HEAVEN ON EARTH

Christmas morning

2012-01-02T16:48:00.000-08:00

Kali got her Toms

Christmas eve

2012-01-02T16:43:00.000-08:00

girls going to bed
Feeding the reindeer and setting our stockings
opening presents, cupcakes for Santa, letter to Santa, playing the wii ( that was the family gift that the kids got this year.)

Boys going to bed

Downey Family Christmas party

2012-01-02T16:37:00.000-08:00

One of the highlights of the year is the "Downey family Christmas party."

This year we had an ugly Christmas sweater contest.

Bodie

2012-01-02T15:52:00.000-08:00

Okay so I have to do a post about our dog Bodie. He is amazing!! We have had 4 different dogs since Derek and I have been married, and I have to say that he is by far my favorite. He doesn't shed, he has only had 3 accidents in the house since we got him over a year ago. He is super calm, and loves to snuggle, and he cleans up my kitchen floor after meals:) Honestly I just am in love with him and he is such a great addition to our family!!

Lexi's Late night for her birthday

2012-01-02T15:50:00.000-08:00

Pillow fights
Silliness
Glitter art
Popcorn and playing

Little Lex turns 7

2012-01-02T15:31:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving in St. George

2012-01-02T15:26:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving our whole family met at Bounce and Tara's house in St. George
The girls got Justin Beiber watches
The boys got BYU football pillows
One tradition that my mom has started is she gives the grand kids their Christmas presents on Thanksgiving weekend. The kids love this because they get their Christmas p.j's that grandma made so that they can wear them throughout Christmas season.

Thanksgiving in St. George

2012-01-02T15:22:00.000-08:00

Bounce and Tara
Derek and I
Corey, Dave and baby Shane
Camie and Erick
Turkey Bowl Players

Chalmers family Pictures

2012-01-02T15:12:00.000-08:00

Grandkids

Mom and Dad
Whole family

Halloween

2012-01-02T15:09:00.000-08:00

Mario and Luigi
Jasmine
Dead Bride
Trick-or-treaters
We even dressed up fur ball as Alvin.

Conference Weekend

2012-01-02T15:03:00.000-08:00

The Downeys first BYU game.

2011-10-23T15:17:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we took the whole family to the BYU football game.....Yes, you heard me, the whole crew.. And it was a blast!!
Derek and I are pretty "die hard" BYU fans, and so it was fun to share and hopefully instill in the kids a love for BYU football.

What a great, fun day we had together

Kali's late night with her BFF's for her 9th birthday

2011-10-23T15:13:00.000-07:00

For Kali's 9th birthday we she had a late night with her 3 BFF's. They had a fabulous time dancing, laughing, eating, and then watching a flick.. I can hardly believe that she is 9.....Where does the time go??

Orem high girls cheer clinic

2011-10-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

This year we had the girls do the Orem high cheer clinic. The girls loved it!!
They had a week of practices with the Orem High cheerleaders,( Which my girls think are just amazing) But them they performed at the high school football game at half time.
The girls have both decided that they are going to be cheerleaders when they grow up!!
Super Fun night!!

My babies turn 4

2011-08-12T15:36:00.001-07:00

Happy birthday Little Buddies!! You have been such a joy in our lives. We love you!!

Downey's can do hard things

2011-08-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic experience with the kiddos a few weekends ago. we decided to hike the Y together as a family. Now those who have done it before know this is not an easy hike. what a great experience for our family. For the first about 20 minutes it was fun and everyone was going and enjoying themselves, then slowly the kids starting getting tired. We had heard a talk in Sunday the week where a sister Missionary had said that in her family their motto was "Strattons can do hard things." well we adopted this in our family. Derek had a little talk with the kids explaining that even though things can be hard we can still do them. It was awesome!! Throughout the rest of the hike when we could see one of the kids starting to get sluggish we would say "Downey's can do hard things" It was so great to see how much this would motivate the kids to keep going and keep going cheerfully. It was so amazing when we finally reached the top and sat on the Y and the kids all felt such a sense of accomplishment. They were so proud of themselves and one another. This was such a bonding experience as a family. we helped one another and pushed one another and made it to the top Even though we had two skinned knees we look at this experience with so much gratitude.
This is now going to become a Downey tradition our summer hike to the Y.

Snowasis

2011-08-12T14:53:00.000-07:00

So those who know me well know I am a huge shave ice person in the summer. And this summer I found the worlds best shave ice around. It is called "Snowasis" and It is up in Highland. I discovered this just last week and honestly every single day I just want to drive up there and get another shave ice. I am actually kind of glad that it is at least a 20 minute drive which makes it not real easy to get to. So all you that live close by, go check out snowasis.....AMazing!!!

