Fun with grandpa

The day after Christmas, we went back to La Jolla Shores with grandpa. Jacob helped feed the birds, which was fun to watch.

Jacob and Grandpa at the swings.

It was simple and fun. Good idea grandpa!

Christmas

Christmas day was a lot of fun! We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then opened up gifts. Jacob got a basketball hoop and a bunch of toys.

Jacob loves to read books. Now he can read them in his own rocking chair.

Jacob loves playing basketball!

Lots of toys and fun!

Shannon and I really enjoyed relaxing on Christmas. We kept it small and were just able to focus on our little family, which was nice.

Fun at La Jolla Shores

We went to La Jolla Shores on Tuesday, December 22. Jacob just wanted to run, run, run.






There was a playground there and Jacob found some kids to play with.







We all had fun, even though it was a little windy and chilly.

Our early christmas

We went out to San Diego again this year for Christmas. Since we wanted to avoid taking our gifts out there and bringing them back again...we decided to have our very own early Christmas on December 18th. Luckily Jacob is too young to know the difference :)

I grilled steak while Shannon cooked potato wedges, asparagus and made a salad. It was really yummy!

Jacob had two of his favorites: Spaghetti-O's and peaches


It took a few minutes for Jacob to understand what to do with the presents. Once he got started, he wanted to open all the presents!




After Jacob opened all his presents (except his big one), we put him in his room to play with his toys. Then we started to open our presents. I won't go into all the presents, but it was a nice early Christmas.

Halfway! YAY!

We are out in San Diego for Christmas and my tummy has decided to grow right in front of all our eyes! I am now 20 weeks! yay! I can't believe it, it has gone by so fast! And I'm not joking when I say my tummy has grown! I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!


P.S. We still don't know what we're having....but we hope to get another ultrasound in a couple weeks. So stay tuned!

Downs Christmas Party

It has become a Downs family tradition, that every Christmas we'll go out for a nice dinner and do some sort of activity as a family. Last year we went Ice skating, and this year we went to the Phoenix Zoo lights. For dinner we went to a Brazilian Steak House, and it was so good! If you've never been, you must try it at least once in your life. It's a little pricey but so worth it! And to our surprise Jacob was really good at dinner and got very excited every time they brought the grilled pineapple by, it was pretty funny.

After dinner we headed over to the Zoo lights, and again to our surprise Jacob was so good! It was almost like he knew Santa had left some presents for him at grandma and grandpas....

We had to get a picture of the monkeys, Jacob loves monkeys...

We knew what grandma and grandpa were getting him this year, but we had no idea how much he would love it!

A bike! He hoped right on, like he'd been doing it for years!

His favorite part, definitely the two bells on the handle bars.





And we couldn't get him off to open the rest of his presents, so he sat on his bike and opened them. He got walkie-talkies from Jeff and Rachael. And has been talking into them, he just hasn't figured out that he needs to push the button and talk...he'll get there.

We are heading out to San Diego on Saturday to spend Christmas with my family and can't wait. Matt's really looking forward to it, he hasn't been out there since May...

I must mention Matt and I are equally excited about the present we received, but I won't go on bragging about them... :)

A big THANK YOU to Matt's parents!!!

Sing We All Noel

I want to thank all those who attended Sing We All Noel last night. It was truly a night to remember! I hope to see you all at our Easter concert on March 5th - That Easter Morn

It has been such a blessing being part of this organization. For anyone interested in joining the choir or orchestra visit www.evmco.org for information on how to register yourself or your children.

Here's a clip of "To Hear the Angels Sing". Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Hello Baby

Shannon got her first ultrasound yesterday. It was very exciting! The baby is doing great and is very active. According to the ultrasound, Shannon is 16 weeks and 6 days, which means the estimated due date is May 10. We don't know the gender yet, so stay tuned...

Time to decorate

Okay so Matt loaded these pictures like weeks ago, and asked me to post them.....oops....Our decorations have been up since Nov. 25, yes before Thanksgiving... And our tree is now dead, but I don't care I loved getting it weeks early!

16 Weeks

Ta-da!

Sing We All Noel

East Valley Mormon Choral Organization
presents

When: Thursday, December 10th 7:30 pm
Where: Mesa Art Center- Ikeda Theater

Click here to purchase tickets

The East Valley Mormon Choral Organization (EVMCO) presents its 1st annual Christmas concert, Sing We All Noel, with conductors Brett Stewart and Brandon Stewart. The concert will feature selections for choir, children's chorus, and orchestra, including 3 Christmas Songs from Home Alone by John Williams, Morten Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium, and many other seasonal favorites.

12 Week Update

I'm almost out of my first trimester. Yay!

Trick or Treat

Last night, Jacob and I went trick-or-treating. Jacob had a lot of fun, but he got tired out pretty quick. We couldn't believe how many trick-or-treaters there were! Shannon thought she got too much candy, but we actually ran out of candy! Jacob didn't get a lot of candy, but he got enough for his little tummy :) Shannon did a really good job on his costume. Everyone thought he looked really cute. I think his favorite part was helping pass out candy to the trick-or-treaters that came by our house.

We had Jeff, Rachael and my mom over for dinner and a scary movie. We had a baked potato bar with chips and soda. Rachael was kind enough to bake an apple crisp for dessert. It was really good! We watched the movie Thr3e. It was ok, but not as scary as I thought it was going to be.

We had a good halloween. Shannon can't wait until next year! Here are some pictures:

Mom putting the finishing touches (he actually kept the headband on!)

RAAR! I'm a scary mummy!

Getting hydrated for all the walking

Yeah, I look cool!

Let's go already!

Can't forget my bucket!

Just chillin with my pumpkins...

Hope you all had a happy Halloween!