If the Savior stood Beside Me...

A few months ago, Regan was out of town, and I was left home alone with the kids. When this happens, I sometimes can freak myself out at any kind of sound that they house makes. This particular night, I thought I heard something and started hypervenalating. The 1st thing that came into my mind was a new primary song that Riley has been learning. It instantly comforted me and I was able to go back to sleep without being scared.

I am thankful for the peace that the gospel gives me and the strength that I have because of the knowledge that I have. I am far from perfect--there are still so many things that I am working on daily as a mother, as a wife, as a friend and as an individual, but as I am working through those, I feel like I can grow and grow because of that peace the gospel gives me.

Here are the lyrics to the Primary Song that comforted me so much that night!

If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do?
Would I think of His commandments and try harder to be true?
Would I follow His example? Would I live more righteously,
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?

If the Savior stood beside me, would I say the things I say?
Would my words be true and kind if He were never far away?
Would I try to share the gospel? Would I speak more reverently
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?

If the Savior stood beside me, would my thoughts be clean and pure?
Would His presence give me strength and hope, and courage to endure?
Would His counsel guide my actions? Would I choose more worthily
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me?

He is always near me, though I do not see Him there
And because He loves me dearly, I am in His watchful care
So I'll be the kind of person that I know I'd like to be
If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me.

The Halloween Party!!

Last night, my mom and dad had everyone over for the 1st annual McKell Family Halloween Party! My dad said that since our family is growing and growing, we need to start the tradition of a Halloween Party! We had SO much fun thanks to mom and dad! My dad made the coolest spook alley ever. He even made it kid friendly for Riley and Sunny with a Halloween Light Up Mickey Mouse and Pooh Bear. After they went through the friendly one, the rest of us went through the not so friendly one! Let's just say that I was screaming so loud at the end! My dad made a tunnel that we had to crawl through, then made walls and at the end of the spook alley, I saw something that I thought was just pinned to the walls, but all of a sudden, it started to move and then come closer to me!!!!!

It was a 7 foot 2 inch FRANKENSTEIN coming for us! It was SO SO SO SCARY!
My dad rented this guy that is really 6'8 in real life, and when he is in his Frankenstein Costume, his shoes make him 7'2! Dad-that was SO awesome-way to go!

We had good food, fun games, and fun costumes! We even painted a Halloween Mural and went to the good old Farmer Rasmussen's house to get pumpkins! I can't remember how long we have gone to his house for pumpkins, but it has been a very long time!

This was such a fun party and something that we will definently look forward to every year as our family is growing and growing!

Midway Weekend

My family decided spur of the moment to take a long weekend vacation to Midway since the kids had school off. Midway is by Heber, just up from Provo Canyon. It was such an awesome weekend, but unfortunatly, Regan didn't go with us because he was working and spending time with his brother who was in town. Anyway, my parents rented a condo in the Zermatt Resort in Midway which was awesome!! The kids did a lot of swimming, we went to Park City, we did the Zip Line at the Olympic Park (which I was extremely scared to do, but I did it and it was so amazing!), the family swam in the Crater at the homestead, we went to an awesome diner in Oakley, played games, watched movies and had a fun time with each other!

Thanks mom and dad for always having fun things planned for our family! I have so many amazing memories of family trips all because of my mom and dad. Riley and Sunny absolutly love spending time with my siblings, and this weekend was no exception!

Call me Crazy

Call me crazy, but I just think I have the cutest kids in the whole entire world! Am I just a little bias...probably, but common, they are just super cute!!!!

Fun Halloween Craft

Grandma Fackrell sent the kids this fun Halloween Craft and we had fun putting it together last night! The little Halloween kids are so cute and this was a fun craft to do. Thanks LeeAnn!

Our Wyoming Weekend

Last Saturday, we received the news that Regan's Grandpa who lives in Wyoming passed away while hearding cattle on the mountain side. He was 86 years old and you might ask, why was he hearding cattle at his age? Well, that is exactly the kind of person he was...never wanting to stop working and always living life doing what he loved, farming. I think if he had his choice, this is how he would have wanted to leave this earth.

We packed all 3 kids in the car on Tuesday morning and drove 8 hours to the great town of Burlington, Wyoming. I still am in amazement of how Ellie did in the car both ways. She slept most of the way and was so good-come on, she is only 2 1/2 weeks old! Anyway, it was great to be at Grandma's house all week and spend so much time with Regan's family. Regan and his brother spoke at their Grandpa's funeral and afterwards, people said it was the funniest funeral they had ever been to. More like a celebration of life than a mourning. I played a piece on my violin called Ashokan's Farewell and it was perfect for his Grandpa. A westerny, twangy piece that suited him very well.

