Free Range Family

I know its almost been a week now, but I just realized that I had not posted about how our Easter morning and Alan's first Easter egg hunt! They both went so well, but were over-shadowed by the wedding and reception. Nonetheless, they deserve their spot in my blog. I will also add photos as soon as I figure this whole thing out lol (Can you email pictures to your blog?) but for now, bear with me. :) Sunday morning came to find Lon and I toddler-less (Alan had spent the night at his grandparent's house) but for some reason we still woke up at 8 am lol so I made him a breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast that we ate in bed lol, watching Mystery Science Theather 3000 for an hour or two. For those of you who have never heard of this crazy awesome old show, google it lol. :D Here's a photo of the characters from one of the seasons. Lon and I are just obsessed! Via Then we went over to Alan's grandparent's house for Alan's first Easter egg hunt. :) It was made

Wow this week just flew by! I honestly thought it'd be the slowest week ever, after having just had our wedding Saturday, but I'm shocked that its already Friday! Tomorrow's our one week anniversary! Wow! :D This weekend will be good for us, not too busy but with just enough things to do. Tonight after work, Lon and I are going out with my brother Darren and his fiance for her 21st birthday. :) Then Saturday I have three birthday parties to work and afterwards we will go eat dinner with my parents. And Sunday is Family Day, which is always unplanned but wonderful. :)  Happy Arbor Day everyone! I am displeased to say that my hunt for a place to plant my tree has been unsuccessful, but I am still glad to announce that The Many Adventures of the Modern Hippie Mama blog's tree was planted in Plumas National Forest in Northern California! :) Success! So I can be happy today and just hope that next year we have our own HOUSE to plant a tree by! Congratulations to William

Still not feeling my best, but I'm still planning on going to work today. Blah. Wish I could take off a few days to recover like Alan did, but I'm the mama so I can't.  :P Anyways, today I'm again running around getting my name legally changed to Andersen. But I'm gonna start this blog hop from Crazy about my Baybah, Family and Life in Las Vegas and Sippy Cup Mom today. Its called Toddler Talk Thursdays! :D Enjoy! This week's topic:  What's your toddler's bedtime routine? We start Alan's bedtime routine at 8 pm, when we usually get home from work. If its Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday night then we give him a half hour bath. If its Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday then we watch Yo Gabba Gabba and we color. After that, I read him several books and we snuggle in my bed. Then we brush his teeth, go on the "NightNight Train" to his bedroom. The "NightNight Train" is a favorite with my boy lol. Its a spin-off on the PBS s

Okay so I may be exaggerating a little, but not much... :) Just last night, I started feeling a little queasy. I thought it was just because we ate dinner late but sure enough, I vomited this morning. Three times. Uggggh! Thankfully, I was sent home from work because we were slow enough for three people to close. And my mother brought me some Powerade and soup from Subway for us for dinner. I'm so glad I have people who help me when I'm sick, even now that I'm an adult. :) Thanks guys! I'd like to give you a visual idea of me blogging right now- I'm laying in my bed, propped up by pillows and blankets, wrapped up in my comforter. With my Powerade, veggie soup, a trash can, latest book I'm reading, tv changer in case I want to watch something and cell phone right by my side. My toddler is not far away. He sits in between my legs with his sipper, toy car, Lego Batman, a Elmo book, his pretend tv changer and his pretend cell phone all in his lap. Alan keeps

For any of you who don't know (if there is anyone lol), Lon and I were married last Saturday, April 23. :) It was a beautiful event, and though I have yet to post pictures of it yet, you can read about it here and here. We cannot wait to go on our honeymoon, but unfortunately we will have to wait until June when my mother is out of school (she's a first grade teacher) and can babysit Alan for a weekend. We still are super excited to go and are grateful for the extra time to save more money! :) Via Lol, sorry I just love Precious Moments! I had to put one on here, especially for the wedding! :) But I digress... We have finally decided on a place to have our honeymoon, and I'd love to share the exciting details with you! We plan on leaving Saturday morning (Toddler free! Wahoo!!) and going to Chico Hot Springs Resort, by Livingston Montana. There we will participate in such activities as outdoor pilates, horseback riding, massage therapy, hiking, hot spri

Ooh everything went so well this weekend! We had our private wedding (only parents and grandparents were invited) Saturday afternoon at the Veteran's Memorial Park next to the courthouse. We were married by Judge Herenadez, who was just hilarious! :) Then yesterday, we had our wedding reception at the Village Inn. Both events were just wonderful, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. And for those of you readers on the edge of your seats wondering if Lon got to a tux store on time or just went in jeans... He did! And man did he look dashing! <3 There are so many people I am thankful for, who pulled through for us and helped make this wedding perfect! I'd like to first thank my parents and Lon's parents, for all the assistance and support they gave us. My Maid of Honor, Jenelle, for making our wedding cakes, doing my hair for the wedding, planning my Bachelorette party and helping with reception decorations. She did such a beautiful job on the cakes and my hair.

