This and That

The Winn family has been a little bit sick lately, so there have been a lot of sniffly noses and coughing, and today poor little Jenna has been throwing up about every half hour since 6 am. But that hasn’t kept them from enjoying the Halloween season. Lix thought long and hard about this year’s costumes and finally decided on a pair of M&Ms. Jenna is green and Bo is blue. I will go ahead and point out that the costumes are hand-made by Lix, from the dying of the clothes to the application of the Ms to the construction of Jenna’s tutu. So hats off to her. (Halloween pics to come!)

Just a shot from Jenna's photo shoot.

The other October staple is the trip to the pumpkin patch. The patch they visited was about 40 minutes away from home and was actually two patches that border one another. They realized it was two distinct operations after parking in the one that had free parking and charged for rides. Then they had to jump the fence over to the one that charged for parking and had free rides. Earlier in his life Jarom would have thought that this was a great plan. But with Jenna and Lix and Bo in his stroller, he would have rather just paid the few dollars for parking. Jenna had a pretty good time at the patch, even though it felt more like August than October. There were bounce houses to jump on, lots of pumpkins and scarecrows to look at, a tractor pulled train to go on, and a pony that wanted to be ridden. They stuck around for a few hours, Lix tried her hardest to get a picture of her children that she was satisfied with, and on the way home they stopped at the grand opening of the Costco next door to get some pizza and a hot dog.

Jenna and her pony, Poco.

We also experienced a pretty fierce Texas thunderstorm last week. The rain and hail pounding on the tin roof over the back porch woke Lix up in the middle of the night, and the frequent lightning and loud thunder kept her up for a little while. In the morning as everyone was getting ready for church Jarom noticed that one section of the backyard fence had been blown over, so he had to get Nate to stop by and help him get it back up.

Jenna posing on the steps

Jenna has continued to do pretty well with the potty training, mostly thanks to the strong encouragement she gets from her mother. On day 3 or so of the training, Alixa decided that Jenna knew what she was doing and that there needed to be some negative consequences to going to the bathroom in her panties. So the cold bath rule was instituted. Whenever Jenna fails to use the toilet, she has to take a cold bath. Lix figured that she was going to have to wash her off anyway, so she might as well make it an unpleasant experience. Depending on the face you are making right now as you read this, you may or may not believe the faces that people have made at her as she tells them about her method, but you can’t argue with the results. She has only had to take 3 cold baths, and she definitely tries her hardest to avoid them. For his part, Jarom says that cold water never hurt anyone, except those guys who had to carry people across the frozen Mississippi river. He had to take cold showers for two years in Peru and it turned out okay for him. Feel free to tell Alixa what a bad mother she is, but know that she isn’t going to change for you.

Jenna doin' her business. Like father, like daughter.

Speaking of Lix, she has started going to the gym again with the kids. We originally got a membership at 24 hour fitness, but the daycare there was pretty shabby, so we switched to the Frisco Athletic Club and are very pleased with the decision. Lix has also been pretty active on our new grill, the one that came with the house. She is excited to expand her cooking repertoire and Jarom enjoys the addition of grilled things into his menu. She also spends a lot of her time complaining about how bad her fantasy football team is this year. This is mostly because after week one Jarom tried to give her Fred Jackson and Calvin Johnson in exchange for Chris Johnson, and she declined. I apologize for that last sentence, because I know that none of you care about the Winn’s fantasy teams, but years from now when Jarom reads this he will snicker.

Jenna loves to bake things for her daddy. I think its because she likes to take licks from the bowl. We made him coffee cake. She loved the brown sugar topping!

Now that things are starting to get settled in and in a routine Lix has started asking about home improvement projects. There are several rooms that she wants to paint, and some landscaping that she wants to change. Also there is one addition to the family that Jenna keeps asking about. When we were all still in Richmond Lix told Jenna that when we moved to Texas she could get a kitty and a purple room. Well she has latched onto those ideas so strongly that I’m not sure she really believes that she is in Texas yet. She has decided that she would like a blue kitty, but that a yellow one would also be acceptable. It will be named Beartoy, and it will be sooo nice. So one of these days I guess there will be another pet in the house. I’m not thrilled about cats, but I hear they keep to themselves, so I suppose I can handle it.

For some reason, Jenna loves to lounge on our stairs. On this day, her baby needed to lounge too.

