Thanksgiving 2011

This year we spent Thanksgiving at my parents’ house along with my Mom’s side of the family.  It was a perfect day to have Thanksgiving lunch outside.  The food was so delicious, just as it always is! You can never go wrong when the Phelps’ and Ferrins’ get together for a meal.  Yum!!

You may remember last year when Stan stayed up all night to brave the Black Friday crowds to get Parker a $200 laptop (with Parker’s own $ that he had saved up).  Well, Cassie decided that it was her turn this year.  She’s been awfully jealous of Parker and his laptop this last year.  So, she and Stan were crazy enough to go get a place in line at Walmart about 4 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.  This is the first year that the stores opened their doors at midnight rather than at 4 or 5 in the morning, so it complicated Thanksgiving Day a little more.  In a way it’s good in that you can just stay up late to catch the deals and then go home and sleep rather staying up all night long to be in line.  However, I don’t like that they weren’t able to be around Thanksgiving night.  But Cassie was willing to make the sacrifice in order to purchase her $200 laptop.  She had been saving her $ for a while and this was her chance to get a good deal.

The line for the laptops was in the paint aisle…boring!!

They ended up being 2nd in line, so Cassie had no problems getting the laptop.  They probably could have waited a few hours before getting to Walmart, but it was just so hard to know what time everyone was going to start lining up, and last year, they only had 15 laptops available.  This year they ended up giving out 60.  Oh well.  It was all worth it to Cassie.  They were home by 1 a.m. and went straight to bed.  Mission accomplished!

“Sweet 16” Birthday Party

We held Cassie’s “Sweet 16” party at my parents’ home in their backyard…the perfect place for a party!  The kids entertained themselves with volleyball, tetherball, the swing set, trampoline, zipline and plenty of food.  Papa was a good sport and even let Cassie play music.  It’s not a teenage party without music right?? :)

We had the camera on night setting for the first 1/2 of the night, and for some reason they all turned out blurry.  I’ll include a few anyway.  Still cute.

After a fun game of capture the flag, the kids played some games that really got them laughing.

I think their favorite was “Honey I love you, but I just can’t smile.”  It’s a game where the person who is “it” approaches someone and tries to get them to laugh before they can say “Honey I love you, but I just can’t smile” 3 times.  Hilarious!

I think all would agree that Cassie was the hardest to break. Even when she was a little girl, Stan would have “no smiling” contests with her and she almost always won.  Sorry Trent…not a chance. 

Nice try on the push-ups Sam.

Landon finally broke her and made her laugh.

What a great group of teenagers!  They were a really fun group. There ended up being some other events that conflicted with Cassie’s party, so there were a lot of people that weren’t able to make it, but the group of 25 ended up being the perfect size group.  It was a fun and memorable night for Cassie. 

When we returned home after 11 p.m. that night, this is what we found…

Whoever the culprits are, they did a masterful job.  Nobody will fess up to it and Cassie is still trying to figure out who did it.  

Oh to be a teenager again…

Cassie’s 1st Date!!!!

Believe it or not, Cassie turned 16 on November 8th!  How could this possibly be?? How could my sweet little girl be all grown up already…and going on her first date??? I never imagined that this day would come so fast.

Cassie was so excited when her friend Sam asked her out on the day of her 16th birthday.  The date was planned for Friday, November 11th (11-11-11).  When Sam came to pick her up later in the afternoon, we invited him in and sat him down.  Sam was a little surprised that Stan didn’t have a shot gun in hand. :) If you know Stan, you know that he doesn’t need a shot gun to intimidate.  Stan has his own secret weapon…talking…yep…talking…and a lot of it!  If you’ve ever had a conversation with Stan, you know what I mean. :)   Just ask my kids.  They are very familiar with this secret weapon. Whenever they do something wrong, all Stan has to do is say, “Come here…let’s talk” and the kids cry out, “No Dad! Please!! I beg you…I’d rather take a beating!!”  :) 

Unfortunately for Sam, Stan didn’t hesitate to pull out his secret weapon on him.  So here’s how it all went down:

Sam makes a good impression while politely listening to what Stan has to say.  

