Jiggity jig.

We're home! We had a fabulous trip and loved spending so much time with our families. There are so many of you that we wanted to see and never got a chance to. I'm so sorry we weren't able to connect, but know that we love you!

I really don't know where to begin with a post about our two weeks in Utah...so maybe I'll just post some highlight pics and call it good. What say you?We started off the trip by celebrating St. Lucia Day. I made my family start this tradition about 12 years ago after reading about it in one of my American Girl books. We have a family breakfast and such and then we get gifts from Jultomten (the Swedish Santa). His gifts are always our Christmas jammies and an ornament. The funnest part about his gifts are the poems. Each gift comes with a poem that hints to what is inside. This year I got to write the poems. I'll post them if I can find where I saved them...
Happy Jo was in Heaven with both Mckinlay and Addy-Lou there. It was so fun to have Addy and Mckinlay meet, even if all Mckinlay did was poke Addy and try to get her fingers up her nose and in her ear. But Addy didn't seem to mind. I think it was the start of a great friendship.
Try as we did to get a good picture of these two... I think this is the best we came up with. I have decided it is impossible to get a decent picture of a one month old and a 1 year old.
The cool gift to get this year (OK, what we gave everyone...) was a homemade apron. I made one for both Moms and for Bryn (and one for myself) and Ty made this one for Alli! Impressive, no?
My wishes and hopes came true on Christmas when Mckinlay was the happy recipient of an Alli-made Strawberry hat! Oh how I've, I mean she, has wanted one! It is just too darling. We decided on homemade gifts for the little cousins. I made Addy a little dress (one of the secret projects). And look at Archie sitting there in all his cute glory. I DID finish them in time...even if I did stitch his bottom up on Christmas morning.
And sorry you didn't get an apron too Daddy...but Santa DID leave you a stocking full of potato peelings. What? He was on the naughty list! Guess you gotta try a little harder next year Papio!
It was so fun for Mckinlay to be able to play with her Loveless cousins! She fell in love with Jackson, Maci and Maddox. Maci was such a little mommy to her. It was so darling. Next time we need a sitter, we're flying you out Mace! Seriously!
Peyton and Mckinlay got to tickle the ol' ivories together.
And Mckinlay got a lot of quality time with Grandma and Grandpa Loveless. How fun is it that the aquarium is 5 mins for Grandma's house? Pretty sure it's gonna be a regular stop on our trips home with the way she loves it!
While we were in Sandy, we got to meet the Harmon's for brekky. Kristen, how many times have we tried to get a picture of them together where they are both looking, let alone smiling!? What a winner! I'm glad we got to meet up with you guys. Boston is not the same with out ya!

I have a lot more pictures I could post, but I think these will suffice. Heaven forbid you tire of looking at Loveless pictures (is that possible?)! Mckinlay's first birthday is tomorrow and you KNOW there are gonna be lots of pictures to come.

Happy New year everyone! Thanks for checking in with us. It makes us feel loved to know that more than just our moms read our blog. :)