What a week we had! We won't be in AZ for Christmas this year so we had to make the most of our time while we were there for Turkey Day. We left Portland in the snow and woke up to 75 degree weather in Phoenix the next day! We drove to Tucson for the first part of our trip. Our first night there was a special dinner with just the five brothers and their better halves. We spent the whole night eating, drinking and enjoying ourselves; we even got a game in! The picture above is the table that Emily decorated (my newest sister!), she did such a beautiful job! Ryan has a great relationship with his brothers and it is always so awesome to watch them together and know that I get to be a part of their family forever. Thanksgiving was wonderful at Gran's house as always. We helped her set up and had the whole family over. Then we got to spend some time at my sister in law's house with her parents. We tend to overdo while we are in town, making the most of our time and trying to see as many people as possible. Ryan even had the opportunity to go flying over Tucson with his friend Matt.
We said our goodbyes and headed up to Phoenix for a second Thanksgiving and some time with my family. We did the obligatory family picture, which is getting bigger every year! This year we had a hard time fitting everybody in the photo! We decorated Christmas cookies with Auntie and Uncs and had some great food at Mom and Dad's later that day. Luckily Cooper got some much needed Brody time in. Brody was battling a cold and we weren't sure if he would make it over, but Dad took one for the team and wore a mask for most of the day. There was some McKiernan/Smith fun to be had and what is a holiday without that?!?! We also got to see our friend Laura and her new baby girl, Jocelyn. She is about seven weeks younger than Olivia. I spent a lot of the Thanksgiving holiday remembering being around all these people when I was 12 and 14 and feeling like it was yesterday and now we are all married and having babies of our own.
We were lucky to be able to take as much time as we did especially because we won't be down in AZ again for many months. By the time we go back, Olivia may just be walking! She's a really strong baby and is spending most of her time talking to us with shrieks and rolling around on the ground. We have already gotten out of the stage where we can leave her on the couch to go get things done. Within minutes, she is teetering on the edge and dangerously close to falling. Lack of movement... it was fun while it lasted.
~Ahna
