Free Range Family

Alan had his last preschool class of 2013 today. It was also their Christmas party, so Anna and I joined in on the festivities. We had a great time! Santa and Mrs. Claus came and gave out gifts, we made cottonball snowmen, Alan went swimming with his buddies and we had Christmas snacks! The perfect way to finish out the year for preschool! The students were so excited to see Santa and Mrs. Claus! Each kid received a stocking of goodies and a book from Santa, even Anna! She was too scared to get a photo with him this time though. Alan wasn't however, he was ready to say hi and get his gifts lol! I love his photo with Santa, so cute! Then the whole class sang "Jingle Bells" with Santa and Mrs. Claus before they left! So cute to hear a whole room of preschoolers singing their own version of the Christmas classic. I love it! They were about to go swimming in these pics, that's why half the class is in their suits lol. I had some friends and family on FB who were conf...

Good afternoon everyone! I hope that all of you got a chance to read my earlier post about Wear Red Day for Heart Awareness! We are all wearing our red here at Free Range Family! I hope that you are too! We do not have much planned today. Just our usual 15 minutes outside play while Anna naps (in the snow, yes!) and I have a tumbling birthday party tonight at work. This weekend is pretty unplanned as well. I think that maybe the SuperBowel is this weekend? Or is that next weekend lol? We do not watch football here, so I have no idea! :P I am determined to meet up with my friend Kelsie and her son Kelton this weekend. She is due to have her baby very soon, I want to get the boys out doing something fun before she is homebound for a bit! Other than that, we might go visit the grandparents. Not too much this weekend, but its my first weekend off in a while! I will take that over anything! Here is the second Five Question Friday post of 2013! Enjoy! What is your favorite book to r...

I do not have a lot to type today. We have been slightly broke lately and thus have not done too much outside of the house. Not to mention that not having a phone makes things a little more difficult lol. But I make do. :) We have been going outside more, reading more stories, making more crafts and just loving our life more. You definitely do not need money for that! Thankfully though, this weekend I was invited to join my mother to the Fringe Festival, a festival downtown supporting Venture Theatre. Lon watched the kids for me and I got to go out and have a little fun, so to speak lol. I even dressed the part, putting on my favorite skirt and thigh length rainbow socks, looking pretty fly. :) Aunt April was performing with her group and another dance troupe. It was quite interesting to say the least and got me thinking about some things... Dancing, life, art and inspiration basically. It brought me to this thought. Where do I get most of my inspiration from? Having been an arti...

***For some reason, Blogger will not let me upload any pictures onto this post. Weird and oddly frustrating after I have been messing with it for sometime now. Ugh oh well... I will add in pictures later when I get to my mother's house.*** Despite Alan feeling still slightly under the weather from Influenza A, we went ahead and had his New Year's Day craft party. I am very glad that we did this too because it went so well! The party was in the late afternoon at Off the Leaf, one of the coffee shops in town. I love this place because you can rent their conference rooms  FOR FREE!! It only costs $20 if you want to have outside food and drink, $40 if you are planning on selling something. So perfect for just about ANY event you need a few rooms for. Wow, love it! :) We had five big kids and two little kids, plus three other mamas. A very nice turnout! Alan did not feel well enough to participate very much, he made himself a party hat but then was ...

There has been quite a bit going on around our house. Both kids have caught the flu bug, Alan had a very successful New Year's Day party, Aunt Natalie has come to town, Alan started gymnastics. Lots of new things! This is what has been happening in our family lately! We miss you all! Donated a big pile of blankets to our town's Blanket Drive. See that big pile in the middle? Yeah... Some pics of us playing! Alan on his LeapPad... The Batman Trap that Alan and I designed at school... Anna rolling on the floor, happy as a clam blowing raspberries... My children sharing, oh how I love it! Special Events that we have been up to! The kids doing craft at Alan's New Year Party... Alan making his hat, despite his sick feeling... Anna enjoying the New Year Party as well... Alan listening to his new gymnastics teacher with the rest of his class... Lots of stuff going on for us! Our New Year is starting out quite busy!

