Happy Birthday, Sam!

This week the Winns celebrated cuatro de Julio in style, by inviting themselves to a party being thrown by a family in the ward who was far too nice to tell them they couldn’t come. Said party took place at a house, not a van, down by the river. There was a pool where Jenna could splash about with the many other children who came, more food than you could shake a stick at, and most importantly, a boat and two jet skis. Jarom is always enthusiastic when it comes to water sports, Alixa not so much. But he was able to convince her to join him for a run on the tube, something she can usually not be convinced to do as a result of her fear of skipping across bodies of water. She handled herself superbly, thanks to some fine coaching from Jarom on how to lean into the turns. They stayed on for a minute or two until Lix decided that her arms had had enough and simply let go. They boated and jetskied and swam and chatted the afternoon away, staying until Jenna was exhausted and letting her sleep on the drive back home.


This dog had asthma, which is why it sounds like a pig. Jenna thought it was a hoot and followed it around all day long.

Trying to get a drink from mom

Photographic evidence of child abuse

This week also had two photo shoots, as Lix tried her best to get some cute shots of Jenna near her first birthday. The first round was with her cousin Kenna, and they did not go well. Kenna did fine, but Jenna was a grumpopotamus and almost all of the pictures show her biting her lower lip and giving the photographer a stern, almost angry look. So we gave it another shot a few days later, and the results were far superior. http://searsphotos.com/SessionLink.ashx?n=S41445R1112171&p=KNHCM. Here is the link. You can check them out, if you want.



We continue to love Richmond and are feeling more and more at home as time passes. We are even becoming better friends with some of the neighbors. The Waterses live next door and have been pleasant and helpful as we’ve moved in, so we’ve selected them to become friends with. They are a young couple with no kids, he’s a fireman and she’s a nurse, so we figure that covers a few bases should any kind of emergency occur.



Jenna continues to entertain us on a daily basis. She has learned to identify a variety of animals in the books that she reads 50 times a day, and Alixa is working on her animal sounds. She makes a distinct duck sound and cow sound and will do them on command pretty much any time, unless of course mom or dad are trying to get her to show someone else. Then she just looks at them like they are crazy and won’t open her mouth. Mostly she just won’t stop walking around, whether it is through the mall or at the children’s museum or simply taking laps around the rooms in the house. She is pretty good, but still wobbly enough that it is fun to watch.

On our shopping trip to JCPenney she went straight for the jewelry. Just like her mom.

Trying on some accessories

Reading a magazine in her new "big girl" forward facing car seat