Family Sledding

December Update

Looks like we're due for a post-Christmas update. We finally got some snow mid-December here in Flagstaff. We always have winter here, but it's much different than Minnesota. We never know week to week if it's going to be cold and snowy or warm and sunny. It's kind of nice... keeps the winter less depressing. We had a week of 20's and snow, then the next week it was sunny with temps of 50-60 degrees. We still had lots of snow left for Christmas though, which was nice.

Sara turned 36 on the 18th. I took off work that day and cleaned the house and did some laundry, then we got to go out to eat that evening while someone from the church watched our kids. It was nice just having uninterrupted conversation for a few hours. We ate at Wildflower and ended up staying there for about 3 1/2 hours. Simple, but a nice time.

Christmas weekend was a busy one for me as I led three services over Saturday and Sunday then another three Christmas Eve services on Monday. I was pretty beat by the end of the night. We gave the kids instructions that night at bedtime not to come out of their rooms until 7am the next morning. They were up earlier than that but they obeyed our instructions and waited 'til 7 before coming to wake us up. We took our time with the present opening and just enjoyed a laid back family Christmas. Later that evening we went to a friends' house for dinner and games and had a great time. It's difficult to be so far away from extended family this time of year, but it's much more manageable when we have such great church family to spend the holidays with.

As usual I'm excited for the new year. I'll be spending good chunks of time this week to plan, prepare, and set goals for the new year. 2012 was a pretty good year, but I have a feeling 2013 will be even better! :-) I hope you all had a merry Christmas, and I wish you all the best in the new year!

Zac turns 36!

The kids got really excited to surprise their dad for his birthday. Aubri made a crown (a manly one if course) for him. We all blew up balloons , wrote Happy Birthday on them and then hung them from the clothesline in the backyard. Can you see what he got to do? He also had to jump 36 jumps on the trampoline. We also scored some great coupons for Olive Garden so the whole family got to go out to eat. Of course we made his favorite... banana cream pie. The kids have this funny song they sing that goes with the pie called Banana Cream Pie Man. We are so blessed to have him as the head of our family.

We love you and look forward to many more sweet years with you!

Aubri's First Piano Recital

Last Saturday, Aubri had her first mini piano recital with a few other piano students. She's been taking lessons since the spring and is learning quickly. Here's a little video:

Aubri's Science Fair at School Today

Day in Phoenix

Yesterday we went to Phoenix for Aubri's doctor appointment. It was beautiful there; much warmer than Flagstaff.

Aubri's appointment went well. She's still battling the Pandas, but things are getting better. Her strep blood test numbers keep increasing though, so the specialist is suspecting that some others in the family may be strep carriers too and may be hindering her full recovery. Apparently this is fairly common. So now the boys will start taking the same probiotics and antibiotics that Aubri is and we'll check the results again in January. We still have hope that we are on the right path to eventual total recovery.

New Album From Our Church

We just released a new CD at North Point Fellowship, our home church in Flagstaff, Arizona. Mo (the guy in this video) and I took care of all the recording and mixing and co-wrote much of the album. Kahla wrote three songs on the album too. You can listen to the recordings with options to purchase on iTunes and other online digital music distributers.

 iTunes

cdbaby  (has more album notes and song details)

Micah's starting guitar lessons

Micah has been asking to take guitar lessons lately. They only last 10 minutes each and he gets a reward of a little treat at the end, but he can play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star after 3 lessons. Hmmm... we'll see if he keeps on going. So far, so good!

Gavin Rockin' the Bike Park

We've been hanging out at the skate/bike park in town and the boys love it! It's fun to watch them overcome their fears one at a time as they try to do some of the tricks the big boys are doing. I'm pretty sure this will be our Friday afternoon routine until the snow comes.

Overdue Update

It's certainly been a busy month and we're a bit overdue with an update. We were in Minnesota and South Dakota at the end of July and I finally just uploaded some pictures to the online Photo Album. We had a fun time seeing everyone from all different sides of our families. One of our friends from the School of Worship in Colorado now lives and Sioux Falls, SD and she took some great family photos for us that are also in the Photo Album.

I don't think we've blogged yet about the medical issues we've been having with Aubri over the past year and a half, but I'd like to share now as we know more and really need support in prayer. Starting last year, close to Easter, Aubri began having hallucinations, dramatic mood swings, long lasting fits of rage, and many more things that were very abnormal for her. We started by assuming it was a spiritual attack and we had people praying over her continually for quite a while. The symptoms continued and we weren't sure what to do with it, but the closest thing we could find that lined up with her symptoms was bipolar. We went through over a year of psychiatrist appointments and prescribing meds to help reduce her drastic ups and downs. All along Sara and I were not satisfied with the road were heading down with her but we were also concerned about Aubri hurting herself and felt that the meds helped to minimize the severity of the symptoms.

Sara continued to research other possibilities online and ran across something that lined up 100% with what we were dealing with. It's a condition called PANDAS. It's an auto-immune disorder that starts with strep throat. The strep starts as usual, but lives long-term and works it's way to the stomach. After that it moves to the brain and causes all kinds of strange things. As we started thinking of the time line, it all made perfect sense. As we were leaving Colorado she had strep really bad. We treated it and she seemed to get over it eventually when we moved to Arizona, but then she had stomach issues for almost 4 months where she felt sick a lot and couldn't keep much down. We thought she might need a gluten free diet or something but then she seemed to get over that too and that's when all the mental strangeness kicked in.

