A few pictures

It's a Girl!

Thanks for being patient for this post - the internet hasn't been working for most of the day....

It's been an exciting few days for the Mulligans. Carrie and I went to the hospital Friday morning to be induced as she had reached 41 weeks. We got here at 8 but didn't get the meds started till 10 because they had a full house. All of the other inductions were cancelled because lack of rooms! Carrie would have hurt someone if that had happened....

She was fully dilated by 2 am and by 4 am started pushing. That didn't go so well as her contractions sort of fizzled out. She took a good nap for about an hour and then started pushing again at 6:30. Our daughter Mikah Noelle was born at 8:42 Sat morning. She weighed 7lbs 15.6 oz & 20 1/4" long. Mom did great with the very long labor and I have a new respect for moms! That is a lot of work!! She had a sucessful VBAC with no complications.

Baby and mom are doing fine. Mikah is beautiful and feeding great. She has a full head of hair and looks just like her big sister. Ella and Grady stopped by this afternoon to check out the new addition to the family. They did well with the baby but the real test will come when we go home on Monday.

Thanks to everyone for prayers and support (and watching the twins). It's great to have a huge support team around us.

Pictures to come later (sorry - using my computer not Carrie's)

Proud new dad (again)

Stephen

It's been a while...

It's been quite a while since I've taken the time to make a post, and I got some ambition tonight which is pretty rare these days! The first few pictures are of the kids on Easter. Man, it's hard to get good pictures of 2 one-year olds! Grady and Ella have loved the good weather recently. They are definitely outdoor kids! They like to take rides in the wagon they got for their birthday.
The pictures at the end were from last night and the newest addition to our household...........no, not a new baby, but the froggy potty! As we are preparing to start buying diapers for not one, two, but THREE "babies" we decided we want Grady and Ella to start being interested in using the big kid potty! I think the frog is kind of goofy myself, but honestly it was one of the cheapest potty chairs I found, so I got it :)


This picture cracks me up. Ella loves to read to herself. She looks just like a grown up enjoying a good book on a spring day! Grady on the other hand is probably trying to figure out an escape route out of the wagon to get into some mischief.


He's such a little man!

Ta-Da! This is Grady's favorite pose to strike after he accomplishes something cool.....or just wants attention. (Yes, Ella is still reading.)

Little Miss Curly

This is a fun chair, but I have no idea what it's for!

Looks like we might be doing some business.......but she didn't.

Here.....let me help you

*On a final note, the count down is on. I'm officially due in one week. A lot of emotions going on in this house right now with exhaustion from being pregnant, taking care of a couple very active twins, and preparing to be a family of five! Ready or not, it will happen soon. I'm definitely ready for non-pregnant life again, and we're excited to meet this new addition. I've enjoyed watching the boy/girl poll.....so if you haven't voted, make your guess and we'll find out soon :)

Enjoying My Little Girl

I couldn't help but make a post about Ella's hair! We have recently discovered that if we don't brush her hair down after a bath, it curls into a cute little mop on her head! I don't know where these fun curls came from, but I have a feeling they won't stay forever by the looks of mom and dad's hair! I'm just having so much fun with it, and of course her spunky little personality adds to the cuteness. This afternoon I decided to get some little hair bands while I was at Wal-Mart and put in her first pigtails when I got home. She flashed a big smile for the camera :)

Meet Baby Mulligan (finally!)

I'm finally getting a chance to post a picture of the baby from our 20 week ultrasound! This was actually eight weeks ago, but the cd burner was not working on the ultrasound machine, so I just was able pick up the cd of pictures at my appointment today. I was a little bummed because the 3D pictures weren't on the cd (I do have print-outs of them). The picture I posted is just a profile picture of the baby on his/her back. I'm sure a picture of the baby today would look much different! I'm 28 weeks along, officially starting the 3rd trimester. It's downhill from here... The baby and I are both doing great. This one is pretty active, although there are no one-on-one matches going on inside this time - thank the Lord! This pregnancy has actually been a breeze compared to the twins. I had no clue pregnacy could be so, dare I say, enjoyable? Alright, not sure if I'm willing to go that far... :)

Anyway, we obviously did not find out the sex of the baby. I must say I'm getting pretty antsy to know what we are having, but we will wait until the big day to find out if Grady & Ella will be joined by a brother or sister. I've decided to put a poll on our page on whether it's a boy or girl, so cast your vote!