We came home on Saturday and braved the scary Wyoming roads. There was a point where Regan and I were just driving along at the speed limit when all of a sudden, we started sliding all over the road. WE had hit a patch of black ice which we obvoiuslly couldn't see, and fortuanatly, Regan pulled out of it calmly and didn't jerk the wheel, otherwise we would have flipped our car! It was so scary and so needless to say, we were so grateful to be home and to be safe!

Here is the mother coming out of me, but honestly, it really made me just think-it is not worth going fast or trying to get to your destination fast when the weather is bad, and now that it is snowing in Utah today, it really makes me want to drive so safe and slow since I have 3 little ones with me!

Anyway, we are glad that we had such a great weekend being with family this week and reflecting back to the life of Ferrel Riley. He is the reason why we named our little boy Riley. He was such a hard worker and a great guy!

While we were there, we went to Cody for a day to visit the Buffalo Bill Museum! WOW-it had 5 museums all together and the kids loved it. Here are some pictures of our trip!

Dress Up Queen

My little Sunny LOVES to Dress up so when we were at my parents house for General Conference last weekend, let's just say she was in heaven when Chrissy showed her the bin of old Halloween Costumes! This year for Halloween she will be Cinderella which comes to no surprise since she is going through a Disney Princess obsession lately!

Sisters

Here are the 2 sisters. Sunny loves to hold little baby Ellie, but I don't know if Ellie likes it too much! Here are some cute pictures of my little girls! About the last picture...does anyone have potty training advise for me? I don't know if it is just my little girl, but it seems like she is WAY more stubborn in potty training than Riley ever was!

Happy Fall!

Happy Fall! Honestly, did you think I could pass up the cute Halloween Bows in Sunny's hair? Just another thing to look forward to with 2 girls! Twinner Outfits and Bows-these girls don't even have a say in the matter!

wedding pics

Here are some awesome pictures at my sister's wedding. Regan was the crepe chef and had his very own crepe making table and wore a real chef's hat. He was a great sport for making crepe's for 3 hours straight and mingling with a ton of people at the wedding. I think I mentioned this before, but I don't know of too many husbands that would agree to this, and I just think Regan is so awesome-not only for doing this at the wedding, but just for having a husband that is so outgoing and a take charge type of person. He can do whatever he sets his mind to do and he is incredible; did I mention he is hot too?

The other picture is my favorite picture of all of my siblings! I think everyone looks great in it and I just love how close we are: in life and the picture! Anyway, I am glad that I have 5 other siblings to share life experiences with and to hang out with. Since I am the oldest of the group, I feel a huge responsibility to be an example to them and to do the right things at all times! I love them so much and I am lucky to have them in my life!

Salsa+Nursing Baby=2 hours of sleep!

This is totally my fault, but I got 2 hours of sleep last night!!! I forgot that what I eat affects the baby, and so when I was enjoying some homemade salsa that my friend made me for lunch yesterday, little did I know that it would make me get 2 hours of sleep because Elle's tummy didn't like the onions and peppers! Note to self: do not eat anything spicy or hot while nursing!

Let's just say that with 2 other kids at home, Mom needs her sleep and so just wish me luck today! It might just have to be a movie day today!! Fortunatly, my friend and old college roommate called me this morning, Emily, and that honestly just made my day to talk to her! Thanks Emily-you are so awesome!

Our 1st Week Home!

Our 1st week of being home was GREAT! Regan took the whole week off and spent it doing a fun thing with Riley and Sunny every day! They went to the library, the park, out to eat, Boondocks (mini golf, boats, racing cars, arcades, and laser tag), and spent some really good quality time with them. In the mean time, I was able to get some R&R with little Elle and try to figure out the whole nursing thing. You might think to yourself, well this is your 3rd kid, don't you have nursing down already? The answer to that is NO-I lost my milk with Riley after 2 weeks, I had to stop nursing with Sunny after 4 months because of my kidney stone surgery, and so I never have had a good opportunity to do it for very long.

Let's just say that I must really want to make this nursing thing happen for Elle because it has not been an easy ride! Elle has a very tight grip and does not open her mouth very wide, so the result of that has been bleeding! I have just cringed every time I put her on to feed, and then I saw blood on her mouth and said that is enough of that! I had to pump just to have her eat for 2 days, then I went to the lactaction specialist at the hospital yesterday to get some help! She helped me SO much! I went there with tears and left there with a ton of hope! She had me use a nipple shield (sorry if this is too much info) and it has worked SO well!

Regan and my mom have been so awesome to try and get me through this! My mom has listened to me complain and cry, and Regan asked on the worst night if there was anything he could do. I told him no, but instead of taking that answer, he went downstairs and printed off an article of what to do when nursing isn't going so well! He is so awesome!

