Free Range Family

This weekend we went to Geyser Park with Grandma Melanie, Uncle Kalvin and his friend Gabe. It was a overcast day so we didn't want to go to a park or any outside place, so we were thinking of taking the boys to the Reef, an indoor water park on the west end of town. But after asking the boys, they decided that Geyser Park would be more fun. Once we got there, Grandma Melanie took Miss Anna for their grandma and granddaughter bonding time lol, and I took the boys to play. We tried to keep them inside as much as possible so we bought a bunch of arcade tokens and set them free. Alan only wanted to play the big kid games that didn't win you any tickets, so I cheated and didn't put in tokens for those games lol. :P Instead I used his tokens and played the games with tickets that were next to him. I know, I know, bad parent alert lol! But I knew he would get soooooo mad if the other boys got to pick out a prize and he didn't so I had too.  After a while, everyone

Baby Simmone is here!! Congratulations to my other cousin David, his wife Kendra and big brother Kenneth! Baby Simmone was born today at 9:20 am, just 22 days after Anna was born and the DAY after Baby Joshua was born! She weighs seven pounds and four ounces and is 20 and a half inches long (the exact same size Alan and Anna were lol)! Mom is doing great! I think its so funny that Simmone was born a little under a month after Anna. It was the same way with Alan and Kenneth! I always tease David that Kendra and he are copying Lon and I because they keep having the same gender kid we have just a month or so after us lol! :P We have good fun with it. David and Kendra live in Alaska, so we won't be going to visit them at the hospital unfortunately. But we are excitedly waiting for pictures of the beautiful girl! :) And today, we went and bought her some cute outfits we are going to mail to her! My dad is just ecstatic to share a birthday with his great niece. We are all so

Today is Grandpa Kevin's birthday. I just love this picture of my father and Lon at our wedding I love my father so much. He is such a strong, great man and he is always there for his family. He is always there to protect us and to make sure we have everything we need. My father has always been there for me and my family, as far back as I can remember. He always knows what to say or do to make us laugh, we always have so much fun together. My mom refers to him as her fifth child lol, because he acts so young and so full of life. We love to go do fun things together. He is such a wonderful father. :) My dad and Aunt April doing the robot at Anna's baby shower My father is the funniest man alive! He is always acting out to make us kids laugh! He is the biggest dork ever lol! He is also a great grandfather to my children. Alan loves him so much, he loves how my dad always takes him outside to play while he unloads his truck. They always play dirt bikes together a

Baby Joshua is here!! Mama Randi holding Baby Joshua for the first time Congratulations to my cousin Josh and his wife Randi, plus big sister Fayth! Baby Joshua was born today at 7:45 am, only 21 days after Anna was born. He weighs six pounds and 14 ounces (just an ounce bigger than Anna was) and is 19 and a half inches long (just an inch smaller than Anna)! Mom is doing great and Dad is just exhausted lol. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? :) Alan, Anna, Grandma Melanie, Aunt April and I went to visit them this afternoon. Randi was hanging outside with her mother when we arrived, so she showed us where her room was. It was Room 486 only two doors down from where I was with Anna lol! Josh was sleeping in the room but Alan ran right up and woke him up though. Ugh silly boy! Josh was still very happy to see us, as was Randi. Then Baby Joshua came back from the nursery. He is sooooooo precious! I got to hold him right after her mother did and he just slept in

My Princess is growing like a weed! I can't even believe that she used to be that tiny six pound baby girl, she is already almost seven pounds in total! Her whole body looks bigger! Makes me so happy! :D This weekend we don't really have anything planned but I do want to take Alan to a park or something. This past week we pretty much spent at home, except for Monday. But it was nice to get the house cleaned up and back together. Its hard to do with two kids lol! :) When one is awake, the other is sleeping lol! Here is this week's Darling Dozen! Week: Third Week Weight: 6 pounds and 13 ounces (Yay back to birth weight!) Height: 21 inches  Developments: Anna has found her voice and boy, is it loud! She has started using her voice to let us know when she wants anything. She can go from little wail to screeching in about two seconds too lol. Ooooh boy! She is also ready for more complex shapes (bye-bye circles, hello zigzags!) as her vision, ability

