To the trees!

Here in Texas we’ve wrapped up summer and moved into the best time of year, autumn. For many of you in other parts of the country this means jackets and hot chocolate, but for us it just means the highs are only in the low 90s. Woohoo! Alixa and the kids wrapped up summer in style in Delaware, enjoying the pool and also swimming as much as possible while laying by the pool. But our family is now old enough to have vacations dictated by school days, and Jenna could not have been more excited to start first grade.

One last beach hurrah in style 

Jenna does reasonably well at most things that she tries, but school has been far and away her best area. She looks forward to each day and seems to thrive in her class. She is good at making friends, although she seems to have inherited her father’s ability to do her own thing without feeling lonely or snubbed. She is an insatiable reader. She reads for at least 30 minutes every night before bed and often tries to sneak more time in with a flashlight or lamp after bedtime. She isn’t quite as good at math as she is at reading, but we are working on it. She has also started to develop some big girl tendencies. She has started to be independent with certain things and can throw a good tantrum, complete with door slamming. Right now it’s funny and cute. It’ll wear off as the years go by.

 The 3 Amigos

Bo is back in Mrs. B’s preschool class and loves it (and her) to death. He seems to have a better mastery with the numbers, and has started to regularly do math problems in his head without using his fingers. Just simple things like cube roots and derivatives, but he has potential. He’s very sensitive on some days, particularly when he’s hungry. But other than the occasional bout of tears he has been a great helper with Maggie and Emmy, and Lix really enjoys hanging out with him. He’s playing soccer and Jarom is coaching him, which Bo thinks is cool. He’s capable, but not a standout. He does usually keep track of the score though.

Bo fell out of a golf cart on an outing with dad

Emily has become a big kid real fast since Maggie was born. We went through potty training with her and she has done quite well. There was a brief regression when she got sick and had diarrhea for a week, but we pulled the sticker chart back out and are once again on track. She has also significantly expanded her vocab and speaks in complete (well, nearly complete) sentences. You can’t always understand everything she says, but you can usually catch enough words to fill in the blanks. She has also moved full time into Bo’s room on the top bunk so that Maggie can sleep in the crib. The one major problem that we are having with Emmy is that she is a bit of a bully. She is certainly the toughest of our kids so far, and doesn’t always do the best job of playing with others. We are doing the best we can, although it has been slow going.

She's a bit of an exhibitionist

Maggie still mostly sleeps, but she is starting to mimic and laugh and make noises. Alixa can’t get enough of her and Jarom is excited for her to become a real person, which he claims doesn’t happen until 6 months, or whenever he can start handstand training.

Jarom celebrated his 34^th birthday, which means he has entered his mid 30’s. He is trying to hold on to his past athletic glory by playing basketball, softball, and golf, since those are sports where you can get old and still be okay. He has started his old man regimen of medications, taking ibuprofen after ball because otherwise his body is stiff the next morning.

Jarom got to take Bo and Jenna to Six Flags on a beautiful September evening

Alixa is still in her early 30’s, so she hasn’t had to start doing any of that stuff yet. She’s actually been doing an amazing job post pregnancy, although her expectations are so impossibly high that she is usually a little disappointed with herself. She wants to do another half marathon in the spring, which means she’ll probably make Jarom join her. She has recently become the piano player in Relief Society, so each week there are two new songs being played over and over on the piano. She’s a little rusty, but it is coming back and she really enjoys it.

As for the animals, I am doing great and Jazz has started to find her killer instinct. In the past week there have been three deaths around the house; a sparrow, a blue jay, and a rabbit. They were all grown up animals, which made it more impressive. Alixa was pretty mad about the demise of Mr. Blue jay, but apparently you need to keep your head on a swivel around here now.

