Free Range Family

I know, I like never write on the weekends! What has gotten into me??????? Well, for those of you who know me personally know that I only don't write most weekends, because that is my family time. It is the time where all four members of our family are available, so we spend as much time as possible together, doing fun things. I am usually too busy to post during the weekend, I just recap everything from the weekend that following Monday. In fact, the year I started this blog, that was one of my personal rules: No posting on weekends.  But today, I woke up early before the children and I thought I would go online for a bit. Started checking my FB and then my blog and I decided, hey why not post today? If I have something to write, why shouldn't I write? So here I am, typing up a post for today. It will mostly be filled with random thoughts and musings from the weekend. I still want to save my Dirty Dash post for Monday. :) But I have like a billion and two little things I ...

All in one weekend lol! How wild of my family lol! :P Not really, we have had way more busy weekends than this! I have been working a gymnastics camp all week in the mornings. It was quite a bit of fun, we had seven great kids who learned a lot in the four days we had! I am so proud of them! I also did my first Dance Out Reach program at our local HeadStart School. I worked with 16 preschoolers and taught them basic popping and locking moves. We had a wonderful time as well! I love getting a chance to teach my two passions! :D Next week will be a lot slower for us because I will only have dance class and my regular shifts. Saturday, we walked to Terry Park to meet up with my friends Kelsie and Jessica. We met up with them and a few new friends for a picnic and to let the kiddos play in the spraypark and on the playground. Alan ate as fast as he could and then ran off to play in the water with Kelton and Carly. Anna crawled around in the grass and played with Trent and Karte...

Today is the big day for me! Well kinda lol, today is my dress rehearsal for the dance showcase this Saturday. My kids will be in full costume for their dances and I am excited to see how it all looks. I am very anxious but excited too! We will see how it goes! :) The kids and I are going shopping today with Aunt Sam. The kids are excited, we should have a lot of fun with her! I don't have any extra cash lol, but I might try to get Aunt Natalie her birthday present at some point. With her birthday coming up this weekend, I am running out of time to get her something lol. I also have to get Alan's glasses fixed. Crazy man has officially broken his glasses for the first time lol! :) Oh well, at least it was just one of the ear pieces. This morning, Anna surprised us all by pulling herself up on the ottomon! We had just had her standing up with us holding her for a bit, and Lon set her down on the floor to play while he got ready for work. Miss Anna army crawled over to the ott...

Today Anna is three months old. It is just crazy for me to think that on this day, three months ago, I was about five cetimeters dialated and on my way back into Labor and Delivery for the second time that day. And now she is this big three month old baby, wanting to sit up and crawl and eat food and talk to me! What a tenacious little girl! At three months old, Anna Ariel: *Weighs nine pounds and nine ounces and is 25 inches long. *Has pale, grayish blue eyes and dark auburn that goes down to her little shoulder blades. And no bald spots on her head! Yes! *Crunches her little abs when she is sitting up supported, like she is trying to sit up completely on her own. It always knocks her over on her side and makes her sooooooooooooooooo mad lol. :) *Talks to us all the time with "ooos" and "coos" that are just too sweet! I love her sweet girl voice! *Likes to stand up with Mama holding her under her armpits. She will support a little bit of her weight too....

Today is Alan's friend Colton's real third birthday. If you remember, we went to his birthday party this weekend with Aunt April. We had a wonderful time with them and I hope you tune in later tonight to see our post about it! Happy third birthday Colton! We love you so much! Have a great day buddy! Alan also has his first dentist appointment later this afternoon with my friend Alexis' dad so let's hope that goes well. I have been talking with Alan about the dentist and what will happen there, he seems confident enough. Plus I promised to take him to Pioneer Park afterwards as a treat. Wish us luck! Here is this week's Toddler Talk Tuesday!   This one is a little embarrassing. Well we all know how kids repeat just about EVERYTHING they hear... Lon is obsessed with this new song "Gangnam Style" by this really weird guy named Psy. Seriously, he watches it all the time! They do this little horse riding dance and at one point in the song yell, "...

I started to teach dance again this week. It was pure magic and beauty. For those of you that don't know, I took dance classes when I was a child for twelve years until I graduated and then I taught at the same studio for a year after graduation. I took classes in ballet, jazz, tap, modern, lyrical, musical, hiphop, bollywood, contemporary and even some ballroom. By the age of eleven, I was in a competing company and traveling the nation to compete and take workshops. I have been to Las Vegas, Orlando, San Diego, Anahiem, and Denver for competitions and workshops. I have taken classes from Mia Michaels (judge for So You Think You Can Dance) twice, Dave Scott (choreographer for Stomp the Yard) once, Wade Robinson (judge for So You Think You Can Dance) once, Jeff Shade (choreographer for Highschool Musical) once and countless other famous dance teachers, choreographers and dance gurus. I seriously  love dance so much, it used to be such a bi...

