out when I wore them while I was pregnant because my feet were so swollen, so now they don't fit as well??? I'm not sure. My first pair never did that too me. But anyway, Jon remarked last week that my Crocs looked "weird" with my outfit. I so normally don't care what they look like as long as they're comfortable (yes, I'm one of those people), but since they were making me hurt, I decided he was right. My new shoes are keeee-UTE and am so happy about them.

After that, Jon secretly wanted to take me to the Lady Golf store, and set the navigation system to take us there. But I gave him a look and he decided a better option would be to skip that. We got home and started prepping for the neighborhood picnic 4th of July celebration down at our pool. I made myself a sandwich, we packed a small cooler and I decorated Harper's stroller to be patriotic. One thing I realized as we were trying to get out the door was what every new parent realizes: how much CRAP it requires you to bring when you have a baby. Unbelievable. We walked (our first mistake) down to the pool and found a spot. We don't have a portable beach umbrella (our second mistake) and all the semi-shady spots were taken so we just plopped ourselves on the grass. I guess we were hoping that some shade would miraculously appear, but it never did. I think we lasted about 25 minutes total. It was sooooo HOT. Just enough time for Jon to eat a hot dog, me my sandwich, and us to witness one of the hula hooping competitions. That was enough. We probably would've enjoyed a dip in the pool, but our HOA just stopped allowing infants in diapers into the pool, so that was a no go.

We started the trek back home, which this time seemed unusually long. We trudged our way up the streets and eventually made it home before we melted into puddles. Ugh - so hot.
The rest of the day was pretty quiet. We watched a movie... well, Jon did. Harper and I took a nap on the couch together for most of it. A quick trip to the grocery store (I really wanted ice cream and figured we could treat ourselves), then a great bbq dinner (yes, I ate it one-handed), and firework-watching from our backyard!! From where we were, we could see probably 6 or 7 different shows - very cool!

I managed to take a few pictures of Harper to commemorate her first 4th. It was her 3-month birthday too! Here they are!

Harper in her bonnett Mimi bought for her. I felt she looked like a boy in her blue t-shirt so she needed to wear it all day so people would know she was a girl. She was TOO CUTE! This is also the first semi-smile I've captured in a picture.

During her morning nap, she wriggled around and found that face-down was most comfortable apparently. I was too scared to leave her like that, and we had to go anyway, so I woke her up and when I looked at her she had a red nose. Cracked me up.

Her shirt says "Little Firecracker" and was given to her by our neighbors the Kutzs. I find this picture rather ironic, as the firecracker had fizzled out.

And here's her stroller! There is a red feather boa around the front handle which Harper liked to tickle her feet on. I hung 3 big stars (red, silver and blue) around it and had a string of star garland I draped around the pushing handle.