What she does when she isn't killing stuff  

There have been some big changes in the yard over the past few months. At some point in this house’s life somebody thought it would be a good idea to plant trees everywhere, which is a mixed bag. They look nice and keep the house shady and cool, but they are a maintenance hassle and can cause problems and made it impossible for grass to grow in the front. So we called an arborist to trim the trees around the house and remove 2 of the 4 in the front yard. This had the temporary effect of highlighting the fact that there wasn’t any grass. So we ordered some sod. Then the trees went all Lord of the Rings on us and got their revenge. They cracked a sewer runoff pipe with their roots and caused some backups in the house, so we had to call a plumber out to do the fix. The trees are not without a sense of humor, as the pipe destruction was discovered and the plumber was called on the very day the sod was scheduled to arrive. So we simultaneously had a crew of Mexicans digging up the front yard to get at the pipe while a separate crew was laying down the new yard (except for the spot with the giant hole, they will do that next week). Alixa could not be happier, because now she has grass in front of her house. Jarom could not be less happy, because the whole deal cost about $8,000. But hey, who needs savings, right?

Artists rendition of the trees fighting the house

Before

 During

 After

The New Normal

We aren’t really sure what the new normal is around here, because life has been a bit of a whirlwind since Maggie arrived back on June 13^th. Alixa’s parents were in the process of moving out of their rental in preparation for their move to London, so Mario stayed in the guest room for a few days while Jenna moved back up to once again share Bo’s room. It was actually really great to have him around to help with things while Lix was recovering. Soon thereafter Mario got evicted for another houseguest, Jarom’s mom, who had been planning to come and stay for week whenever Maggie was born.

Believe it or not, Nancy is actually under those kids 

 From Maggie's first photo shoot

 We sold Carlotta last month. Jarom cried.

Mario was a great live-in babysitter, but Nancy kicked it up a notch, as only grandmas can. I’m not even sure Alixa saw the three older kids the entire week she was living here. Every day was swimming at the pool and playing at the museums and jumping at the trampoline place and whatever else they concocted each day. The kids had a blast, Nancy seemed to really enjoy herself and everybody was so exhausted at the end of each day that by 7:30 they were all unconscious. Jarom was able to go to work and Lix was able to hang out with Maggie, recover, and wrap up her refresher course of all 10 seasons of Friends on Netflix.

 Cow appreciation day at Chick-Fil-A

 These two love swimming with each other

 Emmy found a pool that fits her size

 Teaching Maggie the basics of wrestling

Face painting at the children's museum 

After a week Nancy did the unthinkable: she volunteered to take Jenna, Bo, and Emmy back with her to Delaware for a week, after which Alixa and Maggie would join them. It was really great. Everybody here missed the kids, but it was really great to have a lot of time to chill and get used to the new baby and not have to run around like a crazy person with all the others. There will be plenty of time for that down the road, I’m sure. But as much as the peace and quiet can be nice, you start to miss the crazy. So we packed up Alixa with the newborn and threw her on a flight to Delaware, where it isn’t brutally hot like it is in Texas. There she dove headfirst into single parenting of four children while Jarom sat around at home. Along with working and playing more golf than usual since he was free of other obligations, he did manage to make some fence repairs and take care of a few things around the house that had been on his list. But he missed his family, so he too flew off to Delaware to spend a week with them.

 This beautiful field is the kind of thing that makes Alixa want to go back to the east coast

 Safety first

 Catching fireflies

 I just thought this look was hilarious

Getting on the train 

Delaware has been a fun long term vacation destination. There is a good housing situation, with a variable number of rooms depending on who else is in town and a fleet of borrowable cars with amazing features like power tailgates and smartkeys. You would not believe the number of text messages that Jarom got complaining about how these features are not on any of the current vehicles in the Winn garage. As previously mentioned, the weather during July and August was mostly wonderful, with low humidity and highs that rarely reached 90. The pool at Winn Manor had recently been renovated and a cabana had been added, with a bathroom and fridge, so it was possible to spend upwards of 8 hours a day down there without coming back in, if one desired. Jenna has become a near-professional cannonballer and Bo has gone from a passable swimmer to a really good swimmer in a few short weeks. Maggie has a swingseat that she rocks in over in the shade whilst the otters frolic in the water.

