Year in Review: 2008

January: Major Kitchen Remodel including cabinets, countertops, tile backsplash and floor, paint, trim, etc. February: Helped with Blackfoot Jr. Miss Self Expression - Masquerade

March: Spring Break and Easter in Lancaster, PA with Al, Amber, Jackson, and Marcus. We visited Hershey, Washington D.C., and Philidelphia while we were there.

April: Blake went to Nursery, officially

May: Big Birthday Bash for Grandpa Tyler's 90th

June: Relay for Life and a new roof over our heads

July: Campbell Family Reunion, a visit from Alan and Amber

August, September, October: Grain, Potato, Beet Harvest. Lots of long hours in the tractor and 10 wheeler. Blake moved to a new bed and a new room downstairs. November: Bedroom and Office Remodel, New Carpet, Trim, Doors, and Paint.

December: Big 12 Championship Game in Kansas City, Planned and pulled off the ward Christmas party program, Painted our family room, Entry way and downstairs landing.

We had a great year and accomplished a lot of projects on our house, thus shortening the list of home projects for 2009. We are looking forward to a nephew in February and a neice in April and Becki's and Pablo's wedding all in 2009. On a less exciting note, we are hoping for recessed lighting, refinished hardwood floors, textured walls, new paint, a few new interior doors and new trim in the living room this year. A garden is also on our wishlist....wish us luck! Hope you all have a great 2009!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas vacation included way to much yummy food, lots of Phase 10 Twist, a few blizzards, 4 seasons of Gilmore Girls (and counting) and plenty of presents! Here are the details!

Let's start with Doug's super birthday! Doug turned 21 on the 21st. His birthday was on Sunday and so we celebrated all weekend! We went to see the movie Seven Pounds on Saturday and then enjoyed a great dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Mom and Dad had Blake that night and it was great to have a date, just the two of us! Doug's parents were out of town that weekend, so Mom fixed Doug's birthday dinner: missionary chicken and mashed potatoes. Yum! We had birthday cake and a few of Doug's friends came over to visit. He got a few clothes and movies for his birthday.

We kept up the tradition of going to the movies on the 24th and we saw Madagascar 2. It was pretty funny and Blake enjoyed all the animals. We hosted Christmas Eve at our house and both families came. Blake had all four of his grandparents there along with 4 great grandparents. We ate dinner and then we had a special Christmas program that we adopted from my sister in law Amber's family. Her dad wrote the program and it was a great addition to our usual traditions! Blake also opened his Christmas p.j.'s for Grandma Campbell!

Blake falling asleep with a chicken nugget in each hand in the way to the movie!

We spent the night at mom and dad's house and opened up our presents there the next morning with Mom and Dad, Tim and Abby, Grandpa and Syble, and Sandy. Santa brought Blake a parking garage, dinosaurs, playdoh, a baby horsey (thats what he asked for), clothes and a winter coat. Doug got a new 120 GB ipod classic and has been uploading music like crazy. And I got a sewing machine! Its a Brother and has like 60 stitches! I love using it and have started a few projects for Abby and Jessica. Mom and Dad got us sleeping bags and a few dutch oven accessories and we are excited to use them next summer!

After opening presents, we headed over to V.O.'s for breakfast and more presents. They gave us the illustrated Hymnbook, the same gift we gave them and a gift card to Sams Club. We have been working hard to get out 72 hour kit and food storage put together and both of our parents helped us out a lot. We played games played his Blake's toys and then Mike, Sheila and Curtis came with us to Christmas Dinner at the Campbell's house. It was a crazy blizzard outside and we got the tractor stuck at Mom and Dad's house... Only in Idaho do you drive a tractor to Christmas Dinner at the neighbors!

The day after Christmas we decided to get busy and start painting. We painted the family room, downstairs landing, and back entry way over the course of the next week. We had a quiet New Years with a few games and movies and have enjoyed just hanging out the last few days. New Year's Eve also brought the exciting news of Becki and Pablo getting engaged! Wahoo! New Year's day was the Perkes Party and we enjoyed seeing lots of Doug's aunts, uncles, and cousins. Doug went back to work today and I think its about time we got back to our normal schedule. We are sad to leave 2008 behind but we have lots to look forward to in 2009!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town....

Blake knows only three Christmas songs and has been singing them non-stop for the past month. Other than singing, Blake's other preparations have consisted of attempting to unwrap his Christmas Eve jammies.

Doug on the other hand has been a little busier preparing for the holiday. He's been working some, shoveling a lot of snow, and helping me drop divinity when i need an extra hand. We celebrated his birthday on sunday... and i'll have to post more on that later!

