I’ve been seriously stalling on this post for awhile because… well… I’m never completely comfortable sharing about personal accolades.  After all, I’m always telling my kids:

1) not to be so darn competitive, &

2) not to brag about their accomplishments.

In true hypocritical fashion, however, I’m about to do both.  Couldn’t be much worse than having a cookie for breakfast when they’re not looking, right?  (You know you’ve done it) ; )

So here goes…

I recently placed in the NAPCP International Image Competition!!!

The NAPCP, or National Association of Professional Child Photographers, is a fantastic organization for both photographers and parents who value professional photography.  I was honored to be accepted into the organization in 2009 after an in-depth application and review.  There are many benefits to being a part of this talented community of professionals, one of which is the opportunity to enter and be judged against countless talented photographers worldwide in the organization’s semi-annual International Image Competitions.

They receive thousands of entries for the international competition, each of which are critiqued and judged by some of the most talented and successful photographers in the field.  This past summer, I entered five images that I felt represented some of my best work, then sat back and crossed my fingers.

When the results were in, I was blown away to find that three of my entries placed among the fifty-six images that received accolades in the competition.

One of my very favorites took third place:

And two received NAPCP Recognitions of Merit:

Anyway…

I’ve been secretly really wanting to share that with you guys… hope you didn’t mind!!! : )

Have I mentioned that we have seriously STUNK at doing family dinner these past few years?  Growing up, my mom made real, normal, not-from-a-fast-food-drive-through dinner for our family every. single. night.  HOW?!?  (Mom you are amazing…)  Anyway, as soon as our schedule lightened up in December, we began to make “family dinner” a higher priority at the Tripple house.  Or at least, we tried…

DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO MAKE FOOD THAT EVERYONE LIKES?!?!?

From our kids’ perspectives, we’ve had a few winners, many losers, and a few “tolerable” menus this past month.  Tonight’s dinner, however, was a HOME RUN!!!

photo courtesy of Pip and Ebby!

Since many of you also struggle to find foods that your children and your spouses will consider tasting, allow me to share this fabulous meal suggestion with you!!!  Tonight we made “Veggie Cheese Stromboli” from the fabulous Pip and Ebby Messy Kitchen blog.  We all went goo goo over it!  And, best of all, my six-year-old helped make it… basically, this Veggie Cheese Stromboli is great on every level!

Little note… I couldn’t seem to find any sun dried tomatoes or jars of roasted red peppers at Target, so I grabbed a jar of the Giada Sun Dried Tomato Basil to spread on the dough instead.  It was… just… WOW.  Try it, you will NOT be disappointed!!! : )

I am so excited to share this little update with you guys… I GOT ONTO my treadmill!!!  And I made it GO!!!  I’ve gotta tell ya… I can already see that this will be the most difficult thing I’ll be accomplishing this year.  Three miles in 30 minutes seems about as do-able as climbing Mount Everest right now, but my heart tells me it can be done and now I can officially say I’m going after it!  I put together a little video of my very first few steps… it’s posted over on Facebook and I do hope you’ll go over there to check it out.  While you’re there… become a fan, will ya?  It’s fun to have a place to share the little stuff with you guys… : )

PS… So that we can all keep track… I did one mile in a little over 17 minutes.  Mostly “running”.  It was not impressive from a runner’s perspective, but for me?!?  A HUGE victory!!!  Gonna do it again tomorrow!

PSS… Oh my word I almost forgot my Oscar speech:  I could never have done my 17 minute mile without the encouragement from my mom, Jonathan, Kendra, my three babies, Christine, Missy, Julie, Kori, Melody, Jennie, Tonya, Kristen, Eric, Jeff, Karyn, and Stephanie… Seriously… THANK YOU for all of your encouragement and helpful advice!!!  I would still be staring at that thing feeling terrible if it hadn’t been for you all!!! Whew!!!  That is enough for one day!

XOXO

I have a hunch that she’s the reason I’ve always been over-the-moon for newborns.  I mean, really… to know my sister Allie is to love her, and I’m thinkin’ there was a pretty strong positive association with newborns right from the start with this girl. : )

Right?

Well… : )

I now find myself just weeks away from holding her and her husband’s first beautiful baby in my arms. Yup.  Weeks.

…………………………………………………….

I’ve been meaning to share that with you all month after month after month, but (as many of you know!) the days & weeks melt together when it’s too busy, and time has been flying.  But here we are, just five weeks away from the arrival of my perfect little nephew, and suddenly I’m thinkin’ that if I don’t tell you guys now, it will become a birth announcement before I know it!

Allie is beautiful.

She is gentle, warm, strong, kind, patient, graceful, and lovely.

She’s an amazing sister,

and an incredible business manager.

But I truly believe that the role of her lifetime is yet to come…

{because I know she will be an amazing mother.}

Let the countdown begin!!!

: )