Free Range Family

Attention readers, I bid you warning, STAY AWAY FROM MY HOUSEHOLD!!!! We have caught the dreaded cold going around! And it is kicking ALL of our butts! I always know how a cold travels through our household, usually through my husband or Alan. This time, Lon passed it to Alan, then Alan gave it to me, and even though I tried SO HARD, after a few miserable days I gave it to Anna. :/ As of right now, just the kids and I still have it. Lon was pretty much over it after the weekend was over and Alan only really coughs at night now. But it is kicking my rear pretty badly. My nose is plugged, I'm congested, I have a horrid cough, I have sinus headaches and am soooooo miserably sore. Ugh!!! No fun! Anna thankfully only has a runny nose and is very grumpy. I hope she will get over it fast! Not much else is going on today. Tomorrow I have Alan and Anna's well child checkups (a whole month late lol). Pretty sure they will not be giving Anna her two month vaccines because of her cold so...

Today is Alan's friend Colton's real third birthday. If you remember, we went to his birthday party this weekend with Aunt April. We had a wonderful time with them and I hope you tune in later tonight to see our post about it! Happy third birthday Colton! We love you so much! Have a great day buddy! Alan also has his first dentist appointment later this afternoon with my friend Alexis' dad so let's hope that goes well. I have been talking with Alan about the dentist and what will happen there, he seems confident enough. Plus I promised to take him to Pioneer Park afterwards as a treat. Wish us luck! Here is this week's Toddler Talk Tuesday!   This one is a little embarrassing. Well we all know how kids repeat just about EVERYTHING they hear... Lon is obsessed with this new song "Gangnam Style" by this really weird guy named Psy. Seriously, he watches it all the time! They do this little horse riding dance and at one point in the song yell, "...

Today we had the jeep for the day to run errands around town. We went to my work, the bank, the pharmacy and then we met up with Alan's friends Kelton, Teagan and Harper plus their mommies at Sacajawea Park. Anna napped the whole time, alternating from her stroller to a blanket on the grass to Mama's arms. We all throroughly enjoyed our time at the park though. We all got some Vitamin D from the good ol' sun and spent time with some people we love dearly. We also found out some exciting news about one of their families! I will share later. ;) Overall it was a great day for us! My beauty napping in the light sunlight while her brother plays with his buddies. Linkng up again with Brittan @ A Babbling Brunette for Toddler Talk Tuesday! Check it out! Anna was napping in her bassinet while I blogged next to her on my bed. Alan came in from his play area and was confused so he asked, "Mama, did Anna go back in your belly?" Laughing so hard,...

Today is a day of remembrance and memorial for the victims, hereos and their families of 9/11. During my morning meditations, I paused and thought of everyone for a moment. Sent them some loving, healing energy on such a hard anniversary. However today is not just about that. I am also a big advocate of making today about something different. Today is also my cousin Blake's birthday. It was his birthday before 9/11 and it will continue to be afterwards. Now, can you imagine having today be your birthday? Wow. My cousin is a very strong man and I love him to death. I never want today to be a dark day for my family, even though we still remember the vicitims, heroes and their families. We just choose to remember their lives and their happiness instead of the pain and tragedy they had to endure. If not for the sake of my cousin, but for the sake of those who died. Afterall, in their last minutes of life, it was not saddness they were sending to their families. It was love. :...

Happy Tuesday everyone! Today we don't really have any plans, just our daily stuff. Lon works all day while Alan and Anna rule this house lol. Thankfully, I have Anna napping so that Alan and I can eat some lunch and do some learning through play together. I am multitasking right now, writing this post, eating lunch and pumping lol. This is the norm for me now though. People wonder how Iget so much done in a day with two kids... This is how. Can you say Supermom? :P Anyways, here is this week's Toddler Talk Tuesday! At his party on Sunday, Alan saw a couple pretty girls sitting and wanted to go sit with them. He started pulling a lawnchair over to them. One of my friends saw him and asked him what he was doing. He told her, "I'm moving my chair elsewhere"  all matter-of-factly. Ummm, when did my kid learn to say elsewhere and who taught him that? That's like a five or ten dollar word that he used correctly! Everything kept going wrong for Lon the ot...

