Blog Change

Hi Everyone, I am going to block my blog in a few weeks. Please e-mail me at mnjphelps@mvdsl.com to be invited. I am sorry for the inconvenience of this whole thing. Please don't feel silly e-mailing us we would love for all of you to be invited. The e-mail address I have provided is not our everyday e-mail address so if you would like that too just let us know. Thanks for your patience. I do promise for a new and exciting blog.

Surprise ... or not!!

Lillie is my super fun 2 year old who is obsessed with pink. For Christmas all she wanted was a PINK Barbie jeep. She turns 3 soon and has already planned her SURPRISE party!!! yes you read that right. She wants a pink party with pink decorations and a pink cake. That has been her request for at least 6 months now. She wants all her friends there and "No STINKY boys". But, her latest request is that she wants a surprise party. Can you believe it. She gets the whole concept of a surprise party too. It's so funny. So needless to say she will be having a pretty pink surprise party next month.

Treasure Hunting

Have you ever dreamed of going on a treasure hunt? The anticipation of what is waiting for you. The joy of the hunt and nothing beats the excitement you feel when you find the treasure. I love it. Today we took our kids on treasure hunts we found three different treasures and the kids had a blast!! Kartor was like a hound and hiked up whatever mountain that stood in his way. He was great even Lillie(2) and Isabel(1) had a blast. I would recommend this to everyone with or without kids. Its like fulfilling a childhood dream. It is something everyone should experience at least once in their lives. OK so, it is so easy you just have to go to geocache.com and type in your zip code and find a hunt that sounds like fun to you it will tell you the exact spot. Have fun and lucky hunting to you all. Let me know how yours goes.

7 Years

Just a little plug for my great husband!! Yesterday was our 7 year anniversary. It has been great and never longing for adventure. We have had a lot of fun. He is wonderful. I know I am not the best at showing him praise but I do love him and think that he is amazing in so many ways. He is the best Father. No really I truly lucked out in that area. Ask all my sisters. He has shown me a whole new way to look at life. His smile melts my heart and hugs can calm even the biggest storms. I love him more then this blog will ever give me the chance to express. I am so lucky. You are my everything. I love you James!!!

Southern Cali fires

A few weeks ago my sister, my mom and I went to visit one of my other sisters in Running Springs, CA. She was just able to get back into her home after being evacuated for 10 days. I remember when she called us to let us know that the fires were threatening her home. I was so scared for her. My heart broke at what they must be feeling and that I couldn't be there to help. I was constantly looking on the computer for some kind of update, reading the scanner reports and driving my sister and her husband insane with phone calls. I would wake up in the middle of the night several times just to see what was happening. I know I am crazy but I couldn't help be so worried. She is my baby sister. It was crazy how quickly the fire went from 0% to 70% to 100% contained. You know though, through all that the victims of the fires had been going through the thing that made me so mad was that people were going around looting. (that's all I will mention about them and they don't even deserve that.) I knew that My sister and her husband would be taken care of and that they had all of us if anything did happen to their home. But what about all the people who had no one. My sister was finally able to get back into their home and it was fine. The fire at one point was at the end of their street. Once they were back in we came up. I have seen tragedies on TV but nothing would prepare me for this. It is so different to see it in person and I only saw a very tiny part of the damage. What I saw was heart breaking. We saw people sifting through the damage. We saw peoples belongings destroyed. Its just crazy what these people lost. Look around your homes everything you see gone. Granted they are things but can you imagine trying to start over and having to replace each one. And what about the irreplaceable items like your pictures and family videos or your grandmothers cookie jar. I can't even imagine. As you walk up the streets of lost homes there are trees with a big white "X" on it which signifies trees that are too badly burned that they must be removed. The only remains are massive fireplaces. It's kind of ironic. and yet in the midst of all of this there are small rays of hope and love. Flower pots left on what used to be the walkway to a friends home, flags left on fences by a stranger, letters of compassion, the unconditional love of a community pulling together. It was amazing to see. I was so overcome by so many different emotions. In the windows of just about every home and business that was spared there were signs thanking the firefighters for saving their homes. It was awesome to see the work of the firefighters. I didn't actually see them fighting fires but I saw where the fire destroyed one side of the road and you could just tell that the firefighters lined the street to save the homes on the other side. I would like to personally tank each and every person involved in every aspect of helping during this scary time. People put their lives on the line to help strangers, nothing is more Christlike. This video doesn't even come close to painting the real picture but at least you can see the sketch.

Check out my Slide Show!

This is for my Sistas

This is just for trial purposes ( Steph don't get too excited. Remember how long it took me to convert to big bags?) I'm not sure how I feel about the whole blogging thing yet. I love to look at other blogs but sometimes I feel nosy. So the whole concepts really kinda scares me. My husband would say that everything scares me!! but here I am trying it out. So I probably won't post personal stuff for a while. Sorry