Spring is a busy time for aging around this house. We
usually stop celebrating Alixa’s birthday (February 2) sometime in late March,
which is also about the time she starts talking about her half-birthday that is
coming up. And since her next birthday is a big one (3-0) she is already
dropping hints about the blowout extravaganza surprise gala that she expects
Jarom to put together. She is going to be very disappointed. But there are also
some real birthdays to celebrate.
Jenna likes to pose these days
On April 5th our sweet, fat, little Emily finally
made it through her first 365 days. It really doesn’t seem that long ago that
Alixa had to miss Disney on Ice because she had started labor. To commemorate
the event Alixa actually attended Disney on Ice with Jenna and Bo and had a
blast. The kids liked it too. For Emmy’s actual birthday Jarom and Alixa left
the kids with Mimi and went to play a round of golf with Opa. That evening
Jenna had a night soccer game and scored her first goal, which Alixa missed.
She has since scored a few more and is very pleased with herself. Emily’s party
took place the day after her birthday, because she is 1 and has no concept of
birthdays and doesn’t even care a little bit. We had a few of her favorite
people come over for cupcakes and ice cream and to watch the older kids open
her presents for her. It was a great time.
Emily is currently our happiest child, and almost always has
a giant smile on her face. Unless she is hungry. Don’t mess with her when she
is hungry. She crawls around everywhere these days, and is quite speedy. She
goes up the stairs easily and is figuring out how to go down them. Her first
thought was to just fall down them, but she realized that hurts, so now she is
trying a foot-first technique that is admittedly slower, but doesn’t have the
same bad aftertaste. She is starting to stand by herself and take a step here
and there, so we think she will probably be walking pretty soon. She gives
great kisses and is always excited to see you, which just makes you feel great
every time. We sure are glad she is part of our little family.
This past month we also had a visit from our friends Heather
and Denver and their little girl. They came in for a few days and it was great
to see them. The highlight of their visit was probably the trip to Fort Worth
to see the stockyards. The kids got to watch a “real” cattle drive down the
street and see a great petting zoo and generally experience the Texas you might
imagine as a caricature. Lots of y’alls and boots and animals and jokes about
Obamacare.
Lix is going full swing into her calling in our new ward as
the party planner, and threw a great Easter Egg Hunt/Pancake breakfast
recently. She is still working on the logistics of these events. She purchased
6 giant syrup containers from Costco for it, and we left for home with about ½ of
one bottle used. But everyone had a great time and the Easter egg hunt was a
blast for all the little kids.
On the sports front Alixa wrapped up her regular season in
the volleyball league she is playing in, and her team was the champion. So she
gets a t-shirt. She has had a lot of fun playing and will probably do it again
in the future. Both Alixa and Jarom are playing softball, and while that team
is not in any danger of winning any championships, it can still be fun. Jarom
even recently hit an over-the-fence homerun, something that rarely happens.
Alixa was probably more impressed with that than she has been with any other
athletic feat Jarom has ever done. Jarom is also teaching some private lacrosse
lessons in exchange for some electrical work in the kitchen, so most Tuesday
evenings the whole family goes to a nearby park where Jarom yells at Zach Ogden
and Bo and Jenna play soccer and run around while Alixa and Emmy lounge on a blanket.
The weather this month has been wonderful, so nobody is complaining. Except
maybe Zach.
Jarom got some childhood toys from his mom and built some things for the kids
At Disney on Ice after a one year wait
It pains me to talk about this, but the story should
probably be told. A short while ago the Ogdens were over for dinner and someone
asked to hold me. At some point I got handed to Rob, who I am really not fond
of. I thought about biting him, but really wanted to avoid touching him as much
as possible, so instead I went to the bathroom on him. This was not my most
well thought out plan, as it also sort of ruined the area rug in the family
room. I do feel bad about that. Alixa tried to clean it, but was unable to get
the smell out, so we sold it on craigslist. And now we have a new, yellow area
rug in there. The best side effect of all this is that we needed to purchase a
new yellow bird to go on the mantle to match the new rug. Jarom just loves decorative
birds. They are his favorite.
And on April 21, our little Blake Owen finally finished with
the terrible twos. The transformation out of being a whiny, overly emotional,
troublesome toddler hasn’t exactly been instantaneous. But as difficult as he can
be sometimes he is just as cute and fun at other times. He loves to run around
and play with his sisters, both big and little. He loves his cars more than
just about anything. He is very particular about how he gets put to bed. He has
two blankets, one of which must be on him and the other has to be nearby. He
lays on Tank (a pillowpet) while Stitch (another pillowpet) lays on top of him.
Jarom usually has to lay by him, and there is a nightly negotiation about how
many minutes he should stay there. Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the
night, and he will come in to Mom and Dad’s room and stand next to one of them
and lightly rub their pillow until they wake up, never saying anything until
they speak to him first. We are also very glad that he is part of our little
family. Even though sometimes we want to kill him. Bo got to choose what he
wanted to do for his birthday and he chose Gatti Town, a Chuck-E-Cheese style
place. A few friends came, some pizza was had, and some games were played. It
was pretty awesome. And he got some cool new trucks and a Lightning McQueen
bike as presents, so it doesn’t get much better than that.