The hopeful side of all of this is that PANDAS is curable. It will most likely take months of some heavy-duty probiotics and antibiotics to fight off something that been at work for so long. Thankfully we found a PANDAS specialist in Phoenix, so we are able to meet with someone that has successfully dealt with and treated it in other children. The reality is that since it's only been known of for the past 20 years or so many doctors are ignorant to it or just unwilling to acknowledge its existence yet. So far we haven't noticed any major improvements but we're only a week into the treatment.

Other than that things are going great with the church and our community in Flagstaff. Aubri's doing well at her new school and Sara is homeschooling the boys. Since Sara's not working part-time anymore I'm trying to figure out what to do for some side income. I've decided to to dust off my caricature gifting that I haven't used for over a decade. I'm still building up my portfolio so I can get listed on some national and regional entertainment sites. Here are some examples I've finished so far, yet I need a few more: http://www.artistsites.org/zacfitzsimmons/

Please be praying for a quick healing for Aubri so we can get back to somewhat of a normal life. We are much more hopeful now than when we thought we were dealing with bipolar. It's amazing how God has walked with us, comforted, and strengthened us through all of this. I thank Him in advance for Aubri's healing.

Aubri's 1st Day of 2nd Grade

We decided to enroll Aubri in a private Christian school this year. Sara is still homeschooling the boys, but Aubri was expressing interest in learning outside of the home and is fighting the home learning process. We found this school but we are praying for scholarships to come through so we can afford it.

Aubri's Baptism

Last Sunday I got the incredible privilege of baptizing Aubri. The previous week, Aubri was playing Barbies with Sara and the two Barbies got into a conversation about Jesus. Afterward, Aubri said to Sara, "You know, I've never really asked Jesus to come into my heart." Sara said, "Well, would you like to do that right now?" Aubri said, "Yes" and then Sara walked her through a prayer to accept Christ into her life. It's amazing to be a part of the salvation process with our kids.

Micah at the High Dive

Micah just learned how to swim a few weeks ago and now he's jumping off the high dive. This is in Sioux Falls when we were visiting this past week.

Micah turns 5

Last Friday Micah turned 5. We just did a party with the family. Since he just learned to ride bike without training wheels and he's growing out of his little 12" starter, we decided to get him a slightly bigger bike. Here he is posing with his new wheels and Mohawk helmet.

Monkey

We don't call him "Monkey" for no reason ;-)

Micah Takes Off the Training Wheels

Last week Micah demanded that we take the training wheels off his bike. Here's a short video of that day. Since then, he has gone on long bike rides with us and has done quite well with the occasional wipeout along the way.

Micah's Preschool Graduation

Micah is officially done with preschool and Sara is done being a preschool teacher. We're planning on having her be home again full-time to homeschool our three kids. That is no easy task but it seems like the right thing for now. I'm going to re-enter the world of painted portraits and caricatures to hopefully make up for the lack of Sara's previous income. The journey continues...

Aubri's 7th Birthday

Back Home From California

We got home last night from a fun week in California. We got to see everything we planned to see, although we didn't see as much sun as we hoped to. The temp was a comfortable 70-75 most of the time, but the coast was pretty cloudy. Ten minutes away from the coast is sunny, pretty normal this time of year I guess.

The kids did great on the trip out, which was last Sunday. I was having issues with our topper not staying closed though and we lost a suitcase about 20 miles out of town. Thankfully we noticed the shadow of something large flying off the top of the van and I was able to get the suitcase and strap that held the topper lid shut. The topper itself is securely fastened to the roof rack, but we don't have the keys to lock the top so I have to use ratchet straps to hold it down. Apparently my first attempt wasn't strong enough. I re-strapped it and we were on our way again.

Monday, we went to Legoland with the Ducusin family from Flagstaff. The kids loved spending a couple days together with their kids.

The kids spent tons of time in the hotel pool and spa. Every spare moment they were in the water. Micah even learned to swim without his lifejacket while we were there.

Tuesday we went to the beach with the kids. We had fun playing in the waves, building sand castles, and trying out the boogie board.

Wednesday we went to the San Diego Zoo. That was a very impressive zoo! We all had fun (even though Micah wasn't happy about taking this picture). 

 Thursday we went to Cabrillo National Monument. There was some great views of the ocean and a lighthouse for the kids to check out.

We also stopped by a place called the La Jolla Children's Pool. It's a nice beach that was cleaned up and designed to be a kids swimming beach on the ocean, but then seals took over the space and has become a tourist attraction. It was pretty neat to see so many seals outside of a zoo.

Friday we headed home and stopped by Lake Havasu City to check out the London Bridge. Apparently this bridge was brought over from London and reconstructed in Arizona. It's a nice city, but seemed like a spring break party town so we probably won't do any family trips there.

Of course we took a couple hundred pictures, so if you want to see more you can check out the PHOTO ALBUM.  It was a fun trip, yet it's always good to be home :-)