This s something new I found today from one of the blogs I follow. You are supposed to post all the funny things your toddler says. Oh boy, this will be fun with Alan lol. He is quite the talker and always has very interesting (and funny) things to say! Here is my first post of Toddler Talk Tuesday! Enjoy!   One of Alan's teachers has a twin that recently started working at the Y while we were on maternity leave. We stopped by to see everyone and the twin was working. Alan thought it was the teacher he knew and walked up to her saying, "Anna is here. She has a tiny heart and a tiny brain and a tiny body! I have a big heart and a big brain and a big body!" She looked at him like he was a crazy person. Lol, he has been really into learning about body parts lately so he has been asking alot of questions about them. He also loves doing size comparisions with himself and Anna. Really took her off guard though! :) The other day Alan and I were looking through the cup...

Happy Thursday everyone! Today wasn't as warm out as yesterday was, but since its my only day off in a while I figured Alan and I would still take our little walk over to my parent's house. We did and though it looked like it wanted to storm on us the whole time, we had a really good time! This time on our walk, we saw a rollie pollie on the sidewalk. I told Alan to scare it so that it would roll up, and he bent down close to it and yelled as loud as he could lol! :D Needless to say, the rollie pollie wasn't scared at all and continued on its way to the grass. It had me laughing for blocks though lol! He is too funny sometimes! Tomorrow night is my friend Jessica's Bachelorette Party. I was invited before I was pregnant lol, so I think I will still be going, for a little bit. They even bought me a matching shirt and nicknamed me Sexy Hippie Mama or something silly like that lol. Pretty close to the right name! :P We will be doing dinner and then going out the bars af...

I cannot believe that I am days away from being in the third trimester! This is crazy, it seems like just days ago it was Thanksgiving and I had just found out I was pregnant again. And now? Its like less than three months away that we will be meeting her! I cannot wait, I am ready to meet her now. Today since the weather looked nice out, Alan and I took a walk to my parent's house to do some laundry. Well it may have looked nice out lol but it was super windy and we were not prepared for it! Poor Alan looked like he was gonna be blown away and the mean wind was making little tears form in the corners of his eyes. :( He still managed to have a great time regardless, he kept picking dandelions and throwing them into the wind to watch them fly away lol. I found those "helicopter" seeds (the ones that spin when you throw them up in the air?) and showed him how to play with those, he loved it! We also had a conversation with a worm, a bird and several puppy dogs lol. And we...

Happy Thursday everyone! Today we were going to walk over to my parent's house (they only live a few blocks away from us) but when I woke up this morning, it was raining! Lol I'm not complaining too much though, because it looks just gorgeous outside! The trees, flowers and grass are all bright green and happily singing in the rain! They sure are enjoying all this water, you can see it in their color! :) Lol, I'm done with my hippie moment for now. Here's this week's Toddler Talk Thursday!! This week's topic: Toddlers and Sports! I have written about this before, sometime last year. Coming from a sporty family (my sisters and I have been in dance and swimming since a very young age and Kalvin is into baseball and football), I definitely recognize the importance of sports. Its another form of early discipline and guidance for children, as well as physical exercise. I also understand the importance of starting children early, maybe not in team sports, but ...

Happy Thursday everyone! I hope you are all having as nice of weather as we are, since I am off of work today we plan on spending all day outside in the sun!!! :) Tonight is Aunt April's birthday party, so Alan and I spent most of the morning making her birthday card. I think it looks wonderful! This week's topic: Dealing with Sickies, what do you keep on hand? Thankfully, Alan has a very high immune system like his mother and father. I can't tell you how many times I hear about my co-worker's kids getting sick like every other week, and it just makes me sick to my stomach. Those poor kiddos! :( Alan has probably only ever been sick four times in his life, and a couple of those were just infections. But I'm not going to boast about how my kid is sickness free because about once a year, when the real bad crud is going around, Alan will catch something and get sick. And when he does get sick, it hits him HARD. Poor little man, he will sleep all day and nig...

