Birk Adventures

Dear Followers, Because of Martha's faint allusion to my super-natural powers (my lightning-speed reflexes) in her last post, I feel it is appropriate to come clean with you all - to explain to you all why you often stop and think, "there's something extraordinary about Adam." You probably won't be surprised to learn that I AM A SUPERHERO. Your suspicions are confirmed. I hope you don't feel bad for being kept in the dark for so long. I didn't even learn this fact until a few years ago. It all started in my first year of being married. Through a number of rather strange events, I realized that I wasn't exactly like other human beings. Three things opened my eyes to reality: 1. Mass Cell Growth (compare with Wolverine) There are a few spots on my body that experience massive cell proliferation in the form of hair growth. I have this one little brown spot on my arm. I am blonde, but a little black hair grows out of this spot with amazing speed. One day I...

Well, here we are again after a whirlwind month of Adam graduating, road-tripping to Texas, and moving to Springville. So first off, hooray for Adam graduating! I'm so proud of him and so happy to be on this side of law school. Not that it wasn't great--we have loved this time and are so grateful for BYU and our experiences here. But having all the stress, studying, writing, and finals behind us feels great. The week after graduation we took off for a major road-trip to Texas. Yes, everything is bigger in Texas, including the road-trips. It was a LOT of driving, but seeing family was definitely worth it. The only disastrous part was our first day. We left Provo at 2 pm, aiming to get to Albuquerque at 1 am. Mini had been sick and we debated if we should even go, but finally decided it was now or never and went for it. So poor Mini was throwing up for the first while. As soon as Adam would hear the gagging, his lightning speed reflexes would kick in. In one motion he'd grab ...

I don't think it has really sunk in yet, but Adam graduates from law school in two and a half weeks! I am so proud of him and all his hard work. After going through law school with him I am convinced I would not thrive in law school. I'm glad he has been so successful and has handled the busy-ness and pressure so well. I'm also excited because we know what we'll be doing next year. (It's a hard time to be graduating from law school and lots of his class-mates don't yet have jobs for next year.) Adam is going to be a clerk/bailiff at the Provo court next year. You can probably guess that he is way more excited for the bailiff part than the clerk part, as it includes carrying pepper spray and wearing a uniform (star included). We've heard it's about 30% bailiff and 70% clerk--he's assigned to a specific judge and goes to court when his judge is in court. Overall it will be great experience for him. Because the Wagstaffs are coming back to Provo (which ...

So finally, here are the pictures. We had a such a great time being little kids again, running from ride to ride, and just soaking in the magic of Disneyland. It really is magic for any age. Adam and I kept commenting to each other that they do such a great job of totally transporting you to another world on every ride. Adam had never been to Disneyland or California Adventure and I'd never been to C. A. It was so fun to explore them together. Adam's favorites were California Screamin' and Indiana Jones. I found a new favorite: the Storybook Canal Boats, where you see miniature replicas of the princesses castles. It was so cute! We loved the Toy Story Astro Blasters. (On about our third time riding it, the ride conveniently stopped for a couple minutes, so we racked up points and both achieved the lofty status of Ranger 1st Class.) Here's our Splash Mountain picture. Adam's face is awesome and I totally disappeared behind the girl in front of me. Neither of us volun...

I'll will be landing in sunny, 70 degree Southern California for three days at Disneyland with Adam (and just Adam). I can't wait!

Woo-hoo! Two posts in eight days! Mini's #3 birthday was last Tuesday so I'll write three of my favorite things about her: 1. She is a wonderful older sister. No one can make Emmy laugh harder than Mini. Sometimes I have to teach her how to play with Emmy safely, but she never tries to hurt her. The other day Emmy had gotten into cords and was sucking on them. Mini saw it and ran in to tell me about it because she was worried about Emmy getting hurt. 2. Her energy! Since my first ultrasound of her at 12 weeks, she has been a ball of energy! She loves to dance, run, jump, and sing. She makes everything so fun! 3. She teaches me so much more than I teach her. For example: Anne-Marie gave her a glass tea set for her birthday with darling little cups, plates, etc. A couple days after, I dropped one cup and it broke in pieces. Mini didn't throw a tantrum (like I would have), she just said, "It's OK Mommy, it's OK." She is a sweetheart! So here are the highlight...

Today I was feeding Emmy mangoes for the first time. I had the spoon in hand, then thought, "This is going to be good." So I grabbed the camera before feeding her and I'm so glad I did! I'm in love with this picture!! And now for an update. We had a fabulous Christmas vacation. We spent a lot of time with family, as all of my family was in town for Christmas, and Adam's mom and brother were over from Denmark staying in Pleasant Grove. We figured that between Adam's last final on December 18 and his first day of school January 4, we ate dinner at home 3 times. It was wonderful! We were ready to get back to a normal schedule though, as poor Mini and Emmy put up with going to bed at 11:30+ way too many times. Here are some pictures: Christmas Eve with my family--the grand kids acting out the nativity the triplets (Mini and her cousins Katie and Lucy--they're all within 6 weeks of each other) getting their treasure chests with princess dresses inside Christmas...