Gingerbread House Party

 
After such a fun time last year, Lola and I decided we needed to have another gingerbread house decorating party with her friends.  This Lola of mine is a girl after my own heart and loves planning a party as much as her mama!  We had lots of fun making invitations, baking cupcakes, shopping for gingerbread house decor, finding party favors, and making everything look as lovely as possible.  She went to great effort figuring out what bowls and trays we should use and how to set everything up on the table.  Seriously love her!

  

 

 Stella was also not about to miss out on the fun. . . she just wasn't quite so helpful!  She 'helped' us set up the table and then I headed her off for her nap.

Lo has so many cute little friends living right here in our neighborhood.  I just loved spending a couple hours with these girls.  We decorated our houses and then had a cupcake and a cup of hot cocoa.  Lola had dipped peppermint marshmellow stirrers and they loved watching the marshmellow's melt in the cocoa.  We finished with a Barbie Christmas movie before we took them all home.  

Such a fun afternoon!

Fetching the Holiday Tree

 We headed to Preston, Idaho on the Saturday after thanksgiving for our annual Fackrell family tree hunt.  We've done this for the past 4 Christmases and it really is one of our favorite traditions.

Stella was pretty happy to ride on her dad's back for most of the time, Miles headed off immediately with granny and grandpa as usual, and Jackson and Lola traipsed all over that hill in search of the perfect tree with us. 

It took us a little longer than normal, but we ended up heading home with 7 beautiful Christmas trees. 

 The kids had lots of fun goofing off on a little sledding hill that they found, and the babies sauntered around in their puffy snowsuits.  Stella was happy as can be tasting snow, until her fingers were frozen and we had to get her to the warm car.

 

We headed down the mountain and had our Christmas Kick-Off party at our house.  We had yummy soup and salad for dinner and then a big treat table to kick the holiday's off right!  If there's something the Fackrell family does well, it's making, eating, talking about, and sharing sweets!

My sweet mom goes all out every year on these awesome Christmas kick off gift bags for everyone.  Each grandkid gets a bag overflowing with fun stuff like puzzles, small toys, a chocolate advent calendar, bath toys and lots of candy.  Each couple gets such fun things to get us in the Christmas spirit: a new Christmas book, soap and lotions, gift cards for the boys, sprinkles and cupcake liners, and ornaments for the tree.  It is such a fun thing for us all and so, so nice of my mom and dad!

I love that I belong to such a fun family!  I love that even though we are growing and changing, that we all love being together and look forward to these traditions.

Stella

 

This little character turned 2.  TWO!  Hard to believe that my baby is two and my family is growing up.  She had such a fun birthday. . . we started the day with birthday pancakes and presents.  She knew exactly what was happening and loved every minute of being the star of the day!

We spent the day reading books, doing puzzles, going on walks, and pretty much whatever Stella wanted to do.  That afternoon we went to Centerville for a birthday shopping trip with granny.  Stella thought it was pretty amazing to be able to roam the toy section and pick something out.  Afterwards, we met grandpa, Tierra, Nate and Ryan for dinner.

 Some of my favorite things about Stella at age 2:

She is such a happy girl.  Always smiling.  People stop me all the time while we run errands and ask if she's always this happy.  I can truthfully answer YES!   Her happiness is such a blessing in our family.

 

She has the funniest smile in the world when the camera comes out.  Her eyes squint shut and her mouth does the craziest thing.  It makes me laugh every single time.

  

  

She is busy, busy, BUSY!  She never stops.  She dumps things out just for the sake of making a mess.  She climbs on the bar, the table, the bathroom counter, even her dresser and causes mass destruction!  Some days I honestly cannot keep up with her.  But she loves to sit on my lap and read, or sit and do puzzles, or color in her coloring books and that gives me a few minutes of sanity before the destruction begins again.  Oh.  And she always tells me sorry as she's making messes.  It makes it pretty impossible to be mad at her.

 

She thinks her pocket is down the front of her shirt.  She tries to carry things around this way.  Golf balls, apples, toys, even snacks.  Sometimes she tells me to put her things in my pocket too.

She talks all the time and says a million words but not necessarily super clear.  She is constantly saying, "me, me, me!" whenever her siblings are doing something and she doesn't want to be left out.  She refuses to be a baby and won't eat with baby spoons or bowls or use sippy cups, She calls Jackson "Son," Lola "Yoya," and Miles "Baba."  Her blanket is her "da."  She loves her bottle.  One of her favorite things to say is, "NO, Baba!" whenever Miles is doing something to annoy her.  She loves running errands with me during the day and will say, "no, home" if she thinks we're headed that way.  She is a bit of a monster to take to a restaurant because she's not super skilled at sitting still for that long, but she absolutely loves when I announce to her that we are having lunch with dad.  Her favorite part of the day is when Lola comes home from kindergarten: she runs down the sidewalk and bear hugs her sister.  Melts my heart every single time.  She takes great naps and usually sleeps for 3 hours. . . giving her mama time to get the house put back in order from her shenanigans!

