Free Range Family

Happy Holidays!  I am so excited that I can finally say that! I love December and the holiday season! I have been waiting for this all year! We have been applying for houses like crazy too, in hopes that we will have a place by Christmas. Wouldn't that be perfect? Its honestly all that I want for Christmas this year.   Pray for us to get lucky! :) I hope that everyone is having a great Christmas season, I know that we are! We went to the Festival of Trees last night with Grandma Melanie and Grandpa Kevin. Aunt April was performing with her dance studio. She did so awesome, as usual! They even did their new dances, like their Spice Girl song choreographed by Ade! Oh my goodness, it was all so awesome! Great job April! I could go on and on about how wonderful their performance was! Seriously! She even inspired one of my own dance students who was their with family! :D Aunt April and her crew after their performance <via>   After Diversity was done with the...

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 ...

I totally missed last month's post on Anna! Gah! :/ I cannot believe that I did that lol, gosh I have been so scatterbrained lately! Oh well, when my computer mouse is fixed I will ammend that! Darn! I cannot believe that she is almost two though! Its crazy! She has grown up so much, talks up a storm, and always wants to do everything her brother does. This kid! Unfortunately, little miss and her brother are sick with stomach bugs. Anna has had it since Saturday night and Alan just woke up with it this morning. They have bad tummy aches and cannot keep anything but liquids done. My poor kiddos! :/ This week is a big week for my gymnastics classes, I hate that my kids also have to be sick! Darn! Feel better babies, Mama loves you so much! Here are her 21 month old stats, she is getting so big! At 21 months old, Anna Ariel: *weighs 24 pounds and 14 ounces and is roughly 33 inches tall. I will update these stats more when I can measure her! She is getting bigger but I think th...

I missed it yesterday, but our beautiful little girl turned 16 months old. She has been growing like a little weed this month and has had so many milestones. We are so proud of her!   She have gone through so much this past month, she has been such a strong little fighter the whole time! It is also Montana's 124th birthday today! 124 years ago, our great state became an official state! Yay! We love you too Montana! Happy birthday! At 16 months, Anna Ariel: *Is 22 pounds and 8 ounces and is 32 inches long. She gained two pounds in one month, you go girl! Doctor Yontz will be so proud of you! *Is officially in size 18M only for shirts, pants and skirts. She is still in size 3 for diapers though, although there may be a change next month. :) *Has auburn colored hair, just like her mama. :) She has some red streaks that run through the top layer of hair, but its mostly all auburn now. Her eyes look more like her daddy's now though, a hazel color with some blue in it too. S...

It snowed today! Well technically it started last night but it has yet to stop today. We are supposed to get another 2 or 3 inches before it gets dark out, and even possibly another 1-2 inches later tonight. For a total of seven possible inches of snow, we will probably have a WHITE Halloween lol! Oh well, I like the snow. I know we have a lot of people in town who hate it, but I am true Montanan. Snow means snow activities! My family sure loves our snow activities too! Plus it is just so gorgeous out! I love how just a little snow can suddenly make everything look so cozy and quaint. Love it! :D However with that being said, I do usually try to stay off the roads during the snowstorms and the first day it snows if I can. Its also nice to enjoy it from inside at home, or out in your backyard too. ;) Please be warned, it is a little crazy to drive in (if you don't know how to) so I want everyone to be careful out there! Even the BPD is asking everyone to drive safely. They h...

I love spending time with my family, like just love every moment of it. When my family is all together, I am like a kid at Christmas. I seriously have never been more happy then when I am surrounded by my husband, daughter and son, sisters, brother, parents and all of my lovely cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents! I cannot fully explain it, its like they all have pieces of my heart and it just the greatest feeling when I'm whole again. ;) Plus, my family is just so awesome, unique, loud, hilarious and full of so much love and life! Who wouldn't want to be around us?????? This weekend was Lon's birthday, as well as Uncle Aaron's and Great Uncle Rick's birthdays. We had a lot of celebrating to do, needless to say lol. A lot of family time together, my favorite thing! Rather then give you a play-by-play of how our weekend went, I think I will just DUMP some photos on y'all! Enjoy! For Lon's birthday, we took him to his new favorite store, Bricks and ...

