2025 recap

What a year it's been!

JANUARY

Archie's first snowfall

FEBRUARY

More snow....and my favorite picture ever.

Auntie & Uncle Monkey welcome our first nephew, Hudson!

MARCH

On Cloud Nine for Tenley's 9th birthday!

And then we welcome our third niece, Everly Kristen.

APRIL

Archie's first Easter

Hello Spring!

MAY

JUNE

We kick off the summer with endless nights in our back yard

And go to the Flag Day parade in Quincy.

I turn 39.

JULY

Happy 4th!

We take a family getaway up to New Hampshire and take in all the nostalgia.

Archie turns ONE and we celebrate his rookie year!

Logan is officially a teenager! 

AUGUST

Tasha and Rylin come to visit from Florida 

And I take a bittersweet trip to Texas

SEPTEMBER

Smith starts Kindergarten!

We get back to Friday night lights! 

And our favorite guy turns 40!

With a birthday surprise...Riggins the Corgi!

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

Kensington celebrates her golden birthday turning 11 on 11/11!

Smith turns 6!

And we watch Kam cheer at Fenway Park with an exciting win for South!

I'm ever so thankful for my crew!

DECEMBER

We soak up every bit of the Christmas season!

And to finish out the year Kamryn turns Sweet Sixteen!

Happy New Year!

My goals for 2026 are simple. 

More of this ^, 

more eating healthy, 

more moving my body, 

more taking time for me (which is hard with 6 kids). 

I just want simplicity and happiness. I want to stop comparing. 

I want for my kids to be happy and us to have another great year!

I'm half excited to enter my 40's this year and half terrified.

But I'm ready...for whatever this next year (and decade) has in store!

Here's to 2026!!

Merry Christmas from the Sass family

Why hello there! I cannot believe I haven't blogged since October. The end of the year came FAST. But I knew I would regret it if I didn't share some of the gorgeous family pictures Abbi took for us. As usual, if you are local and are looking for an amazing family photographer, she actually specializes in maternity and newborn, make sure to check out Abigail Shea Photography. You won't be disappointed.

This year we decided to change things up a bit and took our family pictures right in our backyard. We just love how they turned out. Over the years we've posed in pretty much every open field Plymouth has to offer so we figured why not do it here at home.

From my family to yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy & healthy new year!

I'll see you in 2026!

Five on Friday

Well, well, surprise, surprise! The blog has landed itself wayyyy down on the priority list. I've been trying really hard to be consistent with my Instagram and therefore I haven't found much time at all to blog. If you missed it, this week I did my first ever Instagram giveaway (I did a blog giveaway years and years ago) and it ended last night.  I'm announcing the winner today at noon in my stories! Thank you to all of you who entered! I really wanted a small way to give back to everyone who's been so supportive of my teeny tiny little corner of the internet. Even simply "liking" a post means the world to me. Any little bit of engagement helps me get to my goal. I so very much appreciate it.

Let's get into 5 on Friday! 

1.

In recent news, Riggins officially has a middle name. Riggins Wesley. If you've been here for a while you know our goldendoodle was named, Ryker, Ryker William to be exact. Ryker was named after Lieutenant William Riker from Star Trek. Well, we've got another name from Star Trek because why not?! Wesley is after the character Wesley Cushman. So, Riggins Wesley it is! Riggins is very much in puppy mode, and I say "RIGGINS WESLEY!!!" more than I'd like to admit.

2.

I cannot believe Archie is almost 15 months old. He's really coming into himself and getting the funniest personality. Most of the time he's so very chill and serious. Such a boy. Everyday he's saying more and more. Just this week he started calling for "Mammmmaaaaa". He's taking his time with the talking, just like most of his siblings did. He just cracks us up. Last night I was playing with him and saying "yayyyy" and he clapped for me. I tried to do it again, nope. He looked at me like "I already did that...why are you asking me to do it again?" LOL! That's Archie in a nutshell. 

