Free Range Family

I have been breastfeeding Anna for about six and a half months now. This is impresive to me because I stopped nursing Alan at three months and breastfeeding him altogether at eigth months old. I have felt pretty confident in my breastfeeding (well since  the last time  at least) but the past few weeks has left me questioning myself yet again. And I hate that I am saying this, literally as I type I am hating it, I have waited for so long to post this but I know that now I have to. So here it goes: I am having problems with breastfeeding Anna again. I have been have some personal female issues that do not belong on this blog, and it has greatly affected my milk supply. And this sucks. I am not fully sure, I have yet to even call my LC yet (I know, I know, I am so terrible, but I thought I could handle it myself), but I do think that the consistency of my milk has maybe changed slightly? I do not know for sure, but something, SOMETHING has made Anna stop wanting to nurse. She will

Starting back up with WILW again with Little Daisy May. I have not done one of these since the summer, if I am correct. Okay... Maybe it was September. Do not go find out for sure, all you readers lol!!! The truth is, its been a while since I have done one. And I need to on a weekly basis again. This is one of those blogging therapy things I need sometimes (I promise to do a post detailing those more throroughly sometime next month) you know? I know you do! I'm loving quite a bit this week. Even some silly things that I may not always think about or love necessarily. A new pregnancy in your family will do that to you! I'm loving... Aunt Natalie's newly announced pregnancy! We have known about it for a bit now, so it is nice to be able to finally talk about it and be excited about it. It was fun keeping our special secret for a while, but I am glad that we no longer have to hold it in!!! I'm loving... that today is not only my dance class day but Alan's

Every day that Anna gets older, I remark at how much she looks like everyone. She looks just like me when I was a baby, I will have to scan some baby pictures to show you guys! She has Lon's eyes and his head shape and when she bites her bottom lip like he does, the resemblence is uncanny! But I think most of all, she looks like her brother. I mean, obviously there are a lot of differences (like their gender, their size and their hair color) but they look definitely like siblings to me! Maybe when they are both a bit older, they could even pass for fraternal twins lol! What do you think though? Alan    Anna  Alan    Anna   Alan Anna  I tried to find similar pictures of their activities and facial expressions to help. I think they look so much alike. Its uncanny lol! Regardless of how much they look like siblings though, I know that they love each other like siblings. And that is what is important. I also love them to the moon and back. They

Noooooo, people I am not pregnant lol. We are hoping to wait a bit to have Baby Andersen #3, hopefully not until Anna is three. But do I have some news for you!! Everyone knows this amazing, wonderful person holding my beautiful daughter right? No? Let me get another picture of her... Here she is with her boyfriend, Uncle Jake. Do you know who this beautiful lady is????? This is my sister, Natatlie. She is just two years and ten months younger than me, basically the Anna to my Alan. We is exactly as far apart age wise as Alan and Anna. I love her so very much and I have just been EXPLODING to tell everyone the best news ever! I have been patient and waited like a good big sister but I can wait no longer and she has announced it on FB so I can announce it on here too! There you have it!! I am going to be an aunt!! I am so excited for my sister and Jake! They are due in July, actually right in between Anna's birthday and everyone else's. At this rate, we will

This weekend we had a guest over for dinner. It was Lon's best friend Shaun, who also owns the gym that Lon works at. We had invited him over last month for his birthday dinner but he was too busy to make plans until this month. I was very excited to have company over, we picked out a movie to watch and I planned out the dinner. I figured we would do some sort of pork chops with potatoes, rolls, green beans and some rice. We could even have wine, if I planned out my pumping and nursing schedule around it. Excitedly, I started looking through my cookbook. And there was nothing that looked good. Oven baked pork chops, thai orange pork chop skillet. Yuck! Okay, so let me disclaimer this before you think that I am a big weirdo. I do not usually like pork or ham, or really any part of a pig for that matter. I was a dedicated vegetarian in high school and even though I eat meat now, I have a very limited palette that I will choose from. Like... chicken, beef and any wild game. That&#