And now a story from Lix:
A couple times a week, I take the kids on a jog to the park that is close to our house. Jenna often wants to run with me, and usually ends up running about a mile. She runs the whole time, never getting tired. It is actually quite amazing. Today on our run, she fell down and skinned both of her knees. They were bleeding and she was a little sad, and so she rode in the stroller for about four seconds until she wanted to run again. When we got home, I asked if she wanted a band aid to put on her booboos. I didn’t want her bleeding on the couches. She said yes, so I brought over two band aids and started to put them on her cuts. She started crying because she thinks that band aids on her booboos will hurt them. Instead, she asked if I could put them on her arms. So, for the cuts on her knees, she has band aids on her arms, and she insists that now they feel better. Silly girl.

Quotes

Alixa falls down.
Jenna: Are you okay mommy? It’s okay that you fell. Don’t cry. Don’t cry about it mommy. Just be a big girl, and don’t cry.
(Note from Alixa – I wasn’t actually crying)

Alixa: Jenna you need to listen, you are driving me crazy!
Jenna: (crying) No! I just want to drive you crazy!

Jenna loves to try on Lix's shoes. On this day she came out and said, "Look mommy, ice cream cone shoes!"

Most of Bo's recent pics are in the last post, but here is one more just to prove that it isn't all about Jenna.

Baby Bo is Six Months Old!

Baby Bo at six months old

On Friday, my baby boy turned six months old. He is about the cutest thing ever, and we love him a lot. He is a very happy baby, and really never cries. Well, he cries when he gets hurt, like when Jenna accidentally jumps on him or when I accidentally drop a hymn book on his face at church. But other than that, the happiest baby ever. He is very laid back and patient and loves me even though sometimes I get so caught up with Jenna that I ignore him a little bit.

Sitting in his highchair, waiting for some food

He loves to eat "real" food and will scarf down his oatmeal and pears in about 60 seconds flat. He eats baby food three times a day and is getting good enough that sometimes he doesn't even need a bib. He sits up really well all by himself and can grab toys and play with them. He babbles, and says mamama if he is sad. He is a very curious little baby and feeding him a bottle is getting increasingly difficult as he likes to look at everything and wiggles so much he slides off my lap. He loves his new exersaucer we bought him and will play in it for a really long time.

He is a master at standing on Dad's hands

He is a super sleeper, and sleeps 12 hours every night. He is a trooper during the day when he doesnt get as many naps as he would like because we are busy doing other things. Even if he is tired he is still a happy baby. He smiles at everyone and everything. He giggles too, and it is really cute. His favorite people to laugh at are Jenna and Kenna, because they are the best at playing peek-a-boo. He is proficient at rolling, and likes to be on his tummy. But sometimes he gets tired of being on his tummy and just lays his head down on the floor.

He insists on sleeping with a blanket on his face. It freaks me out too.

He really likes Jenna, and Jenna is getting better at liking Bo. She doesnt really pay much attention to him but gets very concerned if we go somewhere and Baby Bo isn't around. She is constantly keeping me updated on his state of alertness in the back of the car..."Mommy, Baby Bo is asleep." Or "Mommy, Baby Bo is awake!" She has recently started to want to give him hugs, which is super cute until Bo grabs hold of her hair and wont let go and she starts to cry. But while she is crying she tells me that "its ok, because he is just a little tiny baby and he doesnt know any better". She is constantly telling people that Baby Bo is her best friend, which is very sweet.

Bo giving Jenna too much love. Jenna not loving Bo's lovin'.

Bo is growing like a weed and has his six month check up tomorrow. I am guessing he is around 18 or 19 pounds, which sounds huge, but his dad weighed that much at 4 months, so I guess we are doing ok. We love this little boy so much and are so glad he came to join us! Happy half birthday, Baby Bo!

Big D

They say that everything is bigger in Texas, and based on our experience thus far, they are mostly right. But the thing that seems to be the biggest these days is baby Bo, a name that might not be appropriate for much longer. I guess somewhere between the middle of August, when the move preparation really got started, and now that kid has really gotten huge. And with all that has been going on around this house I guess it has sort of flown under the radar. But he is doing all sorts of big things, like rolling over and talking and standing on Jarom’s hands. He has also gotten pretty good at eating solid foods and doesn’t ever seem to be full. He has realized that he lives in a house with two very loud females and has developed a velociraptor shriek that allows him to make himself part of the discussion, and he uses it with frightening regularity. And he continues to be a very cute, very smiley, very easygoing baby, which is good because he has been relegated once again to the back burner by his older sister.



