Free Range Family

At least for now lol. :) Not too much has been happening in our neck of the woods, Alan has been excelling again at potty training and Anna wants to stand by herself. We have been staying home and enjoying the nice weather outside. Yesterday we went out maybe three times! It was so beautiful out! Alan is convinced that the family of bunnies that we share our yard with is the Easter Bunnie's family so he has been harrassing the poor guys a lot more lately lol. I will have to make a point to pick them up some goodies at the store next time to make it up to them. We went to a playdate at my friend Kelsie's house today. Chelsea came with her two girls also. We all played outside with the kids, even though it looked like it might rain. We got lucky and it didn't though, so we were able to sit with the babies and talk some. Kelsie's son Karter is already so big! :) He is only a month old and is already 10 pounds! What a cutie! Great Grandma Joyce and Great Grandpa Floyd cam

Happy Spring Break Day! Today is the first day of spring break for our town's school district and my siblings are pretty darn excited! Alan also does not have gymnastics today so he will be going to daycare with me twice this week. The girls I work with will be happy lol! :) Grandpa Kevin, Aunt April and Uncle .Kalvin will be meeting Aunt Natalie and Uncle Jake to visit some of our family over Easter, so it will just our family and my mom for Easter. Hopefully we can get the Great Grandparents to come over too! Here is this week's What I'm Loving Wednesday! Enjoy! I'm loving... that Easter is on Sunday! That means Easter Bunny visits and egg dying and egg hunts and treats and family and laughter and love! Plus its Anna's first Easter. Soooooooo excited! I'm loving... how into Easter Alan is this year. Yesterday we saw one of the bunnies who we share our yard with, and Alan legitmetly thought it was the Easter Bunny. We followed that bunny ar

This weekend was my staff dinner party, it was held at the local Elks Club. We originally wanted to go but due to craziness and general life stuff, I forgot to RSVP for the event. My boss told me that we could go anyways, so I found a last minute baby sitter (thanks Grandma Melanie) and we got ready for the party. I figured out my pumping schedule so that I could drink some too. I was pretty excited, needless to say. I posted this status on my Facebook: "Getting ready for the Y staff dinner. I am very excited to go! In the 2+ years I have worked there, Lon and I have yet to actually go to one of the staff parties. It should be lots of fun! Who else is going?" We arrived at the party a little late but that was due to Anna wanting to nurse right  before we left lol. We still made it in time for dinner, we just missed the cocktail drinks beforehand. No biggie, I could not start drinking until after dinner and a nursing break anyways. :) Dinner was DELICIOUS!!!! It was chick

"There once was a onesie that always asked Hug Me..." Lol Anna first wore said onesie when she was a wee four weeks old. She was still so tiny, the thing just hung off her body lol. I believe the first time she wore it was with her first skirt ever. That was even at our last apartment, wow that was so long ago! She was so small but she looked so cute! Fast forward several months (seven and a half to be exact) and little petite miss STILL fits in this onesie! At almost nine months old! She weighs a wopping 17 and a half pounds but this is the LAST 3M ONESIE THAT FITS. All the others I have given away. The last of its kind lol...

You may remember earlier last week when I mentioned my friend's passing? Kristen was very involved in the breast feeding group and believed that breast milk was best for her daughter. Her daughter was exclusively breast fed up until her mother's passing. Well, the breast feeding group that we both belonged to rallied together shortly afterwards to get breastmilk shipped to Kristen's daughter Gemma. I kid you not, the morning after Kristen's death there was only talk of donations of milk and money on our group's page. By her funeral, the first stock of breast milk was delivered and the storage space was scouted. And for good reason too. After suffering the death of her mother, sweet Miss Gemma tried formula and reacted so negatively to it. She devloped a rash even! Formula instantly was OUT OF THE QUESTION. Thankfully, it was just miraculous how many mothers stepped forward. I so wanted to, but did not have any milk to donate. So I helped with the shipping fees.

Not too much has gone on here the past few days. We were going to go to a park today but the weather was not the best (where did Wednesday's spring weather go?) and Alan wasn't feeling his best. But we did get him a new pair of shoes, the first pair EVER with shoelaces. :) Alan insisted on learning how to tie them right away lol but after many attempts, our gungho guy gave in and let me help. In due time, young one! :) Started the plans for Aunt Nat's baby shower. She wants it the day after her birthday and to be dinosaur themed. I bet I can think of some cute stuff to go with that! :) My darn camera has yet to show up, ugggggh I may be the most impatient person I know lol. But I want it here nowwwwwww! Lol how juvenille can I be? Other than that, its been pretty quiet around here this week. Just catching up on EVERYTHING from last week when everyone was sick, work and housework and the like. We got my car finally fixed and are still under investigation with Lon's