Summer Fun

2011-08-12T14:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't been the best blogger this summer, and this is because we have been so busy having a ton of fun. Here are some things we have been up to.. Fun at the splash pad in American Fork. ( Such a fun place to take the kiddos)
No bed time. The girls have loved all the nights they get to stay up late together. First time trip to the Dentist. ( Total of 10 cavities :( ) Girls Taking over and dressing up their little brothers ( Dads favorite). Lounging in the Swimming pool in the backyard.
Feeding the ducks at the park with cousins.
Macey's fun carnival.(Face painting, races, snow cones, bounce houses, cotton candy, music, rock climbing wall...Great day)
Orem Summerfest, motorcycle rides, Boys sleeping in our room ( And of course our Dog Bodie thinking he is one of the kids. ) We have been so busy playing and having fun together. I can't lie it has been a little nice to have the kids a little older this summer, we haven't had to worry about nap times, or having to have a baby on my hip. we have been able to just go, go, go. Sort of Love it!!!!

Happy "a Liitle Late" fathers Day

2011-08-12T14:33:00.000-07:00

Usually I do a fathers day post and this year for some reason it slipped my mind, so here is a late little fathers day post to all the amazing dads that I have in my life. We have been so blessed to be surrounded by so much love and support, and we have felt it throughout the years. Our kids have 2 of the most amazing Grandpa's in the whole world. They are both so loving and caring and have shown our 4 children so much love. They have always loved going to Grandpas!! Thankyou Thankyou Grandpa Downey and Chalmers for being such wonderful Dads and Grandpas. You are both such amazing examples to our family.
Next To my Hubby. Deege Thankyou!!! Thanks for being all that you are!! The kids and I are so lucky to have you!!
We love you, Happy Fathers Day

4th of July

2011-07-06T12:05:00.000-07:00

We had a great 4th of July this year. We spent it having a BBQ, playing Michael Jackson on the wii, roasting marshmallows, doing fireworks, and just lounging around all day. It was such a fun day with family.

Lagoon day witth the Downeys

2011-07-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

Sewing fun!!

2011-06-26T22:40:00.000-07:00

I have kind of caught a sewing bug this summer. I have always loved to sew and I told myself when I was expecting the twins that I needed to put my sewing machine in the closet for a few years since my life would be a little too crazy to be able to find time to sew. Well I pulled it out and I am kind of obsessed right now. First off my mom gave me a ton of fabric that she had laying around so I have just been using what I was given to make all sorts of fun stuff. Here are the two latest....The owl pillows I made for the girls room. I found these cute owls and pattern on makeit-loveit.com (This is my new favorite website)
I also got enough material from my mom to make the kids each 4 pairs of pajamas. So here are the girls in a pair I made.

Arts and crafts day!!

2011-06-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

I posted earlier how this year I was handing out coupons this summer for the girls as they finish their chores for the week. So this week they received an "arts and crafts day" We painted bird houses, decorated picture frames, ribbon flip flops, bracelets, and paper towel butterflies.
The girls really had fun and I did it really inexpensively. I got almost all the crafts at the dollar store.

Celebration of life

2011-06-26T22:21:00.000-07:00

This year my mom celebrated her 60th birthday. This was a much more special birthday than most to our family. For those who don't know 8 years ago my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. It really was a very hard time for our family, since my mom is the life and glue that holds our family together. It was a hard year full of a lot of heart felt prayers that mom would make it. I learned and grew so much during that time and came to appreciate how lucky I had been to have been able to have such an amazing mother!! There was a time that we thought she wouldn't make it to see 55. So this year on her 60th birthday my mom decided to throw a celebration of life birthday party. She had an open house all day long where she invited all her friends and family to come and share a piece of cake with her and celebrate life. It turned out to be such a fabulous day as our house was full of those who were special to us. What a beautiful day. We also did a little family get together the night before at the park with just our family for her birthday. We sang together, had cupcakes together, and the grand kids all pitched in their own money to buy her this beautiful "willow tree" statue called "the quilt" it represents her so well!!
We love you mom.....You are truly an unbelievable person who has filled your life loving and serving others. Thanks for being such a great example to me, and always being there for me when I needed a shoulder to cry on and someone to build me up and strengthen me when I needed it most. You have shared all my greatest and hardest moments with me. You are such a great grandma and my kids absolutely adore you and they feel so loved when they are with you!!
Thanks for being you!!

Free trip to the dinosaur museum

2011-06-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

This year I decided to have the kids join the reading club through the Orem Library. I thought it would be a great way to keep up on their reading through the summer while also having some fun with it through the library. The reading program there is awesome!! Every Tuesday they do a fun presentation about countries all over the world. The separate the kids out into ages and then provide great activities for the kids to do to help encourage reading. The best part is the give out fun little coupons every week for a free ice cream, or pizza. Well this last week they handed out free tickets to the dinosaur museum. I was all over that!!!
The kids had a lot of fun!! Kali decided not to come since her school class just went the last week of school, so Lexi brought her friend Carsen. It is such an amazing place for kids!! We spent 3 hours there and I swear we could have been there 2 hours longer. What a great day.....and the best part was we went for free!!!

