"Paints the Perfect Picture of What It's Like Growing Up in the Country"

This is the epitome of growing up in the country. I never quite understood people who could live without stars at night or Oklahoma sunsets. I don't even see the point of living somewhere other than the south when you know you're going to lose the beauty. Amber and I make a lot of jokes about growing up as the "ranch hands" but the truth is we wouldn't be anywhere close to the people we are today if we hadn't grown up in the manner that we did or with the people we did. It took me living in the big city while getting my degree to realize that there really is no place like home when this is your home.

This picture is only a small portion of the family members.
The nieces and nephews we grew up with were more like cousins and the brothers and sisters were like aunts and uncles. We didn't necessarily understand this until we were older, though. Although we are an entirely mixed and complicated family, we are entirely integrated with each other. We enjoy each other, even if outsiders don't enjoy us. I tend to warn people before bringing them into my grandmother's house during a holiday not to be overwhelmed. We are large and loud and completely insistent that outsiders join in on the chaos that is the Phillips family. I also joke that we love picking up stragglers. You can guarantee that there will be at least one or two new people at any given holiday... especially Fourth of July.

R.C. (or Bobby, as I like to call him) is the glue that holds us all together. There have been hard times in our family just like everyone else's. Sometimes all you need is for Dad to tell you that everything will be okay.. "so quit your crying. There are cattle to work and fences to build. I'll wait for you in the truck."
I'm only partly kidding about that. Dad is a tough one but he has made us all survivors. I think he and I clash the most because we have such similar personalities. I helped him on the farm all through my high school years. I quit about a hundred times from the time I was 14 until I was 18. While other girls were working in clothing stores and waiting tables I was chasing a black steer down the highway in cowboy boots and sweatpants, wishing I had remembered to shut the gate!