Fun with the Checketts

Chad and Tyler cruising down the sledding hill
Sydney and Gabbi after they crashed on their sled (these two are so cute)
Mckayla and Raegan just "hanging out"
Kalli and Kenzie with their pink cheeks after a couple of sledding runs
Maren and Cassie after we tried sledding (keep in mind snow clothes are not flattering and Maren did not own any, so I am the one who looks like the stay puff marshmellow man but I was warm)

I have a great friend by the name of Maren. Maren and I have been friends for years and years in fact Maren was probably my very first friend. Her mom and my mom were great friends as they were raising us in the older part of Mesa, AZ. While growing up Maren and I remained good friends even though we moved and they moved and we ended going to rival highschools our friendship always stayed intact. Maren has six kids, I have six kids. Maren's kids range in age from 9 yrs down to 6 months, my kids range from 9 yrs down to 11 months. She has three boys and three girls, I have three boys and three girls. Maren recently moved to Utah and I live in and love Utah...Unfortunately Maren does not share my love for Utah and especially the cold Utah winters. To try to get through and somewhat enjoy this Utah climate Maren and her husband invited my family to join them at a resort in Midway, Ut these last couple of days. We had a blast...It was extremely cold (at night it hit -1) but we had a blast. We went sledding and swimming. (my kids thought that was sooo cool to get to do both in one day) Thank you Maren and Jason for a wonderful time at the Zermott I hope that it kind of makes up for your miserable winter in UT!

Christmas Morning

Merry Christmas Andrew!
Raegan and Kalli in their new Christmas jamies

Tyler Enjoying his "Norweigen" Pancakes

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope you all had a great Christmas day. We got to have a white Christmas, it snowed all night long Christmas eve which made it nice since Raegan, Tyler and Kalli all got new sleds. We have a Christmas breakfast tradition of "Norweigen Pancakes" (crepes, but we have to call them Norweigen because that is where Chad served his mission and it makes him happy). We serve them with pudding, whip creme and fruit. The only thing missing this year was Grandma and Grandpa and boy were they missed. Happy Holidays!!!

Christmas Cookies!!!

Right around Christmas time we love to decorate sugar cookies for Santa. The kids all gathered in the kitchen and we dished out the giant circle cookies and the bright green frosting. Sydney got to be incharge of the sprinkles and did a great job. It was such an enjoyable evening listening to Christmas music and enjoying the excitement of what these cookies meant...Santa was coming soon. Sometimes I feel I get myself too busy with the not so important things of the season and I need to remind myself the reason we celebrate this glorious season. My children help to remind myself to be as a child and enjoy the mystery and the wonderment of such a wonderful time of year. I love being a mom!!!

Our Christmas Card

To all of our friends and family, Merry Christmas!! We did not send out Christmas cards this year due to well...Life! But if we did these might be the pictures we would send so Happy Holidays to Everyone and have a Fabulous New Year! These were taken today after church, I was quite impressed with myself getting everyone ready for church by myself due to Chad's new calling as High Counselor. He is assigned to a ward that meets that same time as ours and all of his meetings are before that so hats off to Cassie for getting all of the kids ready for church, to church on time and staying nice during it all. (The last picture was because Andrew was quite done with the picture taking and the whole Sunday thing)

Holiday Craziness

Every year we do a holiday movie night for our kids. This is their gift to their friends for Christmas. Each of the kids gets to invite a few friends and they come in their pajamas and we eat popcorn, candy and just a lot of junk. Some how our numbers this year grew, we had over 30 children from ages 3 to 10 in our basement to watch Santa Clause Three. We wonder why our life is nuts and we are beginning to understand that we bring a lot of the nuttyness on ourselves. The kids enjoy this tradition and I would image that is will continue to grow. Happy Holidays!!

SURVIVOR

This season I got completely hooked on the show Survivor on CBS. The reason for my interest was because our former neighbor, Todd Herzog was on it. He used to be one of my husband's priest in his church quorum that of course was before he announced that he was "gay". This kid is such a nice kid, Chad was telling me that he used to be one of the hardest working, kindest kids in the quorum. So good for Todd for winning it all, that is right he won the "Big Bucks" one million dollars. Maybe someday he will come around and see "the light" and what he is truly missing out on. But untill then Congratulations Todd Herzog...Spend wisely!!!

I love to Blog!!

OK I don't know about any one else but I am getting way addicted to this blogging thing. I mean seriously I am on it every night trying to locate old friends etc. I love it!!! It is such a fun way to connect with those you have lost contact with. I do not know how to do the cute wallpaper, scrapbook paper background whatever yet, but I want to learn! If anyone has any pointers please let me know, I welcome any help from my FRIENDS out there who I have reconnected with. It is pretty pathetic when nothing too exciting has happened that you have to blog about blogging, oh well it is truly good to hear from you out there in blog world.

Tons of Snow

Sunday, Tyler asked us if he could walk home after church. I was a little hesitant since there was so much snow and he really wasn't dressed in his snow clothes. I decided to let him and I am sure glad I did. When we pulled up he was working hard at shoveling all the sidewalks and driveway. It was great. He said he wanted to surprise us. We were thrilled. He did a great job and I think he had a little bit of fun doing it as well.

