Christmas Season 2010

What a wonderful time of year! This Christmas seasons was certainly one of the very best! We have many Holiday traditions, I hope the kids will cherish forever.

We started with our annual after Thanksgiving Christmas with my mom, Doug and Grandma and Grandpa Stearns. We then continued to celebrate through the whole month of December. We got together with the Anderson and Conrad families to frost cookies, we saw Santa at his workshop at the High School, we saw Santa again at the mall, we helped Grandma Stearns with her annual toy give a way for those in need.

My Grandma Stearns is such as inspiration. She works so hard every week to try and make people's lives in West Michigan a little better. I was so glad we were able to help her this year with the shopping, organizing and putting together this Christmas give away. She reaches out to over 25 families in our community who otherwise would fall through the cracks during the holiday season. Jarred and his friend Mallory spent the day of the give a way at the church, I think they learned as much as they gave. When my grandma called after the give a way to tell me how much she appreciated their help she actually thanked me for raising such a nice young man, well Grandma....its with role models like you and grandpa that make it easy to know how to raise kind children! One of the best days of the season.

We had the annual Stearns family Christmas Party at Aunt Linda's church. We spent lots of time with family; on Christmas Eve we went to the Swanson's, had Christmas day dinner with Papa Felt and spent the day after Christmas with the Felt Families. During break we headed over to Grand Rapids with the Houle's and enjoyed a great day at the Children's museum, Rosa Park Circle Ice Skating and Nite Lights at 5th third ball park. Jarred has taken the boys to play pond hockey a couple of times, geez they are all getting so big!!

Michael was able to go home and spend some much needed time with his wonderful family. The boys sure did miss him they went downstairs a few times looking for him and were happy to see him back.

Christmas morning was just how I remember it when I was little...Brady raced downstairs and then upstairs to wake his brothers he proclaimed to Colton that Santa had been here he was sure of it, screaming at the top of his lungs. Colton was so scared it wasn't morning and he shouldn't get out of bed for fear Santa wouldn't come at all, the two of them talked back and forth about this for about 5 minutes until Brady convinced Colton to go downstairs it was then they both started cheering that Santa had arrived!!! Grandpa Terry and Lori soon joined us for a great Christmas morning, memories were made.

Like I said...its been WONDERFUL:-)I just love this time of year and could not ask for better friends and family to be spending it with.

I can't count how many times I have stopped to Thank God for all of our blessings this year.

Michael and the Moran Family

Finally...a pic of Michael! I am going to be getting some pictures soon of all of us together. Here are a few shots Jamie took for Michael's senior pics and his wonderful family. Don't they just look like nice people:) The Lumberjacks have improved to .500 for the season right now. The team seems to be coming together recently. Its exciting to go to the games, which we try to do everytime they are home. Colton and Brady not only made it through the entire game on Saturday without any major meltdowns, fits, or any other form of fun behaivor...we even went to dinner afterwards with Michael and some friends from his team. We are all thankfull for falling back an hour on the clocks today after out late night!

Our Family 2010

BRADY - This picture captures your big personality and your sweet tender heart all at the same time. You give out more kisses than anyone I know, you count them each day. Some days you ask for 15 others 2 or 3 but always a specific number. You say things like "Mom this dinner is really good" "Mom I like your necklace, your so pretty" "Grandma I love you so much" "Daddy will you lay with me?" You also have a stubborn side (not sure where you got that from?!). Once you set your mind to something you won't give up..hmm...not sure where that came from either!? Your a wild hockey skater and you love hockey!!! Your doing so well in school. Your counting and spelling and writing...its so fun to see what you do each day. You love to play with your action figures and you get so excited to do your "homework" I hope that lasts for a long time.

COLTON - You are so darn cute. I love your smile, its the very best! Today when I was not feeling well, you were the first to try to do everything for me. You checked on me every 5 minutes and asked what I needed. You can be so kind and thoughtful. You have a huge imagination and have taken a great liking to Max. He is your best buddy, besides your brothers! Your so smart too. Your handwriting is better than mine! (Honestly no clue where that came from) You really like to play soccer and are going to try skating with the Lumberjacks tomorrow. You grow braver everyday. Your not a kisser/hugger, touchy feely kind of guy (I DO know where that comes from) but I know you have a big heart and I like to steal kisses from you all the time:)Your vocabulary is outstanding and you amaze us by the words you say.