The whole family on Maggie's blessing day

It’s been a revolving door of friends, some coming to the house to visit, others playing host. There were trips to museums and Longwood Gardens and the Strasburg Railroad and Amish Country and the beach, but mostly it has been lying by the pool. When Jarom was there the house was at max capacity, with a handful of Eckerys and everyone’s favorite West Virginians, Kip and Carolyn. Jarom got to play some golf with his dad, JD, and Kip. He went with the kids to the railroad. There were some very nice dinners at the house with old friends that he hadn’t seen in over 4 years. And of course lots of swimming. Now he’s back here in Texas with me and Jazz while the rest of the crew enjoys one more week up north. Soon everyone will be back here getting ready for school and we will have to figure out how to do this for real without any helpers and with some sort of regular schedule, but for at least a few more days we are all enjoying the vacation.

Maggie Lu

Saturday June 13^th started out a little earlier than most Saturdays around here. It was 3 AM when Alixa woke up with some pretty strong contractions. She called the doctor to get a professional opinion, which is pretty pointless when you are on your 4^th baby. The doc (who wasn’t her regular OB but the weekend on call doc) told her not to go into the hospital until she’d been having contractions for at least an hour. Jarom’s rule is that he doesn’t deliver babies, so they called some friends and packed up to go immediately. The first call was to Kim Larsen, who dragged herself out of bed to come over and stay with the other three kids. The second call was to Heather Moore, an amazing professional photographer who had offered her services to Alixa during her delivery. She got to the hospital at the same time as Jarom and Lix, and was far too excited considering the terrible hour.

 This is how Jarom supports you during labor. He's the greatest. 

Dr. Holt, excited to see Alixa. We're so glad she could make it. 

Lix got checked in and had her initial vitals and monitors set up to keep tabs on the baby and all that jazz. The nurses asked if she wanted an epidural. Lix said yes. Then they checked her out and found that she was dilated to an 8. The bad news was that there was almost no chance that there was enough time to get the epidural ready before the baby got here. The good news was that this was not going to be a long labor. Alixa was able to hold it off just long enough for her normal OB, Dr. Holt, to get to the hospital, even though she wasn’t on call. She’s so nice. Dr. Holt arrived at about 5:15, got suited up, and then it was a few short minutes before Maggie arrived at 5:32. As has been the case with each kid, Alixa handled delivery like a champ. All the nurses kept telling her how impressed they were with her calm demeanor throughout the whole ordeal. And other than a couple terrifying, primal screams right when Maggie was born she didn’t make much noise. She’s amazing.

 Maggie's first few moments

The new wrinkle in this delivery was that Jarom got sick. During the last two contractions the combination of too many smells (from all manner of bodily fluids and hospital disinfectants) hit him pretty hard and he came dangerously close to throwing up on Alixa while she was pushing. He was actively scouting out the nearest barf bag and had decided that he would ask someone to step in and take his place after what turned out to be the final push. As Dr. Holt pulled Maggie out and held her up Jarom darted out of the room and into the bathroom. When she asked if the father wanted to cut the cord everyone looked around and wondered where the father was. He came out after a minute looking as white as a ghost. It’s possible that it was more than just a reaction to the smells because he felt queasy and sick for the next 24 hours as well. But don’t worry, he has recovered nicely.

 Jarom in recovery. And Alixa making sure Maggie was on social media as quickly as possible.

Maggie arrived at 6 lb, 4 oz, with a thick head of dark hair. She is without a doubt the quietest of the Winn babies, although that means very little. There was a little concern about a possible irregular heartbeat, but an EKG and additional monitoring ruled that out. Alixa recovered like a superhero, and was walking around a couple hours after the birth. It was a fast paced, exciting few hours, followed by the monotony and constant interruptions of a 30-hour hospital stay. The nurses are all great, but it’s their job to keep coming in and check on you, which means you can’t get any sleep.

But now Maggie is home and the real fun begins. The kids all love her and couldn’t be more excited about having a new baby. Emily’s face lights up any time you give her the chance to hold the baby, and she loves to say Maggie Lu in her little Emmy voice. Bo is a great big brother, although he gets a little too in-your-face sometimes. And Jenna has told us that she is going to be a good helper for her mom whenever she needs it. There are definitely some heightened sensitivities as everyone figures out what their new role will be and how some of the routines will be changing, but we are very grateful for a healthy, tiny new addition to the crew.

