On our trip to Las Vegas, we went to the M&M Factory, to the Coca Cola Factory and got a delicious Caffeine Free Diet Vanilla Coke! YUM! REgan went with the boys to a place called Game Work and played Video Games for hours! We had a blast!
My 2 younger sisters performed in a violin Mozart Recital and I did their hair for it! They looked SO cute in their beautiful dresses and done up hair! They played some really hard Mozart pieces and they sound AMAZING! These sisters of mine are so talented and really work hard at the violin! Thanks to my mom for making us practice every day growing up and never giving up on us! Too bad Ashley isn't in the picture, because then all of the girls in my family could be seen that play the violin! I am able to use my violin talent every day of my life thanks to my mom! I teach violin every day to my students, as well as my brand new student...Riley Fackrell! I am getting him ready to attend Suzuki Institute in June! Thanks mom for developing our talents!
The Kids just love to go to the Dinosaur Museum, and it is great because Regan's mom has a grandparents pass to Thanksgiving Point so they go pretty often! I was surprised that Sunny didn't get scared from the huge dino's, but her and Riley sure did love the wet erosion table and digging the dino bones out of the sand!
Regan and I went to BYU with our friends the Seethalers to pass out ice cream to all of the BYU students for their closing social. Our friends have a ice cream van and they call themselves the Ice Cream Pirates! It was So much fun to be out at the good old Wilk and see Regan act like a pirate all night long!
A couple of weeks ago, I took the kids to JC Penny for some Spring Pictures because I had a bunch of free coupons. {A year ago, I went to JC Penny for pictures, they forgot to put a battery in for the flash and as we went to review all of the pictures, they were all black!! They felt so bad that they gave me some free pictures!}
Anyway, we just got these pictures back today and they turned out SO CUTE! For some odd reason, Sunny and Riley were So good and they smiled for every picture and never complained for cried! WOW-of course they got treats afterwards!
Last night, Regan and I went to the Marriot in downtown Salt Lake (this was actually the place Regan and I went after we got married!). It was the American Family Awards Banquet and it was a very nice evening! We got all dressed up, sat by friends, and ate a great dinner and dessert! The best part of the evening though was seeing my husband get up to accept 2 awards! He got an award for getting more than 1,000 policies in just 1 year which was a very honorable award because not a lot of agents are in what the call the 1,000 Club! Then he got an award for making what is called AFLIC which is an award for making a bunch of requirements. For this award, he got a big American Family Ring, and me, the spouse, got a beautful ring as well!
After the awards, they had a Casino Night and we each started out with $1,000 (fake of course) and were able to cash our money in for tickets for the raffle to get a Wii, or to play games with it to increase your chances of more tickets! Of course, me being the conservative one, I cashed my money in for tickets to put them into the raffle for the Wii. Regan, the risk taker, went right to the Rullette Table and played his money until he had gotten a few more tickets! It was a fun night, even though I just watched Regan lose and gain chips all night! Rullette is really just a game of luck-no skill I think!
The whole night was wonderful and it made me so proud of my hard working husband! He does so much to provide for his family and to make his agency the best! Good Job Regan-I love ya!
Yesterday we had a little scare! After eating breakfast with the kids, I went to the bathroom and found some blood and had some cramping. After my friend dying last week in child birth, and Regan's secretary miscarrying her baby yesterday as well, I was very concerned. I spent all morning on the phone with my nurse, trying to schedule an ultra sound with the right hospital, and trying to figure out what my insurance covers, I was exhausted! Finally we got an appointment for an ultra sound at 3:00, and my sweet mom dropped everything in her day to help me out because she didn't want me to go by myself! My awesome dad stayed home with the kids and watched them as we were gone! I simply have the COOLEST family EVER! They will drop everything and anything to help me out!
SO-as the radiologist was looking at the ultrasound, we immediatly saw the heart beat and it was PERFECT! Then we saw the baby kicking, holding it's feet and moving all around inside me! What a comfort to know and see that the baby was just great! To tell you the truth, I was beginning to think the worst at this point! She said that there was no reason why I was bleeding and that everything was great with me and the baby! What a relief! I then talked to my nurse, and she also reassured me that I was fine and to take it easy for a little bit!
I came home and thanked my Heavenly Father for blessing me with a healthy baby and for comforting me throughout this whole scary day! I was surprised how calm I was. Usually I am pretty emotional during scary things like this, but I really did feel calm yesterday and before even going to the hospital, recorded my thoughts in my journal of the privlige and honor it is of mine to be a mother!