Flag Day

2011-06-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I have fallen a bit behind on my blog so bear with me on quite a few posts in a row. I will start with flag day. This is a holiday I have never before celebrated much with the kids, but this year I felt like they were old enough to have a little lesson and fun together. So we all got dressed up in our flag t-shirts. Then I talked to the kids about what the flag stands for and how we should always show respect when we see the flag. I also found a couple great little kids stories online about the importance of the flag and how it came to be. Then we colored little pictures of flags to hang in their rooms. We just kept it simple but I think they liked it.

Summer chore incentives

2011-06-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

Every summer I like to come up with some way for the kids to be rewarded for their chores, which I think makes them a little happier about doing them, and then they feel like they have earned something through work. So this summer this is what I came up with.
We have a weekly chore chart. Every day when they finish their chores they get to mark them off with a sticker, and then they pick a treat out of the treat jar.
Then at the end of the week if they fill their chore chart with stickers I am going to give them a coupon for a fun activity that we will do sometime the next week.
The ultimate prize for chores this summer is a Lagoon trip. So eveyday they finish their chores they will put a sticker on a day towards going to Lagoon. There are a little over 50 week days this summer. Then at the end of the summer when they fill the Lagoon chart we will take them to Lagoon as their reward for doing chores through the summer.

These kinds of things work so well with our kids. This way they learn how to work with a positive reward, and they feel like they have earned things through their hard work. Just wanted to share something that has worked in our house.

Kali's "Alice in Wonderland" play

2011-05-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

This year we signed Kali up for a great program that teaches kids how to act and be involved in plays. Her favorite thing is to perform. She loves to stand up in front of people and sing and dance and be the center of attention, so we knew she would love this. The play that they did this year was "Alice in Wonderland". She was Jesse from Toy story, a flower, the ground hog and a jaberwokie. She was so cute up there and she did amazing!!
The best part for her was after the performance all the kids got their first Grammy award. It was so cute and she has loved showing it to everyone. What a great night!!

Kindergarten Moms day

2011-05-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

I got to attend today a special moms day program put on by the kindergarten. It was the cutest thing ever. Little Lexi was so cute as she sung her songs said her poems. It is so hard to not tear up during these kinds of things. I love being a mom, it brings me more happiness than anything else.
Thanks Little Lu for making me feel special today and get to spend the day with you!! I love you!!
This is Lexi's kindergarten teacher Mrs. Jones. She is the greatest lady ever, both of my girls have had her and absolutely loved her.

The singlets

2011-05-06T17:32:00.000-07:00

This week Derek was asked to help out with a wrestling camp for younger kids, so Derek decided to take the boys to their first wrestling practice.
They loved it!! And they got to come home with these little adorable singlets. My favorite thing was Zak when we put it on him we told him it was called a singlet, he immediately starts singing and dancing to " all the singlets" Like "all the single ladies" It was so adorable.
I think this is the beginning of a lot of wrestling that is going to take place around our house from these two little guys. I love them so much!!

Easter at the Downeys

2011-05-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

We always enjoy going to Grandma and Grandpa Downeys on Sunday nights
Grandma had given the kids some fun easter presents that they were so excited about.

Here is the "silly string" fight that broke out!!
Thanks Downeys for being such amazing grandparents. We love you!!!

Derek turns 31.

2011-04-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

Easter egg hunt at Grandma's

2011-04-28T19:30:00.000-07:00

My mom every year does a fun Easter egg hunt with all the grandkids. they always look forward to it and get hooked up with Candy.

Random fun

2011-04-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the latest pictures of the kids. Dom and Zak are still as in love with trains as ever, and they are just the best of buddies.
This is Lexi and her best friend Carsen. They have been best friends all through this kindergarten year and she loves nothing more than to have him come over. And I love hearing the two of them talk and giggle together. Every once in awhile I hear them declare their love for one another:)
Kali is just so creative and smart. One of her favorite things right now is writing chapter books. They are amazing!! I can't believe how creative her little mind is. They are quiet entertaining to read. She also loves singing and music. She loves to go to her room and turn on the music and sing as loud as she can. She is so much fun!!!

Then there is our little LU!! This is a picture of some of the kids with my little niece Grace. I babysit her often and I love having her around. She has so much personality and the kids love playing with her. Here they all are after Derek had been wrestling and throwing them all on the bed. They love when Daddy comes home, and Grace hopped right in.

The girls dance peformance

2011-04-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

The girls had their big dance performance this week, and it was fantastic! Their theme was "The Secret Garden" and it was such a darling little performance. Kali was a maid and Lexi was a rainbow. They had so much fun and loved being on stage. Afterwards I took them for some ice cream to celebrate what a great job they did. Way to go ladies!!

I love my family.

2011-04-21T12:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter

2011-04-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

May we this week reflect on the life of the Savior and all he has done for us. Happy Easter Week!!