I will take another set of mantras from the Dhammapadda today. This is particularly one of my favorites, as it uses an elephant as a metaphor of the self. I hope you enjoy it! Happy Monday! The Elephant I will endure abusive words like the elephant in battle endures the arrow shot from the bow; for many people are ill-behaved. The lead a tamed elephant into battle, a king mounts a tamed elephant; the tamed one is the best of human beings, the one who endures abusive words. Excellent are mules that are tamed, horses of good breed, and the mighty bull elephant; even better is one whose self is tamed. For it is not by these vehicles that one may go to the place of inaccessibility, where the tamed one goes, with self mastery, by virtue of being tamed. The elephant called Guardian of Treasure is hard to control when in rut. It does not eat any food when bound; the elephant longs for the elephant grove. The foll who becomes a sluggard and a glutton, tossing and turning in sleep, lik

I don't have a lot to post but I'm too excited and can't sleep lol, but I will just make this short and sweet. I figured it'd be fun for me to post about all the little fun details and traditions that we will be doing at the wedding and reception. :) We will be getting married at the courthouse, which may seem old fashioned or plain to some. However, there are several reasons why we are doing this. We do not belong to a church or organized religion, so having our non-religious wedding in a church seems somewhat disrespectful to us. That leaves us with other indoor venues and outdoor venues. I'm not an indoor wedding venue type of person, especially since I am getting married the end of April. I had a few outdoor venues in mind (Fairy Falls in Yellowstone National Park, The Rimrocks) but I have six very important people that need to be present at my wedding, my grandparents, and several of them would not be able to transverse the terrain of said outdoor venues. Thu

I simply cannot believe that tomorrow at three, Lon and I will be getting married! This just blows my mind, and I've think I've finally figured out why. :) When I first met Lon's older brother my first (and only so far lol) year of college I would I never thought that three years later I'd be getting married and have a toddler! And definitely not to Lon! :) Lol I was seeing someone else at that time and was still young and wild, I didn't think I'd settle down and have kids for another five or ten years! I was a free spirit to be reckoned with back then. :) But Lon tamed me lmao (We both did some taming) and now I'm just another boring mama who turns in a ten pm lol. I wouldn't have my life any other way though! I love my boys to the sun and back! Lon I can't wait to marry you! <3 Via Ooh today is so busy for me! Happy Earth Day too everyone! We will be doing lots of running around today because we have my mani/pedi, a playdate at Riv

Ever since Monday when Alan's doctor diagnosed him with the stomach flu, I have been researching her recommended remedy of probiotics. I have discovered that not only are they not harmful to a toddler, but they have been around him since birth. By the way, here is what she recommended for him. He has had two doses of it so far. :) (This photo thanks to http://www.pronto.com) Toddlers that were vaginally born and/or that are breast fed have a higher amount of probiotics already in their system then toddlers that were delivered via C-section and/or formula fed. Alan was both vaginally born and breast fed for almost eight months. When a baby starts eating solids, the bacteria begin to increase. (This photo thanks to http://www.findmeacure.com) However sometimes when toddlers are prescribed antibiotics, it decreases the amount of probiotic bacteria in their systems. Overall, a toddler's digestive system is still developing, and probiotics can help keep everyt

Alan's doing better today. I know I keep saying that every morning and then posting twelve hours later saying he's regressed, but I'm hopeful today. He's on Step 4 this morning, and only had two bad blow outs last night. He hasn't gotten sick since two yesterday and should hopefully be able to go to daycare this afternoon. We hoping that he's finally in the clear and will not regress anymore. I really want him feeling good the day before the wedding so that he can enjoy this weekend as well! :) The only thing I'm nervous about still keeping him hydrated and then his probiotic dosage. That's what made him vomit last time, so we are planning to try a different way of getting it in him. Oh my gosh, the wedding is in THREE DAYS!!! That's so close, I'm starting to panic a little lol. Everythings planned and paid for, except Lon's vest and button up shirt. We had to use the money for that to buy medicine and diapers when Alan first got sick. And

