Christmas Eve

I can’t believe it is Christmas Eve already. The kids are excited as ever. Christmas Eve is the only night the kids actually WANT to go to bed. Tonight we had a nice Christmas Eve dinner at my parents house. After dinner we came home to set up our stockings, prepare a plate of cookies and milk for Santa, set out carrots and “reindeer food” for Santa’s reindeer, and most importantly of all, read the Nativity story and sing Christmas Hymns before bed.

How grateful I am for the Christmas season. It brings such joy to my heart. I am so grateful for the opportunity we have to spend a little more time pondering upon the most important event in history; the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ. How grateful I am for his birth and for His life. I am so grateful to know that He lives and to know that He loves me. He carries me through the difficult times in my life. He provides me with light and hope. I am so grateful for and love my Savior Jesus Christ.

Tis' the season...

Tis’ the season for Christmas parties. Five parties/get togethers in one week! Oh my!!! Last Saturday the 13th we had our annual Ferrin (my Mom’s side of the family) Christmas party. On Monday the 15th was the annual Roberts Mexican dinner and talent night. On Tuesday the 16th we went over to my Uncle Larry’s and Aunt Diana’s house for yummy Chimichangas. On Friday the 19th we went over to my sister’s house for Dallin’s Joy School (Preschool) Christmas program. Saturday morning the 20th was our Church Christmas breakfast, and Saturday night was the annual Phelps Caroling party at my parents house. Whew!! It was a busy but fun week! We didn’t get pictures from every event but here are some pictures from a few of the get-togethers.


Every Christmas, Stan's family gets together for a yummy Mexican Food Dinner. After dinner, we enjoy a family talent night.

The Roberts gather in Grandma and Grandpa's living room for the "Roberts Talent Night"

Dallin sings "I am a Child of God" for his Talent

Parker played (plucked) Jingle Bells on the violin for his talent

Cassie played a fun version of "Deck the Halls" on her violin


Joy School Christmas Program
The Joy School boys sing some Joy School Christmas songs

Acting out the Nativity Story

Phelps Christmas party

Every Christmas my family gets together for pizza, caroling, cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate, and a gift exchange. We were so lucky to have 54 out of 55 of us present that night. Sorry you were sick Wendy :( Ya, it gets a little crazy at times when we're all together in one house like that, but we love it! And yes, I do know everyone's name. :)

Here's Papa (my Dad) with 3 cute little elfs-Braden, Lyneah, and Addy

Grant, Jake, Parker, and Landon having fun Caroling

Cassie loves being with her cousins Amber and Haley

Our family in front of my parents house

The best part of the night-Grammy's famous homeade cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate!

Some of the grandkids gather around Papa (who is the best piano player in the world!) to sing Christmas Carols before the gift exchange.

Fun times! I hate to think that the Christmas Season will be over in only a few days! I love Christmas!!

Temple Lights

Saturday night we went to see the Temple lights with our friends and neighbors Alex, Misty, and their sweet daughter Isabelle. Alex had just returned from Iraq the night before, so it was good to see him again and spend some time with this sweet family. Going to see the Temple lights is always one of the highlights of our Christmas season. Besides the lights, we enjoyed looking at all of the nativities from different countries on display. While we were looking at the nativities Isabelle said “Jesus” for the very first time! Misty had been trying to get her to say “Jesus” for the past couple of weeks. It was so cute!

The Temple holds a special place in our hearts because it is where Stan and I were Married and Sealed for Time and all Eternity. We like to take the kids at other times besides Christmas to walk around the beautiful grounds of the Temple and visit the visitors center. It’s one of our favorite things to do as a family. We love the peaceful spirit that is felt there.

Thanks for coming with us Misty and Alex! :)

19 YEARS AGO......

Believe it or not, it was 19 years ago this week that Stan and I met for the very first time. That is just crazy! We are so old! On December 1st 1989 (Yes, we met in the 80’s!! Yikes!!!!), Stan and I had our first date. It was sort of a blind date. Let me tell the story.