JARRED - Seriously...WOW, you have grown into a great young man right in front of our eyes but would you please... stop...getting older that is!!! Your a kind kid who is busier than the average 15 year old and keeps it all together. You have your first job and never, ever, not once do you complain about going. You are saving half of everything you earn and do not complain about that either. I keep on you pretty hard about keeping your grades up, I really think you will thank me some day, I hope! Your practicing at least once usually twice a night for one sport or another and your keeping good grades. Really, what more could we ask for? We are working on your attention to detail...I think I might still be saying this 10 years from now! Your funny, easy going and a joy to be around. Best of all you love your family. Your brothers idolize you and for that we are thankful.

OUR FAMILY - Has grown by one more this year. Michael Moran (promise to post pics very soon of him, but my camera is broken!) Michael is a USHL Lumberjack player who is living in our house. But he is so much more than a hockey player, he is wonderful young man who we have all grown to like a lot! We are so lucky to have him with us this year. We are enjoying following him on his journey with hockey and much more including...going to a new school, moving away from home, making new friends and doing his own laundry!! Colton and Brady think he is really cool and Mike and Jarred get along just great. I have cooked more home maid meals in the last 3 months than I have in the last 3 years, like I said this have been good for ALL of us:))

It is a busy busy busy household over here on Harbor Point but we are loving everyday and thanking God for our wonderful family.

I thought Jamie did an outstanding job capturing all of our personalities in our annual photo session. She is taking Michael's pics this weekend, cant wait to post those as well!

Grand Rapids .5 Marathon

Well...we did it! Kathy Hellmann and I finished the GR 1/2 Marathon today. Its a great feeling to see the training pay off. We ran about a minute faster per mile than we trained and it wasn't until the last mile that it caught up with us. I am so proud of my friends Jenni and Shannan for finishing the full and Jenni for finishing her 2nd in 2 years! After about 11 weeks of training Kathy and I took it all in running shoulder to shoulder over 11 miles. She crossed just a minute after me, not bad seeing she is 9 years older than me (I know she will love that I posted that!).I think we got out of it injury free as well which is really something to be thankful for. I hope our running continues for a long time together.

Grand Rapids Marathon 1 hr 57 minutes.

4 year old Preschool

Colton and Brady changed schools from Westshore to Ross Park in order to attend a five day a week preschool program. They have a new teacher, Mrs Olsen. We sure will miss Mrs Jenson oh so very much, her big heart and big smile each day will be hard to replace. This was evident the first week of school. I know the boys are ready for an educational challenge but I hope we made the right decision leaving our loving and tender preschool for more days a week of structure and content! Mrs Olsen is a wonderful teacher, I hope the boys learn to love school at Ross Park as much as they did at Westshore. They were a bit nervous and excited on the first day. Kyann Hellmann is in the same class, they just love her. The three of them have hung together everyday so far:)

Traverse City

Colton and Brady got more hole in ones than J.R, Jarred and I combined!

Finally Done!

Celebrating my counseling/psychology master's!

Summer Baseball

Brady and Colton played for the Tigers this year. This was the first time they played T-ball. Found out early they are both lefty hitters but only Brady needed to trade in his glove for the other hand! Jarred played for RP this summer and had a real fun time, the first loss of the season came in the league championship game.

Summer Hockey

Even when your Four...Hockey never ends! 90 outside, still freezing inside! Colton and Brady just love the sport, I see another 15 years of sitting in a rink in our future:)

Mackinac Island 2010

We took our annual camping trip to Traverse City this year with the Brainard family and then took off for two more days of fun with our family on Mackinac Island. The boys all had such a great time. Perfect Weather! At one point J.R. was about to throw his bike over the cliff, but the rest of us had no problem making the 8 mile trek, think he needs to get a little more exercise in:)
The tag a long tandem bikes were a big hit for Colton and Brady.

Camping 2010

Our first of three camping adventures occured out at White River campground, our cabin was right next to the Johnson's. A blas was had by all the kids and adults! A beautiful campground,nice pool, cute cabins and great friends!