New Job

In the second week of January Blair received a job offer from Broward County, FL! He has been searching and interviewing since before he graduated last April so we were really relieved to find this job. (For the record, he did have an offer elsewhere this past summer but after some thinking and praying we didn't feel like it would be a good fit for us, so he turned it down and kept looking.)

Blair accepted the Florida job and then we went to work looking for housing and trying to become acquainted with the area from over 2,000 miles away. After many hours of research we decided to rent an apartment without looking in person. It was a risky decision but we felt like things would work out just fine. With housing squared away we set to work sorting through our belongings and packing stuff up. We had four weeks from the time the offer was extended to the start date, and with 4-5 days of driving the moving truck that gave us just three weeks to tie up loose ends and get packed.

As a side note, I really like that Florida's seal states, "In God we trust." That sums up very well the last 10 months of job hunting and will be our family motto for the next several months as we move to a completely unfamiliar place where we know no one.

Blair and I never, ever pictured ourselves in Florida. I've only ever been to one ocean beach in my life--and it was so cold I wore a sweatshirt the whole time and barely got my toes wet. I'm excited to experience a warm beach and glad that Ella will get to enjoy that, too. Blair's job will be a great start for his career and we think we'll really like it in Florida. The first adventure we'll plan will be driving down the Florida Keys all the way to Key West. It should be great! We'll keep you posted.

New Year

For New Year's Eve this year Blair and I went to to his sister's house in Mesa. We put Ella to bed there then spent the evening playing the Wii, wearing silly hats, and eating delicious scones with honey butter. We were traditional and watched the ball drop then rang in the new year with some smooches. We can tell we're boring parents now because it took major effort to stay awake past 11:00. We made a tired drive home and once Ella was safe in her own bed we crashed only to be awakened entirely too early by our little one. We didn't make any resolutions this year besides improving where we're slacking, but we do have some goals for this year. We have a feeling 2010 will be a good one!

Here's the obligatory silly hat photo

Things to Come

We've had a busy year so far and I'm finally in a position to play catch-up on this blog. Here's a preview of posts to come:

New Year

New Job

Short-Lived Career in Upholstery

Adventures in Potty Training

Adventures in Colorado

Double Trouble Strikes Again

Get Movin'

Stay tuned...

Christmas Catch-Up

This post has been a long time coming! We've had a very busy and exciting few weeks and I want to make sure I write a little bit about our Christmas before life becomes too overwhelming. Above are some mugs I made for Blair and me. We didn't drink much hot chocolate this season thanks to living in the desert, but I'm still glad I made them.

We put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. I was a little apprehensive about having ornaments low enough for Ella to reach but she hardly gave the ornaments any notice! She was more concerned with the lights and every morning when she came to the living room and saw the tree she would blurt out "chee, chee, chee!" until someone turned on the tree lights.
I have ambition to make some beautiful stockings some day. But until then, here's our a mismatched collection. No mantle for us so we utilized a window sill.
Ella was spoiled rotten by grandparents and friends. We got her clothes and underwear. (Yeah, that's what every kid wants Christmas morning.) Oh, and I made her the photo book. But she got some wonderful (and very pink!) toys from generous family and friends. It didn't take her long to get the hang of opening up presents and she was actually excited to see what was IN the boxes this year. It was really fun to watch her excitement at the new toys. She has really enjoyed playing with her new things!
We had a white porcelain nativity set up on a cupboard in our family room. Ella loved walking past it and exclaiming, "baby, baby!" and "shhhhh, shhhhh." She also decided that baby Jesus needed a hair bow. I didn't get a picture of it, but for several days there was a hair bow sitting next to the manger. Ella loves her hair bows and I saw a deeper meaning in her "gift" for baby Jesus. So I left it there. Then one day she decided the donkey actually needed to wear a hair bow. I got a picture of that one.

Merry Christmas to all!

Family Pictures

Blair happens to have a brother-in-law who is also a fantastic photographer. The weekend after Thanksgiving he was gracious enough to take us out for some family pictures. Ella is changing so fast it's hard to keep current pictures around. I am thrilled with the results! The above picture will wind up on our wall somewhere and the rest here are some of my other favorite images. Thank you so much, Cody!

November in Summary

We had a very busy November! Blair's niece got married and I took bridal pictures and assisted with wedding day pictures. It was a beautiful wedding! The week after the wedding Blair's sister and her family came to stay with us for 5 days while they were in between houses. That's when the above picture was taken. Ella loved having her cousins around and still asks for "Nanna" (Savannah-her 10 year old cousin). It was a full house, but we enjoyed the company.

The following week I spent a lot of time taking pictures for a school play. The kids were in grades 1-3 and they were darn cute. It was so fun to see the different personalities as I took individual pictures in costume. I won't post any pictures because I didn't ask permission from the parents and I want to respect privacy. But trust me, they were adorable.

The week of Thanksgiving I actually flew to Utah to meet with some professors and try to rescue some semblance of a thesis project. It became obvious in late October that my project wasn't going to pan out into usable data so we had to come up with plan B. It was a whirlwind 3-day trip but I think things look good now for completing my thesis. During the trip I left Ella here with Blair and had my first nights baby-free since she was born. It was so strange to not have to worry about when someone else was hungry or tired or bored. I got so much done! But I really missed Ella and Blair. Trips alone can get, well, lonely.

I came home the night before Thanksgiving and we had a lovely Thanksgiving day at Blair's sister's house. She was a fabulous host for 25 people and the weather was so gorgeous that we ate outside on the patio. Stephanie set a beautiful table--actually 3 beautiful tables--and we all stuffed ourselves silly and stayed late playing games and eating pie.

I'll stop here for now and save decorating for Christmas for another post. November sure kept us on our toes, but we made some good memories!

Changes

Sometimes you just know it's time for a change. Not long ago I chose the name Ella Rose for my photography business because I was inspired by my daughter and because I felt it conveyed beauty. But I've never been entirely happy with the name. I don't just strive to capture beauty--I try to capture beautiful moments to remind people of joyous times in their lives. So I toyed with other ideas and one day it hit me out of the blue that my childhood nickname should be the inspiration for the name of my photography business. Katie Joy. I find joy in life and I capture joyful moments through my lens. Hopefully, the work I do will help people remember the joy in their past.

So, before I get much more established, I am making the change. You can link to my new site here: http://katiejoyphoto.blogspot.com/ and check out some more pictures of this beautiful bride. And since I won't be posting again on my Ella Rose blog, don't forget to change your bookmarks, bloglines, or blog lists. Thank you for looking!