Free Range Family

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 had a pretty uneventful first weekend of January. It was so cold and snowy out that we couldn't do hardly anything. With temperature below zero, there was no way I was going to take the kids outside to play, even though I really wanted to pull them around on the sled with their new snow pants. Instead, we went to the mall play area for some fun. We may start going there more often if the winter is a below zero one this year lol! The kids had fun and we met up with Grandma Melanie, Aunt April and Uncle Kalvin. We walked all over the mall with them while they spent their gift cards from Christmas. Saw Aunt Ariel and her friends, plus one of Alan's friends from school! Uncle Kalvin even bought the kids a stuffed animal from Build-A-Bear! He bought Alan an Angry Bird that yells when it hits something lol and bought Anna a Valentine's heart puppy. So sweet, thanks Uncle Kalvin! We spent some time with Lon too, watched Despicable Me 2 for the first time (just as cute as the fi...

I feel like my blog has been more cloudy, stormy weather with occasional sunshine as of late lol, but I guess not! My good friend Darlene from Tales of a Young Mamma nominated me for the Sunshine Award recently! Its a long story lol, for another time I think... But thanks a bunch Darlene! I would have picked you myself for the Sunshine Award, but I guess you beat me to it. :P I am very honored to be mentioned by you though. Thanks again! The Sunshine award rules are as follows:  1. Include the sunshine award icon in your post (above)  2. Link to the person who nominated you  3. Answer 10 questions about yourself  4. Nominate 10 bloggers to receive the award  5. Link your nominees and let them know they've been nominated   Here are Darlene's questions! What is your favorite thing about your significant other? I have so many favorite things about Lon, I don't know if I could even possibly pick just one! I love how amazing of a father he ...

I just have to take a moment to say that I have THE BEST group of hip hop students ever! They rocked last night's dress rehearsal like it was no body's business! I am such a proud teacher right now! This recital will be so awesome! Shopping with Aunt Sam was quite a feat with Alan and Anna but we still managed to have a good time. And I spent my own money on my first piece of clothing since BEFORE I had my children lol. I felt really guilty about it at the time lol, but I had to get a nice dress or something to wear for the recital Saturday. I didn't have anything nice to wear except for skirts I have owned since highschool and I am honestly tired of matching them with one of my boring tops. I was excited to go shopping at Ross because I love their reduced prices and their clothing too! I found a very cute strapless top thats black with blues, reds and yellows. It fits my students' first dance costume soooooooooo perfectly! They are supposed to wear primary colors ...

That's the mantra I kept repeating to myself ALL day yesterday lol. "It'll be all worth it in the end, it'll be all worth it in the end, it'll be all worth it in the end." Needless to say, yesterday was a hectic day for the kids and I. Since I had the day off, I got the family car to run a bunch of much needed errands, take Anna to her check up appointment and to take the kids to a park playdate with some friends. We dropped Lon off at work, then headed downtown to the courthouse. Some of you may remember the car accident Lon was in last month? Well we are still under investigation with this because of the other driver. I have been at the police station way too many times this past month, and my claims rep wanted me to go there again. Let me explain why I don't like making this trip, although I am sure most of you mothers already know why. Our police station is downtown and well, its a police station. With criminals and scary people. My kids had to come ...

I finally was fed up with Anna's nurses telling me she just had a cold over the phone when I knew it was something else. Call it motherly instinct, but I think the fact that I had spent the past few nights sleeping on the hardwood floor next to my daughter's bouncing chair just to keep it bouncing because she could not comfortably sleep in her own bed and was still waking up every few minutes to cough might have clued me in also. Maybe just a little lol. So I caved and took her in to see the doctor yesterday. Let me tell you a little something about doctors and I. Being the naturalist that I am, I just plain do not like doctors and do not always agree with them. My personal philosophy is most ailments can be taken care of by drinking more water. We are mostly liquid creatures afterall, most of our ailments root from dehydration or lack of water intake. The next step is food and nutrition. When it comes to me, personally, I will do just about anything to get out o...

