Clara's Bird Bath

My parents have this little stone bird bath in their backyard. Clara loves to splash in it. Whenever my mom goes out to water her flowers, Clara goes with her. My mom fills it up for her and inevitably she comes back in soaking wet.





The other thing she loves to do at Grandma and Grandpa Smalley's house is climb up and down the stairs. She has this little routine where she climbs up, sits at the top for a few seconds and then she wants to climb back down and start the whole thing over again.







So cute. She is so full of personality. She is such a blessing.

doTERRA Essential Oils

I use essential oils because, after having a baby, I became very wary of not only the costs of medications, but the contents as well. Even though synthetic medications are FDA approved, I was still feeling a little concerned about them. The thing that I love about essential oils is that they are all natural and very effective. I don't believe that they are a replacement for doctors or all medications. However, Joe and I have made an agreement. Whenever we get sick we will try the oils first. If those don't work, then we will go to the doctor and, if necessary, turn to other medications the doctors prescribe.

Essential oils are taken straight from plants. Oils have a potency that has incredible healing capabilities, if they are completely pure. I distribute for doTERRA Essential Oils because they are the only brand out there that takes "Theraputic Grade" one step further to CPTG or Certified Pure Theraputic Grade. To read more about essential oils and how CPTG differs from Theraputic Grade click here.

For those of you that know Joe, you've probably seen him get at least one or two migranes. He gets them often, and when he does, they can wipe him out for days at a time. He can't eat, sleep, stand noise, or light; they are awful. DoTERRA has an essential oil blend that they call PastTense. It is for tension, and tension headaches. In the blend there is lavendar, peppermint, frankincense, cilantro, marjoram, roman chamomile, basil, and rosemary. It is $18. I figured it would be worth a try because we spend that much on Excedrine for him anyway. The other day when I was at my mom's, Joe was supposed to come and meet us up there after he got off work. Then I got a call from him telling me he had a migrane. "Perfect," I thought, "now I won't see him for the rest of the night." So, I told him to try the PastTense and then lay down and sleep it off. One hour later, Joe called me and told me his migrane was gone and that he was headed up. I was thrilled! He had never been able to get rid of one that fast.

I don't believe the oils have magical voodoo powers, but they are extremely effective, and I feel good about using them on my family. I have had personal experiences with the oils that have convinced me that they are good, wonderful tools for health and wellness.

If you are interested in using essential oils for you or your family, let me know, and I will be happy to help in any way that I can. I will sell them to you at wholesale price (which is 25% below retail).

My doTERRA website is: http://www.doterra.myvoffice.com/jellis/. Take a look if you like.

Why Clara's hair's styled like the latest boy band

Clara's hair is just long enough to the point that I can do actual hairdos now and I love it! She looks so adorable when her hair is done. The problem is that whenever we get in the car to go somewhere she pulls out the bow and the hair tie. It kills me! Any suggestions to keep her hands out of her hair?


This is what it is supposed to look like.

One of my favorite faces

Clara has two new favorite things: Buckets and Spoons. This is how she carries her new favorite toys. Another thing she really likes is fruit snacks. She likes it best when I put all her fruit snacks in the bucket, so she can see how many she has and pull them out one by one.
Clara also said her first word a few weeks ago. I came home from work, picked her up and she looked at me pointed at my eyes and said, "Eyes!" We were so thrilled. Now she can say, "nose," "yes," "no," of course "mama," and "papa," and we are working hard on "please." So fun! Love it!

It's about time for an update!

I know it has been forever! I apologize. This will be a doozy of an entry.

Joe and I celebrated our third anniversary on the 8th of August. Wow, it goes by fast! So after three years of marriage, Joe is finishing his last semester of school in December (wahoo!), our baby girl turned 1 on the 15th of July, and we are blessed in so many different ways. Joe is the ward mission leader for our ward (he had the same calling in the Singles Ward when we were dating as well). I am the Primary President. Between being a mom, a wife, having a job, and trying to fulfill my calling, I have stayed pretty busy. I like being busy though. It keeps me focused and gives me less time to waste doing idle, unimportant things.

