When I was pregnant with the boys I started this blog to keep my friends and family up to date with progress of the pregnancy and the babies themselves. Also during that time, I spent a lot of time in forums for multiple moms. When I realized that the forums weren't all that helpful I took this blog and made it a little more involved in hopes of helping other mamas like me. Part of why I didn't like the forums was because I was met with a lot of cynical and bitter "tenured" mamas who didn't seem to like that I was excited about having triplets. They warned: it's going to be harder than you think, it will take its toll on your marriage, your life will never be the same, your body will never be the same, it's expensive, triplets are hard hard hard!! Well, obviously I knew all those things in theory, but I didn't appreciate their approach toward me or their attitudes. I am a fairly positive person and this just turned me off completely; it put me on the defensive.

When I transformed my blog into this site to help others I was verbally attacked by some of these moms. I got several nasty comments, one so nasty it put me in tears and made me want to press charges against this woman, but she posted anonymously. I even went so far to track her IP address to a city in northern New Jersey. These nay-sayers said I would never be able to keep up with my blog and said "it will fall away just like all the others who think they are better than the forum". I was determined to prove them wrong. And I did great until I went back to work.

In June, when the babies were 6 months old I went back to work and then we lost our in home nursing care and all of a sudden blogging became so much more difficult. The last update I gave on the boys was last August! Ugh! I feel angry with myself for letting so much time go by, for letting those bitter moms who said I couldn't do it think they were right for even one minute. I have been approached by so many people who say they found my blog helpful that I feel like I am letting them down. Our friends and family who look forward to updates on the boys have been left in limbo. To you, I am so sorry!

It's not an excuse, but definitely a valid reason that I am so physically exhausted at the end of each day I can't fathom the thought of sitting in front of the computer trying to formulate intelligent thoughts! Not to mention, when I do have free time, quiet time, I want to spend that time with my husband or with a book or a movie. Yet each night while I lay in bed, I write blog posts in my head. In the shower in the morning I think of the pictures I want to post. While cooking dinner in the evening I think about the cute video I shot the day before and how excited our family in California would be to see it. While driving home from work I think about the funny thing Mitch did that morning that I know would make people laugh. When we have a bad night, the babies are crying and vomiting I think if I wrote about it and how we deal with it, I could help others who are struggling with similar issues. I think about all these things all the time and I write these blog posts in my head. Unfortunately, there is no bluetooth connection from my brain to my website that allows me to upload these blog entries wirelessly and effortlessly!! (Someone should seriously invent that! - lol)

So here I am, 6 months later, to give you a brief summary of the backlog in my brain!

In August, the triplets were 8 months old. At their 8mo check up Eli weighed 14lbs, Nate weighed in at 16lbs 10oz and Mitchell 15lbs 9oz. Growing boys!

We took our first (and so far ONLY!) road trip with them. We drove from Tampa to Atlanta, a trip that normally takes about 7 hours. On the way up we made it in 8! On the way home, it took 11. Overall the boys did very well for being in their car seats for so long, though we haven't been in a hurry to try it again! :) While in Atlanta we got to introduce the boys to my extended family, and also Matt's cousin and his wife and their daughter. In addition, we were lucky to coincidentally be there the same week Matt's brother-in-law Frank was there on business so he got to meet the boys for the first time too! We also had them in the pool for the first time while in Atlanta. They loved it!

Though still not sitting up on their own yet, the boys loved to play with their toys, especially their jumparoo! Here is Nate bouncing :)

Also in late August Jordan started third grade. I can hardly believe it!

September the boys turned 9 months old and got teeth! I was up with Nate (after bedtime of course) and he was chewing on my finger and "ouch!" I felt a sharp little tooth! It was amazing because two days later Mitch got his first one, then two days later Eli got his! A week later Nate got his second tooth, two days later Mitch got his and two days after that Eli got his second too. It was awesome. And other than a bit of runny nose they didn't seem any fussier than usual.

Also in late September the boys started sitting on their own. They were quite shaky at first but quickly caught on.

Because the babies were still not sleeping through the night and gave us a really tough time going to sleep at all I attempted sleep training in September by letting the boys "cry it out" at night and naps. It seems to help, a little. Naps became a little easier though they still only sleep 30-40 min on average and hardly ever at the same time. Bedtime did NOT get easier and ultimately we gave up on CIO deciding it just wasn't for us. The babies would egg each other on and cry so hard one would inevitable end up vomiting. Then we had crying babies and vomit to clean up and no one sleeping. Not good.

In September we made field trips to the Florida Aquarium and Lowry Park Zoo. The boys love outings! Our friend Lucas turned one and we went to his birthday party too.

