Long time now see!

Hello everyone!  Sorry I haven't been keeping on top of things.  I'll try to update you on everything that's been going on.

We are 15 weeks pregnant today!  Sorry no picture of the bump yet.  We will find out December 28th what we are having (yes Mulherns we are finding out)!  The pregnancy has been great.  The first trimester was a little rough but nowhere near as difficult as it was with Ellie.  This makes me think we're having a boy but Kelly thinks its a girl.  Baby and I are happy and healthy and loving chocolate.  Ellie doesn't really know that we are having a baby but when asked if she wants to give the baby a kiss she'll kiss my belly.

Ellie has had a busy couple of months.  We went to Iowa and played with her cousins for a week.  She loved running around with everyone.  She even grew to love her coat and hat!

We went Trick O' Treating downtown Spirit Lake with Jenny, Rylee, Missy, Morgan, Ashley, and Scott.  We rant into Tahoe on the way!  She loved asking for candy and when the bowl was presented to her she never took just one...we had to teach her to only take one piece.  She didn't even get eat any of her own candy.  I took it with me to San Francisco and ate it all...mean mommy!

We went to Des Moines and had fun with Karter, Katelynn, Josh, Karma, and Jeff. They all went swimming at the hotel pool.  Ellie was blue and shivering but she refused to get out.  Man kids love the water.

Ellie has been talking up a storm and is speaking in full sentences.  She has a new love of trains and painting.

We took her to a pottery painting place last week and she loved it.  Now she wants to paint all the time.  Such a little artist!

Kelly has now officially become an online student (which is cheaper yay)!  Now he can register online and doesn't ever have to go to campus again.  This is great because he can finish his degree wherever we are.

Now we are preparing for Ellie's Second Birthday and then Christmas vacation!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my brothers and their girlfriends (well except for Jesse) and my mom.  We hope you all had a wonderful day as well!

MISS YOU!

Lots of Visitors

We've had lots of company the past few weeks.  It's been lots of fun.  We had Papa and Molly here two weeks ago and Bucky here last weekend.  Cousin Jason is supposedly staying at our house right now but I haven't seen him!  Apparently his conference is keeping him busy.

Things have been crazy around here like usual.  Ellie is growing like a weed (3 pounds in the last two months) and talking like crazy.  Every morning she just talks and talks and tells me lots of stories.  We are understanding more and more and its just fun to see her change.

We went and got her hair cut and it was a very traumatic experience.  She did not like it very much.  Luckily it only lasted about five minutes and it was just a trim.  Who knows when we'll be able to put her in a chair again without freaking out.

She still loves to swim and smile for the camera.  She put these sunglasses on her head all by herself.  Such a ham!

We had lots of fun with Papa and Molly.  Ellie always asked where her Papa was when he left the room.  They had fun fishing in the living room.


Kelly is still working a few hours a week at Tobias Bodyshop and working hard at school.  Its midterms so he's secluded himself in his office to get work done.  I'm still busy at work.  I've been working extra hours because things are so busy.  We are settling into a routine finally after being home for over a month.  It is nice to not travel for a while.

Overall things are going well!  Hope to talk to you all soon.

Road Trips

So here are some pictures from the last portion of our roadtrip.  We headed up to Aspen to see Papa and Molly.  Ellie absolutely loved it up there.  The horses were her favorite part by far.  Below she is singing in the the microphone.  She loved that too.  In face we just bought her a T-ball set so Kelly can teach her how to play and she picks up the bat and sings into it.

 

When we were in Aspen we rode the gondola all the way to the top of the mountain.  Ellie thought it was interesting.  We asked dad to take a picture and he took about 15 of them but he never told us when he was taking them.  This is the best one by far! 

Day Two at the horses.  This time she has her hat.  We tried to get her boots but she wouldn't put them on her feet.  We'll try again next year.  After spending a wonderful three days in Aspen we headed home.  We spent over 40 hours in our car and put about 5,000 miles on it.  It was a wonderful road trip and we all had a blast!

We got home on a Friday.  The house was great to come back to.  We picked up Po Po on Saturday and I started my new job on Tuesday.  It was a crazy week trying to get everything put back together and then on top of that we left for San Diego on Friday.

We stayed with John and Sheryl (Kelly's cousins) and had a blast.  John and Sheryl were great hosts.  We went to the Zoo on Saturday and the beach on Sunday.  The beach was definitely the highlight of the trip for both Kelly and Ellie.  Here she is taking a break because trying to refill the holes that Mark and Kelly and Julie dug was exhausting work!

