Happy 7th Birthday Chase!

Okay, so I am a little behind in writing this but school started the day your turned 7 and I feel like I have been running ever since. Where to begin?

Recap of that last year:

Since this date last year you have started and finished Kindergarten at Franklin Academy. While you had an emotionally tough start to the year, by the end you were rocking and rolling both socially and academically. You are in the top tier in both reading and math classes which means you are learning and moving at a fast pace. By the end of the school year you were working on second grade level math and reading and they say you will move even faster this year! You amaze me with how much you retain and can recall (even the smallest details don't escape your mind).

You completed 2 more seasons of soccer at the Y with Dad as your coach, another season of Y basketball and baseball at North Wake. It is crazy to see how quickly you make progress and work to help those around you. That is probably what gets me the most - how much you are willing to help your teammates. If someone is struggling with a skill or movement, you will take just a few minutes to work with him so he can get better. What you don't realize just yet is that you are making yourself better too. By taking the time to help others, you are having to focus on the details of your own movements and you improve your own play.

Speaking of helping others, you are a crazy big brother. I'm not going to try to pretend that you love them all the time but boy do they love you. They are sad when you go to school in the morning and race to the car when it is time to pick you up. As a matter of fact, Jack misses you so much that he will even sit next to you while you do your homework just so he can be close to you.

You are bigger and faster than you were last year but you still seem like a little boy to me. Of course, that is until you get around your friends and then I am forced to remember that you are growing up right before my eyes. From dancing at the school Sock Hop to swimming laps (yes, multiple laps) at the pool, I can't get over how big you are getting. You are responsible for yourself and work to help those around you and were recognized with a Character Award at school for just that thing.

Football season - Strike the Heisman pose

Fall Festival with Spider-Chase

Chase the Turtle at the Kids' Museum in Winston

Notre Dame/UNC basketball game with Mom and Dad

Wacky hair and shirt day at school

My soccer star

Bath time silliness

Rex Hospital Open with Jarred

Wave pool at Great Wolf Lodge with Daddy

7th birthday cake

Birthday wolves

Turning 7 and starting 1st grade all on the same day!

 Chase,

From the moment they placed you in my arms, I knew that I had been blessed and my life was going to be wonderful. You are constantly on the move and can't seem to sit still, unless you absolutely have to. Your smile lights up the room and melts my heart. Yet, when you sit next to me and rest your head in my lap, all I can see is my little boy. You are growing up so fast and becoming such an amazing young man. I am so proud of all that you do and how well you do it. You show enormous respect for those around you and love to listen and tell stories. For someone so young, you are wise beyond your years. It means the world to your family that you love to spend time with us. From Mom-mom and Pop-pop to Meme and Popi; Nana and Grandma all have their own special relationship with you. Each of your brothers have a way to bond with you that is all their own and you manage to make it happen without anyone feeling left out. While you will always love to spend time with Dad, I know that when push comes to shove, you will always be my guy and I will always be your girl. Don't ever let anyone make you feel less than amazing as you are my world! I love you buddy.

Love, Mom

Time to Catch You Up.....

So it seems like my pattern is that I do really well with the blog until around March and then I disappear until Chase's birthday in July. I can honestly say that I had every intention of making an entry before now but got caught up with, well, life. The simple list of excuses are: triplets end of school year, Chase end of school year, soccer for all 4 boys, Chase baseball at the same time as soccer, my job and the start of summer. That is basically our last few months in a nutshell. Of course the irony is that summer is now over for Chase and has been for a couple of weeks now as he has officially started 1st grade. (More on that when I get to his birthday post - oh yeah, throw that in the list of excuses!)

Okay, let's just go back to the Spring. You see, I started teaching college courses online. The flexibility is great but it means that when I am on the computer, I am usually here for work-related reasons and don't spend time just 'browsing'. I am also off Facebook for a couple of reasons but the biggest one was that it became a time issue for me. When I was on the computer I needed to be working and somehow even just 'checking' Facebook would become a 30 minute project so that disappeared and now I have time to do what matters - hang with my boys.

March, April and May where a complete whirlwind for us. Everybody was in school and had sports. Jack, Graham and Anthony had soccer on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, Chase had practice on Tuesdays after them and games on Saturdays. Then we decided we weren't busy enough and added Spring baseball for Chase during the same time frame. Needless to say we were a family on the go during those months and spent very little time at home.