That’s because Jenna and Lix have undertaken potty training this week. Lix read a book about how to potty train your kid in 3 days and chose Monday-Wednesday of this week to give it a shot. I must say, the results have been surprisingly good. There have been a few accidents and Lix has been pushed to her breaking point, but Jenna has generally figured out how to successfully use the potty and is very excited about the stickers that she gets when she goes and the reward that comes when she fills up her sticker chart. On Wednesday evening after a long day stuck in the house and a couple of very frustrating accidents, Lix left Jarom with the kids so she could go get a haircut. Things went smoothly for about 30 minutes and then the wheels came off. Jenna was jumping on the couch, despite Jarom’s repeated requests that she not. One of her jumps was a little more than she could handle and *boom* she was on the ground with a bloody nose. She was obviously very upset and began sobbing, so Jarom picked her up and tried to make her feel better. Some of you may be able to predict what happened next. Jenna continued to cry harder and harder, until she puked all over herself and Jarom. Luckily, Jarom was able to contain the vomit to his clothes and person, but now had to try and carry Jenna up the stairs to the bathtub without shifting her body to allow barf to fall onto the floor. Somehow he managed to do it and got Jenna washed off and sitting in the tub. He then went back downstairs to check on Blake, who was now 10 minutes overdue for a bottle. He was crying a little now, because he was hungry and doesn’t really like being left alone. So Jarom quickly made him a bottle and toted him up to the bathroom, where he sat on the ledge of the tub and made Bo hold his own bottle while he bathed Jenna. It was getting late, so after he finished the bottle Jarom put him to bed and then was able to finish taking care of Jenna and getting her ready for bed, again. They were reading some stories when Lix got back. She makes it look so easy, this taking care of two little kids and not letting them die, but it is much harder than it looks.



Potty training is really the last step that is keeping Jenna from truly becoming a big girl. It has been interesting to watch her relationship with her parents lately. More and more she is becoming like a friend of theirs. During the move in she was quite helpful. Jarom gave her a large pile of little things that she could take into the house one at a time and she carried everything in her pile inside and up the stairs. When she goes to the store with Lix to help with the shopping they chat like girlfriends. She is also becoming very imaginative. She regularly puts her animals and baby dolls to sleep and feeds them elaborate meals. She has also started playing with things as if they were another. Rocks in the back yard become buggies that need to be fed leaves and have conversations with the other buggies that she has collected. Hangers become babies that need to be put to bed at naptime. It is pretty cool to watch her little mind go and see the things that it comes up with.

One thing that is definitely NOT bigger in Texas is the distance between our house and the other Winn Residence. That has been cut in half. Which is nice at 6:20 in the morning when Jarom leaves to go pick up Nate and head to work. They have decided to work a 7-4 shift in an effort to avoid heavy traffic and get home a little earlier to see the childrens. It is certainly the right decision, but Jarom is not thrilled about having to get up almost 90 minutes earlier than he used to. He did spend his birthday money on a spiffy new pair of sunglasses to protect his eyes from the big Texas sun on his drives home.

The rest of the week has been filled with all sorts of little errands and tasks. Lix and the kids came down to Jarom’s office for lunch one day and got to meet some of Jarom’s coworkers. Jarom made a trip to the dumpster to get rid of the last of the boxes that needed to be unpacked. The family went down to the local 24-hour Fitness and unfroze Jarom’s account so that he can once again work out at weird times. Lix can’t drop Bo off at the day care until he is six months old, so she still has to wait another week. We got the carpets cleaned, after seriously considering replacing them and then realizing that it was a little too expensive for us to do right now. So instead we got a new area rug for the family room, and it looks amazing. Jenna has continued to do great with the potty training, and has received a rocking horse and a new playhouse as rewards for her good behavior. Both were finds that Lix made on craigslist, which will make Brooke so proud.

The Winns also attended their new ward. It was pretty standard Mormon stuff, except that this is a ward that is dominated by young families. So there are 3 nurseries and about 120 kids in the primary. It makes for a loud sacrament meeting, but will sure be nice when Jenna has so many friends her age at church.

Here are some funny things that Jenna has said lately.

Alixa: Let’s put on your sunshine shirt, and then we will put your sweatshirt over that.
Jenna: Oh, that will be amazing!

Alixa: Jennabear, I love you
Jenna: No, I’m just eatin right now

Alixa put Jenna down for a nap today, and she didn’t sleep. She was singing very loudly and doing bum drops which were making huge thudding noises. So Lix went to investigate and noticed Jenna had thrown all of her animals out of bed. Lix asked her why she did that, and she said Pete had said "NO!" to her so she put him in time out by throwing him out of the crib.