 

The Final Product  Ellie touched my lens at some point so its a little foggy.

We are finally back home for a while now.  Po Po and I just celebrated our birthdays and Kelly celebrated food poisoning.  Ellie loves being back home and in her space.  She asks daily to swim - most days we do.  She is getting much braver in her swimming and now just takes off assuming one of us will catch her in the water.

She can count to 13 which amazes me.  She just started counting to me one day!  She talks all the time and is even stringing words together.  Singing and dancing are still her favorite activities. 

New job is going well.  Its a little chaotic but I'm learning a lot!  Loving having the camp going still.  We are working hard and it is more fun now that I have a partner in crime to help.

Kelly started a new job with Tobias Bodyworks (not sure if that's the actual name).  He goes in a few hours a week to help with books and payroll!  He starts school on September 6th.

So that's what we've been up to in the last few weeks.  Miss you all!

Mulhern Family Roadtrip

After spending three weeks in Okoboji we headed off on our first family roadtrip.  Up to date we have spent almost 30 hours in the car.  We wanted to take some time to spend together and with family and friends along the way before we got back to Phoenix and had to work and start school again.  Here are just a few pictures...more are on Facebook so check there if you can!

We started our journey heading to Rapid City. 

 

After driving through the Badlands we made our way to Rapid City.  We spent two days there and went to Bear Country, Reptile Gardens, and drove through Custer National Park.  Ellie LOVED Bear Country.  She got to sit in the front seat with mama and see all the animals.  Bear Country added a new section since we remember being there for baby animals that is outside.  It is always nice when things are still as fun as you remember them being as a kid.  Reptile Gardens was a different story...it didn't help that we were there during a hail storm which didn't feel safe at all.  We also went to Old MacDonald's Farm which was a lot of fun.  Ellie loved the birds most of all and thought the goats were pretty funny.

It took Ellie a little bit but eventually she warmed up to the bear at Bear Country.

 

After the Black Hills we headed to Fort Collins.  We were going to spend a few days with Tabs, Jentri and Bucky and company.  We arrived on Friday and just relaxed.  Saturday we went to Rocky Mountain National Park and did a hike and had lunch in Estes.  It is beautiful out there.  We wanted to enjoy the weather before we get back to HOT Arizona.  She loved the gushing water of the river and waterfall.  Kelly carried her on his back for over two hours!!!

Don't we all look so happy!

 

Today we had breakfast with Bucky and headed to the Aquarium downtown.  Then we went to lunch at the Rio - which I forgot I missed - and are now relaxing at Tabby's on our last night in town.  Tomorrow we head to Aspen to spend some time with "Papa" (aka Grandpa Tom).  

We are having a blast and Ellie is being a little angel (most of the time).  She is putting more words together everyday and we are constantly asking each other, "what does that mean?"  

As I said above...check Facebook for more picture from our trip.  We love and miss you all!

Fourth of July

I apologize for posting again with no pictures...how boring is that!  What's even worse is that we spent all weekend with the family and I had my camera and still didn't take pictures.

We made it to Iowa safe and sound of Friday.  We spent the majority of the weekend with the Mulherns and it was great.  Ellie loves to play with her cousins and had a great spirit and attitude.  Although she is still a little shy she ran around with them and played as best she could.  Luckily we took her in for a nap when the water fight broke out so we didn't have to participate in that!

We watched the fireworks off the dock at Peace Harbor.  The neighbors decided to light of their own show what lasted about 30 minutes before the actual fireworks went off.  I thought Ellie would be scared but she just watched and said "boom" and when they ended she said "more!'  When they went off over Arnolds Park we could hear them so she made the noises for them.  She LOVED them.  The neighbors dock was on fire for a while which was interesting to watch...I'm curious about the state of the dock this morning.

It is great to be back in Okoboji and seeing all the family and old friends.  Now its time to buckle down and work, work, work!  I promise to include pictures in the next post.

Testing Mobile Blogging!

In an effort to be a blogging enthusiast I am mobile blogging. This way we can keep you updated when we go on our roadtrip!

We are Coming Home

How do you begin packing for five weeks? Things get so much more complicated as Ellie gets older. Now we have to bring the potty, booster seat, car seat, food, on and on.

