Family photos...

Our friends and former co-workers, Dan and Amelia Hale, were gracious enough to meet with us earlier this month and take our family photos while we were on vacation in South Carolina.
Their work is absolutely beautiful and if you want to check them out please go to www.dreamlandimages.com.
Here are some of my favorites...

Nighttime at the Fitzgeralds...

I turned in early last night and woke up to find Pat and Savannah had been outside lighting sparklers... I didn't find the sparklers themselves, but instead found these wonderful pictures Pat took of their adventures while Julius and I slept.
I'm glad Pat has some time to spend with each of the children as that is one thing this layoff has allowed us... more time together.

Our garden...

Well, our little 4x4 garden survived being left to fend for itself while we were on vacation a few weeks ago. It's amazing to me the fact that I haven't killed all of it.
I promised myself during this last winter that I would grow something in our garden if we survived the piles of snow we had and I feel like I've accomplished that because I have a few tomatoes on my plants and the first is about to ripen (as you can see in these pictures).
I also have pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, strawberries and corn in our little garden and although several plants have had flowers, only a few have had fruit.
I keep telling Pat that if all five tomatoes on our vines ripen that we'll have the most expensive tomatoes of my life... I just hope they're also the most tasty!

A new "water table"...

We thought the kids needed a water table to play with outside... since the temperatures have been in the upper 90s and they love all things with water in them.
We bought one at Toys R Us, but it didn't work properly so I took it back. Pat then decided he would make one out of an old storage container we had for recycled items.
I look at these pictures and I'm amazed at how quickly the children are growing up... it scary to see, but also good to know they are healthy and happy.

Julius and Mama time...

Julius woke up Saturday morning at 5:30 a.m. and of course it was Mama who got up with him. While he was in full-force, I was on two cylinders... but I did manage to get these pictures of our time together.
I know I'm a little biased, but I think my son is just the most handsome child!

Dancing Savannah...

I took these pictures of Savannah the other night as she entertained us with her dancing... we need to get her into dancing classes soon as she loves to move to the music.

Home again...

Sorry I've been away from the blog for more than a week, but I came home to a pile of freelance work I needed to finish when we came home from vacation last Saturday.
It's hard to believe that it's just been a week since we came home from vacation as it seems so long ago. Having Pat home has been both a blessing and a curse because it's nice to have another set of hands, but it's stressful to not really know where the future lies for us on the job front.
I'm not going to go into all of that worry, but instead post some pictures from our visit to South of the Border, a wacky place Pat visited as a child on family trips and one we've been two twice now as we traveled down Interstate 95 southbound.
South of the Border is a group various shops filled with crazy crap... you name it and they probably have it.
Here are a few pictures from our visit... we left with some fireworks (just sparklers and smoke bombs) and three T-Shirts.