Like this really random title lol? I know that I'm really trying with the last one lol. :P Besides just the birthday parties this weekend, we have been pretty busy with other things. Friday I had my postpartum check up with the midwives and I brought both children with me. And Saturday, Alan and I had an impromptu money and math lesson when we went to Walmart to buy Kelton his birthday present. So now it all makes sense, right? :) Lol gotta love it! So Friday, we went to my check up in the afternoon. Thankfully I was thinking when I had scheduled it lol, and I set the time up for a Anna's naptime (right after her afternoon feeding). That afternoon I prepared Alan, nursed Anna and then the two of us got ready to go. Even though I had started two hours before the appointment, we were still five minutes late lol. But the secretary told me that they totally didn't mind, it was a slow day and everyone had been waiting all day to see me lol, hoping that I was going to br...

****Disclaimer: This post is about going potty. This is all I will talk about about in this post and I will present each reader with a somewhat contreversial idea of infants going potty. If you are not comfortable with this or want to argue with my views on this, please continue no further. I will not be posting this on my Facebook for this reason. Thanks! :D I am a member of the Peaceful Parenting Facebook site. The idea is pretty self explanatory lol and I love to learn new and different things from other parents also on this site. Recently, I read a post from a parent about elimination communication. I had never heard of this, or so I thought until I researched it a little more. By the way, here is the first post I read about EC. Check it out! Elimination Communication: A relationship developed between a parent and an infant where the infant communicates when it needs to pee or poop and the parent responds by allowing the infant to do so over a toilet or other recepti...

Yesterday was our school district's first day of school. That meant my mom, my little sister, my little brother, my cousin and my friend's children all went to school. They were all nervous and excited for each of their own new journeys into learning. It was also Alan's first day of school, in some aspects. Since I had been on maternity leave with Anna, Alan had stayed home with us as well. He went about five weeks without going to his "school" or daycare. Last week he went for about an hour while I was there talking to my boss about my new dance classes but I was right at hand for him. Today, he went to "school" without Mama or Anna for one whole hour. :D He was so excited and thought it really was his first day of school. He even had me take a "first day of school" picture lol. What a sweetheart! His "school" was under renovations currently at the time so it was in the dance studio at the YMCA. Alan was a little nervous of this...

Thursday, I watched a documentary on PBS called Nature's Child. It was about nature and how it affects and benefits childhood development. Of course being the hippie that I am, I already knew this lol. But it was still a very interesting show to watch and I learned quite a bit from it. In this day and age, most children spend their time indoors either on the computer or at the television. Gradually, less and less children are spending quality time outside. If they do get outside, it is either at school during recess or for an organized sport. While these are also good development teachers, they are not enough. Children need to play outside in their neighborhoods, like we all did as kids. But this is happening less and less. Why is this, you ask? Well there is one theory that I have found to be pretty feasible. Some believe that modern day parents are being conditioned by the media to be afraid to let their children play outside in the neighbor, whether by themselves or with other...

I discovered this organization a couple of days ago and being the hippie that I am, I didn't think it would be too difficult for me. I hardly ever wear shoes lol, especially in the summer. I told my husband about this and he thought it was silly because it wouldn't be a challenge for me. But that's not the point of this organization. Its to get conversation started. All around the world, children are going about their lives EVERYDAY without shoes. This may not seem like that big of a deal right? Except that lots of these children don't live in places with asphalt and cement, like we do. The majority of these shoeless children live in third world countries, places where no one should be barefoot. Especially not a child.  Here are some disturbing examples: *In the Philippines, there are 30,000 people living on a landfill without shoes and are exposed daily to broken glass, syringes and other filth. *In Kenya, there are 1,890,000 cases of jiggers in children...

Wow I can't believe its June already! June is a very important month for us! It is the one year anniversary of me quitting breastfeeding (6/6), the one year anniversary of Alan standing for the first time (6/9), and the one year anniversary of Alan walking for the first time (6/23)! Plus today Alan is 1 year and 9 months old! He is only 3 months shy of being two! You know what that means??? Time to start planning that birthday party! Well, maybe next month lol... :P We can't wait to celebrate each of these anniversaries as the come! Congratulations on getting so big, Mister Alan! We love you so much! Alan's Stats at 21 months: Weight: 29 pounds 13 ounces Height: 32 inches Clothing sizes: Shirts: 24 months Pants/Shorts: 18 months Diaper: Size 5 Shoes: Size 7 Teeth: 13 1/2 teeth! One of his canines is only halfway out at this point! Can you say OUCH? At 21 months, Alan can... -Sing his ABCs with some help, count to four by himself, count to ten with help,...

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've been debating on whether or not to share some information with you, my lovely blog readers. On one hand it seems slightly too personal to share online because it deals with a family dispute but on the other hand it is about a major change in my family's life, thus should probably be documented. As you can tell, this debate has held me back from posting these past few days, its given me somewhat of a writer's block. And this I apologize for. I have come to the conclusion to let you know what you "Need to know" as the military says lol. I will not share the family dispute with you, because that is uneccessary and unfair to the other members involved. So I will share with you this: For his personal mental health, Lon has quit the Village Inn. He felt that he could not work there any longer in the mental state he was in and could not wait to find another job first, so he quit last Friday. Our plan for him right now is to take a break from the work world for a...