We are excited to be headed home. Mom and Ellie leave tomorrow at 6am. and Kelly and I leave on Wednesday. We are driving and staying with Tabs in Fort Collins, spending the night in Des Moines, then heading up. It will be fun to be able to spend the Fourth with friends and family.

Ellie is doing great. She is now sleeping in her crib for naps and goes down all by herself...have I mentioned that before. We are really excited about it. She loves Wow Wow Wubzy and dancing. Every time she sleeps in her crib she takes all the sheets off. We have to golf every day.

Each day she's learning more and more words. She now knows "Papa" (Grandpa Tom) and "Ba" (Grandpa Bob) by their pictures. All my brothers are "Bu" which she learned when Bucky was in town. She still says "Mi" for Mitchell and we're trying to teach her the rest of her cousins' names.

So we will see most of you soon!

Fathers Day

It has been a busy few days for us like always. Ellie finally got herself a bike helmet which she loves. Now we can go for bike rides in her new trailer once the temperature drops below 90!We spent the last weekend in Sedona and Flagstaff. Bucky came to visit us and we headed up to cool down in Flagstaff for a few days. We decided to make a few stops on the way up.

First stop was Montezuma's Castle. It is a home built in the cliffs built by Hohokam Indians in the early 1300s.Kelly got to use the new hiking backpack we got as a wedding gift.

Mom was our tour guide. She read us the signs and taught us everything. If you could see behind her it would be me sitting in the shade!

Doesn't she look thrilled?
Then we made our way to Sedona. This is Nicholas Cage's house and it was amazing!

After lunch we made our way up to Flagstaff. Once we were there we relaxed and enjoyed the cooler weather. Mom watched the US Open and screamed at the TV while Ellie napped and Bucky, Kelly, and I went to a bar and watched soccer and had some drinks!

We also witnessed a major fire that lit up just north of Flagstaff. The smoke was AMAZING to see. Too many pictures to post on here but go to http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=22981&id=100000049183949&ref=pb and you can see all the great pictures Bucky took.

We also tried to take a family portrait but Ellie was more interested in running around than posing. Those pictures are here http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=22981&id=100000049183949&ref=pb.

Ellie got to go golfing at the putt putt practice green. I'm not sure what was more fun for her...putting or picking up all the flags and carrying them around.

All in all it was a great weekend. We are now back in Anthem and will soon start packing for our trip back to Iowa.

As a side note...Kelly and I are planning the first Mulhern Family Roadtrip! We are going to the Black Hills, Fort Collins, Estes Park, Aspen, Arches National Park and then back to Anthem. We'd love advice, tips, ideas on what to do, where to stay at all those places.

Aquarium

We decided after Ellie's day of feeling sick we'd take her to the aquarium. So we packed up and headed to Tempe. It was ok but Ellie loved it. All the fish swimming around were so fun to her. Everything was WOW and little shrieks. It would have been perfect if there hadn't been lots of older kids running around being crazy.

There is also big news in the Mulhern residence. Ellie is going to bed on her own. We are on night four I believe. Kelly goes upstairs and tells her its bedtime and lays her down. She doesn't even scream! She is growing up every day and this is such a nice change. It will be interesting to see if this stays when we get to Iowa. I have been trying to get her to say Okoboji in our preparation for the trip but it always comes out "apple." Don't ask me what that's all about!

Inaguaral Post

So I have been sending weekly emails to family members for updates on us but I'm going to try out this new method. Let me know what you think!

We spent the weekend with Mark and Julie. My mom kept Ellie Saturday night so we could have fun and relax. It was wonderful until we heard, "THAT'S A SCORPION!" Mark spotted a scorpion running underneath our coffee table outside. It was in attack mode and Mark stomped on it. Kelly told him he needed to do it again and they demolished the thing. I wish we had gotten a picture. The night was cool and it felt so great to relax on the patio and actually be chilly for a change.

It was a great relaxing weekend until Ellie got sick. We are pretty sure she is teething and cutting a molar. Today she had a fever of 102 and it is finally coming down. She is a wonderful girl who just got extra cuddly but not too fussy. I can't believe how good she is when she doesn't feel well.

Ellie and I spent Friday with Brynne (mom) and Ember (who is 6 days younger than Ellie). The girls got along great. Ellie was good at sharing her toys. In the car when we watched DVDs, she was so proud to show off her toy and how cool she was with Wow Wow Wubzy.

This week will be a busy one. We think Bucky will be coming to town on Wednesday. I'm getting my car alarm installed. We are staying busy and enjoying life!