Cutest grocery delivery ever. Little Archer Edward.

3. 

Yesterday was a very big day for Smith! He lost his first tooth while he was at school! When he got off the bus and showed me, I said, "Oh good! Did you get the little necklace to hold in it in from the nurse?" and he looked at me so serious and goes "I swallowed it. But that's okay mama!" LOL!! Turns out he was eating an apple at lunch, didn't even notice he lost it and the paraprofessional in his class noticed. She told him he must've swallowed it. So, we aren't 100% sure what happened butttt we made sure to write the tooth fairy a note and put it under his pillow. Lucky for Smith she still came to check! I thought for sure he would be super upset he didn't have an actual tooth to put under his pillow, but he was barely phased. 

4. 

Little home updates make me happy. I replaced my old curtains in the kitchen that had been there for YEARS. I wanted something bright and cheery. THESE were only $9 a panel on Amazon. Can't beat that! I was impressed with the quality. I toyed with the idea of wallpapering this wall but I feel like this gives me the same feel I was hoping for. Every time I walk in my kitchen now it just makes me happy.

5.

I've wanted to try the wide leg jean trend for a while now and stumbled across this pair. They are on the baggier side, but I really really like them. I'm curvy so finding wide legs that looked flattering has proved to be a challenge. THESE fit the bill.

I'll leave you with this cute picture of Kensington, Tenley and Smith after school the other day!

Have the best weekend!!

Make sure you're following me on Instagram @kristen_sass!

xoxo, Kristen

Riggins.

 Introducing our latest "irresponsible" decision, Riggins. A sweet 11-week-old Corgi puppy who's stolen all of our hearts. 

I know what you're thinking. Yes, we've lost our minds. But isn't he precious?!

For years and years, I've been promising Mike for his 40th birthday I would get him a Corgi. He's been obsessed with Corgi's for as long as I can remember... Long before they were trendy. Did I think when he turned 40, we would have a 14-month-old? Absolutely not. Did he think I was still going to follow through with this long-standing promise? Also, absolutely not. But a promise is a promise. Enter: Riggins.

We did put a lot of thought into this. So, we weren't completely reckless. Maybe just a little. We weighed all the pros and cons on what it would mean to add a dog to our family right now. We even put a hold on it completely and said we weren't doing it. But we just kept looking at his face and the millions of videos I received and we just knew he was ours. For a while now we've also been saying that Duke needs a friend. We've always been a two-dog family and for us it just makes sense. Duke has been on cloud-9 since we brought Riggins home. They were instant best buds. I mean, do they look happy or what?! If I, Kristen Sass, could give you two pieces of advice they would be 1. Have more than one kid. 2. Get more than one dog. LOL!! It just makes sense.

Now with Riggins. Truth be told, I chose his name. We went back and forth on a few names, but none felt right for him. The name Riggins comes from my favorite tv show, Friday Night Lights and Mike loves me so he let me pick it. My dad googled Tim Riggins and didn't understand why I named our dog after a drunk. I assured him Tim Riggins turned into a great guy and there was a lot of character development throughout the show. HA! All of our animals have middle names so he will have a middle name eventually, but we haven't settled on one just yet. I'm sure soon enough he's going to have a nickname that has absolutely nothing to do with Riggins. 

Riggins really is such a sweetie pie. He's been with us for 2 days now and only had 2 accidents in the house. He's slept right through the night both nights, not making a peep. The kids are all so helpful, honestly if they weren't we would've never gotten another dog, but they are all great and always willing to pitch in. For some reason Riggins looks so much bigger in these pictures than he actually is. He's tiny with huge ears, short stubby legs and a loooong body. It's a riot watching him run around. 

I am positive you will see a lot more Riggins around here and on my social media.

Was this the absolute craziest time to add another dog to our family? Yes.

Are we so blessed by his arrival? YES.

Welcome to the Sircus, Riggins.