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For the first time, it is the Christmas season around the Winn house. You see, this will be the first Christmas that Jarom and Alixa have spent at their own home. Since their marriage they have always travelled to one of their parent’s houses for the holidays. And because they were never around, Jarom prevented Alixa from getting too many decorations. But this year that has all changed. Last week Jarom kept his long standing promise to buy a nice Christmas tree as soon as he would be around on Christmas to see it. Alixa comes from a tradition of getting real trees, but Jarom had to draw the line somewhere, so they got a 7-foot pre lit beauty instead. Jenna helped Lix put the ornaments on, and plugging the lights in has become one of her favorite pastimes. The Winns have also spent a lot of time visiting Santa lately, pretty much everywhere he shows up. And Jenna thinks it’s great. Every time she talks to him she tells him that she wants a green ball.

Some pictures of Bodiddly. We think he is very cute.

Speaking of Christmas presents, Alixa got the best one ever from her mom – a new iPhone 4S. Since it arrived about a week ago it has scarcely left her side. She loves that she can get to her email and the internet on her phone instead of having to sit at the computer, and she says that it has made her a better mother because now she can hang out where the kids are and ignore them while she plays on her phone, instead of the old way where she had to ignore them in a different room.

Jenna and her Christmas tree, with white and blue lights

But it isn’t all great news in Dallas. There has been a recent cold snap where on some mornings the temperature actually dropped below freezing. I didn’t sign up for this. But as Jarom would leave to go to work in the morning and see the frost on the windshields of the cars that were parked outside he remembered all those awful mornings scraping ice off the car in Richmond and is so glad that we have a garage now. And that’s not all the bad news. The Winns also had to give talks in church this past Sunday, one of Jarom’s least favorite things about being a Mormon. But I guess they did a good job, because Nate and Kenz kept getting compliments about the good talks they gave.

Fun with iPhones

Other than enjoying lots of Christmas music and drinking lots of hot chocolate, most of the time around here is filled with children growing up. Jenna attended her first birthday party over the weekend. It was a 5-year old party, and Jenna was the only 2-year old there, but she handled herself pretty well, got to eat a cupcake, and when they played some games that scared her a little she just went into the other room and played with some toys by herself. She has also corrected the pronunciation of two of her cutest words: Yellow is no longer E-O, and necklace is no longer nesick. Tear. And while Bo still doesn’t seem to be any closer to crawling than he was on the day he was born, he has started to use sippy cups, which is equal parts adorable, hilarious, and sopping wet.





And we haven’t forgotten the real reason for Christmas, either. Of course I’m referring to shopping. When we first moved here to Texas Jarom and Lix talked about setting her up with a fixed budget for discretionary expenses. A limit was set, and on top of that Jarom said she could keep one-third of any money that she makes from babysitting Kenna. Now before I get a slew of angry letters from wives all over the country whining about how Jarom has no right to take 56 percent of Alixa’s earnings, please remember that Jarom only gets to keep about 2 percent of his salary. So feel free to write, but he won’t feel bad. So Lix has her budget, and has done a fine job of staying within it. She even had some extra money left over from November so she decided to treat herself to a new pair of jeans. And the beauty of it is that she can spend as much as she wants and Jarom isn’t allowed to yell at her as long as she stays under her budget. And while they do seem like lovely jeans that make her look beautiful, they might have been a hair overpriced. I won’t say how much they cost, but $90 is a lot of money.

Some funny things that were said.

Alixa (to Jenna, standing at the top of the stairs at 9:45pm, long after she had been put to bed): Hey! What are you doing?
Jenna: Ummmm, I’m good.
Alixa: Where are you supposed to be?
Jenna: In bed. But I was just tellin daddy I got out of bed and I need some chocolate.

Jarom (to Jenna): Isn’t mommy fast?
Jenna: Yeah, mommy’s fast and I’m slow. Just like you’re slow daddy!

Paternity Test

Whenever people see Jenna, and they also know Jarom, the first thing they tell me is that she looks exactly like him. Some people in the Winn family call her a little Jarom. Their look-alike-ness was also made abundantly clear when the first thing the doctor said when he delivered her was that she had Dad’s hairline. Not exactly the first thing a mom wants to hear but it proves my point. I like to think that Jenna has some of my characteristics. My eyes, my curly hair. But those are all far less prominent than the fact that she is just a girl version of Jarom. You wouldn’t think that a girl version of Jarom would be very cute, but let me tell you people, she is. She is really stinkin’ cute.
Recently I have been noticing that not only does she look like Jarom, she has SO many of his personality traits. It is bizarro. For instance…



