Easter

This was a very special Easter. There was no bunny, no ham and deviled eggs for dinner, no chocolate. What there was though was conference talks that were fabulous. I haven’t finished listening to them all because our schedule is a little crazy at the hospital but there have been some exciting, historic announcements and changes. It is super thrilling to be witness to the spreading of the gospel throughout the world. I am so grateful for a living prophet and am delighted to sustain President Russell M Nelson as our newest prophet.

There was also lots of baby cuddling. Those two girls are so cute!

I am so grateful for eternal families. This little astronaut had a good conference watching, Easter egg hunting holiday too!

Little bunny foo foo Tatum!

Dancing ballerina egg Penny.

The family at home is doing great. Rob has been on top of things and Grace has been a huge help. They are shopping and cooking and getting things organized! I am impressed! 

They watched conference as well and the E.B. brought baskets for Ethan and Grace.

And lastly a picture of Cora. I thought this was a particularly good shot. She looks so peaceful and sweet. Which she is:)

Babies

Tuesday after Jenna’s OB appt she called and told me she might have preeclampsia. Her BP was high, her vision was spotty, she had protein in her urine. They did some blood work and she was to come back on Thursday. 

This was worrisome. Up to this point she’d had a really great twin pregnancy. The usual hardships and aches and pains etc but no serious problems. In just two days that would all change.

Thursday she went back and it was still high. They sent her to labor and delivery to be monitored. Then she had a seizure. After that it was no fun. She had to be on magnesium sulfate which was super awful. They induced her labor and her epidural didn’t get plugged in so it just dripped onto the floor until the last hour. 

Finally she safely delived little Cora Rae and the doctors successfully rotated Ruby Lana but she had heart decelerations and an emergency c-section was performed. 

I was fortunate to find some flights and took off right away. I didn’t land until almost 11pm but made it to Ohio the same day the girls were born. 

They are the most tiny precious little things. Cora weighed 5lbs 6 ozs and Ruby was 4lbs 16oz. The have blond hair and blue/gray eyes and are adorable. For preemies they are doing great. They have to be in the NICU but they are breathing on their own and have been nursing a little and are doing great! Hopefully they won’t have to stay too long. Maybe a week or two. 

Jenna had a rough first day, although she was a trooper and never complained. 

Today was much better. She is amazing. Clayton is so sweet. He’s being a great advocate for his three girls, and so supportive and is smitten. 

I am so grateful everything went as well as it did. I am so glad I got to come and help and be with them.  It is such a tender, sweet time.

The little family!



You have to scrub every time you go into the NICU.

Spring break continues. Grace babysat for Finnley yesterday and today. 

I got eagle court of honor stuff done. Also did lots of laundry and made jam.

Wednesday night we had our relief society birthday tea party. It was well attended. The food was good and it was nice to visit and fellowship with the sisters. We need each other and it’s nice to have friends.

Today several of us went out to lunch with Noelle. She starts her stem cell transplant process tomorrow and will be sequestered for the foreseeable future. 

Tonight we had a YW board meeting. It was here at our home. We made soups and salad and rolls and desssert and ate and visited. Then we met and lifted each other and planned together. 

Lastly Tuesday when J went to her appointment her BP was high and she had several other symptoms of preeclampsia. She went back today and was still high. They admitted her for the night to observe her and she ended up having a seizure. So now they are inducing her. I fly out tomorrow. It’s going to be a long and worrisome night. I am sure everything will be fine. But I want it to be fine right now. It’s been an anxious couple of days. 

Self defense

The girls wanted to learn some self defense. Rachel is an LAPD officer. Perfect.
They had a lot of fun, were a little silly and hopefully learned something.

At the end we talked to them about the most important defense available to them which is prayer and scripture study daily and listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. 

The bishop was our reluctant attacker. I got some awesome pictures but out of respect for the office I won’t post them. 

Banquet

Spring break continues for Grace and I. Ethan only had one week off though and it’s my week to drive the seminary carpool so I’m up early again. Which is fine. 

Last night was the soccer banquet. It was good. The boys sat together and seemed to have a great time. We sat with other parents and talked about our kids:)

Grace spent her day crocheting hats. We are now involved with a project that makes blankets and hats for babies who are stillborn or who die shortly after birth. They get sweet little handmade items to wrap their babes in. She is using it for a personal progress project.

Air Show

We went to the air show today. They had lots of neat planes. We didn’t expect it to be cold and windy the whole time and had to scrounge around the car for random coats and hoodies and whatnot.  In the end we were warm enough:)

The kids were kind of complainy and the lunch line took 50 minutes so that wasn’t awesome. Other than those small challenges it was pretty good. 

More spring breaking

Thursday a bunch of the YW got together and went to see Coco and to eat burgers at In n Out. It was fun. We wanted to go to the beach but it’s been raining. Our girls are so sweet and very nice to each other but they are not best friends. We do all we can to help them build friendships. 
Later that night Rob and I went to the movies and saw Can You Imagine and today we saw Paul, Apostle of Christ.

This morning we went to the dump. I love to throw stuff away. We also went to the depot and bought stuff for the donut wall. 

Despite his less than happy face Ethan was actually very helpful.