Free Range Family

Weird title, I know, but I felt the need to theme my title specifically to my weekend and well, what a better way to do it then with a lyric line from one of Gaga's songs?  "I've overheard your theory, 'Nostalgia is for geeks' I guess sir, if you say so, some of us just like to read" You see, I like Lady Gaga as much as the next person, er dancer, although I am not a huge fan of hers, I respect and appreciate her music and enjoy her performances. She, like Michael Jackson, is a phenomenal performer! I would just die to see one of her live shows! She is such a freak, and in such a beautiful way. You have to keep reading if you want to know why I am talking Gaga so much lol!  Anyways this weekend, I was given the most amazing experiences ever for my job! I teach dance and gymnastics at our local YMCA and now that we are under new management in our department, we took advantage and invited a famous gymnast to come train me and three other teachers.

The day after our court date was Alan's first ever Preschool Field Trip. We have been trying our hardest to not change the kids' schedules or lifestyles because of our current situation, so even though we should have all been moving Anna and I went with Alan's class so that I could help chaperone. They were going to Zoo Montana to explore the zoo and see all the B's (since its their letter of the week lol) that they could find! We saw B irds and B ears and B unnies and B obcats and B ugs! All the kids had a fantastic time, including Alan and Anna! I am pretty busy today and don't have a lot of time to write a long post, so I will leave you with a photo dump lol! Enjoy! Farmer Alan at Zoo Montana My favorite photo from the whole trip! Alan holding hands with two of his friends! So sweet! We tried to get a class photo lol... Keyword: Tried. We only had two kiddo crashes the whole trip and o

Yay! I am finally able to post about another one of the BEST days of my life! Oh I have waited all week to share with you readers about this great day, but with our crazy life right now I have yet to have the chance. But before I start on my wonderful happy post, I have to update everyone on our family. We are officially moved out of that horrid house and away from that awful man, fully moved out by yesterday at 3:45 pm. Only an hour and fifteen minutes before we were supposed to, I was quite proud of us! It rained heavy all day yesterday too, so we moved most of our possessions in the storm. I had to bag every box we had packed so that things would not get ruined, it was SOOOOOOOOOOO much work lol! Wow... As if winning the case and removing us from his property wasn't enough for him, our landlord also felt the need to harass us all day yesterday by stalking us and driving around the house over and over again until we called the police on him. :( What a creep! I am so glad that w

I cannot post about Color me Rad today, I have something much more important to post about. I apologize for anyone who was looking forward to it. The Color me Rad post will be on Thursday most likely. Keep an eye for it! Yesterday, we had court with our landlord. Since it is mostly said and done, I will share the basics with you all. I still do not want to share all the horrid details with you because I try so hard to keep this blog a positive forum for my family and my readers. But I am compelled to share the basics with you. We lost the case, our landlord had a lawyer and a good one too, probably very expensive. Even the judge wasn't pleased with outcome. We have to be completely out of the house by tomorrow at 5 pm. We also owe him a good sum of money apparently, which I don't agree with the most. This landlord, this man, put a young family of four out on the streets because he is stubborn and money greedy. We have no place to live now and have struggled almost all day y

Tomorrow is a hectic day for my family. I do not like to share super negative stuff on here, but we do have civil court with our landlord. We do not know how it will all go in the end, we can only stay positive, share our side of the story and hope for the best. I know that we are right and we will be okay no matter what. Those things are the most important to me! If you are the praying type, I am asking everyone to please pray for the judge's clarity tomorrow. Everyone else, please send us good vibes and positive energies. Being Taoist Budhist, I believe very much so in the strong power of energies, both positive and negative. Tomorrow, my family and I need all the good, positive energy we can get for this case! Thank you all so much, you know I love you guys! Don't think I will be posting at all tomorrow, so tune in Tuesday for my Color me Rad 2013 post! I am so excited to share it with you, I had such a wonderful time and worked real hard with some great people. I love vol

Life has been good lately. This weekend is Color me Rad and I also plan on going to Wrecking Clown's Swagger Saturday workshop afterwards. I am so excited for both! Tonight I am working a birthday party for one of my former student's and their one year old brother. We should have some fun. :) Yay! The kids and I are finally getting over that creeping crud we have had all week long. And next week, I am chaperoning Alan's Preschool field trip to Zoo Montana! Things are going very well around here. However, as we approach this court date with our landlord and things are getting more apprehensive and hectic, but I just need to remind myself of all the GOOD in our life: our amazing children are healthy and happy, we have stable jobs where people love us, our friends and family are here to support us. Things may feel like they are about to be turned upside down for us, but during the hard times we need to rememeber our family's foundation. We love each other and will alway

I want to give a big shoutout to my brother-in-law and my future sister-in-law! They are getting married at four at the same courthouse that Lon and I were married at. I am so happy for them! Congratulations Uncle Tyler and Aunt Sam, we love you guys so much! We wish that we could go to the ceremony, but we cannot get the time off of work to attend. However, we will all get together soon and go out to celebrate! And they are waiting until Christmas time to have their reception, so that all of the Andersen and Jacobson family will be able to attend! Huzzah guys! We love youuuuuuuuu! We wish you both nothing but love, happiness, and financial success! Baby Benton is also two months old today! My word, I cannot believe it has already been two months! I swear just yesterday Aunt Natalie was still pregnant with him! He is getting so big too, loves sitting in his Bumbo chair because it makes him feel like a big boy (it amazes how much he is like his oldest cousin). And loves hanging out wi

Miss Anna has grown up so much this past month! Its crazy! She is such a big girl now, she walks and talks just like her big brother... we are in so much trouble lol! Mister Benton will be two months in a week too! How crazy fast they are growing! At fourteen months, Anna Ariel: *Weighs 21 pounds and is approximetly 28 inches long (I will get her exact height at her doctor's appointment next month, but her weight is accurate from her last appointment) *Wears Size 12M in onesies, skirts and shorts but can still fit in some 9M shorts and skirts. For diapers, she still is in Size 3. *Has shoulder length, red ish auburn colored hair with two big red streaks across the top. I love her bright orange hair! *Has blue ish hazel colored eyes with a yellow ring around the edge. Her eyes are a perfect combination of Lon's and mine! *Still only has the two teeth. Man, these teeth are a pain! She has been actively teething for months now and with nothing to show from it.

We had an awful thunderstorm Saturday night. Heavy rain and hail, high winds, flash flooding and rolling black outs. We had no power for over seven hours that night, but we fared off WAY better then others in Billings. I have a friend who's basement flooded 8 feet, leaving only the top two feet of the ceiling exposed! Others had stuff blown away and destroyed, and there are tree branches all over! I had planned on getting all of the party stuff together Saturday, but the power outages didn't allow that. So I was scrambling Sunday morning, trying to get everything set up! Only a few hours before his party, flash flood and thunderstorm warnings were issued for our area. Guests were dropping from the party like flies. We cancelled the Water Gun Fight and planned to do a pinata that the kids could fight lol. But I was still worried about how it all would go. Let me tell you, it went great! Here are all the pinata photos! Sorry I will warn everyone now, this post will be a photo