Jarom has this weird habit of rubbing his feet together. I don’t know anyone else that does this. If he is sitting down, he is rubbing his feet on something. The carpet, a pair of socks, the person he is sitting next to (usually me), or just plain rubbing them together. It is kind of cat-like. Well, Jenna does this too. She actually started doing it when she was a baby which makes me think that somehow it is genetic. She rubs her feet together just like Jarom does. She usually does it when she is watching TV. Her little feet are always moving.
Jarom also is the absolute worst person to wake up in the mornings. He knows this, and so sets his alarm for way earlier than he wants to wake up so that he can hit the snooze button a million times. He does it this way because he likes to sleep. And even after he is awake, he prefers to just lie in bed for several minutes. This drives me crazy, because I am a one alarm kind of gal, and every time his alarm goes off, it wakes me up. And then I have to try and go back to sleep, only to be woken again up by the next alarm. Most of the time he never even hears his alarm, and I have to hit him and yell his name so he will turn it off. This is my morning every morning. I remember a story where Jarom’s mom had to throw water on him to get him out of bed. That is how bad he is. Jenna has also recently begun to be incredibly hard to wake up. Sometimes she sleeps in til 8:30, and I have to wake her up to get to my class at the gym. So I go in and turn her fan off, open her shade, and gently rub her back while I whisper her name. She will open her eyes, look at me, and roll over and close them again. So I do something and come back and do it again. She wakes up a little more, but still goes back to sleep. When I finally do get her to stay awake, she tells me she just wants to lie on Pete (her pillow pet) for a few more minutes. So the whole process takes entirely way too long. And it is just like her dad. So now I get to do it twice a day. Hooray for me!
Jenna is also just like her dad in her eating habits. Jarom’s mom has told me several times when I call her to complain about how Jenna is a lousy eater that Jarom survived several years of his life only eating peanut butter and honey sandwiches. That is not even and exaggeration. He literally ate peanut butter and honey sandwiches three meals a day for a really long time. Well, Jenna would eat cereal three meals a day if I let her. Sometimes I can only negotiate a different entrée once a day. So it is cereal twice a day, chicken nuggets the other meal. Seriously. I do make her eat some fruit purees and a vitamin just to make sure she isn’t totally malnourished. Some would say that she is just a picky two year old, and I would agree with you if I didn’t know her dad. I’m pretty sure this is genetic, too and I will never be able to get her to eat normally.



Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all of Jarom’s bad characteristics that Jenna has inherited. She is also incredibly smart. She can do all of our 24 piece puzzles by herself, she can memorize any song you sing her after hearing it a few times, and she is learning Spanish. She can say lots of things in Spanish. She knows all of her numbers, and letters, and colors, and can count things on a page (not just recite numbers in order). She also loves books. She loves when you read them to her, and she loves to read them to herself. She memorizes stories and recites them as she sees the pictures on the page. She has an incredibly long attention span and will sit and do something until it is completed. No matter how long it takes. And because Jarom is her dad, I would expect nothing less. It is just a little crazy, how much she is like him. And even if sometimes they both drive me absolutely crazy with their little quirks, I love them both very much.

Thanks indeed

We celebrated Turkey Day this year by having our first visitors here in the new house. Since Jarom’s parents don’t love him we invited Alixa’s folks to come instead. They accepted the invitation since they have no kids at home and who wants to be in Cleveland during November anyway? They flew in the day before Thanksgiving and Mario and Jarom quickly took advantage of the nice weather to play a few holes of golf. Then after dinner, Lix and her mom went out shopping. So everyone got what they wanted on day one.

Thanksgiving started with Jarom waking up early and heading out to play football. He had messed up his knee a little while playing basketball a few days before, and probably should have sat it out, but Thanksgiving is the only day all year that he gets to play football so he played anyway. Like most ward football games it was a diverse mixture of old and young, talented and not. Jarom got to play quarterback and tried to make sure everyone felt included and had a good time, especially the little kids. And now he can put the football away for another 12 months. The afternoon was spent hanging out with the grandparents. Jenna wanted to take a walk and show them the neighborhood and the park and play on the playground. Since there are only a few of us, we decided not to cook Thanksgiving dinner at home this year, and instead made reservations at a fancy-pants steakhouse nearby. Upon arrival, Jarom and Lix realized that it was a little fancier-pants than they had thought, and questioned their presence in the restaurant with two little kids. But they gave the valet their cars and headed into the posh dining room and plopped Jenna down with her bag of cut up chicken nuggets and gave Bo some toys to chew on and they were awesome. Outside of some singing that Jenna did using her NOT-library voice, there wasn’t anything to complain about, and they actually got several compliments on the stellar behavior of their children, which will make any parent proud. The dinner was superb, even though Jarom hates eating in snooty establishments. He doesn’t think turkey is all that great, so he got a ribeye and swears that it was the greatest piece of meat he has ever eaten. The rest of the party was equally pleased with their meals. Jarom and Lix might even go back there someday, although they definitely won’t try and bring any kids with them.

