Free Range Family

This weekend was quite the crazy one for us. We had two sets of family members surprise us by coming into town, one from Lon's family and one from mine! Uncle Cameron came into town from Seattle and the Glover family came into town from Missoula! It was pretty awesome! We also had Colton's birthday party (but that's for another post)… And we went to the NEW Scheel's! The kids had a blast their and I didn't spend a dime! Yes! :D I failed to get one good picture of Uncle Cameron and the kids, but they had a blast with him over the weekend. We are kinda poor right now lol, so we just stayed at home and watched the new Spiderman and Captain America with Uncle Cameron. And Alan showed him all of his Legos. Anna started saying his name while he was here too! That must've been very cool for Uncle Cameron! :) Ah they loved every minute that he was there! Thanks for coming to visit Uncle Cam! We love you bunches! Have a safe trip back to Washington! Posing with a ...

Oh my word! These are the BEST pictures I have ever had taken! I swear that I say this every year, but I loved the pictures so much! Miss Kelsie Peterson is such a wonderful photographer! She knew just the places for good lighting and just the pose to have us all in. She is also an amazing editor! I love how all our photos turn out, from our several photo sessions at Norm's Island to our Christmas sessions at home. Thanks Kelsie, you are the best! Thank you so much Kelsie! These pictures are just beautiful! 

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 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 ...

We have had such a crazy weekend! Well technically a crazy Sunday lol, Saturday I worked and Alan had his first soccer scrimage. So not too crazy lol... But Sunday was our big family fun day together! I just loved every second of it! :) Special thanks to my mom for inviting us along for the fun! The kids had an absolute blast! We started out our fun at Chuck E. Cheese. We had pizza for lunch their with my mom and brother. Then we played some games and went on some rides together. Alan and Anna didn't want to eat with all the exciting commotion going around us, but by some miracle I got them to eat some salad and a slice each. Then we were off playing! Alan went with me first, so he could play some big kid games. But Anna only let him play alone with me for so long lol, she got jealous fast. Silly girl! Alan playing the rubber ducky game Anna had to do everything Alan did, play every game that he did lol. Alan was such a good sport and let her follow him around. He is serious...

I haven't been being good to this blog this year lol, I keep forgetting to post! This past month I have been working on my online gymnastics certification for work, I have been completing several classes lately. I am quite excited that I am finally on the path to becoming a fully certified gymnastics teacher! But its a lot of work lol, I feel like I am totally back in high school scratch that, college lol. Its so hard! There's hours of reading and notes, then a decently difficult test to take at the end of each class! Man, I haven't had test anxiety in years lol, this feels like a totally new feeling to me! But I like it! I just hope that I can keep up with the testing AND also remember to start posting on here again more regularly. Even if they are short and sweet photo dump posts! That will be my New Year's resolution lol, to be more active with my blog again! We had quite the busy Christmas weekend! The kids and I went with my family to the Festival of Trees  on ...

The remainder of our Thanksgiving weekend was fantastic! Aunt Natalie, Uncle Jake and Benton came into town and we spent all day with them. We even went to Seasame Street Live with them! It was a wonderful weekend for everyone. We were so glad that Uncle Jake and Aunt Natalie could make it into town! Seasame Street Live was so awesome too. It was a newly themed show this time, about a music teacher and making music with things around us. I just loved the whole concept, being a musician and music lover myself! Alan, Anna and Benton also enjoyed it very much. It was both Anna and Benton's first Seasame Street Live, I think Benton thought he was watching one big tv lol! Anna wouldn't sit down the whole time, she was up walking around the aisles and dancing everywhere. Silly girl! Benton, Aunt April, Anna, Aunt Natalie and Uncle Jake at the show Silly Benton fell asleep halfway through the performance too! He snuggled right into dad with his Elmo under his arm, sooooooo...

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...