Pigtails

I have tried several different times to get Maggie to wear pigtails and yesterday she actually let me put them in her hair and she only took one side out once in the span of two hours. It is a fabulous thing. She looks pretty darn cute...take a look for yourself. More pics of last weeks cousin extravaganza coming soon!
Please disregard the strawberry stained shirt.
Does this kid look happy to have pigtails or what?

Loving May

We Dirks love bubbles. Here is a unique bubble mountain made specifically to amuse our one year old...for ahh maybe two minutes.
We Dirks also love to visit the JWU campus. On this specific occasion Maggie chose to sport the logo on her t-shirt and she was a smashing success during exam week with faculty and students.
We also love seniors and transferring students. So, we hosted a little shin dig for those specific types. Good bye and we'll truly miss you guys.

We also love our mommys. We celebrated mother's day a little early this year. Here is my awesome drawing and gift from Maggie. Happy Mother's day to all mommys, grandmommys and great grandmommys!

The polls have closed

How appropriate that the results of our little baby poll get posted today of all days. You voted America and here are your results...you think our next baby will be a boy. And, you are oh so smart (or at least 60% of you are) because that is exactly what we are having! Or at least we are 92% sure that we will be having a boy. I mean let's face it we won't know absolutely until we see the little guy on his birthday in october. But, I am glad the ultrasound is over, they make me nervous. They shouldn't though because my God is sovereign and has planned perfectly the life of this baby whether sick, healthy, boy or girl. And, that gives me such comfort. Thanks for all who voted that was fun. And, we are soooo excited stay posted for more updates and don't forget to keep this little guy in your prayers. He's got a long road ahead and is in desperate need of our God's sustaining hand.

Outside fun...

May is finally here and we'll be finding out the sex of our new baby this tuesday and so begins the start of a very exciting month. This weekend was an example of just that. I started my weekend with a lovely welcome home from work. I wandered outside when I got home and this is what greeted me.
A great big welcome sign and two of my most favorite people in all the world waited outside to greet me from a hard day at the office (well the OR, but you get my point).
The artist'.
On saturday we headed to Frazier park in Uptown and enjoyed an end of the year fish fry with many of the students from RUF at JWU. We had a great attendance and the Lord held of what looked like a rainy afternoon so that we could enjoy dry fellowship.
Our good friend Jake helped us fry the fish, chicken wings and hush puppies. He did a tremendous job and we are so thankful that he was there to help. God has blessed us with some great and talented friends!
This is just a slice of the crowd that dropped by on saturday, we think there was about 80-100 students and "park inhabitants" that joined us during the evening.
This is another dear friend that joined us at the park, Jessica. Jessica has been a huge asset to the ministry this year in helping with the ladies at JWU. She's in the middle and we appreciate all she has done this year, what a servant!
Some of the girls.
Maggie enjoying her buddy Michael and his long arms and loving him despite his Clemson t-shirt.

We have truly enjoyed this year of ministry at Johnson and Wales and we are thrilled to be in the midst of a God at work in a campus in desperate need of a Saviour. We love these students and we love being at this school in a ministry capacity. It is so amazing knowing that this is what the Lord has chosen for our family. This summer we will be moving closer to the campus and are excited to see how the Lord will use our family again next year. Please be in prayer for these students, our family and the spread of the Gospel in the hearts of the students at JWU. We truly covet them and count on them.

Magsamillion

I realize it has been a long time since we posted any pictures of our Maggie, so to make up for my slack I am inundating this blog post with tons of Maggie pics. I mean give the public what they want, right?
This picture may simply look like a little girl sitting on her couch in her pjs, but it is so much more...look closely. As you can see Maggie is making the sign for more and the reason for this is bc sometimes after her bath and after pjs have been applied Maggie will often sit on the couch and be fanned with her towel by her father. This could go on all night if we would allow it, she absolutely loves it. She just sits and Tyler fans it's as simple as that but what fun.
Some nights pjs don't make it all the way on before a break is needed. Here Maggie is having her "Bi-bah" (Bible) read to her before donning the rest of her night time attire.
This pic was taken right after waking up. The hair is tossled the thumb and blanket are providing comfort and life is good.
This picture is for you Grandma. You might recognize this little water octupus. We tried it for the first time a few days ago, and it really shoots out water. Maggie was out in the back with it when I turned it on and she ran quickly back into the house and we shut the door as it proceded to saturate our entire back area. She much prefers it off, but is highly intrigued by it.
When not playing with her octupus Maggie finds great comfort in playing with her rocks. And she is very lucky because there are plenty to play with. While she is not allowed to run with sticks (for the most part) rocks are indeed allowed.
We are thinking of giving all her toys away and simply filling the toy box with these gems. Okay maybe not, but look at the intrigue in her face.
Sorry no story for this picture, I just thought it was cute.

