Tres Meses

Jenna's best flying squirrel impression

We celebrated Jenna’s survival of her first three months a week early by having a party and inviting all of her grandparents. Last Thursday Jarom’s parents arrived by car at about 8:00. Almost immediately upon their arrival, Grandma was changing Jenna’s diaper when she pooped on her (Jenna on Grandma, not the other way around.) While Lix helped get that mess cleaned up, Jarom was picking her dad up from the airport. They had a wonderful dinner at Chili’s, where the game of “Who gets to hold the grandkid” began for the weekend. Lix’s mom and sister got a late start getting out of Cleveland so they didn’t get in until the wee am hours.





Friday morning we all gathered our stuff and set out for Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, possibly the most eccentric place in the universe. When Lix was growing up her family used to make trips to Gatlinburg for vacations, so she has many fond memories of the town. Jarom has no such memories, so he has only heard about how great it is. It is always interesting to compare the reality of something to the way someone else remembers it from their childhood. The first stop in Gatlinburg was at the Segway tours place (not the actual name) where some of the video footage you may have seen on this blog came from. Jarom has been wanting to ride on a segway every since he began watching Arrested Development, so he was very excited to cross it off his bucket list. After about 5 minutes of wobbliness and near-accidents (or actual accidents, depending on the rider), the machines were pretty easy to ride and quite a bit of fun. The group of 6 (Bruce, PJ, Alixa, Jarom, Mikah, and a guide) cruised all around Gatlinburg, and even went to the top of the local space needle (elev. 407 ft.) by stuffing all six Segways in a single elevator. As the tour was winding down, the heavens opened up and a monsoon-like rain began to fall, soaking all of the riders to the bone. Everyone had a great time, and despite a few slip-ups, there were no serious injuries. Next on everyone’s list was finding a place to eat lunch. After briefly leaving PJ, who had to run down the car in the rain, they settled on TGIFriday’s, where they waited out the rain. Then it was up the tram to OberGatlinburg, aka the world’s lamest ski resort. There is an alpine slide and some other fun things to do up there during the summer. Unfortunately, the excessive rain caused those things to be closed. So they ended up sitting around enjoying the beauty of the mountaintop and making fun of the fact that they were sitting atop a mountain with nothing to do. The day ended with a trip to the Tennessee Shindig, a music variety show with hits from each of the last 5 decades, including a pretty good Elvis impersonator whom Mikah developed a bit of crush on.

Jenna and Opa

Hanging out at Ober Gatlinburg. You can see the excitement practically bursting out.

Saturday began early, as there was an 8:00 tee time that had to be met. Grandmas were left in charge of Jenna and Lix and Jarom went with the old men to play 18 holes. It was a wonderful morning, relatively cool and overcast, but no rain. Lix played great, a result of the time she has been putting in recently at the driving range, and Jarom beat both of his dads. After golf, lunch was had at the Apple Cake Tea Room. I can best sum up the environment by telling you that upon their arrival, the owner came over to the group and told them not to worry because “we’ve had at least two other guys in here already today.” The tea selection was not as ample as some of the other teahouses that PJ has frequented, but the food was scrumptious. After some afternoon naps, everyone gathered at the hotel lobby to watch BYU fall on their collective faces against Florida State. Boo hiss.

Tres Meses

Sunday was the event that everyone had come to see, and Jenna looked quite darling in her huge, poofy, white dress. Jarom got the name correct in the blessing but failed to give out a single super-power, so I’ll give him a C. After the meeting everyone began their long drives home. It was great to see so many family members, but we were all sad to see them go. The Hegewalds are working on planning another trip down here before we leave, so I have that to look forward to.

New Tricks

Here are some videos of Jenna's new tricks, which include rolling over to either side, talking up a storm, and sucking her thumb, fingers, or entire fist. We aren't exactly sure what she thinks she is saying, but we do think it is cute.

I don't think you can spell it without a G-A-Y

Check out the improvement! She's a learning robot.

Up a Tree

I hope you all enjoyed the video. In order to really experience it in the most realistic way possible, make sure you turn the volume way up. It is a sound that has been ever present in the Winn home recently, as everyone managed to catch Jarom’s cold from last week. Poor baby Jenna has had trouble breathing because of all the snot in her, so she has spent many nights sleeping in Jarom’s spot on the bed propped up on a pillow. Alixa has become somewhat of an expert with the boogersucker (that’s a technical term you don’t need to remember), which Jenna hates and screams about every time. But both Jenna and Alixa seem to be coming out of it, which is great news for everyone.

Charting Jenna's growth- Same outfit, weeks 1 v 10

This week Alixa went back to work, picking up 3 lunch shifts at the Olive Garden. Her feet and her back and her legs were pretty sore, but it should get better as she gets used to it again. She considered applying for a job at BabysRUs, but figured that there was no way she would be able to get time off for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, so she opted not to. It is just as well, because it seems unlikely that spending 5 mornings a week in that store would create a positive net cash flow. So for now Jarom gets to play Mr. Mom a few days a week, much to Lixi’s chagrin. Sometimes he doesn’t bathe or dress Jenna in quite the way that Mom would like, but she survived, so the complaints have been minimal.



