Everything But Santa

I wasn't allowed to take a picture from my camera, but Quinn and Reese sat on Santa's lap at Bass Pro Shops in the Arundel Mills Mall recently. Quinn asked for a radio with a CD player, a play laptop, and a goldfish. She will be happy to know that Santa is going to be very good to her this year!

Like shooting fish in a barrel (har har!)

Me and my pal Rudolph!

I tell you what, Bass Pro really does a nice job with the Santa spread.  They had a table set up for kids to draw and color while waiting in line, the shooting range, a faux "Build-A-Bear" station, remote control trucks, a car race track, and as you see above, Rudolph was walking around!  I will definitely be making this a little tradition, as it was so much more fun thank just waiting in line at the mall.  It really was an event!  Oh, and the best part? Free 4x6 prints of your kids with the Big Man himself!  They gave me 4 free pictures!

Sissy and I waiting patiently to see Santa!

Happy Holidays!

My girls looked so stinking cute on Santa's lap.  I only hope that Reese will be that accommodating next year, when she's 18 months old, and much more aware of who's holding her!

Pretty Girls

Nothing much to say, just have to show off my beautiful babies to those who want to see them :-)

And a couple of black & whites...

I know I'm biased, but MAN I can't get over how photogenic my girls are!  Be-yoooo-ti-ful!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

About 3 weeks before Thanksgiving, for grins, I sent my brother Eric at text asking him if he and Jessica wanted to come out here for the holiday.  I really never thought he'd bite, but he surprised the crap out of me and said yes!  Well, we had a great time - we went to Paula's as we do every year, we had ourselves a small party on Friday, and it was just nice to catch up with Eric and Jes.  And it was Reese's 1st Thanksgiving!  Check out my stuffed turkey below...

She's even got the stuffed turkey sprawl, doesn't she?

Here are a few more pictures from what turned out to be an awesome weekend.  Thanks for the 30 pack of White Castle hamburgers and bottles of Leelanau Winter White wine, guys! 

Quinn and Auntie Jes!

Chillin' out Friday morning

Reese and her Uncle Swany

Happy all the way around!

Pooped After a Walk

Well our afternoon walk was just too much for Reese to handle!  Good thing she doesn't have to do any walking...

And the nice easy transfer to the swing for a snooze...

Reading Lesson

Kirch caught some beautiful pictures of the girls yesterday morning in their red outfits (in honor of Veteran's Day), when after a moment of posing, Quinn said, "Hold on a minute Daddy, I want to go get something."  Quinn came back with her Beatrix Potter book series and told Kirch she wanted to read to Reese.  It brought tears to Kirch's eyes - and then to mine after he told me that story.  Quinn grows to be more caring and nurturing to Reese every day and I continue to be overcome with emotion and beyond proud to have the privilege of being her mother.

 Sweet Sisters

 Let me get the page for you, Reese...

 Little Sister is very interested in what Big Sister has to say!

Too sweet for another caption...

Just an Update

Well our newest girl is growing by leaps and bounds - she has giggled for us (once), she is doing her best to hold her own bottle when Daddy feeds her, she's rolled over to her back several times, and she is just a delight to be around. And the Big Sister is also doing great! She's so mothering to Reese, she loves school, and makes me proud to be her mother. I love my girls so much it hurts...

Reese Has Found Her Voice!

Shame on me, I thought I posted this weeks ago, when I actually took this video! Reese just LOVES to squeal and chat away these days, take a look/listen!

Gaver Tree Farm, We Missed You!

What a beautiful weekend we had!  Quinn was invited to a birthday party at Gaver Tree Farm and we really had a great time.  Reese was wonderful, and let Quinn and me hang out for nearly 3 hours.  We were able to enjoy a hay ride while Reese hung back with the Birthday Girl's grandparents, Quinn picked out mini pumpkins, she played on the various jungle gyms, slides, and mazes, we looked at all the farm animals, and enjoyed some cake and pizza too!  Oh and how could I forget?  She spent most of her time on the massive jumping pillow!

