The True Meaning of Christmas

Avery James had his preschool Christmas program tonight. Here are a few clips for those of you who could not make it.

Check this out!

We had Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Downey on Friday night. They decided to leave us and move back to Vegas. So they could redeem themselves they got us this web cam so that we can talk to eachother in person. I have had a lot of fun with the webcam I must admit. I just wanted to share this video we made tonight.

Here Comes Santa Claus

We went to see Santa on Friday night. It was so great because we went to a nursery and there was no line to wait in. I would highly recommend doing it this way. Avery walked right up and plopped himself down on Santa's lap. He then proceeded to have quite a lengthy conversation with Santa. I am not quite sure what he was saying, but I noticed the two soldiers standing next to Santa were laughing at him. I finally went up and told him that we need to let other kids have a turn. Henry also seemed to like Santa which shocked me. Probably because he gave him a candy cane and he is my sweets boy. So if Avery is going to be nice (which he tells me he is going to be naughty), Santa might bring him some tools. So he can build a house.

My sweet little boy

I just had to post this video of Avery because I thought it was so cute. He stayed up pretty late on Thanksgiving and played cards and ate a lot of junk. Its days like this he will always remember.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to Everyone! I have been so busy with the holidays that I have not had much time for blogging. I hope everyone had a very satisfying and delicious Thanksgiving dinner. I decided to host Thanksgiving this year (only because I knew we weren't going to have a big crowd) and let me tell you, I never knew how much work it was. It is pathetic that I am even saying this because I only had to help make mashed potatoes and buy rolls from the store, but still. I decided to be festive and make everyone pilgrim and indian hats. Thankfully Erin helped out and we got them done just in the knick of time. Unfortunately it kind of freaked Dillon out when he saw his Daddy with the indian hat on so the hats were short lived. As the night went on Dillon warmed up and more guests came over and were delighted to take part in celebrating the true meaning of Thanksgiving. It was a really fun Thanksgiving and now I look forward to celebrating my most favorite holiday of all. CHRISTMAS!!!




Daddy the Pilgrim and Henry the Wampagnoa Indian.
Avery James ate lots of turkey. Gobble, gobble, gobble.
Daddy the homey G pilgrim carving the turkey.

Aunt Meme and Uncle Dave looking festive. Jaime actually had a pretty good attitude about this one.

I've been tagged (this ones for you Kata)

This is a different tag, so here are the rules:A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.B. Each player lists 6 little-known facts/habits about themselves.C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. I am a full time Mom and part time dental hygienist. As if having one full time job is not enough I decided to take on more. Going to work is actually kind of relaxing to me and it gives me a little control in my life. As most of you know who have little children at home, there is no way to have control over many things such as having a clean house or being able to go to the grocery store with out your toddler or baby going off like a time bomb.
2. I love to pick at zits or black heads. I also like the put biore strips on my hubands nose. He has really good pores for this and I always study the strip after pulling it off because I am so amazed and yet fullfilled at the same time.
3. I killed my pet canary when I was 11 years old. It was not just me though. Jaime was there too. We thought it was funny to throw the bird across the room and wait for it to catch its wings and then fly away. Then we thought it was funny to throw the bird at eachother because it always caught its wings and flew away before it reached us. Well one time I threw the bird at Jaime and it crashed right into her head and died. My mom never found out this until many many years afterward.
4. My children are gifts from God. All children are gifts from God, but he had to be a little more creative when helping us to get pregnant. Aunt MeMe will always have a special place in our hearts.
5. Speaking of God, I could not live without the Lord in my life. I am so thankful that I have him to help me with my sanity. I can't imagine living a day in my life without his awesome Grace.
6. And lets see. Well I can't think of what to write for 6. And I don't think I can even think because Avery just woke up and he has asked me to play Handy Manny about 57 times in the last 4 min.

O.K. that's it. I tag only Erin and Lisa because they are the only other people I know with a blog. Sorry to you guys!

