Happy Mother's Day

Our mother (Carrie) is fantastic! We praise God for our Mommy! She is a major bigtime blessing to our family, and the bottom line is that we love her sooooooo much!

Cousin Fun

We love love our cousins Brody and Evan, and a few weekends ago they came up to play with us. We went to Discovery Place, but really we didn't need to do or go anywhere, because just being together is such a blast. And we are trying to get in as much time as possible with them before we head to Germany for the summer and miss out on invaluable cousin time.
When the Tylers come you get to play fun sword fighting games with your Uncle, as shown above. I think Tyler enjoyed this the most.

Your younger, yet stronger and bigger cousin takes you for horsie back rides which is always fun.
And of course it doesn't hurt that when they come the cuteness factor is off the charts.
We love you guys, come anytime...how about this thursday?

All that Jazz...

Here's what the Dirks have been up to since Easter (it's been busy).

Two weekends ago we spent the weekend in Columbia with Grandma and Poppa, and we attended First Pres. Church on Sunday for the baptism of our sweet nephew Joseph Evan. We joined the Tylers for a delicious Sunday lunch and time of fellowship afterwards.

Here's the little guy all tuckered out in his Great Grandmother's arms after a big morning.
Back in Charlotte we relaxed in the back yard with some massive Poppa inspired lollipops.

Last week our JWU students worked at the food bank down the street and then headed back to our house for our monthly post-bank pizza session.
We've visited the butterfly pavilion/nature museum.
And, didn't step on any.
My two cute guys.
We still make time for baths.


And last weekend Maggie and Daddy-T headed to the White Water Rafting center for a duck race.
There were all sorts of fun activities like getting mermaid tattoos, and jumping castles. Henry was sick at home with a fever so we missed out on that fun.

That's pretty much it except for swimming lessons, trips to the YMCA, Bible study, playing with friends and family, RUF, keeping up with Lost, gardening, time spent outside in the beautiful weather, attempting to learn German, sewing, and starting our own business (that last one was made up just looking for a strong close, and pretty sure I didn't find one, so feel free to leave a suggestion in the comments). Hope to post again sometime before July, thanks for checking in.

Happy Easter

...a few weeks late. Ah-hem..sorry, I've been a little slack lately in my blogging. So, without further ado here are some Easter pics and hopefully one of these days I'll be caught up to our current life events and I can fill you in on all the upcoming excitement awaiting the Dirks this summer.
Most children get chocolate and candy in their Easter baskets, but the poor Dirks' kids got toothbrushes. It was actually not too bad, because you see they are electric and cool and our kids are only 3 and 1, so pretty much anything goes (or so I tell myself..hope I'm not turning into "that" mom). So we started the morning off pants-less, but with some good looking chompers.

Henry wasn't fooled by the toothbrush for long, pretty soon it was "hey you...put down the camera and open my sucker...suck-ah!"
While on the other side of the table, Maggie cuddled with her new matching bunny eared pony, pinkie pie....yup that's right.
Also, Easter morning we saw that our play-doh tomb was empty and Jesus was gone! The little people were all in a mad frenzy looking for Him. Jesus had risen! Maggie found Him in the living room. (Thanks for the fun idea Kristen and Noelle ;)
We took several Easter pics, but they were all not-so-good but also cute in their own right. The best one is this sugar pop pic.
Maggie and Henry both enjoyed Easter and hearing all about how Jesus rose from the dead and defeated sin and set us free. And our constant prayer for our little ones is that this Truth would become quickly and completely settled into their hearts. And we love that our kids know that the same Savior that died on the cross on Good Friday, is the same Lord that was born in a stable as a helpless baby. Which of course reminded them that playing Mary, the Donkey and Emmanuel is really fun, and that's just how we wrapped up our Easter.

A late b-day post

You all know by now that Maggie turned three years old on March 15th on our cruise ship, but you may not have known that we celebrated in Charlotte with some girlfriends (and a few little fellas) a few days before we left for Mexico. Maggie wanted to have a dress up party, so that's just what we did.

If anyone knows Maggie D, then you know she is a bit of a D-I-V-A from time to time. She loves all things girlie, dress up being her main outlet source. So, in a futile attempt to remind her and her friends that all though it is fun to look beautiful and wear pretty things, charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised (Proverbs 31:30). So, we colored and stickered a poster with that verse on it and it is hanging up over Maggie's bed in her room, a reminder of God's desire for our hearts and of a fun day with friends.
We even enjoyed a little "tea" it was really apple juice, but no one seemed to mind.

The crew enjoyed a fine course of chicken nuggets, fruit and chips for lunch under the princess canopy (Poor little Hawk was the only boy at the table and he was a real champ with all the girls, Maggie even allowed him to secure Henry's title of "Prince" for the morning).

Meanwhile this little guy didn't seem to mind at all that he was covered in pink, and enjoyed his time quite nicely.

Driving home today.

Maggie says: "Mommy...I'm fabulous!"

C: "Yes...you are sweetie."

M: "Mommy are you fabulous?"

C: "Umm..Yes I am."

M: "Henry is not fabulous."

C: "Oh yes he absolutely is."

M: "They talk about fabulous on Sesame Street."

-Just a typical conversation with my three year old.-

appetizer post

I know pictureless blogs aren't as fun, so I apologize. But, hopefully a funny story and a few quotes from the kids will tide you over until I can post some pictures.

Story 1: Tyler and I have been trying to teach Maggie and Henry about the cross, resurrection and true purpose of Easter. Somehow dying on a cross doesn't sound as heinous to a three year old as receiving a "spanking." So, in an effort to communicate to our three year old the act of love our Saviour showed us by taking our punishment on our behalf, we have been talking about the massive "spanking" he suffered. The spanking we truly deserved, but He took so we wouldn't have to even though he didn't do anything to deserve it. So, a few days ago Maggie disobeyed me and I told her that she was going to get a spanking because of what she had done. She knew it was coming and with tears in her eyes she said, "I want you to give it to Jesus." I was a tad dumbfounded at the time, but since then I have shared this story with a friend and she told me that it would make a great sermon illustration. And, I think she is right on so many levels. Well, to wrap up the story, she in fact got the spanking and we went a little deeper in our theology explaining that we still get spanked, but Jesus took the BIGGEST spanking we could ever imagine. Making for one very confused, thankful, yet somewhat disappointed little girl. Parenthood is pretty hard sometimes.

Quote 1: Maggie- "What is God doing right now?"

Quote 2: (after having lunch with Tyler during his lunch break) Maggie- "Daddy don't go to work I want you to stay home with us forever."

Henry had a vocabulary explosion over the weekend and has started saying some fun things along with some words he's had stored away, so to give him some props here is a list of things he says these days.
"Here you go"
"all done"
"baby"
"Bible"
"Maggie"
"Bella"
"poo poo" (yep that's right)
"Poppa" (always said in a whisper)
"please"
"doggie"
"ball" (said on every trip to Target in the parking lot...perhaps you know what I'm talking about)
"mommy" "daddy" ( He used to call us both "mommy" but is now making a distinction...he has even called one of our students (tall/African American/male) "mommy" on two seperate occasions. Makes you rub your head a little there.)
-He is a big head nodder and still doesn't say "yes" only shakes his head. I think its pretty cute though.
-He says quite a bit more, but my mind is going blank so I hope that will satisfy some eager grandparents in Kansas and SC for now. Thanks for reading.