Free Range Family

Dare I say it? Dare I say that spring is here? I am afraid that if I post it on here, tomorrow morning we may wake up to snow! Montana weather is just wild like that in March lol! Hopefully now that its almost April, we will finally be done with all the darn winter weather! Because even though I was raised a snow bunny, I am ready for spring and summer to be here! Today was gorgeous out! It was a chilly 32 degrees outside but the sun was out and shining! It felt wonderful compared to the awful cold days we have been having recently! I had to get the kids out in this amazing weather! So we left the front door open while we had lunch today, letting the nice fresh air and sun come in, then after lunch we went to the park to play until Lon was off of work! It was just fantastic! I couldn't decide if I wanted to go to Pioneer Park or Rose Park, so I asked Alan's opinion. He thought that Rose Park would be better and since it was in the area of where we were meeting up with Lon af...

We had Anna's first birthday party this past Saturday. Luckily, most of my family was still in town from my uncle and aunt's wedding. Only a few of them weren't able to make it. We also found a great spot in the center of the playground area, even with a gazebo! It was a different spot then where I originally had planned, but it worked perfectly for us. I loved how everything looked, even though it was a little windy out. Unfortunately, Aunt Natalie and Uncle Jake were not able to come to town for her birthday. Aunt Natalie could have Baby B at any moment now, according to her doctors. No one wanted her to have any problems travelling down here, just for Anna's birthday. It wasn't worth it. I told her we would make up for it in August when they all come visit. With that being said, we really missed you guys at the party! Love you three! The kids played on the playground, in the sandbox area and the messed around with the party favors. They each got part...

Happy Spring Break Day! Today is the first day of spring break for our town's school district and my siblings are pretty darn excited! Alan also does not have gymnastics today so he will be going to daycare with me twice this week. The girls I work with will be happy lol! :) Grandpa Kevin, Aunt April and Uncle .Kalvin will be meeting Aunt Natalie and Uncle Jake to visit some of our family over Easter, so it will just our family and my mom for Easter. Hopefully we can get the Great Grandparents to come over too! Here is this week's What I'm Loving Wednesday! Enjoy! I'm loving... that Easter is on Sunday! That means Easter Bunny visits and egg dying and egg hunts and treats and family and laughter and love! Plus its Anna's first Easter. Soooooooo excited! I'm loving... how into Easter Alan is this year. Yesterday we saw one of the bunnies who we share our yard with, and Alan legitmetly thought it was the Easter Bunny. We followed that bunny ar...

I've had several important posts to do this week first, but here is a post about our weekend. Hope you enjoy! Our Labor Day weekend was not super busy because Lon had to work both of his jobs, but the kids and I did manage to do some things. And I even got some great deals on Fall clothing for them! More about that later, check out our weekend: Saturday afternoon Aunt April, Alan, Anna and I went to Pioneer Park. I brought the Moby Wrap with the stroller as back-up and was grateful I did so. About five minutes in, Anna decided it was too hot in the Wrap and she wanted to be in the stroller. Alan wanted to take us on a walk around the park first, then play on the playground so we followed him on his exploration. Anna enjoyed the views and the bumpy ride put her to sleep after some time. It was a great walk. I love Pioneer Park, its so beautiful! Its one of my favorite parks, there are so many trees! Fun fact: Did you know that Pioneer Park was designed (without the playground) b...

Thursday, I watched a documentary on PBS called Nature's Child. It was about nature and how it affects and benefits childhood development. Of course being the hippie that I am, I already knew this lol. But it was still a very interesting show to watch and I learned quite a bit from it. In this day and age, most children spend their time indoors either on the computer or at the television. Gradually, less and less children are spending quality time outside. If they do get outside, it is either at school during recess or for an organized sport. While these are also good development teachers, they are not enough. Children need to play outside in their neighborhoods, like we all did as kids. But this is happening less and less. Why is this, you ask? Well there is one theory that I have found to be pretty feasible. Some believe that modern day parents are being conditioned by the media to be afraid to let their children play outside in the neighbor, whether by themselves or with other...

**Warning** This post will contain a TON of pictures lol. The weather was gorgeous and I took a lot of photos this weekend. You have been warned. I am not complaining lol. Not. one. bit. This past weekend the weather has been so gorgeous, we have spent almost all our time outside. I love it! This past weekend was pretty busy, but we were able to still enjoy the 70 degree weather. Alan in his shorts Friday it was so nice out, that when Alan picked out shorts to wear for the day, I willingly let him wear them! We didn't do much that day, Kelsie and I had to cancel our play date plans but I still took Alan to Rose Park to play once I had finished with my housework. Alan took off running right away! And he didn't stop once he hit the playground It was a little windy, but the sun was shining so we didn't mind. Alan set off to explore the park, and found a weird wheel thing. It turned in a circle, but I couldn't figure out what else it did. I think they used to be us...

I am super exhausted from today! We just got home for the first time since like ten this morning and I am just beat!! :) My feet are killing me and I feel like I carried twenty men, instead of just one toddler. I could very well possibly be sunburnt. And Alan? He's still running laps around me lol. Ahhhhhh, where does all that energy come from???? :D We did have such a wonderful day today though! It was all worth it!  This is funny: I let Alan pick out his clothes again today, and in spirit of the Cars 2 movie he chose a Lightning McQueen pajama shirt and Cars swim trunks. :) We let him wear it the whole day, we are such awesome parents!  Anyways, the morning started with Alan and I waking up early to watch Cars lol. You know, we had to refresh our mind from... yesterday when we watched it. :P Then we went and got the tickets. Alan was so smart he started asking, "Cars? Cars?" when we were walking up to the theater. Little did he know we were only getting tickets an...