Alan threw up three times today. Once around 9 after breakfast of banana yogurt, again around noon after he had some chicken broth watered down (probably not my best idea), and the third time around 2 after my husband insisted on giving him a dosage of the probiotics (we think this time was only because he was force gagging himself on the grittiness). Surprisingly, he did keep the probiotics down. We were lucky there. :) Alan is currently (even though he's in bed now) on Step 3, and when he awakes he will be back on Step 4. Our biggest concern with this right now is dehydration. With the combination of explosive diarrhea (Sounds terrible, but that's the best description I have. He will fill a whole dry diaper in one sitting) and persistant vomit, a toddler can easily become hydrated and end up in the ER. Alan's doctor reminded us of this at our visit, and I would like to avoid this at all costs. We are following this diet to a "T" and even when he is allowed to

Alan is doing tons better this morning, and only had one diarrhea blow out last night. He has two and a half hours left of his liquid diet, and he's no longer contagious after noon today. Unfortunately, that means that he will not be able to go to art class today. :\ But I'm just going to prepare him some "homework" so that he still gets his art projects for that week done. And I'm just thankful last night went billions of times better than Sunday night and that he's doing so much better today. He's starting to act like himself again, which makes me smile. :) Hopefully, he'll be able to go back to daycare by tomorrow. :) And now, for Top Two Tuesday!! Top Two Things I Collect!! #1 Elephant figurines (This photo thanks to http://www.dinodirect.com) I am obsessed, I mean obsessed with elephants lol, and I have been most of my life. I think they are beautiful, brilliant, elegant creatures. <3 I have been collecting elephant figurines as l

I took Alan to the Billings Clinic Pediatrics West this morning and after getting a check up from the new med student (He called Alan "Jaden" and me "Taylor" lol. Oops!) and then Alan's regular doctor too, it was confirmed that he has... The stomach flu bug. Oh joy. My poor baby boy! :( He has been put on a 24 hour liquid diet and when he recovers from the vomiting we are to give him probiotics for two weeks. He is currently contagious until he stops vomiting for 24 hours.The liquid diet flow chart she gave me goes something like this: Step 1: 5 milliliters clear fluid every 5 minutes for an hour Step 2: 10 milliliters clear fluid every 5 minutes for an hour Step 3: Clear fluid for twelve hours Step 4: Any fluid or soft food (Jello) for twelve hours Step 5: Any food with probiotics once a day for two weeks Everytime Alan vomits, I go back to step one. *Sigh* This is tedious. As of right now, Alan is on Step 3 and will no longer be contagious tomorrow a

My poor son is super sick. :( He's gone from bad to worse over the weekend. I'm starting to think that the diarrhea isn't from teething molars, as it usually is, and that its another symptom to whatever he has. His doctor appointment is at 11, I'll keep everyone updated. I just hope its not something contagious, or I will have to get the night off of work. I'll also be sure to post his weight and height. But for now, here's Meet Me on Monday!! Caesar Salad or Garden Salad? Totally gonna say Garden Salad because Caesar Dressing just grosses me out. I can't do Caesar Salads, I haven't been able to since I was pregnant with Alan. There's no going wrong with a Garden Salad, I love just about all vegetables. Throw the whole garden on my salads lol, just no bugs and dirt please. :) Will you be watching the Royal Wedding on April 29th? ???? Clearly I won't because I have no clue what royal wedding... Oh wait, is one of Princess Di's kids

It rained all day today in Billings. Off and on all morning, all afternoon, and all night. Blah. We were planning on doing part of my Bridal Shower outside. That clearly wasn't in Mother Nature's plans for us. :) And on top of all of that, Alan's sick with hopefully just a cold (going in to doctor tomorrow to double check) and has been teething his remaining molars (OUCH!) so he has been horribly out of sorts and not himself this weekend. :( He's been having pure liquid bowel movements (Not TMI, its for health reasons lol!) and has been throwing up anything even slightly irritating to him. That along with a wet cough and runny nose, and my boy is not a happy camper. :( He even threw up in the car today. Let me tell you, that's so NOT fun. Despite the rain and Alan's sickies, I still had a great day with my son and the rest of my loved ones. The Bridal Shower was a blast! We had taco soup and fruit for lunch and brownies for dessert. Then we played four w

