Trifecta of blessings #2 & # 3

With Lindsay & family still at the hospital, on Friday we drove 3 hrs south to see Chad and family. It was a surprise to everyone but Chad. We got to see his newest - 11 day old baby girl - Annalese Diede Mahaffey (a girl named for Michelle's mother - Annette, her sister- Lisa, and my nickname - deedee but spelled similar to my first name! how fun, huh?

I love it when they snuggle... She was born on Monday, February 6, 2012 at 9:41 am -9 lbs. even and 20 inches even. She looks alot like all her other siblings! The next day we got the Trifecta Blessing # 2 - Landon, their oldest got baptised! So, we were there to see the baptism!

Landon got a new blue sports coat for his birthday so he would look extra spiffy for his baptism. Chad was sporting his custom made suit from Singapore.. so they both wore new duds!But I like them in THESE better:
Here is the baptism boy with mom & sisters Sydney and Keely:The girls sang "I Like to Look for Rainbows" at the baptism. They did it perfectly!The next day - on Sunday, we got Trifecta Blessing # 3 - Since we were there, Chad got permission to bless little Annalese at home so that Dad could be there to help. It was a wonderful day! Because we had so unexpectedly arrived, however, Michelle's sister Lisa had to overnight the dress to us since she was the last to use it.This sweet little dress has really made the rounds... both Michelle & her sister were blessed in it as were all of their little girls. The dress was also the one that Michelle & Lisa's mother - Annette and their aunt (Annette's sister) were blessed in. It is quite a family treasure.

We all had our turns to hold her:
I'm pretty sure she liked me best.... I'm just sayin'.....We left Chad's on Sunday morning after the blessing & drove back up to Lindsay's to spend a few hours then say our good-byes. We got up bright & early the next morning & drove 11 hours straight to Montreal, arriving just in time for the farewell dinner for our 2nd Senior couple to leave. The Florences are from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They were here doing digitizing of records.It was a wonderful, hectic, rushed, exciting, and blessed trip. We were so thankful to be there to see the birth of one baby, and see the 11 day other one, to be there for Landon's baptism, and to be there for the blessing of Annalese. We are so grateful to our mission president for allowing us to go & to our Father in Heaven for giving us superb weather in which to travel in the middle of February and the safety to return. Now... back to work !

WE HIT THE TRIFECTA !!!

With the permission of our mission president Elder Mahaffey and I were granted a 6-day leave from our labors and allowed to travel to Virginia for several wonderful family events. We drove down to Virginia - 10 hours- to surprise Lindsay. She was scheduled to have the baby on Thursday, Feb. 16 - so we arranged with Cameron to surprise her. We got there on the evening of Tues. Feb 14- Valentines Day. We got to the restaurant - Olive Garden - first and got a table around an inconspicuous corner. When Cameron brought Lindsay to the restaurants we were sitting at the table with the huge menus covering our faces. When the waiter showed them to the table, she thought.. "Wait, this can't be our table, there are people sitting there!" When we pulled down our menus we said.."We heard someone is having a baby here..." Her face was priceless... First- shock, then disbelief, then a FLOOD of tears.. from both Lindsay & mom!! ( I wish I could post the video, but alas... this techno-challenged lady does not know how!We spent the night at Lindsay's that night, since Cameron's mom & dad -Dan & Deb, hadn't arrived yet. It was good to be there one day early. We helped her get the baby's room all finished and bring down some things from the attic for her, and just generally help with Colby and final preparations. She had done a cute thing in the baby's room:The next morning they went to the hospital: This is the way Lindsay spent the morning:And this is the way Cameron spent the morning:About 12:30pm things started heating up. The Dr. broke Lindsay's water, the epidural man didn't get there very quickly and then just wanted to chat when he DiD arrive, so she didn't get the epidural until about 12:55... too late for it to take effect - since Little Miss Cambria Lin was born at 1:15pm.. Here is Cameron cutting the cord:I just love that moment of tearful, overwhelming love... Measured and weighed... Cambria Lin measured 20 1/4 inches long: and weighed 7 lbs 13 ounces. footprints taken: and beanie put on... all that's left is that ..."Where am I?" scowl.... Now for some family shots: first with daddy... First shot with the family: What a doll -We were so THRILLED we got to be there!Dan & Deb were there too - so it was truly a family affair!And they brought a Kolache all the way from Texas (a yummy breakfast pastry with egg and sausage baked inside)Three generations of Sanders:Not a fan of her first shampoo: (this was interesting as they gave her a bath right in the room- so different from the "old" days)Then back to the warmer for the rest of the bath:(she's gonna kill me some years in the future for that shot!!) - and what do we have?? Shockingly... a BRUNETTE Sanders woman!Mommy finally gets a love:
And, of course, some Nana love too -Then the calls to everyone... Here is a portrait of a truly Modern Mother - nursing, texting on her phone and talking on Cameron's phone! Wow ! Talk about multi-tasking !Then, later, after transferring rooms, comes little brother Colby to inspect...One happy family: But, after inspecting, and loving, and making sure mom & dad were alright, Colby mostly spent his time like this:Thus ended our wonderful day of seeing Granchild #14 enter the world! What a blessing! There is absolutely nothing so wonderful as seeing the birth of a child.. whether you are the parents or grandparents! We left with Cameron trying to answer Cambria's question of... "Where did I get this nose, again?"