Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

October has been a busy month around here. The last week of September was spent prepping the house for its new inhabitants by cleaning up and moving some furniture and changing the guest room from an oversized storage closet into a space that could actually house people. Jarom helped out with all the getting ready work and then took off for a few days to go to Madison, Wisconsin and get some training for his job. His timing could not have been better. During the few days he was gone Mario and PJ arrived, along with their U-Haul, which needed to be unpacked. As prescribed in Matthew, the task of moving them fell to the next youngest brother, who happened to be available and as strong as an ox. Some home teachers and other friends also helped briefly, but a big shout out to Nate for being so helpful.

The two older siblings

 Playing with cars

One of Bo's hiding spots

Riding Jarom's midlife crisis

Jenna's new dresser, painted by Lix

The new kitchen table

The last two weeks have been spent trying to figure out how our new living arrangements are going to work. It took a while to get all the furniture settled where it needs to go, but things are great now. The grandparents arrived bearing gifts in the form of a bookcase, a TV stand, a piano, and most importantly, the most awesomest kitchen table you can possibly imagine. Alixa has been looking forward to this day for at least a decade. It is an eight person round table with a lazy susan built into the center. In order to make room for it we had to ditch the table that was purchased when Lix and Jarom were first married. *Tear* As some of the new furniture takes its rightful place there has been a fire sale of Winn stuff on Craigslist. I guess Jarom just got a little wrapped up in it, because a few days ago he took Lix out furniture shopping without the kids and they came home with a purchase order for a new sectional. Gone are the black leather couch and chair that nearly killed Jenna. Gone is the world’s greatest coffee table (2^nd edition). And tomorrow in their place there will be a great new treasure. Merry Christmas, Alixa. Hopefully Jarom will get a raise at work to cover the expense.

The other great new thing here in Texas is the weather. The heat has broken, and we’ve entered into the wonderful phase of 80 degree weather, which will hopefully last until January. Pool hopping has been replaced with park hopping, and the family can take Sunday afternoon walks together without coming home drenched in sweat. Lix took the kids and the school group down to the pumpkin patch and pretty much let the kids do whatever they wanted. They came home filthy beyond imagination, but had a great time and each got to pick out a pumpkin. Bo loves them, and will hug them and carry them around the house if you let him.

Bo is getting pretty old. In fact, this Sunday will be his very first time attending nursery, which will be a very sad day for Alixa and Rob Ogden. For Alixa, it means that her little baby is growing up and that she will have to start going to class again in church. I’m pretty sure Rob isn’t going to start going to class, but he is going to lose a great playmate. Rob has sort of become Bo’s adopted dad, and he loves to sit with him during sacrament meeting and play with him in the halls during the other two hours. Rob has taught him how to play with cars and how to steal food from Reese and other such shenanigans. One of Bo’s favorite things to do these days is run to a bathroom and stand next to the toilet paper until a parent finds him and then start pulling the paper off. I’m not sure why or how, but Rob is probably to blame for that too.

Lesson 1: Trajectory equals velocity x launch angle / time

Hmmm...we're going to need a better ramp

Look at how well Bo is paying attention. Also notice that Rob is working 

so hard that he had to take off his jacket.

Jenna and Bo have also become quite bonded in their show watching. They love little einsteins and eagerly clap their hands along with the show and will remain entranced for 30 glorious minutes while Jarom or Alixa or I can get something done. Jenna is a great big sister, and helps Bo out with all the stuff that he can’t do. She is getting pretty smart and learning a lot of stuff in her thrice weekly schooling. She loves Jarom’s iPad, especially Where’s My Water?, or as she calls it, the alligator game. She usually plays a few levels before going to bed, and can often finish them entirely on her own with only some helpful verbal hints from her dad. Both of the kids love having Mimi around and are excited to have Opa return this evening. There’s a big trip to the state fair scheduled for Saturday and that should be a huge hit. Other than that we are all just trying to not step on each other’s toes too much and enjoy the fact that we get to have family so close to us. Check back in a few months and see if everyone is still alive.