 

After a little while, the conversation gets a little tense and Sam starts to bite his fingernails.  At this point, Sam is wishing that Stan had brought out the shot gun instead.

 

Okay…the conversation starts to lighten up, but Sam realizes that this conversation isn’t going to end anytime soon and wisely sits back in his chair to get comfortable.

 

Ooops…maybe a little too comfortable.  I don’t think Sam is listening anymore…I don’t blame him.  

 

After waking Sam, all is well and he’s good and ready to leave on his date with Cassie.  Poor Sam.

 

So if you’re feeling really bad for Sam right about now, don’t.  Do you really think I would let Stan torture Cassie’s first date in such a way??  Not a chance!! Sam was a good sport and posed the pictures for us.  What a guy!!  :) 

And off they go!!

Cassie had so much fun on her first date.  They made homemade chicken noodle soup (impressive right??), played games, roasted marshmallows, and had a “dance party”.  Sam was a gentleman the whole while.

So there you have it…Cassie’s first date!

Cassie and I ended the night by documenting the rare occurrence of the time being 11:11 on 11-11-11. Awesome!!

Time Out for Women

Last year I went to the LDS women’s conference “Time Out for Women” with several of my sisters.  We had so much fun last year and decided to do it again this year.  This year was even better because my Mom and 8 out of 9 of my sisters and sisters in law came! Even my sister who lives in Ohio flew down to AZ to attend with us.  Oh my goodness…what a blast! We ate dinner at Costa Vida and then headed to Phoenix for the Friday event.  Afterwards, we drove back to my parents house in Gilbert.  When we walked in the door, my Dad had hot chocolate, Krispy Kreme donuts and a warm fire all ready for us.  Later he serenaded us on the piano while we girls sat and visited.  We stayed up until 1 a.m. talking and then spent the night there.  It was a perfect night!

We got up early in the morning and headed back to Phoenix for the Saturday events.  The whole conference was amazing. All of the speakers and their messages were  uplifting and inspiring.  I left with my faith and testimony strengthened and a desire to better myself.

These are my sisters (minus one…we missed you Wendy).  From Left to Right…Tara Phelps (holding baby Archer), Starlyn Peterson, Melody Peterson, Cindy Whatcott, Alicia Phelps, myself, Jolene Phelps, Tara Huish, our wonderful mother Carolei Phelps , and Merilana Kennedy.  I am so blessed to have such amazing women in my life.

One of the neat things about this year was that they had a “Time Out for Girls”,  so I was able to bring Cassie along with me on Saturday.  The girls were in another part of the convention center, but we saw them during breaks. :)  Cassie had a great time participating with her cousins.

“Time Out for Women” is one of those things that you don’t ever want to end.  It’s hard going back to regular life after such a wonderful weekend.  Until next year girls!!

Halloween 2011

The cutest cop I ever did see!

Initially Parker was going to wear a scary mask and be a “dead chef”, but decided against wearing an uncomfortable mask and opted to be a regular chef instead. :)

That’s one good lookin’ cow girl!!

1st Grade Field Trip to Schnepf Farms

I’m not sure what I was thinking when I volunteered to go to the 1st grade field trip at Schnepf farms. :)  What a day it was!! I remember going with Cassie and Parker when they were in 1st grade.  It was much more low key back then.  They didn’t have all the rides that they do now (which I prefer) and back then there weren’t hundreds of kids from different schools running around like there were this time. It was definitely a little more stressful trying to keep track of all the kids.  I had one stinker kid in my group who kept running off on his own which just about drove me crazy!  Thank goodness they were wearing bright green shirts! I felt like I didn’t even get to pay attention Dallin to because I was so focused on the other kids in my group.  I was exhausted by the end, but considering that I won’t have a chance to go on another 1st grade field trip again, I suppose I can say that it was worth it. :) 

First on the agenda…eat lunch (even though it was only 10 a.m.)

We went on a hayride,

and stopped to watch the deer.

The kids loved the miniature golf.

This was the only ride we went on.  The other rides had too long of lines and I wasn’t about to sit in line with my group for 45 minutes for each ride.   

I think the kids’ favorite part was picking out a pumpkin.  Dallin was so proud of his pumpkin.