Question of the day: How do you keep a house CLEAN with a baby who does this?
{Having 3 kids and trying to keep your house in model home cleanliness is honestly NEAR TO IMPOSSIBLE! I am just glad that Elle was having a fun time crunching fishy crackers in her hands and looked so cute!!!!!!}
Please someone....buy our house so this mom doesn't hate cleaning for the rest of her life!!!!
We spent a lot of good family time over the holidays! We LOVE playing games at my parents house and hanging out with my siblings! We were at Regan's mom's house hanging out with Brady and Chelsea, had a great New Years even Dinner with Regan's family and got to see Regan's dad, mom and Grandma as well! We had a New Years Eve party at our house {well, we pretended that it was new years at nine o'clock instead of 12 for the kids sakes! Maybe even the parents too!} We had delicious pina colada frape from Leatherbey's and a ton of food that day!
Regan scored some major points for Christmas with me! He got me a new camera! For those of you who haven't heard me complain about my dumb $70 camera, you will now! It took the worst pictures-they were dark & blurry and for a mom that takes a TON of pictures of her kids, that is NOT okay! So he got me a Canon Power Shot and it is pretty much the coolest camera ever! I am on page 150 of the manual to figure it out, but I am catching on to some of the cool features! Here are some of the pictures I took on Christmas!
We decided as a family long before December, that it would be great if Santa could bring a Wii for our family, and 1 present for each of us! Well, that's what happened at the Fackrell Home. Riley freaked out when he saw the wii and all of the accessories with it. Sunny freaked out when she saw her Littest Pet shop and pets, and I am pretty sure Elle liked her Music Table and Riley eventually found his legos! The days following Christmas, I was surprised at myself! Me, Regan and Riley all played the new mario brothers for hours and hours and hours! We are at level 8, the last level and every night Riley begs us to finish the level! Now that school is in, we can't play like we did before! It was so much fun-addicting because you can play with up to 4 players! Wii Sports and resorts is so much fun and I am so excited to play the american idol kareoke! Riley probably said 20 times, "I just LOVE playing the wii with our family!"
So we were super busy in December:
1. I was ending violin lessons for all of my students, organizing the last Christmas Concert, writing up letters to all of my students for their new violin teachers, and making Cd's for all of them. The Christmas Concert was at Herriman City Hall and it was great! It was great to see all of my students {except 2} play together, but a little bittersweet knowing that I probably would not see them again. On the same hand, it was getting a little stressful towards the end to teach lesson and show our house too!
2. Sunny Bunny had her Christmas Ballet Concert and she and Kayci did a great job! They are such great friends and such cute girls!
3. Riley played his violin everywhere! He played it at 3 holiday concerts for his teacher's studio, his classroom, for anyone who came by the house, and at Christmas eve! He is doing such a great job on it and I hope he continues to enjoy it!
4. The McKell family did the annual Christmas Dinner, but this year it was at the ROOF! We haven't done it there since the 1st year of this tradition. I was probably 12 when we went to the Roof for the 1st Christmas Dinner, and my dad decided not to do it there again until the kids could truly appreciate it! This year, I can pretty much say that I truly appreciated it! It was so nice to be with all of the family and just be able to talk without worrying about kids throwing food over the table! I have to say that my favorite was the creme brule and the prime rib!!!
5. Christmas Preparations {Note to self: Going to Toys R Us at Christmas time with your own kids is NOT a smart idea!} I had to hide a few items under my coat!
Christmas Eve is always split between my family and Regan's family. We started out by going to Alvin & the Chipmunks with the kids and they LOVED it! We are very lucky to have 3 kids who actually sit and watch a movie {granted, they HAVE to have treats, popcorn and a drink and Elle is strapped into her carseat!}
We then went to my parents house and had the traditional Anderson Family Talent Show and the Nativity. Riley was a wiseman, Sunny a Sheep and Elle a shepherd. For the Fackrell Family Talent, we all played Jingle Bells on our violins and Elle rang the jingle bells. I taught Regan how to play it that day, Riley already knew it, and Sunny played an open string! I was pretty impressed by the way it went!
Afterwards, we went to the Groves Christmas Even in South Jordan. There, the kids were able to hit the pinata and sit on Santa's lap for a present! Let's just say that Elle wanted NO part of that! She screamed her head off UNTIL she saw what he had given her-a baby alive doll of her very own! She stopped crying and started giving it loves and hugs! It was seriously the cutest thing to see how excited a baby can get!
