Happy 4th of July from Madison

So far Belle has been in Madison, AL for both of her 4th of July celebrations. Last year was pretty low key with a "Ms. Liberty Belle" photo session (I can't believe she's so small, wasn't even sitting up on her own yet, and that it's been a year already) and we went to see a local fireworks show after dark. This year, we did the photo session again, Belle swam in the pool that Grammy bought for her, then we had a day full of baby shower preparations and the actual baby shower itself for Belle's cousin Kelson (Kelly & Jason's baby-to-be). The baby shower was HUGE and also a great success.

For this year's "Ms. Liberty Belle" photo session, Belle wore a super-cute bikini that I bought for her after season last year and she held the same flag as she held in last year's pics. I see that Halle had a similar cute 4th of July picture session. Like Nikki said, it is too bad that we weren't able to get the girls together for pictures in their "Lil Sparkler" and "Lil Firecracker" shirts!

Belle's been having lots of fun in her big pool. Papa even brought out the beach toys that we had when we were kids for Belle to play with in the pool. She's been splashing all over and played in the pool with Grammy and Mommy. She's spent lots of time in the backyard with Daddy watching him practice his golf swing, playing with the ball, and just running around the yard. Grammy and Belle have been playing with bubbles that Grammy bought her to. Papa and Belle have also helped Grammy with her gardening by picking up the dead leaves and flowers on her deck. Belle's had lots of outside time here in Alabama!

Because we've been so busy with the baby shower preparations, we haven't had much time to visit with friends, but we have managed to hang out with Jill & Jackson who came down from Nashville to visit, to meet up with my college roomie Susan and her 3 girls for lunch at Chik-fil-A (of course... Susan ate there ALL of the time in college), and we went to a church last Sunday where my old (not old in age, of course ;)) Youth Minister is now the head pastor. Our whole family went, and it was great to see their family again too. I was surprised at how well Belle did during the sermon! We were a bit late (no surprise), but Belle still did pretty good sitting through the whole sermon and only yelled out twice. :)

We've got a few more days here with our family in Madison, then we'll be heading back home to Melbourne. It's been great to visit with my preggie sister and with Grammy & Papa, and especially to see Papa back up and around again. He's doing very well, except for a nagging cough that he seems to have picked up recently. I'm sure it will be gone soon and he'll be back to being the same ole Papa again!

Belle has been chattering a lot and is saying more and more things. She's still won't say "Grammy" which seems to be driving my mom crazy! She will do her sign for "Grammy" like crazy, but when she wants to get her attention she yells her "Dee Doo" thing that she says all of the time until it gets Grammy's attention. The most hilarious part is that since she's been here she's started saying "Annabelle", "Kelly", and "Jason", but when we go around the table for her to say everyone's names, when she gets to Grammy she either does her regular Grammy head-nod (her sign for Grammy) or she'll do fish lips (because Grammy was doing that to show her fish kisses when she first got here)! It cracks everyone up, so of course she does it even more!!!

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July!