Summer Post 2: 4th of July

One of my favorite Tate Family Traditions is July 4th. Not only is it a holiday, but it is also my sister Keari's birthday. The tradition is to meet at my parent's house at lunch time. We usually have burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, beans, watermelon, deviled eggs, veggies and chips. For dessert we have homemade ice cream and my Mom's flag pound cake. It is all so yummy! Then, we hang around as a family for the rest of the day. The cousins play together and some take naps. Keari opens presents and some times we play games. Then, my Dad always gets some chicken, usually Chicken Express for dinner. After that, we head to the lake to let the kids play and watch fireworks. It is a great day! We always make sure that we take family pictures, too. We also make sure that we are all in our traditional red, white and blue.

Here is one of my new favorite pregnant pictures of Kamara and me. As everybody knows we had quite the journey to get to this point. It was such a difficult fall, but I always had the faith and knew that God would allow us to both be pregnant one last time. I never would have dreamed that both of us would be pregnant with a baby girl! I am so thankful that God has blessed us with this great gift.

Zack and Breanne

Sweet picture of Ryleigh eating her cake.

Laci and Kamara

Isabelle

Aubrey eating her cake and ice cream

Kate eating her cake and ice cream

Keari getting ready to blow out her candles with her two kids: Ian and Ellee

Cox Family

The four girls together on the slide: Ryleigh, Carly, Aubrey and Kate

Our family

Aubrey loves this little pink bear. This captures just how much it means to her.

The kids love Papa! Aubrey, Kate and Carly. This picture shows that Carly was just not herself this day. We had been  home from Fredericksburg for a couple of days, but it looked like Carly was still dealing with something. She had wanted to go to sleep pretty soon after lunch, which is rare for her. Then she slept for almost three hours, again rare. When she got up she felt extremely hot. So we took her temperature and she had a 102 fever. We decided to take her home and let me come back to enjoy the fireworks with just Kate. I hated to not have my whole family with me on this special holiday, but it was in the best interest of everybody.

Hatton family

The Grapevine Lake has a great little area where kids can swim and play in the sand. Kate and Aubrey absolutely loved it! My Mom enjoyed wading in the water while Kate played, too.

Such a happy girl!

Another great picture of Kate and Aubrey

You can see in these two pictures just what fun they were having.

Me and Kate

Some of the cousins playing together at the playground on the campgrounds. Aubrey, Isabelle, Kate and Cale

Kate loves to flip herself over! She is quite the little gymnast!

Kate and Aubrey working on the monkey bars.

Kamara and Aubrey

Our annual picture with our three girls. Aubrey and Kamara, Me and Kate, Isabelle and Lori.

Getting ready for the fireworks with some yummy snacks.

Keari always makes sure to bring the light up necklaces for the kiddos and it is always a hit!

As always Grapevine had a beautiful firework display.

After the fireworks I took Kate to my parent's house for a bath before heading home. Kate was exhausted due to the busy day, no nap and it being close to midnight. I was able to just take her from her carseat to her bed, which I have never been able to do. It was a fun day even though Carly was sick. It is hard to believe that next year we will be watching the fireworks as a family of five, Wow!