Christmas vacation

All the cousins

Playing with balloons

Friday we left to go south and meet up with Ben's sister and her family for a little bit. We don't get to see Ben's family very often so it was nice to see them and for the cousins to get a little better acquainted. It was a great time filled with lots of relaxation and fun. Here's what we did.....

Playing Leapster

Playground fun

Wrestling with Uncle Mike and cousin Nairne

Chilling with Aunt Kim

Flying Posing for pictures

Playing basketball

Mike rolled his ankle so he "iced" it in the ice cold swimming pool

We stuck our feet in the hot tub. It was way too cold outside to put on a swim suit.

Hide-and-seek with Addison

Chillin'

Making mud cookies with Seattle

Kamri was still scared of Mike when we left. Hopefully when they come visit Thursday she'll warm up to him a little bit.

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And yes, we will need to get a bigger car before May comes

(Can you see the pretty sunset out the back window?)

Thanks Kim and Mike for inviting us down. It was good to see you. We had a lot of fun.

The story behind the gift

About 15 years ago ( I think ) my mom was given this picture (minus me) from her brother. It is of my grandma at age 19 and my mom's senior picture. Since then my sisters and I have all declared the right to be drawn into the bottom right corner. My parents found a way to make us all happy. They had each of us at about the same age drawn in separately. This was a long and arduous project for them. It took them over a year and they experienced lots of headaches to find an artist to do it, oval-shaped frames, and I'm sure much more. At one point I'm sure they thought they weren't going to be able to do it but they didn't give up. Thank you Mom and Dad. I love it!!

All 5....

...with the girls

What do you think? How much have I changed in the last 10 years?

Christmas...

I know some of you don't like to see whole bunch of pictures, but since this is used as our journal and our family record A LOT of pictures is what you are going to get - sorry.

Christmas was great and relaxing this year. Except for just a couple last minute gifts I was pretty much done the beginning of December so I didn't have to run to the crowded stores. It was great. Let's see if I can do it again next year.

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We woke up that morning and ate cinnamon rolls and orange juice in front of the Christmas tree. Growing up we couldn't look at the Christmas tree until after we ate. This year Ben and I decided to eat in front of the tree with the tree lights on.

Christmas morning 2008

I think I'm going to start a tradition in my family and declare a winner for the best bed-head Christmas morning. Kamri won this year.

Ben's gift to Sara and Evan was some kid snow shovels. They love to shovel with Dad so they were so excited. As soon as they opened them Evan asked if he could go out and shovel. It wasn't snowing, but it started a few minutes later and Evan got so excited. I told Ben we need to enjoy this becaus I'm sure the novelty of getting gifts that make them work is going to wear off at some point.

I made them these capes. Evan's is Batman on one side and Superman on the other. The girls' is Princess on one and Supergirl on the other.

Christmas day was spent at my parents again. We were the only family that didn't have other family to go to see so my family and I were the only ones there (along with my parents and those still living at home). That made for a very quiet day. My mom and dad have been wanting a Wii at their house so we could all play it when we get together. So all us kids, thanks to Koy, got them one along with some accessories, Rockband, Mario Cart, and I think another game. They were way excited when they opened it. Look at their faces...We had fun playing it that day.

My parents gave all of their daughters a special gift. I wish we had all our reactions on camera. I opened mine and started bawling. I didn't see all my sisters reactions, but they were probably about the same. I will post a picture here, but I think it is worthy of it's own post to explain a little bit about what it is exactly and why it is so cool.

My mom and dad gave all the grandkids (along with some other stuff) bags with their name embroidered on them. We used ours for church on Sunday and they were awesome.

Koy and Cassie gave all of the participants their "Lombardi Cheapskate Half-Marathon" shirts. Ben and I are showing off ours.

It is also a Lombardi tradition to take a picture with all your presents. So of course it is now ours, too.

I gave Sara a sewing kit. So far she has made a purse and a stuffed bunny. She's having so much fun with it.

Ben got me a maternity pillow. I sleep with about five pillows around me to help make me as comfortable as possible. So he got me one of these.....Now I only have to use one pillow. It was delivered tonight so I haven't slept with it yet, but it feels comfy to me. It's supposed to support my back, hips, thighs, head, tummy, etc. I'll let you know how it is.

The girls will be going on another much needed girls only weekend this year. The boys gave us all a weekend trip to a resort in St. George. We only have to wait 9 months.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was spent at my parents' house with all but one of my brothers and sisters and their families (missed you Cameo and Jeremy). With that many people together in one room it can be chaos, but so much fun, too. We had a delicious dinner of mashed potatoes and gravy, turkey, ham, and other random stuff.

kid table

Kamri's ready to eat

Impromptu dancing thanks to the music on the electric keyboard.

Evan's cool move

We had our Christmas program. Part of which included each of the families chosing a "gift" to give to Jesus.

We then had a piano recital put on by the grandkids who are in piano lessons plus two of my sisters who are teaching themselves and my brother.

My family acts out the Christmas story with the kids as the characters. It makes for a very interesting scene. The kids did so well and take their "roles" very seriously. Baby Jesus is played by the youngest baby in the family. This year 5-week-old (?) Josephine was baby Jesus.

beautiful angel

handsome donkey

cute shepherd

Joseph, Mary, and their donkey with baby Jesus My dad surprised us all with a manger he made especially for baby Jesus.

It was awesome Dad!

The best picture I could get of the whole cast

My mom gave each of the kids a new pillow with a pillowcase she had sewn for each of them and had their names embroidered on them. The pillows have pictures of the temple, baptism, missions, and oher church stuff to remind them of their goals. We all loved them.

pillow fight thanks to Ben

Christmas Eve would not be complete without the opening of new Christmas PJ's.

showing off our new comfy, comfy PJ's

Celebrating our 7th Christmas together

Random photos from the night:

so handsome

Kamri was having her own conversation with my mom's stuffed snowmen