new blog

I ran out of space on this blog, so I just started a new blog. If you would like to read the new adventures of the fackrell family, go to www.fackrellfamilyfun.blogspot.com Love, Andrea

I have come to an end...

I cannot believe it, but I have come to my max of storage on this blog!!! SUPER SAD! I guess this means it is finally time to publish my blog from the beginning into a book so I can start fresh!!!

Easter

Our annual Easter Games at Snow Canyon were so much fun! We missed Ashley, Brett & Robby so much though!

 Emery could not get enough of this warm sand! He was seriously eating it by the fistfulls! It was so cute to see his little bum marks all through the sand as he SCOOTED wherever he wanted! We now have nicknamed him SCOOTER!

 AHH-these little girls are SUPER SUPER CUTE! Love their matchy easter outfits!

 The Sand Game---I WON! Whoever can shovel sand in their pale the fastest wins! It's the only game I won!

 The Easter Bunny Came!!!

 Sunny LOVED her Chocolate SUNNY BUNNY!!!

 My cute chubby easter bunny! Last year were were unable to go to St George because I was dialted and ready to have this little guy---he didn't even come until a week later!!!

 Loving the sand!

The South Weber Easter Egg Hunt! Kinda lame because you have to pay to get in, and the eggs and candy were super lame, but the kids had a fun time!

Bootcamp 6:30 AM

I have been going to boot camp at 6:30 AM M/W/F for the past 2 months and it has been great! I feel like it is really helping my running because I am actually developing muscle! For those of you who know me well, you will know that I could not hang on a pole to even save my life, so I am working hard to get that muscle! I am also really working on my core because after having 4 kids, it's kinda shot!

My friend Staci ordered these shirts and we all met up early one day and ran around the 5:30 AM Bootcamp to show off--it was really funny!

Losing Weight

BEFORE:

                                                                      AFTER:

So I am writing this post because I have had a lot of people ask me what I have done to lose a lot of weight, so here it is! In this before picture, it was 2 months after I had Emery and we were in Hawaii---pretty hard to be on a beach for a week with a body that had gone through a lot of weight gain. From May when Emery was born, until October, I really was kind of lost as to what I should do to get back in shape! It wasn't until some of my South Weber Friends approached me and said that they were going to do weight watchers and they were going to weigh in every Tuesday morning in front of each other and write it down from week to week on a laminated sheet! DONE! That is exactly what I needed...accountability!!!

STEP 1---ACCOUNTABILITY! If you are not accountable to someone besides yourself, it is so hard to be really motivated! I knew that every Tuesday morning, I was going to have to strip down to my garments :) and weigh in in front of those friends! That was what it took to get the ball rolling! The first week I lost 6 lbs! Every week from there I consistently lost weight and was so happy to write down my progress on my laminated sheet with my sharpie marker!

STEP2---Get a plan that works for you! My friends introduced me to the weight watchers program and for me, it worked! I needed to be accountable every day for what I ate and I would write down my points for every meal and snack. I had a number that I couldn't go over each day, so I was super strict in what I ate. I didn't actually join weight watchers. I got a food counter to see how many points each food was and a book and website that showed me how many points things were when I went out to eat.  In the past, I have done Body for life using the recipe book and that was great for me as well. So just find something out there that is not too outrageous and stick with it.

Step 3---FOOD, FOOD, FOOD! I can honestly say that for me, and my weight loss journey, 90% of the weight loss was attributed to the food that I ate. As crazy as it sounds, I really think that by watching what I ate 6 out of 7 days is what made the pounds shed off in the beginning. My average day of food would look like this:
Breakfast: Special K Cereal
Snack-Handful of raw almonds & water
Lunch-Bowl of Light Progresso soup
Snack-Special K Sour Cream & Onion Chips & water
Dinner-Grilled Chicken, side salad, Green beans, & a fruit
By eating like this Monday through Friday helped because I felt like I had done a great job eating at home, and then on the weekends, I would let lose a little bit if we went out to eat. When I mean let lose, I mean don't go crazy...I haven't had a hamburger since October. Like if we got to Cafe Rio, I always hold the cheese, beans and rice in my salad, and only dip my fork in the salad dressing as I eat. If we go to a steak house, then I get grilled chicken and maybe indulge in potatoes since I love potatoes. I haven't had bread for lunch or dinner for a long time unless it is Sunday dinner and my mom's delicious rolls! Through weight watchers, I learned which foods were low points, and which were high points and its not worth it for me to use 2 points on 1 slice of bread!  SO---food was a major contributor in this weight loss!!!!

