Sunday nights are the best!!

Every 1st Sunday of every month we get together with my family for dinner at my parents’ house, and every 3rd Sunday of every month we get together with Stan’s family for dinner at his parents’ house.  Stan brought his camera along to both gatherings this month, so I wanted to share these photos to give you an inside look at both the Phelps and Roberts families.   

The Phelps Family-The Phelps Family consists of Mom and Dad, 10 kids (6 girls & 4 boys), 10 in-laws, and 34 grandkids so far (20 boys & 14 girls).  The grandkids range in age from 18 years old to newborn age. All of my siblings live in AZ except for my youngest sister Tara who lives in Ohio with her husband and 2 kids…but they’ll be back in a few years! :)  I am the 3rd oldest in my family.

 

Some of the younger boys taking down their oldest cousin Kyle.

 

 

Dallin has 7 boy cousins around his own age in the Phelps family. Dallin calls them “my best friends”. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes things can get a little crazy, but we wouldn’t have it any other way!

 

 

 

 

 

The Roberts Family-The Roberts family consists of Mom and Dad, 10 kids (5 boys & 5 girls), 10 in-laws, 42 grandchildren (29 boys & 13 girls…ya, the girls are way outnumbered!!), and 9 great-grandchildren (and one on the way).  Stan is the 7th in his family.  4 of Stan’s siblings and their families live out of state ( 3 in Utah, and 1 in New Mexico).  The grandkids range in age from 30 years old to 1 year old.  And now of course, we’re starting on the next generation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dallin was so excited about the Ice cream sandwich Grandpa gave him!

 

I just have to tell this little story. Our brother in law David, whom you could safely call the family Clown was giving Stan a hard time about all the pictures he was taking that night.  Well, after we left that night we realized that as we were coming up to the freeway light, that David and his family were just ahead of us.  Stan pulled up right beside them at the light.  And what do you think Stan would do in a situation like this?

 

Stan rolls down his window, whips out his camera and points the camera at David who was driving their van.  David didn’t notice us right away.  It wasn’t until Stan pushed the Camera button that David happened to look our way.  Perfect timing David!!  I think it caught him off guard a little! As soon as Stan snapped the picture, the light turned Green and we sped off all the while laughing our heads off!

YOU are Beautiful!!

I’ve been thinking about “beauty”. I’ve been thinking about the beauty within all of us. I’ve been thinking about how the world’s standard of beauty is so different from God’s. I hate how we are all so hard on ourselves because we don’t measure up to the world’s view of what is beautiful. This is Satan’s plan…to diminish our self esteem and to make us feel worthless by putting into our minds the idea that we have to look like this, we have to dress like that, we have to have this, and we have to have that… in order to be beautiful. Satan does not want us to know and feel the truth…that each of us are indeed beautiful!! It doesn’t matter what we look like, it doesn’t matter what we wear, it doesn’t matter how smart we are, and it doesn’t matter what kind of material possessions we do or don’t have. God has a perfect love for each of us. We are his children and are priceless and beautiful to Him.

As this is something we probably all struggle with, we have to remind ourselves that it’s what is on the inside that makes a person beautiful. And it is when we walk with God and try to become more like Christ that our real beauty shines through.

So, to all of you who are reading my blog, I want to say that YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!! And YES, I do mean YOU!!!

I normally don’t have a playlist on my blog, but as I was thinking about “beauty”, I remembered a song on one of Cassie’s Jenny Phillips CD’s entitled “To Become Like Him” and I wanted to share it with you. Here are the lyrics to the song, and if you want to see a short video which talks about this very subject, click on the link and then click on "watch video...To Be Like Him"

http://www.jennyphillips.com/freedownloads_pg/lyrics/yw2008_stars.htm

You look around you
And you wonder if you’ll measure up
In this world it seems you many never be enough
Don’t let anyone convince you that it’s true
So much beauty lives inside of you
And you are enough
Just look up

Remember you are greatest
When you walk with God
When His light is in your eyes
You are truly strong
You don’t have to prove your beauty
In the eyes of men
You are divine within
You were sent here to become like Him

When you’re uncertain
Of the place you hold and who you are inside
He will share with you your part in His design
Seek for His meekness
Seek to emulate His life
And you will feel Him always by your side
You have His love
Just look up

Remember you are greatest
When you walk with God
When His light is in your eyes
You are truly strong
You don’t have to prove your beauty
In the eyes of men
You are divine within
You were sent here to become like Him

Holiness, love, good works, mercy
To be like Him
Charity, hope, truth, and wisdom
To be like Him

Remember you are greatest
When you walk with God
When His light is in your eyes
You are truly strong
You don’t have to prove your beauty
In the eyes of men
You are divine within
You were sent here to become like Him

Sunflower Seeds Galore!

