2013 - Let's Party!

My dad has a favorite quote that has become one of my favorites.  When I was in high school and college I used to keep a copy of it hanging in my closet.  I feel like it has explained the Ellingson's 2012 year perfectly.  Here it is. 

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'WOW What a Ride!'"
    

This past year has been quite the ride for us to say the least. We have had both had ups and downs, as I am sure everyone did.  But we thoroughly enjoyed every bit of our life this past year. There were definitely days that Jordan and I both went to bed completely "worn out" - mainly because of grad school or our newest addition (which we love), but also found time to keep our life a constant party.  We decided to compile our top 12 of 2012.

1. We had our beautiful baby girl McKae.

2. Jordan started his last year of school EVER in his MBA.

3. Jordan got an internship with Proctor and Gamble.

4. We moved to Cincinnati, Ohio for the summer and loved it!

5.  Kaitlin refurbished a coffee table, lamp, and end table.

6. We moved into a new apartment and it has WINDOWS and a W/D (yes, we are in heaven)

7.  Jordan got put in our ward Bishopric.

8.  McKae traveled on an airplane 5 times before she was 4 months old.

9.  Kaitlin learned how to crochet using youtube videos and made McKae a beanie.

10.  Jordan got offered and accepted a job with Goodman Manufacturing in Houston, Texas

11.  McKae learned how to crawl.

12.We celebrated our 3 year anniversary!

Bring on 2013!

Did you say TEXAS?!?

   The rumors are true!  We will be moving out to Houston, Texas come May after Jordan graduates with his MBA.

I am so proud of him and that he will have a dual masters and already has a job set up.  We feel so blessed that he had so many offers and that we have felt so great about accepting to work for a company called Goodman Manufacturing.
   Am I excited to move out of Provo?   Am I nervous to leave Provo and go out to the real world?  Holy Cow, YES!!  It is funny how we often start looking one step ahead.  When we are single we want to get married, but as soon as we are married we want to have a baby, but once we have a baby we want to have another one, and etc.  Well, we are super excited for this new adventure in our life and are really learning to enjoy the time in Provo with close friends, before it's time to go to the place with the heat.
    I never in my life thought we would end up in Texas.  Does that mean my kids are going to have southern accents? (I would love this)Does that mean we are going to become beach bums? (so excited to have a beach so close) Does that mean my kids are all going to have HUGE Texas pride?

     We couldn't be more excited (all 3 of us)!! Plus we have family in Houston, so goodbye fears, and hello Houston!

(... and some recent pics that are my favorites).

Family Pictures

Say What?!

AHH! 6 Months already!?!

Yup, that's right!  McKae is now 6 months and she is growing up so quickly.  We really wish we could slow it down just a little bit.  She has even picked up a few new tricks.

She can sit up all by herself!

At 6 months she...

-eating solids (loves squash!!)

-babbles and entertains us with her velosaraptor talk

-can bend in half and suck on her toes

-can roll both ways

-loves to blow bubbles

-can play peekaboo... she pulls the blanket off her face

-gives a nice "hearty" laugh

-smiles ALL day long!

We sure love our sweet pea and couldn't imagine our life without her!  Bring on the adventures of the next 6 months...even though we know it could get messy!

Red Paper Airplanes

Jordan and I just celebrated our 3rd year wedding anniversary.  It was simply perfect!  Many of you readers already know this story but three years ago Jordan took me on a "rememberance date" with doing all kinds of things that had some special meaning for us and one of them was making paper airplanes.  So on the day we got engaged we threw white paper airplanes off of the balcony at the JFSB.  Jordan told me we needed to go pick them up.  As we did ran down to the bottom we found some RED paper airplanes.  Well, those weren't ours so I skipped right over it until Jordan told me to come take a look.  I opened it up and it said 100 reasons why I love Kaitlin.  There were 10 airplanes with 10 things on each one.  The last one said... "She just might say yes!"  He then pulled out some flowers (from under a bush) and a ring in the pocket and proposed.  I was so surprised but said yes and the rest is history.  Here are some pictures of our engagement day 3 years ago.

For our anniversary every year we take turns planning.  This year it was Jordan's turn.  Man, he knows me so well (I love surprises and I am very EASILY surprised).  We dropped McKae off at his sisters and headed to our dinner reservation.  He said we had a little bit of time so he thought it would be fun to go fly some paper airplanes again. This time we wrote compliments hoping that people would find them and make them happy.  Well we felt bad about littering so we headed down to go pick them up.  When I got down there I found, yes, a red paper airplane.  It had reasons 101 to 110. of why he loved me.  He pulled out a dozen roses from under the bushes(thanks to his siblings for making the white to red airplanes and stashing the flowers both years - Carl and Gary) and gave me a beautiful necklace.  Could life get better than this?!  I submit that it cannot.  I know everyone says this, but I truly am  THE LUCKIEST girl!

Later that night we headed to Macaroni Grill, where we had the best yummy food.  They also have paper on the tables that you can draw on so we played pictionary with our favorite memories.  It was so fun!

So glad that 3 years ago we...

- got married in the slc temple for time and all eternity

-we decided to spend the rest of our life with our best friend.

-started on a journey full of ongoing adventures!

 

Don't worry we're not dead!

So I know we kinda fell off the map for the whole summer, but don't worry we are not dead.  We just didn't have internet, so here is an overload of pictures of what we have been up to.  This summer Jordan and I had the opportunity to head out to Cincinnati, Ohio so he could do an internship with Proctor and Gamble (yeah, he's amazing!)  We LOVED Ohio!  (except for some minor details like no sidewalks, mountains, etc.)  We loved the lightning bugs, the family friendliness, the green rolling hills, the ice cream (I crave Graeters still!), P&G, our calling as Sunday School teachers for the 17 yr. olds, the wonderful friends we made, and so much more.  I wish I had more pictures, but here is some of them.

There are a bunch of bridges that cross over from Ohio and Kentucky.  We lived right by the border of Kentucky.

We were so lucky to make such great friends while we were there. Seriously... friends can make any situation great!

This is right by the river

We also got to go and spend some time in Dayton, Ohio with Jordan's cousins and family.  We got to go to the Wright Patterson Air Force Base Museum and see tons and TONS of planes.  I decided to let Jordan take our time until after an hour he told me that we just made it through one side of one hanger (yes, there were a total of 5 hangers).  But it was really neat to see all the planes that had been used by the presidents and the planes used during all the wars.

 

We also traveled up to Columbus, Ohio so that we could meet up with Dan and Heather who had  been in Cleveland.  We were able to go to the Columbus, Ohio temple.  Man, it had been way too long since we last saw them.  Heather also introduced us to Culvers which was soooo good.

To come back to Utah, I flew with McKae while Jordan drove back by himself.  He made a stop in Iowa to see Dallin and Laura.  Before they made it there they decided to make a stop at some church history sites.

Thanks Dallin and Laura for taking care of my man.  We sure love you guys!

All in all, we really couldn't have asked for a better experience in Ohio.  We hope they will have a future job offer for us (here's to crossing our fingers).  

so in love

McKae

Do you believe in love at first sight?

WE do!