11 months!"

I've tried to keep a monthly blog to save as the babies "First Year" book. I have done a pretty good job only missing a month or two! It's so cliche to say "time passes by so quickly", but as a busy mom it really has. I vividly remember last year at this time being very, very uncomfortable and counting down the weeks until I could hold those triplets in my arms. Last year, I was being pushed in a wheelchair to go trick- or-treating with the girls and this year I was counting down the days until we could all go walking as family as the seven dwarfs! I had these costumes planned out for months, I slowly began collecting the colored shirts, made the belts and hats and without too much of a hassle the outfits came together!

"Happy"

"Sleepy"

Not-so "Bashful"

"Dopey"

"Sneezy"

"Sleepy"

"Doc"

Now that Halloween is behind us, the next big occasion is the triplets birthday!!! With the craziness of "fall/christmas pictures" starting, I am trying to throw in a few birthday "crafting hours" throughout the next few weeks so I'm not overwhelmed right before the party! This party is going to be a big celebration for the whole family! We not only want to celebrate the healthy births of all three babies, but celebrate all the handwork that all of our friends and family have put in to making this year run so smoothly! Almost on a daily basis someone says, "how do you do it" or " I could never do that".  I have two answers, " I have ALOT of help, it certainly take a village" and " You can do ANYTHING that God put in your hands". You never realize the strengths of yourself until you are challenged. I have certainly seen this played out this year. I have been physically and emotionally stretched to my limits this year and I have turned those tough times into inspiration to push me to do things I didn't know were possible.
This past May I bought a triple jogging stroller. I have always loved exercising and working out, so by having this triple stroller it gave me the freedom to do one of things I love most, running. Over the past 6 months I have used running as my outlet, my free time , my quiet time to think and reflect. I come back from a good run, happy and refreshed ready to take on the rest of my day! Somedays I run with the babies and somedays they stay with Daddy.  One of my life goals was to run a half- marathon, but I never really had the drive to put my body through it. After the year I have had, with physically carrying three babies, I would always refer to my pregnancy as like running a marathon. So after seeing how our bodies can physically and emotionally conquer anything, I put my mind to it to start training for a real "marathon" - I'm starting small and doing the half! So January 26th will be my first and I am so thankful to have my kids as my inspiration to help me reach a personal goal!

Well, it is certainly a good thing that I am getting myself back into shape because it won't be long before we have 5 kids running circles around us! I love how the first year is a pretty slow progression of learning new skills, it has given us a few days in between to keep on "baby proofing" our house. The three are pretty much kept in "The Dungeon" also known as our playroom!! Between the dungeon, highchairs and now an outdoor gated play area these are the "safe" areas of our home. All three are standing on their own, but are still a little timid. My guess is Elijah will be our first walker, he's got mad skills behind the walker. We are branching out and feeding them finger foods, now that all of them have four teeth and are pretty good at using them. I will leave you with some photos from this month! I can't wait to share our birthday "theme" and party pictures next month!