Thanksgiving activities

Another busy holiday season has started! We enjoyed Thanksgiving this year with my family, it was a nice quiet day of relaxing. Unfortunately my brother and his family couldn't be there this year, but they were connecting with our family in IL and Chirsty's in MO. We look forward to seeing them around Christmas. The kids enjoyed the meal and playing. Tanner, my parents dog, enjoyed all the excitement and playing with his pal Daisy. :)

We did a little Christmas shopping on Friday but not much. Guh!
We of course worked on the house a lot. We're getting there!! We have our last inspection this Thursday, once that is over than we will be able to relax a little more. Although there is always stuff to do it won't be as pressured like it was. It's looking good, I must say. We are excited for you that haven't seen it yet to stop in for a gander. I'm still working on the decor part, but day by day it feels more like home.

To round out our Thanksgiving, Saturday Ron & Ginny invited us to participate in the Mt Vernon Christmas parade to help advertise their Christmas tree farm. The kids had a ball. It was really cold but once we got moving it wasn't bad. To our surprise we won a trophy! Best Christmas Theme!! That was kind of cool! I posted a picture below:


(Ginny played the bagpipes and walked ahead of Ron who was pushing the wagon with the signs and tree-Kirk and I walked behind Ron)

We hope you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

The first Snow!

So as Brady was getting ready to get on the bus, a wonderful thing happened! We had our first snowflakes of the season!!! It was a wet snow but they were there, Brady, the girls and I hurried over the the window to watch. It was very exciting!
Throughout the day we'd look outside, a couple of times it was actually more snow like rather than the wet stuff.

Winter here we come! :)

Halloween

We had a wonderful Halloween at our new house! Some people may frown on Halloween, but we love it. We have fun and celebrate the positive aspect of it, not the negative.

Monday night Kirk worked late so the kids and I decided to carve the pumpkins! Brady had been wanting to for weeks! Surprisingly they were very easy to gut this year, so that went fast. My kids don't like to get messy so it was all up to mommy! haha

Brady designed and carved his pumpkin himself, he's a very traditional boy. Nothing wierd going on with his pumpkin.

I carved Bethany's and then she did some artistic drawing's on the back we called it "hair".

I also carved mine and daddy's pumpkin. Immediately after I was done Bethany yelled "Daddy!" I have to say I felt sorry for Kirk. haha

Tonight, Halloween, the kids got all dressed up Brady a Ninja and Bethany a Ballerina. We started out the door and low and behold the township Fire engine pulled in turned on his lights and stopped! At first I was like "Oh man we did something wrong, our first real trick or treat and we screwed up!" But no, they just came into the neighborhood to pass out candy!! I thought that was super nice!


So we started the walk, we were able to meet a few of our new neighbors(who love to talk I might add). Boy, you don't realize how big the subdivision is until you walk it with a ninja and a ballerina! They both did very well though, said their "Thank you's."

By the time we had done the big circle mommy was pooped and we saw Daddy handing out candy, so Mommy took over the candy and Daddy took them down our street to finish up. They got plenty of loot, I think Daddy will end up eating 3/4ths of it!

It is great to finally be in a neighborhood where they can participate in such activities!!

We hope you all have a Spookactular Halloweeeeennnnn!!!!

Birch kids

Eric, Christy and Abigail came over for a visit a couple weeks ago to see the house and we snapped this picture.

Sorry it's a bit dark.

Trip to the patch...

A pumpkin patch!

The kids and I were able to go with some friends from church to a pumpkin patch! The weather was great and everyone had a wonderful time. We found a lot of cool pumpkins!! After we hunted for our favorite pumpkins(we had to get one for every member of our family including dog and cats) we went over to a picnic area and had some lunch although I think the kids just enjoyed rolling down the big hill.

It was fun!!

We'll post some pictures after we carve them too!

Brady Update

Brady is feeling much better. His temp. has stayed down now for a good day and a half now and he did go to school today. I can tell that stuff is breaking up in his chest too. Thanks for your prayers!

Love you all!

