School Update

Kamryn and Logan are absolutely loving 2nd grade and kindergarten. We've gotten into a great routine and besides Logan being a bit cranky and tired, all is good!

After just 3 weeks of school poor Kamryn was home with a fever and a terrible cold. As much as it stunk to see her so miserable, her and I soaked up that one on one time and extra cuddles. Besides that Kamryn is doing amazing in second grade and is convinced this is the best grade EVER! She loves her teacher and is enjoying making new friends. Kam is doing great with her school work and it's pretty cool to see how mature she is becoming. She doesn't need as many reminders and is really independent. I'm so proud of her!

Logan absolutely LOVES school. He is so excited to go everyday and has yet to give me a hard time about getting up, dressed and ready for school. He loves buying lunch, which cracks me up for some reason. I just try to picture this little guy walking in the cafeteria with his lunch tray and I can't help but smile. He asks me every single day if he has gym class and thinks computer lab is the greatest thing ever. Logan is my heart and I'm so proud he's doing so well.

I think it's safe to say Kensington and Tenley are loving having Mama all to themselves. 

Mama loves it too!

I can't believe they've already been in school for a month. It's still hot and humid here, although we're pretending it's fall. I can't help but keep reaching for my cardigans and jeans. (Post coming up soon about summer to fall transitional clothes) It looks like at the end of the week things are going to cool down and I can't wait for that. 

Have a great day!!

Slow Cooker Roasted Chicken

It's the most wonderful time of the yeeeaaaarrrrr!!!

Tomorrow is the first day of FALL!

Fall is the perfect time to bust out the slow cooker. Today truly feels like fall and as I write this I'm sitting here in a hoodie and jeans and LOVING it! So cozy! Nothing makes me happier than the smell of something yummy cooking all day in my slow cooker.

I shared this recipe on my old blog but it's SO good and SO easy that I think it's worth a share here as well. A one pot meal that the whole family is sure to love! Although I usually make a side of rice for my picky kids -- I'm looking at you, Kamryn and Logan. 

Here we go....

Ingredients 

1 large onion (sliced)

1 bag of baby carrots (16 oz)

1 bag of frozen broccoli (12 oz)

1 (6 pound) whole chicken

1 tablespoon seasoned salt

1 tablespoon paprika

1 tablespoon black pepper

1. Line bottom of the crock pot with onions.
2. On top of the onions make “foil handles”. These make removing the chicken so easy! Fold 2 pieces of tin foil (about 18 inches long) three times and crisscross them over the onions in an X.
3. Add the carrots and broccoli over the foil handles.
4. Season the chicken with salt, pepper and paprika.
5. Add the chicken to the crockpot over the carrot and broccoli. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until the chicken is cooked through. (to check and make sure the chicken is cooked use a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the thigh and make sure it is at 180 degrees)
6. Remove the chicken from the crockpot using the foil handles and let stand for about 10 minutes.

Slice the chicken and dinner is served!!

Tenley the Tornado

She's goofy, she's sassy, she's WILD!

She's our tornado!

Tenley James 

Moving on....

This weekend I spent time with my best friend, Jenn. Recently Jenn and her now husband, made the decision to elope in Greece. They are having a big reception on Saturday to celebrate their marriage. I went over to help her with some last minute stuff for the party. As I sat there with Jenn, we talked, we vented to each other about things that piss us off, we gossiped a bit, we laughed, we did just what friends do. It was such a simple day, but something I don't get to do often with four kids at home. But I left so happy we had that time together and with so much reassurance of what is important in life. I came home to my four healthy, beautiful children, my loving husband and my always helpful and supportive sister.

This summer ended on a shaky note for our family. Luckily we are all okay, no worries on that front, but there was some drama (isn't there always?) that kind of ruined the summer for us. I've spent the past 6 weeks obsessing over this. Shaking my head in disbelief and bewilderment. Wondering why life has to be so tough sometimes. Why the people you love will sometimes hurt you. Why Why Why? I've driven myself crazy with the "why's".

I've learned that as hard as it is, sometimes the best option is to let go. Just move on. Look forward to the good things to come and enjoy the moment. Life is WAY TOO SHORT to set yourself up for heartache and disappointment over and over again. Over the past 6 weeks I've figured out, I love too hard, I care too much and I (just like my mom) see the very best in everyone...to a fault. I can't live with sadness, anger and stress. So as the season changes and the tree's begin to shed their leaves I too am doing some shedding.

