We made it through another year!

2008 officially arrived about 20 minutes before this posting. I personally welcome it's arrival with open arms. I love new years. I love the chance to "hit the reset" button on some areas of life and try to do better or learn from trials of previous years.



We had a spread out Christmas this year as we just did our last two Christmas "get-togethers" on Saturday, the 29th. Sara, Micah, and Aubri all got the stomach flu the weekend before Christmas. I stayed healthy until Christmas day and spent the following day in bed. Not the way I'd prefer to do Christmas, but we all survived.


We went to Sara's dad's on Christmas day, had my dad over on the 28th, and went up to Mora on the 29th to Sara's mom's Christmas and later to my mom's. It always a little bit of a whirlwind to get through it all, but I'm glad we get to see most of our family around the holidays.

We left Gavin and Aubri at my mom's until New Year's Day. It's been a much needed break to put our house back in some sort of order again. With everyone being sick and the busyness of Christmas, our house looked like it had been burglarized... and there were very few clean clothes left in our dressers and closets. So, as much as it would have been nice to rest during this time, we've been working hard to try to get ready for our kids to come back tomorrow (or later today, I guess). We also like to take some time and set goals and make schedules for the new year. We don't always accomplish what we want to do, but it's nice to have some direction.


Hopefully we can find time to blog more in the new year. It seems like we average about two blogs per quarter. Maybe we can move up to one a month! :) I added a few pictures at the link to your right. Our kids are changing so much and so quickly that it would be nice to capture more of that to share with our family and friends.


Have a happy new year everyone!!!

Trick or Treat!

Another Halloween has come and gone. We took the kids to New Hope Church where they have a big carnival type thing set up with games and food and animals and all kinds of other stuff. We stayed there for a while and let the kids do some trick or treating at a few of our neighbors' houses after that. We noticed as we were driving by our house that Sara forgot to turn off the outside light, so I'm sure we had plenty of trick or treaters stopping by when we weren't home. Poor neighbor kids :(

The fall has officially arrived and we're doing what we can to prepare for winter. I'm doing what I can to hopefully finish the basement so Sara and the kids can use that space as well. Even if I could just get some walls and doors up, it could be usable... and I could finish the detail stuff later. It's pretty close, I just need to get some electrical work done so we can start sheet rocking.

The kids are all doing well, and it's fun to watch them enter into new phases.

Gavin is very observant and is starting to ask some deep questions. It's educational for us too, because if we don't know the answer, we'll go find out. He also dreams a lot and reports his dreams to us.

Aubri talks a lot more since we've limited her "NUK" (pacifier) time. She has entered the "why" phase, where we, as parents, get to explain simple things in much more depth than we thought possible.

Micah is still a very happy and content baby. He's starting to coo and giggle more which is fun. He tries hard to roll over, but hasn't succeeded yet. It's still a rare occasion when he eats well from the bottle, so Sara has to be close by at all times. She's soaking in every minute of it though, especially knowing that this is her last baby. We feel incredibly blessed!

Gavin Takes Off the Training Wheels

Last Friday, Gavin decided he was done with training wheels. He was inspired by his neighborhood friend who's been riding bike without training wheels for a while. He asked me to take them off, so I did. We covered the elbows and knees before his test run on two wheels. He was very confident as he took off, and he rode as if he's been doing it all along. He's very excited about the whole thing as you can imagine.

He had a little trouble getting started so we'd have to give him a little push. Aubri would run after him up and down the alley and eventually she was able to help him get started by offering a little push. It was fun to watch!

There's a mini video below:

Time For Bunk Beds

So, we're a month in and still working on the family transition of having three kids. Gavin and Aubri have decided that they like having a bedroom together so we've been on the hunt for bunk beds. After missing out on a few good deals on craigslist.com and making a couple unsuccessful trips to IKEA, Sara found a good deal on new bunk beds at Shopko. Since there's no Shopko's around the metro area, we decided to take a family trip to St. Cloud. We waited until I got home from work on Friday, and then headed north. Sara wanted to take the kids to some flower gardens while we were up there. We got a few good pictures of the kids and a couple family shots........but when we weren't looking, Gavin slipped and fell into the fountain. He was not happy...
Of course we didn't bring any spare clothes for him, and we still had to get the bunk bed and drive an hour or so to get home. We dug through the mini van to see what we could find. We found another T-shirt for him in the stroller, but he had no dry shorts. All we could find for the bottom half was one of Aubri's pull-ups and a baby blanket. We tied the baby blanket around his waist, but it kept falling off.

When we got to Shopko, Sara ran in and got him a pair of shorts to wear so he didn't have to wear a baby blanket skirt in the store. We got the bunk bed and headed home. The adventures never end. :-)

Micah has arrived!!

So, after wondering if our little boy was going to show up early, he decides to show up almost a week over due! It's all in God's timing! We are so blessed to have another healthy baby in our family. He's already been easier than the first two so far, so hopefully it'll continue that way! :-)

Sara was having contractions through most of the night last Thursday. We called Sara's sister Jenna to come stay with the kids as Sara and I headed to the hospital at around 7:30 on Friday morning. Being that this is the third kid, we were both very laid back about it all and didn't really realize how close Sara was to having this baby. They checked her out at about 8 and said she was dilated to 6. They moved us quickly to a birthing room and began discussions about pain relieving medications. By the time Sara was wishing she had an epidural, the baby was already coming out. It was an intense ten minutes or so, but Sara did awesome working her way through the pain (without meds) to bring our baby boy into this world.

