Welcome to 3 plus kids .com. This is our website dedicated to helping families with 3 or more children. While our tips, recipes, stories and insights hopefully will help you and "they truly can be used by all. This is also the sight where I will continue my diary that I started on Martha Stewart's Body and Soul Challenge. Back in January of this year Martha Stewart offered viewers the opportunity to truly live healthier lifestyles. As a supervising producer for Martha Stewart's television show I knew this challenge was for me. While I have a long way to go "I am happy that I took this challenge (and remember it is never too late). Besides getting healthier for me, "I am doing this for my family. Our children and our families are our most precious gifts, "we should treat our own bodies the way we take care of theirs.

According to the 2000 Census Bureau, the average American family has 1.86 children. I wonder if anyone has ever challenged that statistic. What exactly is .86 of a child? More than a half but not quite whole? Any mother would argue that one.

It might make more sense to round out that number and call it what it is-how about--the average American family has 2 kids. Now I've always thought our family was pretty average, we try to eat dinner together when we can, we like to watch television together, we're involved in school sports, occasionally go to the movies, or go shopping, pretty average stuff. But we don't have 1.86 kids-or I mean 2 kids. We have 5 beautiful children (actually daughters) so we're not average-I guess you could say we're ABOVE average.

Having 3 or more kids is quite fulfilling. It does have its moments-there are trying times as well as joyous times. But we love it. What we don't love is the difficulties we face because of our family's size. Try finding a hotel room on any search engine. They'll ask you how many family members. When I type in five kids-my response comes back as "exceeds amount". Most recipes in my cookbook are intended to serve 4-not 7 family members. But with some trial and error we figure out how to make it just right. And finally, how do you entertain 5 children at one time? Craft clubs, and book nights help most of the time.

It is our hope to inspire families with 3 or more kids to get the most out of life. Based on our experiences we hope to share all of our tips, techniques, recipes, and sights to see. We welcome your feedback-we're all in this together. And if you don't have three kids just yet, perhaps our advice will help you now as well as when you do. And maybe, just maybe sharing the ideas of large families will inspire you to have a brood of your own.