4th of July and 1st smiles

On the fouth of July, Judson smiled responsively for the first time! He has smiled before, but not as a result of anyone trying to get him to smile. He was grinning and smiling at us and it was so much fun to see his cute little expressions. Caleb and Isabelle enjoyed trying to get him to smile at them, too. To celebrate the 4th, we grilled out in the afternoon, and then just relaxed for the rest of the day and did some sparklers and smoke bombs and small fireworks with the kids. We just walked down to the beach behind our house to watch the Destin fireworks, but just as the fireworks began, it started to rain on us. It was mainly just misty, but the wind was blowing it across the bay at us, so we started to head back to the house and watched the rest of them from our porch.

I can't believe that we have less than a month left here in Florida before we move! Although we are excited about getting to Jackson, it is definitely a bitter-sweet feeling to leave here. I am really going to miss our view and access to the water from our house, as well as our great friends and church family here. The summer is flying by so fast. I guess we have enough going on to keep us busy. The kids are going to Grandmamma and Granddaddy's house next week for Caleb to go to camp at Lynn Meadows Discvery Museum during the mornings, and Isabelle is going to hang out with the grandparents and cousins. Barrett and I are going to use that time to really try to get a lot done around the house to get ready to move. Time to clean out and de-clutter! I guess moving every three years for us has kept us from accumulating too much junk.

Judson is doing great and we are all adjusting to having a new family member in our household. It's almost hard to remember not having him here! He is sleeping well at night and beginning to stretch out his daytime feedings a little bit so it's making it easier for me.

Judson at 1 month old:

Some cute expressions:



Our "little firecracker"