The Spirit of God

2011-04-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

This was amazing!! I had to share.

Kali's second grade play

2011-04-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

Kali had her second grade play this last week. The play was "The Bremertown Musicians" and she was the wise old owl. She did such a cute job!!

Scripture Scouts

2011-04-07T23:16:00.000-07:00

I had to share this with all the mommies out there. I love scripture scouts and I think that they are so great for kids. They are just cd's that tell cute scripture stories and make them modern and so the kids can apply them into their own lives. They have such adorable music and stories. I turn them on and night and my girls go to bed to the stories. I hear them always around the house singing the cute little songs and telling the scripture stories. It is a great tool to teach the scriptures, and also a great tool to getting kids to settle down and go to sleep ;0)

Campout with the family

2011-04-07T23:08:00.000-07:00

This year we did our first campout of the summer in our backyard. We roasted hot dogs on the campfire and of course roasted marshmellos.
The kids had a lot of fun as we told some scary stories(kid scary stories:). And I taught the kids some songs that I used to sing as a little girl when my family went camping.
And all 7 of us attempted sleeping in the tiny tent that we have. I say 7 since our dog Bodie was in there with us of course, and I say attempted because around 12:30 Derek set up camp just outside the door of the tent and slept out there.
We did this over conference weekend and we talked to the kids about how all of King Benjamin's people came to hear the prophet speak, and they faced their tent doors toward the prophets voice. This was a great kick off to conference weekend. I love my family so much!!

Teach me how to Jimmer

2011-03-27T18:35:00.000-07:00

So okay, yes we are huge BYU basketball fans, and we got on the Jimmer bandwagon this year. The boys have been loving shooting hoops on their fisher price basketball hoop, and they will say "mom look, I am just like Jimmer"Honestly I have loved every minute of it. We had such a fun time following BYU this season.
I would love it if the boys caught the basketball itch, since I am a huge basketball fan and would love to watch them on the court.

Early Owls preschool

2011-03-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

For those who haven't hear I am super excited to be opening a preschool this fall. I have always loved working with children and love learning from them. It has always been something in the back of my mind that I would love to do. So here we go!! Wish me luck as a start a new adventure!!!

More cabin pictures

2011-02-20T19:37:00.000-08:00

On Sunday since we got snowed in we put together a little primary meeting for the kids. Here you can see pictures of them singing and doing a skit to Daniel in the lions den. So cute!!!
More fun and craziness. And don't forget our adorable little shane who we are all so obsessed with and he melts our hearts every time we see him.

Presidents day weekend

2011-02-20T19:31:00.000-08:00

For Presidents day this year the Chalmers family rented a cabin up at Sundance for the weekend. We had so much fun!!!!

There was a huge storm the last night which left us with no power for almost 14 hours. And then we got snowed in. It was crazy how much it snowed you can see how deep it was with the kids in front of it. And look at our car it was almost completely covered with snow. What a fun weekend!!!

There is no buddy like a brother

2011-02-20T19:12:00.000-08:00

I had to post some new pictures of these darling boys!! They are so much fun and so happy all the time. One of my favorite things is watching them interact with each other and seeing the amazing relationship that they have.
They truly have been such a blessing in our home as we have enjoyed every minute of these adorable twins.
They also love to help daddy to everything. Here they are helping him change the break pads on his car. Cuteness!!!!

Our giving tree

2010-12-26T21:31:00.000-08:00

This year we started the Christmas season off by doing a FHE lesson about the importance of giving during the Christmas season. We talked about when we serve and lift others we are actually giving gifts to Jesus. We started with an empty tree and every time we did an act of service we would put an ornament of our giving tree. The kids really had fun with this and they were looking for opportunities to earn their ornament. I think this will have to be a Christmas tradition in our home it really helped us remember the reason for the season. Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-26T21:25:00.000-08:00

This was our first year having a Christmas Eve home together just as our little family. We had fun decorating cookies for Santa, and Derek read the "Grinch" We watched a cute movies about St. Nicolas. And then off to bed. Here are their Christmas jamies and pictures of them tucking in to bed waiting for good old St. Nick to arrive
Christmas morning waiting at the bottom of the stairs..........Let me remind you they woke up at 5:45 this year.
Opening presents...
Excited about all the new fun things Santa brought. What a great Christmas morning!!!