Today was a busy but good day for me. I only had to do a party at work today, and was off by two. Then my parent's surprised me with four new tires for my car (for those of you who don't know, my back tire was literally shredding off of the axel) for a wedding gift. We went shopping for Bridal Shower prizes and ingredients for our Taco Soup for tomorrow. Then I spent some time with Alan before dropping him off at my parent's for his second ever sleepover (his first was on his birthday) and going to the Bachelorette party. The party was so much fun! We didn't do anything to wild lol. :P We stayed at my Maid of Honor's house, dyed Easter eggs, and made bracelets for the wedding. Even though I told them no strippers, the girls still couldn't resist getting me novelty penises! Oh lordy lmao. :D They got me a sexy coupons, a penis sucker, penis whistles, penis mints, penis confetti, and penis candles. I love my girls but wow lol! :P I really enjoyed making matching

I did one of these for Arbor Day, and I believe that in this family Earth Day is as or more important of a holiday. I love Mother Nature and the Earth so naturally Earth Day is one of my favorite holidays. My son and husband share a similar appreciation for the holiday and every year we try to do something (or a few things lol) special. This year we will be busy bees, and not because of the our wedding the next day. We have plans to recycle, explore the outdoors, and dig in the Earth! :) The morning will start off with me getting my mani and pedi for the wedding, while Alan goes to daycare for an hour or so. Afterwards, we will have breakfast, do some art projects about Earth Day, and watch Sesame Street's Love the Earth DVD. (This photo thanks to http://www.growingyourbaby.com) Alan and I have been discussing the Earth lately and how we can help it out by planting and recycling. He's excited to celebrate "Earf Birfday" with us on Friday. :) So as soon as Lon

Today is the day before one of the best weekends for me (next weekend will be better though lol)! Tomorrow night is my bachelorette party and Sunday is the Bridal Shower and the Rehearsal Dinner. I'm so excited, all of it will be so much fun! :D I just have to get through my five hour shift tonight and work a birthday party tomorrow, but then its PARTAY TIME! Hope everyone else has a great weekend as well, I will try to keep up and post this weekend, but you might also just get a long, descriptive Monday post. :) Happy Friday everyone! And now for Mama M's Five Question Friday!! What is your favorite sign of spring? The sound of birds chirping. <3 Oooh, I love that sound so much, I will sometimes turn off all sounds in my house and open up all the windows just so it can fill my ears and my heart! :) What was your best birthday ever? That would have to be a tie between my 18th birthday and my 19th birthday. For my 18th birthday, we were already in Las Vegas fo

Today is Lon's technical weekend, he has today and Friday off of work. So he's getting some much needed spring cleaning done here, and Alan gets to sit down to dinner with his father which doesn't happen but once a week (Lon normally works six nights a week, so Alan usually has dinner with me or Grandma and Grandpa Kimmel). Yay! I wonder what they'll have lol... I took out round steak, but am not sure now if Lon knows how to cook it. Hopefully... :) I finished my book!! After only five days of reading it, with all of my daily chaos that I experience lol. :) I know, I'm pretty proud of myself too. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (This photo thanks to http://www.examiner.com) I would just like to say that I am obsessed with this book! I loved it sooooooooooo much, I think I might reread it tonight. <3 This book was a wonderfully captivating story about a young man who experiences the life as a vet on a train circus in the Depression and his li

This post is not to offend anyone, to the contrary I want to explain my family's situation beforehand to make sure no one is confused or offended by it. I wish to never go through the discrimination my son and I experienced last year at an Easter egg hunt... But that story is for another day, another post. I figured I might as well post about this topic today though, as Easter is on Sunday. My family and I will be participating in Easter activities, as we traditionally do, even though we are not of the Christian religion. As most of my readers know, I am Buddhist but my husband and son do not belong to any religion. My husband has his own scientific theories about our creation and our fate. We have not decided if we will raise Alan as a Buddhist or just raise him without a religion. The latter seems more appropriate to me, as even though I am a Buddhist I do not practice with a church. I do not believe in organized religion (I actually believe your relationship with your spiritua

We have art class again today, can't wait to see what my amazing toddler artist creates! I'm sure it will abstract and breathtaking. :) Plus the three of us with the whole class always have such a blast together, learning and creating. I love it, and I love my boys in my class! Oh my goodness, my wedding is literally eleven days away!!! I'm freaking out a little bit right now, I'm just so excited!! I hope its as awesome as I imagine it, and I have a feeling it will be. Everything is planned, and (almost) everything is perfect. The only missing thing as of current is the remainder of Lon's tux, we still need to buy his shirt and his vest. But honestly, I love Lon and will marry him in jeans and a t-shirt. If he doesn't get his stuff by the wedding, I will not care one bit. :) That's how much I love him. <3 <3 <3 Okay, okay, enough of this wedding bliss lol... Onto Top Two Tuesday!!! Top Two Favorite Drinks (Alcoholic or Non) I'll do on

