Happy New Year!!

As Santa's elves are performing their final checks on the sleigh, giving the reindeer rubdowns before their busy night and packing all of everyones presents into Santa's bag, we pause to reflect on the year that was 2006.

As you could see, soccer dominated our year beginning with indoor, rolling into outdoor and coming full circle back to indoor. Ryan and Brett played nearly year round, only taking July off. This means Jeff was involved nearly year round too. The biggest soccer news as stated previously, both boys tried out for and made the Red Arrow soccer teams for their respective ages. It was quite an experience traveling to games and going out of town to tournaments.

Both boys still enjoy playing baseball. Ryan finished the year with the second most hits on his team and ended the year with a couple of beautiful plays in the infield. Drill seargent daddy was also involved with helping the boys with their fielding, throwing and hitting. It was not uncommon for the boys to come home from soccer practice and head to the back yard to work on baseball, or vice versa. The end result was both boys were two of the most improved players on their respective teams!

Ryan and Brett were able to get out with their golf clubs a few times this year with daddy and grandparents; it sure helps that both grandfathers love to golf. While both had some good shots and bad shots, Ryan was able to make a number of long putts and Brett nearly drove a green on a par 3 hole (125 yards). Ryan played in a family Labor Day scramble with Patti's dad and really enjoyed it. Unfortuantly, it was the first time Jeff has missed it since before we were married. Brett had a soccer tournament in Middleville MI.

Ryan is now in 5th grade and Brett is in 3rd. Both boys are doing outstanding in school; we are so proud of them. Ryan's reading level and love of reading is nearly off the chart! It is not uncommon for him to read an entire book in one day and retain what he read; such as the last Harry Potter book and Eragon. For the second year in a row, Ryan submitted a drawing for the Battle of the Books logo and won! Brett is showing a strong mathmatics ability including "new" math or "thinking outside the box" and is an extremely expressive writer. Both boys are now into fantasy sports (thanks daddy!) and had baseball and football teams. It was not uncommon for Ryan to spend time on the computer researching players and changing his roster. End result, he is in the final game for fantasy football.

Jeff stays involved as much as he can with the boys sports. He helped with baseball as much as he could and even substituted coached (assistant coach) one weekend in a tournament. He coaches them in AYSO and indoor and this year was given the coaching position for the Red Arrow U9 boys team that Brett is on. The team is made up of a wonderful group of kids (and talented!) and we managed to finish first in two tournaments and first in our division! Jeff still plays indoor soccer from October to April as his body hasn't completely broken down yet and actually played on a second team with some of the parents of the boys he coaches. When you're 39 years old, back to back games can be a "tad" bit tiring. Much about Jeff has stayed the same; still work for Perrigo, enjoyed the yearly golf trip to Myrtle Beach with Patti's dad and seem to still be replacing his brown hair with grey ones. One thing missing this year was golf. Because of the amount of coaching (Monday-Thursday), the golf league was dropped from the schedule this year.

Patti is the kid's greatest cheerleader for their sports and could start her own taxi service for all the running around she does for them. On a few occasions Patti has grabbed her ballglove to play catch with the boys and has accompanied us up to the park to play first base for the kids. She is still working for the same dentist who moved into the 21st century with new computers and software that the whole office had to spend a bit of time training on as it it pretty advanced and cool. She enjoyes working in the boys classrooms when she can on her off days and still watches her niece who is growing up so fast and keeping Patti on her toes. Again this year, she is coaching Ryan and Brett's Battle of the Books team that involves four other boys.

We managed to get in a couple fun vacations this year; Cedar Point and Disney were the biggest. We took the boys to Cedar Point for the first time this summer (Brett was FINALLY tall enough) twice; once with Jeff's parents and sister/family and once with friends. We now have roller coaster freaks on our hands, just like their parents. Brett and Jeff even managed to ride the Millennium Force! According to Brett, "That was totally wicked!!" The boys are convinced we have to go back again this coming summer. In addition, we caught Tigers Fever and managed to make it to Comerica Park for a ballgame. While the game ended up as one of their "rare" losses, it was an exciting game to watch and the boys absolutely loved it (Brett loved the hot dogs and food as much as the game!).

From our family to yours, have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!!

Jeff, Patti, Ryan, Brett (& Boots)