Elisabeth Charlotte

Last Friday, my newest niece was born! My sister-in-law, Lauren, went into labor early Friday morning. I really wanted to go visit her in the hospital, so I left Michael and Paige at home with James and dropped Ashley off at kindergarten, and drove as fast as I could up to the hospital (45 minutes away), planning on staying an hour and driving back to get Ashley at noon so James could go to a half day of work. I thought about texting Lauren on the way up and telling her I'd really appreciate it if she could have her baby between 10:00 and 11:00 so I could be there, but sometimes, women in labor don't have the best sense of humor, so I didn't. (Plus, it was starting to snow and I was going 75 miles an hour...) Anyways, when I got there, Lauren looked great and we were chatting quietly (Jeremy had been up all night), but she said she was only dilated to a 4 and things were progressing slowly. I was disappointed, but happy to be able to keep her company for a while. Then, she started feeling sick all of a sudden and called the nurse to ask for some anti-nausea medicine. It was a good thing she did, because the nurse checked her and she was an 8 and then about five minutes later, Elisabeth popped out! It was 10:50--perfect timing for me! I think the little doll just wanted her Aunt Amelia to be there :) Isn't she darling--and I got to take this picture! She had a little fluid in her lungs due to the quick delivery and she was teeny-5 lbs, 8 oz, so she was observed in the NICU for a little bit, but she's home and doing great now! I'm so happy for Jeremy and Lauren!

The other part of the story is that it started snowing like crazy down where we live, so James called me when I was getting ready to drive back and told me I should pick up Madeleine and Katherine (Jeremy and Lauren's older girls) then instead of after their preschool like I was planning. Ashley and Paige loved having their cousins sleep over all weekend and weren't disappointed at all that Monday was a snow day and they got to spend an extra day with them! They had such a great time and played so well all weekend! We did manage to go swimming at the Y on Saturday, but I did not even attempt to get 4 little girls ready for church on Sunday, so we had a nice weekend at home! Here are all the guests invited to a wedding--Madeleine was the bride in a lovely pink fluffy crown and Ashley was the groom in a sparkly blue hat. Katherine and Paige were guests and were invited to dance with all of their animals at the party afterwards. These girls are so fun!