I have been tagged!

Well I have been tagged by my good friend Stephanie. I am supposed to answer questions regarding the "Love of my Life". So what a better time to do this than on Valentines Day...
What is his name? Chad

How old are you? 31 years old

Who said I love you first? He did!!!!!

How long did you date? Chad and I dated for not very long. We were REALLY good friends for a couple of months, then he kissed me and held my hand on the same night and 11 days later we were engaged.

How old is he? 34 years young

Who can sing better? Definately him!

Who is smarter? That totally depends on what we are talking about...School smarts he is, everything else, I am

Who does the laundry? Well that depends if he is in desperate need of a white shirt or if he can't find black socks. It usually is me though!

Who does the dishes? I do, I wish he did them more but he helps in other ways!! (like the laundry)

What are his guilty pleasures? He loves sunflower seeds and peanut butter m&ms and anything BYU!!!

Who sleeps on the right? I do, well if you mean when you are facing the bed.

Who mows the lawn? He does but he is teaching Tyler how to do it this spring (now if you were asking about shoveling snow, that would have to be me)

Besides you, who is his best friend? Jason Checketts and Brian Jones

Who cooks dinner? ME! (well occasionally he will make spaghetti, once he made enchiladas)

Who drives? He does

Who is more stubborn? Again that depends, if we are not so happy with each other he always gives in first and I am the stubborn one but in most cases I am the easy going one.

Who kissed who first? He kissed me first (it took him long enough my mom was beginning to wonder if he was gay!) He says that he was waiting untill he knew that I was the ONE because he did not want to hurt me in any way! What a good guy!!!!

Who asked who out first? Staci my sister in law set us up on a date.

What was your first date? We went on a double date with his sister Sharon and her husband Jason. We went to a haunted house and then to Swensons for ice cream. Jason, Sharon and I ordered huge sundaes with whip cream and hot fudge pouring over the edges and Chad ordered a fat free small scoop of vanilla yogurt. He had been hanging out with his health freak sister Staci too much. Sharon was very angry at him for ordering that and making me look like a PIG!

Who proposed? He did

Who has more siblings? He does, he has 9 and I have 4

Who wears the pants? I say he does and he says I do, so I guess we share them...

What is your favorite thing about him? Chad has the ability to turn any situation into a positive one. He is always looking for the good no matter how crappy it may seem. He is always complimenting me on whatever I am doing or even how I look (sometimes it's like OK sure, whatever I do not look THAT good with out make up and in my sweats, get real!) He makes people feel like they are a million bucks!!!! Very people oriented! He is super social and loves everyone, can find good about everyone. He is an amazing father and makes each child feel special and loved. I truly love this man!!!!!

K, Now I tag... Andrea, Leslie, Kelly, Maren, Becky and Amy Jo

Might as well make the most of it...

Kalli and her friends inside and on top of their snow tunnel
Raegan coming out of her cave, it's actually quite a

bit bigger than it looks.

Even though I am getting quite sick of the snow my kids are still loving it! This past weekend they spent every spare moment outside building snow caves and tunnels. They had a blast! Plus it made them extremely tired by the end of the day (we love extremely tired kids, makes for early bedtimes). Kalli and her friends loved working on a tunnel that went clear through and Raegan kept digging in her snow cave, it got big enough that when she went inside she could sit straight up. She had visions of a kitchen and storage room in there too but she pooped out to soon.
Don't tell the kids but I would be ok if the sun came out and just melted it all away.

Happy Birthday Tyler and Raegan

Raegan and Tyler just after they blew out their candles (don't laugh at the pathetic looking cake it tasted good!)
And of course we had to get a picture of messy Max who just loves chocolate cake.

At our house birthdays seem to come in twos. This month is Raegan and Tyler's birthdays. Tyler's was on the 9th of February, he turned 7 and Raegan's is on the 12th she will be turning 10. So tonight we celebrated both of them with birthday cake and ice cream and of course grandma and grandpa. They each got to have their individual parties with their friends earlier in the week. It is amazing to me how time flies. These kids are growing up way to fast. I still can't believe that I have kids of my own when I still feel like a kid myself!!! Happy Birthday Tyler and Raegan!

The missionaries have returned!!!

Max and Grandpa got to know each other really quickly
The girls were happy to have Grandma back!
The boys were very pleased to be by Grandpa!
Andrew was nose to nose with Grandma most of the night he did not want to let her go!

