Baby's 1st Christmas

 

Archie's First Christmas was one we will never forget. We were all sick one after the other for going on two weeks, so we knew it was coming. We hoped, we prayed, and we wished for our baby brother to not get sick but unfortunately there was nothing we could do. Our poor little dude came down with RSV and for the first time in mine and Mike's 19 Christmases together, we stayed home. Thank God Archie is feeling much better now (as I type this it is December 26th) but Christmas Eve was awful. If you've ever had a baby with RSV, you know days 3-5 are the worst. Smith also had RSV as an infant, and I can attest that this is 100% factual information. I'd go as far to say day/night 5 is the absolute worst! Why do they always feel worse in the middle of the night? You go from "Do we need to head to the ER?" to waking up the next morning (if you sleep at all... I didn't) to a baby who feels almost completely better! It's incredible what a difference 24 hours can make! 

We are looking forward to hopefully celebrating with our families this weekend. But man, oh man, I am so happy my baby is back to normal, well mostly normal. His cough is still very much present, but he is SO. MUCH. BETTER.

Merry First Christmas, Archie. I hope next year is a little more normal.

Merry Christmas

 Merry Christmas from the Sass family!

What a whirlwind of a year it's been. I blinked and we are here again. Last Christmas we surprised our family that we had a new baby on the way. I was exhausted, throwing up multiple times a day and couldn't even get off the couch. The fact I somehow pulled it together and did our usual Christmas marathon was nothing short of a miracle. I'll never forget getting ready to go on Christmas Eve dragging myself off the couch, getting dressed, throwing up, brushing my teeth and walking out the door to tell my dad and stepmom that I was pregnant. To put it bluntly, it sucked, and I was miserable. This year we've got the completed Sass Sircus, no really, it's complete and I could not be happier! 

The Christmas season is a lot. It's expensive, it's stressful, there are to do lists miles and miles long, but I always try and do my best to soak it up and enjoy as much of the goodness as I can. My kids are growing like weeds. When I look at them, I cannot believe how fast it has all gone by. I thank God for the gift of Archie because it certainly softens the blow knowing I've still got many many years with him and the "magic of Christmas", but time truly does fly! We've been fighting a virus for close to 2 weeks now, could possibly be two viruses? This year Christmas is going to look very different for us. Unfortunately, Archie has RSV and we've decided to stay home for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day so he can get some much-needed rest, and we don't pass on any germs. It makes me sad that his first Christmas feels "ruined" because he's sick but a part of me knows after all of us being sick for going on two weeks a nice chill holiday at home might be just what we need. We're going to decorate cookies, make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight and tomorrow I'll make a roast so it feels a little extra special. Lucky for us, the kids are still feeling the magic of Christmas. They are actually all still ecstatic for Christmas (even if we are just staying home), even my bigs, and that's all that really matters to me. I have to say as sad as it is to see Kam and Logan grow up so fast, Christmas with teenagers is also a lot of fun. They really enjoy helping out and as much as that "magic" isn't so real for them anymore, they enjoy creating the magic for their little siblings. If you ask me, that just might be even better. We will reschedule and celebrate with our families sometime when Archie is feeling better. This will just be the Christmas that keeps giving. Deep down I know it's all going to be okay. Christmas is magical no matter what. And what's better than a Christmas that lasts for a week (or longer)? Not much if you ask me! So, if you're in the same boat as us just know you are not alone. 

As this year comes to an end, I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for reading here. I know it sounds silly, and you may not believe it, but I see the numbers and I'm so humbled so many of you read what I have to say. I know I've really picked things up here in November and December and written a lot more. I've really enjoyed it, and it makes me smile a lot of you seem to enjoy it too. Listen, I'd come here and write even if only 10 of you read it but the fact it's much more than that is both surprising and encouraging so thank you. As I said before a big goal of mine for 2025 is to take this space more seriously. I want to be a place of light in this dark dark world. A link you can click and just feel happy. I recently did a poll on Instagram and most people said they think I should lean into the "family" niche. When I think of the blog, I do hope to incorporate a little more than just family; think food, clothes (for busy moms AND the kids), sales, home projects, health and wellness (shockingly enough those posts are my most popular), our daily life, all my favorite things, etc etc. Family is and always will be the biggest part of who I am so I'm sure more than not that'll be the main thing here but I'm hopeful it'll be so much more.

Well, I'm off to enjoy Christmas with my family and then the kids Christmas Break from school. Although we have nothing planned for school vacation, I'm sure things will pop up....as long as we get healthy! Say a prayer for us we kick this virus soon. But even if this Christmas Break just consists of pajama days, take out and the kids playing with all their presents from Santa I'll be totally fine with that too!

