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

Holiday 2014 recap...

Now that the boys are getting older, we are able to spend a little more time visiting friends and family overnight. It still isn't ideal but we are learning with trial and error what works and what doesn't. We started our holiday journeys at Thanksgiving where we spent 2 nights in Winston-Salem with Popi and Meme (Jason's Dad and step-mom) at their house prior to driving to Charlotte to celebrate the first birthday of Seve (the second child of Jason's brother and his wife). We had debated driving home between the events but ultimately decided that we really didn't want to spend all that time in the car over the holiday so plans were made.

We drove down Thanksgiving morning and enjoyed a feast with all the Liner family. When I say all, I literally mean ALL of them. 6 grandparents, 6 children and their spouses and their 10 SONS! Yes, every one of the kids who has a kid has boys (and #11 is due in May!) It was a great day spent eating, playing games and eating some more. On Friday, Jason, the boys and I went over to Nana's house (Jason's mom) for some visiting and lunch. From there we went to the Children's Museum of Winston-Salem and were joined by Meme and Popi where we all enjoyed ourselves and wore ourselves out being silly. We headed home long enough to have a small snack then loaded in the car to go see the lights at Tanglewood. This is the second year for the littles and the third for Chase. While most of the lights are the same from year to year, the experience is always slightly different. The boys sit on laps or with their heads out the sunroof oohing and aahing as we pass from display to display. On Saturday morning, we loaded up the car and the kids and headed for Charlotte. After lunch and birthday cake we packed up the crew and headed back to Raleigh.

Kids table for Thanksgiving at Meme and Popi's house

Climbing the beanstalk at the children's museum in Winston

Celebrating Seve's first birthday

Christmas lends itself to another circus-like atmosphere. We started the season with the Reindeer Run and the YMCA, Christmas parade in the town of Wake Forest, Brunch with Santa followed by a Christmas program by the littles at preschool (Wed. Dec. 17) and college graduation of Whitney, our sitter who is more family than friend (Thurs. Dec. 18) . From there we capped off the week with the Liner family Christmas gathering (Sat. Dec. 20). We got there a little late because Chase had his final basketball game of the season. Since Jason is the coach, we couldn't miss the game so we joined the festivities a little later than the others. That same night, Jason's step-sister and her husband and 3 girls drove in to town from Florida for the holiday. We got the 3 siblings and their children together on Sunday (Dec. 21) for family pictures (mainly Meme and Popi and their 9 grandkids all together) but also had some great whole family shots taken as well. We left for Raleigh that night to rest before the next rounds of fun started.

Post-Reindeer run visit with Santa

The Chic-Fil-A cow was there before the parade started

Pictures with Santa before brunch

Our favorite graduate!

A bedtime story with the cousins!

The 9 grandkids all in a row according the birth order

Nana came down to celebrate Christmas with us (Wed. Dec. 24) and stayed until Friday. My mom and Grandparents, who had spent Christmas week in Ohio with my brother and his wife and kids, came over on Sunday (Dec. 28) for our Christmas celebration. We had a couple days to rest and then Meme and Popi headed our way on Wednesday (Dec. 31) for their part of the fun.

My traditional Christmas Eve picture in front of the fireplace

While it is a busy time of the year for everyone, I also feel like we are blessed. We have family that is willing to travel to us and stay at our house instead of us having to take the kids away from their own home at the holidays. Everyone gets to watch the kids open their gifts in a private setting and kids get to enjoy small doses of presents, instead of being overwhelmed and not able to enjoy each gift and have the giver watch them and their excitement over it.

Today is Monday, January 5th and the New Year is here in full force. Well, maybe not full force since Chase still has 1 week left of his break. I have to admit it is a nice way to ease back into the chaos of early bedtimes, even earlier mornings and racing out of the house to get everyone to their places on time. The weather was mild yesterday but heading toward cool, no, make that cold by the end of the week.

Nevertheless, we had a wonderful holiday season and made great memories with the kids and our families.  A quick list of the things we did include: Reindeer run, Christmas parade, Brunch with Santa, baking and decorating cookies, making reindeer food, roller skating, play dates with friends, Coconut Charlie's Bump and Bounce, Tanglewood lights, UNC Women's basketball game, UNC/ND Men's basketball game (tonight, with just Chase), lots of college football (GO Irish!) but most importantly, time with each other. While we tried to make memories doing things with our kids, we also tried to make memories just being. Spending time at home, playing board games and being silly. Snuggled together in bed or laying on the couch under piles of blankets.

Christmas may pass too quickly, but the memories and traditions we are creating with and for our children will last a lifetime. Year 6 without my Dad at Christmas was the hardest by far but I hold my memories close to my heart and only hope that my boys will one day do the same. I know that mine have carried me through good times and bad and when the memories of Christmas past make me weep, I try to look into the eyes of my boys and think about Christmas future and imagine what it has in store for me. Chase, Jack, Graham and Anthony - thank you for reminding me that there is still purity and joy in the season. Jason - thank you for tolerating my crazy traditions and embracing me along with them. You are my rock and my love.

Disney trip - November 2014

Disney trip in detail....

So I know I promised the details of our Disney trip long before this but life, school, kids and holidays got in the way and while I have other stuff I should really be doing right now, this seems like more fun.

