Christy's Shower

This past Saturday my mom and I threw a baby shower for Christy(& Eric). It was so great! It's always nice to welcome a baby's soon arrival with a party! :) We had such a fun time and it was great to meet Eric & Christy's friends in PA. They are an awesome group! It was so nice being able to visit with them.
We can't wait for little Mr or Miss Baby Birch to be born! We love you guys!

(I think if it's a girl "Amanda" needs to fit into that name somewhere!)

Party Pictures!

Here are some pictures from Bethany's birthday party and from her actual birthday.
Hope you enjoy them!

Bethany's 1 year old today!

Our baby girl is turning 1 today. It's amazing how time flies by. It seems like just yesterday we were welcoming her into this world. She was in a hurry to join our family, she came early just like Brady. She wasn't tiny though, she showed her strength right from the beginning.

We have talked about some things that we absolutely love about Bethany: we love her big, beautiful, ever changing eyes, her eskimo kisses, her snuggles, the way she tackles Brady, her giggles, her mischievous smiles, when she points to her nose, when she tries to say Daisy, when she hugs Daisy, when she rubs her feet all over Junior, when she does sign language, when she dances and shakes her little tushy, we love her fuzzy hair that sometimes has a hint of strawberry to it, when she does "so big!", her climbing abilities, her singing, her love for food, the list could go on and on.

Our most favorite thing though, is that Bethany is BETHANY! There is no one else like her in the world. You can try and compare her to others, but she is Bethany her unique self and that makes her special!

Bethany is our 2nd precious gift from God, we are so blessed to have her in our lives.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY BETHANY JEAN!!!!

WE LOVE YOU!!!



(I will try and post some pictures of the party later)

A Slumber Party!

Bethany and Macie had a slumber party at our house on Saturday night! They had so much fun. They played with toys, read some books, danced to some music, ate some yummy food, played with each others hair and chit chatted away!!

I wonder what it will be like in 12 years??
Probably doing the same stuff, well, maybe the topics will be different! :)

Brady's first week of preschool

This week Brady started preschool for the last time. This is whole lot different then last year. The preschool changed the set up and is now following a curriculum set up by the State Dept. of Education. Basically I consider it a Pre-K class. He goes half days and eats lunch there. We started out the week on Sunday afternoon going to an open house to visit his new classroom(his teachers came last week to our house to meet him), then Monday was orientation I(Amanda) went with him and they played with one of the teachers while the lead teacher went over parent stuff with us. We were only with half of the class. Tuesday we had off and today Brady went to preschool with half of the class again, I didn't get to go this time.:( Tomorrow Brady will go with the WHOLE(20) class. It was crazy this morning it will be interesting how more crazy it gets. He starts out everyday with signing his name outside the classroom. The teacher will keep a binder of all of them so we can see how much he has improved at the end of the year. Being a lefty, it has been a challenge for Kirk and I to help him but he's doing well. Next week, they get down to the nitty gritty and they start having lessons, it will be exciting to see everything he learns!
Brady loves it already, his best bud Christian is in the same class so he was excited about that. There are also a couple of other kids that were in his preschool class last year.

Brady's answers to my first day of preschool questions:

A:So how was Preschool?
B:Good
A:What did you do?
B:Play and color and mail something to you!(they have mailboxes to send us stuff)
A:Who did you play with?
B:Christian, Lillian, and Clayton
A:What else did you do?
B:Music
A:What songs?
B:ABC's
A:What did you have for lunch?
B:Peas, corn, carrots, applesauce, burrito and sour cream
A:Ready to go back tomorrow?
B:YEAH!

That's about all I could get out of him, he said he didn't want to talk anymore, he wanted to play. :)

Our new ride

Well, since Kirk is going to be driving a good distance everyday we needed a "gas saver". The Durango and the truck just wouldn't cut it! :) So last week we purchased a 2001 Honda Accord. It's really nice, super clean inside(no yucky smoker smell) and it fits the kids very comfortably in the back. It's so wierd having a car again, we have not owned a car since I had the Nissan Pulsar(aka. space ship) back in college and the first couple months of marriage. It's really nice to now have two vehicles that we can take the kids in. We are satisfied and heck it's a Honda so I think we're good!

The Pulsar

THE WAIT IS OVER!!!

We are ecstatic to say that God has answered our prayers and blessed Kirk with a new job!! He was offered the position a few days ago but we just wanted to wait a little while before we started spreading the wonderful news! He will be working at Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility in Delaware, OH. Yes, I know some of you are like-a prison? Don't worry it's ok!! If you remember Kirk used to teach some GED classes at Marion Juvenile a few years back. This position is an administrative position but his title will be Literary Coach. The Facility received a grant and Kirk will be overseeing that. This is a great opportunity for him and we think it will help in the future for possible principal positions. We will still be living in Marion, Kirk will drive to Delaware. It's about 40 minutes away, but since we live right off of 23 it will be a quick hop on the road. Although we are sad to leave Ridgedale seeing that it has been a part of our lives for 7 years, we will still be able to be involved with the school. Kirk's duties end at 3:00pm so we will be able to go to games and such. Kirk will be at Ridgedale for about another month and then start his new job the first part of October.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us through this waiting period! Your prayers, thoughts and positive words have meant more than you know! Please continue to pray for us, especially Kirk in the coming transitional weeks.

Hallelujah!!!!!!!

Bethy's new toy!

We decided to get Bethany a new toy. Yes, we know it's only about a month until her birthday, but we have hardly gotten anything new for her to play with so we decided that she needed a little spoiling. She is in love with it already, she is walking behind it too(actually that's her favortie part). She does really good! Now if only she'd let go, and do it by herself. Ah, one day she will, then we will be saying "why don't you just sit still for a little bit!" LOL

Little signs...

The last few days have been stressful in regards to the continual thoughts of Kirk's job and/or lack of a new job. I had been very anxious today especially, just doing A LOT of thinking(sometimes I tend to think too much about things). So I was brushing my teeth a few minutes ago and I flipped our little quote/scripture verse calendar over for today-here's what it said:

So don't be anxious about tomorrow. God will take care of your tomorrow too. Live one day at a time. Matthew 6:34

I just looked up and laughed. The little signs God gives!!!

A Visit to the Zoo!

Sunday we finally were able to take the kids to the Columbus Zoo! Amber had gotten us tickets from the hospital last year, and we were just able to use them now! Argh! Anyway, we had a nice time. It was blazing hot! Brady had a wonderful time! We asked what he wanted to see while we were there before we started. He said alligaters, monkees and elephants-we were sure to hit all of them, plus he got to see some other stuff! :) I think he loved the reptile house the best, he thoughts the snakes and lizards were so cool! He really liked riding the train too. Bethany really could have cared less that we were there(big surprise), as long as we had a continual supply of cherrios and gerber puffs in front of her she was pretty content(go figure). She was sweating like mad though! The one thing she did notice was the aquarium, I think it was because it was so dark in there and the blue water with colorful fish was just so eye capturing!
It was a nice family outing that we rarely get to do anymore. We had a great time!

Thanks Amber for thinking of us, we appreciate it!

Bethany's BooBoo

So yesterday Bethany decided to battle the woodburner, unfortunately the woodburner won!

She's ok though! It actually looks better than it did!

We are now entering the faze of the constant BooBoo, and if she takes after her mother the faze will never end!