Anyway, besides that whole issue, which is now resolved, I am doing so much better and so is Elle. We even went to Riley's soccer game on Saturday and it felt so good to be outside in the beautiful weather! Sunny is always happy to play with her friend Kaycee, and Riley loves playing with his friend Jaxson who were both at the soccer game.

Thanks to everyone who has called, come over and left comments for us! We have loved our little Elle so much and cannot believe how fast a week has gone by! We are trying to savor each moment with our precious new little baby!

Pictures of Elle

Well, we have made it through our 1st whole week with our little Elle! She has been such a great baby so far, and we have enjoyed her SO much in our home! Here are a few pictures of her 1st few days of being at home!

Introducing...Elle Michelle Fackrell

Here is a quick slide show of our new little Baby Girl! Her name is
Elle Michelle Fackrell. She was born on Monday, September 22nd at 11:00 p.m
and weighed 8 lbs. 2 oz. and was 20 inches long. She is the cutest little girl with dark brown hair, blue eyes, cute chubby cheeks and a double chin! She is beautiful and perfect! We are so blessed to have a new little girl join our family! More details and pics to follow soon! Today is our 1st day home!

Wedding Day!

So Ashley and Brett got married and throughout all of the wedding festivities, no baby! Riley and Sunny looked so cute and big in their new wedding clothes! It was awesome to watch Ashley and Brett get sealed to each other, and then get all of the traditional pictures around the temple. Regan was the crepe chef that day. He made 400+ crepes! I was really proud of him because I don't know too many husbands that would stand at a crepe bar and make all of those crepes for a wedding! He was so talkative and fun at the crepe bar as well!

I had some contractions throughout the day, but since the baby didn't come, I had to do something to freak everyone out who was worried about me! As Ashley and Brett were driving off in the moonlight to their honeymoon, Regan poured a cup of water behind me and I screamed, "My water Broke, AHHHH!" It was so fun to see people's reactions! My dad and brother were totally worried, until they saw that the water that was on the cement had ice all around it!

Contraction City!

Give me a break!! I went to the Doctor this morning at 9 am in high hopes of being even close to delivering this baby, but NO! The doctor informed me that I am still dialated to a 2 and have not progressed since last week! How is that even possible since I was doing a ton of stuff for the wedding last weekend? This baby just has it's own time table I guess! He said that if I am still prego next week for our next appointment, than we are scheduling an induction on Monday, September 29th which is still forever away in a pregnant ladies mind!

I went to the health store today to get me some blue cohosh (my research has shown that if you take this 4 times a day in capsule form that it will open up the cervix and you will have the baby in 3 days!) but it just was not meant to be because they had just barely run out! Apparently, there are a lot of prego women in September wanting to get their hands on this wierd herb!

I have been having a TON of contractions; it's just that none of them are consistant or regular! Maybe I should name the baby boy Braxton since I am having so many Braxton Hicks Contractions!

This weekend I am going for the next thing-Spicy food! I really want Regan to take me to a Thai place and get some really spicy curry!

Anyway, just wanted to give you the update on this baby of mine that will not come out! I am ready more than I have ever been! I am uncomfortable, I have heartburn, I am so huge, and more than anything, I am just getting antsy for this new little arrival to join our family!

Wish us luck! We are going to the BYU game this weekend-maybe my water will break at the stadium!!!!

Name Help

So Regan and I have been having a hard time deciding on baby names now that we are down to the wire! We love the name Ellie (Elle) for a girl so that is a for sure name for a girl! For a boy, the options are Ryker, Tage, Crew but I want some more options! If anyone has some cute boy name ideas, please leave a comment on this post so that I can start thinking of what this little boy's name will be! Also, vote on the existing names on the side as well!
Thanks for your help!

The Doctor Results!

Yesterday I went to my doctors appointment and these are the results:
Dialated to a 2
75% Effaced
Dr. Smith said, "You could have this baby tonight or in 2 weeks-there is just no way of knowing when it could happen!"
Well, that is wonderful...I could be at the Salt Lake Temple watching Ashley and Brett getting married and my water breaks!!
Wish me luck!!!

Girls Night Out

This is exactly what I needed as a 9 month prego lady! I cannot even reach my feet these days, let alone paint them and make them look pretty, so this was pretty deluxe!

All of the girls went to get pedicures together and let me tell you...it was so relaxing and just what the doctor ordered in my opinion! It was so much fun to be with my sisters and my awesome mom!

Afterwards, we went to Citris Grill for dinner which was the same place we went to after an all day wedding dress shopping day! I am so lucky that I have 3 sisters and a great mom to be able to do fun things with and to have girls in my life that I know will help me whenever I am in need!