Every year we say how busy we've been, but this year was really off the charts. Almost too much cool stuff happened; we had a difficult time keeping up! We started 2004 with some difficulty. I was pregnant and on bedrest and Michael had his hands full taking care of everyone and everything. We had so much help and support from our family, friends, neighbors, bosses, co-workers even our family doctor and nurse... growing our baby was truly a group effort. We were blessed with a happy and healthy Eleanor Grace Witt on Mitch's birthday (3/19). She has been an fantastic addition to our family. She's growing very quickly; It's hard to believe that she's nearly a year old. Lenny is a very opinionated young lady and has all the boys in the house wrapped around her very small finger, but as I suspect most fourth babies are, she is also very even-tempered and can sleep through just about anything. She is crawling everywhere and into everything. It's never a dull moment. We still shake our heads in disbelief sometimes that we are lucky enough to have her in our lives. In April both Mitch and Lenny were baptized at St. Mary's, and we had a wonderful gathering of family and friends who traveled to celebrate the day with us. Mitch turned six this year and is a first grader at St. Mary's. His teacher, Miss Theime, sends us notes home every week telling us how well-behaved he is. (We think she has an exceptionally high tolerance.) Seriously, Mitch is really doing well. He's so happy and excited to be alive! Every day he makes us laugh. This summer he attended Straight Arrow day camp at the YMCA. He and Lenny have been taking swim lessons and he is now a very good swimmer. In July he attended Tae Kwon Do camp and (oh my goodness) started to learn how to use weapons. In November he competed in an inter-school tournament and won a first place trophy by breaking two boards. He's getting ready to test for his red tips, so keep your fingers crossed that he passes his test this weekend. Mark turned 13 this year and is a 7th grader at Tecumseh. He's a great student and has been on the honor roll almost every grading period. His teachers always have wonderful things to say about him. He continues with percussion. He takes private lessons every week. Last January he won two "firsts" for his snare and bell solo's in the solo and ensemble competition and is preparing for the 2005 competition. Mark attended Leadership camp this summer and worked his first summer as a Junior Counselor at YMCA Straight Arrow Camp. He also attended the Adventure Camp trip to the Wisconsin Dells at the end of the summer. He still has his managerie of small animal friends. Currently, that's a cat, a snake, two toads and an odd assortment of fish. We found out that his snake, Herman, was actually a girl when "he" gave birth to 8 little baby snakes in May. Mike turned 15 this year and is a sophomore at Lafayette Jeff. He's continued in the Honors programs and they've really kept him on his toes. The coursework is very demanding, but he's doing well figuring out what the teachers expect. Last January he competed in the Purdue Science Fair and won the Computer Science division. It came with a $200 cash prize from Intel and probably more importantly he learned he wasn't really interested in pursuing a career in computer programming. He has continued with the Band programs at Jeff, playing mellophone in the Marching Band and Show Band and French horn during the "non marching season" and solo and ensemble competition. He also attended Leadership camp this summer at Camp Straight Arrow and worked as a Counselor-In-Training. This year for the first time he worked directly with a tribe of campers assisting their counselor and it was a great experience for him. He's really looking forward to driving. This year he finally outgrew me. When I have to reach up to hug my baby it really hits home that we only have a short while left with Mike at home. They grow up too quickly! Michael continues in his position at Purdue. He has traveled more in recent months and has had the opportunity to attend and present at a few conferences. He has also continued as Chair of the Program Committee at the YMCA and was nominated to the Board of Directors. He's also done volunteer work in developing websites for the YMCA, Wildcat Creek Foundation, and St. Lawrence Church. He finished his second class towards a Master's degree in Library Science. With all of this going on, he's had a little less time and money for concert-going, but has still managed to fit in a couple of trips to see Phish and the String Cheese Incident. He's looking forward to Umphrey's McGee over New Year's this year with Mike Koslow. We also have a new canoe and Michael has been able to squeeze in some time on the creek. The boys enjoy going out with him and he's looking forward to when Lenny is big enough to wear a life jacket. I have continued to work for Schilli, though I've cut my hours down to only 10-12 hours/week. Michael worked from home on Fridays the first half of the year so that I could go into the office and he could enjoy fatherhood. Since August, I've been working almost exclusively from home. It has been great to be home and enjoy being Lenny's mom. My primary job these days is trying to make sure that everyone is to the right place at the right time with the right stuff. Sounds simple I know, but nearly never is as simple as it sounds. Some days I think I'd like to go into the office for a break! Last month we sold our house on Perrine Street and moved to a new place in West Lafayette. The move wasn't particularly well-orchestrated, but we got the job done with a lot of help from our parents and Michael's brother, Darren. Our new home is nearly twice as large, and looks out over Happy Hollow (An 81 acre wooded nature preserve and park). Everyone is enjoying tromping around in the ravines, and we're looking forward to the first good snow for sledding. The previous owner, Mr. Ahlrichs and his wife, Kristina, raised four children in this house so it's been broken in properly for us. We're looking forward to having Mr. Ahlrichs over for dinner later this month. He's been so gracious to us. All of our new neighbors have welcomed us to the neighborhood, though we miss having Doug, Sharon and Addie McKnight next door. We pick Addie up after school to hang out with us a couple of days a week just so we don't have total withdrawal. Most importantly, the new house is within walking distance of campus and less than a mile from Ross-Ade Stadium! We had an awesome vacation at Mr. Schilli's beachouse in Bonita Beach, FL this July. We loaded the six of us plus Addie into the van and drove off National Lampoon style for a week of fun and sun. Lenny was a trooper, no one was sunburned, we came home with a lot of seashells, even more pictures and very fond memories of racing crabs in the living room. Thank you all for enjoying life with us this year. We wish you a Merry Christmas and many blessings in 2005.