Free Range Family

Today was another rainy day for us. It seems to be that way a lot lately, but you will not hear me complaining ONCE . I love the rain, it cleanses and nourishes and brings about life. I love watching the rain fall and seeing the beautiful, bright GREEN vegetation outside. Its almost like they are singing so happily about the rain, oh I love it! Don't hate lol, its just the hippie in me! I can't help it! Lately, Alan has been acting wilder and wilder while we are at home during the day and I am trying to clean. I do my best to take him outside everyday and to keep his interest sparked as much as possible throughout the day, but its hard. I found a great idea that should help me do this and encourage him to keep himself entertained too. Its called the Boredom Box and I suggest every "stay at home kid" has one! Alan loves his so much and he has only had it a few hours now! The Boredom Box is simply a box full of ideas for your kid to do to keep them from being b

Once again I apologize for neglecting the blog. Honestly, life has just been so... exhausting lately, I have been neglecting quite a bit. The blog... the dishes... the laundry... Nothing too terribly important though lol! Anna is soooooooooo close to cutting teeth, I hope lol because I cannot take much more. Some nights we are up until five, while others we wake up bright and early around six in the morning. Its every day too lol, I have yet to have a decent nights sleep in some time. Oh well, enough complaining from me! I will instead update you all on some special moments our family has shared this past week. :) Last Wednesday was Alan's last gymnastics class for this school year. He made his teacher a sweet card with dinosaur practicing in their own gymnastics class and said, "To an awesome gymnastics teacher" on the front. I loved it and she clearly did too! Just yesterday we received a thank you card from her. So sweet! Unfortunately, Alan's gymnast

Today we have Alan's make up gymnastics class from when he had fillings last week. I got a chance to go alone with him, which meant that I was able to watch his class, rather than chase Miss Anna around the lobby lol. Thanks Lon! :) This week, he has two gymnastics classes. And tomorrow is his last class before summer break. He will start up again next September. This summer I have plans of teaching him to swim and preparing him for preschool. I plan on taking both kids swimming at least once a week and he is going to do swim lessons at the gymnastics school in July. He has swam before, but has never taken swim lessons. I remember as a child HATING them lol! Hopefully he will have a better time than me and learn lots. I also will be graduating him to wearing underwear ALL the time that he is awake this summer. Currently, he does not wear underwear at school or in public places but this will change, to prepare him for preschool. I am thinking about having him do a preschool ca

This weekend, my family and I celebrated the end of the school year for several of our friends and family. I had four friends who graduated, and Aunt April and our cousin Peyton finished out the year with the School of Classical Ballet with their BEAUTIFUL ballet recital. We also finished up the school year and prepared for the summer rush at work with our big all staff meeting. It was a wonderful weekend for everyone! I am so proud of all of you guys! Aunt April and Peyton were so awesome on Saturday! I am so proud of both of them! Both girls have grown to be such great dancers and it just amazes me. Aunt April performed in five dances, two of them on pointe, and Peyton performed in two dances. I went alone with my mother while the kids had a Daddy Date with Lon. My father and Uncle Kalvin stopped by to watch the girls first few dances too. Aunt April performed in two pointe dances this year! I am so proud of her! She moved gracefully and she stayed strong throughout both dances. G

Or it may not lol? :) I can never tell with you kids! This weekend will be fun for the family and I. Saturday is our all staff meeting and dinner at work, then Aunt April's ballet recital. Sunday is graduation party day lol! I have two former dance students' high school graduations and my friend Chelsey's graduation from nursing school! Should be a busy but fun weekend! The kids and I will just be exhausted by Sunday night lol but it will sure be worth it! I live for weekends like this! :) Most people don't say this about their job, I may be one of the few people to say this but I love our all staff meetings!  We have 200+ employees at the Y and its so nice to get everyone together for dinner! Everyone brings their kids and its one BIG family get together. Plus its always so positive  Love that I feel this way about my job, we are so blessed! I am also so very proud of Aunt April. She has really been working pointe this year and has developed into QUITE the li