Chase winding up to strike the ball

In Orange from left to right: Anthony, Graham and Jack

We got to celebrate Easter with my brother and his family who had moved from North Carolina to Ohio and then to Georgia (near where he and I grew up) and the cousins were ecstatic to see each other again.

Post Easter egg hunt with the cousins

L-R: Meredith, Graham, Mom-Mom, Chase, Bise, Pop-pop, Anthony, Jack

We also participated in a Family style mud run and although the weather was cold, no scratch that, FREEZING, we had a great time.

Post-Mud run

Once we finished up with our sports seasons, the end of the school year approached which meant parties, parties and Kindergarten graduation for Chase.

?

Kindergarten Graduation photo - Are you kidding me?

On a personal note, I completed my first distance race (the Tarheel 10 miler) and then Jason and I ran my first (and only) half marathon together.

After my first half-marathon (not doing that again!)

We went to a Kentucky Derby party hosted by friends who had horses for the kids to ride and went to watch Notre Dame play in the ACC baseball tournament in Durham with some friends.

Graham

Jack

Mom leading Chase

Take me out to the ball game! (G, C, A, J)

Chase went to watch the Rex Hospital Open golf tournament with Jason and followed a golfer who then signed his ball and gave it to Chase at the end of the round.

Chase and Jaared

Then we got to start our summer which meant water time. We got to the beach before Memorial Day while the water was cool and the air was pleasant. We have talked about going back but this has been the summer of the shark off our coast and quite frankly, it deters me from wanting to go just now. We may go this fall after enough time has passed without shark incident but we are fall and spring beach goers anyway so we are okay with that.

Boogie boards in the surf

Passed out after a day at the beach

We do spend most of our days at the pool. The littles started swim lessons this summer and are now 'float free'. Their instructor was AMAZING and after 6 weeks has them jumping/diving off the starting blocks and swimming almost an entire length of the pool on their own. While it means I spend more time in the water with them practicing, it also means one less item I have to haul which is great.

Welcome pool season! J,A,C,G

The boys got to spend a week at camp, Chase did a tennis and swim camp and now has the tennis bug and the triplets did a wet and wild camp. Everyone had fun and is ready for more. Speaking of tennis, Jason is picking up the sport and has joined a men's team and I will play on a team this fall. I love that he is getting into this as it is another thing we can do as a couple and as the boys get older, as a family.


We also made a trip to Charlotte to visit Marc, Sabrina and the boys along with Nana.

Charlotte Cousins (J, Milo, A, C, G, Seve)

Then we turned around 36 hours later to celebrate Chase's birthday (his gift from us) and went to Great Wolf Lodge in Virginia with Grandma and Nana in tow. A quick summary of that - indoor water park with water slides for EVERYONE. We all had a blast and the boys want to know when they can go again. We are talking about a trip with my brother and his family to the one outside of Charlotte sometime this winter.

Great Wolf Lodge

Great Wolf Lodge - second view

Anthony on the lily pads

Graham on the lily pads

Jack on the lily pads

Chase and Jason under water in the wave pool

Celebratory ice cream (largest one I've seen) for Chase's 7th birthday (A, G, C, J)

Saying good-bye to Great Wolf Lodge (A, J, C, G)

We have been trying our hand at carpentry by building things at the Lowes Home Improvement Build to Grow events. We missed the first one but did one in Charlotte and have been doing them ever since. They are having an Avengers series this summer and the boys are really enjoying getting to build toys themselves that they then get to bring home and keep. The irony is they know exactly which one they built even though they are all the same.

G, J, A, C, Milo, Seve, Uncle Marc after building Captain America's motorcycle

Summer ended for Chase the day after his birthday as he started 1st grade, which means that summer ended for the rest of us too with early mornings and lunches and carpool but we are still making the most of it. Many afternoons we pick him up from school and head to the pool for a quick swim to burn off some energy before we head home to tackle homework and responsibilities.

Baseball cake 

Chase's first day of 1st grade

Those are our highlights and pictures of the last few months. Hopefully in the next couple of days I can get focused enough to write Chase's birthday entry, although I think I am in denial about it since I can't believe he is getting so big. Hard to imagine what the next few years hold in store as I think about sending the triplets to Kindergarten this time next year......

