We are back!

So we are back (well just in the state, not back at home yet) from visiting my family for Christmas break. It was a lot of fun but it also went really quick!

We had a lot of fun baking (well at least us girls haha...the boys sure enjoyed eating our work though!) together, playing games (especially Rummikub which we played over and over again), playing games, sledding for three days straight etc. It was tons of fun. But here is a sad story. Right before we left, I lost our camera and all of the pictures I had taken and then we got really sick with a cold. So here are some pictures that I was able to get off my parents camera. Most of them are random and sadly I didn't get any of the pictures I took on Christmas, but it still works so here are some of the ones I was able to salvage

My mom and all of her girls. She was reading books before she put my youngest sister down and some of us were looking at family photos
My mom makes homemade bread a lot so she gave some of my sisters and I a bread workshop to teach us all her secrets and the things she learned. So this was us getting the music ready and some of the ingredients out
My little brother playing with his birthday toy (his birthday is a couple days after Christmas)
Our Rummikub battle faces
This was the constant on our kitchen table...someone was always playing a game or challenging someone to a game.
Haha...I love them.

So then I don't have anything until new years eve (::tear tear::)
So just like every year we play games until midnight. We took a break from Rummikub and played Lord of the Rings trivial pursuit (yes we are closet LOTR nerds...)
Team 1
Team 2
Most of team 3
The rest of team 3
posed for their question :)

AND THEN IT WAS MIDNIGHT!!

It's our family tradition to go out on the front porch and bang pots and pans...so here we go.
Banging and yelling happy new years! (Haha Richard was in the middle of a bite and is a little new to this whole tradition and so too embarrassed to join so he watched :) )
My parents midnight kiss!! so cute...
and our first kiss of 2009!!!
Here is to 2009!
haha our ghetto glasses and our sparkling apple cider, but we are excited for the new year!

Also, while we there we took family pictures while we were there and here are some of them...
The whole gang!
My parents and all of their girls! We wanted to get them with their boys, but they ran in as soon as we took the group pictures
Our little family picture!
I took others of my parents, but this one is definitely my favorite
We cannot have a family picture shot without a funny one...hahaha

So those are some pictures from our trip. It was a lot of fun and a great time with my family and Richard's sister. It was a nice break and I actually feel ready for school to start soon. I am glad we made it safely back to the state of Idaho with all the snow and we are actually really excited to go to school and get back into the groove of things. Hope you all had a great Christmas break!