Off the the Grandparents

2010-12-26T21:17:00.000-08:00

First we went to the Downey's. The kids had fun opening presents, and we had a few good laughs as they pulled out old videos of the Downey kids when they were younger. They also got a wii as a family gift with a bunch of fun games to play together. That was a blast also.
Then off to The Chalmers. Bounce made it in town for Christmas this year which it is always so nice to have us all together since it doesn't happen very often.
We had food
And of course singing and showing off our talents. Grandma also taught the kids a new song called "The Miracle" which is a beautiful primary song.
Then of course presents. I have to tell you about the picture with Lex. Little Lex has just developed a huge love for Cameron, almost to the point that she can't look at him without getting embarrassed. She talks about him often and even once told us that she was so scared of getting baptized but if Cameron would baptize her she would do it. She is just so cute about her love for Cameron. Well Cameron drew her name for Christmas this year and made her the pillowcase with his picture on it. She was so shy when she opened it, but she had loved it so much!! She was so excited to sleep on it the first night. (She gave it a few hugs and kisses when she didn't think we were looking :) )

Kali and Lexi's dance class

2010-12-26T21:00:00.000-08:00

The girls are both in dance this year. Kali in Jazz and Lexi in ballet. Their teacher has a parents week in December where we get to come into their class and watch. It was so cute!!

Downey family Christmas party

2010-12-20T23:02:00.000-08:00

I always look forward to the Downey family Christmas party every year. I love all the people there and love getting to catch up. Plus they have the tradition to make this amazing prime rib. It is by far the best recipe I have ever had.
Derek Cousin Tyson and his wife Steffanie
Fun Reindeer game. The first team to successfully take the reindeer poop from one bowl to the other wins. Super fun night..

2010-12-12T09:00:00.000-08:00

This year was so much fun going to temple square to see the lights.
We decided to take the tracks up there since we knew the boys would love getting a change to ride on the train.

Great night even though it was a little exhausting keeping track of all the kids...Well worth it!!

Making our Christmas train

2010-12-12T08:56:00.000-08:00

This year instead of a gingerbread house we decided to do a train since the boys are in love with trains right now. Super fun night!!

Lexi loves to be silly

2010-12-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

So I come upstairs the other day after folding laundry and this is what I find. Sometime she gets so silly....And I love it!!

Lexi's 6th birthday party.

2010-12-12T08:41:00.000-08:00

So much so be thankful for

2010-11-22T20:32:00.000-08:00

We decided tonight for FHE to make a "thanks"giving turkey. We had the kids each write some of the things they were thankful for an some feathers and then we made our family turkey. I am always very grateful for this time of year when we take the time to remember all the things that we have to be thankful for. I have a list a mile long and it is amazing how when you stop and take the time to look at all the blessings in your life it is almost overwhelming. I had a lady who I love dearly in our ward who has been fighting cancer, and she spoke to our stake relief society on thankfulness. I remember her saying that she had a night that she couldn't sleep because she was so nauseated and in pain. So she decided to write down all the things that she has been blessed with. She said that you can literally spend an entire night counting your blessings. I appreciated so much her talk it was at a time that I needed to really stop and think about all the blessings I had in my life and realize that I had it really good. I hope that through this Thanksgiving week we will all stop and notice all that we have and give credit where it is owed.
Happy Thanksgiving!!

Super easy hooded towel

2010-11-04T11:11:00.000-07:00

My sisters and I made these cute hooded towels for our kids. They are super easy and really cheap. But the cutest thing about them are the darling faces that go inside. :)

Halloween

2010-11-04T11:10:00.000-07:00

Halloween costumes

2010-10-29T14:48:00.001-07:00

Masquerade ball princess
Fancy Nancy
Buzz Light Year
"To infinity and beyond"

Halloween sugar cookies

2010-10-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

halloween fun

2010-10-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

Decorating pumpkins

Grandma Chalmers every year has the grandkids come to her house and she makes her yummy spiced sugar cookies with them. This year after making cookies with Grandma Chalmers the kids went and delivered some of them to Great Grandma Kocherhans.

Fun ideas for halloween

2010-10-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

The cone witch
paper candy corn
Spider straw
Vampire suckers
cone witch hats.

kali's baptism day

2010-10-10T09:31:00.000-07:00

UVU alumni tournament

2010-10-10T09:27:00.000-07:00

This year I was invited to play in the UVU alumni tournament. It was such a blast getting to see old team mates and of course my great coach Sam. We had so much fun playing and giggling together. What a great night!!

Our new "little G"

2010-10-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

So we had a really rough week last week when our little dog Bosley died. It was really really hard on the kids. Kali laid on his little body and hugged it for a good hour before she would let us bury him. There were lots of tears and hugs as we said goodbye to our wonderful dog. We decided to get a new little pet to distract the girls a little from their sadness, so we went and got this guinea pig. We named him "little G" and he has been so much fun.
The girls can't get enough

Kali's 8th birthday

2010-10-10T09:19:00.000-07:00

Breakfast in bed.

Kali's 8th birthday party!

2010-09-24T20:54:00.000-07:00

So this year for Kalis party we decided to do a "spa night" My girls have been really into this since our back to school spa night.
The kids had such a blast doing facials and pedicures. I loved all their funny cute comments on how good it felt to be pampered.

The girls showing their cute "twinner" nails
Kelsi ended up sleeping over afterwards, and the girls just did some fun projects together that Kali got as birthday presents. What a fun night!!