This is as nice as Jarom dresses up. It wasn't good enough for Lawry's.

PJ and Mario have a little more experience with fine dining than the Winns do

Friday morning was spent doing some yardwork. Mostly Mario and PJ doing yardwork. You see, Jarom is not really a landscaping kind of guy, much to Alixa’s dismay. But those Hegewalds take their yardwork very seriously, and they saw some things that needed tending to and Jarom wasn’t about to stand in their way. So some bushes got trimmed/removed, some weeding got done, and some leaves were raked. They wanted to go out and buy a leaf blower and an axe to do some heavy duty remodeling, so Jarom had to reign in the enthusiasm just a tad. After the yardwork Lix, Jarom and Mario took off to play a round of golf while the kids played with PJ.

Mimi decided to give Jenna's bed a test run while she was here

Saturday was zoo day, which is always Jenna’s favorite. The Dallas zoo is a pretty good one, and there were lots of highlights. There is a kid’s zoo area with lots of farm animals that can be petted and a pony named Tank that Jenna got to ride. There is a bird cage that you can walk into and feed the birds as they land on your arms, which Jenna thought was hilarious. There were monkeys and a tiger and camels and otters and penguins. They also got to watch a rhino play with his trainer, which was neat because he jumped around and frolicked like a little puppy, something that Jarom didn’t imagine a 1.5-ton animal could do. Alixa’s favorite was the giant South American anteater, and Jarom’s was watching a girl lion try to catch sparrows. Mimi and Opa and Jenna got to take a tram ride that circled the zoo and gave them an aerial view into most all the cages, which they thought was fabulous. After the zoo Lix took her parents to Lewisville so they could see the house that they almost moved into 10 years ago, and Jarom took the little ones home for naps.

Deep thoughts with the gorilla

Tank

Happy grandkids, happy grandparents

The rest of the grandparent’s time was spent hanging out, playing games, and enjoying the grandkids. Mars left Sunday evening, and PJ stuck around until Wednesday. I don’t know how much Bo cares about people that aren’t his parents at this stage of the game, but Jenna loved having her grandparents around. She had a great time playing with Mimi and doing puzzles and reading books with Opa. Lix started getting her books from the library a few weeks ago and she has had a great time hearing new stories each week. While the Hegewalds were here her favorite story was Horton Hears a Who, or as she calls it, the elephant book. She loves the story and gets very animated as she looks at the pictures and tells you about what is happening to the elephant and his speck of dust. She now asks to read it at least once a day and enjoys filling in some of the lines, as you can see in this video.



And now that the guests have taken off, the remodeling of the home has begun. A few nights ago the whole crew went off to Sherwin Williams to get some paint. It was a terrible experience because Blake threw up all over Alixa and Jenna had a particularly messy accident in her pants while in the store, but they got some paint and have begun to redo the family room, with other rooms on the horizon. Soon enough, Alixa will be happy with the place, except for the kitchen counters, which will then need to be replaced. I guess it never really ends.

Tis the Season?

The winter season is coming, and we are starting to notice it here in Dallas, even though the temperature is still usually above 65, and occasionally still up in the 80’s. But there are lots of other signs that we are starting to notice that tell us that Christmas is just around the corner. This week Lix took the kids to the mall with Kenz and Kenna to run around and ride on the carousel. And guess who happened to be hanging out at the mall at the same time- Santa! Some of you may remember that Jenna and Santa did not really get off on the right foot last year. First there was the ward Christmas party, where Jenna was forced to sit on Santa’s lap and screamed uncontrollably until someone took her out of the gym. After she had calmed down, Jarom tried to bring her back in, but the mere sight of the man in red set her off again. A few weeks later in Utah, Santa visited again and once again Jarom had to take Jenna out of the room until the intruder had left. But things have changed. This year Jenna sat happily on Santa’s lap and chatted with him about the things that she would like for Christmas (a ball) and whether she had been naughty or nice (nice, because her panties were dry and going peepee in our panties is naughty).

We didn't get a picture with Jenna on Santa's lap, but she was about this happy.

