Flashback to Thanksgiving

Alright so since this was our first Thanksgiving in Michigan I feel like I need to write it down even though it's been 3 months.

Thanksgiving this year (2013) was very different from the Thanksgivings we are used to.  To start off we were going from one celebration to the next, so we ate a lot less food this year.  Which also meant that we weren't surrounded by our families.  In fact Thanksgiving day for us was kind of weird.  We ended up needing to run to the grocery store to buy a couple of things non-Thanksgiving related, which felt so weird shopping on the holiday.  We then ended up having hot pockets and mashed potatoes for dinner.  Talk about lame and pretty funny all at the same time.

 Luckily though we had a real Thanksgiving dinner to go to the next day.  Well I thought it was going to be dinner but found out a couple of hours before that the "dinner" was actually an early lunch.  Yikes.  Needless to say my plans of baking a pie went out the window and costco came to the rescue with their delicious pumpkin pie.  Mmmm.  So this dinner was with our friends and their family.  We were kind of the odd balls out not knowing anyone other than Ryan and Jess and we sat at the extra table with just Ryan cause there wasn't room on the big table but that's ok.  We got to know the others a little bit and had a good day.  The food was delicious and we enjoyed ourselves.

Oh I almost forgot.  Chase had a corvette over the holiday and because we got a nice snow storm on Thanksgiving day we were a little stranded at home because both the corvette and Chase's car didn't have snow tires and my car was locked up in GM's parking lot.  Ooops.  That's alright though because the rest of the time we had the car the roads weren't slick so we were able to have some fun driving it.  I even got to drive it and I felt so cool :) haha

So that was our 2013's Thanksgiving in a quick rundown :)

Michigan and Winter

I'm not one to complain about winter, because honestly I love all of the seasons.  However living out in Michigan I'm getting really sick of winter.  I want warmer weather so that I can be outside soaking up the sunshine.  I'm tired of hibernating and hardly seeing the sun (the sun seems to be always hidden behind a gray sky)! I feel this way because I feel like there is nothing to do during the winter in Michigan.  Yeah sure I could go skiing on their bunny hill, if I wanted to drive a few hours north.  Maybe I could've bought myself a pair of ice-skates since the great lakes are 92% frozen.  Speaking of frozen lakes, maybe I could've gone ice fishing, but in all honesty though non of those sound fun!  They don't appeal to me and quite frankly I haven't wanted to be outside in the negative temperatures this winter.  What I'm trying to say without offending my new state is that it's a boring winter state.  Plus it doesn't help when we ask people who are from Michigan on what to do during winter and they can't tell us anything, (unless of course we want to drive a few hours north).  Needless to say Michigan you and I are starting to get on bad terms, so you better bring warm weather and sunshine my way so that we can get back on good terms.

Oh Baby

Ok so for the few people that I actually know who read my blog this is for you because I'm sure you've been waiting for it ;)

(While writing this post I couldn't decide on how many details to include.  Having a baby is a very personal decision between a husband, a wife and Heavenly Father and nobody else.  For that reason I couldn't decide on how much to share with everyone.  However knowing that I use this blog as a journal and knowing that anyone from anywhere can read my blog I came to my decision.)

Baby News!

Alright lets start from the beginning.  When Chase and I got married we decided that we wanted to wait to start our family until Chase was done with school.  This way if it all worked out as we wanted I could be a stay at home mom and we wouldn't have to figure out the whole babysitting fun.  I'm especially grateful we waited because looking back being away from my baby for 10 hours a day sounds painful to me.

So school was nearing an end and of course we were getting the pressure, but it still wasn't right.  Good thing it's our decision and not everybody else's.  So we continued on our way living in Michigan knowing that it would happen sometime soon but when, we didn't know.  Until one day Chase and I were talking and we decided that now was a good time to start our family.

YES, I'm a nerd and had to document us making this decision. 

Which brings us to where we are now.  Surprisingly to me we got pregnant pretty darn easy.  I have always had a worry in the back of my head that we would have a hard time getting pregnant.  This worry of mine comes from the fact of knowing many couples who are dealing with this struggle.  My heart aches for them because I know it must be hard watching others get pregnant.  So like I said I worried we would be in the same boat, which is why I was surprised.
The day I found out I had woke up in the morning and couldn't help myself and just had to pee on a stick to know.  I knew the test could be negative since I was too impatient to wait for a missed period.  But lo and behold it said I was pregnant, so of course I had to take another test.

 I had many emotions run through my head, but most of all I just couldn't believe that I was actually pregnant.  I decided I was going to tell Chase once he was done with work and at home.  I knew we would be keeping it a secret so I didn't want to call him up while he was at work.  Right after finding out I was pregnant I headed out the door to go running and take a few pictures with my friend Danielle.  Man was that hard keeping such a big secret!
Since I had taken pictures that day I figured I'd tell Chase I had a picture to show him.  He came home and I told him to look through my pictures on the camera and then to come see the picture I took with my phone.  Ha, like a phone can take a better picture than a camera.  Anyway, he came to look at my phone, saw my picture and kept on scrolling through.  Haha I laughed and said "really?" and went back to the picture and told him to read it.  He had thought it was just something I had found on pinterest.  Once I told him to look at it again he got excited and also couldn't believe that we were going to have a baby.  He laughed and mentioned that it probably wasn't the reaction I had been hoping for since he just scrolled on by the picture :) I mainly thought it was funny that he just scrolled on by.

