Summer Days!

Oh how I love these Summer Days! The kids LOVE to play outside with friends, love to go to the water park here in Herriman, and LOVE to be outside in the lovely summer weather!

Defending the title...

For those of you who want to see an event to go down in the history books, then come to the TOUR de DONUT on Saturday, July 11th at 9 am in American Fork. Regan will be defending his title of Donut King from last year! His trophy still proudly sits in his office! Last year, he ate 25 donuts and biked 21 miles and won the whole race. This is what Regan is best at...a bike race with a food race!
For more details, go to http://utahtourdedonut.com/default.aspx

Stadium of Fire!

The 4th of July was So awesome! We went to the Provo Parade, Regan went on a huge mountain bike ride, we had all you can eat pancakes and french toast at Magelbees and went to the Stadium of Fire! Glen Beck, Shedaisy and the Jonas Brothers were the performers and it was SWEET! The reason why it was so sweet is because we were literally in a SUITE! My dad was able to get our family into a suite in the BYU stadium so the kids were able to run around, it was air conditioned, we had a great dinner and saw everything SO well! I had a fun time with Riley, Angie and Chrissy dancing to the Jonas Brothers music! It was actually really good dancing music! The best part though was watching the fire works outside! WOW-even Ellie couldn't stop staring at them! What a great 4th of July!

Camping Trip

I'm not much of a camper, but we decided to go camping at Squaw Peak in Provo Canyon over the 4th of July weekend. Besides the aching back and feeling dirty, it was great! The kids absolutly LOVED buiding camp fires with Regan, finding bugs and twigs, cooking hot dogs and smores, and just having a good old time in the dirt! Ellie was the dirtiest because all she wanted to do was eat the dirt and rocks! We made it 2 days camping, then went to my parents cabin for the last night! AHH, the joy of a shower! We also went on a HUGE bike ride, 15 miles! We went from the mouth of the canyon, to the riverwoods to watch Ice Age 3, then to lunch, then to the Bean Animal Museum at BYU, then to the art Museum at BYU, then back! I was thinking to myself the whole time, A.)I am in really bad shape B.)It is really hot out here or C.) My bike stinks because I was having a really hard time on the trails! After we got back and loaded our bikes on the car, I tried to spin my bike tire, and it wouldn't even move! Turns out, the seat we installed on the back of my bike for Riley to sit in was clamping my brake so I was riding my bike all over Provo with the brakes on basically!!!!!!! All in all, it was a great camping trip!

Violin recital

My sisters Angie and Chrissy had their last violin recital with the teacher all of the girls in the McKell family had! At the very end of the concert, all 4 of us played the Concerto for 4 violins by Vivaldi and it was SO awesome! That piece was made for the McKell girls! Thanks to my mom and dad for sticking with all of us girls and our violins! It has truly blessed my life!

Twinner Sunday!

Ahhh-I just love a beautiful summer night with my two beautiful little twinner girls!

Operation: Mom & Dad's 30th Anniversary Party!

I pulled off the biggest surprise EVER! My mom and dad usually know about EVERYTHING Going on, so for me to pull of a surprise 30th anniversary party with not knowing at ALL is huge! This was in the works for quite a while, and so when the day finally came, I was a bit nervous because of the aniticipation! My sister and I set up the cultural hall in Draper with my mom's wedding dress, her bridesmaid dress, a tv showing a movie of all of the pictures of them throughout the years, food set up {there was a lot of food!} wedding pictures, newspaper articles, the guest book from 1979, flowers and a ton of my mom's wedding decorations! It was a lot of work, and I was getting really nervous towards the end hoping that people would actually show up! Well, I had nothing to scared of because all in all, we had 50 people at the party and it ended up being a HUGE success!!! Ashley and I cooked chicken salad croissants, pasta salad, spinich salad, veggie tray, bean dip and chips, chocolate cake, strawberry cake and banana cake!

Happy Birthday, to ME!

