Happy Halloween!

I just wanted to wish everyone a

Happy Halloween!

Fitzgerald Family Fun

Saturday we had a fun day out with the family. The day started out with a great game of soccer. My little brother played in the last game of the season. The game that decided who would take number one in the league. It was quite an intense game that ended with a score of 4-2, Tehachapi claiming the victory. Yay, Go Tehachapi! The kids were great fun too! I think they all had a good time even though none of them really sat down long enough to watch. One of the highlights was watching my 4 year old nephew try to "feed" Preston. First of all he asked if he could hold the baby which was sweet. When Preston started to get fussy we explained to Joshua that the baby was hungry. Joshua immediately responded by lifting his shirt up and positioning the baby accordingly. We asked him what he was doing and he just kept repeating "Preston's hungry". What a sweet kid for trying to look out for his little cousin. After the game we all decided it was time to get our grub on and what better place than Costco where you can get some of the best pizza in town for a reasonable price. The pizza was great! We sure attracted quite a bit of attention though with my 2 kids and my sisters 3, all under the age of 5. It was quite interesting to say the least. The party ended with the whole gang (Mom, Dad, Nichole, Scott, Tiffany, Kory & the kids) all meeting together back at our place and just hanging out and talking. It was fun getting to see everyone in the same place. We really should have days like this more often. Kory doesn't have a blog (yet) but I wanted to tell him congratulations on the big win. I'm really proud of my little brother. He played an awesome game and I can't wait to watch him play on the High School Varsity team again this year.

Tag, You're It!

So I was tagged by my SIL, Anna, which entitles me to reveal 6 random facts about myself and then in turn I get to tag 6 people who then also get to reveal 6 random facts about themselves. So here goes....

1. This one I get from my dad. I absolutely LOVE the smell of garlic. My dad actually has a jar of crushed garlic in his refrigerator that he has had for as long as I can remember and every time I go up there I take a big whiff of it. The older it is the better it smells.

2. I hated the color pink up until the moment I found out that my first baby was a girl and then it jumped up to being my number one favorite color.

3. I can never grow bangs because I have a calic. I remember the first time someone told me I had one I thought they said "cow lick" and for a long time I thought my hair was actually like this because a cow had licked me. I know, yuck! By the way, did I mention my natural hair color is blonde.

4. Down the road when I "grow up" I want to be either a zoologist or a physical therapist. It will probably take me that much time to decide between the two. On one hand I love everything about animals and on the other hand what better job is there then helping someone learn to walk again.

5. For a brief moment in my life I contemplated joining the navy. My dad was a seamen and both of my grandpas were too. I even took the exam and passed with flying colors. It sounded like a great idea at the time but the only reason I decided against it was because even though I tested so high I still would have had to start at the bottom of the ranks.

6. My new favorite hobby is the stock market. For each of my kids my dad bought $1000 worth of the stock of our choosing. Evelyn owns 2 shares of Google and 5 shares of Yahoo. Preston owns 5 shares of Apple. I check their stocks multiple times a day and in my spare time look up other potential stocks.

7. I'm a 23 year old wife and mom of 2 children and I still love to play video games. My favorite games are RPG's or Role Playing Games for those of you that aren't in with the gaming lingo but the past year or two I've gotten more into First Person Shooters. When my kids get a little older I want to progressively start them off playing video games starting with Atari and working the way up the line so that they get the full gaming experience that I had as a kid.

OK, I didn't number these until after I had written them all and then I couldn't decide which one to get ride of so the last one's a freebe. Now the fun part. I get to tag 6 people of my choosing and I choose.... (drum roll please)

Lindsey, Nichole, Monica, Nathalie, Carla & Kathryn

Jammies

I think it's about time to buy some new jammies. What do you think?

I'm sure most of you have seen the video to this but if you haven't make sure you check out Andy's blog.

The Film Festival Awards Dinner

These past few weeks Andy has been involved with the first annual Kern Projections Film Festival. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to enter his movie, Stamped!, into the festival because of the fact that it's still in post production but he did get a chance to help out a lot behind the scenes. He volunteered his time and equipment to making the festival a success. I won't say any more because it's really Andy’s thing to write about but in return for his hard work one of the things he received was an invitation to the awards dinner and I was lucky enough to be his date. It was a huge honor to be able to go and for free nonetheless considering the dinner was $150 a plate. My sister, Nichole, was awesome enough to watch both the kids for me so Andy and I got a chance to go together with no kids. The dinner was a formal event so we got to get all dressed up. When we got there everything was decorated so fancy and elegant. It felt like what I've always imagined the after party for the Oscars to be like. When we first got there Andy introduced me to some of the people he's been working with and they were all very nice. This lady came by from the Bakersfield magazine and asked if she could take our picture. Afterwards she told us to make sure and read the December edition because we would be in it. We sat at a table with this really fun couple who also helped out with the festival, some college student volunteers, and one of the directors. Earlier in the week Andy told me all about one of the documentaries he had seen about this man and his son who traveled the world to visit every amusement park in the world. This man also collected pieces of the attractions themselves and put them all in his home. The film was called Finding Kraftland. During dinner we actually got to meet the man behind the camera and we even got a personal invitation to visit his home in Los Angeles. Our dinner was good and very pretty. I almost felt a little bad for eating it and I couldn't resist taking a picture of my salad. The evening continued and all the awards were handed out. It was a great night. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to watch any of the films this year though so hopefully they'll get a chance to replay them. I'm sure everyone did a great job. I sure enjoyed getting to meet all the people there. I can't wait until next years film festival. I'm looking forward to being able to watch some of the films and seeing Andy's movie win an award.