So we knew based off of the online calculators that we would be having a baby in July.  We then had to decide when we would tell our families and friends.  We figured that since we would be going out to Utah in December that, that would be our best time.  It was however a little earlier than I wanted to tell but we figured they wouldn't be very happy with us if we didn't mention anything and then a few weeks later spilled the beans.  Since we told earlier than wanted everyone was sworn to secrecy until I said they could talk.  From what I've heard the parents did a really good job at keeping the secret.  The siblings on the other hand….. I have no idea if they were good or bad.  Everyone else found out once I had reached the 2nd trimester.
So there we have it the news of baby Birks coming around July 17th 2014! :D

House

Alright so in November Chase and I began really looking at houses again.  We had ourselves a new agent and were searching in relatively new areas.  One of the houses we wanted to see was in a town called New Baltimore, Chase found it because it has a 5 car garage.  AND since he's a car guy with a Porsche sitting in Utah waiting to have a full restoration done, then of course we HAD to see it ;)  I wasn't being of much help during the whole -searching for houses online to look at in person- process, I couldn't really say no.  Well it's a good thing because after looking at it we decided that we would be happy with putting an offer on it.  So the next day we let our agent know and lo and behold if we wanted to make an offer it had to be in by 5pm that day because the house already had an offer on it and the listing agent and his client were making their decision at 5!  Holy crap, talk about pressure!  We had been hoping to be able to negotiate and what not but instead we had to make the decisions lickity split.  To add pressure we were babysitting that same night which put another time crunch on us.  Well thankfully we got it all done, even if it included taking our printer/scanner over to our friends house so we could send papers while we babysat.
So we put in our offer and wala they accepted ours, not without countering ours though of course, to which we countered back.
Anyway long story short.  We closed on the house 11/25/13 and had keys to our new home.  We didn't end up moving in until 12/14/13 though because we went to Utah right after Thanksgiving.  Which meant that we got home from Utah and ended up packing up the apartment in 1 day so that we could move the next.  It was a whirlwind but we were glad we got it done.  Poor Chase ended up doing most of the work since I was pregnant, not feeling great and so forth.  The day we moved a big snow storm decided to help us out ;)  Which moving with a lot of snow and having white-ish carpet in both the apartment and house sure made me happy for wet shoes.  Anyway with the help of a couple guys from the ward we got ourselves moved out and then moved in.
Having the house has been really nice.  Being a home owner is a little stressful just because were now in charge of everything.  But so far it seems to all be worth it.  Plus we have a lot of extra bedrooms right now so having company visit is fun :)

Come Unto Christ

I saw the following video on Facebook, shared by a friend.  This video might be the theme for our youth this year but boy did it hit home for me as well.  While watching, the tears just started to flow, my heart became heavy and I knew that I needed this video for myself.  It's been bothering me that I know my Heavenly Father is there for me and always is yet I let my laziness get in the way of seeking him.  I allowed myself to become lax in saying my prayers, reading my scriptures, writing in my journal and so forth that it all just became a little too distant for me.  It was always in the back of my head that I knew I needed all of these but lazy overpowered and I got into a bad habit.  Well like I said earlier my actions have been bothering me because I know my Heavenly Father is waiting for me to make my move.  Not only do I need him during my struggles I need him in my everyday life and he wants me to need him!
Watching this video just solidified what I already know, I Morgan need to come unto Christ.  

 So with this being the youth's mutual theme this year, it is also going to be mine :)

A Really Late Visitors Part 2

Better late than never!  Right?  Well here's the rest of the trip……

Saturday we headed up to a little town called Frankenmuth.  This is a German based town so of course we had to go up there.  First we went to Bronners, which is apparently the largest Christmas store (or so they stay).  I'll admit though it was huge and a bit overwhelming.

 After spending a good amount of time in the store we headed over to the shops.  We first had to get food, which took us forever to decide on where we were going to eat haha.  Luckily we ended up with deliciousness ;)  I think it's safe to say that a favorite part of the shops was watching fudge be made & of course eating it too.  Ah man I could go for some of that delicious rich goodness right about now.  Long day made short, we wandered through a lot of stores add mainly enjoyed each others company while making our feet tired.

Sunday we went to church and it was a miracle that we made it on time because church started at 9 am and we hadn't been getting going that early all week.  Well, after church and Chases meetings we went to Stoney Creek so that Chase could take Carissa's senior pictures.  He may not want to take pictures these days but it's a good thing he agreed because he's truly wonderful at it.

