Steve and Jenny Valentine

Olivia turned three months old a couple weeks back. As I sat and nursed her the other night I thought about how she is a quarter of a year old already.  Wow...we have survived a quarter of a year with three kiddos.  OK, it's been a joyful (and hard) three months! For our family, Steve and I have agreed that the transition to three children was a lot more challenging then the transition to two children.  And here is what I would say to anyone reading this who may have not heard me say it already in person...every family's experience IS different!  I had people tell me going to three was easier, but most said it was harder.  However, I chose to believe the few that said it was easier and was quite shocked after Olivia was born and found myself in such a struggle as to figure out how to manage this beautiful (yet full) household of little blessings! Our littlest girly, Via (as Isaac so affectionately calls her!), is learning new things... She sucks fiercely on ...

Steve left for a work trip last week and returned Monday afternoon. This is the first trip he's gone on since Olivia's birth were I've had to manage things here by myself. (His first two post Olivia business trips, I had family in town to help with the kiddos). I was a little hesitant about him leaving, but I knew we would be fine. I'm pretty used to him traveling by this point with his job and although it's never been "easy" it has become "easier" over time. The number one question or statement I hear when Steve travels is, "How do you do it?" Or "I don't know how you do it!" And I get it, I understand why people say this...it seems hard, lonely and frustrating. Yes. Yes. And Yes! But I learned early on in his travels that it doesn't help to focus on the difficulty, to have a negative outlook or bad attitude because it greatly affects how I parent and handle things while he is away.  So I choose to avoid...