Brady

I just got back from taking Brady to Urgent Care, yesterday afternoon he started getting really sick with a fever, headache, and some chest/breathing problems. He spiked a fever last night of 103+. So the Dr said, that he definately has at least an ear infection in the right ear, possibly getting one in the left and he heard some tightness in one side of his chest.
He put him on some antibiotics and also a strong expectorant to try to break up what's in his chest and then I should continue to give him tylenol or ibprofen for the fever and check it continuously to make sure it stays down. If he can keep his fever down to under 101 then he can go to school on Monday but if not then it's a no go. :(

Please keep him in your prayers, he is not a boy that likes to stay put and this is totally wiping him out! He also has a special field trip on Tuesday that he has been talking about all month. He's having trouble talking just with all the junk in his throat/chest too.

Happy Birthday

Happy 31st Birthday Kirk!

You have now fully jumped into your 30's! ;)

Love you!!!!

We're in...

We know we have a lot of family and friends asking and I'm sorry we haven't got back to all of you, but we are moved into our new home. It has gone smoothly, still a lot to do but we are happy. The kids are adjusting well, which is a relief for me. We do have phone and internet now.
I'll write more later when I have a bit more time.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!
Love you all!!

Bethany's 2!!!

Wow, unbelievable! Our Bethany Jean is 2 years old! Didn't she just turn 1 and wasn't she just born???

She is such a joy to have in our lives. She makes us laugh so much!! I have to say for the most part she is really easy going, well behaved and lady-like. She is a clean freak still and doesn't like to have messy hands, if she spills something it's a major tragedy and immediately needs to start cleaning.(Brady was very similar to this). Some of her favorite words to say and she uses quite often are "Mama", "Daisy", "Ummmmm", Ciffiow(Clifford), "pee" and "poop". There are others some I can't always identify but these are used very often!!! She seems to be about ready for potty training, being so clean so absolutely hates having a wet or dirty diaper and will bring you a diaper and her wipes to have you change her. Once we get a little more settled we will definately start in on it. She has used her potty chair a few times already so we will see how it goes.

Her hair is getting longer, and starting to curl a little in the back. She still has beautiful big brown eyes! She loves her baby doll, purse and jewelry. Her favorite show is Clifford the Big Red Dog, I think she would watch it non-stop if we let her. :)

We didn't have a big birthday party for her this year because we were in the moving process so we just had some family time at home. I made her a Clifford birthday cake, it looked pretty good, hey I'm not a professional but she knew it was him so that's all that matters. She blew out her candles all by herself. She opened all her gifts but I think she liked the Elmo balloon Daddy got her the best, we actually had to hide it awhile so she would focus on the rest haha.


I love my necklace


Blowing out my candles


Clifford Cake!


Mmmm Yummy!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl! We love you!!!

Final Countdown

We are nearing moving day. Praise the Lord!! We are so ready to move. The house is looking wonderful! The carpet starts getting laid down tomorrow. The whole house won't be totally finished when we move, the kitchen still needs a lot of work and of course the odds and ends that aren't necessities. But we will be together as a family again and I will take that over a finished kitchen any day! :)

We are all getting by day by day. Brady's doing better and better in school. His writing is improving(pretty good for a leftie), he's learning his sight words and starting to read some. He is now crossing the street to get on the bus by himself. He would like me to stay in the driveway. I'm good though he still gives me a hug and says I love you before he goes. It feels good to watch him grow more confident.

Bethany is good, turning two in a couple of days!! She's chugging along. I'll write more about her on her birthday.

I'm fine, babysitting away! Packing, Packing, Packing, Oh and did I say Packing?

Our biggest news is about Kirk. He recently accepted a new position, actually a promotion. He is now Project Manager for the Literacy Grant he was working with. Basically, he oversees the whole Ohio grant and is now "boss" over the Literacy coaches at each institution(he used to be a literacy coach). So his office will move to downtown Columbus to the Dept of Youth Services Central Office and he will not have an office and work at the prison each day. He will travel a bit more(not spending nights out) to each institution(prison) to oversee there programs. The only major travelling will be 1-2 times a year he will have to go to Washington DC to give reports and all that jazz that goes along with the grant. He's excited about the transition and looking forward to the challenge. He'll start in October.

Ok, well a big storm has come in so I probably should get off this computer. If you would keep us in your prayer during the next month with the major changes coming about we would appreciate it!

Love to you all!