Today is a busy but uneventful day. I have several errands to run around town with the kiddos, Anna has another Lactation Consultant appointment, I plan on trying to take Alan to a park at some point, and I have to teach dance class tonight. I have been seeing my LC quite a bit this last few weeks, I will write a whole post detailing that later this week. Spoiler alert: I am now renting a hospital grade pump that I love!!!!!! But for today, I am going to post this review I did a while back and have been saving for a rainy day... Which is hilarious because it is sort of a rainy day today. :) So here you go, enjoy! Don't forget, only three more days until my blog's new change! Be sure to check it out!!! Have you seen this new show? Its on Lifetime and basically, I'm addicted to it! :) It just recently started and I think I may be hooked lol. Its based on the idea of "the grass is greener on the other side" but mostly that men would be nowhere without women and ...

Being a hippie and a mother, I have been told several times that I must follow AP or Attachment Parenting to a tee. This may come as some surprise to you readers, but I don't like to think of myself as a follower of Attacthment Parenting. Though I follow some of their principles, I like to think of myself more as a Natural Parent because I think about how a human child would be raised in nature and try to replicate it to the best of my ability. I will share with you today the differences and similiarities between an Attachment Parent and myself. Here are the eight principles of Attachment Parenting: Prepare for Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting This principle I followed. They ask that you research, research, research the best options of care for your child- breast vs. bottle, to circumcise vs not circumcise, you get the idea. I did do this to the extreme with Alan and not so much with Anna but that was really only because I already had all the knowledge from my other pr...

I figured I would do a FQF this week, because its been since Anna was born that I have done one I think lol. Oh well, chalk that up to being a SAHM mom of two lol. But I miss reading Mama M's posts and I sure miss participating in this fun link up, so here we go! Here's this week's Five Question Friday! Enjoy everyone! What is the funniest thing you saw on Facebook/twitter this week? I see a lot of funny things on my FB, as I have a ton of friends who have hilarious children lol. But to pick the funniest? That's pretty hard. Let's see, I had a friend's daughter who sang this song (can you see how she toddler-fied it lol): "Hey, I just met you and this is crazy. But here's my number, so call me baby. And all the alphabets try to chase me, but here's my number so call me baby!" Or this post from a friend, about what her daughter said to her: ‎"Mommy, mommy! You so boo-y-ful! You my FAVORITE toad. Can you ribbet like a toad?...

Its Friday! This morning I have my ultrasound to check up on Miss Anna's growth, it will be great to get to see her again! I can't wait to meet her! :D I hope I get some pictures to take home, I will definitely post them on here sometime this weekend. Then Alan and I are going shopping with my family for Father's Day. Not sure what we are getting Lon or my dad yet, but I know Alan will help me pick! Otherwise, I look forward to a weekend of fun in the sun. But not too much sun, I don't want to end up in L and D again. Here's this week's Five Question Friday! Would you grow your hair out to donate it? Lol, my family and I always do that. Lon donated his gorgeous hair to Locks for Love when he got it cut last (he donated ten inches) and I donated my hair last month when I cut it too (I only donated eight inches lol). Here is my hair cut!   What song makes you think of summer?  Hmmm, that's a tough one. Probably anything by Jack Johnson make...

This morning, I woke up early (as usual lol) with morning sickness. The rest of my house was quiet because Lon and Alan were still sound asleep, so I channel surfed for something good to watch. I started watching this really interesting documentary on TLC about abandoned children who turn to animals for their care taking. It is called Wild Child: The Story of Feral Children. It really got me thinking about the ever old philosophy debate about nature v.s. nurture. First we should go over what qualifies a child as feral. As sometimes referred to as children with the "Mowgli Syndrome," feral children are human children who have lived away from any human contact from a very young age, generally around two or three. Feral children often are abandoned by their parents and turn to animals, usually canines but there have been  other animals reported like horses or primates. In other cases, children are isolated by their parents on purpose, or treated like animals. These children no...