Lix has also taken up Craigslisting as a way to drum up some spending money while clearing out some clutter. Some old laptop bags, a Foreman grill, a vacuum, and a 5-wood are all for sale or have been sold. This experience has brought out some deep-seated paranoia from Alixa. She has been adamant that nobody knows our address, lest they come and steal our baby. Jarom does not share this paranoia, but in the interest of keeping his marriage healthy has taken long walks to the other side of the apartment complex in order to keep the location of their secret lair safe.

The Winns also took Jenna on her first outdoor hiking adventure, a 5-mile trek through the Smoky Mountains to a pretty little place called Abram’s Falls. The Baby Bjorn did a great job, and Jenna actually slept with her face on Jarom’s sweaty t-shirt for most of the hike. It was fun to spend a day outside with their friends, the exercise was great, and they got to see two adult black bears, one of which was eating acorns about 65 feet up a tree. Jarom and Alixa both enjoy hiking and doing things outdoors, but for some reason they never seem to do those things unless they are going with one of their outdoorsy friends.

Bear in tree, people watching it

Bear on ground, people flee for their lives

Up next for the Winns is an exciting weekend full of grandparents, as both the Winns and Hegewalds will be arriving on Thursday evening to hang out for a few days and witness Jenna’s blessing. Alixa has been telling Jarom for weeks that he needs to come up with some original stuff, so if there are any suggestions out there I am sure he would appreciate the help. Mostly we are all just hoping that she doesn’t start crying while up on the stage, because who knows how many eardrums will burst if you put a microphone in front of her.

Happy Jenna

Back Online

It has been a little bit longer than usual between posts, and that is because the Winn home has been without the Internet until just recently. You see, when we moved to Delaware for the summer Jarom cancelled the internet and cable, figuring it wouldn’t be used much while we were gone. When he finished his lonely drive from the north a few weeks ago, the first thing he did was sit down to have some dinner and watch Sportscenter. It took him a few minutes before he realized that the cable had never been disconnected, and that they were now the recipients of the coveted Free Cable. His next discovery was that several new people had moved into the apartment complex and had wireless networks that had not been password protected, allowing accessing to Free Cable’s cousin, Free Internet. Unfortunately, the universe will only allow a certain amount of freeloading, and Jarom and Alixa pretty much used up their lifetime quota over the summer at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. One by one the wireless networks became secured, until there was no more Internet. No more blogging, no more checking email, no more playing Settlers of Catan online. This was unacceptable. So a trip was made over to Knology, the local cable company. When Jarom had cancelled the services for the summer he had been wise enough to obtain a written promise from the company that he would not be required to pay the installation fee upon his return. He had saved this receipt, wisely anticipating that they would try and get an installation fee out of him when he came back. He was correct in that assumption. Due to some “problems with the system” in the branch office, Jarom had to call Knology’s customer support number to set up a time to have the already existing cable service re-installed. When told that he would be required to pay the installation fee and first month at the time of the appointment, Jarom explained to the rep why he did not have to pay the fee. She told him that she was not authorized to remove the fee. He asked if he could speak to whoever would be able to remove the fee. She responded, “You mean someone like me?” I guess the hiring standards aren’t real strict over there. After some haggling, he was able to get the girl’s manager on the line, who explained to him that they would need some sort of documentation to prove that a promise had been made. Fortunately, Jarom had just such a document. Unfortunately, the manager then told him that his document was no good because Knology had failed to keep a record of it on their own system. At this point Jarom got feisty and was rude to her, much to Alixa’s delight. In the end, the cable was left alone and a modem was dropped off, with no installation fee, and now we can all play Settlers of Catan online again.



Internet has not been the only thing that didn’t go smoothly this week. Jarom celebrated his 28th birthday, and only got one non-return phone call of congratulations, from his favorite sister Jolene. This did not bother Jarom, in part because he received about 45 facebook birthday wishes, but Alixa had her feelings hurt on his behalf. She is very sensitive. Perhaps as a result of this show of unlove, Jarom caught a cold for the first time in Alixa’s memory. He has spent the last week blowing his nose 62 times a day, and is excited to be almost done with it. He did get a great birthday present from his parents, a brand new driver. According to JD, he is now a real golfer.





Some of you may recall that right before leaving in May, the ward boundaries here got changed up a bit and it became known that we were in the wrong ward. Now that we are back, Jarom spoke with the bishop and made a formal request to be allowed to stay in the ward that we know until December, when we will be headed to _________. The bishop said that he would love to have us, but that the Stake President was being pretty hard-nosed and he would have to run it by him. Yesterday word was received that no exceptions were to be made. This will be a serious test of the Winn’s faith. Alixa is especially upset by the news, and holds some significant ill will towards our local ecclesiastical leaders.



As for Jenna, she is growing plenty fast and more of a real person every day. She tries very had to talk, and makes a wide variety of squeaking, squawking, velociraptor noises. She can stand up pretty well, is starting to roll over, and smiles a ton. She still spits up more than we would like, and had one particularly bad day this week where she ruined about 4 consecutive outfits of her mom’s. But we all love her anyway and enjoy watching her personality develop. Jarom and Alixa have begun to talk for her, which is strange to listen to. And for some reason whenever Jarom does it he uses the voice of the Quizno’s rats, which as an aside is one of the best commercials of all time.