Love My Choice

April was a full month - our 4th anniversary, Jordan visited, strategy meetings at work, fun pre-baby celebrations, home repairs with plumbers and contractors (30 year old pipes!), Youth conference & girls camp prep and preparing for maternity leave at work and the precious birth of Tatum.

But I could not move on into May without making this point..recently President Thomas S. Monson quoted, "Choose your love, love your choice!" How I love my choice!

Here is Taylor in her Easter dress. It actually is a dress that my mom made for our neice, Rogan, to wear at our wedding in 2007. Isn't it darling? Now it fits Taylor - how fitting is that?! Four years later we have a beautiful 2 1/2 year old to wear this dress and now a little baby sister to grow into it!

A Special Easter

It was very special to bring our special blessing home from the hospital on Easter. It is one of our favorite holidays - our second date was for Easter dinner and we were married on Easter weekend the following year. It is also a time for rebirth and having a spring baby seems so perfect as the earth is renewing and spring blossoms are in bloom. But most importantly, its a great reminder of the love of our Savior. Through his great sacrifice for us, the atonement gives us second chances for joy in our lives and special blessings that at one time seemed unattainable and bringing a beautiful baby girl home just fills your heart with love and hope and gratitude for all the great blessings we have been given from Him above.
Look what the Easter Bunny brought!
Taylor also got a special visit from the Easter bunny and a bed for her dolls since Tatum got a new bed too!

Wrapping Up & Heading Home

My mom came for 2+ weeks to help with Taylor and take care of Tatum & I after we came home. Thanks, Mom!

Taylor liked to bring a movie and hang out in my bed watching it at the hospital! After being in the hospital for 3 nights and 3.5 days, it was time to head home. Tatum and I came home from the hospital on Easter morning. Daddy & Taylor came to pick us up after church.
Our sweet girls!
Daddy and his girls
Mom right out of the shower and first time dressed in my own clothes - no more hospital gowns!

The night before we came home.

Some big blue eyes!
All buckled up for her first car ride!

A Few Details.....

Tatum was a planned C-section delivery at 38 weeks since Taylor was a C-section as well. This time the delivery was a piece of cake - Tatum was head down, in position, and within 5 minutes of my spinal, she was here! Taylor on the other hand, was transverse and my fibroids were blocking her delivery so my OB requested forceps to pull her out - which she got the response that we don't keep forceps in the delivery room! She ordered them to grab some ASAP and so this delivery was pretty smooth! We had to be at the hospital at 5am for a 6:30am surgery. The pre-op nurse had me ready to go with monitors on the baby, IV, blood work, etc. She then asked, do you feel those contractions? I didn't. Then my OB came in and asked the same question - do you feel those contractions? This little one is coming today like it or not! And at 8 lbs 7 oz she was no small baby for being 2 weeks early!
Just after her birth - I'll spare you the pics of my insides in full view! After clean up

The beaming mom the night before....

She is Here!

Tatum Vilate Turner
8 lbs 7 oz
19.5 inches
Katy, Texas
She is doing great - such a sweet angel! Tatum is an old English name that means cheerful, bringer of joy. Vilate is my maternal grandmother's name - an amazing woman who would have turned 100 years old this year. She gets called baby sister, baby Tate sister, Tate or Tatum. We are so in love with her!

And so is her big sister!

Family Portrait

Taylor created our family with all her craft supplies. Somehow Jordan is taller than Johnathan but then again, Taylor has herself the same size as Jordan.... but hopefully will have a baby sister joining us soon!

The Other Magic Kingdom

We took a break on Sunday in Orlando to sleep in and relax which was much needed after the pace we kept on Saturday. We didn't realize that the LDS church that we attended near our hotel also had the temple across the street from it! So we walked around the beautiful grounds and took some pictures.

When Taylor saw a picture of the Salt Lake temple today John asked her what it was and her response was, "Cinderella's Castle!"

Disney Adventures

We slipped away to the Magic Kingdom for President's day weekend! It worked out well since I had a training course in Tampa the week before and a conference in Orlando right after President's day we had a great family vacation packed into three days! Jordan flew in after John, Taylor and Mason arrived and we played hard!Taylor talked for week about seeing Mickey and Minnie and that she did! She was so thrilled!She had to show Minnie her cute Minnie shirt that KelleyAnne made for her!

We caught up with Goofy the Pirate after coming out of Pirates of the Caribbean. Taylor liked that one - but The Haunted Mansion was a bit much for her....what were we thinking?!Jessie & Woody were actually the first characters she met and she was beside herself waiting!

We had dinner in the UK and dessert in France at Epcot that evening and met Belle along with our cute little friends from Venezuela that were in line with us!

We made it back to the Magic Kingdom in time for the fireworks and Electric Light Parade. What an amazing show that Taylor loved!


She was so excited to see Cinderella and was happy to know that we had lunch plans with her on the Monday!
Hi Tinkerbell!Monday morning we started our day early and went to Hollywood Studios to check out the sites. Taylor was thrilled to see more characters!She was thrilled to have another visit with Minnie and that they "matched" - Taylor is all about matching these days!

Then we went to Epcot and changed into our princess dress to attend the princess luncheon in Norway. First stop was a photo op with Belle.

There was a princess procession through the whole restaurant and Taylor was thrilled she held "Slip Birdy's" hand. She still talks about it a week later. Of course she had to show off her dress to each of the princesses.

Jordan and Mason got their own photo shoot as well! Taylor was the most excited about Cinderella (though it doesn't show here!) as she had a "matching" dress. I'm so glad I picked this dress up at the Disney store right after Halloween for a steal! The dress prices otherwise are riduculous!

Ariel was pretty popular as well.....we watched her "show" at Hollywood Studios twice!

She was not that into Alice but still was happy to meet her. The food was great and they made the event special - Taylor was on cloud nine and she wouldn't take her dress off after lunch so we paraded around Epcot the rest of the day in it!

After plenty of time with the princesses, the guys ran off to some cool rides and Taylor & I hung out with Nemo and rode that ride twice too!Our little princess finally zonked that afternoon as we were hanging out in Japan listening to the Taiko drums. We then moved down to Germany and all took a rest and had some treats!
We visited China and Mexico and then called it a day. What at an adventure we had! Truly a great trip and fun memories of Taylor's first visit to Disney!