Happy Thursday! Be sure to tune in later today for my midwife appointment update. For now though, enjoy this week's of Toddler Talk! This week's topic: How to Deal with a Picky Eater Alan eating cereal for breakfast Alan is a somewhat picky eater. He doesn't like most cheeses, vegetables, and a few meats. He will only ever eat macaroni or spaghetti noodles and doesn't like eating bread most of the time. Somedays, I feel like he doesn't eat enough because I try something different and he refuses to eat it. But I remind myself that he will eat if he's hungry and won't stop until he feels full. This still makes mealtimes somewhat of a battle for us. If Alan had his way, he would only ever eat pizza, chicken nuggets and hot dogs. He also believes he can live off of goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, granola bars and pop tarts. So I have been given the task of "hiding" healthy things in his food. For an easy example, Alan likes cereal but no...

Happy Thursday! The weather is just gorgeous again lol. Mother Nature can't make up her mind anymore lol! If I have the extra time today, I might take Alan to another park. Its so sunny out! We are just so excited for the Disney on Ice show tonight! Since Alan woke up this morning, all he can talk about is Mickey and Minnie lol. He even wanted a Mickey shirt to wear and when we were unsuccessful in finding him one, he threw a little fit. Ugh lol. :P Boy is my little guy all about Disney today! Be sure to check out my post from earlier today, where I reveal my daughter's name choice! :) We are so excited and can't wait to meet her! Only nineteen more weeks! Here's this week's Toddler Talk post! Hope everyone enjoys! Link Up Suggestions: 1. We ask that you follow all three hosts.That way you can keep up to date on future Toddler Talks. 2. Feel free grab the Toddler Talk Button and display it in your post or on your blog. 3. Stop in to other blogs that a...

Happy Thursday! Here's my Toddler Talk Thursday post! Enjoy! Link Up Suggestions: 1. We ask that you follow all three hosts.That way you can keep up to date on future Toddler Talks. 2. Feel free grab the Toddler Talk Button and display it in your post or on your blog. 3. Stop in to other blogs that are linking up. Leave a meaningful comment if you visit, and follow if you would like. 4. If you have a topic you would like to suggest, please leave it in the comments sections of this post! 5. If you want to post the link up on your blog – please do! Maybe we can draw in more people to participate and share tips!! get the InLinkz code This week's topic: Songs you sing to your toddler or songs that remind you of your toddler I love music, so coming up with songs that remind me of Alan or ones that I sang to him are no problem. The only problem some might have is trying to figure out why they remind me of him. Lol. #1 The Beatles- Hey Jude I always used to ...

Today is my midwife appointment, and before that I have to go to the courthouse with Alan to get my vehicle registration renewed. I am worried about having him with me, but I know if I am prepared we will be okay. :) I'm participating in Toddler Talk Thursdays again. Here is this week's post. :) Enjoy! Here are the Link- up Suggestions: 1. We ask that you follow all three hosts.That way you can keep up to date on future Toddler Talks. 2. Feel free grab the Toddler Talk Button and display it in your post or on your blog. 3. Stop in to other blogs that are linking up.Leave a meaningful comment if you visit, and follow if you would like. 4. If you have a topic you would like to suggest, please leave it in the comments sections of this post! 5. If you want to post the link up on your blog – please do! Maybe we can draw in more people to participate and share tips!! This Week's Topic: Your toddler's favorite songs Alan is really into singing your basic ...

