I love 3-day weekends. Not that it’s too different now that I’m home all week, but it’s nice that Mark is home an extra day and we get to spend more time together. We had a busy weekend, with lots of pictures.

Kind of last minute, Mark and I decided to have a little BBQ on the 4th since we didn’t have plans and wanted to celebrate in some way. My friend Leslie also came for a visit. I picked her up in the afternoon of the 4th and around 5 our friends came over.

Brit looked super cute in his patriotic outfit. I just love this little guy!

I enjoyed actually using the dishes we got for our wedding and entertaining. I don’t do it very often. I think the last time we used some of those things was at our house warming party two years ago.

We had quite the spread, and some very full guests. Good thing we had Jared there to help eat through it all.

Perhaps our hamburgers and buns were a little too thick.

Hudson is catching up to Brit. We think he’s a little taller now. They didn’t scare each other too much, but Brit did cry when the dads paired them up for a “Baby Death Match” It consisted mostly of staring at each other. Luckily the moms intervened and made them friends again. I think this may be Brit’s first actual smile for the camera specifically….if not, we’ll pretend that’s what he’s doing.

Brit liked my friend Leslie too. She’s a nanny, so she was really good with him. It was great having her here for the weekend. I haven’t seen her since Thanksgiving. We had a lot of fun catching up and touring LA.

We–well, some of the people at our party–played Guitar Hero–Aerosmith, and the Wii Fit. That was quite the hit. It’s fun to play the little games and do the exercises. And, we needed it after the big meal.

While other people were around we decided to get a family picture too since we don’t do that very often. yes, Brit looks mad, but since he’s so cute in all his other pictures I chose the one where Mark and I look the best.

Later, we did see the tail end of a local fireworks show by walking down our street a little bit. Brit wasn’t fazed at all. He just gazed up at them with a curious look on his face. Thank heavens he isn’t afraid of them!

We’re thankful that we were able to celebrate with our friends and to be able to celebrate the 4th at all. Despite all of the problems going on in our country, we’re thankful to live here and have all of the blessings that we do.

I just had to post these too. I know it’s not very nice to get out the camera when your child is crying, but he has the cutest/saddest pouty face. We keep trying to capture it, but have thus far been unsuccessful. In this one he has the same expression as when he was born.

My what big eyes you have….