There's Treasure Everywhere

This last week or so has been a whirlwind of activity. When we are all together we really try to pack in the fun. In addition to all of my other blog posts about Christmas we also...

made cookies at Nana's house.

Ellie has been really getting into the whole "terrible two" thing and has been extra clingy lately. This was the only way I could make cookies. Thankfully Rachel was in town so I could borrow back my Ergo for a while.

On the 22nd we had a get together with my aunt, uncle, four cousins and their boyfriends/girlfriends. We haven't all been together in a loooong time, and it was so fun.

Some people played badminton,

but we mostly just sat around and caught up.

We also had an epic sing along. It was the loudest, rowdiest, best sing along yet.

A couple of weeks ago, we found out from my youngest brother that he was graduating early from UCLA so on the 23rd we had a surprise graduation party for him at our house.

We invited his girlfriend, Jill down to surprise him as well!

A couple of days after Christmas, we met up at a park to watch the sunset and throw a couple Aerobies around. Then we headed back to our house for dinner and game night.

We ended up only playing one game, Mafia (we probably played that game ten times this past week), and then we watched some old home videos.

What a fun Christmas season it was!

One of our favorite parts of this holiday season was getting to hang out with Baby Ben for his first Christmas. He is so stinkin' cute and so stinkin' good. We all just love him so much!

Ellie's 2nd birthday was on December 28th. As I mentioned in June, we do birthday parties for Ellie's half birthday instead of in December. Her birthday this year fell on a Saturday, and it just so happened that we were having my whole family over for dinner anyway. My mom suggested I make cupcakes since it was Ellie's actual birthday. Then I decided to hang up a few decorations that we've used for parties in the past. Andy kept teasing me because even though I insisted it was not a birthday party for Ellie, it sure looked like one:

The birthday girl being goofy.

She actually ate her cupcake this time!

Saying goodnight to all of her fans.

For the dinner itself, I was inspired by a Christmas party that The Pioneer Woman hosted where she served all different appetizers for dinner. I thought that would be a fun idea, although I made completely different appetizers:

BLT Canapes with Basil Mayo (from The America's Test Kitchen Menu Cookbook: Kitchen-Tested Menus for Foolproof Dinner Parties)
Spinach Artichoke Dip
Buffalo Chicken Bites (my sister made these)
Salsa, Guacamole and Queso
Crab Cakes
Boursin Cheese and Tomato Dip (my mom made this)
Spicy Shrimp
Garlic Pizza Wedges
and of course...Strawberry Cupcakes

It was a fun, yummy night!

Usually we are all only together every other Christmas so my mom wanted to get a few pictures of all of us at the beach. My brother has a really nice camera so he brought a tripod, and we had a little photo shoot.

Thanks for taking the pictures, Timmy!

Guess who was up extra early on Christmas morning?

The one kid that didn't know there were presents waiting for her downstairs. Weird! I had to try to keep her occupied upstairs while we let the older kids sleep longer. Thankfully she likes watching Dora videos!

It didn't take too long for Joey and Hannah to wake up, and then we all went downstairs:

We were all so spoiled, as usual!

Joey got a bike from Santa and was pumped to try it out(and Santa was pumped that he scored an amazing deal on Craig's List!). It's quite a bit bigger than his old bike so he was a little tentative at first, but he was zooming around in no time. He loved learning how to change gears on a bike for the first time.

After a fun morning of playing with new presents, we went back to my parent's house for Christmas dinner. All the boys in the family got Aerobies for Christmas and had fun tossing one around in the backyard.