To the winter home!

Lix left town with the kids for the month of January, but before she left she wanted to prepare her digestive system by having a Café Rio dinner with a bunch of friends. One of those in attendance had never before tasted the wonderful goodness that is Café Rio sweet pork, and mentioned that he might be making some trips over to the airport (where there is a Costa Vida) because he loved it so much. In fact, it was so good that Alixa didn’t even go to Café Rio during the first few days of her trip, which is almost unfathomable.

I will let the pictures do most of the talking, and after looking at them you will have seen Jarom’s kids as much as he has this week. It’s sad and lonely around the house. Mars is here, and he and Jarom cross paths occasionally. But he works late a lot of nights and Jarom isn’t all that social to begin with, so it isn’t exactly Animal House. The kids left on Monday after going out to lunch with their dad. Bo had a few of his cars in his yellow murse and Jenna had her gigantic backpack strapped up. They did great on the flight and have since been having an amazing time in Utah with Grandmas and Grandpa and cousins and aunts and uncles and snow. But mostly the snow. It dropped a few feet on them, so Jenna has been shoveling with Grandpa and making snowmen and snow angels and snowballs and sledding and generally having a great time playing in the powder. When it is time to come inside she has really taken to playing dodgeball. She and Bo will stand at opposite ends of Grandmas kitchen with a ball in hand, Jenna will count off “I…2…3…Dodgeball!!” and then they will run in and throw the balls at each other. Jenna was winning a lot of those games so she ramped up the competition and asked Lix to play with her. Lix promptly hit Jenna in the face with a ball and made her cry. She has gone back to playing Bo. She also makes her princesses play dodgeball. Ariel (post mermaid, I assume) and Rapunzel are the best at it. There have been trips to a farm, where Jenna was nearly eaten by ducks, and a trip to the aquarium, where the otters were particularly playful, and lots of visits with family and friends. And they will still be out there for 2 more weeks.

Sweet murse, Bo

 All bundled up and ready to play

Until someone gets a face full of snow

 Pleasantly feeding the birds, while the hordes planned their attack

 Bo didn't have any trouble with his animals

 

 Helping clear the driveway

 Watching the otters

 Wearing his new Cars boots

 Getting ready for bed

 Pop Tarts taste even better at Grandma's house

Which list were you on?

Happy Festivus everyone. The holidays have been wonderful around here. Things got off to a bad start when Jarom’s quest for a fourth consecutive fantasy football championship was derailed in a surprisingly narrow loss to Jason in the title matchup. I’d be lying if I told you that anyone other than Jarom was bothered by this. As a general rule people seem to root for him to fail, so his wife and family members were all pretty happy to see him defeated. It got better from there. The weekend before Christmas there was an invite to a great steak dinner over at the Ogden’s. The 24^th came with an early dismissal from work, which is always a welcome treat. The Winns went over to the Winns for some dinner and some games, and the first few gifts of Christmas. Then they went to see some lights and decorate some gingerbread houses with the Marlais, and then it was home to prep the house for Santa’s arrival. This is the first year that Jenna has really understood the concept of Santa, which has been fun. Lix and Jarom have motivated her to be a good listener by explaining that he brings presents to the good boys and girls. Jenna was very excited to leave some cookies and milk for Santa, and some carrots for the reindeer.

 

Jenna's fine construction

We think she might be solar powered

And in the morning the cookies and carrots were all eaten and Jenna must have been a good girl this year because she got a whole set of My Little Ponies, including the one that she wanted most of all, Rainbow Dash. Bo didn’t ask for anything so he got an assortment of cars and books and toys and new pajamas, and seemed to love them all. Alixa must not have been that good because all she got was a book. Jarom claims to have gotten her a new blender and a new couch and a new ring, but that’s just because he starts saying all purchases are Christmas presents beginning in mid-November. Jarom got a free pass to go golfing with the Quigleys in the 40 degree weather we had Christmas week. It was exactly what he wanted. Mother Nature delivered the best present of all, a healthy dose of snow. Jenna and Kenna spent the day playing with each other’s toys and playing out in the snow and then having warm baths. Bo liked the snow as well, but doesn’t have any gloves so he couldn’t play in it for too long.

 

Two cute kids

 

Bo finally got over his fear of the carousel

The second snow of the season was much more impressive

The bad weather meant that Jarom got to work from home on Boxing Day, which was especially nice because Lix was babysitting Kenna and Callie that day and had an emotional breakdown and needed a little support. Callie has RSV and was a little grumpy and Lix couldn’t get her to stop crying. Having three little ones running around while dealing with a baby while being pregnant is a recipe for disaster, I guess. I’m not sure what the big deal is, that’s what Nancy refers to as the 80’s. And now there’s some discussion about adding to the mix. The Quigleys have a pregnant siamese cat that will have kittens available for adoption in about 7 weeks and their adoption policy is much more lax than some of the others that the Winns have run into, so they might take advantage of the opportunity. Jenna is pretty excited that she might get a kitten that looks like Skippy Jon Jones.