In short, the month of June was a little bit of insanity. My manager at Eleutian left for the month of June to go to France (who does that? Especially to France…). He was chosen as the director of the French Study Abroad program at UVU. So he went. Guess who they chose to be in charge while he was gone? Yep, that’d be me. Not quite sure why, but they chose me. We had three of our largest accounts starting that month and there were lots of issues that needed to be taken care of. So basically from May 29th to July 2nd I felt like I was running around with my head cut off, my husband turned into Mr. Mom, and my little girl was forgetting who I was. I was working 12-14 hours a day, getting about three hours of sleep a night, the house was a mess, the Primary got 15 new kids and we lost a few teachers (gah!), so, (needless to say) I was feeling a little frazzled. It was the craziest month I’ve had in a really long time. Then, when my manager came back, when I started getting sleep again, and when we took a badly needed vacation to California for the Smalley Family Reunion, things started returning to normal.

The Smalley Family Reunion was a lot of fun. I am so glad that we went. Grandma Smalley was just thrilled to see Clara again. It is weird when you start seeing all your cousins as adults. It still feels like we are all kids really. Some things haven’t changed too much though. Bear Lake was also on the agenda. We didn't go at all last year because I was pregnant. So Joe was thrilled to be there!

We also had a bit of a scare at the beginning of July. I had worked from 4-8am one morning, and so while I was trying to get a little extra sleep Joe fed Clara breakfast. I woke up to the sound of her screaming hysterically. Joe fed her some bread and scrambled eggs. Shortly thereafter she’d thrown up her entire breakfast and was writhing around in pain. After about a minute, her little body went totally limp, her face and lips when sheet white and her whole body got cold and clammy. Then after a couple minutes of that she’d start screaming again. This went on and on for about 30 minutes and I was ready to take her to the ER. Joe and his dad gave her a blessing and then we took her to the doctor. By the time we got to the doctor’s office, she started responding to me and by the time she saw the doctor she was fine. The doctor told us that she’d probably gone into anaphylactic shock (an allergy similar to what happens to people who are allergic to peanuts) because of the eggs Joe had fed her. So we are taking her to see a pediatric allergist to check and see if that is really what happened and also to see if she is allergic to anything else. So for the time being we are keeping Clara away from eggs. Fun stuff!

You know, I think that in the past I’ve felt scared; but I really can’t compare that to the fear that I felt as I was holding Clara, feeling totally helpless, and just wishing I could take her pain away. Being a parent has added so many different levels to my feelings and understanding of the Atonement. It amazes me how well thought out the plan of salvation/plan of happiness really is. We experience relationships from so many different angles. In the parent/child relationship we first get to be the needy partner, the child, the one who receives. Then we take a step and get to be on the other side, the parent, the one who has to give everything willingly. Then he takes it even a step further and lets us observe that relationship on another level as a grandparent, as we try to teach/coach both our children and grandchildren how to make those roles work. I honestly believe that the family is the fundamental unit of the Gospel, central to Heavenly Father’s plan, because that dynamic helps us to learn more about Him and help us to be like Him; to act as he would act in that parental role.

This sounds silly, but I had a scripture make so much more sense to me after Clara’s birthday. That scripture in Matthew 7:9-11 says:
9 …what man is there of you, whom if his son ask abread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, abeing evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

It sounds very silly, but in a small, simple way I have understood a tiny part of how Heavenly Father probably feels toward each one of us. There were so many things I wanted to do for Clara’s birthday; so many things I wish I could’ve given her and done for her. But instead of spoiling her rotten, I decided to give her the gifts that would help her the most developmentally. They probably weren’t the most stellar gifts, but I know they are the ones she needed the most. Which, brings us to Clara’s party…it was so fun!

Other news is that my mom and dad, along with Joey, Erinn, and Spencer moved out here mid-June. They closed on a house in Herriman (about 20-30 minutes from us) July 1st, and moved in shortly after Clara’s birthday (it needed a lot of work!). We are so glad to have them out here. It is weird but awesome to be able to see them whenever I want. Shannon and Travis are living in Sandy now, so all of us live within 20-30 minutes of one another. It is pretty cool. We all really miss McKay though. He has been on his mission since March. It was really tough on him in the beginning, but it is so much fun to see him growing as a missionary. He is a wonderful Elder.

Well that's about it for now! Congrats on surviving through all of that!