You know the premise but here are some little fun facts:

1. You can make a 10 hour drive with kids and no electronics (other than DVD for movies) which completely SHOCKED me. I am not saying this to brag but rather because I am honestly stunned by that fact. I had bought the jumbo pack of batteries in multiple sizes figuring that we were going to use every Leap Pad, Kindle, IPad and phone in our arsenal. I was WRONG! They did watch movies/cartoons but they spent most of the time coloring! God bless Crayola and their no mess markers and coloring books!
2. The Dollar Tree can be your best friend. I stole the idea from a few other mom-friends and bought shoe boxes with secured lids for each of the boys. Along the drive, I would give each boy a little trinket to add to their box. Favorites: tiny spinning tops that could spin inside the box and not get lost; Finn McMissile toy car; Mickey Mouse figurine; glow in the dark race cars. The boys were so enthralled with everything and they did so well that I actually came home with some they never even got! Total cost: $25 and worth EVERY PENNY!!
3. IExit is the BEST app going for Interstate travel! It can literally tell you where anything you need to find is located. From restaurants  to rest areas to liquor stores, you can get locations, specific driving locations (turn left, turn right, which side of the road) or search by specific name. If you are coming to a major interstate junction and you are leaving the one you are on, yep, it lets you change that in your feed as well. BEST thing for traveling on the interstate!
4. I am willing to do this again! I can't believe those words came out of my mouth but the boys did so well on all parts of this trip that it makes me more likely to embark on some longer car rides. Those of you with kids, especially young kids, know how taxing a car ride of any length can be on the adult passenger. I know driving isn't all that fun but have you ever had to climb from the front seat to the back seat 12 times in a 15 minute window to get, grab, fetch, calm or cover? I have, and it is MISERABLE! The older the boys get and the more they can 'do' for themselves, the better this is for me. Why do you think I always offer to drive when we travel!

Now, I know you are waiting for the pictures and all the stories so I am going to do that now. However, Jason had made my life (and my blog entry) that much better. He took the time and energy to create a video of our trip from start to finish. It includes narration, still photos and videos. It is long (about 30 minutes) so I will understand if you skip it, but I have to say, if you want to know how our trip really was, this nails it!

I hope everyone who takes the time to view it enjoys it as much as we do. We have watched it multiple times and with each viewing the kids get excited and chatter with each other about their favorite part. My favorite part? The memories we have created as a family and the thought that this is just the beginning!

Liner family Disney Trip video

Happy Holidays to everyone. It may be after the first of the year before I get anything about Thanksgiving or Christmas posted as life is moving at warp speed! Be safe and remember to cherish every moment (even the crummy ones because they can turn into the best stories after the fact) because life is short and those you love may not always be around.......

Hurricanes games are just better when you sit on the glass!

Last Tuesday night, Chase and I went to the Carolina Hurricanes game using some of SciQuest's corporate tickets.  SciQuest has a about 10 or 12 tickets to every game scattered around the arena, but the good ones are right down on the glass...front row!  I am able to get these tickets for 2 or 3 games every year, so this was not Chase's first game sitting on the glass.  However, as he gets older and starts to understand the game of hockey more and more, he seems to have more and more fun each time we go.

Not only are these tickets on the glass, but they are in the corner of the arena where the visiting team enters and exits the ice.  On Tuesday night, the Canes were playing the Nashville Predators so we got to see them up close as they entered the ice to start the game.  The action was right there in front of us!

In fact, sometimes, it was really close!!

Towards the end of the 1st period, the Hurricanes got the puck down into our corner (which was their offensive end at that time) and Andrej Nestrasil did a spin move and flipped the puck in front of the net where Jeff Skinner scored a goal to take a 1-0 lead.  That was cool, but then they celebrated right in front of us.  Even cooler, was that we saw ourselves on the jumbo-tron high above the ice.
We watched SportsCenter the next morning and it wasn't televised, but we did find it on YouTube (video here) so we could see ourselves.  There is a quick glimpse of us at the 0:03 mark, and then another long distance shot of us at the 0:12 mark.  Here's what that one looks like:

The other really cool part of the night was at the end of the first period.  The Predators came off the ice into the tunnel...

Shortly after the team went into the tunnel, one of the Predators' staff-members came off the ice and handed us a broken stick from one of the players.  Technically, it was just cracked (about a foot from the top), but it was obviously taken out of play so he was just giving it to a fan...and Chase was the nearest kid to where he came off the ice, so Chase got it.

Turns out, the stick was that of Eric Nystrom, so we got a picture of him coming off the ice at the end of the 2nd period.  He's # 24 right there.

Chase thoroughly enjoyed the night.  In addition to the game, he also got to chat with his buddy Alex (Jon and Dana Tiller's son) the entire night.  And trust me, two six year olds can chat through the ENTIRE game!

A few days later, we finally had some time to hang the stick on Chase's wall in his bedroom.  We hung it right under another stick he got under the same circumstances last year.  That one, from a Philadelphia Flyers player named Andrej Meszaros, was totally broken in half.  Chase doesn't really understand that most kids never get close to the ice, much less get any souvenirs.  Chase has already gotten two broken sticks and 4 or 5 pucks from NHL games!!