Free Range Family

Yay! The weekend is almost here! I can't wait for Saturday to come so I can sit back and relax! Plus my mother and Aunt April return from Las Vegas tomorrow, we really miss them! Aunt April went up there for Thunderstruck Nationals, a dance competition and workshop. She gets to dance with memebers of SYTYCD! Lucky ducky! :D Nothing too exciting is happening today, I work at three and Alan will be going with me. Boring lol! :P But today is my friend Jessica's due date and tomorrow is my cousin in law's due date, so be prepared for some new baby posts lol! They work perfectly with today's topic as well. :P So for now, here's Toddler Talk Thursdays!! Enjoy! This Week's Topic: How to handle bringing a new baby home with a toddler in the house? This is something Lon and I have discussed over and over again. We are both from a family of six kids and understand how hard it is sometimes to get another sibling. I want almost as many kids as our parents had as

Today is Aunt Ariel's 11th birthday. Via I met Ariel almost three years ago when I first was dating Lon. She was a sweet eight year old then, who reminded me a ton of my own sister. I made a mental note to get them together sometime lol. Now, they have hung out a few times and are pretty good friends. :) Haha! I love my sister in law so much! For her birthday, Ariel got her ears pierced! Which doesn't please Lon to much lol, Mr. Anti Piercing or Tattoo Hippie Man. :P But she's pretty excited about it. We called her and got Alan to attempt to sing her happy birthday lol. It was basically Lon singing in the background and Alan singing "Irthday. Ieo. Irthday. Happy." Too cute! :) This weekend, we are planning on taking her to the Kidz Fest at Zoo Montana with Alan for some summer fun! I can't wait, we haven't been there in a while! Happy birthday Aunt Ariel! We love you so much! <3

I've been seeing this on several other blogs, so I thought I'd play along. Enjoy! I am... A Daughter, A Sister, A Dancer, An Artist, A Storyteller, A Teacher, A Mother, An Aunt, A Wife. I want... The weekend to come. I have... A lot to be grateful for, sometimes I just need reminding. I wish... We had air conditioning in this sauna of a house. I hate... People who just don't care. I care about and love everyone, can't you return the favor???? Is it really that hard? I fear... For a lot of things, as a mother, but you can never tell. I hear... The sound of our fan running with Lon's light snoring, and Alan's voice ringing down the hall. <3 I search... For life, love, and friendship everyday. I wonder... If there is life on other planets and if they are capable of love like we are. I regret... Nothing. Its my motto. I love... My son and husband, as well as all my family and friends. I even love you... Bet you didn't kno

Man it is hot! I woke up three minutes ago and I already am covered in sweat! Thank goodness I'll be stuck inside the YMCA all day today, at least they hace A/C! :P Here's Top Ten Tuesday!! Since my birthday is only twelve days away, I thought I would do a fun top ten post today and do a birthday wish list. I am not normally materialistic and I, in no way, expect to get anything on this list. But this is still fun to do. :) Enjoy! Top Ten Birthday Gifts I Want! aka Birthday Wish list #10 Anything from Bath and Bodyworks I LOVE their stuff!!! It all smells so good! :D #9 Another Wooden Buddha Statue You can never have too many of these if you're a Buddhist lol! :P Via #8 Giftcard to Walmart FOR GROCERIES LOL!!!!!! :P #7 Daft Punk's Interstalla 5555 Via #6 A stereo system for my car I've had my car for over six months now, and I still haven't gotten a stereo system. I miss the radio! Its annoying having to sing or talk to

Alan's birthday is in less than two months, ahhhh that's too soon! This time last year was when I started thinking about birthday parties for him, so I guess its time to do that now. Even though I don't want to. I'm still in denial that Alan will be two. As much as I love that he is a big boy and is growing up so quickly, the mom in me wants my sweet little newborn back. I loved Alan as a baby, he was so sweet and happy and easy. My mom always teased me that I was silly for getting stressed out, because I had the easiest baby ever. :P Not to say that I don't love him now, I love how smart and happy he is. I just am having some issues with my beautiful baby boy growing up. :) But I will take you along with me on my thought process for what I want to do for his birthday. I promise I haven't even thought of it before this, everything is fresh and new lol! :P So enjoy this fun brainstorm!!! We don't have a lot of money right now, so I don't think we