Back to school

2010-09-14T20:42:00.000-07:00

So this year to start off the back to school season we started a new tradition......We are going to do a back to school spa night to get the girls feeling all dolled up before their first day of school. The girls loved this. We did facials and pedicures and manicures. It was such a blast!!
Here is Kali and Lexi on back to school night. This year I bought them the "orchard eagle shirts" On fridays all the kids wear their shirts to school to show school pride.
Kali's first day of second grade. She is so excited about school this year, she loves her new teacher and has been so excited to see all her friends.
Lexi's first day of kindergarten. Lexi started a week after Kali and it was a very long week for her. She has been so excited to start school this year and to be one of the big kids. She also loves her teacher and has always been so good at making friends.

Kali's gymnastics meet

2010-08-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

Kali had her first gymnastics meet today and she did amazing!!! She took first in 2 of the events and second in the other 2. She has just amazed me with her talent in gymnastics. She had been taking for little over a year and is already in advanced tumbling. She loves it. We have always had such family support and I have always loved and appreciated that. We had my whole family and Dereks family there to show their love for Kali.

Boys 3rd birthday party

2010-08-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

So I think by now everyone knows that the boys are obsessed with Thomas the train, and trains in general, so we decided to do a "thomas the train" birthday party this year. It was such a blast. We borrowed grandpa Downeys train and Derek spend the whole morning of the party making the thomas's face to go on the front....Which I think turned out amazing!! We just told all the kids in the neighborhood to come over and enjoy riding the train for the boys birthday. It was nuts, we ended up with almost 30 kids over. But they all had a blast and I figure the more the merrier.
The boys had such a blast and it was a total success!!

summer Fun

2010-08-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

So I have been a terrible blogger this summer but here are a few updates. First off Potty training has been a handful and a little exhausting. This might recap our first week, we were all exhausted!! I still can't believe he fell asleep on the potty. :)
My kids love going out to see Grandma and Grandpa great. They have horses across the street and of course the infamous train that the kids love to ride on. This was on fathers day when we went to wish grandpa a happy fathers day.
Lexi learned out to ride without training wheels and her favorite thing to do is ride her bike around the neighborhood.
We have a neighborhood full of kids and the girls have had so much fun playing with friends. I think we have had kids at our house all summer long. Which I have to say I am ready for school to start so things will quiet down around here a little bit.
We took the kids to go feed the ducks down at BYU. The kids had so much fun!! A little bonus was the turtles, and Derek picked one up and the kids loved holding it. All in all we have had an amazing summer!!

Kali, our little gymnast

2010-07-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

Kali has been taking gymnastics for a year, and she absolutely loves it. She spends hours on the trampoline practicing what she learned in class. It is amazing how quickly she has gotten so good.

Here is her latest move.

Princess Festival

2010-06-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

Every year in Lindon there is this amazing princess festival that runs for 2 weeks. I have never been able to take the girls and this year Grandma Chalmers wanted to take all the grand daughters. It was probably one of the funnest days I have ever had.

I loved watching all the cute little girls all dressed up as princesses walking around the park with their eyes lit up and you could see the magic they felt at the festival. They were able to do the funnest things like; learn how to fly with Tinkerbell, attend a tea party with Alice, help Peterpan escape from Captain Hook, make wands and crowns, swim with Ariel, and so many other fun things. It truely was magical!!

This is something that I will need to do with the girls every year since it was probably the high light of their life, and I loved watching their eyes all day as they felt like real princesses.

Fun at the Downeys

2010-06-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

One thing that has been a tradition every year is to go and watch the fireworks from the Orem summerfest at the Downeys house. Their house has an amazing view and the kids love it.

Here are just some cute pictures that Devrie took when we were over at the Downeys for Sunday dinner.

Calling all engines!!

2010-06-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

Every year up in Heber they turn the train there into "Thomas the Train" and make such a fun weekend for the kids. This year Derek decided to take the boys with his dad since the boys are obsessed with trains.

They had so much fun riding on the trains, and listening to the whistle. They got to see "Sir Topham Hatt" which they loved.

They had such a blast being up there all day with daddy. This whole week they have talked so much about when they got to ride on thomas and year the whistle go toot, toot.

The next day we took the family up a second time to eat at the dairy keen up there since they had turned the restaurant into a thomas theme. The kids loved it!! What a fun weekend

trains, trains, and more trains

2010-06-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

The boys are obsessed with trains right now, they cannot get enough. They spend so much time in their rooms playing trains with each other. My dad made this amazing train table that brings them way too much joy!!

Grandma Greats.

2010-06-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

We have been so blessed to have such amazing family surrounding us, which includes Dereks grandma and grandpa Downey. They are the sweetest people and always welcome us with warm hugs and cheerful grins. Everytime we go and see them the kids have a blast. Grandma always has a snack or two to share, the live across the street from horses, and grandpa has his infamous train that he built. So grateful to have these fabulous people in our lives!!

