Merry Christmas Everyone!

We didn't really get around to sending out a Christmas card this year, so this will have to do. :)

It's been another eventful year for us. Gavin started kindergarten, Aubri started preschool, and Micah started being mischievous (just like his older siblings). It is so fun watching our kids' little personalities develop! So much changes in a year's time... especially with kids.

We've spread out our Christmas get-togethers over a few weeks, which is kind of nice not having to cram them all into a day or two. It's easier to soak in the "Christmas Spirit" when you're not completely overwhelmed. Sara and I will even get a couple days away by ourselves to a bed and breakfast on the 26th and 27th (thanks to Steph and Maggie, Sara's cousins, who will be watching the kids).

I wish you all a very merry Christmas with safe travels and a good time hanging out with family and friends!

Thankful!

(It's like one of those grade school thankful lists, but that's how I feel this morning)

I am thankful that:

My kids have so many clothes to wear from the people that pass them down to us.

That we have a cozy home to be in away from the snow.

That I am able to stay home with my children and really capture their milestones and simple everyday delights.

That I have a husband who truly loves me and is devoted to me.

That we are all healthy-Praise God for that.

That we have a gazillion Christmas parties to attend. I guess that means we have a lot of family!

I'm thankful for my sister who cuts all of our hair for FREE and colors mine so I don't feel so frumpy!

For close real friends that I can share anything with.

For a God that saves us all even though we sin all the time!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Everyday Celebrations!

Who would do that? Only a Mom!

We were all sick over Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, it's beginning to be a trend each year. It seems to alternate Thanksgiving or Christmas. Anyhow, I let Zac's mom know that we wouldn't be making it up north for Thanksgiving and she said she would bring Thanksgiving to us then. So she came down and cooked us an entire traditional Thanksgiving meal. It was so thoughtful and made us truly thankful for family. Later that night Zac and I ended up really sick again (puking). :( I think we are all over it now.

A 3 Year Old Threat

Ever since Aubri was born I've referred to her as my "Princess". There's nothing incredibly original about that term, but it seems like it's the one that always gets used. I suppose, if I think about it, I don't usually use that term when she's being a stinker... it's what I call her when we're getting along well. I think she's picked up on that a bit because now she's starting to use it against me. When I won't let her have her way about something, she'll say, "Well, I'm not gonna be your princess anymore then!" Then, I'll jokingly argue with her, "Oh, but you'll ALWAYS be my princess." We'll go back and forth for a while until she forgets about what she couldn't have her way with. It always makes me chuckle. She has been using this tactic for the past month or so. I guess there's worse threats that could be made by a 3 year old:)

Three Days Away From All Responsibilities!

On the weekend after my birthday (Nov. 7-9), Sara gave me permission to have a "weekend away" to do whatever I wanted. I've been begging for such a thing for years, but it was hard to make it work in the past. Either we were at a tough phase with one or more of our kids, or unreliable employees kept me from taking consecutive days off. Now that things are somewhat in order, I was able to get away for a little bit.

My dad was out of town for the weekend, so he allowed me to use his home in NE Mpls to do some home recording. I keep writing songs (usually at work), but rarely have the time to record the songs. The recordings I do aren't great quality, but it's a good way for me to hear all the parts together that I hear in my head... and it also helps me from forgetting the songs ever existed.

If you'd like to take a listen to what I recorded, I've posted them at a few places online:

www.myspace.com/zzf

www.shoutlife.com/zacfitzsimmons

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zac-Fitzsimmons/34510732053

The picture I posted was taken late Saturday night. At this point, I had been under headphones for over 24 hours in the previous 2 days. I was beginning to lose my mind at this point. (not really, but I was really feeling withdrawn from the outside world at this point :) I waited 'til Sunday morning to mix the tracks, but I think I could have benefited from waiting a few days before doing the mixing since my ears were still a little fatigued. I'll have to build up my endurance somehow before I enter into another power recording session again.

It was indeed a lot of fun though, and I hope to make it a yearly tradition. Who knows what next year at this time will look like.

Happy Birthday!

(Picture compliments of Gavin Fitzsimmons)

Happy Birthday to my perfect companion! There is no doubt in my mind that God had it planned out for us to be together so many years ago. Sometimes I’m taken back by the love I feel for you. And even though the daily stresses of life can take their toll, I still desire to kiss that gorgeous face of yours more than a few times a day. You possess remarkable character qualities and keep our family grounded through the ups and downs. The Lord has gifted me with an amazing and talented husband to share my life with. I’m so thankful that you are such a man of God, you seek his will for your life and our family’s.
You also do so many special and cute things with the kids that are unique to our family. Our current favorite is when you take them to “elbow camp” because laughter can be heard throughout the house.

Aubri asked me the other day, “If you love daddy so much, did you want to marry him again? Do you has tears in yours eyes because you love him so much mommy?” Absolutely.

Happy Birthday to you Zachariah Z Fitzsimmons!

Halloween

Carving Pumpkins with Daddy and Papa Steve

The kids had a great time carving pumpkins. Gavin had some small intricate designs planned out until he learned how difficult pumpkin carving can be. He then decided on a bigger design of a bat (for Batman) carved in one side of the pumpkin and a face on the other. Micah even got into it a bit. Well, he mainly tried to bite out chunks of pumpkin, it probably felt good on his gums and teeth. During the process, Micah went downstairs to the dress up clothes and carried up his little frog costume Auntie Kari got him. Then he grunted to let us know he wanted it on. I don't think he realizes the that pumpkins and dressing up go hand in hand but it was cute nevertheless.