Step 4---Working out! I have worked out here and there since I got married, but honestly, I never enjoyed it. I ran the Utah Valley Half Marathon 2 years ago and hated every step of the way. When I crossed the finish line, I told myself I would NEVER EVER EVER run another race EVER!!! Well, I am eating those words because I am running in 2 half marathons this year!!! The last few months I have found my work out schedule and I love it...Monday/Wednesday/Friday 6:30-7:30 Bootcamp with 10 ladies in South Weber at the rec center. For that 1 hour, I work out as hard as I can. I have started sweating and I have never been a big sweater--always turned red. Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday 5:30-7:00 Running Days. I have another group of friends that I have been running with and lets just say they push me. They are good runners and they know what they are doing so I have really learned a lot from them! It is SO SO hard to get up in the morning, but when I get home and get ready for the day before the kids are up, it feels so good to know that for the rest of my day, I do not have to worry about fitting my work out in! I had something that I like to call Runners anxiety the night before I would meet the ladies to run. I could not go to sleep because I would be so nervous that my alarm clock wouldn't go off, or that I would be too slow for them, or that I would have to stop. WOW-that was awful because I was getting less then 3 hours of sleep. This is the first week that I have gotten over that. I have gone to bed early now on the nights before a run. Saturday's are our big runs. I did 9 miles last Saturday, and I will do 10 miles this Saturday. To say that I am a RUNNER now is something that I NEVER thought I would say. I am still trying to really enjoy it, but the point is I don't hate it! If I am running by myself, I love running to awesome music on the ipod. If I am running with a group, I benefit from their conversations because I still cannot talk while running yet! Middle of April, Regan and I are running the Salt Lake City Half Marathon and then middle of June, I will be running the Utah Valley Half Marathon!!!

There you have it folks! This is what worked for me! I have lost 50 lbs since my August. 10 lbs were just on my own before I started to be serious with my friends, and 40 of it was when I was totally in it and serious!!!
You can do it! I will tell you that I am 31 and I feel better now than I have ever felt in my life and I have had 4 kids!!!!!!!

Cub Scouts

A momentous thing happened last night! We now have a BOY SCOUT in the family! I cannot even tell you how excited Riley was to put on his uniform, have his dad show him how to put on a neckerchief, and have me drive him to his first scout meeting!  I am so ready to start this next chapter in our lives of being the 'scout mom' and helping him with projects and pushing him to receive his Eagle...yes, I am going to be THAT mom and proud of it! I want to be involved with him in this!

As Elle & Emery and I were at the Scout shop, I got a little teary eyed as I was picking out all of the things he would need to start this journey out! The guy at the scout shop that was helping me probably thought I was completely psyco because I told him I didn't know anything about where to begin, so he went through everything that our Riley would need to start cub scouts out. He even told me to buy a much larger shirt than what Riley needed so that he could grow into this shirt because he will be using it until he is 11!!! WHAT?

I am super proud of the fact that Regan is an Eagle Scout and that he followed through with this program. Now it is expected that Riley follows in his dad's footsteps!

Isn't he the cutest scout you have EVER SEEN???

