A special Post for Father's Day.

There's been some new babies around here lately.

My newest nephew is Ethan Levi Winkel and he showed up bright and early on Tuesday morning but before that, Annalie Gail Esau came squalling into the world making my brother and his wife first time parents....

That makes my little brother... a daddy.

wowza.

gosh, I wish I could've shown you all a picture of him and her here, but you'll just have to wait unfortunately..

Father's day, like mother's day can be a bit of a complicated holiday for me. For personal reasons I don't share much about the parents who raised me here on this blog, and the holiday is one where I tend to look around at the moms and dads around me that are touching my heart as we all go through this journey of parenthood together.

My brothers-in-law are some pretty fantastic dads, they all deserve great big shout outs, especially those that married us Esau girls...(that's gotta be a bit of a whirlwind ride sometimes...cause we're kind of a bit of a whirlwind ourselves).

I have nothing but the greatest respect, admiration and gratitude for all the daddies that surround not just their own kids, but mine too.
I was telling a new friend just yesterday about how, because we all have these young families; whenever the Winkel or Esau siblings all get together there's a lot of little people between us and that means a lot of chaos.

But right at the center of it, you'll often find these daddies, wrestling on the floor, pushing the swings, barbequing the hotdogs, holding the video camera and changing the diapers.

And of course I can't gush enough about my kids' daddy too. I always love to reminisce about a conversation me and some of the girls in highschool had without the boy's knowledge about how we thought they'd all eventually turn out as men. Even at the age of 16, we were all in consensus that Kevin Winkel would someday be the nicest dad.... I didn't know he'd be the father of my kids...but he really is the best dad ever.

So, Happy Father's Day to all of you Daddies, 

and especially those that are brand new.