There are a few things that I am loving today and though I have yet to figure out how to link up on this app, I will still do a WILW post. Because especially right now, I need to be focusing on all the POSITIVE instead of all the crazy negative stuff that keeps happening to us. Here you go, wonderful readers! Enjoy! I'm loving... that I will be getting our family's new camera today! Its a Nikon Cool Pix (I just LOOOOOOVE Nikon) with waterproof capabilities! Very cool! I can't wait to try it out! I'm loving... all the new apps I got on my phone this week: Angry Birds, Blogger, Skype, and Instagram. I love my smart phone! I'm loving... the inspiration that has come flooding into my body after this weekend at Spotlight Dance Competition. I love watching other choreographers' work! It really gets my creative juices flowing having that connection with fellow teachers! Gah, I could go on and on about it lol! I'm loving... this new book I bought off of K

Life has really been trying hard to be rough on us lately and we just keep fighting it, tooth and nail! No matter what karma tries to throw at us, we stay strong together! :) My car tried to break down on us yesterday, just hours after we got it back from the mechanics. Grrr, it was the darn antifreeze cap but it scared the bajesus out of me and was successful in making us late to Alan's make up gymnastics class. Le sigh, I bet the gymnastics secretary thinks I am nut-so, I schedule make up classes for when he is sick and can't even make them on time! Like I said, life is determined to bring us down. :) But I am just as determined! We made it to class just after warm up, so Alan got a good half hour in. He is doing so good now too! That boy can do forward and backward rolls, donkey kicks and can walk his feet up the wall! I love watching him interact with his little friends too! I wish I could watch him more! :) Last night was also one of Alan and Anna's friend's firs

Today is a busy one for us. I have a ton of errands to do before Alan's make up gymnastics class. Then we have a birthday party for one of Alan and Anna's friends. We are so excited he is one!!!! :D Last week was quite scary for my family. March 8th, Lon was involved in a car accident and then had a tooth pulled later that afternoon. The rest of that weekend, he was quite ill. Feverish, not able to eat anything, delirious and in a decent amount of pain. He was on some pain killers but they only seemed to make his stomach hurt. By Monday, I was worried about him. He had lost a decent amount of weight, and the fevers had not subsided without lots of medication. Tuesday passed and Wednesday, I decided that he needed to go in somewhere. My car was not working, so Lon's brother and his fiance took him to the Walk In Clinic for me. Lon was immeadiately sent to the Emergency Room. His fever was in the 100s and he could barely walk at that point. Sam told me she couldn't bel

Today is Uncle Jake's birthday. I first met Jake sometime last year, I believe. He is dating my sister Natalie, they are due with a little boy in July. Back when I first met him, I was admittedly judgemental. My sister had never really dated someone that serious, so I wanted to make sure he was good enough for her. And he definitely is! Jake is a kind- hearted, down-to-earth sorta guy. He is good with kids and is about as wild at heart as Natalie is. They are just perfect for each other! He loves dirt biking as much as my family does, which is sorta a requirement to join our family lol. :P I hope you have a great birthday Jake! I wish that we could celebrate with you guys, we will have to make up for it when you are in town! Happy birthday Uncle Jake! Here is a pic of Jake and Natalie's baby. He's so cute already lol! Love him so much!

I just found an app on my phone for blogger, of course I had to get it lol! I also have a new instagram account (yes, I joined the craze lol) you can follow me at jillianjandersen. Go find it now!!! This weekend was quite eventful. I don't even feel like going over last week with you yet, there was a lot of crazy medical stuff with Lon and we are still mentally proccessing that. Just know that Lon is okay now. But back to this weekend... Saturday night, I took the kids to Geyser Park. Alan was quite antzy all day and he deserved to go somewhere special. So we went and had pizza, played some games and played in the tubes. Alan has really shocked me how much he truly has grown up lately. We played Pac Man together and he even beat me a few times! I was proud of him lol. Sunday was Spotlight Dance Competition. Aunt April and several of my old dance students performed, so the kids and I went to support them. Diversity was performing a lot of their older performances from the las

I cannot seem to think of one for the life of me lol!  Oh well, lots of things have been going on at the Andersen household, some great so-called "life upgrades" and other cool stuff lol. Alan is still sick, he is getting over a bad cold and a double ear infection, but he is starting to eat again and beginning to act more like his old wild self. This makes me very happy! Earlier this week, Uncle Chase was over to hang out with the kids and it started to hail really hard outside. There was thunder and lightning too, and the hail eventually turned into snow. It was so crazy! It was sunny and nice outside one moment, and a snowy whiteout the next! You could not even see more than twenty feet in front of you at a certain point! Here is crazy Uncle Chase out in it lol! He and Lon insisted on going outside to collect snow for snowcones, but they were not very successful! It was too wild out there lol! You cannot see, but I am taking this picture with one hand. The other one i