Jenna: Mommy, I’m sweet like a popcorn ball

The Travelling Pants

When we left off last the Winn family was crashing at Winn Manor in Delaware. That went on for a wonderful two weeks. Alixa and Jenna were thrilled to have Jarom around all day long, and everybody had a great time hanging out with lots of cousins and stuff. Jarom and Lix pawned their kids off on some doting aunts and played a round of golf together, there were family dinners and trips to malls to go shopping with the girls and swimming in the hot tub and swinging on the swing set and consoling JD while watching BYU games. All the wonderful things we have come to expect from a Delaware visit. And after a few weeks of not being a productive member of society, Jarom was actually pretty excited about the prospect of getting back to work and getting into his new job. So on Friday he helped pack up Carlotta and sent Lix, Jenna, Bo, and I westward towards Ohio, while he loaded up his car for the trip southward towards Dallas. As you might imagine, Alixa’s trip of 6 hours with 2 kids did not go nearly as smoothly as Jarom’s trip of 24 hours with 0 kids. I will let Alixa share her thoughts.

When I was talking to my mom one day about our plans while we were homeless, I mentioned that we would be spending our time in Delaware. It was only a four hour drive, there was lots of space for us, and Jenna had cousins there she could play with all day every day. It was a perfect place to be for three weeks until we could get to Texas. But my mom suggested that I spend some of the time in Cleveland with her so she could see her Grandkids one more time before they move so far away. I reminded her that it was an 8 hour drive to her house, not something I was willing to drive by myself. She said she would fly in and drive with me, so I agreed that we would go to Delaware for 2 weeks, and then come see her the last week. Well, a few days later, she said since I was now driving from Delaware, a drive that can be done in 6 hours, she was not going to spend the money to fly in. I said ok, thinking I have driven 5 hours by myself before, what is one more hour? So Friday the 23rd I packed up the car and the kids and headed out to Cleveland.
It was raining, which is no fun to drive in and I was hoping it would stop before we had to stop to feed children and change diapers. But unfortunately, it didn’t stop. It got worse and as we stopped for gas and a sobbing Bo, the rain was coming down in sheets. I stopped in a parking lot to feed Bo squished in the backseat of the car, but now Jenna was crying because she was tired and hungry, and that upset Bo, so he did eat, he just cried. So we were all crying in the cramped backseat of our car as the rains came down. I finally calmed Bo down enough to get him to eat, and promised Jenna something (I don’t remember what) if she would stop crying. After feeding Bo, we drove over to a gas station, thank goodness for covered gas pumps! I filled up the car and proceeded to change Jenna’s diaper. I pulled her out of her seat, and she was soaked. She had peed through all of her clothes. I started to panic because her suitcase was buried in the back of the car and I would have had to unpack most of the car to get her some new clothes. But, as I looked down, I saw the jammies that she had worn the night before that I didn’t pack in the suitcase, but had just thrown into the front seat on my way out of the door. They were a small miracle to me, just sitting there, I almost cried for joy. So, I put her clothes on her and then tried to decide what to do about lunch. Jenna was hungry, and I had minimal food in the car, but I couldn’t get both kids out of the car and into a restaurant without all of us getting soaked. So I settled on an Arby’s, the only fast food place at the exit, and got Jenna some French fries, and me a roast beef sandwich. Not the greatest lunch, but we were back on the road.
As I was looking at the route to take to my mom’s house, I decided to go up to I80 instead of taking the Pennsylvania turnpike (I 76) so that I could avoid Pittsburg and all of the construction going on around the city. I did not realize that to get up to 80 was a small road with not very many lanes. It was slow moving for a little while but we finally made it to 80 and I was excited to be moving at freeway speeds again. We were cruising pretty well for maybe 30 minutes, and then everything stopped. Literally, stopped. We weren’t even inching along. About ten minutes of just sitting there, people started getting out of their cars to walk up and see what was going on. I asked a trucker and he said there were two major accidents, one after the other, and that was why we were stopped. So I took the opportunity to sit in the back and hold Bo and play with the kids. We were stopped for a good hour and then started inching along. I assumed we had bypassed both accidents since we were stopped for so long, but that was not the case. We drove about 2 miles down the road, and stopped again. This time we were stopped for 2 hours. Not moving, just sitting. This time I was able to feed Bo again, change diapers, and get everyone ready for bed. I also fed Jenna her “dinner” of an m&m kudos bar, and some cheezits. She asked for real food, but that was literally all I had in my bag. So all in all, we were stopped for 3 HOURS. It made our journey and 11 hour trip instead of a 7 or 8 hour trip with stops. After we started moving again, the kids fell asleep and we were able to make it with no further problems. We pulled in around midnight. It was a terrible day of traveling, but we had survived. I learned a lesson… always have extra clothes available for the kids, and lots of food, just in case!

