Getting ready for the 4th!

I'm finally starting to feel better today after almost a week of being knocked down with the flu or whatever this thing is!  I've had so much I want to blog about but my time over the past few days has been spent either trying to get better or cleaning up around here to get caught up from all that hasn't been done since I hadn't been feeling well.

Like I was saying the other day, I am SO excited about the 4th of July! 

I think this is my most favorite holiday ever!  I love getting to spend time with family and going to the beach.  We are so blessed to live so close to the beach and seriously, I don't think I could live anywhere else!

I've been digging through my holiday cabinet in the garage and looking for our patriotic stuff, which I can't wait to use...

I'm also super excited about the new korker for Livvie that Sarah made!  Isn't it so cute?

I know she's going to look so cute in it and I'm so excited that she'll get to be all patriotic just like her sisters were in their bows from last year...

(Doesn't Audrey look so little here?  She's growing so much!)

I've also been getting all excited thinking about what kind of fun treats I can whip up for the 4th and after I last posted about cookies and cupcakes, my friend Sarah sent me the link to this awesome blog called Tidy Mom.  I was checking out her blog today and spent pretty much all of naptime checking out some other neat blogs she links to having to do with cookie making and found one of the neatest blogs ever!  It's called Bake at 350 and I LOVE it!

If any of you are interested in learning more about cookie decorating, this is your blog!  Bridget, the gal who writes this blog also has another blog where she does tutorials on how to frost cookies the professional way, how to make royal icing, etc and it is just one of the coolest blogs ever!

I'm hoping to use what I've learned today to make some fun treats to share with the family.  I'm hoping that this kinda fun stuff will be a fun tradition I can continue doing with our girls as they get older!  And speaking of traditions, I was just wondering...is there anyone who's willing to share what kinds of fun traditions they have with their familes for the 4th of July?  I'd love to hear them.  We didn't have many traditions growing up and I'm hoping to start something new with our girls!