Jeff and Emmie got up early and let me sleep in again today, all the way until 8am! So once I was awake and moving, I made the three of us some egg sandwiches for breakfast, with a little help from my tiniest assistant. (We didn’t bother waking the boys, because they’re too grumpy to be woken up just for breakfast, plus they didn’t want to go to Walmart with us anyways.)
…
Goodbye, Adios, Ciao, Adieu Read More »
Y’all, 2020 is finally coming to an end. In an “unprecedented year” like we’ve literally never seen before, I’m sure many of us are ready to bid it farewell, in hopes that things will look different/better in 2021. As we all know, this has been the weirdest year of most of our lives, and although I am ready to see it go, I know that things will not magically snap back to “before” when 1/1/21 rolls around. And again, as strange and sometimes terrible as 2020 was, there were also some great moments too.
I’m so glad that I’ve been keeping this online journal for 2.5 years now, with the ability to go back and read random posts and relive those random days. I made recap posts like this one for the past two years, and not only do I love making these, y’all love reading these too. If you’d like to relive the past with me, you can check out the old posts for 2018 and 2019 here, and now we’ll get going on 2020!
Although there were a few days where I didn’t blog (due to website issues or pregnancy exhaustion), I always tried to make up for those days by posting twice the following day, which means I wrote a total of 368 posts this year! (And this is my 1,000th all-time post!!) People have viewed my blog from 55 different countries, with a little over 46,000 total views just this year! With a whopping 103,000+ all-time views!
So today, on New Year’s Eve, let’s wrap up 2020 by highlighting some of my favorite posts from each month…
…
A Look Back at 2020 Read More »
As I do every year, I want to recap some of the books I’ve read this past year. (In case you’d like to check them out, here are my previous years’ posts for 2018 and 2019.) I always set a goal or challenge on Goodreads, and once again, I not only met but slightly exceeded my goal. Goodreads is basically just a way to track books you have already read, or want to read. You can read reviews, and rate the books you’ve read, and follow favorite authors or friends. I’ve been using it consistently since 2014, and I love being able to track my progress! Lists are a big part of my life. (Other Enneagram Type 1’s can agree with me on this point, I’m sure.) I thought I would set a lower goal around 50-75 this year, but then I ended up reading more once the pandemic hit, so I upped it to my usual 100 books. My final total? I read 102 books this year!
…
My Year in Books – 2020 Read More »
Emmie got up early at 6am as usual, and Jeff got up to hang out with her. But then after I got ready and came into the living room to check on them, I found them like this, with Emmie watching tv and Jeff snoring away…
…
All four baby girls were so excited to see each other this morning. I LOVE how much they love each other. The babies all repeat “Emmie, Emmie, Emmie” when they see her, and it’s precious. They say “Emmie, Emmie, Emmie” when they go to sit on the curb because all three of them want to sit by her.
…
Double Dishwashers Read More »
Y’all. The sky this morning! Emmie was asking about the sky and the sun and the clouds, and asked if the sun was waking up from sleep and said, “I think the clouds is it’s bed.”
…
Pullen Family Christmas 2020 Read More »
Emmie and I got up around 6:30 this morning, cuddled for a while watching “The Lorax,” and then decided we were hungry and needed breakfast. She always loves to help, and she’s so very sweet about it.
…
Baked Ziti & Brothers Read More »
Jeff got up to do the early shift with Emmie this morning, and I slept till about 7:45 or so. When I came in the living room, things were an absolute mess with presents and stuff all over the place.
And in typical fashion, in the midst of a million new things, Emmie was playing in the empty carboard box. She had a blanket and pillow and baby and books in there, and she was pretending she was camping. She told me, “You have to go to a different campsite. I’m at the campsite called Tallahassee. But you have to go to a different campsite called Zabodebo’s.”
…
Afternoon Sunlight & Copy Cat Zuppa Read More »
As always, today has been a great, but very long, tiring day. And since it’s almost 10pm already, I’m going to try to not “talk” quite as much, and just dump a TON of photos instead, and let them speak for themselves. Between all the family, we took over 150+ photos, and I’ve narrowed it down to less than 70, so I did what I could 🙂
We had our Christmas with our tiny 3-fam early this morning, which was quiet and intimate and very special. We then picked up my step-brother and went over to my parents’ house to meet up with the rest of the family, where we stayed the whole day.
…
Christmas Day 2020 Read More »
Well, she moved her final piece of the advent calendar today, and put the angel in her spot at the top of the tree!
…
Candlelight Christmas Eve Read More »
After today, only one more ornament to go on our little advent calendar! Sheppy was hanging out on the bookshelf this morning, where he seems to have made some new friends overnight.