YEAH! Tonight we got to see my mom and dad. They surprised us by coming home a few days early. We found out they were coming today but didn't tell our kids. We had the kids all in the living room in a family council when Grandma and Grandpa walked in. The kids were thrilled (as was I) to see them. They looked great! The kids were so excited and so wild (lots of screaming and giggling) Andrew never wiped his grin off of his face. Little Max even warmed right up with no hesitation. We are so excited and grateful they are home safe and sound. My dad said it was one of the hardest years but one he would never trade.

WELCOME HOME ELDER AND SISTER LARUE!!!

Pleasant Grove...Feeling the Effects of Global Warming

Our neighbors house, the view from our front walk way. That retaining wall is about 7 feet tall.
This is our car, keep in mind that Chad drove it just an hour before this picture was taken.

Today our Stake President cancelled church for our entire stake. The snow just keeps on coming. It has been snowing every other day since before Christmas. (Though yesterday for President Hinckley's funeral it was an absolutely beautiful, sunny day) Church in this area hasn't been cancelled for 20 years. So needless to say we are having church at home (kind of). We are making all of the kids give a talk, much to their grumbleing and complaining. The hardest thing about not going to church is that it is fast sunday and being in a houseful of kids who think they need to eat because they are awake is a challenge in itself.

Prophetic Passing

Elder Gordon B. Hinckley

Prophetic Passing

I imagine he's running to Marjorie now,

Yes, running, not waving his cane.

I see him embracing his father and mother

While they keep repeating his name.

I see him now meeting his forebears,

Brother Brigham and Joseph are there.

Sweet reunion of prophets, united by service

That only such noble men share.

I see him embraced by the Savior

While Father says, "Good and well done.

So faithful in stalwart endurance,

I welcome My noble, most excellent son."

I then hear the ripples of laughter

As he says the reception's just fine,

But he hopes that he'll get an assignment or two

Since there's no need to waste any time.

I can hear his clear voice in the stillness

At the close of this sweet Sabbath day,

Have faith and move forward — there's work to be done.

President Hinckley would want it that way.

Anna M. Molgard

January 27, 2008

Bidding Farewell to a Prophet

Tyler, Chad and Raegan in front of the

Conference Center at Temple Square

Today Chad, Raegan and Tyler had the opportunity to go and pay respect to President Hinckley. They went to the conference center to view the casket and see the memorial. As Chad and the kids left the conference center they went walking by the pulpit where President Hinckley has addressed us so many times before. Chad asked Tyler if he remembers President Hinckley speaking from that pulpit and he said, "Yes" and then his big, brown eyes filled with tears and then he said, "But he won't speak to us anymore." I don't know what is worse, Tyler crying or watching him fight back the tears. When I asked Raegan what she thought she just said, "It was peaceful". We were all supposed to go up as a family but unfortunately Kalli woke up this morning with Strep throat and Max had his eardrum burst. I am happy that those who went got to go and feel of his spirit.

It's the Little things...

Today I bought a new cereal. I don't usually buy marshmellow type cereals or high sugar cereals but today I saw the "Hot Wheels" cereal and I couldn't pass it up. I knew that Andrew would like them I did not realize he would LOVE them. He was so excited for this cereal he couldn't stop hugging the box and when it was time to put it away it had to go in a "very safe" place. After he had his cereal he said to me "mom, I love you!" It was worth every cavity!!!

A Boy and His Dog

No Cinders is not dead just patient!

I would like to introduce everyone to Cinders. Cinders is our 2 1/2 year old dog. She is a mix of black lab and german shepherd. We love Cinders!! (well WE doesn't include my husband all of the time, he claims he doesn't like her but you should see him LOVE her when he thinks I am not looking) Cinders is a great dog. She is extremely patient with the kids. She is an outside dog except for at night when it is freezing, I bring her in on a leash to sleep inside at night. Max has recently discovered cinders and he too adores her. He pets her and tries to climb on her, sometimes he pulls her hair and all Cinders will do is lick his face. SHE is a great dog!!

Snow Much Fun!!!

Sydney and Raegan couldn't stop laughing

even when they crashed.
Tyler was practicing his snowboarding skills on his sled.

