Some Catching Up to Do

Adios Summer School!!!! Yep I finished my two summer school classes that were meant to be 16 weeks long cramped into 12 weeks.  So now it's time to catch you up on what our family I love so much has been up too.

Our backyard additions have been the highlight of our last couple of weeks.  It's exciting because for the past almost 2 years we have had a dirt backyard.  When it rained(twice a year), the dog would get all muddy and track it in the house.  All the dirt made for lots of dust and the worst was not have a kid friendly backyard for our babies to play in.  We now have curbing, sprinklers and grass.  Once it starts to cool down(after Halloween), we will get some more trees and plants in to add to the yard.  Bill and my dad will also finish building in the barbecue grill.  I'm excited to have a place for the kids to play, they love being outside, and a place we can barbecue and have family and friends over.  We are also debating what kind of play sets to set up for the kids.

Rylie is keeping busy with her two dance classes she takes each week.  She is doing great in preschool. She just turned four in April and they already moved her to the 5 year old class because she already passed their 4 year old testing for the class she was in.  She loves her brother and hates when he goes to bed at night saying,"But mommy I still want to play with bubas!"  It's not always smiles and giggles, they do battle over toys, who's sippy cup is who's and who gets to take a bath first.  Rylie loves to draw and work on her writing, counting and reading.  She loves swimming and going to "parties"(barbecues).

Liam is our crazy little boy for sure.  He is our climber, door shutter, drag the mop out, dancing, laughs at himself  little monkey!  He loves to help us do chores. He arranges dishes in the dish washer while I'm trying to load it, will sweep the carpet if he can get to the broom and loves to shut anything that's opened,  and is a good toy picker-upper.  At his 15 month well check-up, I was concerned about his speech or lack there of.  His doctor said he was behind on speech that could be contributed to almost 5 months of consistent ear infections or because he is a boy and boys tend to be slower on speech development.  He understands what we say and has kind of made up his own sign language to tell us what he wants. However, besides mama he doesn't have any other words he says.  We've been reading more to him, pronouncing what he wants when he points to it and talking and telling him every interaction we are doing with him.  He will be re-evaluated when we go back to the doctor in October.  He loves to play outside, kick the ball, stick his fingers in Leo's kennel, chase Rylie and give mommy lots of hugs!

Bill's biggest excitement has been the end of the NFL lockout! Yep it's getting ready to be football 24/7 in the Fitzgerald house.  We already ordered our Notre Dame wear for the season and got the kids Cardinal jerseys.  He is preparing for his fantasy football drafts and football season. It's going to be such a long season  fun!

So what will I be up to with my two weeks of "free time"?  Besides spending as much time with the kids as possible, I have some house projects to get completed. Decorating, organizing, etc.  I finally got our Disneyland pictures developed!  We are also preparing for our trip to Chicago in 3 1/2 weeks! I'll share more on the details of that trip later.
                                                                       Disneyland

Well that's what we've been up; trying to stay cool, working, playing with our babies, dance classes, preschool, barbecues, backyard completions, and trip planning!