The view

Okay, Mary already put up one of these pics but here is a better pic from our window...Nice.


And this is what it looked like at 4 am on 3 hours sleep...

the bigger the better

Celia and Bennett went to church today sporting some new dresses from E. You will notice I have a naturally inherited affinity for big hair bows...you'll see here the bigger the better!
***please note this picture is post-church and they haven't had their hairbows readjusted since nursery so they are extra-wack

It was hard to get a posed picture of the girls...so here are a couple of attempts...

around the house...

This is what our life has looked like lately...

Celia is obsessed with Camilla and is actually quite helpful. She'll sit and hold Camilla for 20 minutes which is actually helpful to me because it keeps Celia in one place! Here she is reading Camilla a book...

this is what our little girl looks like most of the time, but not so much in the middle of the night

Bennett gets her love in too

Matt and Kathryn came over Saturday to meet Camilla

These first weeks I sleep downstairs with Camilla, who is in the pack'n'play, in order to give Dave as much rest as possible....He's self admittedly not the best in the middle of the night and there's not much for him to do, so the rest he gets at night means rest I get during the day! The girls came down this morning at 7 and they all snuggled together- so sweet!

Bennett came home after church and put on her Christmas pj's. Then she immediately dumped all the toys out of this box and used it as her personal study...she's got on her thinking cap

and we finally got a shot with her eyes open...

coming home!

Thursday around lunch we headed home...

...to a beautifully decorated door (thanks Melissa!)...

...and some excited big sisters...

...for a little shut eye...hmmm....

Hospital time

Well we loved our time at the plaza presbyterian- it felt more like a retreat in some ways than a hospital stay- we adored our nurses and the calmness of having just one little newborn- don't get me wrong there was some craziness in there but all in all it was great! Here are some more pics of our time there-

E with baby milla

Melissa and Kate came to visit!

Miss Kate came and brought yummy salsaritas!

the Hunts stopped by too during lunch, as did the Garrisons but I can't find our picture of them! Sorry Laura and Brandt- we love that you were there!

Ty-Ty with Camilla- Carrie and Maggie stopped by too. Maggie was of course hilarious and showing off her walking skills-

After Bennett (and Mommy's) naptime the girls came back to see their sister- here is our first family of 5 portrait!

clearly more exciting than a sleeping baby are hospital gloves-

for dinner we got to hang out with Scott (headed out of town at 88 hrs at that point to VEGAS!)

and the Dyers who brought us Brixx- so good! Caleigh was so chill- she is Camilla's first little friend her size she'll get to play with!

and lastly- our view from our room- Dave mentioned to our nurse that we had a sweet view with Bennett's birth (the night of the first Bobcats game...they shot off fireworks, amazing!) so she hooked us up again! Isn't uptown so beautiful!

all in all we had a great hospital stay- we're so thankful to those who cared for us and loved us and visited us! Now we're home and getting slowly into the swing of things!

She's here!

She's here! We made it! It was a great day for us here at Presbyterian. We checked in at 7 for our induction and the pitocin started at 8. My water was broken at 9 and I got my epiduryl shortly thereafter. It took a while for the contractions to get regular and the epiduryl started to wear off a bit- around 11 :45 I was only 4 cm but my 12:30 I was 8cm. We got the epiduryl adjusted up a notch and Dr. Morris said I'd be ready to go within the hour. He came back and checked me at 1:30 and I was good to go- so I pushed for almost 5 minutes and out she came! Dave was amazing- for some reason I've had really heightened anxiety about this delivery and He was so comforting and loving. God has truly blessed me with this man! and our 3 precious girls!

just waiting around....

1:42 pm

Daddy and Camilla

Dr. Morris and his latest delivery

Molly was able to come up this afternoon and was so helpful! Here she entertained the big sisters with videos of Kate and Nancy while we waited for Camilla to come back from the nursery

Bennett's first time holding her baby sister! She was so sweet-

And Celia of course was ready for some baby love. She brought us a picture she'd drawn of our new family of 5. We need to get a picture of that for the blog- our nurse Jeanne gave the girls pink bracelets like ours and Camilla's that say "Big Sister"- Celia was particularly psyched about that-

After E took the girls back home Molly stayed and helped me with a nursing session- she was like my own personal lactation consultant! It was great and so helpful-

and lastly the little bug tuckered out-

We think she looks a lot like Celia. Not so much like Bennett...she has a good amount of curly brown hair and long fingernails- she's almost ready for her first manicure I guess! I hate that we didn't a picture of E with Camilla on our camera....it must be on hers....she has taken on a difficult job of caring for Cel and Ben while we're in the Hospital all on her own while Hunt works through the last weeks of tax season. We are so thankful for her!

We are so thankful for how God has blessed us! We ask your continued prayers for Camilla and myself to get the hang of this nursing- also we'd appreciate your prayers for our transition back home on Thursday! Thank you all for rejoicing with us!

Camilla Gray Kulp is Here!

Here are the stats:
Time: 1:42 pm
Weight: 7 lbs 5 oz.
Length: 20.5 inches

Cohen is HOME!

It is such a miracle y'all! Cohen is home!!! please check out the McGowans webpage again....it is amazing! He came home without tubes or monitors or oxygen- just healthy- praise God!

Weekend Festivities

This has been a wonderful last weekend for our family as a 4some- Dave and I have loved having 2 little girls to care for and enjoy. We have laughed a lot this weekend and think we've done all we can to prepare for baby sister-

Leaf noses- I don't know how to explain this picture except it was set up by Dave- the girls loved it!

We went to Jake and Melissa's Egg Decorating Party Saturday afternoon and here is a taste of Dave's handiwork....not sure why he didn't take a picture of Celia's....I guess he was just pretty proud! Can you tell he's ready for football to start again?

Celia's artwork has come a long way. She still loves to draw and paint and create. She gets a lot of this from Dave. Here is our last family portrait as a 4 pack- I love that the sun is smiling and that we have toes- also she's learned to ground her people so developmentally that's important so I've learned....not sure why we don't have arms though....

Easter morning at church...I think Celia is holding up the tiny weed, I mean flower, she picked for me "for my sister to be born"....and baby sister is ready to come out! Can't y'all tell?

Lastly, we were treated to a FABULOUS easter dinner at Bob and Connice Dyer's home- it was such a treat for us! Thank you Bob and Connice for loving on us this way! We had a great time!
(right before this picture was taken Celia said "I'm going to pretend like I'm eating." Way to go Cel!)

Uptown Eggstravanganza

This Saturday we went to Latta Park for the Egg Hunt. It was a lot of fun and much warmer than last year- we enjoyed coffee and bagels, a great hunt, and lots of fellowship

Here sweet Kate Kruger stays content and ready for the pregame show

Kim and Everett stragetizing about how to fill his basket

Early on I saw Bennett's competitive nature kick in. Celia looked for eggs for all of 90 seconds. Bennett on the other hand was diving for eggs and weeping when it was over-

Who's this guy?

Here's the countdown for Celia's age group-I honestly think this is all the egg hunting she did... go Celia go!
t

Snap and Clap day

Celia is taking ballet again this spring at the Harris Y and last Tuesday was their open house. We were able to watch the dancers and it was a little dream come true for Miss Bennett because Ms. Terry said she could participate as well!

ready to dance

knees, toes, make a rose

both girls at the barre

the future diva...

This is the solo section of ballet class and Celia falls a bit short but at her second attempt she masters the jete! Way to go Celia!