Scotty & Lisa's Wedding

The 4 McKell Sisters

{Angie, Andrea, Chrissy & Ashley}

 My dad's speech, he wanted Riley to come up because he likened Riley to what Scotty used to look like

 The Best Wedding Musical Number Ever even if I do say so myself! Lisa asked if I would put something together for the wedding dinner, so I thought how cool would it be to do a flash mob type thing for the musical Number! We started out by playing Pachelbel's Canon, then the music turned into Nat King Cole's LOVE song! We had 4 tables stand up when their letter was up and sing their line! It turned out PERFECT!!!

 Us with our PROPS!

 My cute family at the wedding reception! Can you tell that Emery's tie is larger than his body, Riley's hair is all crazy from running around and the lovely flower girls hair is done for the day!

 The Bride & the flower girls

 The Bride with her sisters and her new sisters! Her sisters are known as the blonde kardashians, so what can the McKell sisters be known for with our dark hair?

 BEST wedding idea I have ever seen! In the corner was a kid table that had a wedding barbie and ken with wedding coloring books and bubbles! My girls were at this table for more than 1/2 the reception!!!!

 Regan & Andrea--going on 11 years!!!

 Pinterest Inspired Wedding---SO CUTE

 The kid table!

Happy 8th Birthday Riley!!!

Happy Birthday to our Cute Riley Boy! He turned 8 today!!! Cannot even believe how fast time has flown by with him! We love our Ry Guy so much!
*Riley is the smartest boy I know!
*Riley LOVES to read {reads a chapter book in a day and can't wait to take the AR test on it the next day}
*Riley is Super Funny!
*Riley is so social & outgoing
*Riley is amazing at the violin
*Riley loves sports
*Riley's loves playing with friends
*Riley loves video games!
*Riley loves hanging out with family!
*Riley LOVES the tres leches at cafe rio!!
We love our 8 year old and can't wait to see him get baptized! He is so so so excited!

Valentines & Violin

 Just can't get over how cute this little 3 year old girl is!!!

 Elle just started to play the violin 2 weeks ago! Her and I get along very very well when it comes to a student teacher relationship, so I have decided to start out teaching her myself and continue having Riley & Sunny stay with their awesome violin teacher and just help them practice everyday! Elle can tell you all of the parts of the violin, hold her violin up for 3 minutes, and play tucka tucka stop stop on the a and e string! She loves that she can finally play with her older brother and sister!!!

 2 cute little violin girls

 Happy Valentines Day! Chocolate & books!!!

Violin Recital & Ward Talent Show this weekend! Riley played Humoresque at the talent show and recital, Sunny played Allegretto, and Regan and I performed the Devil went down to Georgia {our signature we leave in every ward we have been in} I love the fact that my kids are really good at the violin, and they actually enjoy playing!!!

Before Picture

This is the before picture of our family room! Pretty, but just no color! The rug was taking up the whole room!

New Family Room

 Why can't I just be content with the way things already are in my house is the question, but for some reason I have this design bug in me and I don't even have real experience in design! All I know is that whey I see an idea and like it, I kinda feel like I have to do it! I sold 2 rugs on ksl and used that money to start this project! I was super nervous about painting a stencil on to a rug, and Regan was too, but he never said no so I went for it! I ordered a houndstooth stencil online, painted it onto an ikea rug and this is what you get! I saw this idea on vintage revivals website and LOVED it! I brought some blue and yellow's into the room as well! It was fun to feel like I was going shopping in my own house because we have not used that coffee table, end table and lamp for years!

 I am making a cute wreath to go above the double doors!

 Love the distressed look of the table and rug! Love that I found cool books to go on my table!

 My cute Sister Ashley made me this flower pillow and the F pillow below for Christmas! Aren't they awesome! I got the cool blue pillows from my amazing friend Manon!

 K-fell in love with this chair from the 1st time I saw it! I honestly think it pulls everything together!

 Love that my bookcases don't look cluttery anymore! I still wish that tv was not there but hey, it was free and was already mounted to the wall when we bought the house!

On top of the piano-the pray, read, obey and smile are a young women thing but Love that it can help our family out too!!! I still need to paint the lamp shade and put a few more extras in, but this is it!