Catching up!

It feels like it's been a little while since I've updated my blog so I thought I'd write one and do a little catching up. So... first of all last Saturday I had to run over to the bank to pay a bill so while I was over there I decided to stop by the park and let Evelyn play for a little while.
The funny thing is we just happened to run into Richard, Emma, and Cate and we got to visit with them for a while. The Thurston girls are so cute and sweet! They were so nice to Evelyn and they all played really well together. When they left Evelyn was quite disappointed that she couldn't go with them.

A few people have asked me how things have been going since my "mother of two" post and I am proud to say that I think I may actually have a handle on things now. I certainly can't say that I'm a pro or that I ever will be for that matter but I think I've got it under control. This last week Preston was scheduled for yet another doctors appointment. Everything went quite smooth. I was up and moving at 8:00, paid a few bills and took a shower before Evelyn woke up at around 8:30. I fed Evelyn some breakfast while I got myself ready and picked out clothes for the kids. After breakfast I ran a bath and stuck both the kids in at the same time which saved me a ton of time and directly after their bath I dressed them, put shoes on everyone, packed the diaper bag and we were out the door. The whole time managing to stay completely calm and not run around like a crazy person. We managed to be right on time (that's right- "right on time"). And actually, the appointment before this one which I didn't get a chance to write about, we were "early" and I still managed to get gas on the way there. It's kinda sad because it seems like such a small thing but I'm actually pretty proud of myself. Anyway, the appointment went well. Preston is now 22 inches and weighs 11 pounds 4 ounces. He got 3 shots and he actually handled it pretty well. Luckily for me neither one of the kids have another appointment until the end of December so for now everyone gets a little bit of a break from these appointment blogs.

OK, I lied. AFTER this blog you get a break because Evelyn also had an appointment this last week. We took her to see an ophthalmologist for her eyes. A few months back Andy and I started to notice that every once in a while Evelyn's eyes would turn out and look in totally opposite directions, I think it's known as wall eyed. I looked up her symptoms and they fit under a condition known as Intermittent Strabismus. The ophthalmologist was a total waste of time. He looked at her eyes with a light for like 30 sec. and told us that they were totally normal and that there was no need to fix them unless they got a lot worse (a lot worse meaning they were stuck pointed out permanently). He also said that at that point the only way to fix them would be surgery. I asked him about vision therapy and trying to train the eye to stay straight and told him that surgery was going to be my last resort and his reply was that it was a "waste of time". His one and only solution to the problem was surgery. So basically we will NOT be going back to see him again and now I don't know what to do. I've heard that all ophthalmologist feel the same way so I don't really care to see another one of them and there is someone in town that specializes in cases like Evelyn's but of course she doesn't accept our insurance. So... I don't know, I'll probably call the insurance place again and beg them to pay for it and if not I'll just pay for it out of pocket. We'll see...

This last Saturday I took the kids to the soccer park to watch my little brother play. Kory's an awesome soccer player and an all around great athlete. He's a natural at anything sports related. He plays soccer for the older Tehachapi club team, he plays for the High School Varsity team, he runs track, does cross country, and somehow finds the time to BMX and ride dirt bikes. This Saturday he played 2 games. The first was a team from out of town that unfortunately they lost to and the second game they played against the other team from Tehachapi and they won 5-1.

Cousins

Last week my sister Nichole watched Preston & Evelyn for a few hours for me and she took some stinkin' cute pictures (I actually stole these from her blog so I hope she doesn't mind). My sister has 3 adorable little kids that all have their own little personalities. Joshua, the oldest is 3, Eliza is 23 months, and Aubrey is 5 months. They are probably 3 of the most outgoing and adventurous little kids I've ever met; even Aubrey, the baby. Evelyn gets along with them really well. She thinks Joshua is the funniest person in the whole world and it's so funny to watch them together because when Joshua laughs Evelyn laughs too. I'm still not sure whether she's laughing AT him because of funny things he does or if she's just trying to laugh WITH him. Either way it's pretty dang cute. And Evelyn & Eliza together is just trouble waiting to happen. They follow each other around taking turns being the leader looking for whatever they can get into. And last but not least, Aubrey at 5 months is ALREADY trying to bond with her little cousin, Preston. My sister was telling me that while they were at her house the other day she separated the 3 older kids from the babies so they wouldn't get run over. When she went back in the room to check on the babies Aubrey who can't quite crawl yet had somehow managed to get all the way across the room to check out Preston. What's funny too is that Preston & Aubrey, even though there is almost a four month gap in between them, are almost the same size. My niece is so little and petite and Preston is well... getting a little on the hefty side. Preston has bigger hands, bigger feet, a bigger head, and he might even weigh more. I have the cutest little nieces and nephews. My kids are so lucky to have cousins around the same age and so many too! As of now, they have 3 on my side and 17 on Andy's side.