For Christmas, Jarom wants Bo to quit drooling so much so he doesn't have to always wear a bib

The Winns also took advantage of the slightly cooler evenings to have a little get together with some families from the ward that had also recently moved in. Since this house has a wonderful little fire pit in the back yard, Lix had the idea of grilling hot dogs and making smores. So Jenna and Jarom cut down a tree that Lix wanted to get rid of to use as firewood. The evening wasn’t cold enough that you wanted to stand near the fire, but the treats were wonderfully tasty and everyone seemed to have a good time. Alixa’s mom was very proud of her for having people over, at least until she found out that the people only stayed until 7:30. Then she was appalled. I guess old people forget what it was like to have little kids that don’t stay up very late.

We have broken out the jumpjump, and Bo seems to have taken to it just as quickly as Jenna did. This can perhaps be attributed to the top-notch instruction he has received from his teacher.


Another fall tradition that the Winns are continuing is Alixa beating Jarom in fantasy football. This is a particularly sore subject for Jarom this year, because his team is significantly better than hers. In fact, if you look at the scores from the first 10 weeks of the season, there are exactly 2 weeks that Alixa has had a higher score than Jarom. And of course, those two weeks were the two times they were matched up. Inspired by her dominance in the fantasy world, Lix has also recently started going to kickboxing classes at the gym, presumably to extend her dominance into the real world. Jarom is a little concerned.

While Lix is kickboxing Jenna must be learning Yoga in the daycare

This is what Alixa and Jenna look like from space. Has anyone else found themselves on Google Maps?

The slightly chillier weather has also brought some of the more tropical residents around here into the house. Recently Jarom wandered into the office and found a little gecko curled up in the corner. These geckos can be seen regularly on the windows around here, and have become one of Jenna’s favorite things. So Jarom corralled the little guy and kept him in a dish until Jenna woke up and had a chance to play with him. She enjoyed holding him and thought it was hilarious that he crawled up her arm. After they finished playing with him, Jarom let him go in the office, and has spotted him a few times since. Jenna continues to look for “Mr Friend Gecko”, who is always “out looking for buggies to eat.” On a less cheerful note, a few days ago Jenna was in the garage by herself and tried to climb up the ladder that was leaning against the wall and managed to pull it backwards on top of herself. She was crying and Lix ran out to find her head sticking up through the rungs. After getting over the initial fear and shock, she had only a couple little bumps, which was very lucky, because it could have been a whole lot worse. Now we are getting ready for Thanksgiving visitors. Mars and PJ will be here for a week, so we have to clean out the stray boxes from the guest room so they have a place to sleep. It should be fun.

This song is one of Alixa's ringtones, and Jenna loves it. Can you guess what it is?

Settling In

After a full week of sickness at Winn Manor everyone seems to be feeling better and food is following its normal route through everyone’s system. This is great news to Alixa, who is able to get more uninterrupted sleep. This is really great news to Jenna, who is able to not wander around looking and feeling like a zombie. And this is fabulous news to Jenna’s animals, who no longer have to live in a perpetual state of fear that they will be covered with vomit and shoved into the washer for a “bath” every other day.

Since he can't talk yet, Bo rates his pictures by chewing on the appropriate letter

Life in Texas is becoming pretty routine. Which means that Alixa is about to start messing with that routine. She has already received her first early Christmas present, a 22-foot ladder that can be used to paint the house. Her first two projects are actually going to be Jenna’s bedroom and the family room, and will probably be done in the next few weeks. Her painting project got a big assist when we heard that her parents are going to come visit for Thanksgiving, which means that there are more hands to help and more hands to babysit. But life at home has been filled with many of the things that it was filled with in Richmond. There are weekly trips to the library for story time and to get some new books for Jenna to read. She also gets a new Disney movie to watch each week. She has now seen The Little Mermaid and Cinderella. There are also regular trips to the gym. Originally the family had signed up at 24 Hour Fitness, where Jarom still had a frozen account from their Utah days. But the very first time Lix dropped the kids off at the daycare she realized that she wasn’t happy with the level of care they provided. So they canceled their account and switched over to the Frisco Athletic Club, which is every bit as awesome as it sounds, and is actually less expensive than 24. The facility has basketball and racquetball courts, a weight room and lots of cardio machines, and a waterpark, both indoor and out. Needless to say, Jenna is very excited to try it out.

Jenna loves bubbles

A big part of the routine has been the newly developing mobility of Blake. He can’t crawl yet, and whenever he tries he only manages to wave his arms and legs around in a pretty good Tom Cruise impression from Mission: Impossible. But he can roll over very well and will steamroller across the room if there is something that he is interested in over there. He is also a big fan of his feet, and will tug at and chew on his own toes (or yours, if you let him) for long stretches of time. This is a new behavior in the Winn home, as Jenna was never really flexible enough to get her toes up to her face.



