Free Range Family

Today was my 24th birthday. It was a pretty good birthday, although I really do not feel 24 years old. Isn't that weird lol? We did not have too much planned, since my family is out of town with my sister and my nephew still. But I still had a great day because I spent it with my beautiful children and my husband. I spent the morning with my family, woke up early to play with the kids. Anna is growing up so much, she is fantastic. She know blows kisses when you do know, I love it! I watched Alan swim too, which I do most days, but I enjoyed it more than usual. If that makes sense lol? But I did. And he's getting good too. His swim class has moved deeper into the pool and he does pretty well with it. He just gets nervous about going underwater. He does so well though! Then at work, I brought cupcakes for the staff and their children. There were Oreo cupcakes, red velvet cupcakes and regular vanilla cupcakes (I know, I spoil my Y family lol, but I love them so much!). Towards...

How was your April? We had a decent April. A lot of important things were figured out and we celebrated lots of milestones for this family. Here is what I wrote about: There was a few birthdays this month and also our wedding anniversary. We were very busy with all of our celebrations! We started out the month celebrating Uncle Tyler's birthday. He turned 27 this year. We had Aunt Sam and him over for birthday dinner at our house. Then was Aunt April's 14th birthday. The kids and I took her shopping for her birthday. We had a lot of fun! Nataional Siblings Day was a few days later, I sent my awesome siblings some love. Then I celebrated my blogging friend Hollie's birthday online.  As well as my good friend Chelsey's 24th birthday. A couple of my girlfriends and I took her out for drinks that night. It was one of the first times since I got pregnant with Anna! Speaking of Miss, Anna also turned nine months old, along with that came a new desire to stand on he...

For our anniversary, I wanted to go somewhere new, exoctic and fun for dinner. We could not think of anywhere to go but after a bit, I decided to take Lon to one of my old favorites Bruno's Italian. Unfortunately, we got there way too late. They close around like 7 or 8, I totally forgot! Luckily, there was an Asian Sea Grill right next door! The perfect idea! We ordered salmon sushi for appetizers and a different udon noodle meal for each of us. Lon also ordered himself a Topeko sushi and four different types of sake. We definitely were adventurous with our dinner lol! The four types of sake Lon had were: Tozai Typhoon, Snow Maiden, Star Filled Sky, Tears of Dawn. The Snow Maiden was the coolest, it was very white while the rest were mostly clear. Lon drank all four in a very short time, yet says he did not feel much of anything lol. I got BOMBED the one time I tried sake and learned my lesson lol, so I could not believe that! :P But he enjoyed them very much!   Our f...

Two years ago, on a beautiful new spring day, Lon and I stood in front of our loved ones and joined hands in marriage. I promised to love him and always be there for him, plus we had some laughs in there too. It would not have been our wedding without it lol. :) 4.5 years of dating, 2 years of marriage, 6 different houses, 4 different vehicles, 3 different jobs, 2 kids and countless days of happiness and laughter behind us. And I only look forward to more in the future! Lon is such a wonderful father and husband. He loves his family so much, he would do absolutely anything for them. I admire his dedication to us and to his parents and siblings, as well as his dedication to his job. Lon does not know yet but tonight I am surprising him by taking him out to dinner! I got a sitter and I want to try a new restaurant, but cannot decide where to go yet. Any ideas are welcome! I had a lot of other gushy, lovey dovey things to say, but I have lost too much sleep for that right now. Al...

The weather has just been WILD and bipolar lately. One day its low 60s out and the next its trying to snow! How crazy! Make up your mind please, we would like to have a consistent wardrobe lol. :P Anyways, I have a lot of things to love today, so let's go ahead and get this thing started lol! I'm loving... that my wedding anniversary is in 6 days. I love you Lon! Happy anniversary! I'm loving... how well hiphop class has gone today! We are soooooo ready for this performance, I cannot even wait! They will rock it! I'm loving... that Alan is doing so well potty training again! I think that we will start wearing underwear at school and in public now. So proud of him! I'm loving... that Anna will also be going to daycare starting next month. She will be going two months earlier than planned, but this is due to my dance class schedules. I know that she will be fine, everyone loves her. I'm loving... all the acts of kindness invovled with the Bo...

Kate Middelton and I have several things very similar to each other, from our wedding dates to the due dates of our children. Lon and I were married April 23, 2011 while Kate and William were married April 29, 2011. We will both be celebrating our second wedding anniversary this month. Kate is due with her first child in the middle of July 2013, while I was due mid July last year. Our pregnancies have also been similar. We both experienced severe morning sickness that wound us up in the hospital more than once, and we both had issues gaining weight during the pregnancy. I feel very connected to her because of these reasons. I feel that I can relate better than most and most important of all, I choose to support her over judging her with her pregnancy complications. I have seen it on the newstands and have read it more than a few times on the internet, that people are judging Kate for not only hiding her belly so much but also for her lack of weight gain. I cannot imagine how that m...

