View Jackson's Youtube video so he can win a contest!

Jon Schmidt is having a contest. Jackson posted a youtube video of himself playing Road Trip (a Jon Schmidt song) and if he gets the most views, he wins $100 and tickets to a Jon Schmidt concert. The contest started at the beginning of summer and ends Setpember 30th. Jackson just barely posted his video, so he only has 30 days to get views. So view as many times as you want to!

Jackson and Justin Playing the Piano

Jackson and Justin have been working hard and practicing the piano, so I just wanted to post their new songs. We are doing great, I just can't find the time to keep the blog updated, but I am going to try... I still enjoy reading all our family and friend's blogs.

Static Electricity

We took these funny pictures of Savannah while she was on the trampoline. Her hair was full of static electricity and if we held out a finger, she would come shock us, until a couple of the shocks were so big that it hurt her and then she refused to come near any of us!


I remembered I also had this picture of Jared on the trampoline, but short hair just doesn't get as wild!

Rubik's Cube

Jackson and Justin accomplished something this week that Jason and I were never able to do as kids (or as adults for that matter). They solved the Rubik's Cube!




As you can see in the picture, Jackson now wear's a white shirt and tie to church every week because he is a Deacon and gets to pass the sacrament. I can't believe my little boy is 12 years old!

I'm also posting pictures of Savannah at nap time and bath time. I love my babies when they are sound asleep, especially when they still let you hold and cuddle them.

Jared Singing (Or Not)

This is Jared's preschool Christmas program. He can be very stubborn when he makes up his mind. On the way to the program, he told me he was only going to sing one of the songs and that he wouldn't sing the other song. That is exactly what he did! He sang Jingle Bells louder than any of the other kids (even if he is a little behind on the chorus), and then he refused to sing Santa Claus is Coming to Town. He just stands there the entire song. I've been wondering if it's maybe because I sang that song the week before Christmas whenever the kids were being bad. He is the only boy in a preschool class of 5 girls, I guess some things are just too girly for him!

Savannah's First Word

This is Savannah's first word (besides babbling and saying Mama and Dada). We watch Diego's Dinosaur Rescue every morning in the car when we are taking kids to school (just ask the Callaways!), so that is how she learned to say Diego. We love how she makes an O with her lips! Sorry for being the annoying mom on the other side of the video camara... what we do to capture our kids doing cute things on video.

Halloween Weekend

We had a fun Halloween Weekend! We flew to Utah on Friday morning. We went straight to the flying field and Jackson got to fly Grandpa Stueck's new remote control airplane. Later that night we went trick or treating with cousins.



On Saturday, we went to ShayLeigh and Katelyn's baptisms. We then flew to California and went to Disneyland and California Adventure on Monday and Tuesday. Here are some of our favorite pictures (Jared was scared of Minnie Mouse!):







This is a cute video of Savannah giving her dad kisses and Jackson and Jason riding the Maliboomer (they were the only ones tall enough and brave enough to ride this ride!) There must be something wrong if each seat on the ride has a puke shield.

Autumn Time

Savannah's hair is growing fast and I finally figured out how to put a bow in her hair. Savannah also has a birth mark on her face. We think it is kind of cute; hopefully she won't hate it when she grows older.




This is our scary spider and spider web we put up for Halloween. Now everyone who comes to our door has to walk down the spooky tunnel!


I forgot to post Joshua's birthday pictures. He turned 6 years old on August 19th. He had a really fun party with lots of friends at Chuck E. Cheese. Joshua graduated from two preschool's this spring, Ms. Jamie's preschool and Ms. Sandee's preschool.






I also had to post these pictures of Joshua's elbow. It isn't broken, but can you believe how big that hematoma is? He had an accident on his scooter. Luckily he was wearing his helmet.

Sasquatch!

Jackson is going to tell a story about scout camp: This summer I went to Boy Scout Camp. Our boy scout leaders (including my dad) warned us several times that there had been bear sightings close to our camp. One night we went for a walk with night vision goggles to look at deer. It was pitch black outside. After we had been walking for a while, Brother Nelson stopped to tie his shoe and never caught back up with us. A couple minutes later we heard a grunting noise in the meadow. We were looking through the night vision goggles and saw a big black creature waving its long arms around. We were scared to death! We thought it was a grizzly bear. Then the creature started crawling on the trail. My friend said he was so scared he was going to pee his pants! We couldn't see any grizzly bear cubs, so then we thought the creature wasn't a bear. The creature picked up a big log and threw it towards us. Soon after, my friend Garrett recognized his dad dressed up in a Sasquatch costume. We had been punked! I have never been so scared in my life!


Here are a couple more pictures from Jackson's Scout Camp.

1st Day of School 2008

Jackson started 6th Grade in Middle School. Justin started 3rd Grade. Josh started Kindergarten. And Jared is starting Pre-School. Savannah learned to walk during the first week of school. The boys are so proud of her!

Savannah's 1 Year Birthday

Savannah turned 1 year old on August 14th. Here are some pictures from her birthday. She loved her new baby doll and the frosting from her cake! She is such a fun baby!

Jackson's Model Airplanes

Jackson spent a week in June visiting Grandma and Grandpa Stueck in Utah. He spent most of the week building and flying radio control model airplanes with Grandpa. On Saturday, June 14th, Jackson got the chance to fly one of Grandpa's airplanes at the Utah Valley Aeromodelers show and he made the front page of the Pony Express newspaper! He was the youngest pilot at the air show and he did a great job. If you can't read the small print, here is an excerpt from the newspaper article: "Just ask Jackson Downey, an 11-year-old from Las Vegas who comes to Utah to fly with is grandfather. "It does take a while to learn. I started on a computer program, and then buddy-boxed. It's fun."



Here are a couple of the airplanes they were working on in Utah:



Unfortunately, the airplane Jackson built by himself here in Las Vegas (the Fidget), crashed and broke on its first flight. We took these pictures before the crash:



Jackson is already shopping around for a new airplane to build and fly. Wish him luck!

Family Trip July 2008: Yosemite

We spent the last two days of our family trip hiking in Yosemite (Jason, Jackson, and Josh even did one hike in the rain). We saw several beautiful waterfalls and Jason enjoyed seeing Half Dome (which he hiked to the top of as a teenager). All Josh wanted to do was see a bear, and on our very last day... we finally we saw a bear! Josh rolled off the hotel bed in the middle of the last night of our trip and cut open his chin/lip on the bedside table. We rushed home and got it glued together. We had a wonderful time and made many fun memories!