This blog post is coming to ya 3 days late, thanks to a healthy dose of laziness at the holidays! Ha! At least I’m being honest.
But also? I’ve been doing a lot of extra reflecting over the last couple of days. And my emotions are straight up all over the place.
I truly expected 2018 to be SUPER hard. I started the year pregnant with baby number three and fully anticipating that this child would send me down a deep dark hole of PPD and PPA. It turns out she didn’t. In fact, I’ve kinda been flourishing and finding myself kicking butt at this mother of three thing.
We ended our night in perfect ‘parent-of-3-kids’ fashion — with an 8:30pm Netflix countdown with party hats and sweet tarts. And followed it up with a parents-only movie night in our NEW home, with a bottle of champagne, and homemade lobster rolls.
So while our 2018 came to a slow and quiet end, I looked back through my camera roll to see all of the amazing things that transpired since last January.
January
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I met up with some great local bloggers for a little networking and brainstorming. It really kicked off my year in a big way by getting the creative juices flowing and reigniting my spark!
February
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Visited NASA Glenn Research Center with a special group of influencers for the State of NASA address. We got a behind the scenes look at some really cool aerospace technology.
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Later in the month I covered the Cleveland Auto Show on behalf of Toyota!
March
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We spent most of the month having fun at Cafe O’Play with the kids (thanks to a Winter family pass!). It wore the kids out and allowed me to get some work done at the same time!
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Oh – and Chad and I had a much-needed date night at Hilarities at Pickwick and Frolic, complete with a Barrio dinner-date beforehand!
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April
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This was a pretty big month for us. We had (secretly) known about the gender of baby number three for a while, but we finally revealed the news to our friends & family! Baby number three was officially a GIRL!
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We also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary with little fanfare. And, by little, I mean none! Ha! But that’s what happens when you’re pregnant with your third baby, right?
May
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This, the month before my due date, I spent as much time as possible loving on my existing two babies. Lots of small adventures were had.
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Oh, and I had some maternity photos done.
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And met up with some fabulous bloggers for glass blowing at the Glass Asylum.
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And then again for a photoshoot meetup at Borrow Rentals.
June
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I swear to you I spent this entire month just ready for Mila to arrive. In any spare moment I had, I was walking. Usually with the other two kids in tow.
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The kids also enjoyed a LOT of swimming!
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And then, of course, the arrival of Mila Rose.
July
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We adjusted to life with another little.
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But I still managed to make it out of the house with all of the kids! Like Mila’s first trip to the Cleveland Flea with me and Remy Bea!
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And her first trip to the LEGO Store with Ari!
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Oh, and we had amazing newborn photos done.
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Then visited Edgewater Park Beach.
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And I took a yoga class with some fellow bloggers at Sibling Revelry Brewery. Mila came, too, although she spent most of her time in her car seat. Ha!
August
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My first baby went off to his first day of Kindergarten!
September
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I spent my first week completely solo with all three kids. I survived while Chad went away on his business trip AND I even managed to sneak out with just Mila to see the Infinity Mirrors by Yayoi Kusama exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
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Remy and I went out exploring our local Akron neighborhoods.
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And we visited the apple orchard when Mimi came to town!
October
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Ari turned SIX!
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Chad and I went on our first truly solo (no Mila!) date night to the Best of Cleveland party at the Rock Hall.
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And we had a fun Halloween photo shoot with the girls!
November
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I got to check out the new indoor putt-putt course at Punch Bowl Social in the Flats!
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The Big Kids went to Kringle’s Inventionasium to see Santa’s workshop!
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And we decided to purchase our forever home!
December
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We closed on our new house!
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…and between moving and getting settled, we celebrated Christmas.
Seriously I could not be more grateful to all of the people who made 2018 the best year yet. I may not have taken a fancy vacation or gotten a big new promotion, but I had the most fulfilling year to date! It was full of everything that is most important — family, friends, lots of love, memories, and delicious food.
Cheers to 2019!