I'm going to get back on track with my healthy lifestyle, which I totally stopped due to stress. I'm going to put everything I have into my family and friendships. No more obsessing over the bad. Today I vow to concentrate on the good. I've got a great life...it's not perfect, but its a pretty damn good one. I will spend my time enjoying it, every second of it.

I hope you all enjoy reading this blog. I absolutely love writing it. It's a great outlet for me and something I really try to keep positive. I love when I see people out and about and they tell me how much they love following along here. It absolutely makes my day, every single time. So, because I don't say it nearly enough, thank you for reading along.

Now on to bigger and better things! I hope you all too let go of the past, shed the negative energy and work to make sure you can be your best, happiest, healthiest self. I urge you to pray for those who hurt you, it might not change them but it will definitely change you. Always remember, life is just too damn short to do anything but just enjoy it!!

xoxo, Kristen

First Day of School 2017 :: Kindergarten & 2nd Grade

Last week was a big week for the Sasses!!

First up, on Wednesday Kamryn had her first day of SECOND grade!

It was rainy and cold so we couldn't do our usual front step picture. 

She was so excited and couldn't wait to meet her new teacher and see if any of her friends were in her class this year. She had her outfit picked out from the bow down to the shoes for days leading up to her first day. Kamryn came home all smiles and was eager to tell us about her day. She told me she thinks she's really going to like second grade.

Then on Wednesday afternoon Logan had his kindergarten orientation. It went great and he was even more excited than before! His teacher seems really really sweet and Logan was such a good boy while we were there. He made sure to practice his manners and was eager to meet his classmates.

Here he is next to his locker :)

On Thursday was Logan's official first day!

I swear he aged overnight. He was determined that I needed to put hair product in his hair to make him "look more handsome" and he also had his outfit picked out for days. He could not have been more excited to ride the school bus! He was so thrilled (look at that smile) but yet calm and confident it just made my heart melt. I couldn't believe my little man was already going to KINDERGARTEN!

Leading up to this day and even seconds before stepping outside, Kamryn was so worried about Logan. She kept getting scared he would get lost or not know what to do at school and/or someone would be mean to him. She's such a mother hen to her little brother and sisters. I'm so proud of her for caring so much but I assured her that he would be just fine. The adults have it under control! 

I love how big Logan's backpack looks on him! It just cracks me up!!

It is SO crazy to have two kids in school full time! I can't believe my biggest babies are THIS big!

And away they went..... You can't see it but they are holding hands. 

You guys, I lost it. I held it together as they drove away (our town just got new buses and the windows are tinted so I couldn't see them to wave good-bye once they got on the bus) but when I walked into the house I was a blubbering mess. It's absolutely incredible how fast the past 5 years have gone by. I am beyond blessed that I am able to spend every day with my kids. It really is the best job in the world but, it makes it so hard when they are big enough to go to school. I can't really explain how it feels. I saw a few people posting on facebook and poking fun at moms who get sad on the first day of school. Hell, I even teared up when Kamryn rode away on her first day on Wednesday. I just can't believe how quickly they are growing up. It's about taking the time to just take it all in. Time is going by so fast, before I know it Kensington and Tenley are going to be in school too and it'll be just me at home not knowing what to do with myself. I do my best to cherish every moment. It really does feel like I brought him home from the hospital just yesterday. I wasn't worried about him, (okay, I was a bit nervous because it's the first time he's ever been away from me) I knew he'd do just fine but it's really hard for me to believe how big he is. So yes, I'm sad he's growing up. But most of all I'm so SO proud of him! 

Kamryn and Logan told me they passed eachother in the hallway once and both stopped to give each other a big hug. Then they rode the bus home together!

And then....there were two.

Me and my girls! I'm really looking forward to the next few years at home with Kensington and Tenley! Thankfully I have three years until I have to worry about the first day of kindergarten again...plenty of time to prepare. Then it'll be one right after the other, as these two will only be one grade apart. I'm looking forward to getting into a routine with the little girls and figuring out our new normal. It feels SO strange to just have two with me. Those of you with one or two kids think I'm nuts, but it feels odd with just two. We'll get used to it soon enough, I'm sure!

Here's praying for a wonderful school year for Kamryn & Logan!!

I hope your kids all have a great school year, too! 

Names

Forgive me if you've heard these stories before. I blogged about where we got my kids names on my old blog but never here. People ask me all the time about their names so I figured why not do another post on how Kamryn, Logan, Kensington and Tenley came to be. 

