Happy Black History Month everybody! Alixa has spent the month coming down from her Utah Vacation high. For the most part things are the way they were before the trip, but there have been a couple of major changes. One of the first things that Jarom noticed when his family came back was the subtle influence that Kristi had on his wife and daughter. Alixa has been kicking up the fanciness quotient on her wardrobe, and even got a box of Kristi’s old clothes to add to her lineup. Most disturbingly, she has begun to wear leggings in place of pants. I’m sure that Kristi would be proud. As for Jenna, she has become a little more of a girly girl. I don’t know if that is directly attributable to Kristi, but I will blame her anyway. In fact, just yesterday Jenna was playing with some toy animals and her little plastic Simba fell on the floor next to a cobweb. As she was reaching for it she asked Lix what the cobweb was and was told it was a spider web. This immediately changed things and she was afraid to pick Simba up. After a few minutes she was able to extract him by gently gripping his tail and pulling him away from the cobweb, in the same way you might try to carefully remove a piece of cheese from an armed mouse trap.
Jenna likes to wear Lixi's "fancy" shoes. Lix has nightmares of when Jenna will be a teenager.
Thanks for the miles of bubble wrap Grandma. We are still working on popping it all.
One of Jenna's favorite things to do is "help" Lix bake by eating batter
Bo is in that stage of life where two weeks seems like an eternity and you can’t even believe that this is the same person he was last month. Sadly, he forgot the one trick that he knew while he was out west and will no longer stand on Jarom’s hand. Fortunately, he has replaced that trick with his new disappearing act. If you set him somewhere and then turn around to do something, he will vanish. He then reappears in other rooms, under tables, in the bathroom, or standing alongside a couch or the coffee table. He has become very fond of being upright, and seems like he is well on his way toward walking, which will only bring more trouble. He still hasn’t stopped smiling and loves to chat with you and will happily wave goodbye when you leave.
We have been watching a lot of the "Jungle Book". This is his best Mowgli impression.
Trouble!
Trouble!
He tried to go to sleep on the llama rug. It is so soft.
The house has been battling a winter bug the past week or so, and Jenna got hit the hardest. She was pretty bad for a few days, which were mostly spent watching movies on the couch and taking naps and doing a lot of coughing and sneezing. There wasn’t any throwing up, which is a huge plus, but the poor little girl had the saddest sick eyes I’ve ever seen. She had a lot of trouble sleeping through the nights so Lix set up the pack and play in her room to minimize the amount of distance a parent had to cover to help her when she would wake up. Jenna has lately been waking up crying loudly, which is a little sad and a little funny. The things that upset vary greatly, from bugs in her bed to frogs to shadows to not being able to turn the fan off. Sometimes she makes a little sense and sometimes she makes no sense, but usually you just need to give her a hug for a minute or two and she’ll calm down and fall back asleep. One time Lix went in there to find her crying and trying to get out of her bed through one of her windows. Lix asked her what was wrong and she sobbed that she couldn’t get her door open. Lix told her that wasn’t the door and laid her back down. Her imagination is incredibly overactive. It’s sad that she is scared of whatever it is, but the way that she relates those fears to you just makes you laugh.
Oh so sick.
So what if it is sunny and 65 degrees. She will still wear her owl hat.
Lix made her a belt for her beanie babies that she wore around all day long
Lix celebrated her 27th birthday in Utah, but then had an encore event with her girlfriends when she got back. Ever since we moved here to Dallas her social agenda has been through the roof. This is the first time since college that she has had a large group of girls who are in the same life situation, and she is taking full advantage. It seems like she is doing something with somebody almost every day and usually one or two nights a week. She’s also been babysitting Kenna a lot recently. Jenna loves that, although the two of them occasionally have disputes. One day last week they were hanging out having a good time and Jenna referred to Kenna as Kenna Wee, because she says her L’s like a W. This upset Kenna, who corrected Jenna’s pronunciation. Jenna replied, “that’s what I said, Kenna Wee.” This toddler version of Who’s on first continued for a few minutes, with Alixa’s gleeful encouragement. We have since run the same routine with Jenna using other words that she can’t quite say, and the results are hilarious every time.
Home Depot has the BEST carts.
Valentine’s Day also came and went, and Jarom celebrated it by watching Breaking Dawn, Part I with Lix. This was a significant sacrifice on his part. He went into the viewing with very low expectations for the film, based on what he had seen in previous Twilight movies and his general disdain for sappy love filled teenage vampire romances and bad Kristen Stewart acting. Somehow, the movie still managed to disappoint him. And yet he has no doubt that he will end up watching Part II whenever that gets released. In case anyone was wondering whether or not Jarom loves his wife, there you go.
