Hi, how were your holidays?

It’s been a minute, huh? I posted before the holidays that I was going to be taking a break from our weekly update posts which ultimately led to me basically taking an entire break from this blog. Nothing surprising to be honest. We were SWAMPED this holiday season with travel, family gatherings, and just general life craziness that happens around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. But we’re back baby!! And I wanted to give you a little life update on some things you might have missed.

🌻 We spent a month in Kansas with family

From Thanksgiving to almost Christmas, we spent that entire month in Kansas visiting family, living with my in-laws, and enjoying all of the holiday festivities. We are very fortunate that Trevor can “work from home” anywhere, and I can make my own hours with my work in a way that allows me to take months off if I wanted to. Because of this, we were able to pack up and drive states away to spend an extended stay with family.

The boys loved being with their grandma and spending time with their cousins. We made cookies, got a library card, and even got visits from the elf on the shelf (we named him Julie) all while in Kansas. We left one Friday evening after Trevor got done with work. The entire trip is a 12 hour drive, but since having kids we have always split the trip up into two shorter 6 hour chunk; however, this was our first year staying at an AirBnb instead of a hotel. We made this decision because we usually arrive really late and hate the idea of waking up an entire hotel floor with our screaming children when we get settled in our hotel room at like 1 in the morning. Honestly, we LOVED our AirBnb (Trevor and I both shared how it was one of our favorite parts of our trip even though we were only there for a short time). Having our own space just made the entire experience so much better.

Once in Kansas we stayed with my in-laws. I was really worried about how I would feel about living in someone else’s home for an entire month, but to be honest I didn’t really feel any more ready to leave by the end of it than what I do when we leave after being there for a week. Greysen was asking to leave and go back to his own home during the last week or so, but other than that we truly enjoyed the long stay.

🌲 Christmas!!

A couple of days before Christmas we came back home to make sure that we were at our own house when Santa arrived. Julie, our elf on the shelf, even traveled with us (though we did almost leave him at the AirBnb!!).

On Christmas day we opened gifts with Nana & Papa and Aunt Blake. Then we spent the entire day surrounded by toys and playing in our pajamas. This was the first year that the mess didn’t totally stress me out, and I just let it happen. However, a few days later I was soooo ready to clean up and get everything out of my living room.

We also had an extended family Christmas a few days later. While Christmas time is always chaos, it was still fun to get together with all my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and their kids. My parents hosted the event at their house this year which made everything super comfortable for our kids. We enjoyed all the food, played games, opened gifts, and just chatted with family.

🪩 The New Year!

My family always hosts a New Years Eve party, and this year was no exception! It felt like this was the first year that Trevor and I were actually able to enjoy it because we weren’t worried about kids going to sleep—Greysen is old enough that we could trust he would just tell us when he was tired, and Forrest is never on a schedule, so we just did whatever with him haha. Actually the story of Forrest on NYE is actually one for the books.

We are currently in that weird stage where Forrest can sometimes take one and sometimes take two naps. On New Years Eve he had taken an awkward afternoon nap which put him either really cranky until early bedtime or taking a second nap but then staying up late. We figured since it was NYE we’d just try to put him down for a late second nap and then let him stay up with all of us. So, we laid Forrest down in the crib at my parents’ house around 5pm. But surprisingly he never woke up. We thought “welp darn, now he’s going to wake up a couple of times in the middle of the night and then try to be ready for the day around 4am or something.”

Now keep in mind, at this point Forrest had NEVER slept through the night before… and then suddenly he did!! On NYE!! But not just sleeping through the night. He slept from 5pm-9am the next morning!!!!!!!!!! Like wtf? We were ecstatic, surprised, and nervous that something might be wrong. Thankfully, everything was good, he gave us a magical 4 more days of this, but then never slept through the night again. Here’s to hoping we can figure it out sometime else in 2025.

🥳 And now you’re mostly caught up

Keeping the kids entertained the cold winter months has honestly been the hardest challenge. And I still feel like we’re go-go-go ever since my sister’s wedding in Florida back in September. Maybe in February (6 months later), I’ll finally feel like I’m caught up and can breath a little.

And that’s it for this holiday recap. What are your thoughts on this blog? How are you enjoying these yappy posts? Be sure to follow me on my socials and DM me on Instagram to let me know what you think! But for now, bye critters!