If anything good came out of this, the radiologist did tell me that instead of having my due date be October 3rd, it is now September 26th! WOW-that definently makes me feel a lot better!
I have been thinking for a whole week now how precious life really is. Last Tuesday, my friend who was 7 months pregnant went to the hospital because she was having trouble breathing. Turns out, the placenta broke away and the amniotic fluid went inside of her body/lungs. The amniotic fluid is toxic and poisonous when it is in the body, so she ended up dying as a result of it. This type of thing only happens 1 in 80,000 pregnancies so it is very rare! Her baby was a beautiful, fully developed boy, and he died as well as a result of lack of oxygen. She was my very
1st Visiting Teacher I had once I was married and a great example to me of how important it is to stay home with your kids to raise and teach them. She always had a smile on her face and was so friendly to everyone!
Who knows why she had to leave behind a husband and 3 other children; who knows why it was her time to go; and who knows why any of this had to happen to such a sweet person. All I know, is because of this, I want my family to know how much I love them and how honored I am to be a mom. Being pregnant with my 3rd baby makes me nervous for the future, but I do know that if I just do the best I can as a person, wife, mother, friend etc. and am faithful, and prayerful, than that is all I can do-to be a good person!
Regan and I went to the viewing last night of my friend, and I saw the 8 year old daughter watching a video of her mom at the mortuary. Tears came to her eyes as she saw the many memories and pictures of her mom in front of her. I felt so sad and so confused as why Heavenly Father would allow this, but I will just continue to pray that He will bless and comfort her, her siblings and my friends husband. I am grateful for the memories I have of my friend Jenny Pemberton. For making me see the importance of being a Super Mom and respecting the chance I have to stay home with my little ones to raise them. Thanks Jenny!
My friend has been sending deals for Smiths, Albertsons, Harmons and Macey's for the past year and it is amazing how much I have saved by getting the items that are on Sale through her emails. There is a red section that tells all of the items at all of these stores that are better deals than Costco prices! She has just set up an official website where you can join the food storage deals and get an email weekly on all of the great deals!
The website is www.myfoodstoragedeals.com
You will be surprised to see how much money you can really save!
My Church Ball Team won our 1st Region Game tonight! It was so much fun to play in basketball game again even though I have been practicing with them 3 days a week for a few months! The point is, I'm not that great, but I sure enjoy playing B-Ball!
My friend Danielle tagged me, but it is a tag about Regan!
What is his full name? REGAN RILEY FACKRELL
How long have you been married? It will be 7 years in June.
How long did you date? We went on our 1st date at BYU in September, and were engaged by February.
Who eats more sweets? Regan likes to have a treat on his "free days" with body for life. I just try to make sure that he does not have any dairy (ice cream)-for those of you who know Regan, you know why!!! Now that I am prego right now, I for sure eat more sweets than Regan!
Who said "I love you" first? REGAN! I think he said it when he 1st kissed me on top of Y Mountain-good old BYU fashion!
How old is he? He is 29-next year is the big one!
Who is taller? He is 6'0 and I am 5'6
Who's smarter? Definently REGAN! He is a genius in my mind! He has always been a good test taker and a good student, but now that he has his own business, I see how really smart he is! I married a very intelligent person!
Who can sing better? Regan tries so hard, like when he goes up to sing in the ward choir for church, and that is all that matters to me! The fact that he likes to sing (maybe he can't carry the tune all that well) is great with me!
Who does the laundry? Regan has NEVER done the laundrey in our almost 7 years of marriage! He has gotten in a bad habit of putting his dirty gym clothes in the washer without me knowing it, and then when I do the laundrey, it stinks SO bad in there!
Who pays the bills? Regan has really tried to push for me to have this responsibility, but the truth is, besides paying the bills, he does the money management. I just figure, if he got a Masters Degree in Accounting, why can't he do it?
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? ME-I don't know why, but ever since we got married, I have automatically slept on the right, and Regan on the left.
Who mows the lawn? Regan always does! I would like to, but he thinks that I will either cut my leg off or hack the grass so bad that it will never grow back! Oh well!
Who cooks dinner? Let's just say that if Dinner were left up to Regan, we would have cereal every night! I do the cooking, but lately, food and smells while cooking does NOT sound good to me! I am doing the best I can with cooking Monday-Thursday!
