Gingerbread houses

On the second Saturday in December we had our annual gingerbread house decorating extravaganza! Or maybe we just got together, slapped some frosting and candy on gingerbread houses and hung out. Either way it was fun. Notice the picture below. I obviously caught my dad in the act of DRINKING A DR PEPPER 10! For a man who hates soda he sure drinks it alot. Just kidding, dad. But not really...

Darrel, Trina, Rowan, Addy & Ruby's house (decorated mostly by Addy and Ro):
We had a musical interlude where Dallin performed an original song he wrote for our ward Christmas party. It is really good - and it's on youtube incase you want to hear it :) Just search "Dallin Gonzales".
Josh (I mean Mario), Ro and Evan liked the song too.
My finished house. I say "my" because I really didn't let the kids work on it all that much - I was kind of possessive of it. Next year I will have to buy a separate one for the boys to work on.

I thought I got a picture of Kim and Joe's little yellow house but I can't find it :(. Any who, we all had a great time. It's always a good time when I hang with my family :)

Work Par-tay

A few weeks ago we had our annual work party. Which is awesome and looked forward to all year. It included lunch at Firebirds, a good white elephant gift exchange and a stocking for each employee which had numerous gift cards. WOOHOO! I have an awesome and extremely generous boss.

The dp lovers (minus Stacy) - me, Dr. V and Suzy.
White elephant gift exchange:

Ummm...can I just say that I work with the best people EVER. Seriously - they have become some of my best friends. I'm mad I didn't get a picture of Nancy - who is one of my favorite people on this planet - I didn't get her picture because she was sitting right next to me. Same thing with Chris and Suzy - I guess the trick to not ending up with too many pictures on the blog is to sit next to me...hmmmm...
So...Dr. V got my white elephant gift. I might have steered her in that direction, because I knew a rousing game of Bop It! was just what she and Joel (her husband) needed. I don't think she liked it as much as I thought she should. But she was very gracious. Incidentally Nancy got the same thing for her white elephant gift. What can I say? Great minds think alike.
Is it bad that I can't remember what I ended up with? They say the memory is the first thing to go...

Santa

A few weeks ago I took Josh and Evan to see Santa at the mall. Apparently now you can't even take your camera out near Santa and if you want to buy pictures packages start at $40. Ummm...No thanks. So this is the only picture I got.

Joshua was hilarious. He climbed right on Santa's lap and proceeded to tell him every thing he wanted. Santa had to finally lift him off his lap. Josh makes friends with every one.

Evan is another story. He hid behind a pole until it was his turn. I'm happy to say that he did sit on Santa's lap - but since he whispered what he wanted to Santa, I really hope Santa got him the right thing!

Ben and Max came with us but both of them were fine not sitting on Santa's lap. :)

White Elephant

A few weeks ago we had the annual Lambson family white elephant gift exchange.

I thought it was funny that Danielle was on her phone and J was on his computer. Kids these days!


Ben had Kim help him with an assignment for school.
Holly chilled out. I know you think I'm crazy but I really love this little dog.

Evan handcuffed people together. Hours and hours of fun.
To start things off Jared and Joe played a song. It was too long ago for me to remember what it was. They say your memory is the first thing to go.


I finally got a picture of Darrel. He was reading something and I said, "Darrel!" and he looked up and SNAP! I took the picture. It's been a long war and victory was mine!
My mom gave a little lesson and Ruby got to hold the pictures.
Then grandma and grandpa played ring-around-the-rosies with Ruby.


Gettin' ready for white elephant.


Joe got an awesome Tayler Latner poster. Yummy!
Ben got a Cars 2 poster that is bigger than he is.
The best present of the night was the Superman underwear that J got. Since Paul wasn't there, I told him to save them for his dad for Christmas.


We all had a great time. The little boys had a hard time with people stealing their presents so in the future I think we will have them do their own exchange.

O Christmas Tree

We were a little late putting up the Christmas tree. I am so thankful for my sister Kim - who actually put the tree up and stringed all the lights.

Without her who knows if we would've got it up.
The boys were so excited to decorate it. Especially Xander and Evan. I think Evan drove Kim crazy with all of his questions.
We didn't get the outside lights up this year. Or much of the indoor decorations. I didn't send out Christmas cards...but at least we have a tree!

Thank you Kim!

Happy 12th!

Today Ben turns 12. I love this boy so much. He is kind, helpful, creative, funny and an all around awesome boy. If you ask any of the kids who their favorite brother is they will all say Ben.

Favorite food: pizza or chicken tenders
favorite drink: dr. pepper
favorite candy: simply carmel milky way
favorite color: purple
favorite sports team: the Vikings
favorite sport: football
favorite songs: Somewhere Only We Know, Moves like Jagger, any Motion City Soundtrack song

I can't believe it's been 12 years since I held Ben in my arms for the first time. I am so glad to be his mother and so proud of the boy he is and who he is becoming.

Happy Birthday Ben!

Night out

I went shopping with Drea and then out to dinner with these lovelies the other night. I am so sad Annie is moving. I try not to think about it. Love these girls! And love that we can sit and talk and laugh for hours.

Serranos and Lights

We have a tradition in our family where we go to Serranos and to see Christmas lights the first Saturday in December. December 3rd was insane but we all managed to get together - even though someone kept changing the venue and time. We were late and because I felt so frazzled I forgot my camera. Luckily Kim is never without hers so she sent me some pictures. Love you Kim :)I don't think that last picture downloaded all of the way. After Serranos our family, Kim's family and Darrel's family went over to see the Temple Lights. Stacy's family went to see the light parade in Phoenix (which didn't turn out so well) and mom and dad went home.

It was a great night to go to the temple because it had drizzled all day and was cold so no one was there. The boys loved looking at the statue of the Christus. My favorite was the nativity. I want to start collecting nativities. This will happen when Evan gets older and stops breaking pieces of my current sets.

Kim took a family picture. Yes I look a little like a bag lady - Ian teased me about my outfit. But I don't care - I was warm! Ben and Evan are wearing flip flops and Ben is wearing shorts. I try, I really do.

I love Evan's face. Such a jokester. We had so much fun hanging out with family and seeing the lights. It's a tradition that I love to do every year.