I’m hoping to fill the final two weeks of the boys’ winter break with neighborhood walks, park playtime, random crafts at home and plenty of bounce house shenanigans. As for today, I wanted to share my annual roundup post featuring my most popular blog posts from last year, as determined by pageviews. Today’s post does not include any of my recipes (you may seem my top recipes of 2020 in this post), but focuses on all of the other blog posts I share in this space.
Also, this is the time of year I like to ask you guys what you’d like to see more of on the blog in 2021, so if you have anything specific you’d like me to write about in the future, please take a moment and let me know in the comments section. I love making a master list of your suggestions to come back to all year long!
Most Popular Blog Posts of 2020
I didn’t share the news that we were expecting another baby until I was midway through my second trimester, so this blog post served as one big catch up post to bring you all up to speed on our journey to baby #3 and my pregnancy up to that point.
When I set out to write this post, I wanted it to incorporate a few things: A few specific struggles we faced in our marriage after kids, certain things we’ve implemented in our marriage since becoming parents that have worked really well for us and and the underlying understanding that it’s totally natural for a marriage and relationship to change after kids.
This blog post is one I wrote back in 2016 after my first Orangetheory class. It details continues to do well year after year thanks to Google searches.
This is Rhett’s birth story! Months later, I am still in a little bit of disbelief as to how it all went down and how one minute everything seemed fine and the next minute I was on the phone with my doctor who told me to head to the hospital after she passed along images and measurements from my 38-week ultrasound to maternal and fetal medicine. An induction was unchartered territory here and I’m so glad Rhett arrived safely in the early hours of the morning on August 29.
This is the blog post that announced we were expecting baby #3!
Oh my beloved Burn Boot Camp! I miss it SO much and will absolutely return to BBC once things feel a little more normal around here and COVID-19 concerns aren’t still so high. It’s my favorite group fitness workout of all time and this blog post gives readers a rundown of what to expect in a typical boot camp workout.
Day in the life posts are forever and always a favorite over here and I’m always relieved to hear that so many of you like them, too. This post is one of the first postpartum day in the life blog posts I shared after Rhett joined our family.
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10 to 1 At Home Bodyweight Workout
This is one of my all-time favorite workouts! It’s such a great total body workout to do when you want to work up a sweat but don’t have any equipment available.
We’ve done our fair share of road trips with our kids and this blog post shares some of my go-to tips for keeping little ones happy and entertained for long periods of time in the car.
It had been more than five years since my last beauty favorites update and this post is a long-winded look into my current beauty favorites with an emphasis on more natural beauty products.
This post contains the top 12 toys we loved during the first 12 months of Chase’s life… One toy for every month! (If you read my monthly baby updates, many of these toys may look quite familiar.) It’s actually an idea I had for a baby shower gift for a close friend but since purchasing 12 toys is a bit elaborate (and can get expensive since a bunch of items add up fast), I also think it’s a wonderful group gift idea since people often want to go in together to purchase bigger items for close friends. My hope for this post is that it will give some of you ideas for great baby shower or holiday gifts for the little ones in your life. Bonus: Many items are less than $20!
My best friends from college and I live all over the place now but we try to make it a point to get our big group together at least once a year. Thankfully we got our 2020 trip in before the pandemic hit and this blog post details our weekend in the Catskills Mountains.
My tea lattes aren’t anything fancy but they’re so good and an afternoon staple for me when winter hits and I want something warm to sip on around 3 p.m. every day.
This blog post details some of the changes I’ve noticed regarding fitness in my 20s versus fitness in my 30s. When I began writing this post, I saw a theme emerge and it was one I’ve fully embraced: A lot of my workout changes stemmed from motherhood. I have less time to spend in the gym and less desire to really pour everything into fitness… BUT I have MORE desire to work out because I enjoy it and it’s something I do for myself.
Every so often, I try to remember to compile some of the books I recently read and loved into a blog post that’s easy for you guys to save and reference the next time you find yourself looking for a good book to dive into at the end of a long day.
This blog post was an update on how things looked around here one month into life with Rhett!
Looking for 30-minute workouts you can do at home without any equipment? This blog post has 15 of them in one easy-to-reference place.
This blog post was a follow up to one I wrote in 2019 and included 12 of my most recent favorite Amazon finds in one place.
This was the final pregnancy update I shared on the blog before I had Rhett!
Grab the kids and check out this blog post for a great way to get the whole family moving in a FUN way!
Question of the Day
What would you like to see more of on the blog in 2021? Any blog post topic requests?
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I have a newborn and toddler so would love to know how you “entertain” the toddler at home while breastfeeding/ looking after a newborn!
Also must has to have at home to entertain kids during a pandemic!
Love the book review posts and all of the posts about babies, toddlers and parent life!
Always love day in the life posts! Also your weeks worth of dinners recaps were great inspo for me, would love to see that series resume. Or what you love for snacks/lunches.
I’ve cream maker recipes for the seasons!
A hour tour! I love all the decor we can see from your pics. Or how you manage the house/chores with such a busy schedule.
These are great ideas! Thank you! And I’m glad you like the dinner recaps — I’ll definitely bring those back!
Things you’ve purchased on Amazon posts are always interesting!
Info about routines & schedules.
Info about meals and workouts. Everything you eat in a single day would be interesting!
Travel (I know many of us aren’t traveling right now, but hopefully that will change this year).
Packing lists, packing tips, lunch packing for kiddos!
Hair & beauty routines.
Info about gifts you’ve bought for family!
Thanks for sharing all of this stuff – you’ve been a great inspiration me over the years!
Thanks Katie!! I’ll keep these things in mind for sure!
Love your day in life posts!!!
Love all the pictures you share and your openness and honesty about life!!!
Don’t change a thing!!!
🥰
Love all your posts!
Things I would be interested in:
How you stay clean and organized
Fitting in working out at home
Toy Room Organization or at least how you lay out your toys, my little one is almost a month older than Ryder and right now all of her toys are out somewhere in the house, wondering if we should organize them so how or only keep a few out and rotate maybe to keep things fresh? Any ideas are welcome!
Random question, but how do you road trip with all the humans and Sadie? We are expecting our 2nd at the end of May and we have a rather large dog, so much bigger than your Sadie and she really takes up 2 seats (and ideally the whole row if you ask her) Although I can squeeze back there, she definitely won’t fit with a second car seat and may have to go to the back/trunk (in the SUV).
Any update on Rhett’s reflux? I have an 8-week-old with reflux and whew it’s exhausting.
And unrelated but I always love your recipe roundups of recipes you make from other bloggers.
Hi, I also have two young boys and considering adding a third child to the mix. How has the transition from 2 to 3 been?! Congrats to you!
Julie, could you please tell me the name of the kid friendly knives you bought for your boys to help in the kitchen with. Thanks, Mary
I hope you continue to share your growth in learning more about social justice and human rights issues. I feel you have been more forthright than a lot of other bloggers and I appreciate it so much. Some bloggers act like they live in a bubble and never comment on anything that happens.
I hope negative comments you’ve received in the past haven’t scared you aware from doing that:)
Thank you for your encouragement, Heather. While I absolutely expected some negative comments when I shared my hope for our country following Biden’s election, I was not prepared for so many people being so hateful toward me and even using things like my miscarriages against me. It was painful for sure but pales in comparison to the pain (and fear!) so many people in our country experience daily. I am absolutely planning to share resources that help me in my journey moving forward — hopefully with thicker skin every time.