A weekend in Baltimore

This last weekend Tyler and I had our first trip alone (without Maggie) in quite sometime, at least a year! So, we chose to go to Baltimore of course. Well, not exactly, but if we had known how much fun one could have there we might have chosen this grand location. We actually headed to Baltimore, sans Maggie Dirks, so Tyler could officiate his first wedding for our good friends Lauren and Patrick Kelly. We headed up on Thursday and got back sunday afternoon. We had such a great time together alone and with some of our Charlotte friends that also made the journey. Sorry no pics of Maggie in this one. I understand if you want to quit reading at this point, the cute factor is way low.
We started our weekend of fun in Dinosaur Land. We just magically stumbled upon this enchanted forest on our way to Maryland. Here I am with the prehistorics.
When we finally made it to Baltimore, Camden Yard (s)(?) was our first destination point. I'm a huge fan, only joking, actually I am sad to say I didn't even know this was in Baltimore. My husband knew and also seemed to know a lot about it to my surprise. Also, he revealed to me that the Orioles was the name of his first pee wee baseball team. I mean how can we be married for almost four years and I am just now finding this out. This just shows you how important weekends like these are for your marriage. I call this photo "babe with the babe."
Next we headed over to the inner harbour, and had some locals take our picture and recommend a good resteraunt to us. They said "have you ever heard of the Cheesecake Factory," well actually yes. But, we wanted something a little more Baltimorian and so they recommended Regis, which we ended up not eating at, but thanks for the tip and convo ladies.
We met up with our good buddy Jay and his girlfriend Kate for a late dinner at some Irish pub. Food not good, company five stars. This is not a picture taken at the resteraunt, we are actually back at our hotel we just couldn't end the fun after dinner.
The next day we headed to the city again and went to the aquarium. My favorite part was this giant tank in the center with huge, Steve Irwin sized stingrays and sharks and a big sea turtle. There were people scuba diving in the tank and it was a lot of fun to watch. The dolphins were also fun to see, our only regret is that we didn't watch the dolphin show. Next time perhaps.
The main event was Lauren and Patrick's wedding. It was fabulous, and Tyler did a great job officiating his first ceremony...robe and all.
The reception was beautiful and so much fun. I got to fulfill a lifelong dream of mine and participate in a Greek line dance. (I'm sure that's what you call it) Lauren's Grandpa led us in several different dances that I must admit I was pretty awesome at...only joking clearly I was not that good, but it was sure fun.
Here's me, Ashley and Grandpa cuttin a rug.
And lastly here is us with the happily wedded couple. We had such a great weekend, thanks for getting married and letting us be a part of it all Kellys! And, thanks mom for watching Maggie for us!

Gettin my hair did

So, Maggie got her first haircut last weekend on my birthday. It was not her most favorite thing. It could almost be compared to a visit to the doctor, even though the place we went (pigtails and crew cuts) was made just for kiddie dos. There are games, bright colors, movies and even fun barber chairs to sit in. Maggie, however, did not care for any of these tantalizing details. This face pretty much paints a picture of the entire experience. Kudos to the girl that cut her hair though she gave a very nice little trim to a very upset and wiggly baby.
This is one of those fun chairs that Maggie did not sit in during her haircut. But, we did get a picture for the blog because it was so cute. Just a side note, but if you'll notice in this picture Maggie is glaring across the room. SHe is staring down the girl that cut her hair and is making sure she stays way on the other side while she pilots her cankerworm duster (just a little Charlotte humor).
Last sunday Maggie wore her sailor dress for the first time to church. I am so excited that she can now where dresses to church because she is not crawling and dresses don't slow her down like they did when she was on her knees.
In the world of a toddling tot sadly comes injury. But, that is a small price to pay when freedom is at your fingertips. Maggie has scraped her knees several times since she has learned to walk and not once has she cried. To our amazement she just gets right back up and is on her way again. At first I thought maybe she had some rare condition where she can't feel pain, but it turns out she is just a brute walker.