So it wasn’t the perfect drive. But they did make it safely to see Mimi and Opa. And sitting at the top of their list of things to do that week was visit the zoo. So on Saturday they stopped by to see all the animals and Jenna could not have been happier. She loved the elephants and tigers and monkeys, but her favorite exhibit, and not by a narrow margin, was the seals and sea lions. She spent a whole lot of time just staring at them while they swam around, completely transfixed. And when the group moved on to other animals, she repeatedly asked to go back to see the seals until her request was approved. The rest of the week was filled with game playing and visiting and tea. All the wonderful things we have come to expect from an Ohio visit.

Jenna's new unicorn slippersHiding in the corner

Bo, excited as always

Eating some carrots, just like the deer in Opa's back yard

While the family was enjoying the changing leaves in northern Ohio, Jarom was wondering why it was still in the high 90’s in Dallas. The job started pretty well, despite the general discomfort and lostness that accompanies any new job. There was a lot of orientation and filling out of forms to get the right key cards and computer programs and the like. But the people that he is working with seem very friendly and he is feeling pretty good about their decision to move. But after having so much time off, you can’t just jump right into a 5-day work week. So he got a Thursday night flight out of DFW to go to Cleveland and retrieve his family, and begin another two-day car drive. This one went much smoother than Lixi’s last one. It is amazing what a difference having a spare adult makes. And the fact that we avoided any accidents or major traffic jams didn’t hurt. We left Friday morning around 10 in the morning, and were pulling into Bob and Melissa’s house in Memphis about 12 hours later. At least we thought it was Bob and Melissa’s house. Jarom had stayed there the week before, but it was late and dark and their neighbor also has a large pickup truck in the driveway. So poor Lix had to awkwardly apologize to the strange man who answered the door but was nice enough to point us in the right direction.

Getting ready for the street corner

Hanging out at the seal exhibit

We got a good night’s rest and Jenna got to play with their puppy, Max. But we were very anxious to get to our new house so we didn’t stick around very long after the French toast ran out. Another 7 hours across the super-boring states of Arkansas and East Texas and we had reached our destination. The kids actually hit their breaking point about 45 minutes before we got to the house, so the last few miles weren’t the greatest, but I was pretty impressed with how well they did throughout the trip.

We pulled in and our PODS were waiting for us, and through the miracle of packing everything so tightly that there wasn’t any room left, nothing was broken. Jarom did need to enlist Alixa’s help as he opened them to help prevent a cartoon-like explosion of furniture and boxes upon their release. It took about a day and some help from Nate to get everything out of the cubes and into the house, and then about another week to get things out of the boxes and into their new places here. But after living in the house for one week, we are now down to just a handful of boxes here and there, mostly containing wall decorations and stuff that Alixa hasn’t chosen a spot for or Jarom hasn’t had the time to put up on the wall.

The early stages of the POD packing

In addition to getting the house organized Lix has been very active socially, attending playgroup one day and going out with some friends on another day. She also got Jarom to go over to the Combs’ house on Friday evening for pizza and to meet a few couples. Brooke Combs (Alixa tries to find a Brooke to be best friends with everywhere we live) even came over to play and help unpack on Wednesday. I had the honor of meeting her and her kids, although they didn’t really seem to like me. The Winns got introduced in church today and Jarom has found a weekly basketball game that he can get in, so I would say that they are adapting to the move rather well.

Jenna's new bed, and all her animals

Jenna's new playroom, complete with her own TV

Other than the fact that the previous owners had dogs that left behind some hair in the carpet, everyone is pretty excited about the house. Jenna loves her new big girl bed and is excited about climbing up the ladder to lay down every night. The upstairs play room is great for Jenna’s toys and it is nice that we can keep the downstairs a little more orderly. Jarom and Alixa love that they have enough closet space to hang up all their clothes and Jarom likes not having to share a sink with his wife. They have been having regular family dinners at the table in the kitchen instead of on the coffee table in front of the TV, which makes Lix happy. And both cars now fit in the garage, which makes them happy. There will be little modifications and adjustments that will need to be made for a while, but right now everyone is thrilled to be together and in a home that is our own as we all try to figure out what life will be like here in the lone star state.

And a few videos of what the kids have been learning lately