Seasons Greetings from Nashville! Our family has continued to love being here as Ben continues his MBA program at Vanderbilt, and 2014 has been a wonderful year. The big / huge / life-changing news this year is the addition of Julia Helen Jensen to our family on July 1. Thankfully, she arrived safely and has charmed most everyone with her calm demeanor and infectious smile (we're confident the holdouts will capitulate at some point soon). In addition to figuring out this parenting thing, we've continued to enjoy the good company of friends made through church and Ben's school. Highlights for the family include: a July trip to Portland for a family wedding (Ben's sister); visits from family in August for Julia's baby blessing; an October trip through the Smokey Mountains in celebration of Autumn and our second anniversary; another October trip to Indianapolis to meet a new niece; and another Indianapolis trip for Thanksgiving. We'll spend Christmas in Las Vegas and St. George with Becca's family, and return to Nashville just in time to ring in the New Year. Phew!

Ben continues to enjoy the break from adult life provided by the Vanderbilt MBA program. This year's highlights included a school trip to Israel in March, a summer internship with the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, and a couple almost-job offers. So close! As a second-year student (in a two-year program), Ben was fortunate to work as a Teaching Assistant for the Communications and Marketing courses. He found the experience rather enjoyable and will likely look into teaching as a part- or full-time endeavor one day once business school loans are paid off. So...check back with us in Update 2025.

Rebecca spent the first half of the year continuing to work at her DC job (the Government Accountability Office) from her home office in Nashville. The lack of a daily commute freed her to spend some more time playing piano and furthering her meager skills. She worked until the day Julia was born, July 1, and has since enjoyed her maternity leave. Though as a newborn Julia has been fairly demanding of mama's attention, Rebecca found time enjoy some long-latent hobbies. In particular, she started crocheting, which she hasn't done since high school. Pictured below are some of the projects she's completed since Julia's arrival. She also braved a solo trip (+Julia) to Utah in November to visit with friends and family. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rebecca's reading this year has mostly focused on birth and child development (reading lists available upon request), but she also enjoyed being a part of the local congregation's book club.

Julia made her debut on July 1, as mentioned above, and has spent the time between then and now proving herself to be an incredibly lovely baby. Ever since birth, almost everyone who has made remarks about her has observed that she's an unusually alert and active baby. She loves looking around at the world, and is more often content to lie on the floor and kick around or, more recently, flip from back to tummy and vice versa. She loves to smile, but even more loves to burrow her head into her parents' neck when someone notices her smiling. In all, her parents think she's charming (when she's not fighting a nap or spitting up indiscriminately), but don't rely on our (patently biased) word. Here's documentary evidence:

Julia being her charming self, sporting crocheted leg warmers

Hard to top crocheted leg warmers, so that's a wrap for this year's Jensen family news. 

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

With love from Nashville,
Ben, Rebecca, and Julia Jensen