Trip to Colorado - NO KIDS!!

I finally did it! I flew out to Colorado on January 22-26th to visit Amanda and Gary -- with NO KIDS! I had told her I'd go out to visit when my baby nursing days were over. Well, that was back in August! 5 months later I finally made it to Castle Rock, CO.

Daniel took time off of work to watch the girls -- he had them all to himself for 4 1/2 days! What a guy! What a dad!! They had a slumber party on the living room floor one night (even Rebecca!), they went to Legoland at the MOA (Lillian even got to ride the "big" swings at the amusement park!), Daniel got all three ready for church and Sunday school (hair and all!), and when they picked me up at the MSP Airport at 10:00pm the girls were in their pajamas! They were in good hands while I was gone! I wish they had had a camera ...

They didn't have the camera because I took it with me. Though, I think I've come to find out that when there aren't any kids around to take pictures of, I just don't take many pictures!! I have about 10 pictures from my 4 1/2 day CO trip -- only one picture of Amanda and me (which isn't very good), none of Amanda and Gary together, and none of their home! These are some pictures that I did happen to get:

This is Castle Rock in Castle Rock, CO -- the city where Gary and Amanda live.

Amanda and I stayed at this cabin which is about 12,000 ft up in the mountains by Breckenridge, CO. It is owned by a family from their church and they let us stay for free! It was snowing a LOT so you can't see the mountains in the background.

These were the mountains that we got to see for about 30 minutes until the clouds moved in again. It was really beautiful. This was the view from the back of the cabin.

Here's my only picture of the two of us. We took it inside the cabin infront of the big picture window. Not sure why we just didn't go outside and take it!

Me at the cabin showing what an altitude of about 12,000 ft. can do to a bag of chips. That's about what I look like in the picture, too -- pregnant and puffy! HA! :)

All in all it was a GREAT trip! It was so good to see Amanda again (Gary, too!). I miss having her around but now after visiting Colorado, I can see why they like it out there! Thank you for everything, Gary and Amanda!! I can't wait until next time!!!

Fun Random Pictures

Baby, it's cooold outside!! Brrr...

I've recently started watching our neighbor girl, Vayda, about 4x's a week. She's only a few days younger than Rebecca... they could really be twins because they look so much alike! I'll be watching her until July, right up to the arrival of Baby Birx #4.

Eating lunch on Vayda's first day with us. Vayda looks like she's thinking, "What is wrong with these girls? They're so crazy!"

Rub-a-dub-dub, three giggling girls in the tub!

Singing in the tub...

Here's Abigail showing Curious George what a handsome young monkey he is in the vanity mirror.

Christmas (last Saturday) at my parent's house in Minnesota.



Not the best picture... my grandma Haglin and brother, Dan with daughter, Delaney.

Left to Right: Dad (always with camera in hand!), Serena, brother Mike, Mikayla the Indian Chief, and Susann holding Lydia.

Dan and Delaney, very cute.

Sorry to Mom, Beth and Alan... I'm not sure why I didn't get you in any pictures!

A Message from Lillian and Abigail

That's right! We're going to have a baby! YIPPEE!! I'm a little over 12 weeks along and I'm due on July 17th. The girls are very excited! Lillian's latest thing is kissing the baby (well, actually my growing belly). I'm sure they will be big helpers!

We were excited to find out over Christmas that Daniel's brother, Enoch, and wife, Sarah, are expecting their first baby come June! We're only about 4 weeks apart! Daniel's oldest brother, Nathan, and wife, Sharon, are also expecting #4 next month! Tim and Phyllis are going from 8 to 11 grandkids in a span of about 5 months! Ooftah!! :)

Anyway, we are very excited and thought you'd enjoy hearing the news too!

White House Pictures

Alisha's friend, Elise, took these pictures with her cell phone. You could bring your phone into The White House, but not your camera. Go figure. Anyway, I just thought I'd post them being I had them. Elise is the one who made it possible to get this tour of The White House. She knows people, who know people... I think that's about the only way you can get into The White House these days! She also reserved the tickets to The Washington Monument.

So, THANK YOU, ELISE! We had such a great time!!!

Sarah & Enoch, Alisha & Josh, Laura & Daniel

This is the actual front of The White House even though you always see the other side, with the rounded area in the middle, as the front in pictures. We left The White House in the big middle doors under the pavilion/canopy behind us. That's where you see the president sometimes walk down a long hallway to make a speech. We walked down that same hallway! :)

Family Visiting from Florida

After spending a little over a week in Maryland, Daniel's brother, Josh, and his wife, Alisha, and two kids, Hannah and Drew (who are from Florida) followed us back home to the cold and snowy North. They were really hoping (even praying!) to see some snow while visiting. Well, God answered their prayers! That very next morning we woke up to snow!... and lots of it! It was like a winter wonderland! It snowed off and on all day long. We ended up getting about 8-10 inches! It couldn't have been more perfect. The kids (Josh, too, I think) were VERY excited to get outside and play. We have a good size hill in our backyard so the kids took turns going down in the sled. They all had such a great time!!

