Free Range Family

My hip hop students performed Thriller last night. This was my fifth Thriller performance with the YMCA and the biggest performance thus far. We didn't end having every kid in class there, but we did have ELEVEN students that performed! They did so darn well, I am so proud of them! Only a few were nervous this time around but every single one of them did there best. They sure had one spooky show! I didn't get a video of the performance this time, the dance dad I asked to film for me somehow only filmed me talking at the beginning lol. Blahblah, you guys don't want to see THAT lol!! He did however, get a ton of really cool action shots for me! Thanks Dance Dad! You did great! :) Here are some of the photos from the performance. I did post some of my Instagram photos too (like I always do) because I really like how the filters looked with my monsters! Very cool indeed! Enjoy! The spooooooky beginning pose I did perform with them, as I usually do. I dressed in my ori

Today is Karter's birthday! Happy birthday little man! We love you so much! We will be going to his party later today at his house. Alan is so excited and has been talking about it almost non-stop! He can't wait to see Kelton and to celebrate with everyone. I am also pretty excited to see all of our family friends. Yay! Its also my bestie Melissa's birthday today. She lives in California right now and is very close to having her baby girl! Love you Melly Mel! Happy birthday babe! Hope its the best yet! Still waiting to hear back from the landlord of that house. Hopefully she will get back to us by today! We are also talking about something WAY BIG for our family in the near future. I am quite excited about the whole situation and a little nervous. It will be a big step for Lon and I as adults, something we have never done before. I will let you know more details as more things are finalized. Just be on the lookout for our big news! And give us lots of good energy so that

We are getting record breaking snow here in Montana this week. It has been snowing non-stop since yesterday! Its really thick and wet but very pretty! Driving in all the snow is just awful, so we have been hunkering down at Lon's parent's house to keep warm and all together. But yesterday, we venutred outside for two things: Teagan's birthday party and a home viewing. It was definitely worth it, we applied for the house and will find out in the next few days if we are accepted! Its small and a lot less private then we had originally wanted, but it will definitely work for this family. Its a small two bedroom guest sized house behind the landlord's house. There's a apartment sized washer and dryer installed, plus an adorable cabinet for dishes in the dining room. No basement or garage and a small side yard, but its a house and its enough for us right now. We would be happy if we were accepted, it would still mean that we are back together. And at this point, that

So I totally hate doing this, hate starting blog posts with something negative. But I just honestly want to get it out of the way lol! We didn't get the condo we so badly wanted. It was because of my horrible awful credit, blah. Oh well, moving on and back to square one. We saw a place that was small but decent enough for our situation right now. I hate "settling" for things but we applied for it this afternoon. I mean, I wouldn't hate living there. It just has very little privacy and is quite small. But if we get it, I will be happy. So everyone keep up the good work! We love all the positive energy and well wishes! We will be together once again! Be prepared for a long post and a photo dump. We had a busy weekend despite the fact that it snowed and practically blizzarded all weekend! It was cold again but that didn't stop my kids from having major cabin fever! That Anna is a wild, rambuncious child lately and I am now confident that she will have just as much

My mother is the best! She stayed home and made my dad a nice dinner with our kids on Valentine's Day, so that Lon and I could go out to eat. She is so awesome! Thanks mom! Dinner was the perfect ending to our awesome week! We decided to go to Outback Steakhouse, instead of go somewhere wild. By the time we had decided where to go, it was so late! But it was a good decision going there, we definitely didn't regret it! The food there was just amazing! And our waiter was wonderful, even though it was really busy from the holiday, he was very helpful and attentitive to us. We tipped him real good because he definitely deserved it! Lon with one of his drinks and his porterhouse steak We had a blooming onion and french onion soup for our appetizer. They were both so perfect! The onion had that right zesty taste with its chipolte dip! And the french onion soup was too die for! It has a cheesy crouton top that was divine and the onion chunks! Wow! For dinner, Lon had the porte

