People

One of the best parts of having a new baby is sharing him with all the people we love. The holidays, of course, provided for plenty of that and we were able to introduce Jake to lots of family and friends that will play an important role in his life. First up was all the Cedar Grafs, including his Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Graf.

Grandma and Grandpa had even dedicated an entire square of their fridge to their first great-grandson.

Next, we headed North and arrived just in time for Matthew's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. He'd waited an entire year after earning his Eagle to schedule the ceremony because he wanted to wait until our whole family could be there. How sweet is that? The Northern Grafs came to support Matthew, which meant Jakey got to meet a whole bunch of them all at once.

Handsome fellow, that Washew.

This is also when he first got to meet his Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Smith, who adored him.

Later in the trip, we met up with my Liz and Jake met one of his future best buddies in Isaac. They'll have their first sleepover in just a couple weeks, lucky boys (and lucky moms!).

Uncle Cheb made his debut on New Year's Eve. Chase is one of our best friends from the Academy, and he drove all the way down from Idaho on NYE so he could be a part of Jake's blessing the next day. We have awesome friends.

Jake met Ali, Brian and Brody on New Year's Day. Ali was my "cheer sis" back in high school and we've stayed close for all the years since, so it's safe to say the Hallocks will be part of Jake's life for quite some time as well.

And back to our awesome family, who are also friends. Angie is my best-cousin-friend and our trips home to Utah happily overlapped, which meant we got to squeeze in some quality girl time at lunch. Side note: Angie lives in NYC and is an incredible photographer and writer, which in turn means she has an fantastic blog. You should probably be reading it.

Ah, and before all the Utah introductions took place, Jake got to meet the Hendrickses! Jodie, Steve and the kids are such a huge part of our lives and we love and miss them terribly. They're living it up on the beaches of Florida and it was our first reunion in almost two years. Steve is deployed right now so Jodie brought the kids home to California for Christmas and we had a party at Susie's with the Rozsas. It was such a happy night!

Nicole and Jordan were Jodie's and my brainchild. You're welcome, little lovebirds.

Jake had a wonderful time with all of the people we love most over the holidays. In addition to all the previously-blogged activities, we did fun things like watch bowl games, play card games, go to the movies (Jake sat through all of Muppets!), cuddle and just plain hang out. A ridiculous number of photographic evidence can be found below.