Cassie's Flower Box

As many of you know I have a buisness called Cassie's Flower Box. I make pressed flower pictures in glass with cute sayings. Well this past year with the birth of Max and my parents leaving on a mission we put our buisness on hold. Recently it has come back, we took on partners and have been planning on doing a show in Atlanta, GA in January, this is supposed to be the "Meca" of all wholesale home decor shows. They get thousands of buyers nationwide. As we have been preparing for this show we recieved an order from a store here in Utah called Rodworks. They have four stores and an online store as well. They have informed us that they would like to purchase approximately 600 pictures from us EVERY MONTH for at least the next year. I am totally freaking out. This puts our buisness on super fast forward. We are now in the process of moving it out of our home and into a facility in Springville, UT. I am also currently looking for employees, I have found a few and will begin training them next week. This causes me some anxiety!!!!! This is great news in some aspects but in others it stresses me out!!!! I surely don't want my family to suffer so it will be a huge balancing act for the first little bit then hopefully we will have it running like a well oiled machine. Wish us luck!!! It will be interesting to see how we do in Atlanta. You can check out Rodworks by going to www.rodworks.com My pictures aren't on there yet but they should be after the first of the year.

Let it Snow!!!

Andrew and his best buddy Isaac
Tyler sledding down the hill in our backyard
Tyler and Andrew, Andrew not to sure about the snow yet
Kalli and her friend Elle on the Trampoline
Sydney is sitting pretty on her sled just after a good run down our hill

Saturday was a perfect day for us. Not only was it the first day of December but it was the first snowfall. It snowed all day long. We love the snow!!! The kids played in the snow all morning, then after lunch we took them over to a neighbors house who were collecting gloves, scarves, hats etc. for the needy. They provided Santa, treats and hot chocolate. Then we ended the day by Chad and I taking Raegan, Kalli and one of their friends to the BYU production of Christmas around the World. Celebrating the many different traditions worldwide in dance put on by the BYU performers. It was wonderful. This day couldn't be any more close to perfect for me.

Our Trip to Arizona

We just spent the last ten days down in AZ. We were able to spend thanksgiving down there with family on both Chad and my side. We had a great time. Very busy, but great!!! We hardly get to see my two oldest girls Raegan and Kalli when we are there because they are so busy trying to make up for lost time with cousins, lots of sleepovers and lots of fun! We stayed the week at Staci and Brad's home and it was wonderful. We are not a small bunch to house so they were extremely kind to let us crash their place. We got to go to the train park in Scottsdale, go bowling, swim in Lance and Alma's pool (they kindly heated it for us), be at the setting apart of my brother-in-law into the Stake Presidency and be released as Bishop, went to the movies, I got to go shopping with Andrea (that was my favorite part), have dinner with Leslie and Jason and their family that we haven't seen in almost two years, (Jake got his mission call while we were there and found out he is going to Trinidad and Tabago french speaking. It is in the carribean) watch BYU beat Utah (though I thought Chad was going to have a heart attack in the process) and ate, and ate, and ate!!!! Food seemed to always be involved. We did get our fill of yummy mexican food and of course Crazy Sub. It is good to be home and start thinking about the Christmas holidays. I do love having five full weeks until Christmas. I do not feel so rushed. I love visiting family and spending time together. I wish it could happen more often but I am grateful for when it does happen.

Sydney the Cheerleader

Sydney had the opportunity to be in a cheerleading clinic through our highschool. The ages went from 5-14 but I only put Sydney in it because my older girls are in a lot so this was Sydney's time to shine. She loved it! But I am not sure if cheerleading is in her future, possibly football but probably not cheerleading.

Haircuts

Tonight I took Raegan, Kalli, Tyler and Sydney to get long over due haircuts. We were in the salon for 2 and 1/2 hours!! It was crazy, the kids were going nuts all except for little Sydney. She never complained just entertained herself and was very enjoyable!! They do look sooo much better.

Messy Max

I just had to post this. Max found a bottle of magic shell ice cream topping and decided to eat it, bathe in it, love it and devour it. He was quite pleased with his find.

Going to AZ

Next week we are planning a trip to AZ for Thanksgiving. We haven't yet decided if we will go down on Saturday and have the kids miss more school or go down on Tuesday. (I am voting for Saturday) We have to wait and see what Chad's work will be like for that week. The kids and I are very excited to go down, they haven't been down since last Thanksgiving. Chad is sacrificing a lot by going, ( he tells us all of the time) he is a die hard BYU fan and since we have tickets to the BYU vs UT game two days after Thanksgiving he will be giving those up. "You the man Chad!!"
I am also excited to go down and hold my new little niece and new little nephew (different sides of the family). Andrea had little Taralee a few weeks ago and Sharon had little David a few weeks ago as well. It will be fun to hold these new little ones.

Halloween

We had a great Halloween except for the Strep that three of my kids had. We gave them tylenol and sent them on their way. Sydney wanted to be a cowgirl on a horse for the third year in a row. She tried so hard to be something else but when it came right down to it she just couldn't disappoint that horse. Raegan was a cowgirl, Kalli was a pirate, Tyler was a fireman and Andrew was anti halloween and Max slept. It was pretty eventful.