It's no secret I love names. Everyone who knows me knows this. I knew from a very young age I wanted my kids to have names that leaned toward the more unique side. There's nothing wrong with common names. It's just when I went to kindergarten there were three Kristen's in my class. We all spelt Kristen the exact same way and from that day on I was "Kristen McCaul". I was always envious of the kid's who didn't have to go by their first and last name and therefore wanted my kids to not have to be "so and so Sass". Funny enough, my mom wanted to name me Katrina and I think I've met one Katrina in my whole life....BUT (no offense to anyone named Katrina) I'm happy my dad put his foot down and wouldn't let her name me that. LOL! I'd rather be one of many many Kristen's.

Mike has a very popular name as well so it wasn't hard to convince him that our kids needed names a little more unique.

KAMRYN ALEXIS

For majority of my pregnancy we had planned to call our baby girl Campbell. It was a family name on Mike's side and I absolutely loved it. We were going to call her "Bell" for short. But when I was around 7 months pregnant I started to get second thoughts (and alas a trend started...stay tuned). So, one night while eating dinner I said to Mike "I think I want to name the baby Cameron" and he agreed. It was a name I absolutely loved for a girl and who doesn't love Cameron Diaz?!? So I gave him three spellings -- Cameron, Camryn and Kamryn, and told him to choose. He decided he wanted to use the spelling Kamryn. We named her after my sister Alexis in her middle name. 

LOGAN MICHAEL

I really REALLY wanted to name our son Grant. I loved how strong and unique it was but Mike just would not go for it. I tried everything, even the ugly cry and he just did not want to use it. (I still have it in he vault if he ever agree's to a fifth baby ;).) Mike and I had our wedding reception at the Hyatt Harborside at Logan Airport. It was absolutely gorgeous in an outside tent overlooking the Boston city skyline and Boston Harbor. We want to always always remember that day and, you guessed it, that's where we got Logan's name. It's definitely more meaningful than Grant so I've got to give credit where credit it due...nice job Mike! Mike also was very vocal about not having a junior, but he agreed to let me use his name as Logan's middle name. When I named Logan LOGAN I didn't know of any other Logan's, now there are a TON! Can't say I blame people, it's a great name...but he didn't get the unique name I hoped for. Although, he IS the only Logan in his class! SCORE!

KENSINGTON BREE

After we named Kamryn KAMRYN and used a K name, my dad always asked me if we would use another K name. It was never the plan but I always considered it when looking for names. But I always ALWAYS wanted a daughter named Elliot. For some reason my gut throughout my entire pregnancy was telling me this baby wasn't Elliot so I had a few back up names, one of them being Kensington. I loved both names equally and Mike really wanted to use Kensington but I just couldn't let go of Elliot. So, when she was born we named her Elliot Bree Sass. Then the day after we got home from the hospital, after saying the name for 4 days I just knew this baby was not Elliot. So, we changed her name to Kensington and from that moment on it just felt right. And with it only being a few days after she was born it wasn't a big deal AT ALL. (Again, that name is still in the vault if I ever were to have another. No indecisiveness this time -- we've got our boy and girl name. HA!) We chose to name her in her middle name after my dear friend Breda who passed away when we were only freshmen in high school. Instead of using Breda we chose to shorten it to Bree...it just fit better with the first names we had chosen. So Kensington Bree it was!

TENLEY JAMES

We didn't have a name for Tenley when we went into the hospital to have her. It being only 16 months after naming Kensington I was so afraid I'd change my mind again. Instead we had a list of names and said we would see what she looked at when we met her BUT we did know we really wanted to use James as her middle name. James is after Mike's brother Jim (James) and my dad PJ (Peter James). We had her at 10:21 in the morning and decided to spend at least 24 hours with her before choosing a name. We loved the name Everly, however the Boston accent did it no justice so we decided against it. Believe it or not, Tenley wasn't even on our list but it kept popping into my head as I sat in the hospital bed with her. I first heard the name Tenley on the movie Summer Catch. A movie that came out in 2001 about the Cape Cod baseball league. I love that in a round about way it had ties to where we live (right outside Cape Cod). When I said it to Mike he absolutely loved it. So, that's where we got our Tenley James...it's almost like she named herself. 

So, there you have it. That's how we got our kids names. 

How did you get your kids names?

Please share...I love these types of stories!!

I hope everyone has a fun, safe, happy labor day weekend!