American Idol: Battle of the Davids

So Blake and I are watching the beginning of the Americal Idol Finale. Blake is dancing along as well- haha! Anyways- i must admit that this is the first season in American Idol that i have actually picked up the phone and voted. Same for Doug. We have both been voting for David Archuleta, he's our favorite! Maybe its cause he's mormon, maybe cause he can actually sing, or maybe cause you just wanna pinch his cheeks cause he's so naive. As we anxiously await the announcement of the winner we will be spraying and pulling weeds. We seriously can't be sitting here to two hours just to find out the last name of the winner! Anyways, I guess this post is just to annouce that if Achuleta doesn't walk away with the title, we will never watch American Idol again!

90 Years Young

Satuday was Grandpa Tyler's 90th Birthday and we all got to celebrate! Mom threw a party for Grandpa and we had a good visit with lots of family and neighbors. Grandpa looked sharp in his new tie and he looked like he enjoyed every minute of his birthday! He told me before the party that he likes to think of him self as 90 years young! The glass is always half full with Grandpa Tyler! Here are a couple of shots from Saturday afternoon!

boys + dirt = fun

Our neighbors and good friends are installing a sprinkler system and will be laying sod soon. Doug went to help, along with a few other neighbors and I left Blake with Doug while i went walking with some other moms (as we do every week). Blake got to stay up late and "help" with the nieghbor's yard. He played in the dirt for three hours straight and he loved every minute of it. When i got back from my walk i went to check on Blake and he was just covered in dirt. Doug was dirty as well, but he came from work... The picture doesn't do the dirt justice, Blake's face was so dirty, especially his nose. He looked like a little scare crow!

Dandelions

Our front lawn was looking great until dandelions started popping up everywhere, the back lawn was much worse than the front. We decided we would try a little weed killer where you walk around with a little spray bottle and spray the dandelions. After two applications of a small area of the front lawn, the bottle was half gone and the dandelions were barely starting to look sick. For family home evening, Doug and Blake worked in the flowers beds working in the manure and then they also potted the flower bed where our lovely bush used to reside. My job, self appointed of course, was to use the garden tool to dig up the dandelions in our front yard. After two hours i had a blister and my thighs were killing me. The front lawn is shaping up, but knowing the back lawn is much worse makes me want to cry thinking about hand weeding all those dandelions! Here's a few pics of our new flower bed, my potted gerbs, and my cute door hanging i got for mother's day!Some day there will hopefully be curbing and grass in that lovely dirt patch!



Try not to notice the siding that is practically falling off of our house! haha!

670 Curtis St.

So i decided that home ownership is worthy of blogging about. As i was mowing our back yard, a.k.a. our dandelion field, i noticed about a million projects that need to be updated, replaced, fixed, or removed. Then i got thinking about what our house looked like last August when we moved in. I found our home inspection with pictures of our house when be bought it and i didn't realize how much better our house is looking just from keeping the lawn green and removing that overgrown bush! I decided to take a step back and take a look at the big picture (like from our sidewalk)! Here are pictures from before-august 2007 and then now-may 2008! If you can't tell which picture is before and which is after, just call me, i will explain it, and then cry!

Blake Douglas VanOrden

So Gracie tagged Blake and I guess I am supposed to put 10 interest things about Blake!

1. Blake has looked like his dad from day one. Well, except for the hair obviously. Eveyone thinks he is a miniature Doug, but I would like to think that he got some of his good looks from his Mom!

2. He loves being outside, just like his Dad! Blake would run around in shorts in the snow if i would let him. Every time i open the front door to get the mail he thinks we are going outside and gets so excited. Good thing the park is in our front yard!

3. Blake loves Cars and Finding Nemo. He will sit down and watch the whole movie without hardly blinking. I can always count on Lightning McQueen when i need to get some work done.

4. Blake's vocabulary is limited to just a few words including mom, dad, grandma, ouch and uh-oh. He talks all the time, to himself sometimes, we just can't understand his language.

5. For some reason he hates nursery. We sent him to nursery a few months early because he didn't want him in primary or elders quorum. He used to love it and now when i come down to do singing time he freaks and starts crying. He did learn how to do a "thumbs up" in nursery tho.

6. He has a favorite blanket that he hardly ever sleeps without. Its minky and all we have to do is hand him his blanket and he goes to bed just fine! We have drug that blanket on the plane to SC and PA and we don't go out of town without it!

7. Blake gets more haircuts than doug and i combined. For some reason his hair grows so fast and it seems like we have Sheila cut his hair every month!

8. Blake loves to color. Not only in his coloring book but also on the walls, fridge and anywhere else he probably shouldn't be coloring.

9. Grandpa Campbell thinks he is ambidextrous, but probably not. He writes and eats with his right, but throws a ball with his left. Maybe he is just right handed and has a left dominant eye like his mom!

10. Blake has the world's coolest parents- okay so i'm running out of interesting things- but Blake is an awesome kid and we'd like to think that it comes from his awesome parents!

High School Musical

So after hearing so much about this movie, Doug and I decided to sit down and watch it one night. Doug's brother Curtis about freaked when he saw we were watching it because he hates it, but we loved every moment of it! We were entertained enough we even rented the second one (its not as catchy as the first) and put our favorite song as the first on your blog playlist! If you're looking for a easy going hilarious movie, check High School Musical out! I'll warn you that its probably funnier if you aren't in high school!

TAG, You're it!

Two Names You Go By: Lar and Mamama

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now: My favorite kswiss summer sandals and my work in the yard shirt from old navy

Two Of Your Favorite Things To Do: Let's be honest- i love to eat and i love to sleep

Two Things You Want To Do Very Badly At This Moment: Be Outside and See Doug

Two Favorite Pets: Northshadow and KC

Two People Who Will Fill This Out: I don't know.

Two Things You Did Last Night: Played card games and ate strawberry shortcake!

Two Things You Ate Today: Mac and Cheese and a Capri Sun

Two People You Talked To: Blake and Doug

Two Longest Car Rides: Family Trip to Disney Land when i was 8 and a trip to St. George and back in 24 Hours

Two Favorite Holidays: Thanksgiving and 4th of July

Two Favorite Drinks: Dr. Pepper with Vanilla and Orange Julius

I tag..... Jessica, Shelby, and Stephanie and anyone else who want to be tagged!

Just An Update...

Here's what we have been doing the last few weeks...

1. Blake got his 18 month pictures taken with his big tractor!

2. Doug is finishing up his finals tomorrow. Yay!

3. Laura is recovering from an extraction infection and strep throat. yuck!

4. After long hours, all the spuds are in the ground!

5. Spring cleaning is underway, we started under the bed!

6. Yard work is just beginning to start! We removed the big bush by our house!

7. Doug got a new calling as the ward Cubmaster!

8. Blake learned to say "uh-oh" and "ouch."