It’s February everybody, which means that it is once again time for some Deity-sanctioned basketball games! When it comes to church basketball games Jarom always has two clear goals going in: Win the game and drive someone on the other team crazy. He doesn’t always win, but he is batting pretty close to 1.000 on the other front. And this season hasn’t been any different. Going into tonight’s game the team was 1-1 and Jarom had sufficiently bothered at least 2 people. If anybody wants to remember some of Jarom (and Nate’s) past glory, you can read about this little girl.
Tonight’s game had a dire outlook from the start. There were only 4 players, so they had to make the coach (usually a player but with a damaged knee from last week) fill in wearing his jeans and unable to move faster than a brisk walk. But the shots were falling, and the other team played a passive zone defense which allowed them to milk a lot of clock to catch their breath and get a fifth, mobile player there. With a few seconds left in the first half they were up by 5. Then the real game started. Whiny McTemper, the other team’s point guard, got the rebound and pushed the ball up the court, with Jarom playing tight defense. He hit a great 3-pointer at the buzzer and proceeded to yell “Get off me!” Jarom responded by letting him know how tough he thought he was. This prompted some chirping from Whiny, and Jarom knew that he had found his target.
The forces of good held a small but consistent lead throughout the second half, and Jarom worked on Whiny every chance he got. The steam was building. With 3:00 left they had a 1 point lead and the ball. Jarom and others dribbled around for about a minute and then called a timeout. Then they did it again. So there is now about a minute to play. After some more time killing there is a wide open layup that is taken and missed, and two players simultaneously grab the rebound. It is Nate and Whiny. It is clearly a jump ball, but neither of them will let go for like 3 or 4 seconds as they roll around on the ground. Finally Nate gets off of Whiny, who is going crazy and looks like he is going to throw a punch. So Jarom, the unlikely voice of reason, steps between the two to avoid anything crazy. What could possibly upset Whiny more than Jarom holding him back? Nothing. So he shoves Jarom and explains to him in his best 3rd grade vocabulary that he is not to put his hands on him.
So it is bad guy’s ball with 10 seconds to play. They run a play; guy takes a shot, misses the shot and calls foul. Whiny starts screaming about how it was an intentional foul and how he can’t believe that they would stoop so low. He has sufficiently blown his top that one of his teammates declares that he is no longer interested in playing with him and walks off. So now they have 4 players and only a few seconds. They pass the ball in and time runs out, at which point one of the players (we’ll call him Whiny Junior) punts the ball towards the stage at the other end, you know, where the wives and children are sitting. Jarom comments on the maturity level of said action. This prompts Whiny to throw a punch at him. It landed on his shoulder, so no harm done. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he had no intention of hitting Jarom’s face, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if his right cross is just as bad as his jumper (bazinga.)
The game is now over, but Whiny is just getting warmed up. He starts up complaining to Jarom’s bishop, who was one of the players in the game. He says that it is embarrassing that a bishop would condone such terrible sportsmanship by members of his congregation. Whiny clearly doesn’t understand irony. The bishop wisely ignored him. So Whiny had to resort to passive-aggressive loud conversations that were with other people but really directed at the bishop repeatedly threatening to “call your stake president!”
Actual picture of Whiny McTemper
Most of the people go home, and a few, including Jarom, stay to play some pickup games. Whiny sits in the gym for about 15 minutes, despite everybody asking him to go home and cool off. Finally he leaves, but pokes his head back in 15 minutes later. It turns out that he and some buddies were just waiting outside for the pickup game to end so that they could confront the bishop and/or Jarom. They were once again asked to leave, and seemed to. After the pickup game ended Jarom left with a few other guys, wary of getting jumped. And as he got in his car and began pulling out of the church he saw another car on the other side of the lot turn on its lights and start moving. Undoubtedly this was those same idiots with the genius plan to follow him home, harass him on the road, who knows what. Even though they probably wouldn’t have done anything other than talk tough and try to intimidate him, Jarom figured it was a smarter move to just avoid them altogether. So he easily evaded their tailing efforts and made sure they didn’t stay with him as he went home.
All in all, a pretty awesome night. I will never cease being amazed at how emotional people get over things that are as trivial and meaningless as a loosely organized stake pickup basketball tournament with no awards or prizes of any kind. I’m just sad that nobody got it on film.
It’s been a long time. That’s because this place has been very quiet for the past 2 weeks while Alixa and the kids were in Utah visiting all the people they know there. I thought about chronicling Jarom’s days, but “Goes to work, comes home, goes to the gym, watches TV, reads a book, goes to bed” repeated 17 times seemed boring. So now that they are back and have some adorable pictures to put up, I’ll catch you up on the last few weeks.