Its my first Five Question Friday in the New Year!! And actually my first one in a while. Its hard to keep up with weekly blog hops when you no longer have internet at your house. I make do but sometimes without the blog hops, which isn't as fun lol. But I am definitely glad to be back and glad to be able to find some new blogs to read! I have definitely been lacking in some reading material lol. :) I hope everyone has an awesome weekend! This weekend I am swamped with work and it sucks. This will be a lot for me. This is one of the first weekends since I have had Anna that I am truly busy, like chicken with their head cut off BUSY. I got double booked for birthday parties tonight and am fully booked for them tomorrow. I will only be working like seven hours total, but for me that is a lot. I still pump and nurse my daughter, thus am only used to working three to four hour shifts. Like I said, this is a lot for me. I will be pumping at work, something that will be an adventure o

Want to see what I have been pinning this week?         My new workout plan: Before every shower do 50 jumping jacks, 5 push ups, 20 crunches, and a 30 second plank. A bookcase on a door, something that I MUST do when we buy our own house! A cute idea for Alan's Valentines for this year? A photo idea for when the kids are just a little bit older.             Elephant coin purses that I must make! An adorable apron for me to make, oh look at me turning into Holly Homemaker! Some cute braided hairstyles for me to try out. The coolest clock EVER!!!!!!!!!!!          A glowing party, something I might just have to do for Mister Alan's fourth birthday. 40 Things that You have to make for your boy, love the car holder already! A photo idea that I just adore!   They just reset Top Baby Blogs again, so I ask you all to vote for Free Range Family! I believe we are currently at Number 190, but we would love to get back to the 150 we

I have been without a phone for a week now and I do have to admit that it has made a lot of things different. Not even in a bad way or anything, just different. I promise you readers that this will not be one of those "I cannot live without my phone" posts. Because the reality is, I can. In fact, I feel like I am doing so much better without my phone. I am taking more time out of my day to play with my children and enjoy them. I keep Alan outside longer now it seems. I have been meditating consistently again. I have made a workout plan (Tues, Thurs, and Sat I do 30 minutes of yoga or pilates) and I have actually been sticking to it during the day. I feel like my house is getting AND STAYING cleaner. And I now have this amazing free time for ME! Yes, I have been reading and drawing and sewing and beading and braiding again. Oh how I love it! How is all of this possible JUST from me not having my phone, you ask? Its so very simle, do you not see??? When I had my pho

Free Range Family now has their own new email address! If you would like to message us, you can reach us at mtfreerangefamily@gmail.com

I do not have a lot to type today. We have been slightly broke lately and thus have not done too much outside of the house. Not to mention that not having a phone makes things a little more difficult lol. But I make do. :) We have been going outside more, reading more stories, making more crafts and just loving our life more. You definitely do not need money for that! Thankfully though, this weekend I was invited to join my mother to the Fringe Festival, a festival downtown supporting Venture Theatre. Lon watched the kids for me and I got to go out and have a little fun, so to speak lol. I even dressed the part, putting on my favorite skirt and thigh length rainbow socks, looking pretty fly. :) Aunt April was performing with her group and another dance troupe. It was quite interesting to say the least and got me thinking about some things... Dancing, life, art and inspiration basically. It brought me to this thought. Where do I get most of my inspiration from? Having been an arti

Life has been very good and very bad to me lately. The other day I was venting about some the bad to a coworker.  Once I had finished, I felt much better but my coworker looked perplexed. "How exactly do you handle all this stress on a daily basis and not just lose it?" she asked me. The truth to this is simple. I take it all in stride. For just about every bad thing that happens to us something good counteracts it. We have had many obstacles in our life as of recent and yet, I am happy because of all the good things that have also gone on. Anna can now sit up by herself for a minute or so. My hiphop class is full for the first time ever and is extremely popular. Both kids did not get too sick from Influenza A (I feel extremely grateful for this, after seeing the epidemic on the news) . Lon and I are happy and as in love as ever. I mean, life is good. Unfortunately, this house we moved into was not the one. But that's okay. We can move as soon as we get back our deposi

I admit that I have been feeling a little bad lately for only writing mostly picture posts. I have been so crazy busy with two kids and teaching dance that I never seem to have the time to get online, let alone actually sit down and type up a whole post lol. I am so sorry. To my fellow readers who have still stood by me, even now that my blog is a tiny bit boring lol,  thank you! I really appreciate it! As for this post, I have never done this with Anna, let alone Alan lol,  so I have to now! I have seen this with other people's blogs and I just love it! Here is my whole pregnancy with Anna, through photos!     All of these belly pictures eventually resulted in this... How magical life is...