I have just been terrible about blogging lately! I am so sorry guys! We have been trying to find a new house this week. We have looked at several places and found one that is right for us! We applied for it on Wednesday and will find out if we get it by Friday! I am so excited! This means that we could be moving into a new place by THIS WEEKEND!!! Please give us all good energy and positive prayers! We need all the good juju we can get! We desperately need our family whole again! Alan had his second to last basketball game this weekend. He has one more this Saturday and then will be done with basketball for the year. He starts soccer in March. :) Alan was on Team Yellow this week. He played really well! I had to help him remember to guard the offense and to pass the ball when it was his turn, he still did a wonderful job! I am very proud of him and cannot wait until next week! A coach and team meeting before the game begins Take the shot Alan, take the shot! :D I am also p

Alan had a wonderful time at his preschool party! He really enjoys preschool and loves every holiday party they have. He had been talking about his Valentine party since he had woken up that morning! He picked out Spiderman Valentine's for his classmates and Snoopy cards for his two teachers. I was so proud that he wanted to write the names on each card. At first he just wanted to try writing his own name but after he realized that I would help him too, he wanted to write them all! He did pretty good, although I do have to admit that a few of them were kinda hard to read afterward lol. I am still one proud mama! Anna and I joined in for the beginning festivities at the party. We helped put the Valentines in each bag. They had decorated their bags as heart people. They were all so cute! Then the students colored two Valentines for their parents. Anna colored as well, she loves being a big kid too! Here are a few more pictures from Alan's party. We all had a blast!

We are finally all starting to feel human again! After a week of everyone getting sick and passing it around and around the household, we have finally gotten better! Whooo! This week we started going and doing stuff again. The kids were super antzy, even though they hadn't been feeling well, they had Cabin Fever baaaad. :) I took them to the library on Monday to renew my Frida book. Tuesday, Anna had her third gymnastics class while Alan was in preschool.And the end of the week is Valentine's Day with all of its fesitivities. What a week! The kids always enjoy going to the library. We have made it into a weekly thing now and they love it. I love taking pictures of them at the library apparently too! I guess this post has the potential to become a photo dump lol! :P We played in the play area for sometime before picking out several Snoopy books for Alan. Anna chose a book about Spot the dog and one about Arthur babysitting. I need to finish my Frida biography and my VC Andrews

We didn't end up doing too much this week, the kids were sick most of the week and today I have been quite ill myself. Plus with our blizzarding weather outside, it doesn't make for a good recipe for sick kids. The kids went to their gymnastics classes this week, but I unfortunately had to cancel our playdate with Kelton and Karter to the library. Hopefully we all get better soon, next week is Valentine's Day! Anna is another month old... I swear this month she has grown up so much! I look at 2 year olds in daycare and she acts just like them. She talks so much more now and you can understand almost everything she says now. Her vocabulary has quadrupled in the past month! Its crazy to me! :D Only five more months until she is two years old! Wow! Miss Anna is still recovering from her croup and her teething, but she thankfully never caught the stomach bug that wreaked havoc on our house this week. At nineteen months, Anna Ariel: *weighs approximetly 24 1/2 pounds and i

With the Winter Olympics starting this week, I just thought that I would update everyone on my little gymnast Olympians! Anna started gymnastics with Mommy last week, I was so proud! I haven't had the chance to take a SINGLE photo of the class lol. Our first class together, Anna was overwhelmed by all the different things and the huge-ness of the gymnasium. She wanted to join in with the older class and never wanted to participate in what her class was currently participating in. However this week, she did so much better! She loved class and participated in everything! I was so happy for her! It has been artic weather here in Billings this week, highs of -5 degrees lol. Its supposed to be even colded later on this week! We have been stuck inside, its by far too cold for little toddlers to be playing outside. It seems to be the perfect weather for our little snow puppy Alan lol. He just wants to play in the snow all the time! Every time I am outside Alan is jumping in the snow dri