Our girls! Dress-ups and Posing!

Our girls LOVE to wear dress-ups. Well, more accurately, they love anything that will get them a laugh or some attention. Here are just a few pictures of them, their cool outfits, poses and other quirky things they love to do!

Let's Break It Down

Opportunities:

• Joe: Real Estate School
• Joe graduated from UVU with a degree in Psychology a while ago. For a long time we were going back and forth about grad school. I still remember the day he looked at me and said, "Jenn, I don't really want to be a Psychologist." He was happy working with his dad and brother. Okay, I thought, now what? Even though it's been a little bumpy along the way, we are both glad that he stayed where he was. He's been given some opportunities confirmed he was in the right place at the right time. One of those opportunities was to go to Real Estate School. He's always been interested in being a broker, and because of the company's business plan they decided to send him to school to build another part of the business. It's really exciting stuff and he loves it.

• Jenn: JLEllis Writing, LLC.
• March of last year I got laid off because there wasn't enough work for me to do. I was working from home for a company in Wyoming designing teaching curriculum. It actually turned out to be a blessing because it wasn't something I was enjoying. It gave me the opportunity to be a little more independent. So I started an LLC called JLEllis Writing. I contract with companies for technical writing services. The coolest part about being freelance is that I actually am contracting regularly with my dad's company since they don't have a technical writer on staff. It's been really nice to have such flexibility, work with my dad, and be able to make a little bit of money.

• Clara: Joy School


• I wasn't sure whether or not I should put Clara in preschool. I've heard mixed opinions about whether to send them or keep them home and I think that both arguments have valid points. Instead, I came to a happy medium and decided I would do Joy School with her. I asked around and several other moms expressed interest. "Great," I thought, "this will be just what she needs." 10 kids and 8 moms later I was wondering what I'd gotten myself into. Then, I coordinated the splitting, scheduling, materials, etc. for two different groups (there was no way 10 three-year-olds was going to work!). We are well underway and things are going well. Clara is having a good time, making friends, and learning lots of good principles...oh yeah, and I've officially decided we are enrolling her in preschool for next year! Glad I did it - no regrets - not very eager to repeat this situation. 

Projects:

• Chairs
• Our dining room chairs were nothing special, but I knew they had some potential. I found them on KSL for a decent price and decided to refinish them. I was really excited with how they turned out.
• Grass

• I'm pretty sure we didn't post pictures of our backyard when we moved in, but it was a mess! There was no grass, a dilapidated deck, random rods of re-bar sticking out of the ground, and a huge concrete wall and columns not leading anywhere. Now, a year and a half later, I am happy to report that our terrible deck is gone, we have most of our grass in, and it is looking better all the time. Joe worked so hard all spring, summer, and fall leveling the ground, putting in sprinklers, and cutting and laying sod. The cool part is we didn't pay for one blade of grass. My parents were taking some out anyway to landscape their yard. Once other people got wind that we wanted grass it wasn't too bad trying to find enough. 
• Door

• I really didn't like the color of our door. It was white and boring. So, I painted it purple, and I LOVE it!
• Shutters
• Our shutters were in pretty bad shape. At one point I think they were red, then painted brown, and now they just looked ridiculous. I could only tell myself it was an "antiqued look" for so long. So, I painted our shutters the same purple as our door. Now, I love them too.

Hobbies:

• Clara: Dance
• Over the summer Clara started creative dance classes. She absolutely loved them. She would look at me and say, "Mom, is there dance today? Dance day is the BEST day!" Now we've changed studios so that she has a little more structure in her class, and will be performing in the studio's production of "The Secret Garden" this spring. 
• Jenn: Singing
• My mom and I decided we wanted to join a choir. We both really missed singing, and I'd discovered I'd developed lots of really bad habits. So we choir shopped a little bit, and settled on joining the Salt Lake Choral Artists Women's Choir. We love it! The music is hard, but the people are nice, and our director is phenomenal. Right now we are working on music for a huge jazz concert in April. I am in heaven. It really doesn't get much better than that for me.

Milestones:

• Joe and I had our 5 year anniversary!
• We got our first pets.




• This was actually sort of an accident. Two stray kittens showed up at our back porch one night.  They stuck around (although we couldn't quite figure out why) and so we kept an eye out for them. A few days later we hear them meowing constantly and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. I got a feeling like I should check the storage room in the basement. Sure enough the kittens had found an air vent without a cover and weaseled their way through it and down into our cold storage. We decided to feed them and named them Princess and George. George has since been taken to the pound, but Princess is still around and it has been good having her. Both the girls just adore her.
• Clara got rid of her binkey.
• Okay, I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but I seriously thought I was traumatizing my child, yet again! Then, I discovered the power of bribery. I figured a child would give up pretty much anything if you take them to Toys R' Us and tell them they can have any toy they want. Don't judge me - it worked beautifully. 
• Today was Abigail's first day in nursery!

• We are officially childless during the 2nd and 3rd hours of church. Well sort of...I am the primary chorister....

Why Not? It's Only Been a Year....

First the excuse, and then the re-cap. I do have a somewhat-lame attempt at a legitimate excuse. 

Let's rewind to November 2011. 

Naive, first-time mother Jenn had this brilliant idea that she should potty-train her toddler. After all Clara was old enough, took instruction relatively well, and according to most potty-training books, should be ready for this milestone. After a terrible week I decided that I was getting frustrated enough with my child that it wasn't worth it and we needed to postpone things. No real harm done...right?

Now fast-forward to January 2012. Clara decided that she kind of liked this potty training stuff and was going to attempt it by herself. I literally could not let the child leave my sight because the next thing I'd know she'd be bare-bottomed having made a very large mess all over the bathroom, or somewhere on the carpet. Yeah....TMI, I know. So despite the fact that she still wasn't ready, we began another attempt to potty train purely out of necessity. It was not pretty, mostly because it was incessant. I felt like the daily sum of my existence was to clean up crap (I am being a little melodramatic, but it wasn't fun either).  I discovered a whole new terrible dimension to the limits of my parenting skills and sanity.I remember actually hitting a point when I thought - I've traumatized my child beyond the point of return - she will never use a toilet.

A word to the wise: let your kid tell you when they are ready to potty train. Everyone kept telling me I'd know when they were ready, but I guess I wasn't convinced. 

By February we were somewhere in the realm of something bearable. Early spring brought even better results. In an effort to spare everyone the gory details I chose not to write. Don't get me wrong, things have been working beautifully for a quite while now. Once we got the potty training under grips she was pretty quick to start staying dry through the night. However, reliving those months in the blog was too much...even doing it now still makes me shudder a little bit...

On a more serious note, 2012 was a good year for our family. When I think back on the year I haven't written, when I try to think of how I could adequately sum-up so much time, one word comes to mind: Repentance. I feel that as a daughter, sister, mother, and wife I've been asked to grow; to not accept my weaknesses, but instead to challenge them. I renewed and revitalized a precious relationship with my Savior, Jesus Christ as I learned to utilize the Atonement in areas of my life I probably would have previously waded through alone. I found peace in relationships I was convinced would never be the same again. I found acceptance and even comfort when I relinquished control of situations that were never really in my control in the first place. I found sweetness and joy in forgiving others, and asking to be forgiven.

Even despite the low moments, however long they lasted, I remember getting down on my knees several times and thanking my Heavenly Father for such a perfect life. Hopefully I can be a little bit better (although probably not perfect) in my record keeping of all the blessings we enjoy. 

Ahh. Good to be back!