As if this weekend wasn't busy and festive enough for this family, Anna is 15 months old today! I had to post her updates today, so be sure to check back here tomorrow to see our awesome weekend of birthdays! We celebrated Uncle Aaron's birthday, Lon's birthday and Great Uncle Rick's birthday this weekend. It was one crazy weekend full of family! I loved it! I just cannot believe that Anna is already 15 months old! She is getting so big! I remember when Alan was 15 months old, that was really when he started acting like a little person lol. And she totally does that now! Its crazy! You ask her something and she always has a response. She has her own emotions, feelings and desires. And if you don't listen to her input, she will let you know that she is not happy. I love how much she talks now! Here is Alan and Anna at both 15 months! Love my sweet kiddos! At fifteen months, Anna Ariel: *is approximately 22 pounds and is approximately 29 inches tall 20 p...

Time goes by so quickly. Benton is almost a month old now and a few days ago Anna turned 13 months old. We have yet to even get her year old photos taken lol! Oops! We seem to be late on everything with our girl. Oh well... she doesn't need to be on time, just on her time. :) So I will go ahead and update you all on her, since I didn't really do that when she turned one. Or did I? I can't actually remember. How lame is that? Oh mommy brain! At thirteen months, Anna Ariel: *is approximitely 21 pounds and 27 1/2 inches long. *has reddish brown shoulder length hair with one big orange streak in it. Her hair is beautiful! And finally long enough for pigtails and ponytails! Yay! *has gray blue eyes with a dark navy ring around the edge. Not sure if her eyes will change to hazel like Lon and Alan's or if they will stay blue like mine. *wears Size 12M or 18M in shirts and 12M in shorts. She is in Size 3 diapers. And she just started wearing shoes this past m...

Today is Grandma Melanie's birthday! Happy birthday Grandma Melanie, we love you so much! My family is still in Missoula with my sister and my nephew, my mom will be back in town this weekend. We cannot wait to see her! Oh we have missed her so much these past few weeks, we cannot wait until she is back home! Aunt April, Uncle Kalvin and Grandpa Kevin too lol! :) We will probably have a double birthday party at either the Reef or the Oasis this weekend for the kids. Alan is so excited, he told me today that he was all done with swimming lessons so he could go lol! Silly guy! Mom, you are truly the best mom ever! You carried me for 41 weeks and patiently waited for my overdue arrival. You nursed me, like you did all four of us children, something I now have full appreciation for. You raised my siblings and I with good morals, family values, book and street smarts, strong hearts, a love for learning and a hard work ethic. You also taught my sisters and I to be beautiful, but to...

Today is Aunt Ariel's thirteenth birthday. She is officially a teenager, watch out! In the (almost) five years I have known her, she has grown into such a beautiful young lady. I am very proud of the person she has become. Aunt Ariel is very smart and gets great grades in school. She is also a great aunt and my children just adore her. She loves them as well. We love you so much Aunt Ariel! For her birthday, we will probably take her swimming or to a movie, depending on what she wants to do. I picked her out a cute summer outfit, Alan made her a special birthday card and Anna gave her a photo of her and Aunt Ariel. I hope she likes our gifts! Happy birthday Aunt Ariel. You have always been such an important part of our life! We love you so much!

Oh my word, this little diva girl is almost one year old! She officially has less than a month left now, I just do not know where the time went. I remember the first day I laid eyes on her, bringing her home from the hospital, those first few weeks, EVERYTHING! She has grown up so much, it just amazes me. Before we know it, she will be up there onstage with Aunt April, dancing her heart out. Love you baby girl! At eleven months old, Anna Ariel: *weighs approximetly 21 1/2 pounds and is approximetly 28 inches long. She is almost too big for her car seat! *wears size 9M or 12M in onesies and 9M in bottoms. Her diapers are still size 3. *has cut her first tooth, she started working on it yesterday! It one of the bottom middle ones. We are so proud! *having lightened up a bit, her hair is a light auburn ish red color now. It still has some orange in certain lights but is looking more and more like my hair color now. *her eyes are a light steely blue with a dark navy edge. Not ...

Having been so busy from this month's craziness, I did not even realize that Miss Anna is ten months old today! A whole month have passed and looking at our sweet girl, you can totally tell. She has developed so much in this past month, started crawling and pulling herself up and even eating the same meals as us! Big girl! At ten months old, Anna Ariel: *weighs approximately 20 pounds and is approximately 27 1/2 inches tall *wears size 6M and 9M in onesies, 9M and 12M in pants, and size 3 in diapers *still has no teeth, although you would not be able to tell by how much she is teething lol *has auburn blonde colored hair with red tones. Some days it can be very orange or red like Aunt April's while others it will be more brown or blonde. It is very curly and goes all the way down to shoulder blades in the back. Its so pretty! *has blue-ish hazel eyes that light up the room! *eats pretty much what we do now. She has tried tacos, spaghetti, cereal, a hamburger and several ...