Audrey Claire our Little Gymnast

As most of you know Audrey has found "her thing" she loves gymnastics. She loves to flip and do cart wheels all the time- and while most of the time this drives me crazy I love it when I get to watch her once a week at gymnastics. My friend Candy Clinton described it best when she said Audrey is just a rubber band, and thats the truth. Her coach at Seal has told us what a great job she has done - He said she has a lot of natural ability and that she tries very hard. Tuesdays from 4 to 5 o'clock are the highlight of our week. Last week Coach Robert asked if she would be able to come to Citizens Bank to perform for the employees and a few people in the community so she and a few other kids tumbled and put on a short show - she was so excited and she did great. We are so proud of her and are so happy she has found something she loves.

Ben wise man or wise guy?

Ben had his Christmas play this week and may I say he is just the cutest and sweetest wise man you have ever seen. He is so fun and I have really enjoyed him lately - now don't get me wrong he is a hand full but he is so sweet. He is counting down the days until Christmas and asks every day if we can open presents yet. My Granny would tell me I deserve that since I was the one who constantly asked her that. This sweet little boy has a little of me in him but he is his daddy made over - mild tempered, sweet, inquisitive and stubborn, and I love him for all the same reasons I love Sean.

Friday Night Lights

One of our favorite things about our move to Brownwood is Friday night football. We have enjoyed being here and our kids love these games. Ben is our biggest Brownwood Lion fan he loves football and the Brownwood Lions. But even though he is a big fan he is only 4 years old and even 4 year olds have limits! Now Audrey loves the games but for a different reason you see the whole town comes out for these games and we all know Audrey Claire is our people person. She loves to see her friends and play in the stands. We have a blast at these games - even Mom is getting into this football thing!

SOCCER

Well soccer is in full swing! Conner is starting his third season on the Sharks and Ben is on a brand new team called the Strikers. Conner has a great coach who loves the game and is wonderful with the boys. The Sharks just moved to the U8 division - which means a bigger field and a goalie - big stuff! Ben's team is coached by Sean and he is doing a great job - I have always said he has the patients of Job and he has proved it! The whole team is new and we have had to overcome a few challenges - crying and realizing that when someone takes the ball away it is ok because that is how the game is played! Its been a lot of fun to watch them and actually see a little improvement. Conner and Ben both love the game I think we should get used to this.

Audrey has been such a good sport- going to practices twice a week and two games every Saturday -she just packs up her bag of tricks and USUALLY does not complain.

Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

We had a funny thing happen in our house about a week ago that I thought most of you would get a kick out of. I'm sure that our house is the only house where children argue with their siblings, so for those of you whose children don't fight with each other let me tell you how this works. Usually the older one picks on the younger one until the younger one just cant take it anymore and then that spunky younger child decides he or she has had enough and either hits kicks or just plane body slams the older one. This then causes the older child to scream at the top of his or her lungs at the parental subjects of the family and usually at that exact moment the younger child starts crying - now this crying could be for many reasons #1 they hurt their brother or sister #2 they hurt themselves in the process of hurting their brother or sister or #3 their just so mad that is the only emotion that seems to come out of their sweet little body. But no matter the reason this usually results in one or more parental subjects running into the room where this situation is taking place. Usually at this point there is much yelling and trying to get to the source of the problem from the parental subjects. Most of the time there is conflicting stories and so it is difficult for the parental subjects to punish these children because by this time all involved in this minor scuffle can't remember when or why the argument even started. I am sure this never happens in any home but ours. Since this happens so often we haven gotten quite good at punishing these small people who seem to cause such trouble. So when this situation came up the other day and their dad yelled and then proceeded to remove his belt they both thought they knew what was coming and I think they were both surprised when they actually received their punishment. The belt was not used on their little bottoms instead Sean belted them together to work out their problems. By the end they were laughing and treating each other the way brothers should treat each other. The joys of parenting!

Thursday Night Lights

What a very long but very precious Thursday night foot ball game. This idea all started from an already planed trip to San Angelo. We knew we had to make a quick dash to San Angelo a few weeks ago and imagine our delight when we found out our own Brownwood Lions were playing the Lakeview Chiefs - well we had to go we can't pass up an opportunity to see a game. So we make a plan to take the kids out a little early from school and make a fun family event out of this little dash. The kids were excited about seing the Lions play out of town we have never done that before, so imagine how excited they were when I mentioned that the Bowdens were gana be there. For those of you who do not know the Bowdens are only some of our favorite people in the world. Now we love this whole sweet family but the best part of this wonderful family is Nicole, Tommy, Major and Lindsey. The Bowdens used to live in Brownwood and recently moved to Grape Creek, and we miss them terribly so it was wonderful news when we found out they were gana be there. So we called another sweet friend Miss Rylee Hubbard and asked if she would also like to visit this sweet family. So we all piled in the car and headed West. We had to run a few errands and for a car full of children that was not the fun part of this trip - just when I was about to pull my hair out and change my name because of the constant need to know what time it was and how much longer till we got to see Tommy and Nicole it was game time and we got to watch them reunite some sweet friendships and play their hearts out! They all had a blast and it made the 12:45 arrival in Brownwood totally worth it! We love and miss you Bowdens come visit when you can!

The Fitzgerald Crew

I found the cutes pictures today of the Fitzgerald side of our family they were taken a couple of weeks ago and I just wanted to share them. This family includes The Sosa Family - Uncle Mark, Aunt Alison, McKenzie, Lauren (better known as Sita) and Jack. Then there is Uncle Kevin the one who always gives the boys dollars for making soccer goals. Uncle Kerry and Aunt Jennifer, they are missing there babies Sophie and Maggie in this picture but the restaurant just would not let them bring those sweet dogs in - even though their part of the family. Then there are the Fitzgerald Five - Sean, Melissa, Conner, Audrey and Ben. We love this wild fun bunch and can't wait to make more memories with them - love y'all!

These cousins love each other - crazy sweet girls

School Starts Again!!!

Well things have gotten back into the swing of things at the Fitzgerald house! Conner and Audrey started first grade and Ben has started his last year at preschool. Both boys have started soccer and are having a blast. We are back to reading AR books and this year we have even had a little homework. Conner and Audrey both have great teachers - Conner has Mrs. Lowry she has been teaching for 35 years and is great. Audrey's teacher is Mrs. McNabb and is also great not only is she a great teacher but in the words of Audrey "Mrs. McNabb is beautiful". We are blessed to be at a wonderful school.

Lemonade Stand

We were driving home yesterday Conner, Audrey, Ben and Austin and Emily Haynes(some of our sweetest friends) and on the drive home they all decided they wanted to have a lemonade stand. So they asked if I could make some lemonade so that they could "have a lemonade stand and get some customers" so I agreed and asked them if they also wanted me to make some brownies for their stand of course they thought that was a great idea. I told them they needed to get a table and some paper to make some signs for their products I asked at this point how much they were gana sell their lemonade for Conner seemed to think we should charge a dollar a glass after much convincing that is was just normal lemonade and not the gourmet kind we decided on 25 cents per glass. I asked them what they were gana do with the money and they said "let's give it to the church so they could help more people" a very sweet moment to have with your children and those you love so much so we talked about what a great idea that was and how proud I was of them so they got things set up and all five of them stayed out there for almost 2 hours and raised $9.00 they were proud and even talked about doing it again.

The Fitzgerald Family

We are the Fitzgerald Five-Sean, Melissa, Conner, Audrey and Ben!