Fun Times

We spent the night at my cousins last night and had a wonderful time together. I'm so thankful for your friendship Stac! I enjoy our time together so much and I love that we are both night owls. =)

We went up Friday after Tom got off work and we went to dinner at Safari Sams. We've never been there before and it was a HIT!! It's got a huge climbing maze for the kids on one side of the place. I think it was about 3 stories high, maybe more. The boys loved it. Hallie stayed in the play area for the younger kids. She enjoyed that. We enjoyed some pizza and after the kiddos ran around the maze again for a while we went and enjoyed watching them play different games - and yes - we all played some too. We're all kids at heart. =)

The kids have a ball together. The boys enjoyed having a slumber party in their cousins room last night.

Today Tom and Jim put siding on another side of their house while the kiddos played and when it was all done we all took the kids to a fun park near their house. We'll sure have to go back there again.

Bradley's favorite subject in school is reading.

Ryan - my lil' reader

Tyler loves to read!!

Hallie's Story

Hallie's Snack Day

Today was Hallie's Snack day at preschool. It's a day the kids really look forward to. They get to sit on a special mat during circle time and they get to set the table for snacks and sit in a special chair while they eat. She looked so grown up. I'm so proud of her. She's doing a great job.

Awana's

I went to a meeting last night to sign the kiddos up for Awana's. I came home with their new vests and books. They were all VERY excited to try them on. They are starting back up next week. They are looking forward to it. This will be Hallie's first year. She gets to be a Cubbie. Ryan and Tyler are moving up to Bradley's class and will be Sparkies. I'm so thankful for this program. It's been a great time for the kids and they learn so much.

Our Busy Day

We had a full house on Wednesday. I babysat two little boys for the day. The kids enjoyed helping feed the baby and enjoyed playing with his big brother.

Guess Who??

This is Tyler with one of his creations.



Our Pretty Girl.

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

Happy Birthday Grandma! We hope you have an extra special day. We loved spending time with you last night. We love you!!

A BIG day in the Kirkland house

A year ago September we took a class at our church called "FPU - Financial Peace University" by Dave Ramsey. I remember watching one of the videos hearing everyone's success stories thinking...that's so neat, but there's no way we can accomplish that much in a year. I knew we would do our best and I knew it was the Lord's will that we follow this plan, but I sure couldn't get the numbers to work out on paper for us to pay off what we hoped to in a year. Tom started a 2nd job in February and has been working really hard and I'm so thankful to have a husband with as much passion about this as I do..to live debt free!!

Today - one year later - we made our very LAST payment on the debt we were working on. It's an absolutely incredible feeling!!

We will move on to part B of this step for this next year and hope and pray for another success story next September. God is good!!

Thank you to those who have been so supportive of our decision and who have cheered us along even when we've had to be extra careful not to get off track. It's truly been a blessing to have so much support and so much excitement for us. I'm amazed at how many people I've run into trying to do the same thing and it's so exciting to see this happening!! I've sure learned time and time again that when we are following the Lord's will, He makes the impossible POSSIBLE!!

My Reader

I love the moments that I find my kids reading. Bradley's favorite subject in school is reading. I love that I don't even have to ask him to read. Last year in our first year of homeschooling I required that he read every afternoon while the younger three kids are resting. It wasn't long before I realized I wasn't asking him to do it anymore, he was just doing it on his own. It wasn't long before I was finding him reading off and on throughout the day too. This morning was one of those days. After breakfast all the kids wandered off to play together in Hallie's room and at one point they all four went into the family room and picked out books to read and I found Bradley in the kitchen with his book. Silly boy. Looks pretty comfy. I'm thankful his love of reading is rubbing off on his little brothers and sister.

Today was one of those days I was thinking about how thankful I am we can homeschool. The kids love to play together and I'm so thankful they are home to do that. I love that I can be flexible and we don't have to rush around in the morning unless we have somewhere we need to go. This morning the kids were playing so nicely that we didn't start school until about 10, but still got everything done we need to for the day. I've been having them double up on some days since they take Friday off to be home with Daddy while I'm at work. Today Bradley decided he wanted to do 3 lessons instead of 2. Ryan and Tyler have really been enjoying school too and I'm so thankful. It's a joy to be their teacher!!





Our Hallie...such joy!!!

Times together

A day at school

Sleepy Kids

We had a fun filled weekend at my cousins house and lil' Hallie fell asleep on the way home Sunday night. She was so out of it I just put her right in her bed when we got home. I took some pictures of the kids that night. The boys fell asleep really quickly too. I slept well myself. I had such a fun time with my cousin. The first night we stayed up til 3 AM chatting and the 2nd night til midnight. Love those times!! Fun girl time.

Hallie

I ended up with a couple really cute pictures of Hallie this weekend. I thought I'd share them. They are in the slide show following this post but I thought they were worth posting again. =) She's growing up so fast!