Birk Adventures

This has been an amazing week for our family! My sister Melissa and her husband Sammie adopted Bradley Samuel Markham on Sunday! This is the answer to so much fasting and prayer. Little Brad has already brought so much joy into the family and I'm so excited to see him grow up. This has really opened my eyes to the incredible love that surrounds an adoption and how sometimes the most selfless thing a mother can do is give her baby to someone who can give him a better life. Thank you to all the amazing parents who have made that choice.

Hello again blogging world! Time to do one of those huge catch-up-on-everything-all-at-once posts! Things are still busy but have mellowed out a little bit, as I decided to let go of the hospice job I was doing. It was just too stressful. It required a lot of during the week meetings, which infringed on Adam's schooling. And I really didn't enjoy going to sleep not knowing if the phone was going to ring. So now I'm going back to two nights/week at the hospital again. The girls are doing well. Emmy has started doing physical therapy due to tightening on the left side of her neck, which has in turn caused a flat spot. The physical therapist has given us some stretches to do at home and I honestly don't know who hates them more--Emmy or me. (I usually end up coercing Adam to do them!) I also have to check on her while she's asleep and turn her head if she's sleeping on the flat spot. (I almost laughed when the therapist said it, thinking to myself "What mother...

Here are my excuses for not blogging: no internet (finally fixed that this week) two kids two jobs Despite feeling a little crazy, life is great right now. The job search is on full strength, but for some reason I'm much less stressed this year than last. Last year I stewed and worried about where Adam's summer internship would be. Well now that we're looking for the real thing, I'm not near as worried. Kind of strange, I know. Crazy pregnancy hormones definitely played a part in that. I think it's also that things worked out so well for this summer that I've learned the Lord will provide, even if it's not in the time or way I hope. The girls are cute as ever. Yesterday Mini watched me brush my hair and put it up in a clip. When I was done she said "Mommy you look pretty." So cute! She's also doing an amazing job with potty training which we've hit really hard the last couple weeks. Emmy continues to be a little angel and I just can't g...

This is a cute video of Emmy that I uploaded about three weeks ago but never posted. It's outdated but pretty cute! (I didn't post until today--9/16 but blogger insists it's August 25 since that's the day I uploaded it. If only I understood computers better!)

My dad's family has a 60+ year tradition of going to Balboa Island in Newport Beach. We went for a week and had a great time! I love vacations for so many reasons. I love living in the same house as so much of my family. I love having so many people around wanting to play with my kids. I love eating Mom's cooking. I love playing games. I love time with Adam and my girls. And, of course, I love all the Balboa traditions: big breakfasts, tennis, sitting on the beach, playing in the waves, catching sand-crabs, walks around the island, Balboa bars, sitting on Grandma's bench, church with the family, picking out T-shirts with Larry, the fun zone with Grannie, and the list goes on. A couple highlights from this year specifically were: going to an Angels game, wetting my pants on the tennis court (thanks to my siblings being so inconsiderate as to make me laugh so hard I couldn't control myself!), seeing Suzy, Danny, and Peter (my mission trainer), and hearing a brother in chu...

I used to get bothered at people that went weeks or months without blogging. Well, now I am one of those people, which kind of bothers me. Maybe things will settle down now that Adam is back in school. Anyway, lots of great things to blog about! First of all, my girls are getting so big! Here are some ways I know they're growing up. Mini: says her own prayers can wear her hair in a ponytail or pig-tails doesn't need naps (sometimes I still try because I need it!) loves to carry a purse rode a pony all by herself And I always have her do this because it cracks me up that she's so flexible Emmy: sleeps through the night (hallelujah!) laughs reaches for things (no grabbing yet) rolls over both ways (I promise she has hair even though she looks bald here)

Life really does feel like a big game of catch-up right now: catching up on cleaning, phone calls, sleep, laundry, gardening, blogging, etc. We're doing great though and enjoying summer and the time with family and friends. Adam's brother went into the MTC last Wednesday. Way to go Andreas! The curb-side drop-off was a mess! We had two different cars so we parked up by the temple and walked him and his luggage down to the MTC to take pictures by the sign. Well, we thought we could just hug him goodbye from there and he could walk on in. WRONG! He had to be actually dropped off by one, and only one, car. So we had a very anti-climatic trek back up the hill and said bye to him by the car. I guess things are just crazy right now as they're transitioning to curb-side drop-off. Hopefully the rest of his mission goes a little more smoothly... Here we are trekking back to the car. (Notice we're walking away from the MTC and Andreas is still with us!) Poor Andreas, in his new s...