Free Range Family

BIG things going on for me in 2015, big and exciting things! :D I had a wonderful weekend with some friends who were town, who are very well known choreographers in the dance world. And I had two super cool things happen to me at work as well. Yes! I am so happy and cannot wait for this year! After all the hard work and the rough year we had in 2013 and 2014, I know that wonderful things were bound to happen this year! I just hope that a new house for our family is ALSO in the cards this year. I will keep praying and keep spreading that good karma! So we will begin with the work news: I was offered to join the YMCA's annual campaign this year. Our annual campaign raises money to provide more memberships, scholarships and healthy lifestyle programs for our community. All of our annual campaign donations help with either our preschool or afterschool programs, our scholarships to families and senior members, our Livestrong program, our Get Started program, our aquatics...

Its here, its finally here!  Miss Anna started her first day of dance class today. She is in the Parent/Child Creative Movement class at my old dance studio, Diversity Dance. Her teacher's name is Miss Rachel, she is so very nice. I have seriously been waiting for this day since we found out that we were having a girl, you know like two and a half years ago????? Lol, I am definitely NOT a dance mom… Wait isn't that exactly what I a dance mom is? I am just so excited for her to be starting dance! Anna in her leotard before class We started out class playing with some stuffed animals and going over the alphabet. We did "A" for Anna and for airplane, "J" for Jadelynn and Jack-in-the-box, and "I" for Isabelle and Inchworm. Each letter we did a different action, Anna loved it! Then we pulled out the musical instruments and danced to the Mouse-rcise song, a Mickey Mouse song that I have childhood memories stretching to! It was pretty cool dancing...

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 ...

I don't have time to post much, but I just wanted to let everyone know that we are back from our lovely 2 month hiatus. :) I've missed you all! And I hope  that you guys have missed us too! Here is a short update on each family member! Jillian As for moi, I have been working hard at the YMCA. I now teach all of the gymnastics classes and also ran the gymnastics camp we held over the summer. I still also teach hip hop and work in the daycare.  I totally love my job! My most recent event that I volunteered for with my work was my second Relay for Life. I loved doing it last year and I loved it again this year. It is such a beautiful thing to do for those loved ones who are suffering from cancer, or for those who have cancer and do not have any support. I have never given so many hugs in my life! :D I have been spending my summer working and looking for another house. We found out this month that we need to build our credit before we can buy a house, so we are looking a...

This weekend was also full of dance recitals and birthday parties lol. Its funny how the month of May is usually always like that. :P But this time around it was Aunt April's Diversity Dance Studio recital and Alan's school friend Dominic's third birthday party. It was a lot of work for this mama lol, but a good Saturday for us overall! Dominic's party was actually at the YMCA. Dom's mom works with me there as well. I think I may be having Alan's party this year at the Y as well, but I haven't fully made up my mind yet. The party was a blast though! It was one of my tumble parties, the kids had a great time! Alan loved running all over with Dominic and his older brother. He always has so much energy lol. :) Anna tried to keep up with them, but after a bit she just started doing her own thing. Silly girl! Anna about to shoot a hoop Alan as the King of the World lol Alan and Anna went on the zipline maybe a billion times. Dang my monkey kids love ...

I have been neglecting the blog again. I'm sorry. :/ We have been turned down by several rentals lately, this is the reason for my lack of motivation. I feel like no one wants us. :( We decided to look into buyin a house, because renting is just throwing your money away. I will be applying for the First Time HomeBuyers Program this week. Hope that we are accepted! It would be so amazing to not only LIVE together again, but to OWN our own place! How cool! :) Anyways, this weekend was full of fun stuff for us! We had Alan's soccer practice and Aunt April's first in town dance competition of the season! There is now only one more practice until Alan starts having soccer games! And we were so darn excited to be able to go and cheer her on! She did wonderful, I am so proud of her! Alan is really getting into soccer now. He always talks about it and cannot wait until he has class each week! He has been practicing a lot at home too, which is awesome. And the other night, he wa...

My hip hop students performed Thriller last night. This was my fifth Thriller performance with the YMCA and the biggest performance thus far. We didn't end having every kid in class there, but we did have ELEVEN students that performed! They did so darn well, I am so proud of them! Only a few were nervous this time around but every single one of them did there best. They sure had one spooky show! I didn't get a video of the performance this time, the dance dad I asked to film for me somehow only filmed me talking at the beginning lol. Blahblah, you guys don't want to see THAT lol!! He did however, get a ton of really cool action shots for me! Thanks Dance Dad! You did great! :) Here are some of the photos from the performance. I did post some of my Instagram photos too (like I always do) because I really like how the filters looked with my monsters! Very cool indeed! Enjoy! The spooooooky beginning pose I did perform with them, as I usually do. I dressed in my ori...

I am so glad that we finally have our car back! With a family of four, two little kiddos, its hard to not have your car for a week! I missed playdates, had to reschedule Alan and Anna's gymnastics classes and had to figure out rides to work. I am so happy our car is back with us! Even if we do owe the mechanic $500+ now lol. Blah... We had a simple weekend. Alan has basketball practice and I had a baby shower for an old family friend. Not too wild of a weekend, but I still enjoyed it! Alan is really getting into basketball. This week we learned what a jump shot is, how to play "Coach Says" and how to dribble and run. We also played a new game called Sharks and Minnows, Alan loved it! He did get hurt a few times though but I reminded him that sometimes in sports we get hurt. He is my strong boy! Alan loves basketball, his coaches and his team mates! Here are some photos from practice: Alan doing jumping jacks I got some time away from the kids too on Sunda...

Weird title, I know, but I felt the need to theme my title specifically to my weekend and well, what a better way to do it then with a lyric line from one of Gaga's songs?  "I've overheard your theory, 'Nostalgia is for geeks' I guess sir, if you say so, some of us just like to read" You see, I like Lady Gaga as much as the next person, er dancer, although I am not a huge fan of hers, I respect and appreciate her music and enjoy her performances. She, like Michael Jackson, is a phenomenal performer! I would just die to see one of her live shows! She is such a freak, and in such a beautiful way. You have to keep reading if you want to know why I am talking Gaga so much lol!  Anyways this weekend, I was given the most amazing experiences ever for my job! I teach dance and gymnastics at our local YMCA and now that we are under new management in our department, we took advantage and invited a famous gymnast to come train me and three other teachers. ...

Aunt April had practice with her elite company and Theo this afternoon. He is choreographing a group piece for competition later this year. We stopped by to see the progress of the piece and Alan came with us to meet Theo. The company had just finished learning all the choreography and we were able to watch the performance once. I won't give away the exact song but its to a Florence and the Machines song. Love, love, love it! Once again, Theo impresses us all! Beautiful and stunning! Once practice was over, I introduced Theo to Alan. He was shy at first but he warmed up after Theo told him he had the coolest glasses and that he wanted them. Alan then showed Theo his moves and jabbered about everything under the sun lol. Love him so much! Theo even held a quick impromptu ballet class with Alan, teaching him his first position and demi plies. Alan definitely impressed him! :) I love it, I had a major mommy moment then lol! Here are some photos from Alan and Theo's first meeti...