The new norm

Here's a flood of pictures from the last few weeks with Samuel home! We feel so very blessed to have Claire and him as part of our family now. We have been helped along the way by so many people. Our parents and siblings, especially my sister, Lisa have helped in countless ways. Life is as busy as ever, but somehow sweeter now. I believe in miracles.

The twins first walk together in the double jogger

"A parade?" you ask? No, just a Sunday family stroll around the neighborhood.

Yoga for babies

Activity days modesty fashion show with audrey

Jeremiah adores "his" babies

Samuel and Claire's blessing day was bitter sweet. We were finally all together under one roof (as of the day before) and we had waited for so long to bless these precious babies, but Samuel was not tolerating his new feeding tube well and was miserable for most of the day. He returned to the hospital the next day to be treated for dehydration and eventually to befitted with a tube that feeds to his stomach again. He came home for good five days later!

Left: Kate's family and Rob's Dad. Right: Lisa's family and my parents
Love these people

Rob and his sister, Kate

beautiful all in white

Getting Closer!

Weeks 26 & 27 have gone missing, but I think you get the idea - my belly's getting bigger.

My wonderful mom is here for two weeks to help us prepare for our temporary move to Salt Lake (April 16). Claire and Samuel are doing as well as we could hope for at this point. They are definitely running out of space and exploring under my ribs more and more. Sleep, although better than anything I'll experience in a couple months, is segmented and rather uncomfortable.

Here's a fun game we thought up to get the wiggles out after many hours of General Conference this last weekend - twister on our colorful rug. Wish I'd gotten a shot of Rob playing; he had a bit of an advantage with his long legs and arms. In addition to hands and feet, our version included the head sometimes.

Jeremiah, all riled up just in time for bed!

A little while ago...

Shortly after Christmas, my brother Kelly and his wife Esther (and baby Asher) came down from Salt Lake to do some rock climbing with Lisa's family. Fortunately, we were invited along - here are some highlights.

Bennett doing his best 70's photo impression

Spencer has become known as a fabulous story teller. You can see how he's captivated Aneya and his cousins!

Too hot for this kid

Audrey the rock scaler

How does he do that with his nose?

prego update

I haven't been very dedicated in this belly growing documentation - but at least I've been taking the pictures, or Rob has. Here's the last four weeks during which I've grown considerably. I don't think I've ever felt more pregnant, and there's still more than a few weeks to go!

We felt that it's important to give names to these children even though we're in the habit of waiting till the last minute. This way, we can pray specifically for them plus give them individuality from the start. Our baby boy is Samuel, named after the Biblical Samuel who was born as an answer to his mother's prayers. We haven't settled on his middle name as of yet.  Claire Elyse is our baby girl - Claire being a name we've loved since Bennett came along and Elyse for my dear friend of many years. Thank you for letting us use your beautiful name!

I know that many of you are praying for Samuel and I ask you to continue.  A meeting with our specialist this past week confirmed some of our worst fears - that his lungs don't have the room to grow as big as they need to be at birth. This reduces his chances of survival significantly. I think this is simply a test of our faith as we continue to plan for his arrival and pray and learn to trust that Heavenly Father has a plan for him. We will cherish whatever time we get to have with him. If he endures his surgery and recover well, there's a high likelihood he'll suffer from brain damage or other complications. We welcome any thoughts or advice that would help us to plan for dealing with special needs.

Samuel and Claire cooperated for the first time and let the ultrasound tech get some great profiles.

Claire at 24 weeks

Samuel at 24 weeks

This is Claire kneeling with her bum in the air... love it!

Here's what we have so far in the nursery. They'll share a crib till they're too big for it sideways. I'm thinking of doing some pink accents with a rug or art on the walls.

20 and 21 weeks pregnant

21 weeks with our boy & girl

 Falling behind in my belly shots. Here's some we took 2 and 3 weeks ago!

20 weeks

Weekend in LA

We got away last weekend for our 10th anniversary! Lisa was a saint and kept the kids for four days while we saw the sights of LA. We got to see the musical Wicked which I've been looking forward to for a couple years now. It was amazing and we've had its fantastic music in our heads ever since.

We also hiked the hills of Hollywood and got to see the reservoir, walk the famous Hollywood Blvd, visit the LA temple and play on the beautiful Santa Clara beach. It was a dream to spend so much time together and forget about reality for a little while. I love being married to Rob - it feels like the years have ticked by so quickly.

Moby's house, well mostly just the gate house from this view, in Hollywood Hills.

It's true!

The weather was gorgeous and it looked like springtime with so many green trees and beautiful flowers.

Touching the ocean, it's been a while!

We had a yummy lunch at the restaurant you can see behind Rob here.

We stayed in a little house just up from Hollywood Blvd with a fun swing and a ballet bar...
we felt like we were living the Hollywood life!

We had an ultrasound the week before and found out we will have one boy and one girl! The children are super excited.The ultrasound also revealed a diaphragmatic hernia in our baby boy. This is a fairly serious condition where the diaphragm didn't form correctly and has left a hole where the the organs from the abdominal cavity can be pushed into the chest cavity. Our baby's stomach and intestines most likely, have been pushed close to his heart. This will require us to be in Salt Lake where they have pediatric surgeons who specialize in this treatment when the twins are born. I'll deliver at University Hospital where they'll stabilize him and send him in for surgery to straighten things out and repair his diaphragm. In case they come early, we have been advised to temporarily move to SLC at the end of April till they're born and he's breathing on his own. We won't know till he's born how severe his particular case is, but we welcome all prayers and thoughts on his behalf.