September is also another one of those birthday months for us lol. I know so many people who have children that were born in September, sometimes the same year but oftentimes different years too! It also is the beginning of fall, one of my favorite seasons of the year! Who am I kidding lol, EVERY season is my favorite season, it just depends on which season we are curently on! :P But I do just love fall and all that comes along with it. Here are some of the things we did this month! Being a part of the What to Expect group has its benefits, one of the main ones being all the empathy and support you recieve because you are venting to moms going through the exact same age. I love my WTE mamas! This of course means that I know a ton of people born in September and alot of them are the same age as Alan. So we celebrated so many birthdays this month, it was crazy! Here are the main ones I wrote about: Alan's third birthday was in the beginning of this month. He had an awesome Bubbl...

Today was a uneventful day, I only had to teach hiphop in the late afternoon. I also did not get too much done around the house either because Anna wanted to eat almost all day and I have not felt too good. I do not want to jinx myself by saying it but I think I am getting sick. I'm pretty sure that Alan is sick, he has been coughing alot at night. Ugh I just hope that Anna does not get it. I'm linking up again with Jamie @ This Kind of Love for What I'm Loving Wednesday. This is my second time linking up with her, be sure to check out her post! Enjoy! I'm loving that when I went to the grocery store today, there was a HUGE pumpkin display out front! Yay for fall! I'm loving that on the Katie Couric Show today two moms who breastfed in public came on a spoke about their experiences! Breastfeeding is being realized by more and more people as a normal and okay thing! This makes me happy! I'm loving that a nurse in is being scheduled at Applebee'...

Grandma Melanie, Alan, Anna, and I went to Jenelle's senior art show Monday night after I was finished with dance class. I cannot believe that Jenelle is already at her senior year of college, I remember when we were just starting college together and sharing a table at our art class. We used to make fun of our crazy old teacher Jussila and talked about my family alot  (she was dating my cousin Garrett at the time). Now we are all grown up, she about to graduate and start teaching art class and me married with two children. I miss those days, looking back. It was nice to go back to the art building and see the classrooms I used to frequent. Jenelle is serioulsy one of my favorite artists. Her artwork is so different and unique, I love all the colors she uses. The theme of her show was manifest destiny, so there were various native american styled pieces as well as some western artwork too. Oh, I loved it all! I really enjoyed the native american side the best, I loved a...

Because I really think I need one again. This is step one of Operation: Make Mama Feel Normal Better  I say feel better and not normal because in reality and all truth, I hate the word normal these days. People have this hidden expectation of "normal" and what it is, and they are so scared to stray from it. All my life I have known that I am not necessarily normal and really kinda weird. It honestly has never bothered me because it is who I am, it has always been me and thus is natural for me. But I have noticed that when I call someone weird, not even to insult them, just as an observation, they become uncomfortable and get offended regardless. Why is this? I am just calling you weird in comparison to me, in my eyes this is a good thing and not something to become upset over. I am not trying to insult the person, just connect with them. Of course as an adult now, I no longer call people weird that much, except sometimes for my husband when I'm not thinking abo...

Happy Thursday everyone! Today wasn't as warm out as yesterday was, but since its my only day off in a while I figured Alan and I would still take our little walk over to my parent's house. We did and though it looked like it wanted to storm on us the whole time, we had a really good time! This time on our walk, we saw a rollie pollie on the sidewalk. I told Alan to scare it so that it would roll up, and he bent down close to it and yelled as loud as he could lol! :D Needless to say, the rollie pollie wasn't scared at all and continued on its way to the grass. It had me laughing for blocks though lol! He is too funny sometimes! Tomorrow night is my friend Jessica's Bachelorette Party. I was invited before I was pregnant lol, so I think I will still be going, for a little bit. They even bought me a matching shirt and nicknamed me Sexy Hippie Mama or something silly like that lol. Pretty close to the right name! :P We will be doing dinner and then going out the bars af...