WE HAVE A HOUSE!

Yes, you read that right. We have a house. It all happened in 3 days, NO JOKE!

LARSANDCHELLIESHOUSE.BLOGSPOT.COM

If They're FREE, Take THREE!

Preface:

So, we returned home on Saturday Night after spending a night in Gunnison to pick up Maddie from Gma and Gpa's (She was there for the duration of Girls Camp). The drive from Vernal was long and it was nice to get a shower and do some laundry somewhere other than my own house :) Anyway, we were too beat to make it to the grocery store, as were the kids, and we didn't shop for any food that night...

So wakey wakey Sunday Morning and it was Lars' Birthday: Take 1. Hooray! Except for the fact that we didn't have anything to celebrate with. But at least there were a few eggs and some milk to make pancakes. Well, fast forward past church (we both attended only about an hour of because Max was still sick and we had to stagger our attendance so one could stay at home with the kids) and we didn't have anything to eat for lunch. Well, I think we had Malt-O-Meal or something as equally insufficient, and I started to make the cake. Oops. Need 3 eggs. I used 2 of our 3 for breakfast. I guess no cake.

So, Poor Poor Lars had Mac-N-Cheese for his birthday dinner (because we don't shop on Sundays) and a wimpy Oatmeal Cream Pie for dessert :( Sad day.

Well, on Monday, we were pretty excited to have a REDO birthday for Lars. Cake just needed some eggs, dinner was going to be fresh veggies and steaks from Macey's, and we were going to pick Lars up a new tie too (yes we live in MORMONVILLE where my grocer also sells Ties). Anyway we are about T minus 10 minutes to leave to shop when Maddie falls and lands us a fantastic visit to the Emergency Room. Err, I guess Birthday: Take 2 was also a failure!

Well, here was Maddie before that incident. All decked out in her party gear, and her little bunny too! She calls her Tinka because she IS NOT TINKERBELL. That is an entirely different person. THIS bunny is TINKA.

Anyway, Tuesday finally rolls around after a difficult night, and Happy Birthday Lars: Take 3 is in motion. So we finally got the cake made, had a delicious Thai dinner, and Lars got to have a somewhat enjoyable "Birthday". Actually, he informed me that he wouldn't mind having his birthday EVERY day for the rest of the year if I wanted to... I think Maddie has already grasped that thought. She actually has told him HAPPY BIRTHDAY every day this week so far. It has almost replaced "GOOD MORNING" in our house. So, yeah, there you have it. We bypassed Birthday #4, but I'm looking forward to a very promising Happy Birthday Lars: Take 5 tomorrow!

Young Women's Camp and Awards Night

GIRLS CAMP 2009

Girls Camp was a blast. Being with the Young Women is one of my favorite things. Maybe I'm still 16 or something! Anyway, Max was quite the feat at camp; He must be allergic to something in the air. Good thing we borrowed a hammock, because we were tethered to the camp site when Max took his naps, which were very abundant due to him feeling sick, and very long. Yeah, about 3 naps a day for about 2 hours each block gave us A LOT of time at our tent. Well, Thursday he started to feel really awful and didn't sleep the whole night, just cried, and by morning he was so hot that I had to take his clothes off (it was bout 40 degrees at night) to let him cool down. So, after a night and a morning of Max's horrible fever we were advised to go home... Thank Goodness we left when we did because the girls endured a horrific storm that would have been really traumatic for Max. So, needless to say, we had a pretty good time hanging out, but it really wasn't as we had pictured it was going to be at all.

Here was our Tent Site: (luxury thanks to the Petersen's, I know) Max LOVED the Hammock

Um, yes, it's morning and those are the girls reading their SCRIPTURES! ...I assure you that no bribery was used for that!

I taught Max how to get Lars out of the picture :)

AWARDS NIGHT

Our theme for Camp Awards Night was genius: Camp Academy Awards. Yes I think it's genius because I came up with it! Ha. My goal was to have the girls dress formal, receive awards and give their favorite camp memories. I had another genius idea to spray paint Ken dolls GOLD like an Oscar and hand them out, but it was really hard to find any Ken dolls around town for under 6 bucks. I ended up settling on Trophies, but they turned out just as effective and fun! We had Mini Cheesecakes and Punch (thanks to Sis. Peck) and even a red carpet made from butcher paper. It was a blast. The girls gave the funniest acceptance speeches; Jess cried, took out a hankie to dry her eyes, and pulled a list as long as she is out of her purse. It was SOOO funny. We had a BLAST.

Here is our fantastic Group Photo:

This is our stylish little Jess with her fishnets and Converse HighTops!
(yeah the dork in the back is me, I just can't help it!)

And the last picture is of Rachel, who LOVES to dress up and is such a good sport about everything! Her dress was all sparkly!

All-in-all things went well and we had a fun time. I will be sad to be released from my calling when that day comes...........

EMERGENCY ROOM

I'm bypassing my Girl's Camp post until after Awards Night on Wednesday...

As for recent news, Maddie had an accident yesterday night. Lars was sitting on the floor holding the laptop as Maddie tried to play a game of hop-back-and-forth-over-Daddy's-legs. Well, his ankle is swollen and (I swear it's broken!) he wanted to keep it from under her feet... Well, it scared her and she fell, or maybe tripped on her own, and landed pretty hard on the laptop. She took a bite right through her lip!