Yesterday, Lon took us up to Sean's folf course to announce some good news. He got a job there working as a handyman/maintenance worker of the field. I am so pleased to hear this! He will be working part time, during the day except for Fridays and Saturdays he will work nights to help with the block parties. Awesome! :D I made him steak with macaroni and cheese for dinner to celebrate, then we cracked open the beers still sitting in our fridge from our wedding lol. Yay! Lol today was a scorcher though. I didn't work at all, so I was really hoping to sleep in this morning, but we all woke up with the sun. It was so hot!!!! Lon had to work today so it was just going to be Alan and I all day. We hung out and played cars most of the morning, then after lunch I sunscreened him up and we went to Pioneer Park. It was weird when we got to Pioneer Park, because the park was packed but there was no one at the playground. We quickly realized it was simply because of the heat. Alan ste

Here is my ever so late Month in Review post lol. I know I said I would post it yesterday, but I worked all day and then we went up to Lon's new job site (will post more later!) and hung out. We didn't get home until late. But here's my month in review! Enjoy! :D This month we celebrated Alan's second cousin Sophie's first birthday. Alan had a great time with Grandma Melanie and Aunt April at her birthday party at Pioneer Park. A few days later, we celebrated our two month anniversary. I can't believe how quickly its going, before we know it our one year anniversary will be here! :P Speaking of weddings, I went to two weddings of my friends this month. First, Alan and I went with my family to my good friend Zach and his wife Mara's beautiful wedding. I loved Mara's pink converse, the crayons at all the reception tables, the pinwheels for Alan to play with, and the cute polka dotted cake. Lon and I also attended my good friend Chelsey and her husba

Here's the last installment of American Camping Week. To see the other two, click here and here. Also, be sure to tune in tomorrow for my Month in Review post! Have a great night! :) Via Today started out even earlier with the heat! I swear it was even hotter than yesterday! Happy fourth everyone! We woke up at eight and once again were the first ones up. Aunt Natalie and cousin Lex woke up shortly after us but while we waited for the rest of the family to wake up, we went for a walk down the beach. A lot of the campers and tents were loading up and leaving, so the beach had cleared up quite a bit. It was a nice walk, and it was awesome to step in the water every once and a while when it got hot! :) Then once everyone had woken up, we had breakfast of watermelon, grapes and cantelope. Hanging out with Grandpa Kevin Alan wanted to play with the rocks and sand some more after breakfast, so we put him in his suit and set him out by the shore. I took tons of pictures of him

Do you think cursive writing is overrated? (Schools in Indiana have now voted to take teaching cursive writing out of their curriculum.) Yes I do and I have always felt this way, even when I was a child learning cursive. I believe that a child should be taught ONE WAY to write words and when they are a little older they can develop their handwriting more. But cursive? Do you know how many adults use cursive for things OTHER than their signature? Like five lol. Via I guess what I am saying is, if you want to teach cursive then you'd better either replace it with printing (which they would never do) or teach several handwriting styles (like calligraphy). That's all I'm trying to say. :P Do you still use a pocket calendar or notepad or do you keep your info on your smart phone? Um, I currently use the old, old fashioned way of keeping everything on a calendar on the wall or in my head. Because I don't have a smart phone lol, or even a stupid phone. :P As of r

Here's the second installment of my American Camping Week posts! Enjoy! Via The morning started out nice and early with the heat.We woke up around nine (sleeping in a tent will do that to you lol) and as soon as Alan and I got outside, he ran to the lake and started throwing rocks again. Only Great Grandma Mary was awake, so we talked and watched Alan play. One by one everyone else woke up, until only Grandma Melanie and Uncle Kalvin were sleeping. Everyone was hungry so we sent Alan in the camper to wake them up. He proceeded to run back and forth, screaming their names lol. Woke them right up! :) We had a quick breakfast of cantelope and grapes (Yum!) and then we set off hiking, this time into the hills. While walking through the hills, we found the coolest (kinda) house! Its really just the foundation, but when you get close you can see that there's a basement with cellar steps! We explored and figured out which way the front door was, etc. We had a blast! Lon and

Today is payday for me, hooray! The day were money moves in and out of my account so quick you wouldn't believe it! :P Nah lol, it is still a good day. Make sure to tune in later for my second installment of American Camping Week, it is very exciting and eventful! It is also going to be another hot one today. We were all woken up with the sun this morning, because the heat came along with it. Can you say water park???? :) We might take Alan to Terry before I go to work. Here's Toddler Talk Thursdays! This week's topic: What is your toddler's favorite summertime toys? Alan is really into balls right now lol. Any type really, he's just been really into throwing and kicking lately. Basketballs, footballs, baseballs, even kickballs. He just gets so excited when he sees a kid playing with a ball. Via He also loves to play with hopper balls now. He discovered how to use them last Thursday and has played with them everyday at daycare since. He looks so ad