Happy Friday everyone! Our weekend is a little busy, I work almost all day Saturday then Sunday is Mother's Day and my co-worker Jessica's wedding. Pretty excited for Sunday to say the least! :) Here's this week's Five Question Friday! Enjoy! What advice would you give a couple getting married? How coincidental that this is one of the questions, with the wedding on Sunday lol! :P I would have to say... Communicate. The most important thing for any couple to have is communication, in my opinion. Maybe that's just the point I am at in my life, but I feel that if you can't talk to your spouse and tell them EVERYTHING (and yes, I mean everything, what would you hide from your spouse?) then your relationship isn't as strong as it can be. Right now, Lon and I maybe see each other two hours a day. But I make sure that I am always in contact with him, always know what he is doing and how he is feeling, etc. This keeps our marriage strong and us happy....

My town has a local magazine that I read quite often called Simply Family. Its kinda like Parents magazine, but with more Montanan type stuff. I love it! Here is their online website, check it out, even if you don't reside in Montana! That's one of my former dance students! This month's magazine is mostly themed around Motherhood and Mother's Day. Although many of the articles featured this month inspired me, my favorite article is called "What Kind of Mother Are You?" by Brenda Maas. The article highlights all the different types of moms and then asks the reader to reflect on what types of mothers they experience. Each mom type has a whimsical explanation of what they are about. It was quite funny. But it also really got me reflecting on not only what type of mother I am now, but my journey and growth as a mother. Here are the mom categories and my brief explanations of them: (Remember, these are Brenda Maas' ideas, I am only sharing them w...

Happy Friday everyone! I am in a bit of a better mood today, just trying to stay positive and keep my belly full all day long lol. I am excited too because my beloved sister Natalie comes home from college today for her birthday this weekend! Yay, can't wait to see her! Since her birthday is on Cinco de Mayo, its tradition in my family to go out to dinner at Dos Machos and have her wear their birthday sombero. I will get pictures and post them lol! Tomorrow is Uncle Kalvin's birthday party at the Reef. Should be fun for Alan and I. Hope everyone else has a fun planned weekend! Here is this week's Five Question Friday! What did you wear to prom? Include a picture if possible. After searching Facebook like mad for a picture of me at senior prom, I have been unlucky lol. But our prom was 007 themed because of our graduation year (2007) so I wore a slinky light blue dress with silver heels that laced up to the knee. We rented a mustang for the trip too. My prom su...

I had a very good weekend. It wasn't too busy, which was just perfect, and even though Grandma Melanie and Aunt April were out of state, I enjoyed the time I spent with my family. Friday night was Jessica's Bachelorette Party, Saturday I worked and then had a pizza party with Alan and Sunday we went to Pioneer Park for our Arbor Day Tree Scavenger Hunt. We had a pretty decent weekend! :D Jessica's Bachelorette Party was a lot of fun for me actually! :) I was pleasantly surprised lol. Because I had covered her shift for her, I missed the dinner but met up with them at their first bar destination. Manny's Sports Bar and Grill. There was a comedian in the actual bar part that I wasn't aware of, so I walked in on the show and embarrassed myself, to say the least lol. But I quickly found them thanks to the help from the very polite bouncer (I mean, I interrupted the show and he was still helpful and nice!) and after receiving my Team Bride shirt and my nickname (I was ...

Happy Friday everyone! It has been raining pretty much all day. I believe it started sometime late last night, or should I say early this morning lol. But luckily, Alan and I got the car so we were still able to run the few errands that we needed to. Tonight is also my friend Jessica's Bachelorette party, I will be stopping by to hang out and dance with the girls some. Here is this week's Five Question Friday! Do you make your kids finish all the food on their plates? Well my kiddo is still only a toddler, so no I don't force him to eat everything on his plate. I do however, make a point to encourage him to try and eat a little bit of everything I give him. I have been pretty successful with this too. :) Do you give an allowance? Lol once again my little guy is only a toddler, so no. But as for when he is older? Meh, probably not. My husband and I both came from families who did not give allowances, instead rewarded us with special treats and events. I thi...