Where did you get that?

This morning I was changing Ella's diaper when I realized I haven't seen Grady for a little while, and he's being very quiet. I went around the corner to find this! What in the world is that blue on your mouth? Oh, an M&M. Not to mention, a peanut M&M! I did a swipe of his mouth and he had actually chewed up the peanut too! He has never had any candy, and was he a happy boy! I'm pretty sure he has been searching the floor ever since then to find more...

One Year Pics

A few weeks ago Grady and Ella got some one year pictures taken. Ashley Schrage took them and did a wonderful job! She actually just got a website up and running: http://www.ashleyschragephotography.com/. I'd highly recommend her to anyone in the Waterloo area! She does a great job and works really well with the kiddos :) Below are a just a few of the pics she took!

Wow, have these twins changed in the past year! It's amazing what a year does. Ella is our silly little girl. She loves to chatter! Her current words are momma, dada, Dady (Grady), no-no, and deddy (teddy - every stuffed animal is a teddy to her). She's seeming to work on a lot more lately, but those are the consistent words. In the past week she has really taken off as a little walker. She's been taking steps on her own for quite a few weeks now, but is finally getting confident. She gets so excited at her accomplishments and breaks out in a round of applause for herself regularly :) Ella loves music! When I turn some music on, she instantly starts bopping, clapping, and singing. She's a funny sight to see in church. Ella loves to play with her brother as well as discipline him! Whenever I tell Grady no and she is in earshot, she goes over to him and says, "no, no". She has even taken it upon herself recently to discern on her own when Grady is doing something wrong and tells him no-no. She cracks me up! Ella has such a soft, girly side to her as well. It just melts my heart when she spots a stuffed animal, picks it up to hug it, and says, "de-ddy" :)

Grady is a crazy little boy! He definitely knows what he should not get into, and tries to get into it all day long! He has a funny little squeal/scream that he does when he's mad, excited, or just plain bored. This sort of replaces talking for this little boy! Ok, well he does say mama and dada. He's also started to say no. Of course this would be his other first word since he hears it all day long :) Grady is fast - at crawling that is. He walks all along our furniture but when he lets go, he gets down and does a sprint crawl to wherever he wants to go. I think it will be a while until he walks on his own because he's too darn fast of a crawler! Grady's favorite toy is his basketball he got for his birthday. He will pick it up, throw it, and chase it for hours! He has finally turned into a champion eater. We've struggled with him eating ever since we first started solids, but lately he's eating everything and a lot of it! He especially loves all fruit, and cottage cheese. I think he finally might start filling out (maybe?). At his one year check up, he was in the 10th percentile for weight at 21 lbs, and 75th percentile for height at 29 3/4"! With all of Grady's activeness, he also has a gentle side. Whenever he sees his blanket on the floor he does a head dive into it and cuddles up. He loves cuddling with mom and dad too!

It's also been fun to watch the interaction between Grady and Ella over the past year. They've always been aware of each other, but in the past few months they've started playing together a lot. My favorite is when they start chasing each other and squealing. They also like playing 'steal the pacifier'. They take it out of each other's mouth and go back and forth while giggling. It's also pretty normal to see one of them put a pacifier in the other's mouth if he/she starts crying :) They get very concerned about the other one when they're crying because of getting hurt - not if it's a whine. If one seriously bonks their head, the other will soon be there patting the other one! One that I will always remember is when Grady slipped on the wood floor and split his lip open. Ella was beside herself trying to console her brother with a very concerned look on her face. It's amazing watching these two. Every day is an adventure!