Yay! The weekend is almost here! I can't wait for Saturday to come so I can sit back and relax! Plus my mother and Aunt April return from Las Vegas tomorrow, we really miss them! Aunt April went up there for Thunderstruck Nationals, a dance competition and workshop. She gets to dance with memebers of SYTYCD! Lucky ducky! :D Nothing too exciting is happening today, I work at three and Alan will be going with me. Boring lol! :P But today is my friend Jessica's due date and tomorrow is my cousin in law's due date, so be prepared for some new baby posts lol! They work perfectly with today's topic as well. :P So for now, here's Toddler Talk Thursdays!! Enjoy! This Week's Topic: How to handle bringing a new baby home with a toddler in the house? This is something Lon and I have discussed over and over again. We are both from a family of six kids and understand how hard it is sometimes to get another sibling. I want almost as many kids as our parents had as...

Man it is hot! I woke up three minutes ago and I already am covered in sweat! Thank goodness I'll be stuck inside the YMCA all day today, at least they hace A/C! :P Here's Top Ten Tuesday!! Since my birthday is only twelve days away, I thought I would do a fun top ten post today and do a birthday wish list. I am not normally materialistic and I, in no way, expect to get anything on this list. But this is still fun to do. :) Enjoy! Top Ten Birthday Gifts I Want! aka Birthday Wish list #10 Anything from Bath and Bodyworks I LOVE their stuff!!! It all smells so good! :D #9 Another Wooden Buddha Statue You can never have too many of these if you're a Buddhist lol! :P Via #8 Giftcard to Walmart FOR GROCERIES LOL!!!!!! :P #7 Daft Punk's Interstalla 5555 Via #6 A stereo system for my car I've had my car for over six months now, and I still haven't gotten a stereo system. I miss the radio! Its annoying having to sing or talk to...

Today is payday for me, hooray! The day were money moves in and out of my account so quick you wouldn't believe it! :P Nah lol, it is still a good day. Make sure to tune in later for my second installment of American Camping Week, it is very exciting and eventful! It is also going to be another hot one today. We were all woken up with the sun this morning, because the heat came along with it. Can you say water park???? :) We might take Alan to Terry before I go to work. Here's Toddler Talk Thursdays! This week's topic: What is your toddler's favorite summertime toys? Alan is really into balls right now lol. Any type really, he's just been really into throwing and kicking lately. Basketballs, footballs, baseballs, even kickballs. He just gets so excited when he sees a kid playing with a ball. Via He also loves to play with hopper balls now. He discovered how to use them last Thursday and has played with them everyday at daycare since. He looks so ad...

Oh boy, today will be a hard one for me lol. I dread having to go back to my regular schedule of working, after having the weekend off to do whatever I pleased. Oh well, I can do it! Its a short week! :D Here's Top Ten Tuesday!! Stay tuned for my American Camping Week post later today, it will be awesome!!! Top Ten Books I Must Reread (when I have the chance to breathe lol!) #10 Harry Potter Series Via #9 Ender's Game Via #8 The Lord of the Rings Series Via #7 The Stand Via #6 A Wrinkle in Time Via #5 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Via #4 Catcher in the Rye Via #3 Water for Elephants Via #2 Plato's Republic Via #1 1984 Via

Yesterday, Alan hopped on a hopper ball for the first time ever! You know, like the ones with the handles on them? He looked so cute! I was so proud lol! :) Today we will be going to get our oil changed in our Cadillac for our camping trip. I am a little anxious about having Alan there with me for the duration of the oil change, in the super small MasterLube lobbey with no doors! And the heat uggggh. Its supposed to be 80 degrees but we were already woken up this morning by the heat. It feels like it might be 90 degrees out there now. Blah wish me luck! I'm gonna need it! :) Here's Toddler Talk Thursday!! This week's topic: Emergency Kit for your babysitter. Do you have one? What is yours? Lon and I are pretty picky when it comes to babysitting. He has ONE babysitter his whole life, and that is my mother. My sisters and brothers will help out but she is the babysitter. We don't let any random person watch Alan. He has never been watched by a young teenage ...