 

One little cowboy

Three little archaeologists

During her recent run in with the police Lix was scolded for having lived in Texas for over a year and still using a non-TX driver’s license. In fact, her license was from Tennessee, having skipped Virginia entirely. So she gathered every possible piece of identification she could find and headed off to the DMV to sit for hours. By the grace of God she met their requirements and was issued a new license. Sadly, in order to balance out the universe she had to hit something on the road while heading up there and poor Carlotta has a cracked front fender. Lix tried to pretend it didn’t happen until the next day when Jarom saw it and asked about it. She vaguely remembered hitting something, but she couldn’t recall what it might have been. And now the car is being held together by black duct tape. We’re a classy bunch.

Jenna and Bo and Sam

Bo doesn't like waking up. He gets that from Lix.

We wrapped up the holiday week with a New Year’s Eve gathering at the church to play dodgeball. Alixa hates dodgeball, which I believe is against the gym teacher code, but whatever. So she used Everzoomius as an excuse to sit on the sideline and ref. Bo and Jenna loved the idea of dodgeball, but are still too small to actually play, so they got to run around the halls and play with toys and yell at Rob and watch Nemo. Jarom loves dodgeball and had a great time terrorizing high school kids and doing his best to throw his arm out and make himself as sore as possible. It was a fun evening and the kids made it until about 10:30 before they had to get out of there and get the little ones to bed. Sadly, Lix rang in the new year by barfing up the salad that she had eaten for dinner that evening and heading to bed at the same time as her 1 and 3 year-olds. Hopefully 2013 is going to be as good to all of us as 2012 was.

You be the judge

They say it is better to give than to receive. We’ve been running some pretty extensive tests on that adage lately, and while the results aren’t conclusive yet, the data indicates that receiving can be pretty awesome too.

Xzibit 1:

Alixa had her annual gift exchange party, with an attendance of about 20 friends. This year included better seating with the new couch and kitchen table, upgraded countertops for serving the many delicious treats that were made by Alixa and others, and a jolly good time had by all the ladies as they repeatedly stole gift cards and candles and soaps and other such goodies. Alixa kept ending up with good stuff, which inevitably got stolen from her, so she (with Jenna’s help) got to open up lots of presents. In the end she landed a Scentsy-style house aroma-er, and now the kitchen smells of spiced apple. She was also glad to be able to see that all of her friends from the old ward still enjoy hanging out with her.

Xzibit 2:

On Monday we were told to make sure someone was going to be home between the hours of 3-5 to receive a package that contained the household Christmas present from Grandpa and Grandma. Between 3-5 turned into 6-8, which turned into 9, but eventually there was a truck outside and a knock on the door. The surprise was a little ruined when Alixa got a call to apologize for running late and the man identified himself as Checker’s Piano Movers. But they were still a little floored when the two guys rolled a beautiful polished black Yamaha into the front room. It is already a fan favorite with everyone. Alixa is relearning all the things she knew from her days as the ward organist, Jarom is reminding himself why he quit taking piano lessons so many years ago, and Bo and Jenna love the fact that they now have not 1 but 2 pianos to play with. I suppose that Lix will now have to do her best Tiger Mom impression so that we can have a concert pianist around. Jarom optimistically suggested that someday Lix could make some side money teaching piano lessons. She just laughed at him. He didn’t think it was overly absurd, what with her knowledge of how to play the piano and the 5 years that she spent at an institute of higher learning studying the art of teaching, but what does he know?

Xzibit 3:

One of Jarom’s coworkers is named Daniella. She has a few kids who are older than Jenna and Bo, which means they have moved on to a different set of toys and entertainment. There is a dollhouse that she got for her daughters some time ago that is no longer getting the attention that every toy deserves and yearns for. So a while back she asked Jarom if he might be interested in it. He was, but it took a while to make the exchange due to some logistical problems. The problem was that they live kind of far apart and the dollhouse is huge, and won’t fit into a regular sized car. So Jarom had to switch cars with Alixa one day and Dani had to switch for her husband’s truck. Carlotta was due for a thorough vacuuming, especially around and underneath the car seats, so it was probably a good thing. The dollhouse barely fit in the SUV, but it made it home and is now happily parked in the corner of Jenna’s room. It has become the primary residence of about three dozen Disney princesses and assorted other characters. It gets played with daily by Jenna and Bo and whatever friends they have over. It was very nice of Dani to let us have it, and we are glad that it has found a good home.

We are fond of not promoting society's arbitrary gender stereotypes, 

so Bo gets to play with the dolls and the house too.

