A Food Story....................by Ella

A couple weeks ago, I started getting really hungry in the middle of the night. I would wake up and cry and cry trying to get mom and dad's attention. Grady would just sleep while I was doing the hard work of waking them up, but somehow he would always get fed too. Lucky kid. Then mommy told daddy that they needed to feed us cereal so that we would sleep through the night again. I wasn't sure what cereal was, but it was fine with me because mom and dad were kind of cranky in the middle of the night. So they put us in these weird chairs, and put something towards our mouth that was not a bottle..........


......and that's what I thought about that.


Mom was saying that Grady ate like a champ........


.....so I showed her what a real champ would do - hold my own bottle!


Then Grady had to steal my thunder.

We decided to drop our bottles a few seconds into this, though. We didn't want mom thinking we could feed ourselves yet. It's very entertaining for us to watch her try and feed us both at the same time during the day!

Where did June go?

Wow, summer is flying by. A lot has changed in the Mulligan household since I've last posted. First of all, Grady rolled over for the first time at the very beginning of June, followed by Ella a couple days later....so the time came to sleep in separate cribs :( Okay....well the twins were fine with this; mom is the one who was sad! Now, Ella is a little rolling maniac. Every time you set her on her back, she immediately turns to her tummy. Grady doesn't roll quite as much which I am quite content with as I know the days of them being where I left them are numbered. I had a good laugh on Saturday when they were both trying to play with the same book on the floor. Grady grabbed it and moved it to the other side of him so she couldn't reach it, followed by a prompt swipe of Grady's pacifier from his mouth by Ella! How funny they are :)

On Father's Day we had a dedication service for Grady and Ella at church. There were four other babies dedicated as well. I thought that six new babies in the past 8 months was a lot for our small chuch.....but just when I was thinking that, Stephen had to remind me that our kids made up 1/3 of that number!

We just got back from vacation down on Table Rock Lake last week. We had a fun, relaxing time. Grady and Ella loved the pool! It was a little bit of a bummer that Ella was sick half of the vacation. She was running a high temp. for close to 3 days. Poor girl.

House for sale! We're trying to sell our house. We've had it on the market for a couple weeks and have showed it about 4 or 5 times......no takers yet. If you know anyone looking for a house in Waterloo, send them our way :) Our flyer is online at http://150prospect.mdmichel.com We're praying it sells fast as it is very hard keeping our house clean with the twins and ready to show at any time!



I took this picture today...when I left the living room they were lying side by side...when I came back, Ella was hugging Grady!




Kiss me right here!


Chilling in the pool




Nice evening for a swim!

What a month!

We've had a busy month full of traveling! We've visited cousins, all our grandparents, met new cousins, had a garage sale, gone on many walks in the warm weather, and turned four months old.......what hard work for little tykes! Grady and Ella are little gigglers these days. They love to smile and laugh at toys and other people as well as each other. I found myself smiling last week as I watched them stare at each other for 15 minutes staight. Grady kept laughing at Ella while she stared intently at him cracking a smile every once in a while. Laid back and happy babies - I love it :)


We sat so happily in our stroller during the garage sale...no we're not for sale!


Jayden, Halle, Grady, and Ella


Halle loves "Ewwa"


Triplets? Nah...the one with the cute head of hair is our cousin Emily :)


I loove to smile!


Just playing :)

A few moments with Grady and Ella

We're Growing!

Here are a few recent pictures of Grady and Ella. They sure seem to be changing every day....most excitingly that they are going a very long stetch between their last night feeding and the morning one! Last night we fed them at 10pm, and not again until 5:00 this morning! Yay! Now, if only we could get them to sleep that whole time.........



Bath time!











I leave the room for two minutes, and daddy has turned Ella into a couch potato!

Loving our Babes!

Happy Easter!

It's hard to believe the twins are more than 2 months old now! They are sure growing like weeds! As I've been looking back through pictures since they were born, I want to cry - they were so little and now they're so big. I've been sad as I slowly put away the newborn clothes they no longer fit in. Even though we're still not sleeping a whole lot, it makes me want to cherish these crazy days as I know they'll soon be walking and I'll miss these cuddle-filled days. The most exciting news is that they're both really starting to smile a lot. Grady's smiles go from ear to ear and Ella's tend to be a little more sly. It just melts our hearts :) They're also starting to check each other out a little more. Of course, any chance Ella gets close enough to Grady, she'll stretch over to his head and start sucking away. He doesn't quite know what to think! They sure crack us up sometimes, and never cease to amaze us at how many diapers we can go through in a ten minute time period some days! (We still haven't had to purchase diapers yet - thanks to all of you who have contributed to our diaper supply!!) They really are great little babies. In Stephen's words, "I love them so much, I just want to eat them!" Hmmm.....whatever you say, dad!

We just had a great Easter weekend. On Friday night, we went to a Good Friday service at church with my parents. It was basically a time of communion and prayer. As we sat there, we were reminded of the same service last year.....where Stephen and I were praying that God would bless us with children in His timing. We had no clue we'd be sitting there a year later with 2 beautiful children - how crazy blessed we are. When they were born, I instantly had this new capacity to love in a way I've never experienced. With the emotional roller coaster of health issues they faced as they entered this world, I immediately learned that this parenting thing wasn't going to be easy. I want to put Grady and Ella in a little bubble and never let anything happen to them! As I sat in church on Friday, I caught a new glimpse of the sacrifice it was for God to send His son to die a brutal death on the cross for us. Thank goodness for Sunday! How comforting it is to know that He beat death and is alive in heaven. It sure makes this parenting journey seem possible. Our prayer is that Grady and Ella each grow up and accept the gift God gave in dying on the cross for them, and choose to follow Him.


Love my daddy!

Bottoms up!

Our little sweetie pie!



He's a silly boy!



Loving the smiles



Here I come........


.....Yumm

Lack of updates...

I would like to take a minute and apologize for the lack of updates on our blog. Living on one income, we had to make some decisions - Internet or cable tv. Since Carrie is home all day, everyday with the babies, we opted for the entertainment. We have no Internet unless we go to my office or Panera. We'll try and make an effort to update but don't get frustrated if they are few and far between.

Babies are doing great; more pictures to come later!!

Stephen