We took one look (Lars got really queasy!) and rushed her to the hospital. She was so brave! She only cried for a minute initially and then listened to me explain stitches and medicine and the ER the whole way over. She was awesome.

Once we got there and the doctors, nurses and Plastic Surgeon had a look, they gave me the option of stitches. They told me how lucky we were to have it such a clean cut, and that even with the stitches they weren't sure they could do a better job aligning it! So, after them explaining the Sedatives and trauma of stitches they said it was my decision to say YES or NO to stitches. The stitches would have been so traumatic and the sedation would have frightened her, so I thought she would be better off letting it heal on its own.

So once we left (and put a BANDAID on her cheek NEXT TO the laceration) we headed to get a milkshake for brave Maddie! She said she wanted an apple flavored one, which I thought would be impossible to find, but lo-and-behold Charlie's had an apple pie flavored shake. Once I told her all the flavors to confirm, she changed her mind to Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (GOOD GIRL!). Haha. Anyway, she soon forgot her bloody lip (until this morning) and has been doing quite well now... Just a little bit of emotional outbursts, but I think we'll be just fine! :)

You can't see the worst of the cut, it's on the crease of her mouth...

Great Grandma, Grandpa, Papa, and Nanna All in ONE Week!

This last week has been a BLAST! We started our busy week with the Lambertsen Family Reunion. It was a ton of fun being with the family and enjoying each other's company. Maddie had a fun time with Bryson and a cousin of ours has a daughter Maddie's age too. Unfortunately, Max is extremely allergic to dogs and the two dogs there made for a miserable night of screaming. We left at 6am because I couldn't take anymore of his screaming... Oh well, it was fun while we were there!


We then spent the night at the Petersen's in Salt Lake and flew out the next morning to Michigan. My sweet uncle, David, picked us up, ate dinner with us and took us to Grandma's. We left about 11am and got to grandma's around 8pm. It was a long day of travel! To my surprise, my MOST AMAZING Daddy was sitting on the couch of Grandma's house when we arrived! It was a great surprise! I had no idea he was going to be there! Tuesday we went out to a few shops and Grandma bought Maddie a Tea Set to carry on her TEA TIME tradition. We had so much fun looking through the old shops and I had a heavy case of nostalgia; I hadn't been there in about 12 years, but remembered so much of Michigan! That night we went out to a nice Lakeside Restaurant (We could see Canada across the water) and walked the boardwalk together.
The next day we drove up to Lansing and met up with Lars' best buddy from High School, Justin. He is now in Med School. Him and his wife live in a gorgeous house they just bought and they have two kids Maddie and Max's age. We always joke that if Maddie and Michael don't work out, we'll have another chance with Max and Lea. We always get a picture of Maddie and Michael together for the wedding video, just in case.... Here's our latest: Hanging out with Justin and Kimberly was a blast, but made us really miss being with them. The whole ride home to Grandma's we contemplated moving to Michigan, but ultimately felt that the whole 15% unemployment thing was kind of a red flag for moving there..... Ho-Hum.

On Thursday we spent the day with Dad, mostly. It was a great time. We went to the park, walked the track, played on the toys, and Dad had some serious "Grandbaby Time" with the kids. Even though he just had surgery on his knee he could still keep up with the little ones! Way to go, Dad!

After the park we hit the old Mill. It was a ton of fun walking around and seeing such green foliage. Too bad we live in Utah where we are deprived of such beauty!

The boys were way into the History of the Mill.......... BORING. But at least Maddie got to play with some old mill machines. While they were reading about the origins of the place, I was desperately trying to untangle an impossible NAIL PUZZLE. When Lars came over, he got the stupid thing unlocked in record time. Thanks, Honey.... but I wanted to do that!

Our last stop with dad was a Teaching Farm. Maddie got to see a ton of animals just doing their thing. It was a lot of fun. This cow was only 3 days old. He liked Maddie.

That afternoon, after lunch, we went to the Verellen Orchards to swim with Grandma. The kids and Lars fell asleep on the ride over so just Grandma, Dad and I swam for an hour while they slept. Eventually they woke up and Maddie was able to swim for a bit before we left. This was her first time in a really deep pool and she had NO FEAR. She wanted to swim by herself (even though she doesn't know how)... I think next summer we will definatly do swim lessons!
We had a fantastic day and the next morning headed back home to Utah. It was a great trip, minus the 7 hour plane ride home!!!

Friday night we spent Jenny's birthday with her in Salt Lake and took her out to an amazing South Indian Restaurant, Ganesh. It was phenomenal! I was so impressed. Saturday we spent shopping at the Outlets in Park City, where I learned that their sales are nothing spectacular, and just as good as the regular stores....

We did, however, make it to the mall to do BUILD-A-BEAR with Maddie (I got her a gift certificate for her birthday) and we had a fun time doing that! She made a bunny and dressed it up like TinkerBell. She wasn't too sure about the crazy kids working there, but had a fun time once it was just US...Well, now Maddie is at Grandma and Grandpa Lambertsen's and tomorrow we are off to Girl's Camp. It should be another week of action-packed adventure and we'll update when we come home!