Free Range Family

We ended up getting the car! Its perfect and I love it! It is a silver 1996 Mercedes-Benz with a sun roof. Oh I love it so much! The best part about the whole thing? I bought it 100% by myself. Yep! Paid $3000 in cash and felt like a BOSS! Whoop, whoop! It is so awesome being an adult sometimes. :D I know, its not an apartment… But we are taking baby steps to a better life for our family. First comes a new car, then more hours and more money, then a place to live. Lon and I have a plan made, it will just take some time. Which does suck on the hard days. But on days like today, days when all my hard work has finally paid off, days like today rock! I have yet to really settle into the car, I haven't even cleaned it up or taken a decent photo of it! I had Lon snap a quick one for me this morning (we have to wait until after work before we can get it registered) but I think that it doesn't even do it justice. It just looks so fancy and so nice! How did we get so lucky? Isn...

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...

Oh my word, this little diva girl is almost one year old! She officially has less than a month left now, I just do not know where the time went. I remember the first day I laid eyes on her, bringing her home from the hospital, those first few weeks, EVERYTHING! She has grown up so much, it just amazes me. Before we know it, she will be up there onstage with Aunt April, dancing her heart out. Love you baby girl! At eleven months old, Anna Ariel: *weighs approximetly 21 1/2 pounds and is approximetly 28 inches long. She is almost too big for her car seat! *wears size 9M or 12M in onesies and 9M in bottoms. Her diapers are still size 3. *has cut her first tooth, she started working on it yesterday! It one of the bottom middle ones. We are so proud! *having lightened up a bit, her hair is a light auburn ish red color now. It still has some orange in certain lights but is looking more and more like my hair color now. *her eyes are a light steely blue with a dark navy edge. Not ...

I want to give a big "Happy Birthday" to fellow blogging mama Hollie. She is the amazing author of Mordern Colors Blog. This mama of one is celebrating her 28th birthday today. Stop by her page and wish her a happy birthday! Happy birthday Hollie! Stay amazing and we love you! <3 I love my hubby so so so much! A fun fact about me: I use Nat Geo magazines occasionally for inspiration while I am painting. Most of my magazines were stolen out of my art room in high school lol and needless to say, are falling apart. Lon knows this and bought me a new magazine the other night on the way home from work. Ooooooh its so pretty! I love the quality of National Geographic's photos and pages! *Gush* Thanks again baby! I wanted to take a quick moment to wish safe travels to my mother, my sister and her dance studio while they are on their way to Ogden, Utah for a competition and workshop. Love you girls, rock the competition and take lots of pictures! I know you girls can do ...

I am doing this a few days early this month because of the busy weekend and Aunt April's birthday on Monday. But this Sunday, Anna will be nine months old! I will be taking her pictures then too, I will be sure to post them. Otherwise, we have Thunderstruck Dance Competition and the Shrine circus this weekend. The kids are excited and I can't wait to take some cool photos! There is so much variety and color at BOTH of those places! :) At nine months, Anna Ariel: *weighs approximetly 19 pounds 19 pound and 9 ounces and is approximetly 26 and 1/2 inches 28 and 1/2 inches long. *is in size 6M for onesies and shirts, size 9M for pants (this girl has some LEGS lol) and is in size 3 for diapers. *is growing out of all of her baby toys! The swing went first, with the Bumbo seat shortly after it and now the Jumperoo is too small for her too. We just have the bouncy chair left lol! This girl is LONG!!! *has blue eyes with specks of hazel in them like her father and brother. ...

"There once was a onesie that always asked Hug Me..." Lol Anna first wore said onesie when she was a wee four weeks old. She was still so tiny, the thing just hung off her body lol. I believe the first time she wore it was with her first skirt ever. That was even at our last apartment, wow that was so long ago! She was so small but she looked so cute! Fast forward several months (seven and a half to be exact) and little petite miss STILL fits in this onesie! At almost nine months old! She weighs a wopping 17 and a half pounds but this is the LAST 3M ONESIE THAT FITS. All the others I have given away. The last of its kind lol...

You may remember earlier last week when I mentioned my friend's passing? Kristen was very involved in the breast feeding group and believed that breast milk was best for her daughter. Her daughter was exclusively breast fed up until her mother's passing. Well, the breast feeding group that we both belonged to rallied together shortly afterwards to get breastmilk shipped to Kristen's daughter Gemma. I kid you not, the morning after Kristen's death there was only talk of donations of milk and money on our group's page. By her funeral, the first stock of breast milk was delivered and the storage space was scouted. And for good reason too. After suffering the death of her mother, sweet Miss Gemma tried formula and reacted so negatively to it. She devloped a rash even! Formula instantly was OUT OF THE QUESTION. Thankfully, it was just miraculous how many mothers stepped forward. I so wanted to, but did not have any milk to donate. So I helped with the shipping fees. ...

I cannot seem to think of one for the life of me lol!  Oh well, lots of things have been going on at the Andersen household, some great so-called "life upgrades" and other cool stuff lol. Alan is still sick, he is getting over a bad cold and a double ear infection, but he is starting to eat again and beginning to act more like his old wild self. This makes me very happy! Earlier this week, Uncle Chase was over to hang out with the kids and it started to hail really hard outside. There was thunder and lightning too, and the hail eventually turned into snow. It was so crazy! It was sunny and nice outside one moment, and a snowy whiteout the next! You could not even see more than twenty feet in front of you at a certain point! Here is crazy Uncle Chase out in it lol! He and Lon insisted on going outside to collect snow for snowcones, but they were not very successful! It was too wild out there lol! You cannot see, but I am taking this picture with one hand. The other one i...

