Happy Holidays!

Ennis Family newsletter December 2013

I am not sure I will actually get a real physical newsletter or card out.  To be honest, I have the past 2 years newsletters still in a pile on my desk.  Yes, I am that person. I have great intentions and then... Oh well.  So, instead of pretending that I will actually get it done and out and mailed to all the people that love (or maybe even actually care what is going on in my family's world) I will just blog it.  I love technology.  That reminds me of a song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERCzN91JicA

Anyway...

Ok the Ennis family news:

Our life has been a whirlwind this past year (or 2)

We moved (again).  we made the decision to simplify and reduce clutter and extras and did something I never thought we would do.  We moved into a BASEMENT!  Holy cow!  Granted it's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath basement.  It's one block away from where Bill and I work and our kids are close by when we have to be at the office.   Bill's Rental Shop and Michelle's fitness studio are right next door to each other and the kids' schools are close by as well. So that works for us.

Bill has really picked up business with Dig Paddlsports renting Kayaks and stand-up paddleboards.  He even put on a 3 race series this year at Sand Hollow resevoir.  It was a smashing success and we are excited to continue to organize SUP races next year if anyone wants to come play.  He still does graphic design and print brokering and stays super busy with everything he has going on.  During the Summer he is at the lake almost all day 6 days a week on an SUP or kayak. He loves taking the whole family on outings to the lake.  

Michelle - (Me) has experienced a lot of changes with the fitness business I started up a few years ago.  Phazes Fitness has experienced a lot of ups and downs but is growing steady and is a lot of fun to do.    The St. George marathon was days after my 40th b-day and was Full of laughs and giggles and good memories as about 30 or more friends ran in memory of a dear friend that passed away in a tragic cycling accident. I told Bill that it would be my only marathon, but I had way too much fun running with friends that purposefully ran slow and came in close to or very last place before the cut off time.   It was a party!   My life has been changed by the passing of Braydon and I've adopted "Booyah!" into my language along with thousands of others that loved Braydon.  The most defining time of my life this year was his passing.  My friends and family and faith have become more clearly meaningful.

Enjoy Braydon's song 

I continue to teach Zumba, bootcamps, Pilates and SUP fitness classes.

Evan turns 16 in January.  He participated in tennis last year and did great.  His coach wants him to keep at it and say he has a lot of natural talent.  We tried homeschooling Evan last year.  That was silly.  So he is back at public school and working twice as hard to make up for lost time.  Plus he never wants me to try and homeschool him again so he's working harder than he has ever worked to prove he can be a success.  And he is.  I am so proud of the young man he is becoming.  Evan joined the Speech team.  On his own.  We were broke when it came time to sign up for the team. So I told him not this year but maybe next year he could do it.  Evan worked his butt off and paid for the fee himself.  He went to his first tournament and came home with a big smile on his face.  I asked him how it went.  Grinning ear to ear he said "I LOST!" - with a HUGE Smile.  So, wanting to be a good mother and encourage him to improve next time, I asked "what would you change next time so you could do better?"  Evan's response, "THE RULES!" -still with that monster smile.  He said the best part of the whole adventure was the bus trip.  I love that kid.  He is a lot like his parents.  Good or bad?  sure.

Gabriel... Holy cow that kid has changed so much this year.  Gabe turns 14 this month.  

He has been going to a charter school for the past year and a half.  It's a school focused on the arts and technology.  Perfect for a kid that loves theater and computers.  He's become quite the actor and goes around the house singing.  All.  The. Time.

clicke here to enjoy some of Gabe's lovely singing voice...  and me lying to him.  

His best friend's name is Shelly.  yeah...  I was worried.  She is a lot like me.  Funny, smart, talented, a bit of a spazz.  and a great friend to Gabe.  Everyone teases them about being girlfriend and boyfriend and Gabe and Shelly get mad and reassure all of us that that is NOT how it is.  I am still keeping my eye on them.  Shelly is cute and shares my nickname, that could be dangerous.  I have friends at the School that keep tabs on Gabe for me and told me he was the life of the older grades' dance party a few weeks ago.  Apparently he was dancing wildly on his own.  I asked him if he danced with any girls, to which he responded "of course not mom!  I'm not old enough for contact with the opposite gender"..... ummmmm..... ok.  I will accept that answer. Actually we then had a talk about appropriate social skills and dancing with girls being ok.