In September Jordan started his third season of little league. This season he was in the "minor" league which means it was a little more serious than in previous seasons. The kids had to do the pitching and the catching. For the first time Jordan was on a full team so it was  a good experience for him to learn team play.

In October the triplets turned ten months old, 7 1/2 adjusted. The began getting on all fours and rocking like they wanted to crawl.  They got their top teeth in. Our weather finally broke and it was a little cooler out. We took advantage of the first nice weekend and took the babies for a walk along the causeway. They sat in the grass for the first time and were just enamored by it!

We found a house that we want to buy and nearby there is this awesome park. We took the kids there to enjoy the afternoon. The babies got to go on the swings for the first time and Jordan got to meet some kids who live in the neighborhood. Eli did NOT like the swings so he spent time playing in the wood chips.

Late in October we went to Sweetfield Farms where we got to eat kettle corn, pick out a pumpkin, pet some farm animals, make our way through a cornfield maze, and generally enjoy farm life for a day. It was a grand time! We even met another family with triplets. They were 11.

Jordan was with his dad for Halloween and we didn't really have anywhere to take the babies so we didn't dress them up in a costume. We did buy them some cute Halloween jammies though!

November began our busy time, which is saying a lot because our lives are ALWAYS busy! Jordan turned 9 this month and the babies 11mos. At the beginning of the month we went to a picnic at Fort Desoto with local triplet families. About 12 families attended and it was amazing to see so many triplets! And encouraging to know we are not alone in this craziness! The weather was beautiful and the location was perfect. My good friend and professional photographer Christy Waldner (www.seven27studios.com) was there to capture the moment and she did awesome.

Jordan turned 9 on Nov 22nd and we threw him a Lego party! We invited 5 kids to sleep-over and it was CRAZY! The boys had a great time though. We had a lego cake and lego-head cake pops. Jordan's dad bought him tickets to Legoland and all the kids bought him legos. We played lego creationary, angry birds, and guess what I am game. The boys stayed up until 4am! It was a long night! lol...

Of course November brought Thanksgiving which was pretty uneventful though we got to visit with some family. But best of all November brought crawling babies! Mitch and Nate started crawling and Eli followed suit about 3 weeks later. Check out this awesome video Matt captured...

Just a few more photos from November....

December!! The month we waited a year for! The triplets turned one year old this month! Eli began crawling. Mitch began pulling up on furniture and walking along it. We celebrated our first Christmas with the babies at home. Our friends and family from out of town visited and got to meet the babies for the first time. It was a magical awesome BUSY time!

At the babies 12-mo check-up they all had ear infections! But their weights were good - Eli 17lbs, Mitch 18lbs and Nate almost 20lbs. They all have four teeth on top and two on the bottom. Doc said they look great! They are doing great for their adjusted age and are getting closer and closer to their actual age in development. We had our first professional photo shoot in December and the pics turned out great, thanks Christy!! Check these out...

For their birthday we decided to do something a little different. Since the babies were so premature and in the hospital for so long we didn't really get to have that "visit our new baby" thing in the beginning. And when they did come home they were on monitors and oxygen and feeding tubes. It was a crazy time. So for their birthday we held an open house and invited everyone! We took pictures with everyone who had a hand in helping us through the first year. In addition to our close friends and family we invited NICU nurses, our in-home nurses, people who brought us meals, neighbors, etc. From 9am until 9pm we had people in and out of the house. It was a lot of fun!

Our theme was Mickey Mouse and each baby got his own extra large cupcake frosted in their signature color. I spent two days making Mickey Mouse cake pops and we gave those to our guests.

The babies had a grand time, especially with their smash cakes!

We were lucky to visit with lots of out-of-town friends and family in December. First, in the middle of the month my dear friends Robin and Josh came down from Michigan with their 4 kids and we met them at Disney for day. It was so great to see them! And the babies did considerably well at a theme park all day.

Matt's sister Nicole and family came into town from Arizona for Christmas and got to meet the babies for the first time. What a great time we had with them! Brianna and Jake loved hanging out with the babies too. Then a couple days after Christmas Matt's best friends Brad and KC and their boys came to Florida from North Carolina. We had an absolute blast seeing everyone. It was sad to see them all go home!

Christmas was so special this year. The babies and Jordan each got one big present from Santa. We spent the morning in our PJ's playing with our new toys. It was great to see the kids enjoying themselves. Jordan helped the babies open their gifts and he spent time playing with them. He is really a great big brother!

OK so you see it's been a very busy few months! Do I get some sort of award for longest blog post ever? lol... BTW, it took me three days to finish this. But moving forward I hope to post something every few days, even if its nothing more than a picture. I also hope to find some time to update other areas of the site. Thanks for reading and following along on our journey.