I have gotten back my Dhammapadda back from my much deversing friend, so for this edition of Motivational Mondays I will use a mantra from my own copy! Yay, so excited lol! :) Enjoy everyone! Happy Monday! Peace and love to all! The Worthy For those who have completed their journey, left sorrow behind, are free in all circumstances, and liberated from all bondage, affliction does not exist. The thoughtful exert themselves; They do not relish attachment. Like swans leaving a lake, they abandon one attachment after another. Those who have no accumulation, who eat with perfect knowledge, whose sphere is emptiness, singlessness, and liberation, are hard to track, like birds in the sky. Those whose compulsions are gone, who are not attached to food, whose sphere is emptiness, singlessness, and liberation, are hard to track, like birds in the sky. Those whose senses are tranquil, like a horse well controlled by a charioteer, who are free from pride and have no compulsions, are the e

Good morning everyone! Today looks like it will be another beautiful spring day! :) Alan and I are watching Seasame Street and Alan's coloring Lon a picture of Elmo and his daddy. So I'm gonna go ahead and start my Monday blog hops. :) Here's Meet me on Monday!! Who would be your dream celebrity date? My husband thinks this is so weird because this man is so old (well older than us lol) and so not often seen as "hot" lol, but my dream celebrity date would definitely be Jim Carrey. Ooooh he's so attractive and so funny, I've been crushing on him since Bruce Almighty. <3 Now I know he's dating Jenny McCarthy, but I like her and I love them together, they're so adorable and perfect for each other. But a girl can still dream right? Lol love him in this pic, I love him with his long hair!! (This photo thanks to http://www.meltedreelonline.com) Do you have any food restrictions? I do not but my poor sister does. She has gone most of he

Today was a wonderful, relaxing day for me and my family. Alan woke us up pretty early, so we all snuggled in bed and watched the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends movie for a few hours. Then I pulled myself out of bed lol, and made the family eggs with toast and hashbrowns. My boys love Sunday morning breakfasts, they both chowed their food down and even had seconds! :) It looked like a nice, sunny day outside so we dressed Alan in shorts for the first time of the year and took him for a walk around the neighborhood. He loves walking outside on his own, holding our hands and talking with us. He is growing into such a big boy these days, he seems to understand more each day and is such a sponge when it comes to learning. I love how smart he's become these days. <3 After the walk, we had a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chicken noodle soup. Alan's getting better at scooping with the spoon, and its adorable to hear him enthusiastically say, "Scooo

My husband definitely is an intriguing man. I love him so lol. <3 For those of you that don't know, my husband is not only the supervisor at the Village Inn, he's a somewhat successful inventor. I say this because of all the inventions he's made, a good sum of his inventions have either hurt him or made a "mess" but a handful have been quite successful. I have a blog post back loaded into my computer about a specific invention (his jet pack lol) that caused him quite a minor injury and made a disaster of my house, I'll have to locate it tonight and upload it here because its a must read and a classic. :) I have since then made him promise to put his jet pack plans aside until we purchase our own house, so he has moved his focus back to robotics. His full plan is to create a humunoid robot, but for now he's developing the hands and feet of said robot. You know Honey I Shrunk the Kids or even Flubber? That's my husband lol, only waaaaaaay more attra

I borrowed this thing from Amy @Our Crazy Beautiful Life because I loved it so much and it looks like tons of fun! :) So enjoy, the ABC's of me! <3 Check out Our Crazy Beautiful Life and see her ABCs at http://www.ourcrazybeautifulife.blogspot.com A. Age: 21 B. Bed size: Queen size C. Chore you hate: The Dishes- we don't have a dishwasher so I do them by hand. Thus, dishes are the bane of my existance. :\ D. Dogs: None yet! Not until we buy our own house! We want a great dane for Alan though. A great dane puppy like this would be ideal. This one is soooooo cute!! (This photo thanks to http://www.321dogs.com) E. Essential start to your day: Snuggling in bed with my boys <3 F. Favorite color: Purple G. Gold or silver: Silver definately H. Height: 5’4 I. Instruments: Played the clarinet, bass clarinet, alto clarinet and some piano in high school. (This photo thanks to http://www.concordband.org) J. Job title: Art Teacher K. Kids: Ala