And of course with a camera out Kathy and I ended up with our pictures taken as well ;)

With Monday being the last day we made sure to hit up all of the last spots.  First we went to the cider mill for apple juice and donuts.  The bees were driving us crazy so we made it quick.

 Afterwards we did a drive by past Chase's work so that the fam could see where he works.  We couldn't go in so we all settled for a drive by :)  Then it was back to the apartment to pack so we could head to the airport after our next couple of stops which included sight seeing at the Detroit Temple and then lunch.

Chase and I had to make sure that we stopped at Vinsetta Garage for lunch since they have the best burgers and the restaurant is an old garage shop so the place is just all around awesome (even though it's super loud when it's full of people).

Yes we had to take a picture of the penny floor! 

 After lunch we had some time to burn so Chase decided that we would drive down towards 8 mile to find a neighborhood that's supposed to be nice.  Haha well we ended up getting scared looking for this neighborhood and turning around as fast as we could.

After dropping them off it was nice to be just Chase and I again, but shortly after we missed having our family around.  We loved getting to show them our home and most of all enjoyed their company!  Can't wait for our next visitors ;) hint, hint.

Our First Visitors 10/9 - 10/14

When we found out that we would be moving to Michigan, Kathy aka Mom Birks decided that they were going to buy tickets right then to come out and visit us.  It was exciting knowing that we would have visitors, before we had even moved.

Now onto the fun stuff :)

Thursday started off with Chase and I meeting with our new realtor to see a house.  I would've preferred to have gone another time but we didn't have a lot of options in our busy schedules, so the family was nice enough to tag along.  We then headed downtown to go to the GM Renaissance Center.  We made it just in time for a tour of the building which was really cool.  We learned a lot about the building and of the city.

We took an elevator up the tallest tower so some of the views below are from up there :)

 We of course were starving by the time it was over, so we bought some grub and took it outside to sit by the river walk and enjoy the lovely weather (they picked the perfect week to come.)

 Afterwards we walked up & down the river walk enjoying our relaxing time taking pictures and gawking over the fact that we could see people in Canada :)

 About the time we decided we were done we knew the freeway would be crazy with traffic so we hung out a little bit longer.  Detroit has something they call the people mover which is an above ground subway, it only cost $.25 so we said what they heck why not.  I'm actually really glad we took a ride around the city because it was a fun way to see a whole bunch of the buildings and the city.

 We then headed home, but rather than taking the freeway we took the "scenic" route.  I wanted to go this way because I wanted to see the drastic change from rundown Detroit to Gross Pointe, which is a city that has million dollar houses and it literally boarders Detroit.  Oh my gosh the houses were gorgeous!  We were definitely drooling over the houses that had water front property or that had the view of the lake out from their house.  I could live there ;) If only we were that rich.

Who wouldn't want that view :)

Oh and how could I forget!  This day started Carissa's daily pics to her friend back home :)  I think the only pictures I took during the entire week was of her :)

Once we got home us girls had to shopping for food so that we could eat while they were here.  I didn't want to plan meals ahead of time because I wanted their opinions on what we were eating.  As we were shopping it was brought to my attention that I had them going home at the wrong time.  Good thing we got that all sorted out before monday because I would've dropped them off at 5am rather than 5pm oops.

Friday we started the day eating pretty late because we had all stayed up really late (well according to our time) and then they weren't used to Michigan time yet.  Haha when I think about it, I don't think we every got going very early in the morning except for church.  Alright onto our day.  We decided to head down to the Henry Ford Museum, since Gary wanted to meet up during their trip for dinner.  It was funny to see them all react over the museum because I totally remember feeling the same way when I first walked in.  Just to set the stage for you, the building is old and gorgeous and then the halls have magnificent chandeliers and then you walk into to museum section and the first thing you see is a real plane hanging from the ceiling.  Needless to say it's a pretty impressive place.  We spent hours looking at almost everything.  Some things took longer than others wanted but we didn't want to completely leave each other ;)  We were finally coming to the last area when we were told we had to leave :(  What a bummer!  Carissa really wanted to see the dymaxion house which is a circular house but it was closed and they told us to leave.  Haha we even got some ladies panties in a bunch because even though we knew it was closed and couldn't walk through it we wanted to see the outside.  She got all huffy and puffy and kept telling us it was closed.  The boys told her we knew and kept on looking anyway.

The plane you see when entering the building

To be honest she wasn't that bad. 

 Well after a fun and tiring 5-ish hours and we were told the place was closed, we headed over to Pat and Gary's to meet up for dinner.  We headed to some restaurant and I told Ric, Kathy and Carissa that they could order anything but that they had to eat a coney dog while they were in Michigan.  I promise I'll only make you eat it once ;)  Speaking of Coney Dog's I'd really like to know why people love them so much.  I mean honestly all it is, is a dang chili dog with onions and mustard on it.  This state is really missing out on some good food like, ahem, Cafe Rio.  Ok back to our night.  We sat and chatted over our coney dogs for awhile and then headed for home.  It was a lovely day and we were all ready to put our feet up and enjoy a movie.