Five on Friday

1.  We have been on the road!  Last Thursday we drove to South Carolina to spend time, including Matt's birthday, with his parents and sister's family.  It was fun to see Asa and Anna Reaghan with their cousin Izzy and to celebrate Matt's birthday.  We also got to see Matt's best man, and Matt's mom took us to a great children's nature museum!

2.  This week we headed on to Tennessee to celebrate Independence Day and see California family who were visiting before they headed back home.  Our kids have been playing with MORE cousins--cousins galore!  And we celebrated Anna Reaghan's birthday on July 4th--it was her due date, after all, and we just could not pass up the chance to party with both of Anna Reaghan's great grandmothers in town!  She had a ladybug themed birthday party, and I'll add a dedicated post full of pictures soon! :)

3.  This morning we met a local photographer for some family pictures.  It was an unexpected addition to our TN itinerary.  I won a giveaway for a free session!  How fun is that?!  I have been wondering how I was going to get some good 3 year old portraits of Asa.  He's pretty compliant with requests to smile lately, but I wasn't sure about the confines of a little studio at JCPenney like we did last year.  This was great!  We were outside at a park, and he had room to roam and move from spot to spot to keep him engaged.  Anna Reaghan was all smiles for her solo shots, and the photographer took lots of different combos in many different spots.  We can't wait to see the pictures!

4.  Last night my parents' house lost power in a storm that quickly blew through.  Thankfully it came back on just as I was singing Anna Reaghan her lullabies!  We had a cozy dinner in the dark, played a little bit, and then prepared the kids for bed.  Asa spontaneously said, "Thanks for the 'lectricity, God!" when the lights came back on. :)  Yea for lights and air conditioning... and sound machines and baby monitors.  Boy are we spoiled these days!

5.  Our van heads back on up to Ohio tomorrow.  We are so thankful for our "family tour" and getting to spend time with everyone and make sweet, sweet memories. :)