What a lovely day.
I found her vintage baby gown on Etsy. Her little shoes were my mom's when she was a baby. I love the ruffles!
In the past, the morning of the baby blessing has been quite stressful. My house needs to be clean because we have family coming over. I want to look cute and I REALLY want my baby to look cute (of course). With Hazel, I remember being really behind and I was still doing my hair when everyone showed up. With Charlotte, I stayed up way too late the night before finishing her dress and shoes since I chose to make them myself. This year was refreshingly better. I woke up way early and had everything ready. The only hiccup was when I wanted to take these family pics and suddenly David was busy preparing his lesson for Elder's Quorum. Stinker.
My mom, Jay and Bradley came for the occasion as did two of David's brothers and their families.
I love this pic of all the Phipps grandchildren together, minus Collin's two kids!
Charlotte has a soft spot for her grandpa's. Especially Papa Jay (how cute is this picture?)
We went up to David's parents' house that night to spend the week with his family. The lady cousins are preparing some polyjuice potion for everyone.
So we all went to bed that night, 8 adults and 11 kids under the age of 8. And sometime around 3 am their house caught on fire!
The fire alarm went off at 3:30 am (I didn't even hear it go off--ah!). David's parents were the first to come out of their bedroom and see the smoke coming into the house from the door that led out to the garage. They started yelling "fire!" and banging on our bedroom doors. Within minutes, all of us were standing outside in the freezing cold, barefoot and coat-less, while the men ran inside to grab laptops and a few other valuables. We knew the fire must be in the garage, but by that point there was smoke pouring out of a small window above the house and we figured the entire thing would go down.
The fire department had been called immediately but my in-laws live up in the mountains, so we knew it might take a little while. We piled all of the children into my SUV and turned on the heat while we waited for our men. My husband had decided to crawl back into the kitchen and get a closer look at the source. When he saw that it was still contained by the metal door (that led out to the garage from the kitchen), he started pouring glasses of water onto the door. He called for his brother and dad and together they hooked up a hose in the utility closet and doused the door with water.
And it worked! Because the water turned to steam once it hit the burning door, it put out most of the fire that was concentrated just behind the door. When the fire department arrived, they told us that had our men not put the fire out when they did, the entire house would have been gone in MINUTES. The fire had destroyed one corner of the garage and was making it's way up into the rafters.
It was all started by an electric cat bed. (Go figure.)
Firemen entering the garage.
My brother-in-law managed to save his daughter's favorite bear on their way out of the house. Once we had all evacuated and squished into our SUV, Vicki called a neighbor with a large house and said, "Hi, this is Vicki. My house is on fire. Can I bring all of my grandkids to your house?" Ross, the neighbor, waited for her to say "Gotcha!" but when he realized she was serious, he told us we were all welcome. They gave us jackets and blankets and a place to rest. The kids were too excited to get much sleep and we had a wonderful pancake breakfast. We are so grateful to Ross and Julie for taking us in.We're also grateful for our husbands who thought clearly and did what they felt was safe and wise in this situation. What a blessing that we were gathered together when this happened so that David and his brothers could help put out the fire.
Once the smoke cleared out and the insurance company brought in huge fans, we gathered back into the house and finished our vacation together. We enjoyed General Conference together and counted our blessings.
I hope to never forget Vicki's reaction as we drove away to the neighbors, thinking that all was lost to that fire. Before we had any idea that our men were putting the fire out, Vicki looked back and said, "Shoot, I should have grabbed my photo albums. Oh well." There were no tears or hysteria over losing everything she owns. She was in a car full of her most prized possessions. US.
That was a testimony to me of what really matters most in this life.
*I also hope to never forget her painted wood blocks that were bright white snowmen with scarves and hats. They were mostly burned in the fire and now they're next to her fire pit in the back yard with a new identity: S'mores.