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...

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 ...

Happy Friday everyone! Tonight is my beautiful cousin Abbie's wedding. Lon and I will not be able to go however, because we could not find a sitter for my kids aka my mom was not able to do it lol.  But I hope that her wedding is as amazing and wonderful as the two of you are. I really wish we could go too, its a themed wedding so it will be so cool! Ah, I can't wait to see pictures! Congratulations Abbie and Cody! We love you guys! Also, it is very early. Like 6:38 in the morning early. And I went to bed late, as you all should know. So why I am up right now is a mystery to me.Well not really. Actually Lon went to open the gym (ah, early morning beef cakes lmao) and Anna is eating an early morning meal. So this requires me to be awake at an ungodly hour (in my personal opinion anything before seven is no go) after only have slept just an hour last night. Yay me. It should be known that I am again not responsible for the content of this post. I am...

Happy Friday everyone! Today is Anna's two month birth anniversary. We are pretty excited! We don't have too much planned for today, except Sunday is Grandparents Day and Great Grandma Marcia's birthday. The zoo will be open to everyone for free that day so we will be taking a trip there with Grandma Melanie. So excited, we haven't been to the zoo in a few months or so and Anna has never gone! I will be sure to take lots of photos, Alan just loves it there. Here is this week's Five Question Friday! What is your favorite fall family tradition? I seriously LOVE fall! I feel like I say that for every season but fall is my favorite this time around lol. And yes, I can do that. :P My favorite fall family tradition is going to the pumpkin patch mid-October to explore the cornmaze and farm life, and to pick our pumpkins for Halloween. There is one main pumpkin patch/cornmaze in our town that we go to and I seriously look forward to it every year. It opened u...

Happy Friday! The Andersen family is sure enjoying this summer weather, we have been very busy keeping cool in the heat! Tuesday consisted of tricycle rides, popsicles, running through the sprinkler and playing in the mud. Wednesday we went outside with daycare and Thursday was Aunt April's dance recital. She did a beautiful job dancing! :) Today we went swimming at the pool at my work and it was the first time Alan had ever gone swimming in a deep pool. I was a little anxious but he did a wonderful job! He even let me float him on his belly and his back! I think its time to start swim lessons with mommy! :) He looks unsure in this pic but he had a blast! Here's this week's Five Question Friday! Enjoy! Remember to check out my post about guest bloggers, I have six so far that are participating but I would like at least four more! :) Did you do anything special for your kids on the last day of school? Or did you parents do anything special for you? My son is ...

I just realized that Sunday is not only my baby shower, but the five year anniversary of my high school graduation day. Wow, five years really????? That is just crazy to me lol. A lot has happened to me in the past five years, I went from being a wild child to a grown adult. Here is the last five years of my life in a nutshell: May 20, 2007: I graduate from Senior High School at the Metra Park Stadium. One of my senior pictures, circa 2007 July 2007: I turn 18 years old in Las Vegas, NV with my mother and sister. August 2007: I start teaching dance at Tracy's School of Dance. September 2007: I studied a year at Montana State University-Billings, majoring in Art Education. December 2007: I get my first tattoo, roses for Rosalie, on my stomach. March 2008: I move out of my parent's house and into my first apartment ever with Sarah, Alec and Darren. April 2008: I get my second tattoo, a purple sparrow, on the left side of my chest. July 2008: I celeb...

I said the two best words I could say to the one person who is the love of my life.  I said "I do" to a life of endless happiness and love. To all those wonderful kisses, to all the laughter we will share, to all those silly adventures we will take together. To long nights taking care of him when he is up sick and to all of those amazing foot and back rubs. To all those dinner failures and invention successes and to all the beautiful children we will have. A year ago, today, I married my beloved husband Lon. We had a beautiful wedding at the Veteran's Park with all of the important people in our life present. I still look back on that day fondly, flipping through our gorgeous pictures taken by the great Jeff Bryson. It was so perfect for us! Our goofy wedding party In this past year, we have been through a lot of ups and some downs. Financial issues, loss of jobs, our trip to Canyon Ferry, Lon getting a job, an unexpected pregnancy, morning sickness, ER vi...

Hope everyone had a fantastic Saint Patrick's Day, I know my family did! :) Early Saint Patrick's morning wasn't too good to me, I couldn't sleep after four and was up sick every hour after six in the morning! But I took my vitamins and was okay in time for the parade. Alan was beyond excited for the parade. We picked up Aunt April and Uncle Kalvin to go with us, and met Kelsie, her friend Desiree and Kelton met up with us. We ended up finding a spot right on the bend of the parade, which was nice because we could see ahead of the parade and prepare for what was coming. Alan couldn't wait for it to start! Waiting for the parade The parade started out as it always does this holiday, with the presentation of our flags and the bagpipe band. Alan thought the bagpipes were weird, probably because he couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from and he was confused about their kilts. But he clapped and waved at them regardless. Then came some cool hot rod c...