Stan and I were both attending M.C.C. but had never met. I was serving as the LDS sorority President at the time and had planned a fun activity called “The Date Exchange.” Each of the sorority girls were assigned to bring a date for a specific girl and then at the activity we would exchange dates. Well, the night of the date exchange came (in the desert), and I discovered that Stephanie, the girl who was assigned to bring a date for me wasn’t there with the guy who was supposed to be my date (Jeff). There were a handful of others who also didn’t show up, which meant there were a handful of “dateless” ones. So we had to do some re-arranging. Lucky for me, because I was in charge of the activity I was able to help with the rearranging and decide for myself which one of the “dateless” guys I wanted to be paired with! I was going to be safe and choose someone I already knew, but for some reason I decided to be brave and choose a guy that I’d never met before. We had played a couple of games before the exchanging of dates, and I observed that Stan was a funny guy, so I figured I’d be safe enough with him. :) So we were paired together (he had no idea that I had chosen him), and had a really good time. We had a lot of fun finding out the many things we had in common-including that we both had 10 kids in our family!!

The next morning I told my Mom about the date and Stan told his Mom about the date. Neither of us could remember eachother's last name, but after I told my Mom what I knew about Stan she said, "That sounds like the Roberts family!". And in telling his Mom about me, Stan's Mom said, "That sounds like the Phelps family!" So little did we know when we met that our parents knew each other. Not only that, as we each talked to our Mom's separately that morning, we found out many other connections-including the fact that Stan’s family had bought our suburban not long before. We also discovered that my Uncle and his Dad were good friends, my grandma and grandpa Phelps were best friends with his grandma and grandpa Roberts, and that my grandma Ferrin was friends with his grandma Hancock!

Later on that morning, I get a call. On the other end I hear "Hi Crissie, do you know who this is?" Well, although I thought it might be Stan, I didn't want to say "Stan!" just in case it ended up being a different guy! :) So, I just laughed and said No. After he told me who it was, we had a good time talking about all the connections we had learned about from our Moms. Much to my delight, he then asked me if I wanted to go out with him that night. So we went out that night, and the rest is history. We dated for 9 months, and were married on August 16, 1990 in the Mesa, Arizona Temple. What’s funny is that my older brother attended this date exchange also and met his future wife Wendy Wheeler. They got married a month before Stan and I did! I don't know if anyone else paired up that night ended up getting married, but I would have to say that it was a very successful Date Exchange!!

Now the interesting part of the story-soon after the date exchange we found out that the reason why Stephanie and my intended date Jeff didn’t show up was because Jeff was in a minor car accident on the way over to pick up Stephanie for the Date Exchange! The Lord works in mysterious ways!!! Sorry Jeff, we just weren't meant to be together!! :)

So, 19 years later here we are. Since that night, every year on December 1st Stan and I celebrate by getting Kentucky Fried Chicken because that’s what we ate the night of the date exchange. :) So that’s what we did on Monday night. We got KFC and had a “romantic” candlelight dinner at home. The only difference between this time and 19 years ago was that there were 3 kids included in this “romantic” dinner!!! :)

This is a picture of the Date exchange. Stan is the first guy on the left (this picture was taken right before I met him.)

This is a picture of us a few months later at my family's cabin. Aren't we so cute!! :) Ya, I know. We've aged a little in 19 years!!!
I love this man!! I couldn't be happier that we were brought together on that night of December 1st 1989!! I was 19 when I met Stan. That means that we have been together for half my life!! :)

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

This Thanksgiving Season, I have so much to be thankful for.

I AM THANKFUL FOR:

My wonderful husband who does so much for me and loves me despite my shortcomings.

My 3 fantastic kids whom I could never live without.

An amazing and supportive family.

My Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ which brings me such peace and happiness in my life.

A home to live in, food to eat, and clothes to wear.

The freedoms that this country allows us to enjoy.

And so many, many other things!!

We had a busy and fun Thanksgiving weekend. The kids were s-o-o excited to have a break from school. They were ready for the fun to begin as soon as they got home from school on Wednesday.

Wednesday night, Stan helped the kids make Bobble Turkeys while I made pies. (above picture)

Thanksgiving morning was the neighborhood 1 mile and 5K run. I wish I had a picture to show, but Parker received a medal for finishing the 1 mile first, and Stan received a medal for finishing the 5K first out of his age group (okay, so there were only 4 people in his age group, but I’m pretty proud of him for even trying considering he’s never run a 5K before).

After watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in the morning, we went over to Stan’s parents house for our Thanksgiving meal. Yummy, Yummy!! Here are some fun pictures of our Thanksgiving day.

Cassie trying out Dad's unicycle.

Aunt Brenda was nice enough to spend her afternoon making awesome balloons for everyone!

