God bless America…

there is so much to love about our home country. and well, with the crazy fireworks right outside our window i was reminded of how our country came to be. more specifically, i was reminded of the first verse from the star spangled banner:

“Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro’ the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

what a beautiful description of what was required to establish a free country.

another thing i absolutely love about America is the fact that it is one of the few countries in the world that allows people to become naturalized citizens. it’s true. no matter how long i live in Asia or how much i become like the people, i can never be one of them. but America… it’s a country built on immigrants… and continues to welcome them. and because of this, i love that America has adopted sterling… and though liberty was also born overseas, she is also 100% American.

so in honor of our home country and so much of what we love about it i dressed the sprouts in their “America” tees and captured a few celebratory photos.

okay, so the photo shoot didn’t exactly go smoothly, but it was successful. kinda. here’s some of our bloopers… and why they failed to make “the cut.” lucky for you i’m not including all 26 of them!

though looking patriotic, liberty was also feeling a bit squished…

soon after i rearranged her seating to be more conducive to not being squished, the whining ensued…

apparently my efforts weren’t good enough so sterling took on the role of comforting liberty…

eventually we were both working double duty to make liberty comfy and happy…

which quite honestly can take the fun right out of an impromptu photo shoot.

in spite of liberty’s unwillingness to cooperate with a desperate mommy and a loving big brother, every day we are proud to be American!

i want to take a moment to say “thank you” to our troops. thank you for serving and protecting us. thank you for risking it all. we appreciate you.