Meet The Kirks

That’s right.  It’s really stinking hot out there.  We spent this morning with the useful run to the Farmer’s Market, Recycling Center, and our monthly, marathon of grocery shopping before retreating to the air conditioning.  We’re off to the park tonight for a friend’s birthday party and some intense sweating.  Welcome to August.

Yesterday, we took Ester and Justice to the first “Babes and Books” playgroup of the new school year.  Ester, of course, really loves the songs, and Justice loves to watch all the other people.  On the way out, Ester and Jena (her cousin) had to hold hands on the way to the cars.  It was super cute.

Finally, in one week we’ll be celebrating Ester’s second birthday.  I can’t believe it has been another year.  This week, I’ve been digitizing videos from our trip to Ethiopia and our early days back in Wichita last summer.  It’s amazing to see how fast our little girl is growing up and to compare her actions in Ethiopia to Justice now, as they are about the same age.   What a wonderful journey it has been, and we’re just getting started!

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Vacation videos are up on Facebook.  Check it out.

We sang Lee Greenwood and waved our flag as we exited the USCIS office in downtown Wichita. Ester is now an official citizen of the United States of America. A year after we applied we were able to pick up her certificate today. It was a nice moment as the others in the waiting room clapped to welcome our child into the realm of US citizenry. Ester wasn’t sure what to think.

Since returning from vacation, we’ve been busy organizing the house and getting prepared for the upcoming year. Natasha has been busy getting kids stuff ready for a consignment sale, and Chris has been running from room to room, filing thing, moving furniture, and preaching about the importance of organization for a family to run effectively. Justice’s top two teeth are inching their way into space and Ester learned how to use her clock radio yesterday. Kinley is just glad to be home once again.

After immigration, Chris and Ester visited the bank to open up savings accounts. Ester was proud to unload her piggy bank, which surprisingly contained $42.13. She wanted an ATM card, but we decided not to allow that quite yet.

Speaking of cards, it’s official. Chris starts school in less than two weeks and now has the ID card to prove it. This one can double as an ATM card, which just goes to show you how much things have changed since Chris was last a college student. An adventure it will be….

Our bags are stacked by the front door as we’re prepared to leave tomorrow for vacation.  Our journey this year will take us to Colorado Springs and Vail for some relaxation, fun, and hiking of Colorado’s tallest peak.  It should be a dandy time.  We’ll do much better about updating this .  We promise.

It’s been awhile since we updated the blog here. Our apologies. The last week we have been rather discombobulated and exiled from our home. We still have some serious Feng Shui deficiencies around here, but we’re moving forward step by step.

Our wood floor project went from a one day project to a three day project. It all went well, but just took a bit longer than we anticipated. On Saturday, the kids stayed with Natasha’s parents while we worked from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. to get the floor sanded and stained. But, we could walk on it for another twenty four hours, so we stayed with Chris’ parents on Sunday, back on Monday to finish the floors and crash with Natasha’s parents, and finally back home on Tuesday night. Needless to say, we were all pretty tired, but tomorrow we get to move furniture back onto our lovely wood floors. Woohoo!!!

In the meantime, we’ve been enjoying time together as a family. Yesterday we visited the Zoo and ate lunch with our friends at Trees for Life. Ester is talking up a storm these days, combining new words into phrases and repeating anything you say (Dangerous!). Justice is now a professional at scooting (as video # 2) reveals. We’re looking forward to laying back and celebrating July 4th tomorrow. We’ll post some more about that soon…we promise.

Video #1: Invincible

Ester Visits the Zoo, then expresses her experience with art.

Video #2: Scootin’

Justice displays his amazing Army crawl.