Who is more stubborn? I don't think either one of us is all that stubborn. We are both pretty easy going and will mostly go with the flow!
Who kissed who first? He says that I was staring at his lips while were overlooking the beautiful view of Provo from Y Mountain and that is why he kissed me, but that is so not what happened! First of all, he insisted to carry me up on his back all the way up the mountain, so by the time we actually got up there, he was all sweaty and kissed me anyway! I think he went in for the kill first!
Who asked who out? Regan asked me out in the BYU Library! Our first date was the easiest date ever-we talked for 3 hours straight after the other roommates brought their dates home!
Who has more siblings? Regan comes from a family of 8 children and I am the oldest of 6 so he has me beat in that department!
Who wears the pants? Regan totally does and I prefer it that way. Ya, I definently give my imput and opinion which he always takes, but he is the head of our household and I like how he takes charge of our family!
Well, did you learn something new about Regan? He is so amazing and I am so blessed that I married him! He is such a wonderful husband, father, and provider for our family! I honestly could not have married anyone better than him. He is exactly what I need in my life, and I love him so much!
I have been so sick of my hair lately and really wanted a big change so today I went to my friend to help me out! Here are the before and after pictures! It is super short, but I love it!
So the other day I was sewing a quilt with my friend Britta and the kids were outside playing on the tramp. There was tons of deer poop on the grass and before I went inside to sew, I said, "Riley, do NOT touch the deer poop!" He said okay mom, and I started to sew.
A while later, I go outside to check on the kids, and I see stuff bouncing up and down on the tramp with the kids. I got closer, and sure enough, Riley and his friend Dallin had grabbed hand fulls and hand fulls of deer poop, thrown it on the tramp, and were bouncing on it with bare feet!!!! Okay, pregnant or not, that is just gross! I started to dry heeve because it was so sick and then my friend came outside to see what I was almost throwing up about. When she saw the situation, she started to laugh so hard. The thought of Riley being covered in deer poop was too much for me to handle, but I didn't want to give him another bath, so we put his hands and feet in the sink and scrubbed them down!
Did he honestly think that carrying and jumping on deer poop was okay? Sometimes I wonder, What is Riley thinking?
More pictures from Riley's Birthday Party! He got a cool SpiderMan Bike and Helmet but it was SO cold on his birthday that we weren't able to go on a big bike ride-just around our circle!
Riley had a great 4th Birthday! He got to eat lunch at his favorite place (Carl's Junior-he calls it Stars), got a bubblegum ice cream @ Marble Slab, then went to Chuck E Cheese's for his party. Thanks to all of our family who came to celebrate Riley's birthday! We had a fun time since it wasn't crouded at all. Uncle Scotty won so many tickets that he was able to get a cool Spider Man blow up chair that was worth 1,000 tickets! Way to go Scotty!
We have such a loving and supportive family and I am so grateful that they are always there for my kids! Riley knows his Aunts and Uncles and Grandparents so well because of that support that they show! Thanks for making Riley's birthday special!
I cannot believe that my little Riley is 4 years old today! 4 years ago I was a scared mom having a c-section and now he is such a big boy. Riley is such a wonderful big brother to his sister, he tries to help his mom and sister out whenever we need help and he is such a sweet little boy! I love him so much and am thankful for his birthday today!
Drum Roll Please...
Our big announcement is that we are Expecting Baby #3!!!!!
I am due October 3rd, 2008 (almost 10 weeks along right now) and
since we already have a boy and a girl, I think that we are going
to go the whole 9 months without finding out if it is a boy or a girl!!!
What an awesome surprise it would be at the end of a hot summer pregnancy
to have a huge surprise waiting for me at the end! So, we are so excited
to have another little one in our family; Sunny & Riley are very excited
as well-they just don't understand that it takes a LONG time to get the
baby here! I know all too well about that one.
This pregnancy has been the complete opposite as Riley and Sunny's! I have
been so so so sick with this one! I was not sick for a day with the other kids.
I just feel like I want to throw up all of the time which is not a good feeling
to feel 24 hours a day! Anyway, it is totally worth it to be this sick and to
be prego all summer long if it means that we will have a healthy boy or girl
at the end!!!
Regan was in charge of planning our Valentines Day (Friday) this year, and all week he told me that it was a surprise! After we dropped the kids off at my friends house for our Friday Night Co-Op, I was SO excited to see what he had planned. We ended up at the Chef's Table in Provo. It was AMAZING!