February means snow!

I guess when the groundhog makes his appearance, Mother Nature decides she needs to make her presence known to us. This year, I heard that there would be 6 more weeks of winter. While that wasn't the best news, up to that point, we had a relatively mild winter so I figured what the heck. You see, for Christmas this year, we got all the boys snow bibs and snow boots. Not hand me downs or gently used but brand new, name brand, two sizes too big snow gear. Last year they had good coats and gloves but not pants or boots and when the snow came, they got cold and wet and didn't last too long. When they opened them on Christmas, they kept asking when it was going to snow. They were ready to go. Then time passed with no snow and they stopped asking. Jason and I even kicked around the idea of driving to the mountains and going snow tubing but ultimately decided it was a lot of money for our boys to see snow at this age. Then it happened!

We didn't just get snow, the first round (yes, I said first) came with sleet and ice. Not fun for snowmen or snow balls but great for sledding. You see Grandma, my mom, had gotten each of the boys a disk sled for Christmas and they were ready to be used. We decided to gear up and hit the snow, make that ice. Jason stood at the top of the driveway and gave them a push (which really wasn't necessary) and my mom and I stood across the cul-de-sac to catch them so they wouldn't go down the neighbor's driveway and into their fence or a batch of trees. Here is the video Jason compiled showing Chase from several angles going for a ride.

Sledding at the Liner house

Because this was mostly an ice storm, the roads were pretty undrivable (mainly back roads) so the public school system shut down for 4 days. Chase however, went back after just 2 which meant no make up days were needed. The little boys however, were out of school all week and home with mom.

Fast forward one week and the next round of fun began. This time, we knew it was going to be big and snow and last for a while. Chase headed off to school on Tuesday morning and the boys and I came home to get ready for the Y and speech for Jack. Before we could leave the house, I got a text message saying that Chase's school was closing at 9:30 AM and we needed to come pick them up. So off we drove through the snow (again) to get him. We got home and got dressed in our snow gear (Jason was at work) and headed outside to play in the new snow that was falling on top of the remaining snow/ice from the previous week. These were big, fat, wet flakes and so much fun! It didn't make for good sledding snow, but it was great for snow ball fights, snow angels and snowmen.

This round kept everyone out of school for the rest of the week. We are lucky to live close to a main road so we made sure to keep our driveway clear because I knew we would all go crazy if we couldn't leave the house for 5-7 days. We are a group who likes to get out and go. We stayed home for 2 days and then when the Y opened back up, off we went.

Here were are finally back on our schedule - everybody got to go to school today and Mom ran errands ALL BY HERSELF! So much easier when I am not dragging 3-4 little people with me everywhere we go.  While I loved 'forced family time' every once in a while, I am ready to see the sun shine and no more snow clouds until next season. For now, I will put all the gear away in the hopes that we don't get the snow they are predicting may come later this week. North Carolina weather - highs in the 70s on Wednesday and possible snow flurries on Thursday! Good thing we love it here!

In case you missed it, the book is now completed and published on Amazon (print & Kindle versions available).  It has obviously been a lot of work, off and on, over the last 4+ years.
It's been a lot of fun and I'm really excited to have it finished.

Check out So Many Things today!

Another milestone in the books....

When I woke up this past Tuesday morning, something felt different. I can't name specifically what or why, it was just different. And then it hit me, the triplets were 4 years old. You see, we had been having mini-celebrations for over a week starting with my grandparents (Mom-mom and Pop-pop) before they left for Florida, then with the grandparents (Grandma, Nana, Meme and Popi). They are currently obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so that is the cake that we celebrated with and used for the rest of our celebrations at home. They also got to celebrate at school (doughnuts and juice boxes with their class) so this morning crept up on me.

I still try to have each of their names and the cake designed so I can cut it into 3 pieces so they can each have their own "cake" with a candle on it for singing. Here is this year's cake. MJ does an AMAZING job and it tastes even better..

The boys, however, knew it from the moment they woke up. Each had a different reaction. Anthony just grinned while I sang to him and then claimed he was 5. Graham gave me his morning look and then grinned when it was over. Jack smiled and then claimed he was still 3. Typical of my boys - so different in so many ways but still all mine.