Here is little Zacky on our way up to grandma greats in my glasses.....So stinkin cute!!

Kali at her last week of first grade. She had an amazing year. She loved her teacher, met some new fun friends, and learned a lot.

great week

2010-05-17T10:46:00.000-07:00

This last week Derek and I decided to do a little "get away." We have never left the kids and taken a vacation so we thought it was time. We decided to go to Vegas since it was close and WARM!! We had such a blast. We went and saw 3 shows while we were there which were absolutely out of this world amazing!! It was so nice to sleep in and stay up late, and my favorite was of course hanging out by the pool for hours each day. It was a much needed get away.

Then the day we got home Kali had a mothers day program at school put on by the first grade. They sand lots of cute songs and quoted some poems, it was adorable. I love that little girl and it is days like this that you love being a mom!!

Our little twinkle toes

2010-05-07T21:51:00.000-07:00

Lexi has been taking dance this year which she loves.

We had her dance recital this week where her class played the little birds in "Hansel and Gretel"

She did such a cute job and I loved that she got to have her own special night.

Afterwards we went to brick oven to celebrate Lexis special night. Love you Lu!!!

VB champs!!

2010-05-07T21:48:00.000-07:00

So one of my passions is still volleyball. I get to play once a week and love every minute of it. I have loved so much getting to play with old college friends and honestly we laugh like crazy and have such a ball together. Orem city champs baby!!!!

Fun with the kids

2010-04-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

I took the girls this last week to go and see the play at Oak Canyon "Alice in Wonderland" Our babysitter played the caterpillar and did such a darling job. The girls loved the play and especially loved afterwards getting pictures with the girls. Lexi did get a little nervous though with the queen of hearts....it was adorable.

We decided that for my little nephews birthday we were going to take the kids to the zoo. They had a blast and the weather was so beautiful. The boys favorite part of the whole thing was the ride on the choo choo train. They spoted it when we first walked in and the whole time just kept saying, "Lets go see the choo choo" go figure....

New updates

2010-04-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

I haven't been doing very good at keeping up on our blog, so here are some pictures over the last few months.

This was the Yankees first game of the season so of course dad is a happy guy!!

Lexi lost her first tooth, and the tooth fairy made it to our house. Which Lexi just thought was fabulous

Lexi's pre-school class took a field trip to the fire station and learned all about fire safety.

Kali had Dr. Seuss day at school and she dressed up as Cindy LuHo!! Doesn't she look darling!!

So those are some of the latest at our house. We are just truckin along and enjoying the ride!!

Fun Valentine bags

2010-02-14T20:44:00.000-08:00

I got this cute idea off of a blog this week and I had to make them. They are just big envelopes made out of felt. They were so easy all I did was cut out the size that I wanted and then did the cute trim with yarn. Then I cut out the white heart out of felt and glued in on with fabric glue. I didn't even have to use my sewing machine and it was easy enough that Kali did the yarn on her own. The idea is to put them on the back of the chairs the week of valentines and all week long you can make little valentines and write the things you love about a member of the family and place them in the bag and then put some goodies in to be opened on valentines morning. Since I made them just yesterday I just put them on the chairs and we put some fun things in them that the kids opened on valentines morning. They loved it!!

We had a great "love week" at our house. But the thing that I love the most about Valentines day is it gives you a chance to really think about the people that you love in your life and how grateful you are to have them there. I truely am so lucky to have married a man that I know will love me for me (faults and all). Thanks babe for being my valentine for the last 14 years.

Happy Valentines day to all!!

Valentine outfits

2010-02-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about having girls is getting them all dolled up for the holidays. So this year I made these cute skirts and found these cute valentine shirts.

Let "love week" begin

2010-02-07T20:09:00.000-08:00

We did this fun craft this week where we wrote things that we love about members of the family on these hearts and did a "heart attack" on the door.

Then one of our family traditions that goes way back is making these valentines cookie trains. It is one of my girls favorite things to do during valentines. I love getting into the festivities of the holidays. I think the kids love it to.

We have some "crazies' around here.

2010-02-07T20:06:00.000-08:00

I had to do a post on the fun crazy things that happen around our house every day. Lexi came out with this fun little outfit put together this last week. She loves to be funny and get a little laugh out of everyone.( My favorite touch was the scriptures in hand.) There is never a dull moment around here and I love it!! Kids truely are the greatest.

Pirate Island Pizza

2010-02-07T20:02:00.000-08:00

So last weekend we decided to take the kids to Pirate island pizza to have some fun. It was awesome! The kids had such a blast riding the rides and playing the games. Honestly we could have stayed there twice as long as we did. It is the perfect place to take a family since they have fun things for all ages. It is definetly something we will be doing again.

So grateful to have my girls!!