From my family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas! I wish I could send each of you a card, but since I cannot, here's a virtual Christmas card.

Thank you, as always, Abigail Shea Photography for working your magic and capturing our family so beautifully!

Archie is 5 months old

 

Archer Edward is 5 months old!

At 5 months Archie has found his voice and is always squealing in delight. He's rolling over and spinning himself around when on his back. We started solid foods this past month and he's doing great. We are (for the most part) sleeping consistently through the night (YES!). Archie's also been showing the many signs of teething lately (drooling more, sucking his lower lip, chewing on his fingers/fist (ALL THE TIME) etc, etc.) We will see though. This is the age that starts but I know from experience that it doesn't always mean teeth are on the horizon. This stage could go on for months and months before he pops a tooth. Time will tell. Archie such a joy and thankfully, he just goes with the flow. A task he needs to master being the youngest of 6. I am hopeful we will get him sleeping in his own room in his crib this month. It does put my anxiety at ease having him in his bassinet next to our bed every night, but I am looking forward to being able to watch tv without subtitles and not having to whisper every night when talking to Mike before we go to sleep. With all our kids we did this at different ages. Smith was our youngest to go into his own room at 4 months old. It helped us tremendously getting him to sleep through the night. And Tenley was our oldest at almost a year old before she was out of our room due to needing to share a room with her older sister and NOT sleeping through the night. We would try to transition her, and she'd wake up, wake Kensington up and I'd be up with two babies in the middle of the night, so it just made more sense to keep her with us. I feel as though Archie is ready and it'll be an easy enough move. Hopefully! 

And because I haven't posted them here.... let's go back in time a little bit. He just keeps getting cuter and sweeter as the months go by! We love you so much, Archie!

4 months

3 months

2 months

1 month

newborn

I mean.... c'mon! My mama heart can't handle it.

Happy 5 months Arch-Man!

Manifestation

 

We are just 10 days away from Christmas! The jump from Thanksgiving to Christmas has been extra aggressive this year, no? I think so. I had all intentions on doing some affordable gift guides here, but time has just gotten away from me. I do think there is a need for this though. I've seen many gift guides from influencers and unfortunately majority of them are not exactly affordable. I really wanted to put some stuff together but honestly, I'm not sure how to make graphics yet and I really need to do a lot of homework on how to make things look a tad more professional around here. I did post on my Facebook page looking for someone to help me with the design on my blog and I was inundated with bots. Some of them may have been real people but I couldn't really tell which was which. So, that's that. Kamryn is taking a graphic design class at school though, so she's thinking she might be able to help me. 

2025 is going to be The Sass Sircus' year! I'm throwing this out into the universe now! Part of my new year's resolution is going to be to take this blog and social media more seriously. This has been a dream of mine for many years now and this is the year I'm going to make it happen. HELLO MANIFESTAION! I believe so deeply we can manifest things to happen for us so here I am humbly throwing this out there! Let's go!

This weekend I found myself going down the rabbit hole of old blog posts from when Kam, Logan, Kensington and Tenley were little. I don't know how I did it having 2 legit babies, but somehow, I found time to blog almost every single day. The blog was gaining so much traction and I even started making some money off it. (an insignificant amount but I did make a couple bucks) It's cool to look back and see how I wrote, what I wrote about, and which posts were my most popular. So, this weekend I made a promise to myself to get back there. If I did it once, I can do it again and I can do it even better! 

I'll leave you with this cute picture of Archie, because who doesn't love a cute baby?

Happy Sunday!!

xoxo, Kristen

1st Annual Christmas Craft Day

Well, after years of talking about it...we finally did it! Our first annual Christmas craft day. While the salt dough ornaments took forever, (we should've started a lot earlier than we did) we had a blast!

Uncle Zacky, Coley and Parker came over Saturday afternoon and we got to making our ornaments.

 

My girls especially love arts and crafts, so they were super excited for this activity! They're all exceptionally good at anything art related too. A skill they did NOT inherit from me!

It was messy...oh boy was it messy! If you know me at all, you know arts and crafts mess can send me spiraling. No, really. Glitter will have me breathing into a paper bag. But yesterday, I decided to just go with it. The mess can be cleaned, the memories will last forever.

Aren't they so cute?! Archie and Parker's little feet make me tear up! My sweet baby won't be this little for long. 

Into the oven they go. For TWO HOURS. My house was only 600 degrees by the time they were done. Between the pellet stove and the oven, we were all dying!

