Free Range Family

Happy Thanksgiving Day! Gobble, gobble says Alan's little turkey! For Thanksgiving this year, we plan on going over to Grandma Amber's house for a Thanksgiving lunch. We hope to also stop by Great Aunt Marnie's house to see Great Grandma Marcia and cousin James! Then we will be headed up to Great Aunt Carolyn's again for Thanksgiving dinner. It should be a beautiful, amazing day of love, family and thanksgiving! I hope everyone is also prepared to have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We all have so much to be thankful for! I know that we as a family sure do! I am so very thankful for my awesome family! We are truly the Fab Four, always together no matter the weather! I love my husband so much! He has been working his butt off at work and recently got a promotion! Great job Lon, we are so proud of you! Both of my children are so wonderful too. I am so thankful to have such loving, smart, silly children! Alan is such a little smartie, he is always asking qu...

This is my second installment of Point of View Posts, this time from my other good WTE friend Jen. Her blog is usually about recipes and her love for cooking, so her post is about spaghetti. I love that there is another family who loves spaghetti as much as this one does! :D I hope you enjoy. Here is this week's POV Posts! Spaghetti. This single world evokes nothing but pure delight for me. It is simply the perfect meal. It’s quick, it’s easy, it’s cheap and it’s freaking delicious. Plus I like to pretend I’m Italian so I like to make it and announce that we are having “macaroni and red gravy” while prancing around with a glass of wine. Yep, I’m fancy like that. Spaghetti is a family favorite here. And with a two year old and a one year old (I’m fancy and crazy) eating spaghetti is an event. But it’s the one meal I know everyone will eat. The girls get stripped down to their under-roo’s and dive in! It always makes me laugh! The oldest slurps it noodle by noodle and the y...

This is my first installment of Point of View Posts, by the lovely Miss Shay. Shay is one of my WTE mamas and she is also a work at home mama. This post is about how she deals with juggling being a mom with working at home. I hope you enjoy! :D Here is this week's POV Post! I was working tonight and my son knocked on the door, “Mama, where did daddy go?” He always peeks through his window when he should be in bed. I go back in and lay him down again. As soon as that door closes, he is knocking again, “Mama, can we paint tomorrow? I want to paint.” That’s when I try the bribery approach and I say, “Yep, if you go to bed we can paint tomorrow.” Apparently, bribery doesn’t work with this kid because he’s at the door again. As a work at home mom, I am thankful that I get this opportunity to watch my kids grow up and be there for the smiles, first time walking and first words, but it also is pretty hard sometimes. I get excited to be with the kids, but I find I am always working o...

I know its a day late, but yesterday was the fourth lol! :P And no, I haven't had her yet. Despite how ready I am currently lol. Its been in the hundreds this past week and Tuesday it was even reading 107 degrees in some places! Way too hot for me right now! I have my midwife appointment today and they are redrawing my blood because the iron test I had last week came up inconclusive due to the blood not being drawn properly or something. Ugh lol. Here is this week's Pregnancy Post! Only two more weeks left! How far along:  38 weeks and 4 days Size of Baby:  Almost 7 pounds and 19 1/2 inches long or the size of a leek Developments of Baby:  Baby girl is shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with...

Today will be a nice day for us. I only work six hours today, and Alan gets to spend four of them with me! Yesterday he had a wonderful time with Korbin and his other daycare friends. We played outside, played with balls and tents, colored and of course played Alan's favorite- cars. :) Alan loves his Korbin, and we have to get in all the time we can because his family's moving at the end of this month! :( We will miss them so! In other good news, Lon has gotten a temporary job welding folf baskets, goals (???) for his good friend Sean. I am very proud and excited for my inventor! Congratulations hubby! :D This weekend, a close family friend is getting married to the love of his life. :) Aw, I have been so mushy since Lon and I got married lol. I can't wait for this Saturday! I love this guy like a brother and have known him most of my life, and I can't wait to celebrate their love! This wedding will be a blast too, the one good thing about the couple being family fri...

This week's topic: If you could ask the author of What to Expect the Toddler Years, Heidi Murkoff, a question about toddlers, what would it be? Oh I love What to Expect sooo much! Their book was my bible when I was pregnant and for Alan's first year and I am a part of their community online. :) They even have adorable toddler books that are meant to help kids learn "What to expect." Too sweet! Via I just love my September'09 Mamas so much, we are like sisters and I even refer to their children as Alan's cousins lol. We are a close knit group there. <3 I have a great amount of respect for Heidi Murkoff, for creating all of this. The What to Expect franchise helps so many new parents learn how to safely raise their children. Not everyone has a mother or sister or grandmother to walk them through their pregnancy, theirr labor and delivery, and the subsequent baby and toddler years but Heidi Murkoff has now provided everyone with that. As for one...