She is getting so big, it just amazes me. I think I am getting used to the idea of her growing up and looking less and less like that newborn baby we brought home eight months ago. She has officially nursed for as long as Alan did and we have no plans of stopping yet. She wants to crawl, wants to move, but has figured out her own unique way of transportation. My love and amazement for her grows each and every day, I cannot believe that Lon and I are just so lucky to have her and her brother in our lives. I feel like I won the lottery, but even that would not feel as wonderful as this. I love my children so much! At eight months, Anna Ariel: *weighs approximately 17 pounds and 8 ounces and is approximately 29 inches long. *is officially wearing size 6M clothes. She still has some 3M onesies that she can still fit in and I cannot seem to part with, but everything else is 6M or bigger. My girl is LONG!!!! *has light blue ish hazel eyes that are so similar to her father and her br...

I saw this on Pinterest and I loved it. Unfortunately, I had already missed Anna's twentieth week. I looked back into my picture files and found this picture from her twentieth week of birth. Yes, I had taken one! I was lucky that it was the Thanksgiving weekend too, or I might not have. Unlike most pregnancies, I had a second ultrasound later in my pregnancy, at 35 weeks, just to check on her size. They were worried about her being to small. So I promise to do a 35 week photo shoot for her. Its March 2, you readers cannot let me forget! For now though, here is her 20 week photos!   She is just so amazing... Just like her brother. :)      

I know that I say it every single month, but this month I truly cannot believe it! Like I honestly forgot that it was already February and that she is actually seven months old. Up until yesterday, I was telling people that she was only six months old lol! When I should have been saying that she is almost seven months. Oh well, at least I realized before it was too late lol, thus the SUPER early post! Not sure if this one will have very many pictures, we still do not have a working camera lol. At seven months old, Anna Ariel: *weighs approximately 16 pounds and 10 ounces and is approximately 27 and 1/2 inches long 28 inches long . *is finally almost too big for size 3-6M clothing! For onesies, she can still wear size 3-6M but for pants and sleepers, she has to be in at least 6-9M clothing! For her little head though, she is in like toddler hats lol! All the baby snow hats are way too small! Her Gerber baby head is just like her brother's. :) *has light blueish hazel eyes ...

The New Year started out right! Due to us not having our own internet access at home, I did not post too much this month. But I did my best. And we had a few parties and a birthday, even a pregnancy announcement from my sister! What a great month we have had! Let me share with you what happened to us in January. This time I will add in some pictures too! I think a Month in Review post needs some pictures too, what do you think? Let me know if you like it! Enjoy everyone! We celebrated the New Year by having a little playdate party at the local coffee shop with all of Alan and Anna's friends. Alan was still sick from Influenza A so he was not able to enjoy it as much but all the other kids had a wonderful time. The next day was Uncle Chase's birthday, so Alan and I made him a cool birthday card and then we had him over for light drinks and a movie later that evening. Anna also turned six months old, I just cannot believe how old she is now! Only six more months until she i...

I have been breastfeeding Anna for about six and a half months now. This is impresive to me because I stopped nursing Alan at three months and breastfeeding him altogether at eigth months old. I have felt pretty confident in my breastfeeding (well since  the last time  at least) but the past few weeks has left me questioning myself yet again. And I hate that I am saying this, literally as I type I am hating it, I have waited for so long to post this but I know that now I have to. So here it goes: I am having problems with breastfeeding Anna again. I have been have some personal female issues that do not belong on this blog, and it has greatly affected my milk supply. And this sucks. I am not fully sure, I have yet to even call my LC yet (I know, I know, I am so terrible, but I thought I could handle it myself), but I do think that the consistency of my milk has maybe changed slightly? I do not know for sure, but something, SOMETHING has made Anna stop wanting to nurse. ...

Every day that Anna gets older, I remark at how much she looks like everyone. She looks just like me when I was a baby, I will have to scan some baby pictures to show you guys! She has Lon's eyes and his head shape and when she bites her bottom lip like he does, the resemblence is uncanny! But I think most of all, she looks like her brother. I mean, obviously there are a lot of differences (like their gender, their size and their hair color) but they look definitely like siblings to me! Maybe when they are both a bit older, they could even pass for fraternal twins lol! What do you think though? Alan    Anna  Alan    Anna   Alan Anna  I tried to find similar pictures of their activities and facial expressions to help. I think they look so much alike. Its uncanny lol! Regardless of how much they look like siblings though, I know that they love each other like siblings. And that is what is important. I also love them to the moon and ...

I have been without a phone for a week now and I do have to admit that it has made a lot of things different. Not even in a bad way or anything, just different. I promise you readers that this will not be one of those "I cannot live without my phone" posts. Because the reality is, I can. In fact, I feel like I am doing so much better without my phone. I am taking more time out of my day to play with my children and enjoy them. I keep Alan outside longer now it seems. I have been meditating consistently again. I have made a workout plan (Tues, Thurs, and Sat I do 30 minutes of yoga or pilates) and I have actually been sticking to it during the day. I feel like my house is getting AND STAYING cleaner. And I now have this amazing free time for ME! Yes, I have been reading and drawing and sewing and beading and braiding again. Oh how I love it! How is all of this possible JUST from me not having my phone, you ask? Its so very simle, do you not see??? When I had my pho...