Free Range Family

Happy Holidays!  I am so excited that I can finally say that! I love December and the holiday season! I have been waiting for this all year! We have been applying for houses like crazy too, in hopes that we will have a place by Christmas. Wouldn't that be perfect? Its honestly all that I want for Christmas this year.   Pray for us to get lucky! :) I hope that everyone is having a great Christmas season, I know that we are! We went to the Festival of Trees last night with Grandma Melanie and Grandpa Kevin. Aunt April was performing with her dance studio. She did so awesome, as usual! They even did their new dances, like their Spice Girl song choreographed by Ade! Oh my goodness, it was all so awesome! Great job April! I could go on and on about how wonderful their performance was! Seriously! She even inspired one of my own dance students who was their with family! :D Aunt April and her crew after their performance <via>   After Diversity was done with the...

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...

This weekend we helped my parents pick out and decorate their Christmas tree. Ever since we were kids, we have had a real tree. My first fake tree was when I moved in with Lon lol, I love real trees! Maybe when we have our own house we will get a real tree. However, Alan has never had the opportunity to pick out a Christmas tree and those are some of my favorite memories as a child. So when my dad invited us, I took him up on the offer right away! We looked all over the lot and found the perfect one in the corner. Its a nice fat and fluffy one, Alan and Uncle Kalvin did a great job picking it out! It was quite dark out, so I struggled getting a good photo. We tried taking one under the spotlights though and it turned out perfect! It looks like there is already a star on top! Wow, I impressed even myself lol! We helped them decorate as well. It was interesting seeing all the ornaments from my childhood: the clay ornaments from my Aunt Sheila, the carousel horse bells from U...

Today is Christmas Eve. We have so much planned for today. We have hors d'oeuvres with my family at my parent's house and dinner with Lon's family at the Village Inn. It is a tradition with Lon's family to have Christmas Eve dinner at the Village Inn, we have been doing it for five years now. I love Christmas Eve dinner with his family, love watching the kids run around the empty Village Inn, LOVE   everything about it! Tomorrow we will be going to Lon's parent's house for Christmas breakfast and present opening. Then Great Aunt Carolyn is having Christmas dinner at Great Grandma Carol's house. Hopefully Alan will get to play with his cousins Sophie and Fayth. I hope to see Baby Joshua and Baby James too! Oh it should be so much fun! I just love Christmas and everything about it! I am so very happy that it is finally here! I cannot wait to spend it with my loved ones! I do not have much more to say. I am just so full of love today! Merry Christm...

If you remember my post from last year about Santa, I was quite worried about Alan's reactions around Santa. Thankfully, he was not afraid and was willing to sit on Santa for pictures. I was so proud of him. This year, I was not too terribly worried about it because he was super excited. He would not stop talking about him. We took the kids to see him last Monday, without Daddy. Originally, I wanted to go with Lon but he was too busy with work and everything. So I took the kids alone. Thankfully, it was pretty much dead. There were only three people in front of us, making our wait just long enough for us to enjoy the Christmas decorations and the Norman Rockwell statues. Then it was our turn to talk to Santa. Santa telling Alan a secret I did not get the picture package because I knew that Anna would not want to sit with Santa. I did not want to fight her without Lon or my mom lol. Maybe when we go with Aunt April and Uncle Kalvin. Alan did tell Santa that he wanted a car a...

I know, I know, I know, its only the third of December and we are already fully into the Christmas spirit? At least I waited longer than most people and stores lol! This weekend was quite Christmasy for us, I loved every minute of it! Saturday was the Festival of Trees. Its an event in our town where businesses decorate Christmas trees in specific themes to auction off. My sister's dance studio usually preforms as well and there are always fun games for the kids. The kids went with Grandma Melanie, Uncle Kalvin and cousin Morgan to watch Aunt April perform while I worked. The boys got to look at all the cool trees, make Christmas cookies, meet Santa and play some games with Grandma. Then I met up with them afterwards to watch the rest of the dance performance. I did not get to do too much but I know that Alan had a blast. He later told me that his favorite tree was the Fireman tree (not sure I saw that one lol) and that he thinks we should buy it and bring it home. I told him th...

I am not at all feeling good today. Last night was spent with me tossing and turning all night, nauseous and all that fun stuff. Ugggggh I want it to already be night time, so I can crawl back into bed... Okay stop thinking about it lol, you're only gonna make yourself more miserable at work. :P Let's distract myself by writing about Christmas Day (Oh I think I have lost it officially, cos its not like I wasn't already planning on doing that today. Oh well). Christmas Day was magical for us and especially Alan. :) Lon and I woke up around eight and set up the Christmas tree with all of the presents and his stocking. Then we made a little bed on the floor for him to sleep on. I found a cute Christmas kids music channel on the tv, so we played that quietly in the background. We brought him out, still asleep, and hid in our bedroom until we heard his little voice. We waited for almost an hour before he woke up! :D But close to nine, we heard his little voice...

About a week ago, I was able to convince Lon to let us set up the Christmas tree. I say this, because normally our tree is up and our house is decorated by Black Friday lol. But this year, in all of our business, we were late on our decorating... And Christmas card making... And Christmas present shopping... And Christmas cookie making... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! :D We had talked to Alan a lot about the tree, and how there would be "pretties" (Alan's name for anything pretty at Christmas lol) but he couldn't touch them after we put them up, but I was still anxious. You see, I bought all my ornaments the year I got pregnant with Alan, before I even knew I was. So the majority of my ornaments are glass, shatter-proof mind you, but glass none the less. They hold a lot of sentimental value for me, as that was Lon and I's first Christmas together. We decided to put the baby gate up around the tree and hoped that would be enough. And of course, it was but situa...