One Week Old

Sweet Haven

(We are moving to zone defense.)

Haven is here and we are so excited! And, you blog readers were correct, she is a girl. How in the world did you know? We are glad you were right because now we have our tie breaker. Girls will now rule (as if we didn't already) in the Dirks home. She is absolutely beautiful and such a blessing to us already. The Lord is so good and we are so grateful to Him for the good work He has done in our family through this little miracle. Come on over and meet her when you get the chance. She is extremely sociable, and would love to cuddle. Thanks for your prayers and thoughts.
Love the Dirks Five!

Baby Haven Is Here!

"When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world." (Jn. 16:21) First of all, God is good! We are so thankful for little Haven! Secondly, Carrie is amazing! My wife has always left me awestruck, but she is now officially my hero!Big brother spending a little quality time with little sister.
Maggie is giddy with excitement about Haven! Maggie has big plans for this new little princess!
Maggie and Henry meet Haven for the first time!
Tyler with two of the most beautiful women who have ever lived!
Haven Katelin Dirks. Born 7/8/11. 7 Ibs, 8 oz. 19 3/4 in. Thank you God!

Playing on the Lake

Before the weekend festivities took place our crew got in a few hours of fun playing on the lake and by the lake. Maggie became an expert dock jumper...
And, Henry discovered some new ways to enjoy a hammock.

We LOVE Grandma!

This weekend we celebrated one very special lady, my Mama Z. She had a birthday and so we treated her like the special lady that she is with a girl's day at the spa followed by a surprise birthday party that evening. She means so much to us and to be able to celebrate her was such a privilege and delight. I wish we could do more, but I'm pretty sure even if we could it wouldn't ever be enough to convey how much we love and appreciate our Grandma.
Some fellow party goers.
Muggins in her party dress.
The boys share some memories from their repertoire of fun times with Grandma. This is about it with the picture portion of the party. We didn't take too many photos because we were so wrapped up in the fun. I wish I had a picture of the food which by the way was amazing and oh so tasty. Not to mention at least a few pics of the 27 guests in attendance to party with us. But, alas I will have to rely on memory for all of that, and you reader will have to take my word for it. Finally, Grandma if you are reading this know that we love you so so so much and are so thankful for of all the years of your life and especially the ones that we've been able to share with you. You are awesome!!!

monkey see monkey do

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then Tyler and I are completely flattered almost daily by our two little monkeys. Dress up is a big deal for our kiddos, well mostly Maggie, but from time to time Henry will also dress up. Lately he has been wanting to dress up like his Daddy, so when his Daddy brought him home a matching t-shirt from a conference in Virginia he was ready and willing to flaunt his new look.
The two handsome fellas.
And of course Maggie loves playing "pregnant" like her mama. We took a matching belly shot and she was quite thrilled with her look.
One more cute shot of my boys doing their thing.

Back to the Beach

The week of Memorial Day we Dirks headed yet again to the beach, this time Isle of Palms in SC. This is an annual beach trip we take with my side of the family, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins too. We missed last Summer due to our being in Germany, but nothing could keep us away this year. Above is a picture of the grandparents that made it all happen and also kept the ice cream coming! Thanks for a fun week Grandma and Poppa.

We took an afternoon to visit the playground under the cooper river bridge and walk the pier.
A little self timer action on the pier.
Some playground playing.
And back at the beach house the kids enjoyed playing in the dirt under the house. Our nephew Trooper was really into it and every time he played in it he ended up looking like a chimney sweep, but a tough one.
We had a couple of yummy meals out, but they didn't come close to our own chefs culinary creations (mainly Christine, John and Peter and Megan).
Uncle Tyler made some very unique "cars-kids" sand sculptures. Maggie was Sally, Brody Lightning and Henry was Mater from the Cars movie (a big big like in this family). Henry usually asks me to play Cars with him in the morning every night before bed. It goes something like this "Mommy I want to tell you something...in the morning we play cars."
Evan enjoys a little beach snack.
The kids were fearless in the ocean, made me a little nervous, but they had a blast.

When Henry wasn't frolicking in the ocean, this was his second favorite activity. He pushed this truck all over the place.
And here is the whole kid gang in their red, white and blue!