Celebrating Freedom!

My Nathan and I waiting for fireworks. We are so fortunate that fireworks take place right on our lake and we sit right out front of the cottage.

My munchkins, Nate, Jake, Bella and Sam

Miss 4th of July!

Bella and her cousins closest in age, Donnie and Joey

Jake and Bella swimming in the lake. She loves it!

Just Engaged, my brother Joe and Erin! Welcome to the family Erin!

My sister Mary and I.

Big Bass! Both Jake and Sam caught huge Bass this past weekend.

This is what happens when its pouring down rain, you have no rain gear or umbrella and have to run next door to our other cottage. My sister decided to put on the wet suit to stay dry. Oh how we all laughed.

Bella hates the grass but loves the sand!

This is Bella's favortie thing to do at the cottage. She loves floating in her lady bug tube with all of her cousins. Peekaboo in the water is a high light.

The kids all grabbed the lawn chairs and decided to play a water game.

Oh to be the Princess.

Bella Boo!

This was another game made up by my boys and their cousins. They would see how many tubes they could stack on top of one of them and then they would have to walk out to the water and see how far they could get before the tubes started to fall.

Sweet baby girl and sat up in her crib but could not figure out how to lay back down. She fell a sleep sitting up and then falling over on her bear. Sweet Baby.

My handsome Sam.

Chilly First Boat Ride

Jake and his cousin Johnny

Bella and her Daddy

Bella is all about the hammock

My niece Grace

My nephew Johnny

Sam and yet another Bass!

Jake and Bella

Phew! Lots of pictures to post. We spent the past 10 days at the family cottage with all 5 of my siblings, their spouses and kids. As always, a great time was had by all. Over all, we had great weather, a couple cold rainy days, but we made the best of it. Last year at this time we were waiting for news of our referral, this year, our daughter celebrated the 4th of July at a US Citizen. Sunday July 6th, my husband Dave and I celebrated 17 years of marriage. He's still the love of my life and I would marry him all over again.

Bella is now waving bye bye and hi, doing "so big", clapping, bringing out her cheesy smile every time the camera comes out and crawling on all 4's. She has 3 teeth, two on the bottom on one "fang" on top. She is working hard to pull her self up to a standing position. She is also sporting the worlds best tan. In addition, when her hair hits the sun directly, it frizzes out, its so funny. The minute she hits the shade, it turns back to its silky smooth self. She has had so many firsts in the last 10 days, I love seeing her achieve these milestones, but at the same time, sad that she is growing so quickly. She is such a fun baby and we are enjoying her so very much.

Thanks for checking in, hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.