Sometimes you just need a good laugh...

I had a good laugh tonight. Don't you just love it when you can just laugh and laugh with a friend? It's so therapeutic, even if it has to be on the phone because you can't just drive down the street anymore...

Then I sat here and thought about why my blog is still kind of behind. The next pictures in line for bloggage were of the night we had our friends the Palmers over before they moved, and I was putting off this post for two reasons... 1) I'm still pretending they're on vacation 2) I don't know what to write...

A couple nights before they left, we were setting Nat's iPhone up with all the important functions, like reading friends' blogs, so she would be fully prepared for her upcoming "trip". I also showed her the finer art of the iPhone self-portrait... or whatever it's called when one of the retarded people is turning the camera around trying to get a picture of both people but can't stop laughing long enough for it not to be blurry, not to mention get both people somewhat in the frame.

I just love cracking Nat up... we have lots of good laughs and luckily that doesn't have to change too much. I love this funny shot... check out that creative angle... bet you didn't know that Farmer John was a closet photog!

So we had them over for dinner. We ate, and talked, laughed, and ate some more...

Meanwhile, the kids broke in the new swingset... They were playing something with a boat and they were escaping some kind of disaster or big fish (can't remember). Brielle was the mom...

And Brooklyn was the captain, driving the ship...

Braden apparently walked the plank and was trying to get back on... totally oblivious to the game, really...

Chris is usually off in his own world, but he really loved the attention from Brooklyn that night. I don't know if you can tell, and I don't know HOW, but she is carrying my solid little three year old.

And these two are so funny, Blaire always acts all shy at first and then by the end when it's time to go, they are having a complete blast and don't want to leave each other...

We miss the B's...

And their mom and dad. But I won't post that picture, because Nat would kill me.

Good times!

Backyard fun!

When we were looking for our house, we had some criteria for what we wanted, how many bedrooms, etc... but above those on our "list" were the backyard criteria. We already had a house that we liked, but we wanted a BIG yard with a pool. This is not an easy thing to find. It's not incredibly hard in this area to find a pool- but most of the pools we saw were right outside the backdoor (boo) and left very little yard to play in beyond that.

So when we found this house, we were sold. We've had big plans for the yard, and it is coming together a little this year. We are having lots of fun!

Jon especially loves to be outside. He cries if you go out without him or when he has to come back inside. To bad I can't just let him roam free out there, he would be in heaven!

Chris is funny, he loves to play outside, but he gets tired of it and "too warm"... well it is in the 90's and wayyy humid lately, so I guess it's understandable.

In June, we finally decided on the perfect playset. We'd been shopping around, considering all the options and finally decided on one. Dave was ready to hire someone to put it together, but then he and his dad decided that it would be a fun project. But it took FOREVER. Each step was tedious and they didn't have a whole lot of time in the evenings to work on it, so it came along slowly... after a while Dave said we should look into hiring someone... that next week our new lawn guy was mowing for the second time and had obviously noticed the playset that wasn't getting very far since his last visit. He told me that they also put those together for people, so we went ahead and hired them, and they started that afternoon. The next day, it was done! The boys were so excited, they LOVE it!

Lots of swinging and playing...

We had to call and tell Daddy all about it...

The same week, we also FINALLY got our pool open for the summer... better late than never! There were some problems with the water, and the dang pool store people are USELESS sometimes. They had us do several different things for some stains on the fiberglass, and just screwed the water up. We finally hired someone to come out and fix it, and after a couple of weeks it was ready. We are loving it. Our new routine on most nights is to swim from dinner till bedtime.

When we aren't in the big pool (that would be during the daytime- no way can I take them all swimming alone at these ages) they are loving the little pools. We got an inflatable spraying crazy pool for the boys (which I would not recommend, it is not designed well!) and this little wading pool that Jon could play in for hours! Such fun and it keeps us from roasting in this muggy heat.

Yeah, it's a party in our backyard, who wants to come and play?!?

Our Fourth of July

I'm catching up, slowly :) On the fourth, we went out to Point Mallard in the morning to the "Spirit of America" festival which was rather disappointing. Not that much going on. It was probably better in the evening. But the kids liked the bouncy stuff!

This bouncy castle with a slide was their favorite and the best one for their size. They went down that slide over and over and over.

Jon just wanted to walk all over the place...

In the evening, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for water fun, grilling, and fireworks. Jon loved the little pool. We got him his own the next week for his birthday.

Ethan didn't want anything to do with the water...

Nicole and Chris having fun in the bigger pool. By the time we got over there (after naps) the pools were nasty full of grass, but Chris didn't mind.

They also had a sprinkler set up to spray on the slide and a slip-n-slide at the bottom, so the kids would just fly down and across the slip-n-slide. So funny. Chris loved it, he did it over and over.

Jon found his new favorite toy at Grandma's. He loves push around toys. This little ride-on looked like it converted, so I checked it out and sure enough (he's not into the ride-ons quite yet) it popped up into this funny pusher. Carole thought it was so funny that she's had this toy for years and never knew it popped up like that...

It came in handy later that week when I wanted to go to a hair appointment and leave Jon. Thus far, Jon has not been good about being left with other people. He's only been left with one other person (one time) besides Daddy. We got to Grandma's and he started pushing this thing around the house and didn't even know I was gone for 2+ hours. Yay!

The kids get together and run wild. They have so much fun together. This is when they all came downstairs for the "big parade". Jeanne had the idea for one, since there are enough kids for it!

The little dancer posers ("take my picture!")

And the parade. Dress-up on, wagons loaded, wave to the people!

Then some fireworks even though it wasn't remotely dark yet... once it got dark we headed over to the Dexter's business parking lot for some more big ones. That was fun too. The kids all loved the fireworks. None of mine were scared of any of it. I think the only scaredy was Kenzie (a little?)

Jon just wanted to wander all over. He seems to like the grass okay, but loves the concrete for some reason. He always makes a beeline for it, and this day he scraped up his toe and it was bleeding, and he was so mad at me for not letting him go back onto the sidewalk.

Awww, brother love...

And then the rest of the babies... lots of babies around this family. Everyone has had one in the past year.

The newest, Peter

Jacob

and Ethan

What a fun day with the family! We are definitely grateful the freedoms we enjoy!