2015, Q2

I’m getting worse and worse at blogging. I blame Alixa, because she does such a good job of covering the day to day events in this family’s lives on instabook and twitgram and the like. But I suppose it won’t hurt to make an appearance here once a quarter or so. So what’s been going on around here? Rain. Mostly rain. Texas barely missed having its highest recorded rainfall in April, so it one upped itself and demolished the all-time record (for any month ever) in May. It’s like we are living in Forks, only with fewer creepy people watching us sleep. All this precipitation has severely limited pool time for Lix and the kids, although it has removed the terrible drought conditions we’ve been living in for years, so once the rains stop (fingers crossed) the splash pads will all be open for the rest of the summer.

 In April the family took a trip out to Utah to celebrate Grandpa's 60th birthday. Since there 

were a lot of family around Emmy and Bo got birthday parties too.

 This is the room where Emmy was held captive for a few days. 

And the kids got to ride a train, which was awesome.

Lix has been working hard on new baby Helga. She is now into the part of pregnancy where you are uncomfortable all the time and are usually complaining about why the baby won’t come out. As an animal who eats his food whole I completely understand. We are all crossing our fingers for an early delivery. But she and the baby are healthy and doing well, and for that we are thankful.

Jenna is wrapping up her first school year. She couldn’t love anything more. She got admitted into the talented and gifted program, which will really start in earnest next year. She is a voracious reader and has even been caught sneaking a flashlight into her bed so she could read after she was put to bed (her mom used to do that too). She loves going to parties with her friends, dances at her school, and was awarded the Smarties award from her class for intelligence and hard work in all areas.

 Picking up Jenna from school everyday, playing in the tree.

 Playing with Hank, who lives with Zak and Sam. 

And Emmy's birthday present, a wiggle car. The kids can't get enough of this thing.

 Jarom's coworkers threw him a baby shower. They are nice people.

Bo finished his first year of preschool and also loved it. It is hard to believe how much improvement he has shown in a year. When he started he couldn’t even trace a letter on a page, and now he knows an awesome letter chant for all 26 letters, has started to read, and does a pretty good job of coloring inside the lines. He was named Mr. Excellent thinker by Mrs. B, the greatest preschool teacher on the planet. He “played” soccer this spring, although with all the rain he only actually played 3 games. He scored some goals and seemed to be much improved from the fall. He is hyper-sensitive these days. It is a rare day that goes by without Bo sobbing about something, usually something so trivial it just makes you want to slap him. But when he isn’t crying he is about the sweetest boy and best brother we could hope for, so we haven’t sold him yet.

 Spring means field trips to safety town to drive cars and slurpees.

Above: Bo as a TV    Below: Easter egg hunting

Emily is cute as a button and maximizing her last few weeks as the baby. She is starting to ramp up her vocabulary, which has made it easier to figure out what she wants. She seems to be about ready to be potty trained, although that probably won’t happen until after the new baby arrives because it is hard to find a week that can be dedicated to the training. She is not, however, ready to let go of her binky. We actually tried this for a couple days last month with disastrous results. So it has been postponed, much to her delight. She is the family prayer reminder, and will never let a meal start or go to bed without folding her arms and giving everyone judgy looks until the prayer is said.

Jarom just finished the Stake basketball tournament, which was a great success. It was a double elimination tournament, and after losing a disappointing first game in overtime the ward team ran off 7 straight victories to claim the title. Even though it is silly it is still very satisfying to win it all. Nate even managed to foul out of the final game.

Above: Jazz with her first kill. Weak sauce. I'm on like a million. Below: Sodapalooza's back!

 Jenna got moved to her own room and a big girl bed in prep for the new baby

 The cutest Black Knight out there

 His first graduation! Hopefully there are more.

The Winn family sang in church a few weeks back, which went predictably. Alixa spent the entire song crying, Emmy played with the podium, Bo fidgeted around and sang a few lines of the chorus while Jenna and Jarom sang a duet. It was great. And we are in the middle of birthday season for the kids. Emmy turned 2, Bo turned 4, and we are now making plans for Jenna’s 6^th party, with a new birthday to appear in there somewhere. Here’s hoping it’s sooner rather than later. And that the rain stops.

 Jenna also graduated. Emmy didn't, so she has to do manual labor for the rest of her life.

 The lake covering the sidewalk and a quarter of the street was a permanent feature during May