Remember last year when I was so so pregnant at Thanksgiving?! What a blessing to not be this year 😂 I’m sorry for this beast of a post but it’s been four days off of work (5 for me!) and we’ve packed them with celebrations, decorations and a lot of good food, so I have a lot of photos to share 😊

It was so nice out on Wednesday! Dempsey and I walked to Tennyson to pick up our pies and it felt wonderful. Joey wrapped up his work day and we ordered ramen, as always on Thanksgiving Eve. I made sure the noodles were egg free and Lydia chowed down! I love sharing this tradition with my littles 🤍

Thanksgiving morning was the most chaotic 🤪 I made us biscuits and gravy and I definitely do not have my timing down! But it all ended up okay. Afterward, we sort of watched the parade and Dempsey made the biggest mess when he set up a book drop (like at the library 😂) and pushed all of his toys through it. He did stop to watch the Bluey balloon though and then after he went down for his nap and Lyds woke up, she and I watched Cher and The Rockettes.

Joey and I did the turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and gravy and I think it all turned out pretty good. Especially proud of the gravy since it intimidates me every year. We had 13 adults and four kids, so three tables in our not so big living room but what can you do? Felt full of love to me 🤍🤍🤍 Chips seemed to be a hit with Delaney and Dempsey and Lydia and Landon got to enjoy their first Thanksgiving across from each other at the table. Little Miss loves turkey! Everyone had dessert and had gone home just before the kids’ bedtime, so that worked out and Joey and I got to hang out and chat while we cleaned up afterward and that was definitely a nicer way to end the evening than zoning out in front of the TV. What a happy Thanksgiving!

Joey bought an eight foot snowman a few weeks ago and Dempsey has been asking us to put it up ever since. We’d been telling him not till after Thanksgiving, so he woke up at 6:30 on Friday asking if we could put it up 😂😂 We held him off till after breakfast but then they were out in the cold putting it up! While Sis slept, we took down the fall decorations and then I got my nails done, came home and got Lyds down for her second nap and then we headed out to Steve and Lorna’s to celebrate Thanksgiving with an Italian buffet. The kids got into everything downstairs afterward including the recumbent bike?? 🤷🏻‍♀️ It was a really nice evening 🤍

Had our normal Saturday morning pancakes, then put the Christmas tree up. I thought Lydia would be a nightmare around it, but she hasn’t seemed to pay it much attention. Dempsey helped put the ornaments on and then a sweet moment when Sissy was up from her nap and he asked me to show her the tree 🤍 Joey has been trying to get a tiny screw into my glasses for a week then finally gave up and handed them back to me like that 😂 I put Demps down for his nap and said “bye bye” to him because I would be leaving for a massage before he was back up and Grandma Lori would be picking him up for a sleepover! My massage (and time with my mom) was soooo nice. I hadn’t had one in so long, so felt extra good. Got back home to my hungry girl and Joey and after I’d fed her, we got started on our dinner. Made ourselves some ribeye steaks with horseradish cream sauce, plus green beans and cranberry Mules and wow, what a decadent and delicious meal! Missed our Dempsey but it was nice that we could both put Lyds to bed together. We never get to do that! After she went down, we watched NYAD and I thought it was just okay. I truly insane story, but something about the movie felt borderline cheesy and a bit amateurish.

I guess our girl enjoyed being an only child for a night because here she is, still in her own bed, asleep at almost 7 AM! Now if only we could get her to sleep like that when Dempsey is also in there… We had talked about having breakfast at Onefold, but I’d been awake at 3 AM with the worst stomachache (it’s like you’re not supposed to eat a huge meal with alcohol and dessert three nights in a row! 😬) and I didn’t think I should push it, so we opted for just a normal breakfast at home. We got a photo of Dempsey’s breakfast though and he is one lucky boy! I headed over to pick him up before lunch and it seemed like he had a fun night with Grandma 🤍 Both Joey and I made ourselves turkey sandwiches for lunch except that his took 2 minutes to put together and mine involved turning on the oven. If that’s not an accurate portrayal of who we both are, I don’t know what is.

Before dinner, we got the kids’ room all set up with Christmas books and their little tree. Now to keep them both from playing with the plug 🤦‍♀️ Made butternut squash soup for dinner and it hit the spot! Sissy even ate the bread I served with it when she usually isn’t a big bread eater. Twice yesterday, Dempsey got out of his bed and left his room, so that’s a fun new development. At bedtime, he got up and went into our room thinking we went to bed right after him, but instead he woke Lydia up and they were both so scared! Got them both settled down and to sleep then fired up Christmas Vacation for ourselves but didn’t make it far. I hope everyone got to enjoy some time off this weekend and is ready to hit the holiday ground running. Don’t know if I am, but here we go anyway! 😋

We had another pretty plan-free weekend and thank goodness because Lydi is going through a ROUGH sleep phase and we are TIIIIRED around here. I’m compartmentalizing as best I can because if I let her sleep woes dictate my mood, we’ll all be depressed. And besides, we saw a movie, had many a dance party, converted Dempsey’s bed, bought a new TV, celebrated 11 months with our girl and had a really good breakfast at a new restaurant, so lots to be happy about even if we’re tired 😊

Had a Friday morning dentist appointment, so I took myself to my favorite downtown coffee shop afterward. Worked, ran, worked and dashed out the door at 3:30 to meet Joey at his mom’s so we could pick Dempsey up and take him to see the new Trolls movie! Never know where I’m at in my relationship with JT but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get chills hearing him sing “I Want You Back.” Demps had fun eating popcorn, drinking Joey’s milkshake instead of his own 😂, reclining his chair and at the end, he was quite literally dancing in his seat 😍 Picked our little girl up afterward then got home just in time for her bath and bedtime. I was so sad feeling like I didn’t see her all day. Got Demps to bed then watched GBBO 👍🏻

Is it our sleep deprivation that had us making spontaneous decisions on Saturday?? After breakfast — Joey and Dempsey made us some pear pancakes and they were amazing! — we converted Dempsey’s bed into a toddler bed 😭 He seemed into it but then kind of freaked out at nap time and kept asking us to put “the big bar” back up. I got him to settle down at least and I think he’s getting used to it now, but I wonder how long until he’s getting in and out all the time 😅 Joey and I couldn’t really come up with any good Christmas presents for each other but we DID want to upgrade our TV so Joey did some research, bought one online and then just had to go pick it up. Merry Christmas to us! I made us pineapple pork for dinner and then we got to start The Killer on the new screen. Looked pretty good 👌🏻 Little Lydi looking so sweet and sleepy after her dream feed but she had another rough night. Maybe she was mad we forgot to take her 11 month photo that day! Made it to the penultimate monthly photo between two kids before missing one 🤦🏻‍♀️

Lucky she’s so cute 😋 Both those crazy kids were up by 6:15 AM so we were out the door for opening weekend at The Funky Flame. Probably worked in our favor since it’s a small joint with only a few tables. Everything was really good! I got a rosemary vanilla latte, plus a cinnamon roll hot out of the oven, sandwiches for Demps and I and a really good plate of biscuits and gravy for Joey 🤤 Excited to have this place in the neighborhood! Back at home, we took Lydi’s photo somehow 😅 and cleaned out the kids’ closet then did who knows what the rest of the day. Leftovers for dinner, bed time for the kids, the rest of our movie (sure!) and then I went up to bed while Joey worked.

Very much looking forward to this week, with holiday errands, Thanksgiving Eve ramen, Turkey Day (we’re hosting!), a family open house and Dempsey is having a sleepover at Grandma’s. Should be a fun one!