I decided to host Christmas Eve dinner at my house, since both sets of parents were going to be empty nesters and we didn't want anyone to be alone. We moved a few things around and there should be just enough room to squeeze everyone in! Now if you know me at all, you know that i'm all about the yummy food on holidays. Needless to say, Doug and I have been cooking all afternoon and will finish the final preparations tomorrow morning before hitting the movie theatres. We are all looking forward to a great holiday, and hope you all have great Christmas too!

Trampoline + Yummy Food +Presents = Awesome Family Parties!

Sorry this post is so late... I was waiting for the pictures to complete the post! Enjoy!

Last month we had a few family parties on the calender. The a.m. of the 13th was the big VanOrden party. They held it down in Pocatello at the Youth Training Center, where Doug's cousin Lisa practices all of her gym routines. She is an amazing gymnast and we had way too much fun watching her perform a little for us and also playing on the trampolines and in the foam pit. We even got Mike and Sheila up on the tramps! Blake had a great time running around and playing in the foam as well! We got to see most of Doug's cousins and aunts and uncles and had a great time! Thanks to Julie and Garth for planning such a fun afternoon!

Doug thinking of a new career as a gymnast! Haha! I crossed my fingers that we wouldn't have to stop at the hospital on our way home!
Lisa showing off her awesome moves! This girl is so talented! Thanks Lisa!

Then we headed to the Willows where both Grandma V.O. and Grandpa Perkes live. Our family put on a small musical program for the residents as our Christmas gift to the Grandmas. We have done this before and will make it a tradition for years to come.

Saturday night we had a small party with just Doug's immediate family. Shane and Jess headed home to SC for Christmas so we wanted to party with them and exchange gifts before they left. We had so much yummy food and played games until we were all exhausted! They also gave us a few of our gifts early... Doug got new work boots and I got a shark hand vaccuum. Exactly what I asked for... seriously. Mike also got Lyndsey, Jessica and I the complete series of Gilmore Girls and I am loving it! There's nothing better than being spoiled by two dads! Blake got a Ball Bopper and it held his attention the rest of the evening! Thanks Dad and Mom for a great party!

Sunday after church we went out to Ed and Linda's for another family party. It was fun to see Grandma and Grandpa Campbell and Joni and Adam. Katy and Eric were there too and I got to see baby Eliza. She is too precious! I didn't get any pcitures, sorry!

I think our muscles are still recovering from jumping on the tramps, but we had a great weekend with our families!

Santa's Sleigh

We have been trying to introduce potty training to Blake and he hasn't been the slightest bit interested. But he did find another use for his "potty seat." Yesterday he had me look at "santa's sleigh and the reindeer." Blake has quite the imagination! He's been draggin this around the house for hours at a time. I'm glad he at least found a use for the potty seat!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas....

This one is for you, Becki:

After bringing out the tree and decorations, we decided one tree just wasn't enough... so Blake and I headed out and bought another tree. We have one in the new office with our decorations from last year. And the tree in the living room is traditionally red, green and white. It seems like I got the tree put up so late this year, I can't believe the holiday is only three weeks away!

Doug is headed to Kansas City in the a.m. with Dad and Tim, where they will meet up with Al for the Big 12 Championship Game: Missouri vs. Oklahoma on Saturday. Knowing Dad and Al, they will probably see everything there is to see in the area and drag Doug and Tim around with them until they are all exhausted! I'm sure they are going to have a great time.

Friday night is our ward Christmas party, and Doug and I were put in charge of the entertainment. Since Doug won't be here, I guess its up to me to make sure everything goes smooothly... wish me luck!

Okay, this family picture is actually from Thanksgiving. I just put it up so Amber and Becki can see my new hair color. Its barely long enough for a ponytail... we're making progress!

Yep, stocking are already hung. We are ready and waiting for Santa!

And this is the tree in the office, nothing fancy. Its really just the room lit up with lights that makes it wonderful!

2 Remodeled Rooms!

I finally convinced Doug to hang up my pictures in my bedroom so i could take pictures to put on our blog. This monday we had our carpet installed and we have fallen in love.... with our new carpet! We are both enjoying having carpet in our bedroom, where their used to be hardwood floors. We textured, painted, replaced doors and closet doors and updated the trim in both our bedroom and Blake's old room upstairs, which is now the office. I did most of the painting and prep work and Doug installed the doors and did the trim work. We have learned a lot from just doing these two rooms that will help with the rest of the house and in future houses as well. Although being under construction can be stressful at times, we are always so happy with the finished product and are glad we learned how to do the project by ourselves. Here are a few pics of our updated rooms! For those of you who have been to my house before, you may notice that I got a new bedspread as well! :)

These are the new doors that we installed. They are about a million times better looking than the orange colored wood doors that were there before.