 

Xzibit 4:

This particular data point doesn’t support our hypothesis that receiving is better than giving. Let me first state that this incident is indisputably, unequivocally, 100 percent Jarom’s fault. When he switched cars with Lix for the day he was very careful to specify that Alixa was not to get a speeding ticket that day. He said this because Lix is what Jarom lovingly refers to as a “stomper” and when she gets into the Infiniti she likes to take advantage of the additional horsepower that she doesn’t have when driving the wimpy, 4-cylinder SUV. It should be noted that Jarom thinks that Alixa drives too fast, and I don’t think there are many people who would categorize Jarom as a slow driver. In her defense, Jenna says that Mommy is a better driver than Daddy because Lix will look at Jenna in the back seat while they talk but Jarom says things like “I’m trying to watch the road right now.” Anyway, after a visit to the gym this week Lix was all hopped up on endorphins and took off down the road towards home. The speed limit is 45, but she was cruising at 60 and got nabbed. There were tears, but they didn’t come until after the cop left and she was on the phone with Jarom. A whole lot of good they did then. I thought the whole point of being a girl was that you could get out of tickets by batting your eyes and/or sobbing like a little baby. But the main point is that Jarom while Jarom did tell her the day before to avoid a ticket, he did not tell her that morning. I guess that is going to have to become part of their morning routine from now on if Jarom expects to avoid these in the future.

This isn't related to the ticket, but it is our first snowfall. Neither kid was impressed.

Xzibit 5:

It is playoff time in fantasy football and Jarom and Alixa are matched up in the semifinals of their league. One of them will be giving up the ghost on this season while the other will be receiving a spot in the league championship. I think we all know which end of that stick we would like to have.

So this is Christmas?

Tis the season. I guess. I will say that I have mixed feelings about Christmas in Texas. Jarom went through this while living in the southern hemisphere when the Navidad falls in the middle of summer. That’s not too far off from where we are now. It’s still up in the 70’s most days, with the 80’s making an occasional appearance. It cools off at night, and the forecast claims that there is a high of 44 on Monday, so we’ll see. But despite the warmth, it’s hard to avoid feeling Christmassy around this house. The tree went up the day before Thanksgiving and the kids love it. Bo gets very upset when the lights aren’t on and Jenna will hurry and plug them in for him. There are nutcrackers and Santas and nativities and manger pictures all over the mantle. There is garland on the banisters, an advent calendar on the kitchen ledge and a countdown to Santa that is rarely accurate, but always there. The best part of the Christmas decorations happened yesterday when Jenna was talking about the mantle and called the stockings “goodybag socks”. We aren’t sure if she hears this stuff somewhere or just comes up with it on her own, but it is pretty hilarious. And the Winns are trying to capture the Christmas spirit in other ways too. They channeled their inner “no-room-in-the-inn”keepers and sent Mario and PJ across the country to visit other relatives, although Mario came back a week later because he “wanted to keep his job” or some other lame excuse. It’s nice to have fewer people around, but we do miss them already. The kids were especially happy to get Opa back today. Even the raccoon up in the attic seems to have abandoned ship.

 Bo hasn't earned his goodybag sock yet

Alixa's preschool class

Because the calendar says that it is December we scheduled some bonfires to take advantage of the firepit and clear out some of the branches and stumps that have been trimmed around the yard. But that night it was almost 80 degrees and nobody really wanted to stand next to a fire, so instead we just grilled hot dogs and cooked smores over the stove and hung out with friends. The most memorable part of that night was probably the fact that Jenna stumbled upon a fireant nest that had sprung up in the backyard. She was playing with her friends when all of a sudden she started screaming and ran to the back door complaining about some itches on her feet. Jarom took off her shoes and found a dozen or so little ants crawling on and biting her little piggies. Fortunately Wowawee was here and knew to make a little baking soda concoction to put on the bites, which seemed to neutralize them, because 15 minutes later she was back in action, digging and running and jumping around. She actually felt very remorseful about destroying the ants’ home, which is why they got mad at her, and repeatedly asked if Jarom or Nate would help her fix it later. Jarom “fixed it” the next day with some fireant killer, but there will surely be many more encounters with the little insects here in the land of fire.

Alixa is staying super busy with a jam-packed social calendar that includes a slew of Christmas parties and park days and recipe clubs and activities for two wards. She is trying to integrate herself into the new one but also wants to hang out with her friends from the old one, so she is double-dipping. Jarom continues to play basketball a few nights a week, making enemies and alienating people with his general obnoxiousness. He also managed to install Mario and PJ’s thank you present, a sleek new microwave. It took several hours and for the first day or so he was nervous that it was going to fall off and destroy the stove, the microwave, and the countertop, but here we are two weeks later and it is still there. Lix says she loves it, but also says that now she really needs a new oven and stovetop to match the rest of the stainless appliances. Great.

 Cowgirl Jenna

 Lix did some reorganizing in the kitchen because Bo kept getting his treats out of the cabinets. Now the lower cabinets are empty so he uses them as a hiding spot.

Baby girl Everzoomius seems to be doing well, plugging along towards her April arrival. Lix is still working out regularly, although her running pace is slowing and her classes are getting harder to finish. She recently took the kids out for a run with their stroller on a windy day, covering 3 miles in 46 minutes. At one point while pushing into the wind Jenna hollered out to her “Mom, why did you stop running?” She hadn’t, but I suppose sometimes it is nice to have a heckler. There was a pretty significant event this morning when Alixa joined team mentally weak by barfing in a non-illness situation. It was a good run, but it had to end sometime. At least she wasn’t in the car when it happened.