We took Chase to school and headed home for a quick stop before starting our crazy day. During the time they were each being delivered, we were on the phone with Jason who was singing to them. We headed to the Y, then to speech for Jack and then for a special treat. You see, Jason has been working for the last 4 years on a book documenting my pregnancy and our first year with the boys. He is doing some final edits and then it will be published. We mention my Maternal-Fetal specialist, Dr. Strauss, by name multiple times in the book and we wanted to make sure he was okay with it. So Jason had sent him an electronic copy of the book and we headed to the satellite office near Rex where I had most of my appointments. We decided it would be pretty cool to let Dr. Strauss see a hard copy proof of the book and the boys 4 years later. So we stopped by his office to visit for a bit and then went to have lunch at McDonald's. Because it was a special occasion, they actually got to have their own Happy Meal - that may have been the highlight of the day in their eyes.

We came home and got Chase from school and had dinner with cake at home that night. We sang to each boy individually (other times we sing to them as a group) and they each got to blow out their own candle again. We opened up the last of their gifts and sent them off to bed. Another year in the books for all of us. So here are my notes to the boys this year.

My sweet Jack -

You came into this world and stole my heart. Over the last year, you have become a completely different little boy. You went from being unsure and quiet to a confident, chatty little boy. You have one of the most creative imaginations that I have ever seen and can happily amuse yourself for ages with your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle characters, Jake and his friends or any other figurine that you find. You are deliberate with your actions but just as deliberate with your love and affection. You hate conflict and will do anything to make it go away. You are finally standing up for yourself and I love to see that change in you as you grow. I couldn't be more proud of the boy you are becoming and want to freeze this moment in time. You are growing bigger and stronger every day and I am honored to be a part of it.

Dragon Graham -

You certainly are a piece of work. You are the strongest personality in the bunch. When you don't get your way, everyone knows it when they hear your growl. We affectionately call you Dragon because I think that fire is going to come out of you sometimes when you growl at us. The good news is that you are still an amazing boy. You are very stubborn and persistent which is a great trait to have as you navigate your way through life. You have the most focus and will color for ages. I can set you up at the kitchen table with a coloring book and box of colored pencils and you will stay there until the entire page is covered. And not just scribbled, I mean colored, in the lines, in a way that still shocks me when I see the final results. You love big and when you show your love, everyone knows you love them. I can't believe how much you have grown in the past year and I want to stop you in your tracks and not let it continue. I love being your mom.

Always Anthony -

You are the one who keeps me on my toes. You give the 'best hugs' (as stated directly by you) and everything you do is "BIG". You run, don't walk. Yell, don't talk and are constantly on the go, even in your sleep. You LOVE to spend time with Chase who is your idol and always want to do whatever he does. That means you are always throwing, kicking, shooting and playing with something. You are extremely social and tend to draw a crowd wherever you go. You light up the room and emit an energy that I wish I could bottle and use myself. You enjoy going to school but don't always want to take the time to focus on the details or sit still long enough to 'fine tune' your skills. You have the talent but not always the patience to wait for the finished product to develop. It makes me laugh to hear you tell stories and to see life from your perspective. You think outside the box which is a blessing for me. You keep things fresh and remind me that life is full of fun when you take the time to look for it. I can't wait to see what next year brings for you and am excited to be there with you.

Boys -

You are 3 of the 4 greatest accomplishments in my life. Before becoming your Mom, I never knew just how much love one heart could hold. I always feared that there wouldn't be enough to go around but somehow you showed me that there is never a lack of love, only people who hold it back. You are daily reminders of the best and worst of myself but in the end, it all comes back to love. It seems like just yesterday you were snuggled in your bassinet together in the hospital and now you need the entire couch to snuggle with each other. Your milestones and great and show just how big you are getting. Brushing your own teeth, getting yourselves dressed and undressed, showering by yourself (with a little help from Chase), putting on and zipping up your own coats, clearing your dishes from the table and helping to clean the house. You are becoming little men right in front of my eyes. Your Meme reminds me on a regular basis that the first thing I tell people about your future is that I want you to become fine, young men. Well boys, you are well on your way! Here's to many more birthdays yet to be shared.

I love you with all my heart,
Mom