Sarah's Saga

So, I absolutely love the 4th of July! I love the fireworks, I love red, white & blue, I love the American Flags everywhere, I love the beautiful summer day it falls on, I love the grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, I love the lake, and I love all the wonderful memories of all the great past 4th of July's! Normally my big extended family gathers together in Arkansas for a huge family reunion and we stay at a beautiful lodge on the lake and enjoy tons of swimming, boating, fireworks, and cook outs... but this year we have a newborn and didn't get to go :( . So, in a way we were sad and missed the fellowship of sweet family, but at the same time we are so excited and blessed to share Nate's 1st Fourth of July with him!

We started off the 4th of July evening activities by heading out to the Big League Dreams baseball fields for the Rockin' 4th of July Festivities. They had live music, family fun, bounce houses, a carnival, a tribute to our active military and veterans, restaurants with A/C (very important when you have a newborn!)and of course FIREWORKS!!! We were armed with all our gear - tons of baby stuff, stroller, our fold up chairs (and in holiday spirit they had the American flag design on them), camcorder, cameras and so on. We got to eat the all American grilled hot dog and nachos inside the cold restaurant while we waited for the sun to set some and the hot July air to cool off. Thankfully once we did go outside there was a lovely breeze which felt super once the sun went down. When the sun did go down we picked out the perfect spot in the middle of all the baseball fields on the pretty green grass. It was such a beautiful night and the weather was perfect, even the grass smelt good! We had the perfect spot to watch the fireworks! When they began to go off Nate was all snuggled up and close to me fast asleep, he had been wide eyed right before just cooing and looking all sweet and adorable in his red, white & blue 4th outfit that Nonny gave him! Nate even sported an USA-All American Boy hat to match! But he was so comfy he fell asleep by the time the real fun started. We were worried the pops and bangs of the fireworks would scare him, but he didn't budge and slept through it all! We were so close we had the ashes of the fireworks blow and land on us. One burning ember came twisting, turning and blowing in the wind right towards us, I told Chad to look out and he moved to the side, the ember went right over his shoulder and on the toddler on the blanket behind us, his mommy had to use her hand to smash it out and get it off the poor little thing. I’ve never been so close to fireworks before that the ashes and embers fall on us. We had Nate Nate covered up in a blanky so he didn’t get any on him, he didn’t mind as he was in deep sleep. Anyway, all that rambling on just to say the fireworks were amazing, I just think they are FABULOUS! And either I still have a bunch of hormone changes going on after giving birth or I’m just a sucker for fireworks, but I cried, well more so teared up during the finale since the fireworks were so amazing and represent so many different things! It didn’t help my crying that they were playing The Star Spangled Banner during the finale – I always tear up during that - so couple it with an amazing firework finale and I’m all teary-eyed. They definitely went out with a BIG BANG!

Going out tonight we sure got a lot of people pointing fingers at us along with “Awww look”, and tons of “baby” in a high pitched voices, and “how cute”, and “oh he’s so small”, and “how old is he”. I didn’t realize having a newborn was such an invitation to have so many strangers talk to you, stare at you, and point at you… I’m not used to so much attention, but I guess that’s what you get with such a PRECIOUS and cute baby! Also, I was thinking he was growing and getting so big and here are all these others saying how tiny he looks. Speaking of his size we went to his 1 month check – up this week and he has grown to 10lbs 8ozs and 21.5 inches! Wow he’s such a big boy, the Pediatrician was so pleased with his growth and said he’s right where he should be and doing great!

Okay now on to the reason you came to my blog - pictures… below are Nate’s 1st fourth of July photos and some others I added.

Also, if you want to check out Nathan’s 1 month portraits from JC Penny’s (they are super ADORABLE!!) click here www.smilesbywire.com and you will have to enter my first and last name -make sure to put a space after my first name and to use my married last name-then this access code LTPP0686104069JCP (it may be easiest to copy and paste the access code) the pictures are up and running and are available there now.

Here's Daddy & Nate in the cold A/C'd resturant for the 4th:


Here's Nate in his "Baby's 1st Fourth" outfit, thanks Nonny!


Mommy & Nate waiting to see the fireworks:


Still waiting, this is when Nate was still awake:


Still awake here, and waiting some more:


Daddy tried to get a photo of all the people... but this is only like an eighth of them all, there were thousands of people!


Okay, Nate's getting sleepy waiting:


YAY here they are!!!!! WHOOOHOOOO:


And more (I took way too many photos to put them all on here of the fireworks... hahaha)



And now for some photos of the past week:

Here's Nate sleeping in his swing... he normally throws an arm or 2 up, it looks like he's ready for a roller coaster ride, it's so funny to see him with his arms up, it's hard to see here, but the swing is more like a seat so he's elevated - so his arm is up in the air not just by his head as if he were laying down and sleeping, although he sleeps that way too when he's laying down on his back...