Free Range Family

Today is my nephew's FIRST birthday!!! Happy Birthday buddy!! I love my little man so much! Although I was not present at his birth, I remember the day he was born very well. We were in Billings and Nat was in Missoula, but I waited by my phone for any updates in progress lol! Then around just before eleven o'clock at night, we got the first picture of him! He was so tiny but sooooooooooo handsome! I loved him the minute I saw him, and instantly wanted more photos of him. Heck, I wanted to walk right up to Missoula right away to hold him! It was truly love at first sight, just as it was with my own children. :)  Then a few weeks after his birth, they came to town so that I could meet him. I was seriously on Cloud 9 that weekend, my beautiful little nephew had come down to meet my family! He was so small and sweet and perfect. Gah! I loved him so much then and I love him so much now! Mr. B has grown up so much since then! He is now racing Miss Anna in weight g...

Its a good thing that my siblings don't read our blog consistently, or base of relationship on what I post on here lol... because I am WAY behind on posting about their birthdays on here. I posted a photo on FB and IG for them on their actual birthdays. And Aunt Natalie we called. We took Uncle Kalvin out to Chuck E. Cheese for his birthday. We still owe him a trip to Bricks and Mini-Figs though, that's what he really wanted lol. :P Happy birthday guys! My mom and sister were still in Seattle at Velocity, so just the kids and I took Uncle Kalvin to Chuck's. I took them after my dance showcase. We ordered pizza and a salad bar, the service was okay. Definitely no where near as good as what Natalie and I used to do, but okay for sure. :) The kids ate quickly so they could play. Uncle Kalvin and Alan played together a bit, and Anna played with Alan some too. Uncle Kalvin and Alan playing air hockey Alan and Anna on the motorcycle together We didn't have cake t...

Aunt Natalie and Benton came to town for a visit this weekend. Aunt April and I had to try on our bridesmaid dresses for her wedding and we had to get shoes too. Plus, they mostly just wanted to see us now instead of next month lol. But it was awesome! We went out to dinner, took Benton to Chuck E Cheese for the first time, got our dresses and our shoes for the wedding, visited both great grandparents in town and went to the mall. The kids had a wonderful three days together. They all enjoy each other so much too! What a great little group of kids! The first thing I had to do when I saw him was snuggle! I had worked all day long and just wanted to chill with my boy! I had missed him so, it had been since October when we had last seen them! I needed some Benton and Auntie time bad. :) He has gotten so big too! I seriously cannot believe how much he has grown up since I last saw him! He can now talk up a storm in gibberish and army crawls everywhere. He gets a few solid crawls before fa...

Please be warned, I have been so behind on posts with being sick this week, that this post is all photos lol. Its a literal photo dump. :P So bear with me lol! Last week, I took the kids to the park by Grandma Amber's house to play while we waited for Lon to get off of work. Silly Miss Anna fell asleep on the ride over, so I let her nap in the car while I hung out on the trunk and watched Alan play. It was so darn nice out! My only wish was that I had brought a book to read, otherwise it was just so perfect! Anna napped the whole time too, so it was just Alan playing solo. He loved it! I think he likes time alone without his baby sister, he loves her but he does like to be on his own too. He is growing up so much each day! Its crazy! Anna sleeping in the car Alan on the swingset I just love my Saturday mornings. I teach gymnastics, have a half hour to work out and stretch, then Alan has soccer and afterwards, I host my birthday parties. It works out so nicely! I love th...

I have been neglecting this blog bad this month, and I have no real excuses for why I haven't been posting.  :/ Sorry! I have been quite busy at work, I guess, we finally got a new boss at the daycare. She has a lot of big plans for the activity scheduling and for me, I am very excited to work with her! I was also sick this weekend, everyone else had it the week before. Everyone but Mister Alan of course, I don't think that boy ever gets sick. He's lucky! :) Yuck, I hate being sick and usually am only once a year myself. But it always stinks! I am glad that today I am finally starting to feel normal again. Anna and I have officially started our weekly Mama and Daughter dates while Alan is in preschool on Thursdays. We usually just go play in the YMCA Open Gym for an hour, but she just loves it! I enjoy spending time focusing on just her too, it is quite special to us both. I love that I get to spend individual time with both of my children! That way, both Alan and Anna h...

I do apologize for being absent from the blog all week. On Monday, we lost someone in our family somewhat unexpectedly. I do not think I am ready to share who we lost with you all this week, but know that it was someone very close to us. It was on my side of the family but he was special to everyone, including Lon. We loved him so very much. He will be dearly missed.   I feel bad for not posting almost all week, but I really needed to take some personal family time away. In Buddhism, death is not seen as something bad, its seen as more of a doorway. Thus, I am not upset for the death itself. I know that he was hurting a lot and am glad his is at peace now. He is not gone from our lives, just onto his next great journey. :) However, I was needed to support many of my mourning family members. I was actually put in charge of telling most of my siblings, something I was not necessarily prepared for. I had to do it though, I just thought of how I would feel if I was not...

I love spending time with my family, like just love every moment of it. When my family is all together, I am like a kid at Christmas. I seriously have never been more happy then when I am surrounded by my husband, daughter and son, sisters, brother, parents and all of my lovely cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents! I cannot fully explain it, its like they all have pieces of my heart and it just the greatest feeling when I'm whole again. ;) Plus, my family is just so awesome, unique, loud, hilarious and full of so much love and life! Who wouldn't want to be around us?????? This weekend was Lon's birthday, as well as Uncle Aaron's and Great Uncle Rick's birthdays. We had a lot of celebrating to do, needless to say lol. A lot of family time together, my favorite thing! Rather then give you a play-by-play of how our weekend went, I think I will just DUMP some photos on y'all! Enjoy! For Lon's birthday, we took him to his new favorite store, Bricks and ...