Not Much New, But Some Cute Pictures!!!

Reese reached her 12 week "birthday" yesterday - and she turns her official 3 months on October 2.  Time sure does fly... 

She is growing by leaps and bounds.  She's over 12 pounds now and pushing herself straight up from a tummy position.  Oh... and she has found her voice.  MAN that girl can squeal!  She's got a smile that lights up the room and makes me proud to be her mother.  She is all charm and sass - she takes after her older sister, for sure!

Flower Girl... Part Deux

On September 4, our oldest nephew Kenny married his sweetheart, Mary.  And Quinn was a flower girl yet again!  She did absolutely fantastic and I couldn't have been more proud.  She got to stay with us at the reception for the whole evening and I swear she could've almost stolen the spotlight at times.  She was just such a good girl and other guests just fawned over her.  I have to say thank you for all of the compliments from friends and family members on her behavior - we are very honored to have such a wonderful daughter in our lives!!!

...oh and let me tell you - my girl has MOVES on the dance floor!!!

First Day on the Bus...

Well we've all established that Quinn had a great first day at school...  well, here is proof that she mastered the bus ride, too!!! 

That's our neighbor, Gabby, helping Quinn on the bus her first day.  Quinn LOVES Gabby and that helped us feel comfortable with getting her on - we needed to overcome our fears, too!



Taking the Bus

Today was Quinn's first day on the bus and she did a wonderful job getting on with Gabby and Sean, neighbors from down the street.  Pretty soon she won't need us for anything anymore, sniff sniff!  Check out my big girl!

Here I go!

Kindergartener Quinn!

Yesterday was a momentious day for our big girl!  She started kindergarten with Mrs. Reynolds!  There were no tears shed from any of the Kirchers, thank you very much :-)  We all did very well!

It was a lot of fun picking out her outfit for her first day of school.  We went round and round and finally she settled on the outfit you see in the pictures below. 

Kirch made her lunch (PB&J, Sun Chips, cookies, and a cheese stick) and we packed up her back pack and took her to school for her first day.  We made it a point to NOT go in with her, so as to not set off the anxiety.  She did great - she saw a few of her little friends from daycare and our neighborhood that helped quell any shyness she had.  We let one of the teachers take her in and she never looked back! 

I got a nice email from Mrs. Reynolds:

"I just wanted to let you know that Quinn is having a great day! She is fitting in well and seems to really enjoy being at school. She has already made a lot of friends and I am sure with the whole class here tomorrow she will make even more!"

That, I must say, made my day.  It eased my mind, knowing Quinn was fitting in and her teacher took the time to let me know it.

Tomorrow we are sending her on the bus, so there will be another picture or 2 to share then.

Dueling Criers

A couple of weeks ago I went to visit the Barron Family, who welcomed Anna Elizabeth on July 22.  Jessica and I were due 5 days apart (me on July 14, her on the 19th).  After all was said and done, I went 12 days early and she went 3 days late.  This makes the girls 20 days apart.  I must say, I got the better end of that pregnancy deal for sure!

Anyway, I took this cute little video of both of the girls fussing away.  Enjoy!

My Girls

Need I say more?

Bright Eyes

 Bubble Bath Time!

Crazy Quinn!

Love that Reese is smiling now!

Just Some New Pix

My girls...

 Do they get any cuter???

Hey, I'm adorable!!!

The new little munchkin is already 4 weeks old and gaining weight like a monster!!!  We're working on an overnight schedule, and let me tell you, I'm exhausted!  We'll get there... :)

Being the Responsible Sister

Just a very sweet video of Quinn holding her new little sister...  Enjoy!

One Big Happy Family!

Here are our first official pictures of us Kirchers as a family of four! I know this will make all 3 of my readers' eyes roll, but MAN the camera was unkind to me in these pictures! I know, I know - I just had a baby. I'll keep that in mind when I look at these pictures down the road...