Our little chatterbox

Our little Clara is learning to talk. We have no idea what language she is speaking, but it is speech nonetheless. Also notice the wicked cool hairdo she is sporting.

Just thinking

I am so grateful for this one....

And this one....

I'm thankful for moments like these...


And a husband like this...

How wonderfully blessed I am to have people to love.

Humble Pie

Don't you just love those moments when you feel like a total jerk? I had one of those yesterday...a serious slice of humble pie.

There is a girl (I will call her Susan) that asked me to edit one of her school papers for her. Let me begin by saying that I don't mind doing this for people at all - in fact I rather enjoy it. The task appeals to my nerdier side. When Susan asked, however, I was a little put out. It is hard for me to describe why. Because of a couple events that had happened a few months earlier, I felt like I was being taken advantage of. Now that I think about it, I could've just let those things roll off and they really wouldn't have been a big deal, but, I didn't, and all of this was still simmering inside of me when she asked. I agreed to take a look at her paper and get it back to her by the day she asked.

When she e-mailed me the paper, I approached it rather cynically. The more I read, the harder it was for me to let go of my mounting frustration. The paper was riddled with errors that made it seem like she hadn't even read through the paper once herself. There were problems with most, if not all, of the internal citations. Many of the paragraphs were disjointed, jumping from one topic to another. In short, there were so many different levels to be worked on that, after two hours, I threw up my hands, typed out two pages of suggestions, and then gave her the recommendation of taking the paper to the Writing Center to work on the paper with someone in person. (I am such a brat!)

I didn't hear from her again after I sent over my comments, and I'm embarrassed to admit I really didn't think too much about it. Then, a couple days ago, Joe ran into Susan and she mentioned she wanted to come over and drop something off. I'm not sure why, but when Joe told me I assumed that it was going to be another paper or something. My compassionate Joe looked at me and said, "Just be patient with her Jenn."

Then, last night Susan stopped by while I was nursing Clara. Joe answered the door and I heard him talking with her for a few minutes. When I heard the front door close, Joe walked in with a card in his hand, and said, "She got an A- on the paper, and wanted you to have this to say thank you." The card was a gift card with a substantial amount on it.

I feel ridiculous for several reasons. 1) Sharing your writing with someone can be a scary thing, especially when it is on a topic that you feel really passionate about. She'd come to me for help and I'd let my emotions get in the way of producing a good effort for her; yet, she'd graciously and gratefully accepted what I'd offered, as menial as it was. 2) It took me getting something out of it to feel sorry for the way I'd treated her!

I am still amazed at how selfish and childish I acted. I never want to treat someone like that again. Yes, I was doing a service; but what good is a service if it doesn't change our hearts? What good is it if we do it begrudgingly? Service needs to change us, to movtivate us to be better, without thought of how it could come back around. It was a truly humbling moment, the kind I hope I never forget.

My Little Laundry Helper

I love my little girl! She turns the simplest tasks into so much fun. She can even make me laugh while doing the laundry! (And who knew that was possible?)

SOLD

WOW. Just got word from my mom that the house sold. It hasn't even been on the market a full week yet! Heavenly Father has really been watching out for them. They have been such incredible examples of faith.

House for Sale!

My parents just put their home in New Jersey on the market as of last Thursday. They are going to move out here to Utah! (Thanks Clara!) Take a look if you like!

21butler.info

Vacation to Zions

So here are a few highlights from our trip down to ZIONS!

Don't you just love these gorgeous views? Though the trees hadn't budded and it was still a little cold, everything was so beautiful.


Here is one of the few family pictures we have taken since Clara was born. It is just hard to get all three of us in there!


This was early one morning when we woke up to look at the sunrise. It was so beautiful! I loved that my little Clara just wanted to snuggle with me in that blanket!


Here are some hiking pictures:



Our little Clara was so worn out after a day of hiking and so many interesting things to look at!


The lodge we stayed at had a wildlife museum. Clara loved it! She kept pointing and waving at all the animals. So cute!