As I mentioned before, Stan and I grew some beautiful Sunflowers in our garden this year. Really big sunflowers! Well, the flowers have been drooping for a while now and we finally decided to cut them down. It was amazing to see the hundreds of sunflower seeds in each flower. Stan decided to pick them all out and roast them in the oven. I don't know why I'm the one in the picture. Stan's the one that did all the work. :)

And this isn't even all the sunflower seeds. After seasoning and roasting them, the sunflower seeds tasted...well, just okay. They're nothing like the store bought, but if we were starving, we would eat them. :) It was fun trying it out.

Alpine…a piece of heaven on earth!

 Alpine, Arizona is one of our favorite places to go.  It is one of the most beautiful places in Arizona.  About 30 years ago, my grandparents purchased some property in Alpine and we have been enjoying it ever since.  I have so many great memories of going up to the cabin with my family, and I’m so grateful that our kids have the opportunity to make great Alpine memories as well.  My kids love Alpine and love that they get to spend time with their cousins when we go.

 

We are so lucky to have Luna Lake just down the road.  The tail end of it runs through our property.  When we were little we would take our blow up row boats and canoes and have a good ole time rowing around the lake.  Now days we love to kayak and fish in Luna Lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why didn’t I think of this when I was little? We only went sledding in the winter.  But OUR kids spend half their days sledding down our mountain when we’re there in the summer.  It’s sometimes a bumpier ride, but almost as fast as sledding down snow.  So fun!!

 

 

                  Campfire fun

 

Ooey, Gooey Smores and songs around the campfire (thanks Matt!)

 

 

The Alpine 4th of July Parade.  Alpine is a very small town, and we really get a kick out of the parade.  The parade goes up the street and then back again, so we get to see it twice. :)  Our favorite float was the “Mama Kazoo band”. We got a good giggle out of that one. :)  The kids love the parade because they throw out candy and they go home with a bag full.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

             The boys Clubhouse

 

 

We have had many fun times swinging on the swing that was made when we were young.  My dad would push us so high that it felt like we were flying into the sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stan took some self portraits of him and some of the nieces and nephews.

 

 

Stan and I decided to take a walk around the property to take some pictures.  Our kids and some of our nieces and nephews came along.  Alpine is full of mystery.  We have some interesting “antique” pieces on our property.  For example, this engine.  This old engine has always been on our property, and always will be.  It is a part of Alpine.

 

 

 

We took the kids for a walk through our meadow.  Watch out for the snakes!!  We love the old pump house.

 

 

 

 

 

Another mystery to behold.  Don’t you love it?? This car is at the far end of our meadow and we love it! Alpine wouldn’t be Alpine without it.  We would love to know the story behind the old car in the river, but then it wouldn’t be a mystery anymore would it? 

 

 

 

             Cassie, Amber, Elly, and Dennalei

 

 

 

Next we take the kids down the street to visit the old abandoned house which my brother and I always called, “THE HAUNTED HOUSE!!” Just another fun Alpine mystery.  We always asked ourselves, “Who lived here?”, “Why did they leave?” “How old is this house?”  It’s fun to now listen to our kids ask the very same questions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other favorite Alpine memories through the years include:

*Frisbee Golfing through the forest

*Walking to the little stream for family “church”

*Feeding the chipmunks

*Catching crawdads in the pond

*Catching hornitoads

*Shooting BB guns

*Melting snow on the stove so we could flush the toilet because the pipes froze

*Building snowmen and sledding down some amazing hills

*Going to the “little store” to buy candy

*Going to the Lollipop Shoppe to buy fudge

*Going for a Sunday drive to Hannigans Meadow

*Row boating in our pond and river (back in the days when there was plenty of flowing water).  Was it Merilana that was afraid of there being sharks in the pond?? :)

*Mom finding a dead rat that had drowned in a can of discarded oil on the kitchen counter

*Playing “Pit” and many fun games as a family

*I think that one of my most favorite Alpine memories was when the brother in laws decided to make an “Alpine movie” starring all of us! So many great laughs!! I would have to say the most memorable part was the Chimichanga commercial we made Mom do.  We probably did 20 takes before she finally made it through without laughing.  And the background music…it doesn’t get better than that!! “Mama’s cookin’ in the kitchen"…”  Oh my goodness, I don’t think we’ve ever laughed so hard!!

*and so many, many more fun memories