Free Range Family

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my wonderful readers! <Via> I am very thankful for all of you! You are all so wonderful! I hope that your Thanksgiving is full of happiness, love, laughter and family. No matter who you are, where you live, or what your situation is, everyone has something to be thankful for. My family has a list so long, it keeps growing the more I think about it! We have had a rough year and some months, but we are getting back on our feet again. That is one thing to be thankful for right there! All of the support we have received from family and friends is another thing. There are many, many more! We are about to head out for our Thanksgiving festivities, so I will have to drop back in tomorrow and share my "Thankful List" with all of you. But I do hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and that everyone is able to spend it with someone they love and care about. That is all Thanksgiving is really about… Being thankful and being with tho...

Sunday evening, it snowed. Still leaves on the bush, with snow all around loll The residents of Billings were horribly upset, Alan and Anna were so excited, and I couldn't really care less lol. Born and raised in Montana, I am quite used to seeing snow in November. I was actually more surprised that we had a WARM Halloween instead of the usual snowy Halloween. Snow mid-November was nothing for me, it just meant that I needed to start looking harder for either a new car or new place to live. But surely nothing to get too upset or excited about lol. Yesterday, I took the kids outside to play for a few minutes. It was in the teens outside, but we Montanans are never afraid of cold weather! We just know how long to be out lol. :) The kids were in total hog heaven! They are complete snow puppies, the opposite of their mother and father. They must take after Aunt Natalie and Uncle Jake, that's it… :P Alan chased me around, trying to peg me with a snowball. Anna walked ...

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...

Today my handsome, amazing, super sweet, very smart, wonderful, loving son is turning five years old. I cannot believe that he is five now! I remember being pregnant with him, I remember the labor, I remember having him and I remember him as a itty bitty baby. Now he is big, entirely his own person with his own opinions and personality. He is so stinking smart, always wanting to learn about new things. He loves everyone and everything! He loves to take care of his baby sister and his cousin Benton. He wants to be friends with everyone, will talk to anyone he meets on the street and tell them to "Have a great day." I have never met such a wonderful young man before! We are so lucky to call ourselves his parents, he is just amazing! We are having his birthday party tonight. First, we will be making the trip to Bricks and MiniFigs for some Lego fun and shopping. Alan cannot wait, he has been talking about the Lego store all month long lol! After our Lego exploration, w...

Today I started the Cheer and Dance Camp with the YMCA. I have 14 great girls that are already some hard workers! Wow! Today we learned a cheer, several cheer positions and how to project your voice. :) We practice at Pioneer Park and will be having a performance this Friday for their parents. Last Saturday, we had Alan's last soccer game of the summer season and last game for sometime too probably. With fall coming up and with that gymnastics and preschool, Alan would be out of Y sports probably until winter season. With that being noted, this game was a big deal for Mom and for Alan. :) Here are some photos from that day! Alan was on the Red Team this weekend, they had cute little jerseys for him to wear. He was excited to be on the same time as his friend Aiden from school, so was Mommy lol. Mister Aiden is quite a hard worker, especially in the game of soccer, I wanted Alan to be pushed by him in the game. My hopes were correct too, Alan became quite the Go-Getter too! T...

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 ...

So yesterday was my birthday. Isn't that so cool, that my mom had her first child the day before her birthday? Yeah we always thought so too lol. :P My friend and I at Relay this year, sorry I took no photos of my face on my actual bday lol I didn't do too much crazy things for my birthday, in fact when I told my friends at work my plans, they all teased me and said I sounded like their parents lol. I guess most people don't think 25 year olds want to take their kids to a water park and then go out to dinner with their husband for their birthday, partying and bar-crawling was the typical idea they had. But I am no typical lady. :) I had a good birthday too! I was able to see all of my favorite students at school, they sang to me twice there. I took my kids and my brother to an awesome place (even though we missed my bestie and her kiddos because we were too slow, boo), and then I got to spend some quality time with the man of my life. It was a perfect birthday, even ...

Our local library has recently built a new building and has remodeled. They just opened this past week. They are still under a lot of construction but can start accepting library card applications and allowing people to check books out again. Alan has wanted a library card for ages and I got my first card when I was about five, so I figured it was time to get him one. I took the kids to the new library last Friday and they just loved it! The new library is so cool! We walked all over, looking at all the new stuff. They have a wishing fountain, a tree house reading room and a toddler play area all on the first floor! We agreed that Alan was old enough to be responsible for two books. He picked those two books out while Anna played in the play area. Alan even came and played with her for a bit! However, Miss Anna wasn't too into getting any books herself this time but she really liked the play area and didn't want to leave when it was time to go lol. She put quite the show ...

I have had a busy weekend and an even busier week with birthday parties, family coming into town and a funeral. Before I begin this post, I think I am finally ready to share with you who in my family we lost this past week. It was one of my grandfathers. He had been fighting illness for years and years. He is no longer in pain or hurting anymore. For this I am very glad but as for the rest of us in the family, the "survivors"... Man, I give major kudos to anyone who has ever planned a funeral (or even helped plan one) for your deceased loved one. Its a lot of work, and still being raw with emotion from the passing, can be difficult at times. I have honestly been doing good. But I have my sad points, like when I had to tell my sisters or Alan. Or when I had to make a display with all of his pictures from my childhood. Or at the funeral when all the guests were giving my family their condolences. Thinking about him back then when we were young v.s. now, hurts me a lot still. N...