What I've been working on

So I've discovered the art of digital scrapbooking and I absolutely love it! It is everything I love about photos and computers all in one...and it is so much cheaper! Hooray for new useful hobbies that you spend hours and hours refining:)

Hungry for More

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book reminded me of a combination of "The Most Dangerous Game" and Lord of the Flies. Definitely not a book for the faint-hearted. What an ingenious conflict to place the characters in; I also appreciated the allusion to Romeo and Juliet. The most compelling part of that relationship is that you can't figure out where Katniss stands. I really liked the ending. Just when life should be okay and she should feel safe again, she begins to see her "fatal flaw" I guess you could call it. I was just relieved/heartbroken when she actually told Peeta what was going on.
The characters have depth because they are imperfect. I like that a lot. Couldn't put it down. Truly, a great read.

View all my reviews >>

Jennifer's bookshelf: read




More of Jennifer's books »

MTC and Becoming Mobile

In the beginning of March we took my brother McKay to the MTC. It was sad to see him go, but we couldn't be more proud of him. It is so fun to get his letters and hear how he is doing. It is amazing to hear how much he has learned and grown just in the last couple weeks. Watch out Colorado! He arrives on Monday!

Clara has also figured out the crawling thing in the last few days. She does have a forward gear! Before this, she would just go backwards all around the room to get what she wanted. Now she knows how to get things that are in front of her.

On the 6th of March she started pulling herself up to a standing position. It always amazes me how strong this little girl is! If she is anything like her papa she might be walking in the next couple months. Joe was a ten pound baby that started walking at ten months. Who knew that was even possible?

Oh and I almost forgot! I got new glasses! Yeah! What do you think?

Today we are off for a family vacation! Joe has spring break and so we just decided we need to go. We will have plenty to report when we get back!

The Help

The Help by Kathryn Stockett


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this book. It was hard to put down. I am amazed that this was her first novel. What an incredible tribute to women of all different races. We can make a difference even if it is just to a few people.

View all my reviews >>

Mowgli Run

Delicious Food!

On the 15th of January Clara turned 6 months old. I was a little hesitant/reluctant to start Clara on food because I'd really come to enjoy nursing her and we'd settled into a really good routine. I was nervous to start switching things up again. However, once Clara got her first taste of solid food, it was like turning a kid loose in an ice cream store. She loves to eat! (I wonder where she got it from...) Her first foods were bananas and peas (besides a small taste of sqaush at Christmas dinner). She just can't get enough. She literally is eating every two hours again, now that she has discovered new horizons. Having her on solid food has it's disadvantages (food prep, time, mess, diapers, etc.) but there are some definite advantages as well. Joe can feed her now, which helps me out quite a bit.

Now, at seven months old, she's a pro. She's even drinking through a cup with a straw rather than a bottle. Call me crazy, but I think she just loves feeling grown up and eating like her mommy and daddy.

Christmas Highlights

Here are some of the fun highlights from Christmas.

1. My family was able to come out for about two and a half weeks! It was great having them here! It was probably the last time all of us will be able to be together for the next couple years. This was the family picture from our traditional day of bowling on New Years Eve. It was a blast!


2. McKay opened his mission call! He is going to the Colorado Springs, Colorado mission. He goes into the MTC on the 3rd of March. It has been amazing to see the man McKay is becoming. His testimony is strong and I know that he will serve the Lord diligently and work many miracles for Him. If you want to see him opening his call, the video is posted below. I think my dad's reaction is the best! We are so proud of you bud!

3. Everyone got the chance to go skiing at least once! This was so much fun. It was a little tricky to work it because of little Clara, but we managed. We divided it up into two different trips. My mom stayed with Clara while I went the first time. Shannon got her wisdom teeth out the week before Christmas so she stayed behind on the first trip as well. Then Joe and I stayed behind on the second trip. It was really cool. It'd been almost two years since Joe and I'd been.

4. My parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary! We were so happy that they were here so we could do something for them. We have such wonderful parents.

5. Clara cut two teeth! I am amazed at how fast she is growing. It was great to have my mom here to help me know what to do. Clara never throws tantrums, but this was the fussiest I'd ever seen her and I didn't know what to do. My mom knew instantly what was going on and was awesome at teaching me what to do and consoling my little girl.

6. Joe's sister Sarah got married in the Philipines! We were sad that we couldn't be there, but happy that she was able to be sealed to a wonderful man. We miss her a lot.

Here are some more fun pictures!

It was such a wonderful holiday!