There's Treasure Everywhere

While we were in Phoenix we did so many fun things...

The boys did lots of Legos.

The girls did lots of coloring...

and snuggling.

On Thursday, Andy's mom, Sarah, Brooke and I went on a little road trip. We tried to make it to Jerome, "The Largest Ghost Town in America," but we ran into snow (!) so we stopped at Black Canyon City instead. There is a cafe there known for their pies, and we also stumbled upon a Jean Harlow museum. It was just this random room with furniture from a hotel room where she once stayed. We thought it was pretty funny.

Some of my favorite times from our vacation were the game nights. This is our made up game that is part Trivial Pursuit and part Cranium that we call "Got Logan."

The boys liked playing a game called "Carcassonne."

We also had a Christmas sing-along courtesy of Benjamin and a borrowed keyboard.

But nothing compared to the epic 3 1/2 hour game of Mafia we played with the Lanzones, Krauses, and Logans. It was crazy fun!

Friday morning while the girls were getting ready for Ellie's birthday party, most of the boys (Lanzones and Krauses) went golfing. It was Joey's first real golfing experience:

And here are a few more pictures from Ellie's birthday:

Saturday night, after the Logans and my family left, Andy, Timmy, Sarah, and I had a date night and went to the Desert Botanial Garden for Las Noches de las Luminarias and then out to dinner. It was a great night!

On Sunday Andy's mom treated Sarah, Joey, Hannah and me to the Musical Instrument Museum. It was such a cool museum and there was a room where you could play lots of different instruments.

Yes, this wonderfully fun week wore us all out!

Ellie turned one on Friday! Our poor little December baby doesn't have the best birthday as it is sandwiched between Christmas and New Year's, but this year it worked out really well. Uncle Timmy, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Dave, and Aunt Brooke were already out here for Christmas, and my parents and two brothers drove out to join us for her 1st birthday.

I had been looking forward to this joint family celebration for a long time. The only bummer was that poor little Ellie had a fever and felt pretty miserable. Thankfully it was a short-lived fever, but the worst of it was right during her party. She wasn't as smiley as usual, but she did pretty well.

Chili for lunch

Not the happiest birthday girl.

But she did seem to enjoy her presents!

Cupcake time!

She wasn't sure about blowing out the candle.

And she REALLY did not want to eat it!

We managed to sneak one tiny bite in her mouth. Still not a fan.

But overall it was a sweet little birthday party with almost all of our favorite people (We missed you Uncle Michael and Aunt Rachel)!

We are still in vacation mode around here, but I wanted to post our Christmas pictures before the New Year arrives.

Part of our Christmas excitement this year was due to the fact that Uncle Timmy and Aunt Sarah were flying out from Philadelphia to be with us for the holidays. It's been almost two years since the kids and I have seen them, so we were counting down the days until their arrival.