Free Range Family

So last year I did Christmas through the years, and I thought that this year I would do something different. Here is Sant over the years with my family! :D As you can see, Santa has never changed. We love our mall Santa! He has been "in the family" since Natalie and I were children! We love him! He has several different Santa outfits (so if you see him multiple times in the year, the kids don't think Santa has only one stinky Santa outfit lmao). I mean, each picture he has a new shirt on! He has also perfected his Santa voice, and is super kind to the children. Alan loves Santa, tells him that they are best friends every chance he gets! :) Even if there were other Santa's to visit in town, which there aren't in this small town, we wouldn't go! I love this Santa so much, he is such a wonderful guy! *2010* *2011* *2012* *2013* *2014* We love our Santa!  Here's to many more years of him keeping the Christmas magic alive for childre...

Happy holidays from the Andersen family! I hope that your Christmas season is going well so far! The kids and I are ready excited for Christmas! I say excited, because I am totally NOT ready this year lol! With the Nutcracker finishing up just last Friday, I have only had a few days to really prepare for Christmas. I still haven't wrapped anything or sent out the Christmas cards. Who am I kidding? I haven't even written the Christmas cards yet. However, we did decorate sugar cookies the other night. And Alan had his last class of the year today, which happened to be his Christmas party. ;) There were a ton of festivities at Alan's Preschool Christmas party. Santa came for a visit and delivered his stocking gifts to all of the students. Alan was so excited to see him, he told Santa that they were best friends. He is so sweet! After visiting with Santa, we went caroling around the Y.  We went caroling at Child Watch, then to the Administration Office, and finally...

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...

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 ...

If you remember my post from last year about Santa, I was quite worried about Alan's reactions around Santa. Thankfully, he was not afraid and was willing to sit on Santa for pictures. I was so proud of him. This year, I was not too terribly worried about it because he was super excited. He would not stop talking about him. We took the kids to see him last Monday, without Daddy. Originally, I wanted to go with Lon but he was too busy with work and everything. So I took the kids alone. Thankfully, it was pretty much dead. There were only three people in front of us, making our wait just long enough for us to enjoy the Christmas decorations and the Norman Rockwell statues. Then it was our turn to talk to Santa. Santa telling Alan a secret I did not get the picture package because I knew that Anna would not want to sit with Santa. I did not want to fight her without Lon or my mom lol. Maybe when we go with Aunt April and Uncle Kalvin. Alan did tell Santa that he wanted a car a...

My wonderful sister Natalie came back into town this last Friday for Christmas! Oh we have missed her so much, and are so happy to have her back with us, especially with the holidays coming up in six days!! We took the whole crazy family out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse that night. And boy, did we have fun and were we loud lmao! :) Made sure to tip the waitress alot afterwards. Yesterday, my sister convinced us to all dress up real nice and go see Santa for pictures. Lol I had originally planned on taking Alan, Aunt April and Uncle Kalvin myself but didn't plan on dressing up at all. But I love my sister and will do anything for her, so dressing up and making a fool of myself with Santa is nothing. :) We arrived at the busy mall expecting Santa's workshop to be somewhat busy, but what we saw was unbelievable. The line went all the way through the workshop and out to the coffee stand. Thankfully Alan's second cousin was there also, so we chatted with her and her mother t...