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.

NYE

Look who rang in the New Year with us! Jake was fast asleep for the night, but Matt woke him up at 11:55 to make sure he wouldn't miss the big moment. (We're clearly very responsible parents.) It was a hit with our little guy!

Our NYE, as Gabey Baby would put it, was "cool, wame, cool." That's because we went from a Graf cousin party (cool), to setting up tables and chairs for Jake's blessing the next day (lame), to partying until 2 a.m. at my parents' home (cool). The cousin party, as always, was a blast. I'm convinced we have the best extended family in the world.

At the stroke of midnight, we blew into our noise makers, my brothers shot off confetti guns, and we made out in front of our baby. You know how it goes.

Then we headed outside for some newly-legal aerial fireworks. Ten points for Utah from the pyro-lover in me. Meanwhile, down the street, someone released dozens of Chinese lanterns, Tangled-style. It was a good show.

Inside, the celebration continued with sparkling cider and a dance party, of course.

Some of us didn't quite make it to that part.

Elf Day

First, we'll make snow angels for two hours.

And then, we'll go ice skating.

And then, we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse cookie dough as fast as we can.

And then, to finish, we'll snuggle!

Elf Day was a winner again this year! (See last year's posts here, here and here.)

Unfortunately, Mother Nature wasn't on board with the whole "snow" thing, so we made paper snow angels instead.

Then, we headed South for some indoor ice skating. The ice was sadly choppy so we had to help the little boys, but anything that proves they're still little is okay in our books. They're growing up way too fast!

We magically met up with a few groups of friends and family while we were there, including my uncle Ryan and his cute family. That was especially impressive since they live in Saint George.

While we were busy playing tag and showing off on the ice, Jakey and Grandpa got in some quality bonding time.

Jake's fan club was happy to see him when we left the rink.

Since last year's Costco-sized roll of Tollhouse cookie dough didn't exactly stay in our stomachs, we decided to amend the rules a bit and indulge in our own homemade cookie dough instead. It was a good choice.

And then, to finish, we snuggled! While watching Elf, of course.

It was a lovely day.

Grand

As many of you already know, the holidays are hardly complete without a visit to Temple Square.

This year, we headed North early and stopped by the Grand America to check out its Christmas displays first. My little brothers had a great time on their scavenger hunt to find the penguin's star in all of the window displays, and we were all rewarded with fresh cookies when they completed the task.

Then, we rode a Trax train a few blocks down the street for our main event.

No matter how many times you see the Christmas lights at Temple Square, they never get old. They're just so pretty and happy and all of those wonderful things. The weather was perfect for a nice, long stroll under the lights.

One baby nap later, it was time to head home. We had a bit of a wait for our train, but Jakey kept us plenty entertained. He's good at that, you know.