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...

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 hope that everyone had a wonderful and safe Halloween night! I know that we did! It was the perfect way to end one crazy week for me, I wouldn't have had it any other way! We never ended up going to the pumpkin patch or corn maze, we just didn't have the time. But Grandpa Kevin picked out two good pumpkins for Alan and Anna to carve up! Thanks Grandpa! Alan carved a "half Ninjago, half Captain America" pumpkin and Anna carved a silly pumpkin face. They both turned out pretty cute, even though we messed up on the top part of Anna's pumpkin lol! Tuesday morning, Anna had her Halloween party for her dance class. She wore her costume but was the only kid in her class that did for some reason. They still got a chance to dress up at the end of class, which Anna always loves. They also played with pompoms and did the obstacle course. Miss Rachel loves how good Anna is already at her gymnastics skills. I always have to remind her its only because I also teach dance a...

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...

Its been crazy week for us here at the Andersen clan! I have a lot going on with my hip hop and gymnastics classes this week, plus we are leaving tonight for Aunt Natalie and Uncle Jake's wedding weekend family vacation! Yay! This is the first time we will be going on a family vacation since before Anna was born. We are not going to Canyon Ferry like we traditionally do for our vacations, but we are headed up to Flathead Lake, some 10-12 hours away from here. Due to my class scheduling, we will be doing the trip in two sections: tonight we will drive from here to the Helena area, before grabbing a hotel for the night. Then tomorrow, we will drive the last few hours to Flathead Lake. The wedding is on Saturday but Friday evening will be spent decorating and setting up the reception area and with Miss Natalie's Bacherlorette party! Sunday will be a family vacation day for us. We do not have anything specific planned, just fun touristy stuff. I want to go to the lake at some poi...

I have quite a few book reviews to catch up on, this summer I have been reading about two books a week. Its been crazy, but I love that I can get back into the old things I used to love doing. I have always enjoyed getting lost in a book, so happy I can do that again now! Truth be told, it has been driving my hubby and family crazy though. Every chance I get, my nose is in a book lol! It has been a great source of stress relief for me, which is good. But here is my first of many  book reviews for this month lol. Enjoy! Life in Motion by Misty Copeland Life in Motion is a non-fictional autobiography by Misty Copeland, the first African-American female to perform as a American Ballet Company soloist in twenty years. She didn't come from a typical upbringing that a ballet dancer would have either, she and her siblings lived in a poverty stricken area with their mother. They experienced hunger, gang violence, domestic abuse, and homelessness as children. Misty also has anxie...

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 a big one for our family! This Saturday was Alan's first basketball practice and my first hip hop class for the session. Then on Sunday we went Aladdin Junior at the Billings Studio Theatre. Quite a weekend full of activities for us! Alan started basketball this Saturday. He was nervous at first but as soon as he met his coaches and saw that many of his friends were also in the class, he was much more at ease. Unfortunately, I had hip hop the same time he had class, so I didn't get to watch much. But he said he had a good time! He showed me how they taught him to dribble the ball and even shot a basket! :) I was also able to experience the High Five line lol. Its where all the parents are at one end in two lines and the kids are at the other in one line. The kids run in between the parents line and are given a High Five from each parent! Oh Alan loved that so much lol. Here are a few photos from his first class: Alan's cool basketball pose before cl...

I haven't done a What I'm Loving Wednesday in ages, I am not sure that Jamie @  Little Miss Daisy Mae is even still doing the link up lol. Oh well, I will still give her a shout out, since I am using her button for this post. Thanks Jamie for creating this midweek positivity blog hop! With my current New Year goals in effect, I want to start doing a WILW every week again! Here's what I am loving this week! I'm loving …  that our local library has finally finished construction on their new building and have reopened their doors to the public! I cannot wait to take the kids there to check it out and to get Alan his FIRST library card! My parents instilled an importance and love for reading books through our public library, I hope to do the same for my children! I'm loving …  that Anna is officially 18 months old! Where did the time go??? She grew up so quickly! I'm loving …  that I had 13 students show up to my first hip hop class of the winter/spring ...

Alan had his last dance performance tonight. He was quite nervous at the beginning but overall he did very well. I am so proud of him and my other students! They have worked very hard these past few months, and tonight they shined like the amazing stars that they are! Great job kiddos!  Rather then jabber and be all sentimental mom-like, I will just leave you with the videos of the three dances and some photos. They aren't the greatest quality, my father didn't know exactly how to use my phone. But he did a good job! The first one has a little bit of me doing the introduction, I sound so weird lol! Enjoy! "Christmas Wrapping" They kids did so great with this dance! This was our only fully choreographed piece and all of my students remembered all the steps! Alan took a break halfway through to drum on his present a bit lol, but even he did most of the dance! "Santa Gangnam Style" This was our interpretation of Psy's "Oppa Gangnam S...

Alan had his last preschool class of 2013 today. It was also their Christmas party, so Anna and I joined in on the festivities. We had a great time! Santa and Mrs. Claus came and gave out gifts, we made cottonball snowmen, Alan went swimming with his buddies and we had Christmas snacks! The perfect way to finish out the year for preschool! The students were so excited to see Santa and Mrs. Claus! Each kid received a stocking of goodies and a book from Santa, even Anna! She was too scared to get a photo with him this time though. Alan wasn't however, he was ready to say hi and get his gifts lol! I love his photo with Santa, so cute! Then the whole class sang "Jingle Bells" with Santa and Mrs. Claus before they left! So cute to hear a whole room of preschoolers singing their own version of the Christmas classic. I love it! They were about to go swimming in these pics, that's why half the class is in their suits lol. I had some friends and family on FB who were conf...