I figured I would do a FQF this week, because its been since Anna was born that I have done one I think lol. Oh well, chalk that up to being a SAHM mom of two lol. But I miss reading Mama M's posts and I sure miss participating in this fun link up, so here we go! Here's this week's Five Question Friday! Enjoy everyone! What is the funniest thing you saw on Facebook/twitter this week? I see a lot of funny things on my FB, as I have a ton of friends who have hilarious children lol. But to pick the funniest? That's pretty hard. Let's see, I had a friend's daughter who sang this song (can you see how she toddler-fied it lol): "Hey, I just met you and this is crazy. But here's my number, so call me baby. And all the alphabets try to chase me, but here's my number so call me baby!" Or this post from a friend, about what her daughter said to her: ‎"Mommy, mommy! You so boo-y-ful! You my FAVORITE toad. Can you ribbet like a toad?

At midnight on Friday July 20, all around the states the new movie in the Batman series, The Dark Knight Rises, premiered in the theaters. Many of my friends went to the premiere here in town and I read countless Facebook statues about how awesome the movie was. One friend of mine from Seattle had been counting down the days since winter. But along with all this excitement, came senseless tragedy. I'm sure at this point, everyone knows about the shootings in Aurora, Colorado on the night of the Batman premiere. As a hormonal new mother, I have been trying my best to stay out of it and do not know a lot of the details. I just can't emotionally handle it right now, having a newborn is draining enough. I do know that 12 people died and 58 people were injured, seventy people in total who were shot. I know that the man is named James Holmes and that he dyed his hair red to be like the Joker and that he was arrested on site. I know that he used tear gas. I know that a six year old

On Monday, everyone went to the new water park in the heights, the Oasis, for Grandma Melanie's and my birthday parties. Anna and I didn't swim, of course, but it was great to finally get to see the new water park and we had a great time seeing our family and friends! The water park had one big water slide, a water playground with three smaller slides, a lazy river, a wave pool, and a toddler sprinkler area with a baby slide. Alan's favorite area was the toddler sprinklers, he played there almost the whole time lol. He also went on the water playground several times and even went on the tunnel slide several times (although he didn't get the concept of staying in line and waiting his turn lol, he needed to be reminded a few times). Aunt April and Aunt Natalie took him on the lazy river once but this time he wasn't too into it. Aunt Natalie was just thrilled to finally be able to hold Anna for the first time (she didn't get to the night before because w

This is my second installment of Point of View Posts, this time from my other good WTE friend Jen. Her blog is usually about recipes and her love for cooking, so her post is about spaghetti. I love that there is another family who loves spaghetti as much as this one does! :D I hope you enjoy. Here is this week's POV Posts! Spaghetti. This single world evokes nothing but pure delight for me. It is simply the perfect meal. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s cheap and it’s freaking delicious. Plus I like to pretend I’m Italian so I like to make it and announce that we are having “macaroni and red gravy” while prancing around with a glass of wine. Yep, I’m fancy like that. Spaghetti is a family favorite here. And with a two year old and a one year old (I’m fancy and crazy) eating spaghetti is an event. But it’s the one meal I know everyone will eat. The girls get stripped down to their under-roo’s and dive in! It always makes me laugh! The oldest slurps it noodle by noodle and the y

Today is Grandma Melanie's birthday. I love my mom so much. She has always been there for me, since as long as I can remember. We have so many good memories together. I tell my mom pretty much everything, I feel like I can go to her for any advice. She is always supporting me, whether its helping us with our financial struggles or watching our children for us or even just being emotional support. She is just as good with all my siblings too. I hope that I am someday as good of a mother as she is. :) She is not only a great mother but she is a fantastic grandmother. Alan just adores her, they are great buddies and he loves to spend time with her. She was there for his birth and was one of the first people who met him. She spoils him like crazy and he just loves it lol. :) Anna is still a newborn, but I know that she also loves her grandma. My mom wasn't able to make it to her birth, but she drove halfway across the state to get to us so that she could help watch Al

