Miranda’s Birthday

I am a little behind on blogging – surprise, surprise.  I’ll start with a post about Miranda’s birthday.  Sorry in advance for all the pictures!  Miranda turned 3 on Feburary 17.  Leonard went fishing all day that day and I had to work that night.  Not very exciting for a three year old – but we made it up to her over the weekend when the Stephan’s came to visit.  We celebrated her birthday on Saturday, Feburary 19.  We woke up early and made a birthday cake.  She helped me and loved licking the beaters.  Then we got her all dressed up for the party – she INSISTED on green ribbons for her hair.  Not really sure why but it’s HER birthday!  When the cake was cooled, she helped me decorate – and decorate she did! 

She wanted a chocolate cake with pink – whatever that means.  We settled on chocolate cake with pink sprinkles – or sparkles as Miranda called them.  I think she liked the stars the best

Isn’t it a beautiful 3-year old cake?

She could hardly stand the wait until after lunch when the party was set to start.  FINALLY the time arrived and everyone showed up ready to celebrate Miranda!

Funny thing was, she didn’t want any cake!  Just ice cream – silly girl!  She had a good time.   She got some great outfits, a cool card table that has a dry erase top, some playdoh, some bubbles, and a princess dress-up treasure box.  What a spoiled (or blessed!) little girl!  We love you Miranda May!

The next FitzSimmons will be a…..

GIRL!!!! It’s true.  We found out yesterday that we are having a baby girl!  We are really excited. Sorry if many of you feel out of the loop.  We actually didn’t tell anyone until last week that we were even pregnant – unless they specifically asked (we couldn’t lie, could we?!)  Anyway, most everyone was in the dark until last week and the news is spreading like wildfire!  I thought I would confirm all the rumors and say that we are extremely excited to welcome baby girl #3 in July. 

I would post a really cute ultrasound picture here but after my appointment, we stopped at Neil & Kay’s to pick up Miranda from being babysat by grandpa.  When I went to show Miranda the pictures of the baby -- they were not in my purse!  I looked all over for them and even called the Doctor’s office to see if someone turned them in … to no avail.  I was pretty bummed.  We even had a couple of 3D pictures!  I never had them with my other kids so that was kinda fun – and now I can’t show them to anyone!

We broke the news to the kids about their new sister when they came home from school.  They knew we were having a baby (we told them on Valentine’s day) and they knew the appointment was yesterday.  They walked in the door and said, “What is it?  A boy or a girl?”  Leonard said, “Yep, one of those!”  So they asked Miranda, “Is it a boy or a girl?”  Miranda looks up and says, “a girl baby.”   They were a little shocked – “Really?!” Kaydra asked.  When we confirmed the truth, Kanyon fell to the floor in tears.  He had been praying for a little brother every night this week.  I know that he is disappointed but I also know that this little girl is meant to join our family and that we will love her with all our might.  I also know that she is going to love her big brother.  I also know that Miranda is going to love having a little sister to play dress-up and dolls with.   I started talking about the ultrasound and how we could see her move, kick and even open and close her mouth!  They seemed to warm up a little bit. 

Sorry to my little girl who may read this one day and feel sad – Don’t feel sad!  I knew the moment I saw you on that screen that it didn’t matter what gender you were – you were ours and we were in love with you from the beginning.  You are a gift from our Heavenly Father and we will cherish every moment we have to spend with you!  Welcome to the family little princess!

P.S.  I think I fixed my comment problem so leave a comment and see if the issue some people were having is fixed -- if not, email me please!  fitzlb0898@gmail.com

Three Projects and a Wedding

I have hit a blogging slump lately and I know that I will regret it at the end of the year when I start to put together the book for 2011.  I need to get motivated again somehow!  I’ll start with a catch up post. 

My brother-in-law, Kelly was married to Sara Turner in December.  We were able to drive to Twin Falls for a very short weekend trip to see them sealed in the Twin Falls temple.  It was a beautiful wedding ceremony and they were both so happy.  We are very happy for both of them and are really excited to have Sara join our family.  Here are some pictures of them coming out of the temple ….. Don’t they look happy?!!! 

Kelly and Sara asked us to host an open house for them here in Coeur d ‘Alene at our new home.  We were exited to have it here but we also knew that we had to get a few unfinished things completed before we had a bunch of people over.  It was good motivation for us to get some things done around the house. 

Leonard finished up some trim work that had never been finished.  There were a few pieces of trim on the island that he put up and he put up the rest of the baseboards and some of the trim around the doors in the hall, the bedroom, the pantry, and in the half-bathroom on the main floor.  I am really enjoying the old doors and trim work from the old farmhouse -- lovingly called “Grandma’s house”-- here on the farm.  The house was built in 1902 and as far as we know, the trim is original.  I was a little leery at first to use the old wood but it looks beautiful and adds so much character to our home.  It’s probably the one thing that people comment on the most – and now that it’s finished, it looks even better!

Here is the laundry door (on the left) and the half-bath door with trim complete!

Here is our bedroom door (on the left) and the pantry door – it has an elk scene etched into the glass:

We even kept the same door knobs and hardware – I think they are beautiful. 

While he was working on trim, I worked on putting slate on the backsplash of our kitchen.  We had a hard time deciding what kind of backsplash to put in the kitchen.  We didn’t like the tile that we put in the bathrooms because the countertop is a different color and it just didn’t look right.  We had pretty much decided to just leave it painted for now – in fact, we took all the tile stuff back to my parents when we were there for the wedding.  While we were there, Len went to visit a few friends from his old work and one of them showed him some pictures of their new kitchen which had slate as a backsplash and he thought it looked great.  So….we loaded up the tile saw that we had just returned and headed back to Coeur d’Alene.  I cut and set all the slate and Len grouted it one morning – I hate grouting!  We love the new look!  It really makes the kitchen look awesome!

The pictures don’t do it justice, but you get the idea:

Before:After:

The third “getting ready” project happened because Michelle came to stay with me to help me clean and get ready for the open house.  I was so grateful to have her there.  She was really hard worker and my house was spotless for the open house because of her.  While she was here, she helped me recover my dining room chairs!  They had this beige fabric (that I never really liked) on them with so much dirt and grime that it made you not want to sit on them!  I found some fabric that I love and we recovered them on Friday night – the night before the open house.

They look SO much better and the best part is, I got to keep them even after the open house was over!  Thanks again Michelle!

I think that’s all for now – it tells what we were doing the first couple weeks of January.  The open house was a success and we were happy to do it for them.  Congratulations again Kelly and Sara!