Babies!

It's still winter. And very cold. Martin was calculating today that the bay has been frozen a month earlier than last year. I keep saying that I just hope it thaws sooner too.

We bought bookshelves for the study. We bought a new computer. It's pink. I'll talk more about the reason for this in a few months. I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch type of thing.

We've planned a spring break trip to Florida in April. I'm very excited about this. It's literally been years since I've been to florida. I think I was probably 15 or 16 the last time I was there. Our neighbors' grandfather owns a small condo type thing right on the beach in Venice. Apparantly, you open the back door and are on the beach. I can live with that for a week. April in Michigan is still pretty chilly. And I'm guessing April in Florida will be quite warm. So it's a no brainer really. Just getting the time off will be the most challenging part of the whole thing.

Five babies have been born since December 12th. That's been fun. Four of them are the first children of the families so it's extra fun to see people change and adjust to new family members. Babies are amazing. As I hold them, I just stare at them in wonder. Tiny human beings with a blank canvas. It's pretty exciting. I'm including photos of all the new little ones.

First Photo: Kaylin Saymn Born January 19th

Second Photo: Laney Kratky Born January 13th

Third Photo: Makija Howard Born December 25th

Fourth Photo: Jack and Grifin Frentz Born December 12th

Whew! I'm so proud of all of them!

Texas and Back

We spent the Christmas holiday in Texas. It was so nice to spend time with Martin's family. I love sitting around hearing Martin and his family interact since I really haven't had too many opportunities to watch him around his family. It's fun to see how they all relate to each other. And it's fun to be a part of it too.

Martin's sister Melanie has two completely lovely girls with a third to be born any day now. We were hoping she'd go into labor a little early so we could meet Kratky girl #3 (as far as I know, they haven't decided on a name yet. Martin was pushing for Martina but I don't think they were going for it)

And after getting back for a couple days, my best friend jess came to spend new years with us. It was her first visit to our new place here so it was fun to actually have a guest room for her to stay in. Although, can you believe she actually said that she kind of missed the little place we had before. I told her she was crazy. Here are photos from Martin's mom and Jess of the holidays.

Jessica always does a great job of documenting our times together. She got a really funny video of me trying to dis-prove the idea that it's impossible to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon. Hopefully, I'll be able to share it soon.