It has snowed and snowed and snowed! I don't remember a Utah winter like this one. In all of my years here I have never seen so much snow. We have always had cold winters but the snow wasn't so abundant. We figure if its going to be cold we might as well have snow with it. I love the snow! My kids love the snow too. We have a great little hill on the side of our house in our backyard that the kids love to sled down. It's amazing that they never get sick of sledding. Come March if there is still this much snow I probably won't be nearly as happy but we'll enjoy it for now.

Happy Birthday Max!!!

Max loving his birthday sucker from our bishop
After his super yummy chocolate cake
A bath definately had to happen, he was such a mess!!

Today is Maxwell Allan Kerby's first birthday. I cannot believe a year has gone by since his birth. He was only two weeks old when my parents left for their mission. Max has truly been a blessing in our life. He is such a happy kid. Always pleasant and always smiling. He has been a joy in each of our family member's lives. It is fun to see my other kids associate with Max. They love him and their world revolves around this little tub of smiles. Tyler cannot wait untill Max wakes up, whether it be in the morning or after a nap, Tyler is the first one in his room anxious to get him out and love on him. Each child has a special relationship with Max. I love that kid so much and it is evident the part he plays in our family, we truly are blessed to have in our lives. Happy Birthday Max!

20 MORE DAYS...HOORAY!!!

I am sure you all can see my countdown for when my parents get home from their mission. We are down to 20 days...Hooray!!! We are sooo excited to have them back. Having them on their mission has been a blessing in so many ways. For my children to see what Grandma and Grandpa can do and are willing to do has been awesome. I can not believe all of the experiences they have had in New York. To hear that my mom actually went teaching with the sister missionaries is so cool and she has learned how to work on a computer (that in itself is a miracle). When she left she could barely send an email. My dad got to use his office skills and his budgeting skills to benefit the whole mission. The spiritual growth has been fun to watch. You should see the people they get to take to church. It has been a complete change of lifestyle for them, they are such great examples to our entire family and I am so proud of them for doing this. They have sacraficed the comforts of home, grandkids (one new one while they have been gone and one only two weeks old when they left) and daily routine. It has been a very blessed year for us to read their letters, see pictures and hear of their adventures. We are sooo excited to see them and have them back in our daily lives. The countdown goes on...

Chad in Atlanta

Well Chad came back after being in Atlanta for one week. The show in Atlanta is a huge, worldwide, wholesale show. I do not do well when he goes because when he is here he is SOOOO much help. I mean seriously he cleans, plays with the kids, cleans, puts kids to bed at night, cleans, did I mention that he cleans? He seriously picks up all my slack. The kids were really good while he was gone, it wasn't until the last two days that I started going nutty. Anyway in Atlanta he was able to go with our friend Jason (who is awesome because he volunteered to help Chad at the last minute when we were put in a bind) they went to the show for one week. Here are some highlights of the week for them. During that week they made lots of friends. While riding the train he made small talk with a lady and found out her husband had been recently killed...by the police. At the show him and Jason were "adopted" by an older couple who took them out to dinner. A lady from Texas who busted out the champagne everyday at 4:00 asked Chad if she could be his sixth wife (being from Utah-the whole multiple wives thing). Back on the train, Chad was able to get the people to sing row, row, row your boat in a round (for a $40.00 wager from Jason, keep in mind this is Atlanta not Provo) and finally I think they got everyone in their aisle to vote for Mitt Romney because they were "such nice mormon boys." But in the end Jason and Chad were able to give the couple who "adopted" them books of mormon with their testimony in them. Oh ya, and he sold a few pictures as well. All in all it was a very productive week. I am sure happy he is home!!!! (not just because he cleans)

Celebrate 2008!

Gabbi and Sydney celebrating the New Year.
Kalli and Dylan after the poppers went off.
Sydney still holding tight to her balloon, it was a long, fun night!!

Happy New Year everyone! We had our annual New Years Eve party and had a great time. Lots of decorations, good food, good friends and tons of kids. We played games, laughed and laughed and just really enjoyed everyone who came. We had my sister Stacey and Kirk and their family, Maren and Jason and their family, Shellie and Nick, Larry and Kami and their Kiddos and the Sautters showed up at the end. We really missed having Tara, Andrea and Ron and their family and of course we missed Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa always seems to be the LIFE of the party and it just wasn't the same without him, he will deffinately have to make up for it next year but only if he promises to play Taboo and to try and explain ballet dancing!! (you'll have to ask him)

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.