This is where Jenna can be found every afternoon, just like a cat
Let’s start with the day before they left. It was a pretty conventional day and Jarom arrived home from work to find Alixa doing something on the computer, Jenna arranging her animals on the steps so they could each take their nap, and Bo just waking up from his nap upstairs. Jarom went up with Jenna to get her brother. As Jarom was pulling Bo out of the crib Jenna told him she was going back downstairs. A few seconds later a thumping began. It lasted about 3 seconds, which is the exact amount of time it takes for Jenna for fall all the way down the stairs, courtesy of her blue monkey and Fufu, who tripped her up on the top stair. She was pretty banged up, but nothing too serious. It didn’t take more than a few seconds before Alixa remembered that she had scheduled a photoshoot in Utah and cursed the heavens for once again ruining her daughter’s face right before pictures. She ended up with a pretty good black eye, but the pictures turned out perfect, as you’ll see later.
All her animals, each with its own step for a nap. And the aftermath.
The day of her flight Lix brought the kids to Jarom’s office so that he could drop them off at the airport. His coworker, Dani, loves fat babies and is always excited by the prospect of getting to see Bo. So she came down to say hi to him. But apparently Bo hates Mexicans (Dani is part Mayan) because as soon as he saw her he began screaming bloody murder and wouldn’t stop until she had removed herself from his field of vision, and by that I mean that she had to go back inside the building. It was crazy, and something that Jarom had never seen before. Usually Bo is such a laid back kid, but he totally lost it. But after Dani was gone he calmed back down. So then Jarom dropped them off at the airport, and since Jarom and I weren’t invited, I’m gonna let Alixa take over and tell you all what happened.
This is what happens when you keep a 2-year old out until 9:30 every night
We flew out of Dallas from Love Field airport which is the absolute smallest airport I have ever been in. It was super nice, though because no one was there and it seemed all the employees showed up to work just for me and my kids. Security still took forever because I had a lot of stuff, two kids and a stroller. Everyone was very nice and apparently I don’t look dangerous because they let me through with bottles of water, containers of ready to feed formula and baby food without even checking it. They did, however thoroughly rub down my stroller to make sure it was safe. I was a little frazzled and ended up leaving our carry-on suitcase at security. I realized it only when I got to our gate and felt a little lighter. But I retrieved the suitcase and we made it onto our flight with no problems. The kids were really good on the way out there. Jenna slept for about two hours of the second flight and Bo slept for about 30 minutes. Other than that I spent the whole time trying to keep Bo on my lap and Jenna watched videos on my phone. Our flight was supposed to be 3 hours from Memphis, but ended up being four and a half because we were trying to fly around some weather that was moving into Utah. So by the end we were all done, but there was no crying from either kid, so it was a success!
Once we got to Utah, we were all so excited to see Grandma waiting for us. Thanks to the modern day marvel that is video chatting, neither kid missed a beat when it came to Grandma. Jenna climbed right on up to her lap and started chatting away with her and Bo allowed her to hold him while I got all the bags. It was a late night, but the kids fell right to sleep once we got home.
The next day was Sunday and Jenna woke up requesting to go outside and build a snowman. No one in the house was interested in going outside, so Grandma, being the genius that she is, got a bowl full of snow and helped Jenna make a snowman on the kitchen counter. She used raisins for eyes, and toothpicks for arms, and even put a curly ribbon necklace on him. Jenna thought it was great and so did we because we got to stay inside. We went to church at one and knowing Bruce and Nancy I was all geared up to stay for three hours of church in a different ward with two tired kids. So after Sacrament meeting I started taking Jenna to the nursery when Nancy looked at me and said “What are you doing? We aren’t staying” like I was crazy for even thinking about it! My jaw about hit the floor. Apparently they get enough church during the week being on a mission and only need an hour on Sundays. I didn’t complain one bit, packed my kids up and headed home. That night we were able to spend time with my Omi and Opa that live down the street from my in-laws. Jenna had a great time playing with her cousin, Eva and also my cousins Eliza and Colter. That may sound weird, but my cousins are actually 6 and 3 so it worked out. I loved catching up with my brothers, uncle, and grandma and grandpa. Jenna even put on a little performance of singing while my uncle Andy played the harmonica and piano. Everyone loved it. We followed that with a mean game of Mexican Train Dominoes and called it a night.
