Happy New Year you wonderful readers you!! 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉 And happy feast of Mary, the Mother of God!! ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

The past two years I’ve posted my “Year in review” post on New Year’s Eve (2015 and 2016), and so I intended to this year (er, last year) as well, but life. Kids, husband, family, etc. You know. We had a busy and fun New Year’s Eve! So instead of ending 2017 by looking back, we’ll begin 2018 doing so!

I always find it fun to look through the year’s posts and see what happened, and I love sharing it all with you, since it’s because of you that all of this has happened!

• I posted 58 baby name consultations in 2017, including for some of our favorite blogger/podcasters/business owners (Grace, Amy, Jenna, Heather, Lina, Caitlin, Mandi, Christina, Blythe, Carolyn, and Jenny); some of my irl friends (Rosey, Tim and Rosie — twins!); a few “repeat customers,” which is so fun! (including Grace, Caitlin, Mandi, and Jenny above, as well as Shannon, Emily, Josh, Kym, Amy, Amanda); four consultations for twins (including Tim and Rosie’s above, and those here, here, and here); and even one consultation addendum
• Between public and private consultations, I did 81 total in 2017, including 19 of the 31 requests I got as a result of my Black Friday Special (what?! You all loved that Black Friday deal!! I’m so pleased!!)
• I posted 57 birth announcements, including the babies of some listed above (Grace, Jenna, Heather, Mandi, Christina, Jenny, Rosey, Shannon, Josh, Kym, Amy, and Amanda); my irl friend Grace’s baby girl and the baby girl of a longtime reader who I’ve emailed with a bunch of times over the years — they share a name!; the babies of some more of our favorite online moms (Kate, JoAnna, Katheryn [x2! Two babies in 2017! Here and here], Maggie, Kendra, Katrina); some mamas back to announce another baby’s birth (including Grace, Mandi, Jenny, Shannon, Josh, Amy, Amanda, and Katheryn listed above, as well as fellow mom-of-six-boys Emma); the babies of some famous parents (Abby Johnson’s twins!, Tori Spelling, British Catholic MP Jacob Rees-Moggs); three sets of twins (Abby’s above, and two of those I did consultations for: here and here); and both a Maristella and a Stellamaris within days of each other!
• I posted name stories for both Amy’s twins and a sweet little girl
• I posted about the discovery of Amy’s daughter’s name sign
• As of today I’ve had over 750,000 hits since I started the blog three-and-a-half years ago
• 936 blog followers (includes Facebook)
• 1002 Instagram followers (I just hit 1000 two days ago! Thank youuu!)
• 425 Twitter followers
• 14 Pinterest followers
• Three guest posts (Justina, Katie, Meghan)
• 15 name spotlights: Lily, Jacob, Felicity, Klaus, Matthias, Damian/Damien, Zara, Niamh and Naomh, Beretta, Sunniva, Kelly, Mina, Callixtus, Balthazar/Balthasar, Stanley and Stanislaus
• Five giveaways: At the Post Paperie & Gifts, Studio Senn, HandmadeCatholicShop, Chews Life and Tiny Saints, and Baby My Love
• An interview with Jenny Uebbing
• An appearance on the Go Forth with Heather and Becky podcast
• A mention in a Scary Mommy “Name Dame” video
• The institution of a high school Writing Contest (first place and second place winners)
• One book review (Kate Wicker’s Getting Past Perfect) (so needed!!)
• One contribution to a book (The Catholic Hipster Handbook) (eeek!!)
• One meeting of a virtual friend in real life (Colleen from Martin Family Moments) (such a gift!!)
• One re-seeing of a mostly virtual friend in real life (Sharon from Baby My Love) (she’s wonderful!!)
• One business named (Madonna and Child Project)
• Three posts at Nameberry
• Twelve articles at CatholicMom
• Lots of praying for each other (thank you!!)
• The continuation of my Nicknames for Victor post’s wild popularity: it’s the second-most viewed post of all time on my blog! I find that so crazy and fascinating!

Whew!! What a year it’s been!! I continue to be so blown away by the blessing of this blog and all of you!! I can’t wait to share 2018 with you!!

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