Hello! Ok, first post. Here we go.
My name is Mikelle. I’m married to Judson and we have a little girl named Magnolia.
I am currently about 4 weeks away from having our second baby, a boy, name TBD.
A little background on me/us: Judson and I met at Brigham Young University through mutual friends. I graduated with my bachelors degree in Public Health. We ended up falling in love, graduating from BYU, getting married a few weeks after graduation and moving to New York City four days after our honeymoon.
We lived in New York for just about 6 years and they were honestly the best years of my life thus far. While there, I did a number of things. I worked for two non-profits, did wardrobe and set styling for a Discovery Investigates tv series and numerous other ad campaigns. I loved doing that so much, but the hours were long and exhausting (like 4 am – midnight for weeks on end). So I decided to look for another job that was a little more normal. I started interviewing a TON and ended up getting a job at a hedge fund and, soon after, from there was offered a position to join the hedge fund founder’s family office. (<– link for anyone who is curious as to what that is exactly)
That job, for me, was an absolute dream come true. And I don’t say that lightly.
I always thought I would get married, maybe work a little until I had kids and then once the kids came, that would be my excuse to not have to work anymore. But once I was actually working, in a job that I LOVED, that decision became much much harder to make.
We tried for almost two years to have a baby, but then ended up having to do IVF. So we reallllly wanted a baby and she was finally on her way! But even then, the decision to not go back to work after my maternity leave absolutely broke my heart. I honestly still tear up thinking about it. I hated to leave this job/second family of mine, but I also couldn’t imagine leaving my tiny baby home with someone else because I really wanted to be a mom too. (plus finding/paying for a full time nanny in NYC is expensssive. So basically my salary would have gone to them)
About a year after we had Maggie, Judson got a job offer in Utah. It was such a hard decision to make, but felt like the right move for our family.
I felt completely at home in New York, had a group of INCREDIBLE friends, and just honestly loved our life there. So this last year, adjusting to our new life, has been hard on me (much harder than I anticipated, actually. But I might talk about that whole thing later).
So now, here I am. Living in Utah. Adjusting to being a stay at home mom in the suburbs (a whole different ballgame than being a city mom), and about to have a S E C O N D baby!
So yeah, this is us! We’re here. Just living life one day at a time.
My sister-in-law, Lizzy, is an incredible photographer. She has been taking pictures of us for the last few years and other than the one or two I would post on Instagram, the rest wouldn’t see the light of day. I’m terrible at journaling/making scrapbooks, so I’m putting them on here instead, because I want to be able to easily look back on all of the moments she captures.
Mikelle Kennedy 