No matter how busy this little 2 year old keeps me, I can't help but want to freeze her.  I love my mornings while the older kids are at school and I get one on one time with my youngest.  I love her hugs and kisses.  I love cuddling with her while we read books.  I find myself trying to memorize everything about these moments:  her smell, her fuzzy hair against my cheek, her chubby little legs, her little voice asking questions or telling me about the world, her perfect little fingers with their dimples. It's just about killing this mama that she's growing up faster than I can handle.

Happy, happy birthday to my little Stelly Mo!

Veteran's Day

Miles had a program at school for Veteran's Day on Friday.  He had a pretty big part and has been working super hard memorizing all his lines.  He has been talking about it all month, singing all the songs, and calling his grandpa great because he wanted to honor him at the program.  It was so cute that grandpa was able to come and Miles was so. so proud to have his veteran grandpa at his Veteran's Day program.

Halloween

Halloween is always chock full of fun.  Here are a few pictures from the week leading up to Halloween.  

We had a super fun ward Halloween party.  All the kids dressed up in their costumes and had a parade through the church.  We had a chili cook off and took home a top 3 prize.  Wa-hoo!

 We made yummy caramel with apples to hand out to teachers and neighbors.

Nate and I carved our pumpkins after the kids were in bed for the first time ever.  I don't know why I've never thought of that before, but it was so fun to spend time with Nate and have time for our own pumpkin carving.  We let the kids carve to their hearts content the next day.  Stella thought the mess was awesome and was seriously proud of her pumpkin. 

Lola and I went with some of her friends and their moms to dinner at the Bluebird followed by the ballet "Dracula."  It was such a fun night and always a treat for me to spend time with my Lola one on one.  

 On Halloween I helped with Lola's class party.  We decorated pumpkin sugar cookies.  I love being able to go to my kids class parties and Kindergarten ones are definitely a favorite. . . the kids are so cute and so excited!

After morning kindergarten, Lola, Stella and I trick or treated to the downtown businesses.  It was honestly the most beautiful Halloween I can remember.  With the temperature around 70 degrees, it was so fun to walk from store to store along Main Street with my little girls.  I didn't think Stella would make it very far, but the little trooper walked the entire way, both sides of the street and would have kept going if there were more stores.  She caught on to the whole candy in her bucket thing very quickly and was the cutest thing ever walking up, saying trick-or-treat and then walking away with a "ank ooo." 

We had a quick dinner of 'mummy dogs' (sick) and apple vampire teeth, before the kids all costumed up and got ready for the big event. 

Jackson and Miles set out with Spencer, Decker, Brennan and Davis and got to go without a parent this year. . . it was pretty exciting for them.  Lola, Stella and I went with Hilary and Heidi and dad stayed home to pass out candy.  Such a fun, warm, pleasant night filled with friends.  Halloween time is a reminder to me of how wonderful my neighborhood is and how lucky we are to live where we live.   

  

After all the treats were collected, we came home, analyzed our haul for a minute and then headed off to see grandma and grandpa.  After spending some time with them, we continued on to the assisted living center to see grandma and grandpa great.  They had waited up for us and it was so sweet to be able to spend some time with them and let them see the kids costumes.  I kick myself for not taking a picture of them with my kids, but we were all so tired by then that I just didn't!  We are always sad that granny and grandpa live so far away and we don't get to trick or treat to their house.

It was such a fun Halloween.  I love, love, love this holiday and all it entails.  I love how happy my kids are to find the perfect costume and to carry on all of our traditions.  I loved experiencing it with Stella this year. . . it was so new to her and so exciting.  She loved her pumpkin costume and I couldn't help but soak up every second of the day with her.

A few things

Every Sunday night I sit down and write a letter to my brother Joe, serving his mission in Florida.  I try and think of all that I've done that week that would be of interest to share.  And usually I end up staring blankly at the computer. 

My days are not really filled with super exciting events, but I feel crazy busy.  And I'm pretty happy that I get to fill my days with 4 awesome little people that keep me busy with simple things that make this a happy life. 

So. . . a few things from my day today:

• Coloring with Stella. This little one doesn't hold still for long periods of time so it's pretty exciting when she gets something out and actually sticks with it for more than 4 seconds. 

  

• Bath time with this little lady. . . she's always so happy and content in the tub.  She's so contained there and no messes are made.  She makes a big deal out of her important job of cleaning up the tub toys while the water goes down the drain.  

 

• Doing this wiggly worm's hair is quite the adventure.  It involves sitting on my bathroom counter and watching Caillou on my phone.  Don't judge.

•  Today there was a super quick trip back to the pumpkin patch to turn a bunch of these pumpkins into. . . 

 

• . . .these pumpkins, in preparation for our ward halloween party tomorrow night.

• Bribery was used at Hobby Lobby to keep the toddler happy in the cart.

• At Sam's Club we feel in love with these little Bonsai trees and wished for a slightly bigger house in which to have room for one.

 

• We drove home in a crazy hailstorm, just in time for a 3 hour nap.  Ah, naptime.  

•  A straight-from-the-box batch of muffins were whipped up just in time for my school kids to come in from the bus.  

Some days I need a reminder, but it really is a good life.