When is Spring?

We've had yet another week of being stuck indoors which make everyone antsy. But we're trying to find ways to deal. Patrick built a wall near his castle with the blocks.

Here is Becca attempting to be naked again but was distracted by the camera.

Dad fixed the tractor, again, and Patrick and Becca enjoyed breaking it, again.

For some reason, Patrick decided to ye;; "Peanut butter" when we took this picture.

Here are the girls wearing our SMC apparel.

I do my best to hid from the camera but Mike managed to get my twice this week.

Here is Becca with a cheek full of apple.

Three goof balls.

In this picture you can see the fight we've been having with Patrick's skin this week. You think this is bad, you should see the back of his left knee!

All in all, we've had a pretty good week. Patrick is scratching, Becca is teething, and I'm slowing but surely losing my mind (what else is new?). We hope you're all doing well and look forward to seeing soon.

SpaghettiOs and cameras

We've given up travel for the month so we have to make our own excitement around here. The kids had their first taste of SpaghettiOs this, a "food" I have avoided thus far due to its distinctive smell. As you can see, Patrick did a good job of keeping himself clean.

Becca, on the other hand, did not. She did manage to keep it out of her hair.

And she loved the mess!

A normal activity in our house. Patrick loves to have us read to him, sometimes he just "reads" to himself.


I pulled out the tu-tu Becca got from Annie. She loved running around in it.

And Mike liked making it and Becca fly. Becca didn't seem to mind at all.


I'll close with a picture of Patrick with his new camera. This is a real, working camera that claims to be able to withstand the roughest of children. Dave, I think Patrick likes his gift. He would have taken to bed last night if I would have let him.

Welcome 2009

It's been a couple of weeks since i posted last. We've been enjoying the new year and the new toys. Here are a couple of pictures of the percussion instruments being used.


A shoebox works just as well as a drum...

Or a hat.

Mike got himself a new Cubs hat and we all had to break it in.



You'd think I grew up in Chicago that way I'm dressed.

Becca is taking up her brother's tradition of playing in the cabinet.

Here Mike is teaching Patrick all about Irish basketball.

We'll end with a couple of random shots of the kids.



Becca is learning new words every day. She says bye-bye, Pa(Pat), and yesterday she said the all important bombone(trombone) while looking at my trombone sweatshirt. We hope you all enjoy the pictures and you're doing well.

Patrick's 3rd Birthday

Patrick's birthday celebrations started while we were in Wisconsin. Grandma & pa Hatton got him a castle.


Here Patrick meets the dragon Uncle Chris got him to go with the castle.

Here he is at home enjoying the castle, the royalty and their squires.

After spending who knows how much time setting it up, Becca is able to destroy the train set up in a matter of seconds.

Here the kids and I are enjoying the bin for the train tracks.

Grandma & pa Sullivan were able to make the trip over for Patrick's birthday. Here Pat finds a open lap and willing reader.

And the kids love to hang out with Grandpa.

Here is Princess Becca.

Jan got me a stadium cake pan for Christmas, so we naturally used it for Patrick's birthday cake. If you look closely you can see that Mike made it look as much like Notre Dame Stadium as he could.


Patrick got some great gifts besides the castle. A soccer ball, size 3...

...a shirt with a firetruck on it...

...and a helicopter!


He also cleaned up with some gifts from the Showalters who came over for brats and cake.

Here is Sam enjoying the castle and looking like a princess.

It took a couple of tries, but Patrick did manage to blow out the candles.


We'll end with some silliness and play-doe.


And one mighty cute picture of Becca.

Becca's vocabulary is expanding quickly. She added "bubble" to the list during her bath the other night. She's also saying something that sounds a lot like "grandma" on top of "ma", "Hi Da!" and the high pitched "ahhhh!" which means four-legged creature.