I had the BEST Birthday yesterday! I truly did everything I wanted to do and I was a queen for the day! Of course I don't have any pictures to prove this, but you will have to just trust me on this!
Schedule of Events for June 23rd:
*Came downstairs to find Regan making his famous crepes with fruit and whipping cream as well as a HUGE high school musical balloon that plays songs and a big birthday cake!
*Regan gave me some $$ to go shopping with so I could get what I wanted. Opened birthday cards from family as well!!
*Regan put all 3 kids in the car, had them watch a movie while he drove for 3 hours taking pictures of homes he insures while I went shopping BY MYSELF for 3 hours! Even if I wouldn't have bought Anything, it would have been a treat to just walk around hobby lobby and the mall BY MYSELF without having to push a stroller or deal with whinning kids!!!!
*Drove with the family to Provo, had a delicious salad and soup from Mimi's with my whole family, opened up great gifts from my family!
*Went to 7 Peaks Water Park in Provo for 5 hours and had a pure BLAST! I think I am getting more scared in my old age because my 13 year old sister went on the freefall slide and I would not do it! The Boomerang was enough for me!
*Dropped the kids off with my mom and went to my favorite place ever: Ottavios in Provo! They sang me Happy Birthday in Italian and had a delicious dinner!
*Came home and watched Confessions of a Shopaholic with Regan!

I have 1 more year to live up my 20's because next year is the big 3-0!
Thanks to everyone who made my birthday SO special! I absolutly LOVE Birthdays!!!!

Swine Flu Alert!

We were evacuated out of our own home last Thursday for 4 days because Regan has the SWINE FLU! The ironic thing about him getting it is that we were going to leave for Can Cun on a trip that he won for American Family Insurance yesterday, but they cancelled it 2 months ago because of the Swine Flu outbreak in Mexico! But no, he had to end up getting it on his own in the good old city of Herriman! So I left the kids in the car after institute on Thursday, packed all of the clothes up, and stayed in Draper with my family until last night.

He called in to the Dr. on Thursday and described his symptoms and the Dr. said most likely it was the Swine flu. He said it was SO boring to stay home for 4 days by himself. He watched a ton of movies! Honestly, if it were me, home alone for 4 days, I would have lived it up! I would have re-read the Twilight Series, caught up on my scrapbooking and watched some great chick-clicks, wrote in my journal, crosstiched....I just can't even think that much because it would have been a very productive time for me!

He went back to work today, but left because he doesn't want anyone to get exposed to it. I have spent the majority of my day disinfecting the house and cleaning EVERYTHING! If we are going to be here with him, I am going to make sure the house is clean, free of germs, and make sure that the kids do NOT get sick! That would be the worst thing ever because they are just so little!

So-beware of the Swine Flu lurking around the Fackrell Home!

Suzuki Institute

Highlights of Suzuki Institute 2009:
*Riley having a hilarious Master Class teacher named Terry Durbin from Kentucky! He made Riley laugh so much by making funny noises on his violin. Riley learned how to make a perfect bow grip because of this teacher!
*Riley had a violin Repertoire class with Ellie Albers-she is the one who taught me Suzuki Book 1 Teacher Training when I was just starting to be a teacher!
*Dalcrose Class-Music & Movement Class where Riley loved dancing to the beat of the music and drums!
*Riley made a great friend and had a ton of boys his same age in his classes!
*Riley LOVED eating school lunch!
*Sunny LOVED the daycare and the daycare teachers LOVED her! They didn't want her to go!
*Ellie was a pure angel the whole week! I couldn't ask for a better baby!
*Tons of students at institute always said HI to Riley and we didn't even know them! It just seems like Riley attracts a lot of people because of his curly hair! Everyone loved him!
*I got a lot of great ideas for my own studio!
*We got to see Jenny Oaks Baker and the Aaron Ashton Fiddle Band in concert!
*We had a wonderful time and hope that Riley can remember all of the things he learned this week at Suzuki Institute!

