Happy New Year!

Pizza delivery

Movie

My husband and I sharing a blanket and a bowl of ice cream

In bed by 11:30

Sound exciting?? 

It was perfect

On New Years day the babies got up at 6 a.m. thanks to Finn who has an internal alarm clock like no one I've ever known!

When I woke up, I realized that Colin was smack in between Chris and I. Somehow he'd made his way from his bed, down the hall and climbed into our bed and neither of us had even realized it. This was a first. New year, new trick for him I guess.

It was my turn to get up with the babies so I brought them downstairs and told each of them, "Happy New Year", but all they wanted were bottles. 

Fair enough. All I wanted was coffee.

They laid around me and drank their bottles (which they can hold all by themselves now- hallelujah! If you have multiples you know what a helpful milestone this is). I drank my coffee.

I felt such happiness, such deep thankfulness.

All those New Years I spent staying out super late and then sleeping in super late, likely nursing a hangover?

pic taken one early morning last week at my parents house

This is way better.

Our big accomplishment on New Years day was bathing all the boys. It was quite a sight. For some reason we choose to do this in the smallest bathroom we have and it snowballed into quite a circus. There seemed to be naked babies everywhere, squirming as we tried to dress them. Dressing 9 month olds.... not so easy. All they want to do is move! Colin sat with a towel wrapped tightly around him yelling, "I'm too cold!"

I'm so excited and optimistic about the coming year. 2011 was a big year for us and I'm still sort of processing it all. 

I had three babies.

Sometimes at night when I sneak into the kids room before I go to bed, I look at them, all sleeping differently, in their own preferred, predictable positions and it still doesn't seem real,

I had three babies last year


Then I look at my sweet boy sleeping in his big boy bed next to the cribs and think, I have four sons....  What a huge responsibility. 

Over this past year so many people have stepped up to help us, pray for us, and encourage us in ways that will continue to inspire me to try and be better, for the rest of my life.

I'm not much of a resolutions person, but patience and organization always seem to be at the top of my list of what I'm striving to improve upon these days.

Most of all I enter 2012 with such deep gratitude. Life with triplets plus one brings really good days and really hard days, but even on the hard days I know how lucky we are and I never loose sight of that.... never.

If there's one big lesson that I'll carry with me from this past year it's that how you approach each day with your kids is a choice. The moment our feet hit the floor running, we can decide what our attitude will be and this can make all the difference. In our home, every single day seems to involve some level of chaos and stress just because of what goes into providing and caring for triplets plus one. Chris and I find that if we choose to approach the day with a sense of humor, thankfulness and joy, well then everything just feels easier and more manageable. We stumble...... often. But this is always what we come back to. We choose.