Gifts for the Big Sis

Well Quinn has made quite a killing on gifts just for being a big sister to Reese since she was born! It seems that every gift that comes for Reese, there is one to follow for the Bug. They're both cleaning up pretty well - we are very lucky to have friends and family that care so much about us...

Just a few of the bags we've received...

Shades from Mike and Rachel

Quinn Welcomes Little Sister, Reese Delaney!

It's been hard to keep up on my blog - there are just not enough hours in a day, what with a full-time (very busy) job, a commute out to the boonies nowadays (which we do NOT regret one single bit), raising a 5-year-old daughter, and oh yeah - welcoming a NEW Kircher into our family!

Please welcome Reese Delaney Kircher! She was born 12 days early on July 2, 2011 at 8:23am, weighing in a 7 lbs, 2 oz, and measuring 20 inches long. She's absolutely perfect, and Big Sister Quinn couldn't be more proud :-)

I have a good set of lungs!

We've been preparing Quinn for weeks that her little brother or sister was going to arrive anytime now and she's been great. At 5 years old, she gets it - a baby is a lot of work and I'd be very busy with it when it arrived. So when my water broke at 1am Saturday morning and Kirch grabbed Quinn to take her over to our next-door-neighbors' house, she woke up and Kirch explained to her that he and Mommy were headed to the hospital to have the baby. She became aware of what was going on and ended up talking Denise's head off for an hour-and-a-half before she fell back to sleep!

Meanwhile, Kirch and I jumped in the car and headed to Holy Cross Hospital. We arrived about 3am and got checked into our room. My labor pains had subsided by then, but I was still contracting and at about 3 cm, so Dr. Newhouse let me progress on my own. By 5am the labor pains were back in full force and I requested an epidural (what, you don't think I was going to do this natural, do you?). By the time the anesthesiologist got the epidural in, I was in some pretty good pain - having contractions every 2 minutes or so and doing my best to breathe through them. After an HOUR of waiting for the medicine to kick in, it FINALLY did and I relaxed. So then from 6 to 7:30am, I waited to fully dilate and by 8am it was about time to push! I checked the clock (8:15am) and proceeded to push for 3 rounds of 3 - the last of them 7 minutes later, when our beautiful daughter came into the world! She was a great delivery - 7 1/2 hours from start to finish (2 hours shorter than Quinn) and such a nice surprise - because I thought, once again, that she was going to be a boy! Just after Reese was born, Kirch once again surprised me and told me he had known for some time that she was a girl - and had successfully kept the secret from me for the remainder of my pregnancy. I'm so thankful for his discretion - we both got what we wanted (he knew, I didn't, he wanted a girl and got her, I didn't care!)...

So since then - she's what? Five days old now? Reese has been really great and Quinn has been a wonderful sister to her. We are adjusting well as a 4-person family and look forward to having wonderful experiences together as our girls grow up together!

Daddy Daughter Fishing Excursion

Well, according to Kirch, he had the best time of his life on Saturday - and that was all due to spending the day with his best girl, Quinn (yes, I've been replaced - and that is quite ok with me!). Uncle Bill, Little Bill, Jodi and her friend Vivian all hosted Kirch and Quinn at Bill's buddy's (fully stocked) pond and Quinn had a blast. And according to Kirch and Bill, she's a natural fisherman(girl)!

Between listening to Kirch and Quinn spill out their stories in extra speedy time, I gathered that she lipped all of the fish (grabbed them by the mouth to hold them up after they were taken off the hook), put the worms on herself, caught about 6 bluegill(s?) and caught 2 monster bass! It was quite a successful day and here are a couple of pictures to show for it...

By the way, I'm the proudest mother ever right about now!

Ewwwwwe! But I'm brave!

I'm lipping this bad boy all by myself!


The whole crew...

Best picture of the day!