It's been too long.

I have been so deprived from the blogging world for basically the past two months!
We were sooo busy on our VERY long vacation, and now I am up to my ears in pictures!!!

I'll post (kinda) in reverse (so when I publish my blog into a book it will be in the right order), so I hope it makes sense!

I'll post our Hawaii trip & other pictures that happened earlier in the month later.
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Just before Christmas, my friends & our hubbies got together for an "ugly sweater party." Well, apparently we didn't get the second memo that the whole ugly sweater part, was canceled. So, we were the only ones wearing ugly sweaters...it was hilarious. Thankfully, we wore normal shirts underneath. Matt's a good sport though.


My best friends: Liz, Andrea, Me & Dani


This was at the Johnson family Christmas party, which is always chaos with 30-some odd people (mostly children), but always very fun! Here I am sporting my new head-band beanie thing, that I won, apparently this thing is a new, VERY trending thing right now in Utah.



A few days after Christmas, our best friends from Cleveland, came to visit us at Matt's house. They were in town with some family. It was so fun to see them in Utah!


That night we headed up to Farmington to visit Matt's 95 year-old Grandpa Hess. After, we stopped at Temple Square to see the pretty lights.


Later that week, Matt's little sisters came with my whole family up to Soldier Hollow, in Park City to go TUBING! It was so fun! It was very cold, but a blast.








After tubing, we had a potluck lunch at the lodge with hot cocoa to warm up.


One of the biggest highlights of the whole trip was to see Cameron (Matt's little brother) come home from his mission. He left two years ago, to the Torreon, Mexico Mission (the day before Luke was born). We drove up the airport Dec. 30th, just before midnight & just as it turned into my birthday (hah) Cam walked out! It was such a neat experience. I've never been there to see a missionary, in my family, come home. It was really awesome. (It's also funny, because Cam & I are only about 9 months apart in age...weird!)


I love this picture. It's my mom-in-law & Matt & sisters watching Cam walk down (before they were allowed to run to him). Their faces tell it all.

It really was such a sweet reunion (at a very late hour-notice Luke a bit out of it). I wish the rest of the family could have been there. And now I understand why everyone cries at these things. :)


I know this one is out of order, oh well.
Our little Lukey on Christmas morning. It was fun this year because he opened & played with his presents. Although, he was very, very slow at opening them & lost interest very quickly. In fact, we had to keep chasing him back into the front room, where we were opening presents. I think he got bored too fast.

Uncle Cam brought these awesome cowboy boots back from Mexico. They were so cute on Luke.
Sorry about the bad picture.


Last but not least, me on (the day after) my birthday! The day of, was great, we just forgot to take pictures. Matt took me to lunch at Tucano's (SOOO yummy!) & that night we had a very fun New Year's Eve party at Matt's house. So, the day after, my family threw me a little birthday party/good-bye party for us. We had some yummy pizza & delicious cakes that my sister made! Thanks Mandy, they were awesome!!!

We flew back to Cleveland late Sunday (Jan 3rd) night.

*Our house is freezing. In fact, Luke just might be sleeping in our room for the rest of the winter, because his room is the coldest & our space heater died. :(
*It hasn't stopped snowing since we've been back. (2ft+)
*I'm afraid we won't see the sun for the next two months, at least.
*As always, we are having a difficult time getting back to a normal sleeping schedule. Luke just woke up from his "nap," I guess you could say, at 8pm.
*And the best news is.....LUKE learned how to climb in & out of his crib the next day! So, we are now trying to train our little toddler how to sleep in a toddler bed. (Not what we had in mind).

Even when Cleveland isn't so great, we are very happy to be back in our own beds (even if Luke is in the middle). We get to wear "new" clothes (that we haven't been wearing for the last two months). I get to cook in my own kitchen, where I can find what I'm looking for. But the best parts are that Luke loves all his toys, like he's never seen them before & our house is baby-proofed, so he can run wild...oh & he doesn't get lost in our house. :)

A HUGE thank you to Matt's parents & my parents & to all of our siblings & babysitters!!! Luke LOVES all of you & lists almost everyone in both families names daily. We LOVED, really, being home. You are all great & love you all so much! We had a great Christmas & feel so blessed to have such great families!