Jarom’s routine involves getting up earlier than he would like to avoid the traffic that accompanies living in a bigger city. But it’s okay because he is usually home before 5 and gets to hang out with his kids. They seem to miss him while he is at work, and Jenna loves to call him, usually when she first wakes up to tell him what is for dinner and one or two more times throughout the day. Jarom enjoys these calls even though it is often difficult to understand what she is saying (it’s hard enough to follow her person) and despite her insistence on trying to show him things through the phone (she will take the phone and hold it up to whatever she is talking about and say “see, Daddy, see?”) Her potty training is continuing very well, and there have been no cold baths recently. Jarom did have to explain to her that she did not have to take a cold bath when she threw up, even though she made a mess. She has very much internalized the cold bath punishment though, and has instituted it with her animals. Recently Jenna decided to move her rocking horse (Rocky) into her room so that he could have a quiet time. When Alixa asked her about it, Jenna told her that Rocky had pooped in his panties and had to be given a cold bath, because that’s naughty, and now he was having a quiet time. That little girl is quite the imaginary disciplinarian.

Fall has begun to arrive here in North Texas, as the temperatures have dropped into the 60’s and 70’s with occasional dips lower than that. It feels wonderful. It would be nice if it came with a changing of the leaves, but I guess that is just something that we aren’t going to have here. Jarom is looking forward to playing golf on Thanksgiving and hopefully Christmas. The only really bad news that we came across is that despite its availability Alixa will not be getting the custom license plate “WINNERS”. This is because Texas is crazy and you have to pay $800 in order to have that plate for 10 years. So I guess it’ll be TPD315 or whatever else they give us. Too bad.

Would you pay $800 for this piece of awesome?

Funny Jenna-isms

Lix: Jenna, are you all done or are you gonna eat more?
Jenna: I’m gonna eat more.
Lix: Then eat! You are the slowest eater ever!
Jenna: Relax, Mommy. Don’t cry about it. I’m gonna eat more.

Jenna: my bum hurts
Lix: Why does your bum hurt?
Jenna: Because I need daddy.

Alixa had to warm up Jenna's water and her applesauce today. Ridiculous.

Lix: Night night, Jenna, I love you.
Jenna: Night night, mommy. See you in a couple whiles.

The Plague

This past week hasn’t been a very good one in the Winn house. Well, actually, that is an understatement. The past week has been terrible! It all started last Friday. I woke up bright and early super motivated to go to the gym. I got the kids dressed and we were at the gym by 9:30. I went to a super awesome class where I worked my butt off and was feeling really good. The kids had a great time playing in the fun zone (a fancy way to say day care), and it was all around a great morning. But as soon as we left the gym, I started to feel all achy and was super cold. I just thought I overdid it at the gym, and was maybe a little bit dehydrated. So we came home, I took a warm shower because I was so cold and I couldn’t warm up, and I put Bo down for a nap. I put a movie on for Jenna, because I thought if I laid down for a bit I would feel better. But it just got worse and worse. I was so, so cold, and super achy and I was getting a little nauseous. At this point, I was calling Jarom to see when he was coming home, because I couldn’t really do much but lay on the couch. I managed to survive until he got home at 5 Luckily, Bo took some stellar naps that day. Jarom came home to find me dead on the couch. I was super bummed, too because it was the ward trunk or treat that night and I was definitely not up to going. So I sent Jarom and Jenna, the green m&m, and I put Bo to bed and continued to wallow in my misery. They were gone for about 45 minutes, and came home with quite a bit of candy. Jenna had a great time, so it was still a success, even though it was not the fun family affair I had envisioned.

As soon as they got home, I went straight to bed, and left Jarom to put Jenna to bed. I slept until about 4 a.m. when I was awakened by Jenna’s crying. Anyone who knows Jarom knows he sleeps like a dead person, and it is literally easier and takes less time to sooth a crying child and get back into bed than it does to try and wake him up. So even though I was still feeling pretty miserable, I got up and told Jenna to go back to bed. It worked for a little while, but then she started crying again. I told Jarom to go handle it, so he went and slept on Jenna’s floor. At about 6 a.m. I hear a commotion, and some lights came on so I went to investigate. I found them in the bathroom with Jenna’s puke on the floor. Until this point, I thought maybe I still had overdone it at the gym but when I saw Jenna was also sick, I realized that our family had caught a stomach virus. Jenna proceeded to puke every 30 minutes until about noon on Saturday. It was miserable. She spent Saturday afternoon dead on the couch and saying she didn’t want to throw up anymore. It was pretty sad a miserable. She puked a couple more times on Saturday and Sunday and we skipped Stake Conference. Then on Sunday night, Jarom started to feel nauseous too. I knew that this meant a long night of very loud puking, and I was still a little sick, so I opted to sleep on the couch in the playroom so I could actually sleep. This did not help. Jarom has the Winn gene that makes him puke so loud I heard it from the other side of the house. So I was up with that, and Bo decided he wanted to wake up at 5 a.m. and all around it was a terrible night of sleep.

