4th of July, Hallie's Shower, Grandmother's Quilt, Jacob's Contraband, Costa Rica, & an Angry Dog

We hung out with some friends on the actual 4th of July--friends who are moving to Hoover, Alabama I might add.  Alabama has claimed too many people I love. Stupid state...  Anyway. We had a great time :)

The little boy is Calvin, and he and Jacob were in karate together, which is how we all met.

I will miss Tammy so much!!  She is just an awesome, down to earth person.  She has a great sense of humor, and is a no-drama having lady.  I have found out recently how much I appreciate that in a friend.  I am sad. 

So both families bought some fireworks.  When Jon and I went to buy ours, they had these things called "sky web."  They were for the day because they didn't light up-they shot out "spider webs."  Jon did not want to get them.  I did.  Because-what?! Shoot out spider webs!?!?  Awesomeness.  I finally talked him into it.  Well, they didn't shoot out spider webs, but they did shoot out these streamer things.  They were awesome and a total hit.  I totally recommend them, especially bc you can do them while the kids are anxiously awaiting darkness.

The night before we walked to our town's firework show, and Jon bought Jacob a light up sword thing.  Which he used to gripe about having to do when Jacob was little and actually begged for these.  It was odd.  But whatever.

I decided, literally, 4 days in advance to give Hallie a shower for our side of the family.  It was crazy, but it turned out great :)

Jon grew!

Decorations

Of course most of the things on the registry were more for the bride, but Josh did manage to sneak some knives in on there, so he was excited to get 3 of them (my nephew is in culinary school and was able to buy some for much cheaper from a wholesale place).

And in the grand tradition of my family, I totally turned the party into a two-fer.  Jon's mom's mom and made a bunch of quilt tops for her family members (kids, grandkids), but they still needed the batting and backing to be quilted on.  Jon's mom had gotten all of her kids' done years ago, but never had her own done.  She randomly shared this story with me about a year ago.  It took me a year to hunt down someone whom I could trust, and who wouldn't charge me a million dollars to finish it.  But I did finally, and one day about a month before Mother's Day, I sneaked the topper out of my MIL's house and sent it to the lady.  Well, she wasn't able to get it done by Mother's day.  In fact, she was a month late.  But then I found out that Jon's sister was coming in town this week, so we decided to go ahead and give it to her, even though it didn't fall on her bday, was too late for Mother's day, etc.  It was awesome.  I was really excited.

You know how you have special memories from your Grandparents' house from when you were little? I can't even imagine what those will be for Jacob from my parents' house-too numerous to count.  But I do know what it will be from Jon's mom's house-food. Whenever we go over there, she always packs some kind of snack for "the ride home."  Like we have hours to drive.  The day of Hallie's shower, we went over to get the house ready, but then had to drive home before the party.  His grandmother wasn't home while we were there, but he apparently managed without her.  As I sat down in the car, Jacob says, "can you grab this?"  I look over and it is this bag of Cheetos.  The whole bag.  I didn't even see him take them. Nut.

So, the video obsession continues.  But, as sort of a cool perk, he does get to meet some pretty interesting people.  For example, here he is video chatting with a kid from Costa Rica.  Jacob is on the right.  I didn't even know it was going on when I walked into the room with my margarita and heard someone say, "Hello" in a strange accent.  There I was on tv also.  Thank God I wasn't wearing pajamas.

Maggie is our rescue dog who is afraid of everyone except for me and Jon.  And really, she is mostly partial to me.  She especially is not a big fan of Abigail, I guess since she doesn't see her much.  Well, the other day I had to put the monthly flea medicine on Maggie, and she got so mad at me.  I do it every month, so I don't know why this month was different, but man, she was ticked off.  That night, Abby came over, and we always go into the play room and catch up on our girl shows.  All of a sudden Maggie jumps up on Abby's lap and just stares at me, like, "see, this is what you get."  It was pretty funny.