Happy Friday everyone! I hope everyone has a great weekend! Do you like the new look of the blog???? I figured that I would change the background to be more... srpingy lol, since it is March now. Personally, I think the flowers are sooooooo pretty! I love the new look! :) Its been a few weeks since I have been able to join in with the FQF blog hop. Oh how I have missed it! Without further ado, here is this week's Five Question Friday! Does your family coordinate clothing for church on holidays like Easter? I coordinate my family on holidays and for pictures, but only to a point. I usually give the boys a color group (red, green, white or yellow, blue, green, purple) and they can wear anything in those colors. I usually will have them coordinate jeans though. I like us to either all wear jeans or all wear something different. And I like to wear a dress or skirt if Anna does. Now that I have typed it all out, it sounds a little OCD lol. :P But I like for us to look nice as

She is getting so big, it just amazes me. I think I am getting used to the idea of her growing up and looking less and less like that newborn baby we brought home eight months ago. She has officially nursed for as long as Alan did and we have no plans of stopping yet. She wants to crawl, wants to move, but has figured out her own unique way of transportation. My love and amazement for her grows each and every day, I cannot believe that Lon and I are just so lucky to have her and her brother in our lives. I feel like I won the lottery, but even that would not feel as wonderful as this. I love my children so much! At eight months, Anna Ariel: *weighs approximately 17 pounds and 8 ounces and is approximately 29 inches long. *is officially wearing size 6M clothes. She still has some 3M onesies that she can still fit in and I cannot seem to part with, but everything else is 6M or bigger. My girl is LONG!!!! *has light blue ish hazel eyes that are so similar to her father and her br

About a month ago, Lon's parent's house went under quarentine from our family, so to speak. Uncle Chase had somehow gotten shingles and was suffering considerably. Poor guy! Since neither of the kids have had chicken pox nor have they finished their vaccinations for it (well maybe Alan at this point, but definitely not Anna), we did not want to risk it anyways. Well sure enough, Aunt Ariel eventually caught chicken pox from her older brother, only a few days after Uncle Chase had started to feel better too! How unfortunate! :/  Needless to say, we really miss everyone over there and feel really bad that they all are uncomfortable and bored lol. Aunt Ariel obviously cannot go to school and she is a very active and social girl, this has hit her the hardest. She misses school, misses her friends, and is so bored! Poor girl, I can totally relate. We all decided to make her a little care package to help bring her spirits up and give her some stuff to do until she feels better.

I have to admit that I am quite the collector. Both Lon and I have our own collections and a few shared collections. One of our favorites is our Sock Monkey Family Collection that the kids both enjoy playing with. They usually "live" on the bookcase in our living room. Up until recently though, we only had a Mom Monkey, Dad Monkey and little Boy Monkey. I loved the collection, but wanted a little Girl Monkey to complete the family. The other morning, I found her.    I was at the grocery store, buying breakfast for the family (we had decided to have fresh fruit with our yogurt) and I saw her in the toy aisle. I just had to buy her! Everyone loves her, especially Miss Anna herself! She played with her the entire morning and even fell asleep with her that afternoon! I think the little Girl Monkey is the perfect addition to the Sock Monkey family!

Today is Uncle Cameron's 29th birthday.   Alan is sitting right at Uncle Cameron's feet in this pic, looking up at him   Uncle Cameron lives in Washington right now, so unfortunately we will not be able to do anything with him for his birthday. But we are working on getting his present together and will be mailing it along with Alan's famous cards hopefully tomorrow or the next day. We love you Uncle Cameron! Happy birthday!     Uncle Cameron is next to Aunt Natalie in this picture, just off to my right  

We had a pretty decent February this year, not too much snow and just enough things to keep us busy on the weekends. Not to mention that we found out some very exciting news about Aunt Natalie and Uncle Jake's baby! Check out what happened to us this month! We celebrated Valentine's Day this month at a little party for Alan and his friends at the local coffee shop. It went really well, even better than last time, especially because Alan was feeling much better! February also meant CHD Awareness Week just before Valentine's Day, I did not write my own posts for the week but I did link up with CHD parents. Here are the four posts I wrote: #1, #2, #3, and #4. Anna also turned seven months old, and discovered her voice. Needless to say, our house is NEVER quiet anymore lol. :) But I would not have it any other way! I took Alan on a Mama and Son Date to the Family Life Expo. Then we celebrated Super Bowl with both of our families, and I suceeded in not watching any of