Ilia, Ilia, Ilia... what do you say about a barely 12 year old going on 25?  She is tall and pretty and so fun to be around.  I love the fact that she and I can really hang out and have fun together.  She takes pride in her schooling and is self motivated.  Her biggest flaw is her biggest talent.  She is so self motivated that she never really feels the need to get help for anything, or permission either... 2 months grounded was the highlight of her year.  She enjoys dancing and was able to take part with a small local dance team here in Hurricane Utah.  As a beginner Hip hop team, they took first place in a regional tournament and went on to compete at Lagoon and placed Nationally.  They are a cute bunch of kids.  Ilia can be found dancing and singing and listening to loud music.  I am constantly telling her "Turn that down!"

The other day she promptly responded "why should I?  You listen to your music really loud."  To which I responded "That will be 20 pushups for talking back".  

To which she responded "But MO- O -OM!"

(by the way, I only have the music loud during Zumba)

Ilia's cooking show

Dane - He calls himself my love man.  He turned 9 in November.  A great kid. Smart and funny.  He LOVES Boy scouts and cuddling.  Seriously, his smile is awesome.  He is the first one to give a hug when I walk in the door.  I will never get tired of hearing "MOM!" promptly followed by a huge hug.  It makes my day.  Dane is a great student.  I think he is the first son of mine to be so self motivated at a young age.  His teacher says he always turns in his homework and does extra credit and gets top scores on his tests.  I didn't even KNOW he had homework.  wow.  What a joy he is.  I love him to pieces.  Plus his dimple on his cheeks and bright blue eyes light up the room.

Ferrell -  turned 6 in October.  He was my best birthday present ever.  Ferrell, like his older siblings, is very independent.  I will never have to worry about him starving if something happens to me.  That kid takes care of himself.  We have almost outgrown his wandering stage where he would leave the house unannounced and go to the grocery store to get a cookie from the bakery.  At ages 3-5 the cops had to bring him home a few times and I got questioned about my abilities as a mother.  Great.  The kid would undo the child locks, move stools to reach the latches.  You name it.  You turned your back for a seconds and he was out the door going wherever he felt he needed.  The good news, Bill and I now work closer to home and When Ferrell does wander away, it is either Home or the offices - just a block.  Better news... it's happening a lot less these days.  Seriously, you can't even take a shower or do the dishes without turning around and having Ferrell out the door on his own impromptu adventure.  His kindergarten teacher says he's a genius and is the only kid in class that can go forward and backward on the monkey bars all the way both times.  I couldn't be more proud.  Unless he had  a bucket on his head and was running into walls.  

Our life is full of fun and crazy stuff.

As I have been prompted to grow my fitness business, I have often wondered how it fits in with my faith and feelings on the importance of mother's being home with their kids as much as possible.  I used to judge mothers that worked outside the home.  But as I have made the choice to do so and have felt impressed to try and make a difference in the health of our community, I have found myself Praying for inspiration from God.  A few years ago as I was working with a young boy age 10 that had just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and needed a LOT of help learning about how he could change his life.  I realized I was late coming home.  I thought about rushing through with this child and getting home quickly.  The words came to mind "this boy needs you right now.  Your kids will be fine."  In fact the impression I had was so strong and was not from me.  I knew my kids were ok.  I knew they had a good father, they had a good support system.  Truly when I look at my kids, I realize God has blessed us.  It isn't anything Bill or I have done to raise them.  In fact, they have had to do a lot of raising themselves.  But amazing spirits have been sent to our home and I feel blessed.  

This Christmas season, we are living simpler lives.  I am reflecting on how God has blessed us through our challenges.  I am grateful for the loss of our too big of a house. I am grateful for feeling closer to my family.  Maybe a smaller house does bring families closer together - literally?

I feel that way.

Our family has a firm faith in Jesus Christ. We are grateful for the teachings in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and love our Prophet on earth today.

Jesus was born in April, but we are glad the early Christians adopted this season so we could have Winter AND the spring to celebrate loudly, with music and food, God's love for us.

So MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!

And I decided I like digital blogged newsletters with video clips.