Author: Greg VanStrien

Merry Christmas!

We started our Christmas celebrations yesterday with Amanda’s side of the family.  The kids had fun playing with their cousins and Adrian and I had fun beating the girls at Euchre – again.  We then left for the evening mass back home.  We haven’t been to the evening mass in a long time so it was a nice change.  Christmas morning started way too early (as usual).  The kids enjoyed opening all their presents and found out at the end we are going to add two kittens to the family.  Amanda g0t me a nice family portrait and gifts for the bar.  I got her cabinets in laundry room, I just need to get my truck back to pick them up!  Later we will travel to my Mom’s for Christmas dinner and gifts with my side of the family.

 

We celebrated Christmas morning in our new house!  Santa was able to find the new address just fine!   The kids were nice enough to wait until 7:16 until they got us up.  James was excited about his new Xbox games and will finally get to see a comedian show he has been asking about forever.  Alanna finally received her guitar after about three years of asking.  Now if Daddy only knew a little bit more about the guitar!  Later we will head to Grandma VanStrien’s house to meet the rest of the family.  Tomorrow we will be off to Grandma and Grandpa Cooper’s house for Christmas and play time with all the cousins.

The kids did the Christmas pageant again this year for Christmas Eve Mass.  James was Joseph and Alanna was a shepherd.   It went well but Joseph and Mary forgot baby Jesus (minor detail 🙂

Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

Happy Birthday James!  You’ve reached the double digits!  Mom and Dad are proud of the young man you’ve become!  You are a kind and compassionate young man and have many talents.  Although we wish you could stay young forever we are excited to see you grow up more and do great things.

This year James liked Lego (Star Wars and Jurassic World), anything Marvel related and Mashups.  This is the first year he went to Michigan’s Adventure and is celebrating at home on Labor Day with some friends and family.  School starts tomorrow!  4th Grade!

 

 

Another great Christmas in the VanStrien House!  We started on Christmas Eve with the 4:00 Mass at Holy Family.  The kids once again were a part of the Children’s Pageant as a Shepherd and Angel.  After Mass, we had dinner back at our house with Grandma VanStrien, Mociute and Grandma and Grandpa Cooper.  Amanda made a wonderful Lasagna dinner and salads and deserts by the Grandmas.  James woke up SEVERAL time during the night and eventually came to our room at the usual 6:00 AM time.  We said he could get up be we weren’t starting until 7:30.  The last couple presents the kids opened were books from Washington DC.  It took them a couple minutes but they figured out that is where we will be going on Spring Break this year.  Amanda and I made breakfast next with Omelets, Hashbrowns and Toast.  Later we will be heading over to Grandma VanStrien’s house for dinner and I’m sure MORE presents!  It will be a fun time but also a time to remember Dad as he looks down from Heaven!

I Want To Be Like Dad

How come when children get older they often get offended when people say “You’re acting like your (insert parent here)”. I admit it, I’m guilty of it too. The truth is I’ve been very fortunate to have had two wonderful, loving and caring parents. Upon my Dad’s passing today I’ve had a lot of time to think about this and I realized how much like my Dad I am. My Dad was a great role model and now as a father I find myself doing so many things just like him. He was so great playing with us as kids and took us to so many places to explore the world around us. He always put us first. Today, I find myself constantly tickling my kids like he did. Our favorite summer time activity became camping which I learned from him. I also find myself talking to my kids much in the same way and yes disciplining them like him to. He taught me more than I ever could have imagined about being a good man, husband and father.

I hope that when my time comes my kids look back on me the same way I reflect on him today. Just last week my son James said to me at the dinner table “Daddy I want to be just like you.” This of course made me smile and I know as he gets older he won’t say this anymore. It took me a long time to think like an 8 year old boy again but I can proudly say “I Want to Be Like My Dad.”

I Love You Dad. I know that you are safe now in God’s hands. Have fun laughing with Grandpa and I look forward to seeing you again.

 

Christmas this year has been a snowy one.  December has felt a lot like January usually does with a lot of snow.   Our Christmas celebrations started this year at Mass where James played Joseph in the Pageant.  He did a wonderful job but tended to get “upset” with me every time I asked him if the girl playing Mary was cute!  After Mass we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Cooper’s house where we had Christmas Eve dinner and opened presents.  The kids have been great all year and without any doubt they were on Santa’s good list.  Santa didn’t disappoint and we had a great time opening presents in the morning.  Alanna is enjoying her new doll and horse and James is enjoying all his Harry Potter and Disney Infinity games.  Later today we will travel to Grandma and Grandpa VanStrien’s house.   Grandpa was able to recover from his rehab just in time for Christmas and says he is doing better than ever!

More Pictures can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vanstrienfamily/sets/72157639011003353/

This year James’ Birthday and Birthday party fell on the same day.  James wanted a Detroit Tigers party so we started about two weeks ago with a trip to Detroit to watch the Tigers play the Twins.  For his party, we decorated our outside yard in Tigers colors and painted a baseball field in the yard which the kids used to play their own game.  The food was great!  He had all baseball park themed food including – hotdogs, hamburgers, peanuts, popcorn, cracker jacks and nachos.  Happy Birthday James!  Mommy and Daddy are very proud of the fine young man you are becoming!

We had an exciting Spring Break this year.  For years now, James has been bugging us to go to Chicago, even though he wasn’t really sure what it was other than the Cubs played there.  So we decided to make a mini Spring Break vacation out of it this year.   We started with a trip to the Shedd’s Aquarium which we had four passes to (which was a good thing because the line was huge).  We had a fun time looking and exploring all the aquatic life and watching the aquatic show with the dolphins.

After leaving Shedd’s we traveled to Schaumburg where we had a late dinner at the RAM restaurant and checked into our hotel at the Hyatt Place.  We were all quite tired and had no problems getting to bed!  The next morning was our trip to Legoland Discovery Center.  The kids love this place!  Not only was there a lot to look at but also had a lot of hands on activities and even a couple of rides.  James won a “build a musical instrument” competition with a lego trombone (of course) and Amanda and Alanna made racers for the race track.  We watched a Lego 3D movie, saw how legos were made and played with a lot of bricks.

We also did some shopping at the IKEA and went to the Lego store, Apple Store and a few other places in the mall.  On our way out we had Five Guys Burgers and Fries and stopped at a Trader Joes.

Overall we had some great family time and made some good memories together.

We celebrated Alanna’s Fifth Birthday Party at home with friends and family.  The weather made it difficult for some to attend but we still had a lot of people here.  Alanna choose to have a My Little Pony themed party.  The games and food all had pony themes and Alanna wore her pony dress.    The kids had a lot of fun including playing in her new puppet theatre.

Today is our little girl’s birthday. She is 5 today and it’s went by so fast and at the same time she has learned so much! We are truly blessed with two wonderful children. Alanna is a very loving and funny child and both her and James are the best children we could ask for. Happy Birthday Little Girl, We Love You!

We celebrated with gifts at home after work/school and went to Chuck E Cheese.  We had hoped she was going to choose a hot dog place but it seemed as if older brother may have had some influence.