Free Range Family

Two years ago, on a beautiful new spring day, Lon and I stood in front of our loved ones and joined hands in marriage. I promised to love him and always be there for him, plus we had some laughs in there too. It would not have been our wedding without it lol. :) 4.5 years of dating, 2 years of marriage, 6 different houses, 4 different vehicles, 3 different jobs, 2 kids and countless days of happiness and laughter behind us. And I only look forward to more in the future! Lon is such a wonderful father and husband. He loves his family so much, he would do absolutely anything for them. I admire his dedication to us and to his parents and siblings, as well as his dedication to his job. Lon does not know yet but tonight I am surprising him by taking him out to dinner! I got a sitter and I want to try a new restaurant, but cannot decide where to go yet. Any ideas are welcome! I had a lot of other gushy, lovey dovey things to say, but I have lost too much sleep for that right now. Al...

Not too much going on today. I do not have class today so the kids and I will be at home packing and cleaning. It was raining earlier this morning, that was nice. I like rainy days. And today it helped motivate me to pack! Bonus! We got a call from our new landlord this morning and the place will not be ready until around next Wednesday. This puts quite the strain on us because we have to be out of this place by the first of next month, but we will make do. I am confident that we can get moved in one day and spend the rest of the week cleaning the place. We have lots of help too. Still, wish us luck! Here is another back up post for y'all! We are all busy, busy, busy! I have been thinking about the songs I sing to Anna to calm her down. There are a few that are similar to what I sang to Alan as a newborn, but a lot of new ones too. Here is a list of them, I will start with the ones I also sang to Alan. "Is this Love?" by Bob Marley This is one of the songs I used...

Today is Lon's 25th birthday. It is also the four year anniversary of me quitting smoking ciggarettes, his 21st birthday present from me. :D Happy birthday Lon! Alan, Anna and I love you forever and ever! Kiss, kiss!         I met Lon about four years ago. I was originally friends with his two brothers Tyler and Chase, when they introduced me to him one sunny day. I remember my first thought about him was how beautiful his long, curly blonde hair was and boy was it LONG, down to his shoulders, and CURLY, they were each perfect ringlets and so pretty. I was instantly crushing on him and so glad that I had decided to wear my sexy red gaucho pants that day. To this day, Lon only remembers those pants from that day lmao! Wow! :P He must have been embarrassed because he stole my sunglasses from me and wore them, hiding his goregous eyes. Seriously, I thought that one of Michaelangelo's sculptures had come to life or something! He was so handsome! ...

Today is Uncle Aaron's 23rd birthday.       Uncle Aaron is Lon's little brother. They were born almost exactly two years apart from each other, only seperated by a day. Yes, Lon's birthday is tomorrow. :) I went to Senior High with Aaron but we did not know each other back then. In fact, I did not meet Uncle Aaron until I had moved into Lon's parent's house like November 2008. Uncle Aaron is a pretty cool guy, he and his wife Nikki love Alan and Anna. We have not seen them since the Montana Fair, when we had Uncle Aaron give us a tour of a military fire truck. We live in completely different parts of town and are always busy so we do not get to see them alot. But we hope that he has a great birthday! Alan even drew him a card that we will have to send them! It is too cute!   Happy birthday Uncle Aaron! We all love you so much! 

About a week ago, I was able to convince Lon to let us set up the Christmas tree. I say this, because normally our tree is up and our house is decorated by Black Friday lol. But this year, in all of our business, we were late on our decorating... And Christmas card making... And Christmas present shopping... And Christmas cookie making... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! :D We had talked to Alan a lot about the tree, and how there would be "pretties" (Alan's name for anything pretty at Christmas lol) but he couldn't touch them after we put them up, but I was still anxious. You see, I bought all my ornaments the year I got pregnant with Alan, before I even knew I was. So the majority of my ornaments are glass, shatter-proof mind you, but glass none the less. They hold a lot of sentimental value for me, as that was Lon and I's first Christmas together. We decided to put the baby gate up around the tree and hoped that would be enough. And of course, it was but situa...

After much discussion and over thinking on my part, we have made a decision about moving out at the end of this month. We have decided that in the best interest of our family, we will be moving out of our apartment. That is not all. We also decided that in my best mental interest (so I'm not constantly stressed about finances... Not sure how this will help lol) we will be getting a cheaper, one bedroom apartment or *crossing fingers* house that is under $500 a month. We did this last year, in the apartment before this one. We lived in a one bedroom basement apartment, underneath two female college students and near a high school. We will. NEVER. do. that. again. I repeat NEEEEEEVEEEEEER! I would rather experience water boarding or sense deprivation than go through that again. I'm serious, I don't even want to think about it! All those sleepless nights... *Shudders* You think I'm being dramatic, but I'm not. It was just awful! Drunk college students upstairs...

