Happy 4th of July!

Jorja's first 4th of July was pretty uneventful... for her at least. Unfortunately she slept through most of the really exciting parts! We went to my parents house for the 4th of July where we also met my brother and sister and their families. I always love getting together with my whole family but it is always pretty crazy. Jorja is the 9th grandchild so you can imagine that life is never dull when we are all together! :) My parents live out on a lake so this year my sister brought their boat and we went tubing and riding around the whole weekend. It was a BLAST! However, Jorja was not thrilled with the boat AT ALL! Not sure if it was the huge life jacket or the blazing heat but it took her a while to warm up to the boat - and I use the term "warm up to" very loosely. After a few minutes of riding around and her screaming, we decided maybe next year would be better for her to try out the boat! There was also a parade the morning of the 4th that unfortunately took place right in the middle of Jorja's nap time but, we were able to at least pretend she rode the float to get a picture with her and the kiddos. And, as you can already guess, Jorja was sleeping through the fireworks as well. But, her outfit was cute and patriotic so that's something! :) I have no doubt that her 2nd 4th of July will bring about a much more noteworthy blog!

Our family in front of the float!

Her shirt says "Daddy's All American Sweetie" :)

Most of the kids on the float... we are missing a few.

Getting ready to go on the boat for the first time. See how happy she was then...

Jorja looks okay here but I had just unzipped her life jacket...

Yeah, not too happy...

Eating a little watermelon to cool her off and as you can see we broke the rules and removed the life jacket... but, it made for a much happier Jorja! :) She got off the boat about 3 minutes after this picture.

Daddy's Birthday means a fun visit from Pop!

Shane's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and we decided to make a weekend of it! On Friday night Shane & I had a fun date night and went to one of our favorite restaurants - Jasper's!! It is AMAZING! On Saturday Shane's dad came up from Abilene to spend the day with us. It has been a few months since he had seen Jorja and I think he was shocked at how big she had gotten. He ate up every minute with her. It was so awesome to watch how much he loves her! And of course, we loved spending some good quality time with him as well. I think Jorja had a great time with her Pop - he played "airplane" with her, read a book to her, and even let her shove a pen up his nose - it was a good time had by all! :) It meant a lot that he came to visit and we all wish we lived closer! Shane's mom also made him an amazing fondue dinner to celebrate the big day but unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of it. Sorry! We also got to see some old (and new) friends on Shane's birthday. Shane's old roommate Neil and his wife Leah just happened to be driving through town on Shane's b-day so we got to hang out with them and their son Jack for the night. We loved Jack - he is SUCH a cutie! I'm not sure how Jorja really felt about Jack though. All I do know is that when he went in to kiss her, she smooth put her hand up right in his face! That's my girl!! :) It was great to see the Mullins family and for Jorja to meet her new boyfriend! She's gonna be a heart breaker like her momma! HA!

Family pic before going out on our date

BEST dessert!

Sweet Daddy's Girl!

She's trying to show you her shirt she wore special for Dad's B-day - it says "My Daddy's the Big Kahuna"

Her first "ride" at La Hacienda

Two men Jorja has wrapped around her little finger!!

Pop and Jorja

playing "airplane"

reading a book

Jack was trying to give Jorja a hug and she lost her balance and they both fell / Jack and Jorja playing at the house

Out at dinner. Jack was so sweet trying to hold Jorja's hand but she would not have any of that!

Aww - they have the same sippy cup... they must be "meant to be" :)

Play date Mishap... turned fun!

So, not too long ago I decided to bite the bullet and join a "Mommy and Me" Play group. I figured it was about time for Jorja to have someone other than me to play with and I needed a little bit more adult interaction as well. This group has several things going on throughout the week so you can just pick and choose what you want to attend. A lot of the events take place during Jorja's nap so when I finally found one that took place during lunch I jumped at the opportunity to attend. It was a "Silly Sunglasses Picnic in the Park" which sounded right up my alley! Well, I show up to the play group with my silly sunglasses and all to find NO ONE at the park... After driving around for about 30 minutes Jorja and I just decided to make the most of the play date gone bad. We pulled out the blanket, our chick-fil-a, and of course - our silly sunglasses and we had a ball with just the two of us!! Jorja LOVES being outside so she just played up a storm on the blanket and then we went for a walk around the park to see the ducks and enjoy the scenery... I really had such a great time with her and realized we definitely need to have more picnics together. I kind of went picture crazy (of course holding the camera out as best I could to capture our pictures) so, here are a few of my favorites from the day (you can click on them if you want to see a bigger view). I haven't given up on the "Mommy and Me" group - I have another play date scheduled soon... this time maybe I won't wear my obnoxious pink sunglasses so people will actually want to hang out with me... :)

Jorja trying to figure out how to get her chicken out of the box. And her in her silly sunglasses which she had on for about 2.2 seconds...

Here we are in all our silliness!!! :)

I finally found a nice lady at the park with her 2 kids who took our pictures while we were looking at the ducks! What a great day with Jorja!