We started out with Coconut Shrimp,
then had a spoonful of Sorbet (to cleanse our pallet)
Then I had prime rib and shrimp, Regan had Duck
For Dessert I had my favorite, Creme Bruelee and Regan had Bread Pudding
It was delicious and the place was gorgeous. They had a piano player playing and that really did set the mood. It is so much fun to get all dressed up and go out somewhere fancy every once and a while!
Thanks Regan for a great Valentines Day!
So this is almost a week late, but here it is! We had a fun Valentines Day with a special visit from Grammy & Grampy (my parents)! My dad gave me the traditional box of Sees Chocolates! Yum! My mom made us Homemade carmels and chocolate dipped strawberries! We took the kids out to dinner and then played games at Nicklecade-Riley had a blast! Here are some pictures of the kids eating some Valentines Cupcakes!
So lately I have been in a blogging rut. Granted, we have been super busy around here-I had to work at Regan's office on Wednesday because his secretary is leaving and he had nobody to help him at the office. I also have just been busy with the kids, teaching lessons and getting the Fackrell Family Newsletter Out to Regan's Family. (Why did I have to do it all by myself with NO help from Regan and it is HIS family?-Oh ya, because we never even see Regan so someone had to do it!)
Anyway, just wanted to let our blogging fans and viewers know that yes we are alive, but I have seriously been in this blogging rut-I need to get out of it! Help!
Yep, that's me! I have faithfully gone to the gym everyday (but Sunday) for the last 3 weeks! I am very dedicated until NOW! On Monday, I didn't go to a class, so I decided to wander around the gym and try some new equipment! Well, no harm done on the 1st day, but now, the 3rd day, I cannot even walk! Seriously--I feel like I have been riding a horse for a month because my thighs are on fire! I feel like I don't want to work out for the rest of my life because of the way I feel today, but Regan told me this morning that since I am just starting to exercise daily, that my body is still getting used to it.
Well, if that is true, then I will have to forget the pain and keep on going to the gym like a good girl! It helps though that my kids absolutly LOVE the day care and most times when I get them they don't want to leave! Well, if you have any suggestions of how to make your muscles stop aching, please leave them!!!! Ouch!
Regan turns 29 today!! Have a great birthday honey! We love you so much!
Since it is his Birthday, as his wife, I have bragging rights:
Regan is such a hard worker! For a year and a half now he has put his heart and soul into his insurance business and worked SO hard! He is such a great dad to Riley and Sunny and a wonderful husband to me! Thanks for all you do for us Regan-Happy Birthday!
Love, Andrea
As many of you know, President Hinckley died tonight, Sunday January 27th. I just wanted to pay a tribute to him because he was such an amazing person and a huge influnce and example on my life. President Hinckley and I share the same birthday, June 23rd so every year I felt so honored to be able to share my birthday with the Prophet and President of my Church. I actually even sent him a birthday card when he turned 90 and I turned 20! He died at the age of 97 and I am 27.
I have mixed emotions because of course it is sad to hear of his passing because we will no longer be able to hear his amazing talks and council, but more than any other feeling, I feel happy for him. His sweet wife died 4 years ago and I just feel so happy to think that he is now with his dear wife, Heavenly Father and Jesus right now. He has been reunited with his eternal companion and he has lived a great life.
I am grateful for the council that I have gained through him and for the example that I will always have. Now when I turn 28 on June 23rd this year, I will definently think of him on the day that we shared!
Today in church, the lesson was on a talk given this past General Conference by Dallin H. Oaks titled Good, Better, Best. After the lesson, I decided to come home and actually read the talk in the Ensign and it was a wonderful talk. It made me really think about the priorities in my life and what is really important to me. Obviouslly my family and especially my kids are the most important because I am the one raising them and helping them along the path of life. I have a deep sense of really thinking about what I would like to change about my life, and cut out the things in my life that are not important to me.
"Some uses of individual and family time are better, and others are best. We have to forego some good things in order to choose others that are better or best because they develop faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our families."
If you don't have a copy of the Ensign, you can go to www.lds.org and put in a search for the talk, Good, Better, Best by Dallin H. Oaks. It is a great one!
So I got this idea from my old roommate Emily, and I loved it! This is my 1st attempt at making a "movie". I actually would really like to get into making dvd's out of my video's and pictures so if anyone has advise for me, I would appreciate it!
