Squibb Family Fun

Last weekend, we went to Salem since a lot of my cousins would be there {Jared had to stay home and work :(.}  My cousin, Phillip and his family were in town from Oregon and he (or his mom) planned a family and friends get together Friday night.  It was a fun time!  And I always love seeing all of our kids play together!
Uncle Mike has some cool riding "toys" and the kids love getting picked up for rides!

Phillip taking 7 kids (including 2, 2 year olds) on a Mule ride

Mike taking 9 kids on the side by side...to the park...by himself! 

Nora got her hair braided by Libby...if you look closely, you will see a tear.  She cried pretty much the whole time.  But it looks great ;).

Friday night was the get together at the Squibb's house.  It started with some bounce house fun!

Then some playing on the driveway...

Nora driving Katie in the Jeep

And then it started raining :(.  We ate dinner in the garage and then the kids decided the rain wouldn't stop their fun...

Just putting hands out, at first.

Then some stomping.

And now, a baseball game :).

Ethan, before he was too wet.

Wet kids!

Haley, getting some rain.

And, now Ethan is soaked and riding a bike, in the rain with boots on.

Just as the rain started, the horse trailer pulled up.  There were supposed to be horse and pony rides for the kids (and adults, if they wanted to).  But the rain didn't stop soon enough and they didn't want the saddles to get wet.  There were some disappointed kids, but they did get the pony out and into the shed for kids to sit on.

Nora liked the pony! (Ethan didn't want to get on)

I couldn't get them all to look and smile, but we have Haley, Ethan, Scout, Katie, Nora and Finley- watching the horse.

I tried to get a good picture of these 2.  They were pretty much inseparable the whole time we were there.  Ethan and Scout are 4 months apart and love to play together.  This is what I got when I asked them to stand next to each other for a picture...

It was such a fun time, even if we got wet and ended the night with some crabby, cold, wet kids.

Girls Weekend!

2 weeks ago (I'm a bit behind), I kissed my kids and hubby goodbye for a fun weekend with the girls!  Erin, Emily and I (Jessica couldn't go at the last minute due to a family emergency) headed to Lake Michigan.  We went to Michigan City, IN and rented a cute little house in the Beachwalk community for 2 nights.  I've been to Beachwalk twice before with family (2010, 2012) The weather wasn't the best beach weather, but we weren't going to let that stop us.  Also, if you are unaware, there is some pretty great outlet shopping to do about 3 minutes from where we stayed!  We definitely made the most of our kid free days (and nights) shopping, relaxing, talking, laughing and eating!
Before we made it to Michigan City, we did some shopping at Oak Brook mall and made time for some pedis!

Pedicure selfie 

We took a walk down to the beach the next day and it is still just a beautiful and nice as I remember it :).

Beautiful Lake Michigan

Myself with Erin and Emily (and a couple of babies)

Beach time!! Even if we did get rained on a little and had to use our towels as blankets.

A portion of the Beachwalk community

Summer Fun

This is basically a phone dump...I went through my pictures on my phone and realized there were several I haven't posted to the blog.  We've had a great summer, and it's sad that it's winding down so quickly.  I can't believe it's the end of July already!!

July 4th Fun...
We went to the Mt. Zion fireworks (on the 3rd) this year and it was cool enough that the kids wore long pants and a jacket (once the sun went down).  They thoroughly enjoyed them :)!

Festive kids, waiting for the fireworks to start

All eyes on the sky (I think my flash was a little bright)

The next day was actually the 4th, and I picked up some snap pops for the kids at the store.  The loved them and soon, the neighborhood kids came over to join in the fun!

Action shot, throwing it down to pop! 

Nora thought they were hilarious and loved them!

"Pop-Its"!!

We've enjoyed s'mores this summer...

Lots of outside play (and sitting)...

Fishing...

Fun with friends...

We met our good friends Matt and LaToya Schroeder in Bloomington a couple weeks ago to hang out and swim at the State Farm pool.  It was so much fun.  Here are some pictures of the kids after swimming!

We went to the museum this morning and met the Koskinens...

Loving on Ronald McDonald

He didn't want to miss out.

Soren and Ethan pretending to be news anchors and weather men.  So funny and cute!  This is a picture of the screen on the outside.  They didn't know I was watching :)!

And one more of a cute girl posing in the grass...

Such a ham!!

Bunk Beds

When we found out about baby #3, we knew 2 of the kids would be sharing a room for a while.  We have another bedroom downstairs, but I am not ready to have a child down there.  Anyway, fast forward several months...we purchased a bunk bed (after lots of discussion, Pinterest scanning and measuring).  We set up said bunk bed in Ethan's room last week and he loves it!  He has moved right in, on the top bunk.  This weekend, we moved Nora in with him.  Last night was their first night sharing a room and I would call it a success!  I snuck in to snap a picture of their first night in the same room and here's what I found :).

Both kids, peacefully sleeping

 We are in the process of picking out paint and decor, so stay tuned for a shared kids bedroom tour.  

See You Soon!

Our dear friends, the Lloyd family (Erin, Jeff, Brennan, Chase, Kullen & Mayleigh), moved to Chicago this week (thanks ADM).  It's been tough on us all...kids included.  We have grown to love this family like they are our own family.  Our kids play so nicely together and love to be together.  We squeezed as much time in with them as we could this week!

Our small group had a going away party for them at our pool.  It was so fun!

Look at all these kids!!!

That's 17 kids there (Just so you don't have to count).  There is 1 more, (but she's less than 2 months old)

Ethan, Brennan and Camden enjoying some ice cream!

I've grown quite close to these 3 girls in the last year+, so saying good bye to one is so difficult!

Erin, Emily, Jessica and I- our last time at the Surf Club all together this summer *tear*

The weather around here has cooled down a lot for this week, so we all planned to meet at the zoo before they left.  We had 6 families represented here...even more kids!! 

19 kids!!

Checking out the wolf.

These are the oldest 4 boys of ours...Camden, Soren, Ethan and Brennan  (Jessica, Emily, myself and Erin)

We will miss the Lloyds like crazy, but I know God has a special plan for them in Chicago.  And it's not that far away!  Another thing that made it a little easier...we have girls weekend planned for next week!  Can't wait :)! Lake Michigan, here we come!

Nora Girl

I've realized a lot of my blog posts have been about Ethan lately.  Nora is definitely not standing in the background around here :).  She is a busy, busy 2 year old who is always in the middle of things...even when she isn't necessarily welcome there ;).
She has been riding the strider bike since the start of summer and she's got it down already.  She zooms all around on that thing!  Tonight, I got the camera out and took some photos and video.

Ready to roll!!

Watch her go!

After some bike riding, she got out the bubbles.

Choosing her tools

Daddy, helping her out.

Chasing the bubbles

Since I was sitting right next to our big, blooming hibiscus plant, I snapped a photo.  So beautiful.

Tennis Star

I may be a bit biased with my title ;).  Ethan has been having weekly tennis lessons in our local park for the past 6 weeks or so.  He has really enjoyed it and learned a lot.  I stayed the whole time today to watch him and take a few pictures and videos.  He's decided he's a left handed tennis player, and does quite well :).

Taking a nice stance as the ball comes :)

Check out that determination! 

Cute Nora, the tennis fan

Getting some instruction from the coach

Playing "Cops and Robbers".  He loved this game!

And a quick video of him in action...because they are playing on a half court, Ethan kept hitting it out.  I told him to keep it up.  It will be a good hit on a full court ;).