Count your blessings

We had some visitors down here in Richmond last weekend when Lixi’s parents decided to stop by to attend Blake’s baby blessing. PJ came in on Wednesday and was promptly put to work keeping an eye on the kiddos so that Jarom and Alixa could go to the driving range, where Alixa needed a little practice. She hadn’t played golf for about a year, and her dad’s visit was a great reason to get back out on the course. She was hitting the ball pretty well, but I guess her dainty little fingers don’t do enough hard work, because she got a blister after about 20 minutes. So she had to get a right-handed glove to protect herself. Unfortunately, Richmond is in a little bit of a heat wave right now, so they ended up golfing in 95-degree heat, with lots of humidity. In a misguided effort to save a few dollars, Jarom chose to walk. At the beginning of the day he weighed in at a near-obese 205. When he showered afterwards, the scale happily showed him a less-fat 199.6, which is the first time he’s been under 200 since BYU. Sadly, after a few Gatorades and lots of water, he’s back up to his normal weight. Mars and Lix teamed up to destroy Jarom, and contrary to her expectations, Lix hit a lot of really great shots. Jarom is excited about having his playing partner back.

Pictures from the blessing day

The Hegewalds short visit was also filled with some ward volleyball, a breakfast (appropriately enough) at Mimi’s, a trip to the children’s museum, and a barbeque with a bunch of families in the ward at the Anderson’s house. As an added bonus, the Andersons have about a dozen chickens, and Jenna and Kenna got to go into their cage and run around with them and hold them and generally enjoy themselves. Sunday was the blessing, and once again Jarom wimped out on giving his kid super powers. But he didn’t forget the name or drop the baby or anything else embarrassing, so we’ll call it a wash. And before Jenna was ready to lose two more story readers and before Lix was ready to lose two extra Bo holders, the grandparents had to go home. The consolation prize is that Lix got to take the two little ones out to Utah a few days later to spend some time with the other grandparents, leaving Jarom back in Virginia to celebrate Father’s Day using his nieces and nephews as surrogate children.

The grandparents and their temporary jobs

Jason and Annie were moving this weekend, and since Jarom had no family at home, he decided to jump in the car and drive up to lend a hand. Thanks in large part to the many favors the Winn family has done for others over the years, there was a lot of support from the locals and all of the moving activities went very quickly. The stuff from Bruce’s house and the stuff from their storage locker were all moved into the new home by about 2, which left a few hours to splash around in the pool before heading back over to Jason’s to put beds together and arrange couches and stuff. On Father’s Day morning Jamie made Jarom a great waffle breakfast, and Hailey even made him a little card. Then he drove back to Richmond to eat dinner with Nate and Kenz. It sure is nice to have so much family around even when the family isn’t around.

One of Jenna's favorite games - Wear Dad's Shoes

Here are a few funny Jenna developments. Jenna and Kenna are hilarious, and have taken to calling each other by their full names: Jenna Bear and Kenna Bug. Since all four parents call both kids by both names (Jenna Bear, Jenna Bug, Kenna Bear, Kenna Bug), nobody is quite sure how they decided who would get which name extension, but listening to them call each other those names is about the cutest thing in the world. Jarom has since tried to teach Jenna that her actual middle name is Marie, but she doesn’t seem to believe him. Jenna has also started to show her imagination in new ways recently. The past few weeks there have been frequent appearances of a lion around the house. The first few times that she “saw” this lion it was paired with a request for mom or dad to make him go away, presumably because he was a scary lion. Once Jarom got tired of going into rooms to scare the lion away he told Jenna to go and talk to the lion to find out if he is friendly. She did, and it turns out that he is. So then she would tell them that there was a lion in the shower, and go and have a conversation with the lion. Funny stuff. She is also showing signs that she might be ready to give potty training a shot. Lix has decided to try it when they get back from Utah. We are all cautiously optimistic. It sure would be nice to get one of these kids out of diapers. Cross your fingers for us.

On this morning Jarom was up early with Jenna and told her to play with her animals and read her books until Mom came in to get her so that Lix could sleep in a little. This was the scene when Lix went into her room.

All buckled up and ready for the first leg of her trip to Utah, with Fufu and Finago, of course