I apologize for not posting yesterday, as you can imagine I was pretty busy with the whole dentist ordeal. Alan was sedated (for the first time) and had several cavities filled. Due to his age, he had to be put under almost completely with a shot and an IV. I was quite a nervous wreck but he did pretty good. I stayed in the waiting room with Anna and Lon went back with Alan. Alan sat in Lon's lap and played his Wreck it Ralph app and was given a quick shot in the right shoulder. Alan immeadiately freaked out about the pain and then started freaking out about the way his body felt. It sounded quite bad from the waiting room but Lon said it was not as bad as it sounded. He was able to calm him down enough and Alan snuggled up into Lon right before falling asleep fully. They then had Lon come out with us so they could start the IV and begin surgery. The surgery took around an hour and a half. Lon and I played with Anna to keep her entertained. She wanted to walk sooooooooooo ba

I apologize for not posting recently, this may sound weird but its been too hot for me to be motivated to post. Its too hot for me to do much of anything right now lol, its been in the high 90s for the past two weeks! I am so overheated by the time I am done with the day, I have no desire to do anything. Especially not a blog post. Sorry, I feel like I have been neglecting my readers! I have not indulged you on my Mother's Day! I had a wonderful Mother's Day. My children came and raided our bed nice and early, they were at least nice enough to snuggle and fall asleep quickly. Oh how I just LOOOOOOVE mornings like that! Lon made us eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast and I had a pedicure from the kids in the afternoon. Alan also made me an ADORABLE card with monsters on it. Love it! He said it was from Anna too, even though she did not help. So sweet! :) After my pedicure, we went over to the in law's house for a Mother's Day lunch. We gave Grandma Amber a ca

We have a nice weekend planned. We will be at Alberta Bair again to support Aunt April and Diversity Dance at the KR National Dance Competition tomorrow. I am excited and so is Miss Anna! She loves watching her aunt and all of her aunt's friends perform.  She can't wait to get up there herself! And as everyone knows, it's Mother's Day on Sunday. Lon and the kids surprised me early with a pedicure at the spa! I don't know what else is planned but as long as my day is spent with my husband and my kids,  I will have the best Mother's Day ever! Alan had his gymnastics showcase on Wednesday and he did so awesome! I was the only one in family who was able to go, Lon and Grandma Melanie both had work.  But I did film the whole thing for them.  I will share one of his videos with you readers.  Enjoy! Watch out for Alan at the 2024 Summer Olympics lol! I am only joking. :P Today we walked to Terry Park to meet up with my friends DesiRae, Kelsie and her two boys f

Today was a typical Thursday. The kids and I walked down to Terry Park to meet up with DesiRae, Kelsie and her boys. We had a little picnic and then let the boys play. Afterwards, I had work and Anna had her second time at daycare too. She did very well and is a great baby they said! Everyone loves her there, and for obvious reasons. :) We had Aunt Natalie's baby shower on her birthday, last Sunday afternoon. What a different 21st birthday to be having lol! :) She sure enjoyed it though and that's what is important. We had a big barbeque in my parent's backyard. Thankfully, it was a gorgeously nice day out and it stayed that way the whole party. It was actually hot, like hot hot lol, which was weird for us since we have been so used to the winter cold. I liked it. :) Her party was dinosaur themed and we decorated the yards and living room that way. The driveway had big dino footprints walking up, courtesy of Aunt April. I could not get a photo of them where you could see

Happy Wednesday my wonderful readers! I have quite a bit to love today! Here is this week's WILW! Enjoy and have a great day! I'm loving... that today is Alan's last gymnastics showcase before summer break. Lon has work and will not be able to make it but Grandma Melanie, Anna and I will be there! He will do awesome, I know it! Stay tuned for photos! I'm loving... the goregous summer weather we have been having this past week! We have busted out the tanktops, shorts, dresses and flipflops Mother Nature, don't you dare make it snow again! I'm loving... that Anna is having two MAJOR milestones happen this week: she turned 10 months old yesterday and is going to daycare for the first time today. My big girl! I'm loving... how well Aunt Natalie's baby shower went. Everyone had a great time, including the Guest of Honor herself. The games were a lot of fun too! Oh it was perfect! I'm loving... that we had a wonderful time with Aunt Natalie and U

