Free Range Family

I've had several important posts to do this week first, but here is a post about our weekend. Hope you enjoy! Our Labor Day weekend was not super busy because Lon had to work both of his jobs, but the kids and I did manage to do some things. And I even got some great deals on Fall clothing for them! More about that later, check out our weekend: Saturday afternoon Aunt April, Alan, Anna and I went to Pioneer Park. I brought the Moby Wrap with the stroller as back-up and was grateful I did so. About five minutes in, Anna decided it was too hot in the Wrap and she wanted to be in the stroller. Alan wanted to take us on a walk around the park first, then play on the playground so we followed him on his exploration. Anna enjoyed the views and the bumpy ride put her to sleep after some time. It was a great walk. I love Pioneer Park, its so beautiful! Its one of my favorite parks, there are so many trees! Fun fact: Did you know that Pioneer Park was designed (without the playground) b...

I know that I have posted about our plans for the fourth on here before, I think its just been on a blog hop or something. I thought I had already written a whole post on it before, but alas I haven't. So here you go! We are going camping at Canyon Ferry Lake for the fourth. This is tradition with my side of the family to go camping here every year. Last year we went up for a few days, and had a wonderful time! Alan loves to see his family and camp with them! He loves being outdoors! We will be leaving this Saturday morning, around like 11 am and will not be back until Monday night, around like 10 or 11 pm. I will not be taking my laptop with me, nor will I probably have service, so I will be absent from the blogging world for a while. But I plan on keeping a notebook "journal" for each day, so I remember our daily events! I can't wait to bring back many stories and hopefully pictures, I will probably have to do a week marathon of posts! I will not be participatin...

Today was a sad day for Alan and I. Alan's BFF Korbin and his family are moving to Seattle on Wednesday, and today was Korbin, Keanu and Erica's last day at daycare. :\ We threw them a potluck party and I tried to make them chili but we didn't have any meat. And the bean chili tasted nasty lol. So I brought pop. :) Alan and I had a talk about Korbin moving this morning, and I think he understands. He tried to be really nice to him all day today (sometimes they rough house and fight like brothers) and even gave him hugs and kisses. They played cars and dinosaurs together. And they shared their snack (even though it was the same thing lol). They even played ball and tag with the big kids. Unfortunately, Alan fell asleep in the high chair and Korbin left before he woke up. :( But I talked to Erica and maybe we will meet up just before they leave town to say goodbye for real. I am so sad though! Alan's last really good friend moved to Arizona when Alan was nine months...

I am super exhausted from today! We just got home for the first time since like ten this morning and I am just beat!! :) My feet are killing me and I feel like I carried twenty men, instead of just one toddler. I could very well possibly be sunburnt. And Alan? He's still running laps around me lol. Ahhhhhh, where does all that energy come from???? :D We did have such a wonderful day today though! It was all worth it!  This is funny: I let Alan pick out his clothes again today, and in spirit of the Cars 2 movie he chose a Lightning McQueen pajama shirt and Cars swim trunks. :) We let him wear it the whole day, we are such awesome parents!  Anyways, the morning started with Alan and I waking up early to watch Cars lol. You know, we had to refresh our mind from... yesterday when we watched it. :P Then we went and got the tickets. Alan was so smart he started asking, "Cars? Cars?" when we were walking up to the theater. Little did he know we were only getting tickets an...

Today is another hot one lol. Ugggggh! Today we probably will go run through the sprinklers at Grandma's house and then I work from 2 to 7. Not too busy of a day lol. Tomorrow we will be going on a playdate with two of Alan's friends at Sacajwea Park, and then we will be going swimming at Rose Park with Grandma, Unlce Kalvin, Erica, and Korbin. Keanu will probably also be there, but he won't be swimming lol. :) And then Sunday we plan on taking Alan to see Cars 2. The Symphony in the Park is also Sunday night, which we will be attending with my YMCA crew (Erica and kids, Sarah and kids, and Kari). Lets hope this weather stays nice and not too hot because we will be outside almost ALL weekend. Yahoo! :D I can't wait to see this movie! They are going to Japan! Sooooo cool! Via Oooooooh can't wait for this weekend! Saturday get over here!!! :P Ahhhhh, he's Five Question Friday for you now. What is your current favorite tv show? I don't really have a...

I haven't been posting like I should normally. I feel like I'm not posting enough. Even though I've only been missing around one post a week, I still feel like I am not adequately covering Alan's life. Lol, this is what happens when you're stressed and over thinking things. I'm worrying about a BLOG??? Really? I still apologize for not posting at all yesterday. Monday night and all of Tuesday were very hectic and stressful for me, in more ways than one. Monday night was really scary for us, Billings and Yellowstone County in general. There was a tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warning placed on Yellowstone County. I got home from work and we had dinner. After dinner we were putting Alan in the tub, when I got a message from an old co-worker that in FIFTEEN MINUTES there would be a tornado on the rims. We live in a second-story apartment of an old building, where the basement is its own apartment. Thus, it was locked and we could not use it as sh...