Jenna, miserable on the couch

Jarom took the day off on Monday and slept all day. I found this to be unfair as I didn’t get to take any days off and I certainly didn’t get to spend any days in bed. Thus is the life of a mother I suppose. Jenna seemed to be feeling better, which was good because I probably would have made her go trick-or-treating weather she felt like it or not since I made her costume and I wanted people to see it. But she seemed to be feeling all better, so I dressed the kids up and headed over to the other Winn’s house for some pictures. Jarom managed to roll out of bed so he could be present, though he still felt terrible and mostly sat on the floor. Trick-or-treating was a great success, and we even got some cute pictures of the kids. We went up and down Nate and McKenzie’s street with Kenna and got lots of candy. The girls were pros at knocking on doors and saying trick-or-treat even before the door was opened. Jenna really like ringing the door bells so it usually went lots of knocking, say trick or treat, and then a couple of rings on the doorbell just for good measure. I am sure we didn’t annoy anyone. But everyone was really nice and told the girls how cute they were. Bo sat nicely in the stroller and watched from a distance. Once we were done with their street, we walked over to our street and finished up there. I was very impressed with how well everyone decorates for Halloween. We passed several spooky houses and a couple of houses even banded together to have a tent with a candy line, and a line of alcoholic beverages for the over 21 crowd. Someone also turned their house into a haunted house, and there was a line down the block to get in. We skipped all of these things and just got the candy and went home.

Jenna and her haul

Bo hanging out in the stroller, and looking oh so cute!

Jenna was still in a pretty good mood, and I still thought all was well, but that night she puked again. And then again on Tuesday on the way home from the park. It went all over the stroller. And then again on Wednesday. I was starting to get worried so I took her to the doctor where I was assured it was just a stomach virus and that it would pass. So after a really long week of cleaning up a lot of puke and almost running out of carpet cleaner, we finally went 24 hours yesterday without any puking. So again, I thought we were in the clear. Wrong again. I gave Jenna a cup of chocolate milk before bed last night because she has been wanting some so badly the past week and I thought she was finally better. But at 11 last night, she puked again. Apparently dairy is not good for a sick tummy, and even one that is on the mend cant really handle it. So, I am pretty sure she is healthy now, just a little sensitive in the tummy still. I vowed to not give her any more dairy until she has not puked for at least a week and we are taking it easy again today. My illness has morphed into a terrible sore throat, and Jarom is slowly on the mend too. The miracle through all of this, is that Bo seems to have avoided all of our germs. I am so grateful for this and hope he continues to be healthy.

Bo's shirt says "Tough like Daddy" which is embarrassing for Bo, based on Jarom's behavior this weekend.

This and That

The Winn family has been a little bit sick lately, so there have been a lot of sniffly noses and coughing, and today poor little Jenna has been throwing up about every half hour since 6 am. But that hasn’t kept them from enjoying the Halloween season. Lix thought long and hard about this year’s costumes and finally decided on a pair of M&Ms. Jenna is green and Bo is blue. I will go ahead and point out that the costumes are hand-made by Lix, from the dying of the clothes to the application of the Ms to the construction of Jenna’s tutu. So hats off to her. (Halloween pics to come!)

Just a shot from Jenna's photo shoot.

The other October staple is the trip to the pumpkin patch. The patch they visited was about 40 minutes away from home and was actually two patches that border one another. They realized it was two distinct operations after parking in the one that had free parking and charged for rides. Then they had to jump the fence over to the one that charged for parking and had free rides. Earlier in his life Jarom would have thought that this was a great plan. But with Jenna and Lix and Bo in his stroller, he would have rather just paid the few dollars for parking. Jenna had a pretty good time at the patch, even though it felt more like August than October. There were bounce houses to jump on, lots of pumpkins and scarecrows to look at, a tractor pulled train to go on, and a pony that wanted to be ridden. They stuck around for a few hours, Lix tried her hardest to get a picture of her children that she was satisfied with, and on the way home they stopped at the grand opening of the Costco next door to get some pizza and a hot dog.

Jenna and her pony, Poco.