The next week was spent going to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point with all of my old roommates and their kids on Monday. Tuesday Bo got a haircut and Jenna got to play in some real snow and helped David shovel the sidewalk. We also went to the Church History children’s museum on Tuesday. It is a wonderful FREE place to take your kids if you are ever in Salt Lake City. There was a lot to do. Jenna loved building Nephi’s ship, playing on the touch screen computers, building a “temple” out of blocks, driving a car, feeding the missionaries with food she picked from the garden and eggs she pulled from the hens. We also got to dress up in authentic Mexican garb and dance some Mexican dances. It was awesome. Tuesday night I left the kids with Nancy and I went to a craft night at my old roommate’s house. We tried to make paper heart wreaths but only Laura’s turned out cute. It was still a lot of fun to hang out and chat with some of my favorite people.
Wednesday we got the kids up early and bathed them and got them ready for their photo shoot at FotoFly. My sister-in-law had taken her kids there when she was out in Utah and I fell in love with the pictures so I scheduled an appointment for my kids. The studio did not disappoint. They are so reasonably priced and our photographer did an AMAZING job with the kids. I got real smiles out of both of them and I even got pictures of them together without Jenna crying because Bo was touching her. It was a miracle! I am in love with my pictures. After pictures, we did some shopping, ate at Chick-fil-a and went home. That night we did some more shopping where Aunt Kristi (her fanciest aunt. I know that doesn’t even offend her other aunts because Kristi is super fancy) helped her pick out the tackiest and shiniest purse I have ever seen. She then picked out some sunglasses and a little mirror to put inside the purse. She walked all over the mall with her sparkly purse and her oversized sunglasses. She was quite the diva.
The rest of the week was pretty low key. Bo spent his time at home sleeping and perfecting his army crawl. He can now go wherever he wants whenever he wants. It is really fun to see the places he ends up. I love his newfound independence as it keeps him entertained for longer stretches. Jenna hates his newfound independence because he usually finds something to do with the toy she is playing with. The first time this happened she had a MAJOR meltdown. She has since learned that if Bo is near to move her toy to a higher elevation, or she just abandons the toy completely, surrendering before he can ruin whatever it is she is doing. Once in a blue moon, she will actually play with him when he crawls over and it is probably one the most exciting and rewarding things I have gotten to experience as a parent. I love watching them playing and laughing together. Jenna spent her time at home walking on the treadmill (which she figured out how to turn on and off by herself), playing with the plethora of stuffed animals grandma Nancy has at her house and pushing them around in the toy shopping cart, reading books, and playing with the missionaries that are constantly in and out of the mission home. Jenna grew particularly fond of the APs. The two weeks we were there were the two weeks before transfers, so the assistants were there every day. Jenna became best friends with Ewdew Wawson and Ewdew Cawdewwood. If they were there, she was constantly asking them to chase her around the house, which they more than willingly agreed to. If they weren’t there, she asked where they were and if they would play with her when they got there. It was really cute.
One Saturday I was lucky enough to take David’s ticket (he had to go out of town for a school interview) to go see Brian Regan. He was hilarious and I had a lot of fun going. Another Saturday the kids and I and Nancy went down to Kristi’s salon in Springville and got our hair and nails done. Jenna loved getting pampered. She picked out blue for her toes and purple and green for her fingers. Kristi gave her a super cute haircut and the while the rest of us were busy, she played with my phone. Bo took a nap in one of the massage rooms for the entire afternoon which was very nice of him. Another thing we did was eat dinner with my old roommates again. We had wonderful chicken tacos and played just dance on the PlayStation Kinect. It was awesome. Jenna loved it. I liked it too, but it turns out I am a horrible dancer.
Eating breakfast with David, and a chair for each of her animals
This is where Bo can be found these days: grabbing everyone's ankles
Thursday was my actual birthday. It was spent spending a little bit more time with my grandparents and shopping. Kristi came up from Orem to help me buy by birthday present. She again showed that she was Jenna’s fanciest aunt by dressing her up in a cute outfit made complete with a scarf and a super high side ponytail. She also put blush and lipstick on her and Jenna kept telling people how fancy she was all day. I got a heart rate monitor and some workout clothes for my birthday, which might not sound very exciting, but it was exactly what I wanted. We had so much fun together all afternoon. She was a big help with my kids all vacation and I loved all the time I got to spend with her. That night for dinner, we ordered Olive Garden and my brothers and one of my roommates came up to hang out with me. Jenna got to spend some more time with Eva and I had a lot of fun chatting and playing Bohnanza with Zak, Sam, and Abe. It was probably one of the best birthdays I have ever had.
Jenna likes to wear Lixi's "fancy" shoes. Lix has nightmares of when Jenna will be a teenager.