Today is a BIG day for both of my children! Alan has his last gymnastics showcase before summer break tonight and Anna will also be going to daycare for the FIRST TIME EVER! We are excited for both of them. I know that Alan will rock his showcase, like he always does lol. And Miss Anna will be fine with Alan and I at daycare with her. I do not have dance class this month and can be with her the whole time if she wants me to. Lucky girl lol! We will just see if she will nurse there lol, I do not think it will happen personally. :P I will let you know how it all goes! The showcase this past Saturday was phenomenal. Our students did just amazing and performed their absolute best. Ooh, the show was sooooooo good! I could go on and on about it, but I would rather just photo bomb ya! I am just so proud of all of the students that participated! You guys are all so awesome! Good job! I hope to see you this summer for class. :)

Having been so busy from this month's craziness, I did not even realize that Miss Anna is ten months old today! A whole month have passed and looking at our sweet girl, you can totally tell. She has developed so much in this past month, started crawling and pulling herself up and even eating the same meals as us! Big girl! At ten months old, Anna Ariel: *weighs approximately 20 pounds and is approximately 27 1/2 inches tall *wears size 6M and 9M in onesies, 9M and 12M in pants, and size 3 in diapers *still has no teeth, although you would not be able to tell by how much she is teething lol *has auburn blonde colored hair with red tones. Some days it can be very orange or red like Aunt April's while others it will be more brown or blonde. It is very curly and goes all the way down to shoulder blades in the back. Its so pretty! *has blue-ish hazel eyes that light up the room! *eats pretty much what we do now. She has tried tacos, spaghetti, cereal, a hamburger and several

We are taking a much needed break today, I do not have work and our house could use some cleaning lol. We are beat still from the weekend. :P Tomorrow Anna will be ten months old though, we are so excited! I totally did not realize it was already coming up, I have been so busy with the recital and baby shower. That makes ten months of breast feeding too! Go Anna and I! I am so proud of us! <3 Friday night we had Uncle Kalvin's birthday party at the local bowling alley. Four of Kalvin's school friends came and Alan bowled with the group. At first, he REALLY not into it and he only wanted to check out the pinball machine. But after we had gotten him a bowling ramp and he started watching Kalvin's school friends, he was way more into it. He began picking the balls up himself and carrying them over to the ramps. I was afraid he was going to drop it, but every time he did fantastic! I was able to bowl with my siblings and father too. I did not think I would get to bow

Today is Natalie's 21st birthday. I am so very proud of the grown woman my sister has developed into. I remember when we used to perform mini dance and circus inspired performances for our parents and when we used to share a bunk bed. I slept on top, only ever falling out once on accident. Its so odd to think that we are adults now! I am married with children and you have a little one on the way yourself. You have a great job at the hospital in your town and are still going to school. I know that my nephew will be very proud of his parents. We celebrated Aunt Natalie's birthday last night at Dos Machos. It is tradition in our family to have dinner there for Nat's birthday every year because its also Cinco de Mayo. Lon was not able to make it but the kids and I went. I had a chicken enchilada and chicken taco, it was so yum! I tried to get Alan to eat a taco but he decided he wanted chicken strips. Not very festive but at least he ate lol. Anna would not eat anythin

Today is Uncle Kalvin's ninth birthday. It is honestly a little sad to think that my BABY brother is now almost ten. I remeber the day he was born, bringing him home for the first time, his first words and steps, all of those things. And now he's nine years old, a master gymnast and an aspiring karate kid. He will soon be a third grader! He is getting so big too fast lol! I feel like my mom saying that, but its true. If my Kalvin is growing up, it means my ALAN is growing up lol! :( He is a wonderful uncle to Alan and Anna. They both love him so much. He can act more like Alan's big brother at times, but still knows when to be his uncle. I have fond memories myself of having a similar sibling relationship with one of my uncles as a child. I greatly have valued this all my life and am very happy Kalvin will be there for Alan throughout his life in a similar way. As for Anna, he is a very protective uncle and very helpful. Anna just ADORES him and lights up when h