Its American Camping Week! Welcome everyone! :D Lol please enjoy this journal entry I wrote about our first night camping! Via The trip to Canyon Ferry was pretty uneventful, thankfully for us. I'll admit that I was a little nervous about taking Alan on a three and a half hour car ride, but he did great! We left at noon, a little later than originally planned but alright nonetheless. Alan fell asleep before we even hit Laurel lol! Silly boy! He slept all the way to Bozeman. Once we got to Bozeman though, we woke Alan up for lunch at DQ. While waiting for our lunch, I got to watch a grown man (most likely mentally ill) throw a fit at the poor cashier because he didn't have enough money for 3 medium blizzards. Wow. I was actually a little scared at the time too, because the man was really creepy. That teenage girl handled it so well but I still have to say, I'm glad I left Alan in the car with Lon! I was quite unnerved. The last half of the drive was also uneventf

Instead of starting my American Camping Week out with a camping post, I will post today about Alan 22 month milestones. He now only has two more months until he's two! Wow! Last Friday night, we went up to the new folf course in the heights (the one that Lon built the baskets for) for their Grand Opening and fourth of July celebration. Lon's friend Sean owns it, if you remember. :) Well the party was awesome! Our cousin Garrett was there and his band performed, it was great to hear them again! Sean also roasted a pig and was serving pig tacos lol! Then we folfed through the new course, and those baskets look great! They look professionally made! Wow, good job hubby! :D There was also professional drifters in the parking lot, which Alan thought was the coolest. I was nervous for the drivers the whole time lol, but I'm just a worry wort. :) Overall though, the party was good. I'm glad we took the time to go out there. At 22 months, Alan can: -Run, jump, kick, throw,

Oh boy, today will be a hard one for me lol. I dread having to go back to my regular schedule of working, after having the weekend off to do whatever I pleased. Oh well, I can do it! Its a short week! :D Here's Top Ten Tuesday!! Stay tuned for my American Camping Week post later today, it will be awesome!!! Top Ten Books I Must Reread (when I have the chance to breathe lol!) #10 Harry Potter Series Via #9 Ender's Game Via #8 The Lord of the Rings Series Via #7 The Stand Via #6 A Wrinkle in Time Via #5 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Via #4 Catcher in the Rye Via #3 Water for Elephants Via #2 Plato's Republic Via #1 1984 Via

We just got back into town from our camping trip- it was great, we didn't want to leave lol! Will start my week of camping posts tomorrow, I'm exhausted from the drive. :P I really wanted to stop by to wish everyone a happy fourth of July though! Via Happy birthday America! You may be an old 235 year old, but I think you look gorgeous for your age! :P I hope everyone had a great time with their loved ones, I know we did! You will hear more about that later though of course. :) And last but certainly not least, I want to thank all the men and women who serve our country! Thank you for our freedom! To celebrate, we are watching A Capitol Fourth 2011 on PBS. We got back into to town too late for either fireworks show in town and Alan is still afraid of the loud noises that the fireworks make, so we will just be celebrating this way. :) Alan likes these fireworks better anyways, not as loud. Its cute because he won't stay away from the tv and let us watch it too lol!

I just wanted to get on here real fast to say goodbye to the blogging world before we left for Canyon Ferry Lake. We will be back at home on Monday night, and so I will get a fourth of July post in here. But there will be no Meet Me on Monday or Motivational Monday however. But I will also come back tanned (or sunburned more likely lol) and with lots of stories to tell as well! Bonus! :P But until then, have a safe and happy holiday weekend everyone! I love you all! Wish us luck now on our four hour trip in the car with Alan! :) I'll admit that I'm quite stressed about it, but I know like always he will do just fine. Its just four hours! Ahhhhhh! Happy fourth of July weekend. I love you all!

So if you remember from my post yesterday, we all went to get Lon's Cadillac checked out before I went in to work. I was a little anxious about having to wait in their lobby with Alan, for however long it took them to change the oil and such. Plus, I forgot to mention this but I was also worried about Lon's car. During our trip to Great Grandpa Andersen's Ranch, the Cadillac started reporting 0% battery voltage or something to that effect. Can you tell I know nothing about cars???? :P Thank goodness for Lon. But... Luckily there is nothing wrong with his car... kinda! Only his sensors and the computer are malfunctioning, but everything else is in perfect running condition! The mechanic even gave us the approval to take it up to Helena for the fourth. Yes! :) And we got lucky with Alan as well! We had brought him his Mater and Doc car toys but the Master Lube had complimentary ice cream sandwiches. Alan chowed down on a whole sandwich! And it took him the WHOLE FIFTEEN M