Happy 4th of July!

We are thankful for so much this 4th of July. I remember last year's 4th as we were disappointed to have to celebrate 4th of July without Ella. This year we were so excited to celebrate the 4th as a complete family! This is Ella's first 4th as an American citizen!!!

We had a great day, filled with love, thankfulness, and fun! Here's how we spent our 4th of July 09:

We started off our day taking a little trip to St. Louis to welcome the Outman Family home from Ethiopia with their twin boys! It was great to see Phelix and Phisher for the first time! They are absolutely precious!

While the girls went to St. Louis, the boys stayed home and went to the fireworks store (the highlight of the summer!) to purchase some more fireworks.

After we met the Outmans, we stopped at the mall for some quick shopping and lunch, and then we headed home!

Then we were off to a family friend's house to swim, play, eat dinner, enjoy homemade ice cream, and shoot off fireworks! There were 3 families and 13 kids (ages 1-16). All the kids played together great and had a ball shooting off and watching the fireworks!

We had a great day, FULL of fun! Happy 4th everyone!