Great-Niece Atley Porter. So precious!!

Stan's brother Dan made a way cool rocket launcher!

Parker doing well on the pogo stick.

Niece Tiffany Millet attempting the unicycle

Stan with niece Evalynn

Nephew Jeff Porter and Niece Amy Hatch hangin'out.

Grandpa Roberts looking on as Dallin and cousin Andrew see who is the fastest runner!

Cassie with her Uncle David and their cool balloons.

After going home for a short evening nap, we headed over to my parents house for leftovers and visiting. It was a fun filled day! We were exhausted by the time we got home at 10:30 p.m.

After sleeping in the next morning, we pulled all of our Christmas decorations down from the attic and got to work. Ever since they were little, Cassie and Parker have been in charge of assembling the Christmas tree. It was a lot of hard work when they were little, but they are pros now!! Here’s a picture of Cassie and Parker putting the tree together when they were 7 & 4 yrs. old.

And here they are 6 years later!! A little easier to reach the top! :)

Cassie and Parker put Dallin to work this year. His job was to spread out the limbs on each branch.

The fun is just beginning! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Campin' Out

Over the weekend, Stan took the kids camping. They willingly left the luxuries of home behind and walked out the back door for a campout in the backyard!! That's right. Stan set up the tent, got down the sleeping bags and set up camp in our backyard.

They began the night by roasting hotdogs for dinner.

They talked and told stories until 10:30 at night.

And where was I?? I was content to let them have the fun while I slept in my comfy bed! :) I know, I know, I'm a party pooper. But isn't that what Mom's are for?


At 6:00 a.m. I woke up to the sound of chitter chatter in the back yard. I got out of bed to see what was going on. I opened up the back door and this is what I saw...my sweet family cooking breakfast on the back porch. Ya, it was real cute, but at 6:00 in the morning?? I snapped a picture and then crawled back into my warm bed.


Enjoying breakast by the fire.
Fun Memories!!

There's a Teenager in the House!!

Last Saturday was Cassie’s 13th birthday! It’s hard to believe that I have a teenager in the house! Cassie was born on November 8th 1995. Cassie is an amazing young lady! She is my favorite daughter!! :) She is beautiful both inside and out. We are so proud of her accomplishments and her desire to always make right choices in her life.

Here are some fun pictures of Cassie when she was little-

My Angel baby-9 days old!

Cassie's Blessing Day

One of my favorite pictures of Cassie!

2 years old

Cassie has always been a girly girl. She LOVED to dress up. I could never get her to wear anything but dresses! This is one of my favorite pictures. Cassie had just been dying to wear her Aunt Melody's veil at her wedding reception. Melody was nice enough to let her wear it, and she obviously loved it.

Princess Cassie

This is Cassie at 5 years old dressing up in my dance outfit that I wore when I was 5 years old!

I just couldn't resist posting this picture. Isn't she adorable?? Actually, I'm afraid that this isn't Cassie. It's Parker. Cassie not only loved to dress up herself, she loved to dress up her brother. Unfortunately for Parker, we have many pictures of him dressed as a girl thanks to Cassie.

After a while, Parker started refusing to let Cassie dress him up (Whew!!), so Cassie was glad when Dallin came along! The desire to dress up her brothers is still there evidently, because this is Dallin just last month! He put up with it for a little while, but he was out of that dress as soon as Cassie would let him (Whew again!!). Man! This girl really needs a sister! Regardless though, she really loves her brothers. Her and Parker have always been the best of friends, and she just loves Dallin to death, and constantly smothers him with hugs, kisses, and lots of love!!

8 years old-Baptism picture

For Cassie's birthday we went to see the play "Cinderella" at the Hale Theatre along with some of her Aunts and girl cousins, and her Grammy. Afterwards we went to Gecko Grill for lunch. Considering that she had just turned 13 that day, I had hoped that they would give us a break and let her order from the kids menu one last time, but no such luck! The Waiter took the kids menu away from her and said, "Happy Birthday!" Geez!!! I should have told her that she wasn't officially 13 until 4:30 that afternoon! But we had a great time anyway!

Here's Cassie with some of her cousins after the play (Cassie is the tall one). :) Although she's much older than most of her girl cousins, she loves them just the same. She invites them over for spend the nights, she does summer preschools for them and so on. Cassie has always loved little kids, and especially loves her younger cousins.

HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY CASSIE! WE LOVE YOU!!!