December GBOMB

It's that time again to hit publish on the only reliable post every month. It's the Good, the Bad, and what's been On My Brain for the month of December.

G O O D
+Christmas, Christmas, Christmas! Not just Christmas day, but the entire month of celebrating. We watched so many holiday movies, read every Christmas book we could find, and had way too many treats (justified because it's Christmas). Kids really amplify the season and I love it so much.
+I turned 27 this month and Andrew took my birthday off from work. We spent a full day in Disney and managed to accomplish a lot even while fighting the holiday crowds.
+Olive turned two which I still can't believe. She was very excited to get the bubbles that Taylor gifted her and she wouldn't put down the stuffed panda Andrew and I gave her. Olive loved her birthday and was the happiest kid all day (two year olds are so easy to please).
+Andrew's company shuts down around Christmas so we had a lot of time to see our family in Arizona. We got to see everyone except for the M's in Seattle (but who we will luckily be seeing in January). The kids had a blast being with their cousins and seeing all their grandparents and aunts and uncles. Taylor and Olive are a pretty lucky bunch when it comes to relatives.
+We bought a minivan! And I love it with every fiber of my being. Before kids, I swore that I would never drive a minivan. After having kids, I started seeing the appeal. Now that I own one, I will never go back to life before owning a minivan.
+Of course Christmas has to be included in the good category. What's better than watching a kid's excitement as they open presents? I'm planning on writing a post on our entire Christmas vacation. We'll see if that ever comes to fruition though.

B A D
+Taylor had some sort of stomach bug a few days after Christmas. He had a fever and threw up a few times, but after two days he was on the mend. We watched a lot of TV to assist in his recovery. Unfortunately for me, I also caught this mysterious illness. I think I slept about 34 hours over a two day period. I managed to avoid throwing up (probably because I slept instead of eating). Now I'm crossing my fingers that this is the only sickness we experience for the next little bit.
+My goal was to have Taylor potty trained by Christmas, but we're still not 100% on that goal. With long drives in the car and the few days of illness, sometimes diapers were the easier choice and that put us back a few steps. I guess our new goal is to be completely potty trained by the time baby #3 gets here.

O N  M Y  B R A I N
+This baby is nestled snugly into my bladder. The last month or two are always difficult when it comes to peeing every 5 minutes, but this baby has made every step a painful reminder to my bladder that a baby will be here soon. I still think I'm slightly in denial because I haven't been hit with any sense of urgency to get things ready. When is the nesting suppose to kick in for your third?
+Organization. All the new Christmas gifts tend to get me thinking about deep cleaning, purging, and organizing what we have. It's something I enjoy so I'm excited to get after it once we get home.

November GBOMB

G O O D
+We are in the midst of potty training and I think I can safely say that Taylor has the hang of it. I still put him in diapers when he sleeps, and when we're out of the house (mainly because I don't really want to deal with public restrooms yet). When we first started this round of potty training, I thought it might be the end of my sanity, but after a few days, things got a lot better. My goal is for Taylor to be completely out of diapers by Christmas.
+On Thanksgiving, we went and watched Ralph Breaks The Internet. It was fun to have two kids sit through a movie without any worries. They both loved it and now they're begging to go back to "the big movies" to watch The Grinch.
+We are in full blown Christmas mode at our house. We watch a new holiday movie everyday, listen to Christmas music all day long, the kids look forward to getting their daily chocolate from the advent calendar, and I threaten to call Santa anytime the kids are naughty. Christmas is so much fun with kids. I'm already a little sad to think that Christmas will be over in a few weeks.
+I took the kids by myself to Disneyland twice, and we managed to go as a family to see the holiday fireworks after Andrew got off work one day. One of the times I took the kids by myself, we got to see Santa. Taylor asked him for a train and Olive asked for presents (she's not picky). There's still a few holiday specific activities I want to do in Disneyland before the festivities are all over, but Christmastime is crazy busy so we're being very strategic of when we go. That's the best part of having an annual pass and living so close is we can go just for an afternoon to do one or two things without feeling jipped.
+November and December are always my biggest months for my Etsy shop. It's been fun making new prints, having Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, and seeing traffic increase for the holidays.

B A D
+We didn't want to deal with L.A. traffic during Thanksgiving so we had an unconventional Thanksgiving dinner by ourselves for the first time. Our Thanksgiving was actually a really nice day, but it was sad not being with any other family.

O N  M Y  B R A I N
+I'm almost 32 weeks pregnant and starting to see my OB every two weeks which makes baby time seem so soon. This pregnancy has flown by (especially now that I'm not nauseous 24/7) because I have two kids as distractions. I'm starting to get into the final, uncomfortable stage of pregnancy though where you can't bend over, or get off the floor, or breath normally so hopefully these last 8 weeks don't drag by. I'm honestly a little in denial of how soon this baby will be here. I feel like I should be preparing more or something?
+Olive is turning two in December! I can't believe I will soon have an almost 4 year old, a two year old, and soon a newborn. How did this happen?! I mean I know how it technically happened, but it just seems insane to have growing children and so many children.