Trying to get rest with four kids is hard. Sometimes life seems like a circus, but the Lord gives us what we need to press on.
Precious Julia Grace resting peacefully tonight in her bassinet.
Joan Blackwelder, a wonderful friend from church, held Julia the day she was born.
Andrea McCurry, good friend and Pastor's wife visited at age 1 day.
Grandpa Sterling, who visited on Julia's birth day, came to say goodbye at age 2 days...
...with Grandma Sterling, first here on Julia's birth day, and again at age 2 days.
Roz Batchelor, our kind and generous neighbor, came by at age 2 days also.
Lorrie Farmer, Julia's Great Aunt, also at age 2 days.
Becky Couch, the leader at Sylvia's Ladies Bible study, came by with food at age 5 days...
...with Rebecca Molyneux, also from the Bible Study group, at age 5 days.
Deborah Smith, dear friend and fellow homeschool mom, came by with her girls at age 6 days.
Aunt Val, who graciously flew in Saturday night to help when Jon returned to work, held Julia the night she flew in from Texas, at age 6 days.
Syndi and Junior get their first peek at their new sister.
Syndi calls Grandma to tell her Julia is here.
Syndi gets a turn holding Julia.
Junior gets a turn holding his little sister.
Our midwife finally arrived on the scene at 10 AM.
Julia Grace after being weighed and just before being dressed.
Proud Papa with Baby Jules.
Syndi, an obviously elated Jon and a yawning Julia.
Aunt Lorrie was walking by the bedroom at 11:15 AM and noticed us all gathered in our bedroom. Then she caught a glimpse of the baby. What a surprise! She hadn't heard a thing and didn't know Julia had arrived. So she came in to meet our new little girl.
Syndi enjoyed laying next to the sleeping Julia. Junior, on the other hand, was off and playing with toys. Stephen had spent the night at Grandma & Grandpa's Georgia condo, so he wasn't present.
Grandpa and Grandma arrived with Stephen around noon. Stephen, who in the last few weeks surprisingly seems to have grasped that a baby was coming, was enthralled. Just last week, the morning after we had put a bassinet in our room (which he had not seen since he was last in it when he was a few weeks old), Stephen came into our room with Junior. Junior looked puzzled when he saw the bassinet, but Stephen pointed to it and said "that's for baby." (And he repeated it a few times to get his point across to Junior!)
Grandpa and Grandma enjoyed holding baby Julia.
All six of us.
Julia had found her thumb and was making extremely loud sucking noises only hours after birth. There's a sucker born every minute!
Precious Julia, snuggled in her new purple baby blanket, knit by our friend Anke (matching the blue and green ones she made for Junior and Stephen). 
Here Syndi spreads out on our famed NY Giants blanket. (I'm still a fan!) This was our third annual trip to the levee for the Rome Fireworks Show. Our first year here, Sylvia and Syndi went to see it, and watched from the parking lot of the Methodist church near the levee. Two years ago we actually all went to the levee and watched with Aunt Chris and Uncle Brent. Last year we went with our neighbors Gary and Roz. This year, Gary, Roz, Aunt Lorrie and Grandma joined us on the levee.
We sat on the sidewalk at the top of the levee on the west side of the river. 
This is a shot looking down the levee. You can see the people beginning to fill in the spaces. In the distance just right of center you can see the famed Clock Tower rising above the tree line.
We camped out where the sidewalk split. One path went under the bridge and one went up to the bridge.
The show began around 9:30 PM with a series of brilliant fireworks. I slowed the shutter speed on my Sony H1 digital camera and took some great shots of the fireworks (on my tripod). Here you see some red, some white...
...and some blue. God Bless America! I adjusted the shutter speed throughout the night, seeing what worked best. I generally kept it in the 1 to 3 second range, but tried faster and slower than that for experimental purposes.
I thought the firework spiraling upward through the red blast was pretty cool.
The Rome fireworks had a nice variety of color, shapes and size.
This one kinda looked like it was raining down on Ridge Ferry Park, where the fireworks were sent up from.
The Crown!
This shot looked like a traditional American firework.
Sometimes we had one firework after another, with one soaring across the previous.
The Cross.
Two Stars.
The Flower.
This looks just like a weed in my garden last year which blossomed into one of the most beautiful, delicate flowers I've ever seen.
The Three Wise Men.
I had a longer shutter speed for this one. Notice the three separate tails at the bottom merging into one.
Hooray for the Red, White and Blue!
Cool!
Syndi was laying on the Giants blanket with her glow stick necklace (another annual 4th of July tradition). She was highlighted by the glow of the fireworks.
I turned the camera around and caught the glow on Junior and Sylvia (and the crowd) also. Junior had a yellow glow stick necklace and bracelet. You can see the Clock Tower in the distance at center, and the church at the right (above Sylvia). The scene was framed by Aunt Lorrie's crutch.
A beautiful blossoming firework over the bridge. The finale followed shortly and the show was over within 5 minutes. It was another great show. Hats off to the folks in Rome who do this show each year. I am incredibly impressed with the quality show this small town puts on.