We also experienced a pretty fierce Texas thunderstorm last week. The rain and hail pounding on the tin roof over the back porch woke Lix up in the middle of the night, and the frequent lightning and loud thunder kept her up for a little while. In the morning as everyone was getting ready for church Jarom noticed that one section of the backyard fence had been blown over, so he had to get Nate to stop by and help him get it back up.

Jenna posing on the steps

Jenna has continued to do pretty well with the potty training, mostly thanks to the strong encouragement she gets from her mother. On day 3 or so of the training, Alixa decided that Jenna knew what she was doing and that there needed to be some negative consequences to going to the bathroom in her panties. So the cold bath rule was instituted. Whenever Jenna fails to use the toilet, she has to take a cold bath. Lix figured that she was going to have to wash her off anyway, so she might as well make it an unpleasant experience. Depending on the face you are making right now as you read this, you may or may not believe the faces that people have made at her as she tells them about her method, but you can’t argue with the results. She has only had to take 3 cold baths, and she definitely tries her hardest to avoid them. For his part, Jarom says that cold water never hurt anyone, except those guys who had to carry people across the frozen Mississippi river. He had to take cold showers for two years in Peru and it turned out okay for him. Feel free to tell Alixa what a bad mother she is, but know that she isn’t going to change for you.

Jenna doin' her business. Like father, like daughter.

Speaking of Lix, she has started going to the gym again with the kids. We originally got a membership at 24 hour fitness, but the daycare there was pretty shabby, so we switched to the Frisco Athletic Club and are very pleased with the decision. Lix has also been pretty active on our new grill, the one that came with the house. She is excited to expand her cooking repertoire and Jarom enjoys the addition of grilled things into his menu. She also spends a lot of her time complaining about how bad her fantasy football team is this year. This is mostly because after week one Jarom tried to give her Fred Jackson and Calvin Johnson in exchange for Chris Johnson, and she declined. I apologize for that last sentence, because I know that none of you care about the Winn’s fantasy teams, but years from now when Jarom reads this he will snicker.

Jenna loves to bake things for her daddy. I think its because she likes to take licks from the bowl. We made him coffee cake. She loved the brown sugar topping!

Now that things are starting to get settled in and in a routine Lix has started asking about home improvement projects. There are several rooms that she wants to paint, and some landscaping that she wants to change. Also there is one addition to the family that Jenna keeps asking about. When we were all still in Richmond Lix told Jenna that when we moved to Texas she could get a kitty and a purple room. Well she has latched onto those ideas so strongly that I’m not sure she really believes that she is in Texas yet. She has decided that she would like a blue kitty, but that a yellow one would also be acceptable. It will be named Beartoy, and it will be sooo nice. So one of these days I guess there will be another pet in the house. I’m not thrilled about cats, but I hear they keep to themselves, so I suppose I can handle it.

For some reason, Jenna loves to lounge on our stairs. On this day, her baby needed to lounge too.

And now a story from Lix:
A couple times a week, I take the kids on a jog to the park that is close to our house. Jenna often wants to run with me, and usually ends up running about a mile. She runs the whole time, never getting tired. It is actually quite amazing. Today on our run, she fell down and skinned both of her knees. They were bleeding and she was a little sad, and so she rode in the stroller for about four seconds until she wanted to run again. When we got home, I asked if she wanted a band aid to put on her booboos. I didn’t want her bleeding on the couches. She said yes, so I brought over two band aids and started to put them on her cuts. She started crying because she thinks that band aids on her booboos will hurt them. Instead, she asked if I could put them on her arms. So, for the cuts on her knees, she has band aids on her arms, and she insists that now they feel better. Silly girl.

Quotes

Alixa falls down.
Jenna: Are you okay mommy? It’s okay that you fell. Don’t cry. Don’t cry about it mommy. Just be a big girl, and don’t cry.
(Note from Alixa – I wasn’t actually crying)

Alixa: Jenna you need to listen, you are driving me crazy!
Jenna: (crying) No! I just want to drive you crazy!

Jenna loves to try on Lix's shoes. On this day she came out and said, "Look mommy, ice cream cone shoes!"

Most of Bo's recent pics are in the last post, but here is one more just to prove that it isn't all about Jenna.

Baby Bo is Six Months Old!

Baby Bo at six months old

On Friday, my baby boy turned six months old. He is about the cutest thing ever, and we love him a lot. He is a very happy baby, and really never cries. Well, he cries when he gets hurt, like when Jenna accidentally jumps on him or when I accidentally drop a hymn book on his face at church. But other than that, the happiest baby ever. He is very laid back and patient and loves me even though sometimes I get so caught up with Jenna that I ignore him a little bit.