A Day at the Apple Orchard

We spent a few hours at the apple orchard in Minnetonka last week and we had a great time. It was a perfect fall day to enjoy the colors, the crisp air, and time together. Click on the photo album to see some pictures:

Apple Orchard 2008

Born to Be Wild

Micah's been doing this thing for the past few months where he'll start groovin' to any music being played. Sometimes he's head-banging, sometimes he dances, sometimes he just closes his eyes and sways his head from side to side. It's pretty entertaining, but we've failed in our attempts to get it on video. He usually exits his "groove" once he realizes someone is watching him. Here's a very short video that catches his switching from head-banger mode to some sort of interpretive dance. Enjoy!

New Policy

I recently started substitute teaching. Yesterday I had the opportunity to sub for my friend who teaches a High-5 class. A little girl in her class kept itching her head. After being sent to the nurse, it was confirmed that she had lice. However, they decided to send her back to the classroom because the nurse said that their new policy was to not exclude anyone. Hmmm????? I see a story for the 10:00 news brewing. GROSS! What are they thinking? She was rubbing up against my leg during circle time too....yuck. How kind of them! They don't want to exclude anyone so everyone gets the opportunity to get lice.

Introduction To Dodgeball

Zac decided to play a little dodgeball tonight with Gavin. Gavin got smacked in the face, which knocked out his tooth that is now MIA. He doesn't know if he swallowed it or spit it out without thinking.

Short but Sweet!

We signed Aubriella up for dance class. It was a nightmare! She cried the whole way there because she was so tired. On some occasions she would fall asleep and we would wake her up. She would then proceed into the dance class looking dazed and confused. After attempting some of the steps she eventually would just analyze what everyone was wearing. We haven't decided if she was: a. too young for dance b. too introverted for such a class at this age c. not a dancer at all d. all of the above. Her hands or leotard would be all wet after class from sucking on them. That was enough to put Zac over the edge and say..."We are done with dance class!". O'well. It reminded me of a quote from a movie that Zac and I recently saw where the main actress said, "When are you going to learn that TOTS CAN'T skate?". I guess that might apply to dancing too. For now we will just stick to the twirling in the living room, which is much cheaper and easier on everyone.

I never thought the day would come...

I think I started the project of finishing the basement over two years ago. It was finally finished about a week ago. We had help from a variety of friends and family along the way, plus a couple contractors. We're very pleased with the results and we finally have a place to store all the kids' stuff. I believe we're still going to put our house up for sale this fall, though. Even with a great play room, we're still lacking bedrooms that make sense for our phase of life. It's still plenty livable if we don't sell right away, but I'm sure there are plenty of houses out there that would suit our needs a little better.

Here's a mini virtual tour of the "new" basement:

State Fair 2008

This is a little out of order, but here are some pictures from the State Fair a couple weeks ago:

(click on the picture to see more pictures)

Gavin's First Day of School

Science in our Backyard

There was a gigantic web connected to our house the other day. We decided to leave it and look at the wonder of the web. This unlucky dragonfly was caught and we had the privilege of watching the spider wrap her web around it and then suck the juice out of it for dinner. Aubri's reaction, "Cool! That's so awesome." Gavin was really hoping it would be a radioactive spider that would bite him. No such luck so far.

The next day we were able to watch this beetle morph out of its' shell. Gavin noticed the changes in the wings each time we looked at it. It finally flew away once it turned dark.

Pretty cool disgusting stuff.

We are also working on our own ant farm. No tunnels yet but hopefully they will appear in the next few days.

She loves me yeah yeah yeah

Strategic Bedtime Routine

Lately we've been getting more sleep than usual. Micah's finally sleeping through the night and Aubri sleeps through the night most of the time. Gavin always sleeps like a rock. The bedtime routine has been an experiment since day one and is constantly evolving depending on the phase of the particular kid, and of course it got more complicated as we added more kids. Aubri is still the trickiest one of the bunch as she has my sleeping disorder of being a night owl and an insomniac. We've started attempting to have her skip naps, which makes it easier at bedtime, although she starts the "melt-down" at about 4pm on those days.

Once a week, Sara gets away from the house for an evening, and I get the privilege of attempting to get all three kids to sleep before insanity sets in. My routine sometimes hinges on whether or not Aubri took a nap that day. If she napped, she's the last one to go to bed; if not, she's usually the first.

On my most recent attempt, it was a day that Aubri napped. My plan then is to get Gavin in bed by 8pm, and make sure he's sleeping by 9 before I put Micah in there (they share a room). If I ever put Micah in there before Gavin has entered his deep slumber, my plans fail. So by 9 (usually), I then get Micah in his jammies and feed him a bottle in his room. This usually only takes 10-15 minutes and I make sure to get a video going for Aubri so we don't have any abrupt interruptions.

So I pushed in the VHS tape on the VCR for Aubri and headed to the bedroom with Micah. During this time, Sara came home and saw Aubri working out to a Kathy Ireland workout video! Apparently I didn't look at what video was in the player. She quickly grabbed the camera and got a little bit of footage before Aubri spotted her:

Has anyone ever washed their cell phone?

On Sunday, I accidentally left my cell phone in my pocket of the shorts I threw in the wash. I remembered where my phone was by the time the load was done. I was certain that I'd be forced to buy another. I dug up one of our "old" cell phones and charged it up so that maybe I could get the service changed to that phone.

Later on Sunday night, after several attempts to get my "cleaned" phone working, I decided to plug it in to the battery charger. To my surprise, it turned on and works perfectly. In an age where most electronics are built to "self-destruct" or be outdated in a year or two, I'm impressed with the abuse my cell phone can endure.

Happy Birthday Grandma Pam!

Gavin worked hard on the letters and Aubri colored the balloons and drew you updside down...I think that's the creative side of her.

We love you!