…
Cheeseburger Craving Read More »
Sheppy has been travelling to some hard-to-reach places lately, and although Emmie can always find him, she can’t always reach him! But look at her up on those little tippy toes!
We got to school just 30 seconds or so before the baby girls, and as always, everyone was excited to see each other. Today was Riley’s day around town with her Daddy, so only three of the girls went down the hallway with Ms. Q. She told us later that Emmie looked around and noticed one was missing and said, “Hey Q, where’s the other one!?” haha so funny 🙂
In the car on the way home, she started talking about “her” little baby. And she said, “I’ll take care of her if she needs something, like if she needs her little bottle or her pajamas.”
And then later she asked “Why Santa doesn’t bring presents if you’re bad?” So I just said something like, “Well because you have to be good. Have you been good?” And she said, “Yes because I’m so sweet and special.” And I said, “Yes baby, you’re VERY sweet and VERY special.”
I got Jeff to start some chicken breasts in the Instant Pot, and then I boiled some rotini noodles & heated up a jar of Alfredo sauce, and topped it with fresh shredded Parmesan cheese. And wow, it was delicious. Emerson specifically requested a big girl bowl, and she also picked out her own big girl fork. We all ate every single bite, joined the “clean bowl club,” and went back for a little bit more. And one of us even begged off bites out of someone else’s bowl…
Please make sure to zoom in and look close at that tiny little tongue poking out.
I used to always wash dishes after Emmie went down to sleep, but I do NOT have the energy for that so late anymore. So last night and tonight I’ve decided to take just 10-15 minutes after dinner to take care of it while Emmie plays. And that seems to be working better. So after getting everything cleaned up, I went back to Emmie’s room where her and Daddy were playing, and she said, “Hi, I’m a nurse. What happened to you?” (She specifically put on her little while sweater because she wanted to pretend it was a white doctor’s coat.) And she was using her wand to administer medicines.
There were LOTS of tickles and giggles at bedtime tonight, but also LOTS of snuggles and hugs and kisses too.
She was sweet, but she also called us back in a few times afterwards. So after Jeff went back for random things 4 times, and I went back 2 times, I threatened her I’d turn off her dinosaur ceiling lamp if she called us back for any other bogus nonsense, and it worked 😉
Jeff and I started watching “The Santa Clause” last night, and got about an hour in, so we’re gonna finish that up tonight, and then head off to bed soon.
We have only three days of work and school this week, and then a four-day holiday weekend starting Thursday! We did make it out of the house early this morning to go by Dunkin Donuts to get some donuts and some gift cards for Emmie’s teachers’ Christmas gifts, and still made it to school early too.
…
Jeff got up early with Emmie and let me sleep a bit longer, and then when I woke up I was surprised to find I had lost my voice! That hadn’t happened in years, and my throat wasn’t that bad and I was barely coughing, so that was certainly surprising. It actually came back during the day, but I still sound weird tonight.
While Jeff showered for church, I got my little girl dressed in her pretty Christmas dress, and she did the advent calendar and found Sheppy.
…
Rainy Day of Rest & Relaxation Read More »
Emerson requested a McGriddle for breakfast, and since I had some food, but not enough to make a full breakfast meal, we gladly agreed and headed to McDonald’s for breakfast. The plan was to also go to Trader Joe’s afterwards, but we got a late start, and it was 10am by the time we got there, with a line all the way to TJ Maxx, so we skipped it and just went back home.
…
Today was Christmas Jammies day at school, and as usual (no one’s surprised), all four girls were super adorable in their fun little jammies! Riley had been playing with a water bottle in the car and somehow got it open, and spilled it all down her front. They were gonna throw it in the dryer for her at school, so she wouldn’t have to be wet and cold all morning. Silly goose!
…
Today was tacky sweater day for spirit week at school, and although these girls aren’t tacky, they ARE the four cutest girls I’ve ever seen!!
…
Today was “Christmas colors” day at school, and Emmie was excited to wear this cute new outfit from Nana. Jeff got her dressed this morning, and then sent her to me in the bathroom so I could do her hair & teeth. I said, “Ohh I like this outfit. Your shirt says ‘Bring the Joy.'” And she was like, “Yeah, Daddy already told me that.”
…
Today was crazy hat or headband day at school, so Emmie found Sheppy this morning wearing her headband, as a reminder!
…
Four Tiny Reindeer Read More »
Since Emerson was off on her Christmas road trip adventure with Grammy and Papa, that meant I got to sleep a little later than usual, and then go straight to work instead of school first. I had some CFA points racked up in my app, so I stopped to order myself breakfast on the way, and got my burrito & hash browns for free! (I was stuffed after the burrito though, so I gave away my hash browns to a friend.)
…
Butterflies & Burritos Read More »
You must be logged in to post a comment.