I have never really put any family updates on my Christmas Card, or sent it with a newsletter. In the past I’ve put so much of my dumb life on every platform that it seemed redundant. I tend to assume that everyone is already rolling their eyes at me and don’t need more fodder.

But this year has been different. I’m off Twitter. I’ve done a fraction of the blogging. I’ve taken a lot of social media breaks. I’ve taken a lot less time to plan and create content. I take pictures on whims when I remember, post randomly without forethought, and share a lot more on disappearing stories.

I’ve found that a lot of people don’t actually know some of the more concrete details of our lives in 2019, so here’s our newsletter.

Ryan

Ryan is the VP of Outcomes at Lambda School and loving it. Lambda School is a coding school that promises $0 down and a repayment plan contingent only on your future job making more than $50k. Ryan runs Labs, which is the last part of the program and helps give the students real-life experience to prepare them for interviews and jobs. He travels quite a bit for work, but he gets to work a few days from home each week.

He golfed like crazy this year and has been getting really serious about his game. I’ll admit it’s a much better hobby in my personal interests than wrangling my kids at sweltering, mosquito-infested slowpitch games so I’m down with it.

He continues to develop his cooking and barbecuing skills, very much to our benefit. This year he’s perfected bechamel sauce, gnocchi, pulled pork, spicy tri-tip, and sous-vide steaks that are legitimately the best I’ve ever eaten in my entire life.

Danica

It’s been a weird year for me. I started out not working any freelance and giving a ton of time and effort as the Relief Society President in my ward. I completed a ton of projects in my home, and spent most of my year working on my 30 Before 30 challenge, which you’ve heard enough about. Our ward split in July, triggering my release and I immediately (not necessarily intentionally, although the timing seems a little ~too foreordained if you know what I mean) got pregnant.

This pregnancy has been… harder. A lot of things have been harder. I don’t know if it’s this pregnancy, being 30, it being a “surprise,” Ryan not being 100% on board/excited, or just feeling more insecurity in myself as a mother than I ever have. It’s just been hard. I’ve had another subchorionic hemorrhage, and my symphysis pubis dysfunction has been so bad I’ve had to see a specialist. Emotionally it’s been really different, too, and I’m still working through my mental state and readiness for this baby.

I’m doing some new freelance work in editing, which is cool because I’m getting to learn another side of copywriting. I’m not really sure what I want for my professional future, and I’ve been exploring some potential jobs and work where I can continue to write.

Reese

Reese is in her last year of preschool, a Tater Tot at Kids Village. She’s about to turn 5 and tells everyone she meets, literally everyone, that she’s “almost in kindergarten.” She can write her name, all of her letters, and the word NO, for some reason? She’s starting to sound out and blend simple words, which is crazy.

We have to lock her in the house. She knows everyone in our neighborhood and would spend all day bouncing around from house to house if we let her (and even when we don’t let her). She is constantly singing and dancing and extra AF. She talks like she’s 14, and has no concept of age, regularly making friends of all ages everywhere we go. She has, let’s say, leadership skills, and is definitely in a stage of sass and bossiness and attitude. I’m constantly walking the tightrope of wanting to sell her and being fiercely proud of her confidence and independence.

Malone

This sweetheart. We had a ROUGH summer with this one, but we’ve gotten to this incredible place of her talking, making jokes, laughing, and responding in such surprising ways. Loney just conquered potty training like a total and complete champ. She loves her first year of preschool at Kids Village and has made so many friends there that she tackles with hugs.

She loves to tease and it’s actually hilarious because Ryan is her favorite target. Every day she says “I ate your muffins, dad!!!” which???? but is so funny to us. She is Reese’s biggest fan, but also will completely lay her out at least once a day. She needs to be snuggled down for a nap every day, which is a tender luxury for me since Reese dropped her nap at like 20 months. She also loves to sing and dance and color, and she is still a voracious raccoon who I catch sneaking stuff out of the trash at least once a week.

Our Family

We love where we live, our neighbors and ward, so much. We spend a lot of time talking about baby sister and what we’ll do with her when she’s here. We have big goals for 2020. Well, basically just to bring baby sister here healthy and to get back to Disneyland as a family ASAP as possible.

We feel so lucky to have had this year. We’ve evolved. We’re a different set of people this December than we were last. This year was… messy? We dug in and got our hands dirty. We got vulnerable. We tried new things. We pushed through hard stuff. We made changes.

It’s hard to say what 2020 will bring for us, other than a new baby sister and Reese starting kindergarten (!!!). We’re excited, though, and ready to tackle things together as always.