Avery James Downey

This is Avery's very first school picture! Avery has been going to Friendship Celebration Preschool this year and is thoroughly enjoying himself. He gets to play and then do a craft and then play and then have a snack and then play and then go outside to play and then come back inside to play. It is real vigorous in the world of academia (is that a word?). Anyway he is doing great and Grandpa Kuntz will be pleased to know that they did not have to change to curriculum for our Avery James. He comes home every day with something new to decorate our house with (of course I have to hang everything up) and he comes home and talks to us about everything he learned about Jesus. He tells us that sometimes Jesus hits Daddy. And I say to him, "yes sometimes Jesus has to hit Daddy to get his point across." I look at this picture in amazement of how much our little baby has changed in the last three and a half years. It makes Kevin and I hang on to every moment because life passes by way too fast. Speaking of going too fast, look at what Avery has now decided to do on his motorcycle.

Trick or Treat Time!

Here they are, animals on parade. We got together with the Elliott's and decided to have a clan of jungle animals this year. Avery of couse started the fad because he has wanted to be an elephant since last year. The babies were so cute and they were great sports about having on thier costumes.
Henry's costume although a little small looked soooo cute on him. He didn't even know he had it on. He enjoyed taking bites out of the lids of the pumkins again tonight. They are vegetables though aren't they?
Avery James was a pro at the trick or treating game. He would knock on the door and then yell "trick or treat," before the people even opened the door.
From left to right: Dillon (tiger), Brennen (lion), Henry (Zebra), Avery (our fearless elephant)

Halloween Cookie Party

In celebration for Halloween we decided to have a cookie party. We had the Krahn's and the Ramey's over for some sweet fun. Anne, Kerri, and I have been friends for a long time and it is so good to catch up every once in a while. Anne and Kerri both have three beautiful children. It is so great to be in this stage of life with the both of you. Thank you for your friendships.
The kids frosted cookies and topped them with lots and lots of candy and sprinkles. You can also see that Kerri and Lizzy were festive with their costumes.
This is Rylie (Anne's oldest girl)
This is Miss Chloe (Anne's middle child)
And Kerri's sweet Lizzie (she and Avery had a wedding today)
This husky guy is Jack. He is Kerri's also. He is only 9 mo. old and is very big.

Halloween Preparations

This was Henry's first year as a master carver. And as you can see we also let Avery carve his own pupkin.
Henry ate a lot of pumpkin last night. I should start serving it to him more for vegetables.
Last night we got together with family to do some pumpkin carving. Although Aunt MeMe(Jaime) had a bad attitude again this year, we still had a fun time.

Capitol Dental at Tamarack

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This weekend we were fortunate, our doctors gave us a treat,

Our Annual planning meeting was a Tamarack retreat.

The weekend was full of good friends and good fun,

And even better yet, our bronco team won.

We talked about the years, our rears, and drank beers,

and the car ride to the lodge almost brought Vicki to tears.

Suzy sat in the hot tub for the very first time,

We had lots of good food and Petre's good wine.

Thank you Capitol Dental, you have answered my wish,

I get to work with great people and I get to throw fish.

Little Hegstead Blessings

We had the opportunity to go out to Caldwell to visit the Hegsteads last night. It was so good to see how well they are doing. They have four beautiful children now and seem happier than ever. Pam is such a wonderful Mom and Heggy, he is alright too(if you all remember Heggy was the one dancing on the tables at our wedding. He has now retired from those sorts of behaviors. Kind of). The twins Jack and Gretta were born over six weeks early and are very healthy little babies. Spencer and Charlie have a great bond with each and you can tell they really care about thier new siblings. Thank you Josh and Pam for dinner and the pumkin painting.

Yeah Broncos! The Boise State Bronco pulled another one off tonight. We went over to the Nilson's house and shoved our faces full of high calorie apetizers. The kids settled for cookies, brownies, and juice for dinner. Anyway everyone had fun and here are a few cute pics. For those of you who don't know the babies from left to right are Brennen, Henry, and Dillon. Brennen and Dillon are my two cute as can be nephews. And of course another picture of Avery and Carson being Avery and Carson.

Hello There! Welcome to the Downey Family Blog. I guess I am going to jump on to the bandwagon and start a blog page for our family. What does Blog stand for anyway? Whatever it stands for I can tell you it is a website for our family that our friends and families can view at any time and post comments or note to us. So let's see how this goes! I posted this picture of Avery and Henry because I think they look so cute together. I can already tell that they are going to be great friends and also great wrestling partners.