Jenna brought Gavin and Aubri to see their new brother later on Friday. They think he's pretty cool! Both Sara and Micah are doing well as we came home Sunday morning. Gavin and Aubri are staying with Grandma Pam for a few days while we get settled in.

Here's some of the technical info:

• Micah Josiah Fitzsimmons
• July 13th, 2007 10:39am
• 21.5 inches
• 6 lbs. 14 oz.

Yeah, we had a little difficulty choosing a name again this time around. For those of you who received the e-mail from me on Friday, you might be noticing a different middle name compared to what I sent out. The name listed above will be on the birth certificate, so it's a done deal.

We're looking forward to this new phase of life with Micah. The other kids will be back with us on Tuesday. I'm excited to see how they react to their new brother. I'll have most of this week off from work to help Sara with the transition. I'm sure we'll not be complaining about life being boring anytime soon! :-)

~Zac

p.s. click on the picture above to see other baby pics

Here's some video of the new baby as well:

Still Waiting for Baby...

Baby is Ready

We are hoping that our baby boy will show up sometime after Sunday night so our insurance will cover it. We are so thankful for all of our friends and family that have been praying for this and for a healthy baby boy. We know that no matter what happens, God is in control and has a plan for our family.

Choosing a Name

There seems to be some dispute in the house over which name to choose. The boys have one idea and the girls another. We are guessing the boys are going to win! Perhaps Aubri and I will be able to have our pick be the middle name but this is yet to be decided.

The arrival of our baby boy will be soon be posted...stay tuned! Please continue to be in prayer for a safe healthy labor and delivery.

Summer Fun

We have been doing a lot of swimming, playing at the park, and hanging out with friends as we anxiously wait for the new baby to arrive.

Our Mini Summer Vacation

At the beginning of June we were able to take a little camping trip with Zac's brother Jim and his family. Aubriella and Gavin enjoyed playing with their cousins MaKayla and Andrew. Uncle Jesse and his friend were also able to join us. The first day everyone played kickball, rode bike, played at the park, mini-golfed, had a million smores, and went swimming. The swimming part of the trip surprised us completely. Zac and the boys went ahead to swim and when they got to the pool, Zac said Gavin jumped in the deep end and swam all the way to the other side of the pool. We didn't know he could swim yet! Then, the girls were all headed to the pool when Aubriella took a bad fall on the pavement and got a bloody nose. By the time we got it to stop bleeding to be able to hop in the pool, it started down pouring and lightning. She only got to swim for about thirty seconds. However, we made up for it the second day of the trip by going to a water park.

The next day we went swimming at the Grand Rios Water Park. The kids and Zac really enjoyed it. Gavin started out going down the slides with Zac and then ventured to do it on his own. Aubriella enjoyed swimming and going down the slides with Zac. She was so exhausted that by two o'clock I went to change her clothes and she just fell dead asleep while I dressed her.

We had a great little trip. Hopefully we can do it every year.

I'm turning two June 4th!

More photos of me at: www.picasaweb.google.com/fitzspears

Coming Soon!

New Baby Boy to arrive on July 7th, 2007. Here is a recent picture of me and baby. He tends to move around the most in the evenings and night. I hope this activity in the womb isn't any indication of the pattern that will continue once he is born. I'm sure he is scared out of his mind listening to his two siblings during the day and finally relaxes enough in the evenings to cause a little ruckus of his own. We are still deciding on names for the lil' guy.

Trip to Como Zoo

We ventured off to Como Zoo today to meet up with friends. We had lunch at
the cafe and enjoyed the breezy weather as we walked around. One of our friends had
a newborn baby with and someone asked Aubri if her mommy was going to have a baby soon. She firmly answered, "no" while scrunching her eyebrows together in an angry way. Yikes...hopefully she accepts it soon. Aubri was more interested in finding
live bugs to play with and squish and pushing the stroller around instead of looking
at the animals. Gavin enjoyed teetering on top of the safety fences to give me a heart attack every once in a while. Overall, it was a fun trip, but a bit exhausting.

Please look at more pictures from the zoo by clicking on Gavin.

Potty Training

We are working on potty training Aubriella or maybe better said, she is telling us it's time. She often takes her pants and diaper off, no matter where we are, when she goes to the bathroom. Today I found her outside swinging on the swingset naked...brrr. She has gone poopie twice in the past two days on the toilet and we have been celebrating with cheering her on. She thinks it's pretty funny but has somewhat of a concerned look when the poopie falls into the toilet.

Just recently she took her poopie diaper off upstairs and I was informed by Gavin that Lizzy was eating it. I thought it was all taken care of but for some reason we couldn't get rid of the poopie smell in the room. Two days later we found a smooshed "log" in her doll crib (there is a storage unit at the end of the crib with a lid on it, she hid it nicely inside)...yuck! Ahhh...the craziness of toddler hood.