Recap of Sunny's 3rd Birthday

It has been so busy around here that I haven't had a chance to blog about Sunny's
3rd Birthday! We started the day out by going to the kids first day of Swimming lessons, which she wanted to go swimming on her bday anyway, so that worked out great!
*I took the kids for lunch to the park and had a teddy bear picnic.
*Then, we had Regan come home early and we took the kids on a big hike up to Yellow Fork which is pretty much our backyard here in Herriman. It was a gorgeous day and the kids LOVED looking under rocks for bugs and we saw A LOT of BUGS!
*We took Sunny to dinner at her choice which was McDonads, then set up a teepee in the backyard with blankets and watched Mary Poppins! A pretty good birthday if you ask me!

Sunday Dresses!

I have found my weakness in life...Little Girl dresses! I absolutly LOVE getting my gorgeous girls dressed up in their cute little dresses. And who's to say that Sunday is the only day that a girl can wear a dress?

Ballet/Dance Class

Sunny and he best friend Kayci have started going to dance class together and I can honestly say that there has never been 2 cuter ballerinas! They are so cute and they both love to dance! They go twice a week for alternating weeks throughout the summer and I have a feeling that this is something that Sunny will want to continue for a long time!

Grateful for LIFE!

So a few sad things have gone on with us this week...
{I can't even believe I am blogging about the 1st}

Riley and Sunny's pet hamster they got for Christmas, Yoshi, died 2 days ago. It was so sad to see Riley crying and asking when he will be resurected! He kept asking if Yoshi will live with Heavenly Father and Papa again. That even me tear up over the darn thing that scared me to death every time I saw it! Especially when it escaped two times in our house!!!!

The second experience I had this week made me grateful for my children! I was at Walmart and a lady came up to me and asked how old Ellie was. I told her she was almost 9 months and she started to cry. I asked her what the problem was and she said that her baby would have been 9 months old as well, but she passed away by Christmas time of SIDS! It was their last baby of 6 kids, and she was devestated! I started to cry in the middle of the aisle of Walmart with this lady that I didn't even know because it made me so grateful for healthy children! I told this lady how I am the oldest sister to younger sisters-my sisters are 13 and 15 and that it was a great experience for me to kind of be the second mom and help raise them when they were little. I honestly think that is where I got a lot of my mothering skills from. She was interested in that fact and I just think that for some reason, her and I were supposed to talk to each other that particular day! I had crazy kids running up and down the aisle way, but I thought it was important to just stand there and talk to her instead of get those crazy kids!

Anyway, I am just so thankful that Heavenly Father has given me these 3 beautiful children for me to raise because even though they are kind of crazy and hard at times, they make my life so happy and complete!

Happy Birthday Sunny!

We love you Sunny Bunny!
You are the most independent girl I have ever met! You know what you want and what you don't want and you let it be known!
*You love to dance and sing
*You love to dress up in girly girl outfits and jewlry
*You & Ellie are the most gorgeous girls I have ever seen!
*You have the most beautiful blue eyes!
*You love to swim, play with your brother, jump on the tramp, play with your best friend Kayci, and eat your "B" {her blanky}
*You don't like it when I do your hair, when someone bosses you around, or when we make you do something you don't like!
*You are a total daddy's girl!
*You love the color Pink {pretty obvious by your room!}
*We are so glad that you are in our family!

Happy Birthday Sunny!

Today is Sunny's 3rd Birthday! She started out the day by getting some twin dolls, a game, a barbie movie, and a new BIKE! She is excited to learn how to ride it! I made strawberry french toast for her, and then we were off to Sunny and Riley's 1st swimming lesson of the season! That was perfect for Sunny's birthday because she wanted to swim anyway for her birthday!

Sunny is wearing a cute dress made by her Grandma Fackrell! It is adorable and she just loves to wear it so she can twirl in it! We had a family party on Sunday at my parents cabin a little early to celebrate Sunny's birthday. Regan's mom and Bob were able to come up as well and we all had a lot of fun together. Sunny of course just loved dressing up in her presents! She is the ultimate girly girl! I decorated Sunny's bike to have some more girly girl elements on it as well! {Do you like her bed head crazy hair?}

We went on a teddy bear picnic for lunch {The kids brought their bears with us} and Regan will get home early to do some fun activities with Sunny this afternoon!

Happy Birthday little Sunny Bunny!