Good news is they didn't take long to cool down at all. Time to paint!

Our little lefty. Out of the 6 Smith is the only lefty, so far...jury is still out on Archer. I always find it fascinating watching Smith do stuff with his left hand.

That smile says it all! Kensington was in heaven!

Sweet Parker did such a great job. I think she has a love for art like her big cousins as well!

We made A LOT of ornaments, and they all came out super cute!!

Parker is so very sweet with Archie. She will be a big sister in February, and I love this little preview of what's to come. She's going to LOVE her baby brother so much!

Our 1st annual Christmas craft day was a success! The little ones were troopers. We finished up well after their bedtimes and we didn't have any meltdowns. I call that a win! And now I've got 50+ ornaments to add to our kid tree! LOL! Next year we are going to have to come up with a new idea for a craft because my tree is going to be packed with these from this year! Pinterest here we come!!

My 2025 Wellness Journey

 

Can you believe in just a few short weeks it's going to be 2025?! I can't!

I love a new year's resolution, I always have. I'm really good at them too for some reason. I'm a little strange like that though. Any new routine I have for myself needs to start on a Monday. New diet? Monday. New workout routine? Monday. New way to do something with the kids? Monday. New cleaning schedule? Monday. You get the point! So, it makes sense a new year's resolution starting on the first of the new year would be something I enjoy. New year new me? Kind of. I do think that saying is really silly, but I like the sentiment. A fresh start is always a plus in my eyes.

2025 is going to be the year I start my wellness journey. As I approach 40, I'm realizing more and more how my health really needs to be a top priority. It really hit me like a ton of bricks when I was pregnant with Archie, and I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes and a thyroid issue. Up until that point in my life I've never really had anything "wrong" with me. It was one of those reality checks that made me realize I'm not invincible and when my doctor told me this increases my chance of having type 2 Diabetes later in life I said nope nope nope. I will do whatever I can to avoid that so making my heath a priority is even more important to me than ever. 

As I look down the road at my life, I really want to be able to continue to be as active with my kids as I've ever been. Maybe even more active! Having Archer "later in life" at 38, it's really important to me he gets the same mom Kamryn has always had. Looking even further way way way down the road to when I have a bazillion grandchildren (hopefully), I want to be just as active with them as well. I know the time is now to set myself up for a long healthy life and how I treat my body today will affect the rest of my life and I want to live and enjoy it all! 

I asked Santa for a couple things to help me on this journey. First an Oura ring. I'm sure you've heard all about them and what they can track. I am hopeful (if I get one, fingers crossed) that this will be a good indicator of what's going on inside my body. I also asked for a walking pad. We have some workout equipment in the basement but it's really hard for me to get time away from Smith and Archie during the day and I think a walking pad will help me get steps in right here with them during the day. At least I hope so! Once I get Archie on a better nap routine I'm going to reactivate my Peloton membership, get back on the bike and take advantage of all the other workouts they have to offer. It's been a long time and I'm really looking forward to getting back into the swing of working out. My diet will be more of a priority too, although I have already implemented some changes into that already. I'm basically back on my Gestational Diabetes diet, less carbs, load up on the protein and drinking as much water as I can!

What else? I always love to hear what other people do to make their health a priority. Let me know some everyday ways you put your health first?

Here's to 2025 being our healthiest year yet! xx

Christmas Parade

 

We kicked off the Christmas season the same way we always do....at the Quincy Christmas Parade!

This has been a tradition for our family since Kamryn was a baby. I think we only missed one year and with good reason. Smith was born Tuesday morning, the parade was that Sunday, and we got hit with a Nor'easter. So needless to say, we decided to stay home that year. It's so cool to see how much our family has grown since then.

Here's a little throwback of Kam and me all those years ago.

And here's our crew this year....

Kamryn, Archer, Tenley, Logan, Smith, Parker and Kensington (& baby boy in Nicole's belly due this February!)

The McCaul family sure is a lot bigger than we ever imagined! Yes, I know, 6 of those kids are mine...but still!! :) If you told me 14 years later, we'd have 7 kids lined up, I'd never believe you.

We had a great day. The parade had lots of great floats and bands, and we even got to see the big man himself! Parker was too funny; she would've jumped in the parade if we let her! We finished off the day with pizza back at Pappi and GranDee's house. Thanks, Peege and Dee for a great day! 

And these pictures of Archie are too sweet not to share. It was chilly, to say the least, but Mr. Archer was toasty warm thanks to his little bear suit. He was his usual self and just hung out, took in all the excitement and even took a little nap in his stroller. He really is a dream and such a good baby!