Whew, the month of December has been a roller coaster! Lydia has been sick, Joey has been sick, I had somehow been spared only to come down with a stomach bug last week THEN get the family cold. Dempsey is coughing too, so I think he and I are in it together. We seem to have something on the schedule every day this month too, so there’s really no “good time” to be sick. We press on! This weekend, we had our company holiday party, a trip to visit Santa, an Avs game for the boys and Lydia’s birthday party. My girl will be two on Wednesday, I cannot believe it!!!!

I worked on Friday, then took my girl to her appointment with the allergist and she did so good! They re-tested all of the nuts, dairy, egg and sesame since she’s twice eaten hummus and gotten swollen lips and sure enough, she’s got a sesame allergy. The good news is, the doctor gave us the go ahead to schedule food challenges for dairy and egg, so fingers crossed! Grandma Lori took the kids for a sleepover because we had our company holiday party that night. We did indoor putt putt and man was I bad but it was fun anyway. I was so excited to just go home and go to bed though 😂

Joey and I were slow moving on Saturday morning (I didn’t even have a single drink the night before 😅) but we finally got up and moving around and I started a couple of the dishes I was making for Lydi’s birthday party before meeting Lori and the kids over at Edgewater to see Santa. Dempsey had been telling us for weeks that he didn’t want to see him because he was “scared he might cry” 🥺 We did the best we could. We got both kids home and down for a nap?! We have not gotten Dempsey to take a nap at home in almost a year, so that was a miracle, but he and Joey were going to have a late night so it seemed essential for him to rest. When the kids got up, we started party decorations and then the boys headed out for dinner and the Avs game and Lydia and I just had a low-key night of dinner ON the table 🤷‍♀️, the end of The Grinch/beginning of Sing and bedtime for my girl. She made sure both our faces were moisturized beforehand 😂 Afterward, I watched Lady Bird and I just love that movie so much. I also got some photo updates from the boys and it looked like they were having a great time. I waited up for them, read to Dempsey and then we all went to bed.

Party Day! The kids slept in till 7:30, if you can believe it! Which meant we got a later start than we probably should’ve — didn’t quite have time for that “good sweep and vacuum” I had planned to do 😅😬 But we did get the casseroles baked, the decorations up and the kids dressed, so I’ll call it a success. I think it was a great time! Our girl got so many good gifts, everyone knows her so well. She also didn’t want to share ANY of those gifts 😬😬 My mom made red velvet cupcakes for everyone and turns out Lydi is a pro at blowing out candles, who knew! My sis and Wayne stuck around for a bit to help clean up and entertain Dempsey, which was so nice and after they left, I went upstairs to lay down and that was REAL NICE. The rest of the day was spent playing, tidying, finishing laundry and making dinner. I think we were all more than ready for bed that night!

It’s another busy week over here, but I’m going to try to make rest a priority, so I hope you all do too 🤍

We spent the weekend is Estes Park, celebrating Christmas with Grandpa Steve and Lorna and except for an almost literally sleepless night on Friday, we had a great time! Dempsey has been asking “why did we have to leave??” since we got home yesterday afternoon, so I think it’s safe to say he had fun 🤍

We picked Dempsey up from school Friday afternoon, then swung by Grandma Lori’s to get our girl and headed up. We turned Lydia’s car seat around, so now she can watch TV on the iPad too (long drive only, I swear) and it was the most peaceful car ride I’ve ever had with these two 😂 We got there right as Uncle Adam, Auntie Lauren and Landon were unloading from their car, so it was pretty good timing. We went out for pizza at Antonio’s and I thought it was all very very good! A pizza robot delivered our food! The kids were running around a bit too much, otherwise it was a very good time! Back at home, the kids got into their matching pajamas courtesy of Auntie Lauren and we tried our best to get a photo of them all together before bed time 😉

Lydia had a ROOOOOOUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH night of “sleep.” She was battling a cold all week and kept waking up coughing. At 1 AM, I finally got up to bring her into our room but she could not get comfortable laying down, so we spent the rest of the night singing, watching Frozen, trying to explain why we couldn’t wake “Buddy” up and nearly pulling our hair out. Fun times 🥱 Dempsey was awake at 5:45 (whyyyyy) and I slept a little bit while Joey entertained the kids and then we all made our way downstairs around 7. I made us a sheet pan pancake and bacon and then after Dempsey asked about a million times to open his stocking, we did presents. The kids got such fun stuff and the adults too!

Lydi took an early but good nap, so around 1:45, we headed into town for taffy and the snowman festival. Dempsey only told us 100 times that he did not want to see Santa 😅 Lydia likes candy way more than a two-year-old should, so she got to try some taffy and the festival was actually pretty cute! We DID see Santa but Dempsey sat on my lap far away from him, so it worked and then the littles walked around, danced to the holiday music they were playing, watched the ice sculptor and made it to the activity tent at the end. It was small and crowded in there but Dempsey made a couple of ornaments and even got a elf shoe glitter tattoo that I don’t think is ever coming off 😂

We went back home for a bit and Mom took a nap! Dempsey and Grandpa Steve were outside for a while with the rocket launcher and Lydia hung with Joey, then we all went to dinner at Bird & Jim. It was nice and cozy in there and the staff was very kind but I was not impressed with the food. Halfway through the meal, we asked Dempsey how his chicken nuggets were and he said “bad!” We all tasted them and they were dry, unseasoned and BURNT. Oh well. We washed it all down with blueberry pie and ice cream at home.

We headed home after a really good breakfast made by Lauren the next morning. We truly had such a fun time and I hope we can do it again some time 🥰