2010-01-27T13:43:00.000-08:00

Last week I had a great gratitude moment. Last week Derek and I were laying in bed watching t.v and Derek was just flipping through the channels and he happened to stop on Oprah and we watched it for a minute. There was a mother on who was on a mission to stop texting while driving. She then shared her story of how her little 7 year old girl was riding her bike home from school when she was hit by someone who was texting that killed her. She shared her experiece of how aweful the sight was to see her daughters body laying there in the street and then she talked about the last night she had with her in the hospital. The doctors had told her that her daughter wouldn't make it through the night so she told how special that night was between her and her daughter. She said that she rocked her all night and sang to her and just memorized her face. Of course by the end I was just sobbing since of course it was easy for me to relate to the story with my two little girls about the same age. So I hope out of bed and went down to my daughters room and layed in bed with them and thought so much about my blessing and how much these two little angels meant to me. It was a special night and a special experince I had. I left with a new challenge that even though the days are so crazy and filled with what seems to be a million things to take care of. I am going to take time every day to spend one on one with those little girls I am so grateful to have with me.

"Winter get away"

2010-01-14T22:35:00.001-08:00

A family in our ward owns this beautiful cabin up at Sundance that we were able to use for a 3 day weekend. It was so much fun. My dad brought up his guitar and taught the kids some new songs. They loved that.

The kids played and played in the snow. It had a perfect sledding hill just out the front door that was such a blast, and Derek also built a huge snow cave that the loved playing in.

Of course Grandma Chalmers had to make matching p.j's for all the kids. She is way too amazing!

It turned out to be the perfect weekend. Some went skiing while other relaxed and played with the kids. We did some art projects with the kids and played games and had way too much food. Overall it was a total success!!

2010, bring it on!!

2010-01-14T22:26:00.000-08:00

We had a really fun New years eve party this year with a bunch of our cousins. We played games and ate some goodies. The older kids played rock band all night and we had some fun crafts provided for the younger kids. It was a lot of fun and I can't believe how well all the kids did staying up until midnight. They all stayed cheerful and had so much fun with cousins.

Santa, Santa, and more Santa

2010-01-14T22:23:00.000-08:00

Went to go and see Santa who visits Lexis pre-school

These are from the Downey Christmas party that we have every year. The kids love it because Santa always stops in with a special present for each child. The adults love it because we always have a prime rib dinner that is to die for.

2010-01-14T22:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning. We had such a great Christmas. Santa brought the girls "american girl" dolls which they were so excited about. The boys got lots of "car show" things they cannot get enough of lightning mcqueen right now. It was such a fun morning.

Kali and Lexi playing with the beads that Santa brought. They wanted to get all dolled up to go to Grandma Chalmers for Christmas dinner.

Christmas night at Grandma Chalmers. Of course the kids had to wear elf hats all night. and the boys loved Grandpa Chalmers train.

Caroling with the Downeys

2010-01-14T22:16:00.000-08:00

Fun night Caroling with the Downeys. They are such great in-laws.

School fun

2010-01-14T22:12:00.000-08:00

Kali had some fun things going on at school in December. First off at Orchard the first graders have a fun "Polar Express day" They get to wear their pajamas to school and bring their favorite stuffed animal. Santa came and visited and they had little elf helpers around the class room. And Kali's favorite part was that Santa gave each child a bell off of his sleigh. Then Orchard also every Christmas does a Christmas sing where each grade performs 2 songs for the parents. It was adorable.

Still playing VB and lovin it!

2010-01-14T22:10:00.000-08:00

I have been playing volleyball a lot lately and I love it more than ever. This year we put together a team of some old college friends. I played with these girls at UVSC and we had so much fun talking about old times and great memories. Thanks girls for another fun season!

Kids performances

2010-01-14T22:04:00.000-08:00

We got to attend Kali and Lexi dance class this december. They wanted to show the parents what the kids had been learning and give them a chance to show off a little. It was so adorable!! Their dance teacher Mrs Ashley is so great with the girls and they love her so much. Lexi has her twin cousins Sadie and Saylor in her dance class. They have a lot of fun together.

Kali has also gotten really good at gymnastics. She was asked this year to advance to the more competitive class. She had gotten her backhand spring down perfectly and almost her back tuck.. It is fun to go and watch her cause she is the smallest in the class. All the other girls are quiet a bit older and they love to kind of play big sister to Kali. She loves it and is really enjoying gymnastics.

Lexi Turns 5

2010-01-14T22:01:00.000-08:00

Lexi turned 5 this December and I can hardly believe it. We already did her birthday party back in October, but we still did some fun things to make the day special for her. I think the highlight for her was getting to decorate her own birthday cake. She is such a sweetie and I can hardly believe that she is 5. Love you little Lu!!

Girls night out

2010-01-14T21:43:00.000-08:00

Derek was out of town and so I took the girls on a date with me to go and see "New Moon" They loved it almost as much as me. TEAM JACOB

Family Pictures

2010-01-14T21:37:00.000-08:00

2010-01-14T21:30:00.000-08:00