December 2015

Visiting Santa Claus at our annual Primary Christmas Activity

 

 The Christmas lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake.  We went to Utah just before Christmas.

Eating lunch with Avery's sister Autumn (in the grey jacket and glasses) before she leaves for missionary service in Nicaragua.

Christmas Festivities:  Decorating the tree.  Exchanging gifts with siblings.  Every year we draw names and each child gets a gift for their "secret sibling."

 

This year we made handmade ornaments to take to our music teachers, friends, and Sunday school teachers.  Avery was very creative and focused for hours on making an ornament.

 This year we improved on our Gingerbread House making.  Instead of everyone making their own house we made a pueblo inspired gingerbread house in European style.  Each of us decorated the front of a house and we fastened them to a cardboard tower.  It took up less space than our usual gingerbread city and was beautiful.  We did have to tie the houses together with string so they didn't fall off.  Next year we will figure out how to keep them from falling off and still be edible.

 Madeline helping Avery with the frosting.

Nativity Pageant 2015 ~ This is year we had four wise men to keep everyone happy.  Avery was a wonderful wiseman.  She says next year she wants to be the angel or a shepherd.

Christmas Morning.  The pajama picture before we see the Christmas tree.  In the back are Rachel and her husband Dustan, and Aurora and her husband (in matching pjs).  This year Autumn is serving the people of Nicaragua.  Brianna's family comes over later since they have little ones of their own.

November 2015

Brad's birthday.  Looks like a fire hazard!

This is a Fackrell family Thanksgiving tradition.  I'm not sure what to call it: pie explosion, pie overwhelm, pie fest....  But we can't stop making pies!  I (Janet) said we absolutely had to cut back on the number of pies.  Last year we made 17 pies.  So for 2015, we only had 16.  Everyone keeps dreaming up more pie recipes to try.  Of course we didn't have 16 different kinds of pies.  4 pumpkin, 2 apple... etc.  and I'm counting cheese cake as pie!

 

For family night one week in November we made caramel apples. We were super fancy and decorated them with marshmallows.  It was SO messy and SO much fun!  Avery had to use a knife since she is missing her two front teeth.

 This is Avery with big sister Autumn who is home from college and Avery's niece, Evelyn. 

Trying on clip on earrings at the mall.  Zowee!

October 2015

Field Trip to the State Capitol.

 

Happy 7th birthday!

 Pumpkin Patch
This is always a highlight of the year.  Avery's nieces went with us.  It was a beautiful day.  Sunshine, pumpkins, and lots of fun activities.

Halloween 2015

 This year our theme was crayons.  (Except Aaron who had his heart set on going as an astronaut.)  We all picked our color.  I'm afraid Brad and I had to be basic black.  Our wardrobes didn't offer as many exciting springboards for primary colors.

Mesa Verde 2015

 Fall is a great time for taking excursions.  The weather is mild and the crowds dwindle as school starts.  We drove to Mancos, Colorado and set up base camp at a cute little motel with a family sized room and started exploring Mesa Verde.  This is our second family trip there.  The last time we went Stephen was a baby and we camped.  Brad and I are not quite as adventuresome as the old days.  Having a roof and a bed are higher on the list than a decade ago.  We went on a guided tour with a ranger late afternoon our first day there.  We got up in the morning and drove back to the park.  We packed a picnic before we left home so that we could spend as much time in the park as we wanted without having to go in search of food to suit all of the family members with food allergies.  We did both the Cliff Palace and Balcony House tours on this trip there and finished with the self guided Spruce tree house cliff dwellings.  We met a member of the Zia Pueblo who was demonstrating weaving with yucca fiber.  He lives in NM near us and he invited us to visit his pueblo for another field trip when we returned home. We left after the afternoon of the second day and drove home listening to "The Mysterious Benedict Society" on CD and eating popcorn.  It was a great trip.  We bought an annual park pass so we have a few more places to go this year.  We have already visited Zion National Park, Arches and Canyonlands.  What a beautiful world we live in!

 Brad and the kids being silly while waiting for our ranger guided tour.

One of the cliff dwellings we visited was accessed by ladders.  One had a tunnel through the rock we had to crawl through.  The ladder was exciting.  Avery says she liked the really tall ladder best.

 

 This is the "really tall" ladder.

Avery climbing into a replica of a kiva.

These are metate found in the cliff dwellings.  There was one set up for kids to try.  We don't have a picture of it. Avery ground imaginary corn on it.

 

Moab, Utah June 2015

 We took a multi-generation family trip to Moab, Utah after the wedding of our third daughter, this spring.  We rented a cabin about 20 miles from Moab.  It was wilderness area.  It was beautiful with magnificent sunsets, wild scenery, and beautiful starry nights. All of our children came for a few days and we celebrated a birthday, took walks, watched Princess Bride on the deck with a projector and screen.  We roasted marshmallows, made cocoa, ate enchiladas we made at home and put together puzzles.  Our dog rolled in cow pies and had to be washed, chased bunnies and slept on the porch while we read books with pillows on the deck outside.  We visited Arches and Canyonland National Parks.  We had a good time despite spending a day at the animal hospital with our Chihuahua, losing our dog Napoleon on a mountain bike ride with Brad (we found him), and Janet getting lost and taking a 6 hour drive (it was a beautiful drive) before finding her way to Moab. 

 Hiking isn't Avery's favorite thing.  We chose the shortest hikes at Arches and the bigger kids went back with Brad for an early morning hike that was longer.  It was beautiful!

Canyon Lands National Park.

Spring time 2015

 May 7, 2015.  This is kind of gross.  Avery lost both bottom teeth today.  She is excited about this.  But the thing that she finds most impressive is seeing her own blood.  So you can ignore the paper towel with the chomp marks on it. This is an exciting milestone!  The last first tooth loss for this mom.  Her eyes are misting up...

It is only 1 mile to our church building.  This spring day we decided to walk to church.  The boys and Avery convinced mom that scootering to church was a good idea.  Avery is especially good at scootering!

 

Avery playing with Mom's phone camera.  Fun stuff :)

 

Oh blue eyes!

 Avery being cute.  Get a good look at those cute baby teeth.

  They will be missing soon!

Baby blues.  Avery has a super hero cape and mask that she saved up and bought with her own money.  When she puts the mask on she is all eyes.  Giant baby blue eyes.  Here they are with the freckles that make her Mom smile. Mom loves her freckles!