Saturday Audrey, Amber and Ariel came home from Utah. Since Amber and Ariel had left for Utah the morning I delivered Anna, none of them had ever met her. They were all so very excited to, so we went over to their house immediately after they got home from the airport. Alan was shy at first. The last time he had met Great Grandma Audrey, he was three months old. He had no memory of her at all. Plus, he was somewhat scared of the two big dogs, Buster and Benny. We weren't sure why he was afraid of them but he was. Aunt Ariel ended up putting him on the kitchen counter and feeding him cereal to distract him a little lol. After a short bit, he became comfortable with everyone and started playing. Auntie spoils me lol Great Grandma Audrey was just tickled by her new great granddaughter. She commented on how long and beautiful her fingers were, how thick and dark her hair was, and how deep her steely blue eyes were. She took picture after picture of her and Alan, then pull

This week seems like it has gone by so fast for us! I feel like I have gotten the hang of having two children and keeping a house clean. Whoever said to me that having two kids is really hard apparently has never met my wonderful children. Anna and Alan work so well together, I am still waiting for it to get hard lol. :P Disclaimer: I know it will *eventually* become difficult but I am optimistic about the situation currently. This weekend is going to be an exciting one for us. Great Grandma Audrey, Grandma Amber and Aunt Ariel will be back from Utah on Saturday so we will be going over to their house so that they can meet Anna. Also, Monday is my birthday and Tuesday is my mother's so on Sunday Aunt Natalie will be driving down from Missoula to visit. It will also be the first time she will get to meet Anna. We are all very excited! :D Here is this week's Darling Dozen! Enjoy! Week: Second Week I love her beautiful eyes! Weight: 6 pounds and 11 ounces 

The night I had Anna, Alan stayed with my parents at their house. After Anna and I had been moved to the recovery room and settled in, Lon went home to go sleep in our own bed. At the time we didn't know there was an extra bed in the recovery room but it wasn't a big deal. That Sunday morning, I woke up and fed Anna and myself. Lon had work so I knew he wouldn't be by until later in the day. I couldn't wait til then for Alan to meet his sister so I called my mother and told her she could bring him by. I was so excited to see my little boy again, I had missed him so! :) I dressed little Anna in her baby shower outfit in preparation for their visit. She looked so cute and the onesie was so big, it was adorable!  Grandma Melanie brought Alan over just before lunchtime. Alan was so excited to see me but cautious and nervous at first around Anna. He brought her the gift from him and we opened it together. It was a pink dragon Grandma had let him pick in the gif

This is my first installment of Point of View Posts, by the lovely Miss Shay. Shay is one of my WTE mamas and she is also a work at home mama. This post is about how she deals with juggling being a mom with working at home. I hope you enjoy! :D Here is this week's POV Post! I was working tonight and my son knocked on the door, “Mama, where did daddy go?” He always peeks through his window when he should be in bed. I go back in and lay him down again. As soon as that door closes, he is knocking again, “Mama, can we paint tomorrow? I want to paint.” That’s when I try the bribery approach and I say, “Yep, if you go to bed we can paint tomorrow.” Apparently, bribery doesn’t work with this kid because he’s at the door again. As a work at home mom, I am thankful that I get this opportunity to watch my kids grow up and be there for the smiles, first time walking and first words, but it also is pretty hard sometimes. I get excited to be with the kids, but I find I am always working o

Monday was surprisingly a nice cool 78 degree day. Being a little stir crazy myself and desiring some Vitamin D, I texted my mother that we should go to a park. :) We decided to take Uncle Kalvin and Alan to Terry Park for their water park and playground. Alan thought we were going to the Oasis at first but when he found out we were going somewhere else, he told me he didn't want to go. I convinced him that the sprinklers would be fun, but he told me that he hated sprinklers lol. :P Silly boy! My mom and I hoped that because it was a cooler day and a Monday, there wouldn't be too many people there. We were thankfully lucky, as there were only three other families there. After sunscreening the boys and giving Anna to Grandma Melanie, the three of us went out into the sprinklers. Alan instantly forgot about not liking the sprinklers and got soaked pretty quickly. He ran through all of the sprinklers and was the youngest one there! He ran with all of the big kids still and had a