Today is my sister Natalie's 19th birthday. My sister is one of those people I can remember knowing as far back as I had conscious memory of. She is only 2 years and 10 months younger than me and we have actually been mistaken for twins before! She is still the one person I tell everything, and the first person I go to for girl talk lol. We've had some wild memories too. From covering the whole sidewalk in chalk that one time as kids, to logging in Canyon Ferry Lake with our cousins, to the various rides we took in Todd, to Boosketball and Nelly (inside joke lmao), to being a fish then a turtle then an elephant, to playing imagination games with Alan and Kalvin. :) She's now in college and is a team leader at Chuck E Cheese (pretty much what I was there pre Alan), we're so proud of you! Tonight we will be meeting up with my family to go out to dinner at Dos Machos, as is tradition for Natalie's birthday and Cinco de Mayo. We always have the Mariachi band come...

Today is my baby brother Kalvin's seventh birthday. <3 Yes that is actually a cake lol. Wow too bad I couldn't make something like that for Kalvin, he'd pee himself. :) Kalvin is a HUGE fan of Transformers. Actually I don't know who is the bigger fan, him or my husband lol. :P But I already know his party will be Transformer themed, so I thought I'd make his cyber cake the same. On Friday, Alan and I are going to the Reef (local hotel's swim resort) for Kalvin's birthday party. I am not including Lon in this lol, only because of one simple reason. If there is one thing everyone knows about my husband its that he absolutely does NOT swim lol. AT ALL. :) He doesn't even own a pair of trunks, and refuses every summer to buy one even though we go camping at the lake. Hmmm. Anyways this is one of Kalvin's favorite birthday spots, lol I swam there for his party when I was pregnant with Alan. :) I remember seven years ago when I was only fifteen...

Today is my baby sister April's 12th birthday. <3 (This photo thanks to http://www.cakecentral.com) Man its so weird for me to think that 12 years ago, I was approached by my fourth grade teacher and told that my mom had had her baby. I couldn't wait for school to get out so that my grandparents would take Natalie and I to the hospital to see my mom. My parents were originally planning on naming her Danielle and calling her Dani for short. But according to them, when she came out she just didn't look like a Dani (this I can totally understand because I did a similar thing with Alan's original name in the womb... Wayne lol). They decided to name her April Danielle, a wonderful compromise I think. :) April was a great baby, and the sweetest little toddler ever! She started dancing at two and half years old and has yet to stop to this day lol! :) And now, she's blossomed into this beautiful, always dancing, always happy, young lady. <3 Wow to think next year...

Today is Lon's youngest brother Chase's 19th birthday. (This photo thanks to http://www.happy-birthday-clipart.com) I have actually known Chase for longer than I have known Lon, which may seem weird to some but not to me, because I have actually known Lon's older brother Tyler the longest. He was best buds with my roommate and we soon became good friends ourselves. But back to Chase- I first met Chase one of the many times he came up with Tyler to hang out with my roommates and I. We have had tons of awesome memories together. :) Once we hid in my apartment bathroom with like a ton of other people, from this one annoying person (We were terrible back then lol!). We've driven all over town in my old van, jamming to some Red Hot Chili Peppers. We walked to the Shiloh 14 movie theater on my birthday with Lon and the two of them were both super protective of me when people would walk by because I was 7 months pregnant. :) We took Lon to the Pepper concert that was on...

I'm writing this post just to bring everyone up to par on my crazy, wild life. So if you already know what's up, please bear with me. :) Thanks! I am a 21 year old mother to a 13 month old little boy named Alan Mikael. I am married (by common law only, we plan on having our wedding in a year or two) to the greatest man for me, Lon. We live in Billings, Montana-  under the beautiful Big Sky. :) And I wouldn't change anything about my life. <3 Lon and I aren't your average couple, but of course you expected that. :D We met September 5, 2008 through Lon's older brother, Tyler. The interesting thing about our meeting date is it was exactly a year before Alan's birth date. Anyways, we hit it off immediately and by the end of the night we became... how should I put this, friends who are also intimate lol. I don't like using the cliche term "Friends with benefits" as it seems so high school when Lon and I are adults.  But we were primarily friends ...