Happy Fourth of July!

This years Fourth of July was definitely much better than Bella's first- particularly weather wise- and we had a multi-day celebration for it!
Bella of course had to wear a special outfit to celebrate the occasion...
Complete with matching shoes...
And headband!
Our little girl is very patriotic. :)
Pella celebrated the Fourth the Saturday before. We didn't go to the parade or any of the activities that day since we knew Bella would be up late that night, and we wanted to let her have a normal schedule during the day. We went to Derek's aunt and uncle's house for supper that evening and hung out with his extended family before the fireworks started.
Bella loved running around outside and showing off her tricks for everybody- notice the rosy cheeks!
Bella wasn't too sure what to think about Uncle Case (still haven't completely lost her fear of men), but she was willing to look at her book with him- from a distance.
Here she decided she needed to look at it herself in Corbin's chair.
I was pretty worn out from chasing Bella all over. At our house, she usually sticks to our yard and doesn't stray too far from it. However, over there, she decided she needed to go up and down the driveway, the sidewalks, etc etc.
We decided to keep Bella up to watch the fireworks. They were SUPPOSED to start at 9:30, but for some reason didn't until 10- a second after we decided to just go. So we stuck around, and it's good that we did- Bella liked watching all the pretty lights in the sky and actually sat still on my lap. We were far enough away that the booms weren't loud, so she wasn't scared at all. It was definitely a late night though- we didn't get home until 10:30 and Bella wasn't asleep until 11! Thankfully, she slept until 10:30 on the actual 4th, so she wasn't too affected by the late night.
That day, we had some friends over to our house in the afternoon and evening. Bella got to meet another new baby! My friend Lori had a baby in May, and Bella was intrigued by him. She wanted to keep touching him and probably would've pulled him into her lap like one of her babies if we would have let her.
Then on Monday, we headed to Sully for the annual celebration there! Thankfully the rain held off on Monday for the parade, so Bella was able to watch it. Bella is making faces at Tatum for some reason here...
"Hi Mama! Can I have the camera?"


So Bella enjoyed most of the parade... except when they fired off cannons after raising the flag not once but four times. She was scared half to death. And she also was not a fan of the fire trucks blaring their horn. I can't say I blame her for either one, they made me jump too

Bella with big cousin Dylann. Dylann is our babysitter for Bella whenever she's around. She is such a good little helper, and Bella loves her!
Aww. :)
Bella on the way home at the end of the day. We were at my parents house until from 9 until about 3:30, and Bella went without a nap that entire time. I tried putting her in the crib in the afternoon, but she was scared of not being in her bed. I even had her rocked to sleep, but she woke up the second I laid her down. However, she didn't get grumpy or crabby- just took a long nap when we got back home!