Happy Monday everyone! As of today, it has been a year since I stopped nursing Alan. Unfortunately, someone has forgotten to inform my body and wardrobe of this, as I still seem to wear nursing bras! :D Lol one of these days I'll be able to throw them out, but right now I would have almost no bras. So they will have to work for the time being. I started my Summer Art Classes today with my first Kindergarten class at 10. I had two sisters and a little boy in the class, and boy were they a talkative bunch! :) We were only able to get through two projects lol, The Summer Self Portrait and The Graphic Design Summer Project. But both turned out great! All the kids did so well! I was one proud teacher. Please enjoy today's Meet me on Monday! Its short, but sweet today. :) What is was the last piece of candy that you ate? A Green Apple Jolly Rancher that Korbin (Alan's BFF) didn't want to eat at daycare. Don't worry, he hadn't opened it lol!  Do you "r...

Today will be a nice day for us. I only work six hours today, and Alan gets to spend four of them with me! Yesterday he had a wonderful time with Korbin and his other daycare friends. We played outside, played with balls and tents, colored and of course played Alan's favorite- cars. :) Alan loves his Korbin, and we have to get in all the time we can because his family's moving at the end of this month! :( We will miss them so! In other good news, Lon has gotten a temporary job welding folf baskets, goals (???) for his good friend Sean. I am very proud and excited for my inventor! Congratulations hubby! :D This weekend, a close family friend is getting married to the love of his life. :) Aw, I have been so mushy since Lon and I got married lol. I can't wait for this Saturday! I love this guy like a brother and have known him most of my life, and I can't wait to celebrate their love! This wedding will be a blast too, the one good thing about the couple being family fri...

I like what Naptime is My Time is doing with their monthly reviews, so I will be doing one today and see if I like it lol. :) Enjoy! May was a busy month for my family. We first had Uncle Kalvin's, Aunt Natalie's and Uncle Darren's birthdays at the beginning of the month.That was fun, celebrating all of my siblings' birthdays (except Aunt April, who had hers in April. Duh lol) this month. :) And we can't forget Korbin's birthday! What a fun day that was for the boys. There was also Mother's Day and Memorial Day. A lot of things went down this month as well. :) Alan turned 20 months old on May 5. Then just a day after her birthday, Natalie was in a car accident. She is okay, but it really woke up our family as a whole. Thank goodness she was okay! April, my baby sister, had her ballet recital this month too. Lon and I also had our one month anniversary of our wedding. I posted two posts with our wedding photos in them. You can view those her...

Today is Alan's best friend Korbin's second birthday. Via Yesterday Alan went with me to work (another advantage to SAHD:Alan stays home too!) to celebrate Korbin's birthday. Alan, Lon and I drew Korbin an Elmo birthday card. Korbin loved it. :) Then we let the boys play and they ran all over, terrorized other children lol, and climbed just about everything in site. When we were ready for a break from them lol, we threw them up in a high chair for cupcakes. And they were some yummy cupcakes! Alan and Korbin enhaled theirs in under a minute lmao. What wild boys. :) Overall, it was a great day with Alan and his best friend. Happy birthday Korbin!

Today has been an awesome, sunny, beautiful, lazy Sunday for us. The three of us have yet to actually leave the house or talk to anyone (except for maybe online I guess) but we are so happy spending time alone together, away from all the drama. Here's some of what happened today: Alan surprised us just before nap time lol. He was playing in the living room while Lon was working on his invention in Alan's room and I was doing some cleaning in our bedroom. When we are at home we usually just keep him in underwear/diaper or underwear/diaper and a shirt, but he has *yet* to learn to take them off. Well it got real quiet in the living room so I went in to investigate. And I came across a bare butt Alan running around giggling and slapping his boy parts. Lmao! :D It was seriously the funniest thing I have ever seen! We quickly clothed his little butt and looked everywhere to see if he had had an accident, and he did not pee or poop ANYWHERE!! Go big boy! :D This potty training ...

Worked from 8 to 4 today... Don't wanna talk about it. Ugggh. Let's just say, its been a LOOOONG day and I'm having a beer while I write this post. It was one of those days lol. :) When I got off of work, I had to meet Lon to pick up Alan at the Village Inn. Because of a last minute birthday party for me to do at my work, Alan had to go with his daddy to work. Alan was hanging out with Daddy, Aunt Nikki, Grandma Amber and Great Grandpa Floyd when I arrived. Aunt Nikki had given him a homemade peanut butter chocolate chip cookie and we joked that she was spoiling him. :P Daddy and Alan even made me a pepperoni and cheese pizza (to share with Alan lol). So Alan and I headed home for some good ol' Mama and Son time. :D We ate our pizza together and watched some Seasame Street DVDs. Alan kept saying, "Pizza?" and holding his slice up everytime Elmo would come on screen. Lol he normally shares his food with his friends at daycare, especially his bestie Korbin. :...

Well not quite lol, but I work like ALL the time these days. Which is the complete opposite yet oddly similar to what I was doing last year, when Alan was only a month old. I was a SAHM for his first year of life, and finally got a job just two days before his first birthday lol. I've now been working there for almost two months, and I love it. :) I get to work with kids, which is my passion, and Alan gets to interact with other children his age and older.  Its perfect! For those of you who don't know where I work now, I work at the Billings YMCA. I teach an art class for young children, run their birthday party program, and work in there Child Watch drop-in daycare. This keeps me very busy as I am working three different programs while most employees there only work one. I am there in the mornings til noon, then I go in from 3 to 8, and I work Saturdays too. But I thrive best sometimes in busy schedules, so I think I'll do okay. Plus when I get tired of one program, I ju...