It's official she is a "Type A"

This evening I was making dinner in the kitchen and Eileen told me to go and look in the playroom, I thought she had cleaned it and wanted me to see it before hurricane Olivia came through again. When I went in I saw that she had put together her alphabet train puzzle and all of her word puzzles, which I thought was pretty good but when I looked closer I saw that she had in fact alphabitized all the words!
Sorry the pictures are kind of funny, I had to stand on the couch and hold the camera upside-down to get the picture to fit.

Eileen and Sampson

This weekend we had a lot of fun!
On Friday Bryan took off work to go on a field trip with Eileen and her classmates to the museum. It sounds like they had a lot of fun, they saw lots of dinosaurs some that were once real and some that were never real (I didn't even want to get into it with here that the bones she saw were probably never really in a dinosaur either!)
Some of the dinosaurs that were never real

While they were at the museum Olivia, Joseph and I had a fun day too. With only one child wanting to paint I was brave enough to get out the paints and glue!
Olivia working on her masterpiece (she said it is for Nana, so watch out this giant piece is coming your way!)
Joseph enjoying a little snack while he watches his sister work, he had never seen her stick with something so long!

Happy 21st Birthday Uncle Eric!
Today is Eric's 21st Birthday, I must be getting old because that suddenly seems so young! We had a great time at the party yesterday, it was so nice to see so much family!
Olivia keeping an eye on Uncle Eric as he opens his gifts as does Eric's Godfather Uncle Vic
Eileen and Grandma

I had to put this up, the look of surprise and excitement on her face is so genuine. Papa sent the girls little notes and Eileen was so thrilled to find some stickers stuck in there just for her.

The Toccos are on the go!Joseph is really enjoying his walker, although if it comes off the carpet it goes WAY to fast and he does a belly flop on the floor! Thus, we have to try to contain him to the living room and family room, not an easy task!

This morning the kids and I went to story hour at the book store, very cute, lots of songs and stories and then a quick craft. The girls had a great time with all of the songs and stories and loved the craft, here they are showing it off.

A quick update on Joseph. We went to the doctor for his 9 month re-check, he has gained a pound and has move up to the 7% tile so the doctor is happy to see that he is gaining weight. We do have to continue to try to make sure he is taking in enough calories daily (if only my doctor was telling me this there wouldn't be a problem!), but she feels confident that this will not be a major issue for us. She also re-checked his ears, they look good and they have some movement (I guess in the past there had not been due to fluid in the ear) so that's good. He is doing well with his milestones, going from crawling to sitting, pulling up, early talking not a lot yet (though I can't really blame him it is hard to get a word in around here!). So all in all he keeps us on our toes with all of his quirky doctor appointments but he continues to be a very happy little boy. (We are sure that he is Bryan's son though because if you are feeding him and put the bowl down as if you were going to stop for even one second he will scream like I have never heard him scream before until you pick the bowl back up and show a genuine interest in feeding him. It is really kind of funny.)

Joseph loved his Sloppy Joes, and he became one too!

Eileen's Half Birthday!Eileen was able to celebrate her half birthday at school today, she brought in vanilla cupcakes with blue frosting and chocolate milk to share with all of her friends. She was so excited to not only celebrate her half birthday but to have Mom there made it extra special!

Eileen and Olivia showing off their loot from the fire station. Every child received a fire hat, badge, and coloring book-what a fun way to end the morning. (Does it show that Olivia was more than ready for her nap, she fell asleep in the cart at the grocery store later in the day!)

For those of you have asked I think I have solved the problem of commenting on the blog. If you want to leave a comment and not create a blog you can now use the anonymous option, or if you want to send an email you can click on the envelope icon and that will link you. Hope this helps, let me know!

Today we went to the fire station with the MOMS group, the kids had a lot of fun. Some of the kids in the group (including Olivia) were ver nervous espically when the firefighter put on all of his gear. After that she was not sure of much around the station, but Eileen had a great time and was fearless which helped Olivia find her courage, and of course Joseph just lauged and clapped at anyone who would pay attention to him. Olivia on the firetruck she was VERY nervous and tired

Eileen, Joseph, and Olivia (looking oh, so happy) on the back of the fire truck. Eileen being very brave for the firefighter on the ladder truck.

Thanks for the clothes Amy!
My cousin Amy has been so kind, sharing all of her little boy clothes! Check out the adorable hat she passed on to us!

Go Xavier!

Joseph is pulling up to standing.

Just last weekend Bryan and I were saying how surprised we were that Joseph wasn't pulling up to a standing positing yet, well a few moments later he proved us wrong. Not only is he now pulling up now he won't stop pulling up, right now he is trying to pull up on my leg!
"I've found something to pull up on!"
"Just a little farther!"
"Walk it in."
"Made it, now play time!"

More Pictures of the Kids

Olivia and Bryan "playing" on an early Sunday morning!
Eileen reading Olivia and the Missing toy to Olivia last night while I made dinner.
Joseph testing out the new sink, looks like it works just fine for him!

Around the House!

I have not been good about updating the pictures since Christmas. I seem to have less time to upload the pictures and since Joseph gave me a large memory card for my new camera I don't have to upload them as quickly!
Here are some pictures from our return visit to Nana and Papa's house for another round of Christmas.
Joseph showing off his new Irish wool winter hat from Uncle Brian, his Godfather.
Joseph and Papa both very excited about Christmas!
The McMahon family, Jen, Mike and Gwendolyn getting ready to open some gifts. Gwendolyn was so cute before opening each gift she would say "I wonder what's inside!"
Mike, Jen and Gwen gave Eileen Shoots and Ladders (or as Eileen keeps calling it, Shoots and Letters), we have played this game quite a bit in fact she even plays by herself from time to time!
Nana got a telescope to use at the cabin for Christmas from Papa this year. One night Benjamin got it set up for all of us so we all got to go out at night and look at the moon, very cool! Olivia just liked being able to go outside in her pjs at night, but Eileen really did enjoy looking through the telescope and seeing the moon.

Happy New Year!
2006 was a great year for us, Joseph joined our family moving us into the mini-van category, we have fully settled into our home and made numerous improvements, this year Eileen joined a preschool in Menomonee Falls, and the kids and I joined the MOMS group. Looking forward to 2007 Eileen will go to kindergarten, Olivia will begin preschool, work will continue on the house (possibly a finished basement?) and Joseph will turn 1 already!

We celebrated New Year's Eve in our home with family. Prior to the party we had a big day, we had the counter tops installed which created quite a mess that had to be cleaned up immediately, Bryan installed the faucet and re-ran the drain lines to match up with the new sink and Joseph finally figured out how to move from a laying down position to a sitting position! (No repeat performances yet!)
We hope all of you had a wonderful New Year's Eve and that 2007 will be a year of peace and justice for all people.