Here are some pictures of playing in the snow:

Waiting to go out in the snow!



Josh helping Drew.

Drew after going down in the sled! The snow was so fluffy it just sprayed the kids in their faces!

Rebecca had a great time in the snow too! She didn't want to leave!

Drew(3), Hannah(6), Abigail(3) and Lillian(4) stopping briefly for a picture.

Come on, Drew! Let's go!

Hannah and Lillian




Daniel and Josh got the kids to make a human chain and then they pulled them around on the wood floor. They did this for quite some time!

A few days later we took the kids to a nearby park with a bigger hill for sledding. They also discovered that you could go down the normal slide and ...

... keep going past the slide, fly off the edge of the sandbox, and continue on down the icy hill!




Here's Josh going down the slide on a sled and flying off the sandbox!

Walking on water!

Abigail and Daniel




Josh, Alisha, Hannah and Drew keeping watch over the ice fishermen in the big lifeguard chair.

We had such a fun time with Josh, Alisha and the kids... it was really hard to see them go! Alisha called today from Florida and mentioned it was about 70 degrees and that they even had their windows open! It was about 10 degrees here. Why didn't we go to Florida? Next time...

Thanks for coming Josh, Alisha, Hannah and Drew! We can't wait to be with you all again!

Christmas in Maryland

What a fun Christmas we had! We drove to Daniel's parent's near Baltimore, Maryland and stayed there for a little over a week. All of Daniel's brothers and families were there for the week too. There are five boys in Daniel's family and they're scattered all over the U.S. Nathan, Sharon, and 3 (almost 4!) kids live in Pennsylvania; Josh, Alisha, and 2 kids live in sunny Florida; Enoch, Sarah, and baby-on-the-way live in sunny California; and Mark lives in Indiana. It's always very special and FUN when everyone can be together!!

I don't know how Daniel's mom does it! She is such an amazing woman! I have learned so much from her in the past 9 years that I've known her (just think how much there is still to learn in the years to come!!). She cooks fabulous (huge) meals like it's no big deal... what's another 17 mouths to feed, 3 times a day, for 7 days anyway? She made atleast 10 different kinds of Christmas cookies (there were so many I can't remember them all!)... oh, can't forget the fruit cake too! She finds time to sit and enjoy her 8 grandchildren and even sends each child home with a "travel bag" filled with little goodies to enjoy on the ride home (which, by the way, are always a big hit!). She really is a neat lady... and a GREAT mother-in-law! Thank you for ALL that you do, Phyllis!

We stayed pretty busy during our time out in Maryland. We had the opportunity to go to Washington D.C. and tour the entire first floor of The White House and see it decorated for Christmas, we went up in the Washington Monument, we walked around Arlington National Cemetary (we did this quickly because it was COLD!), and walked through the Museum of American History (we saw Dorothy's original red slippers!). I don't have pictures of any of this though because cameras were not allowed in The White House, and I left my camera in the car which we didn't go back to until our afternoon was over. Oh well.

Here are some pictures of our time at Daniel's parent's house with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins (Grandma and Grandpa, too!):

Christmas morning attempting to get a "nice" picture infront of Tim and Phyllis' (the house Daniel grew up in).

Abigail and cousin Drew working on their gingerbread house. I think these two put more of the candy in their mouths than on the house!

Auntie Alisha helping Lillian and Hannah with their house.

Auntie Sharon helping her three kids Lydia, Jacob and Sarah Beth with their gingerbread house.




The guys took all the kids to Ft. McHenry which is only a few minutes from Tim and Phyllis'. It was cold but they had a blast. See the cannons in the background?

Being they got there later, they were able to watch them lower the flag (which they do every night). I guess all the kids that were there got to take part in folding up the flag.

The Ranger (if that's what you'd call him?) picked Abigail out of the entire group of kids to hold the flag after it was all folded up. BUT, she dropped it! It does look like a big thing for a little girl to hold! She just picked it right back up and everything was okay, phew! :)

I would still like to find/get a picture of the entire Birx bunch that was taken Christmas morning and post it so you can see all of Daniel's family. Hint... Hint... So hopefully I can get that posted in the near future. We hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas!!