Sitting in his highchair, waiting for some food

He loves to eat "real" food and will scarf down his oatmeal and pears in about 60 seconds flat. He eats baby food three times a day and is getting good enough that sometimes he doesn't even need a bib. He sits up really well all by himself and can grab toys and play with them. He babbles, and says mamama if he is sad. He is a very curious little baby and feeding him a bottle is getting increasingly difficult as he likes to look at everything and wiggles so much he slides off my lap. He loves his new exersaucer we bought him and will play in it for a really long time.

He is a master at standing on Dad's hands

He is a super sleeper, and sleeps 12 hours every night. He is a trooper during the day when he doesnt get as many naps as he would like because we are busy doing other things. Even if he is tired he is still a happy baby. He smiles at everyone and everything. He giggles too, and it is really cute. His favorite people to laugh at are Jenna and Kenna, because they are the best at playing peek-a-boo. He is proficient at rolling, and likes to be on his tummy. But sometimes he gets tired of being on his tummy and just lays his head down on the floor.

He insists on sleeping with a blanket on his face. It freaks me out too.

He really likes Jenna, and Jenna is getting better at liking Bo. She doesnt really pay much attention to him but gets very concerned if we go somewhere and Baby Bo isn't around. She is constantly keeping me updated on his state of alertness in the back of the car..."Mommy, Baby Bo is asleep." Or "Mommy, Baby Bo is awake!" She has recently started to want to give him hugs, which is super cute until Bo grabs hold of her hair and wont let go and she starts to cry. But while she is crying she tells me that "its ok, because he is just a little tiny baby and he doesnt know any better". She is constantly telling people that Baby Bo is her best friend, which is very sweet.

Bo giving Jenna too much love. Jenna not loving Bo's lovin'.

Bo is growing like a weed and has his six month check up tomorrow. I am guessing he is around 18 or 19 pounds, which sounds huge, but his dad weighed that much at 4 months, so I guess we are doing ok. We love this little boy so much and are so glad he came to join us! Happy half birthday, Baby Bo!

Big D

They say that everything is bigger in Texas, and based on our experience thus far, they are mostly right. But the thing that seems to be the biggest these days is baby Bo, a name that might not be appropriate for much longer. I guess somewhere between the middle of August, when the move preparation really got started, and now that kid has really gotten huge. And with all that has been going on around this house I guess it has sort of flown under the radar. But he is doing all sorts of big things, like rolling over and talking and standing on Jarom’s hands. He has also gotten pretty good at eating solid foods and doesn’t ever seem to be full. He has realized that he lives in a house with two very loud females and has developed a velociraptor shriek that allows him to make himself part of the discussion, and he uses it with frightening regularity. And he continues to be a very cute, very smiley, very easygoing baby, which is good because he has been relegated once again to the back burner by his older sister.



That’s because Jenna and Lix have undertaken potty training this week. Lix read a book about how to potty train your kid in 3 days and chose Monday-Wednesday of this week to give it a shot. I must say, the results have been surprisingly good. There have been a few accidents and Lix has been pushed to her breaking point, but Jenna has generally figured out how to successfully use the potty and is very excited about the stickers that she gets when she goes and the reward that comes when she fills up her sticker chart. On Wednesday evening after a long day stuck in the house and a couple of very frustrating accidents, Lix left Jarom with the kids so she could go get a haircut. Things went smoothly for about 30 minutes and then the wheels came off. Jenna was jumping on the couch, despite Jarom’s repeated requests that she not. One of her jumps was a little more than she could handle and *boom* she was on the ground with a bloody nose. She was obviously very upset and began sobbing, so Jarom picked her up and tried to make her feel better. Some of you may be able to predict what happened next. Jenna continued to cry harder and harder, until she puked all over herself and Jarom. Luckily, Jarom was able to contain the vomit to his clothes and person, but now had to try and carry Jenna up the stairs to the bathtub without shifting her body to allow barf to fall onto the floor. Somehow he managed to do it and got Jenna washed off and sitting in the tub. He then went back downstairs to check on Blake, who was now 10 minutes overdue for a bottle. He was crying a little now, because he was hungry and doesn’t really like being left alone. So Jarom quickly made him a bottle and toted him up to the bathroom, where he sat on the ledge of the tub and made Bo hold his own bottle while he bathed Jenna. It was getting late, so after he finished the bottle Jarom put him to bed and then was able to finish taking care of Jenna and getting her ready for bed, again. They were reading some stories when Lix got back. She makes it look so easy, this taking care of two little kids and not letting them die, but it is much harder than it looks.



Potty training is really the last step that is keeping Jenna from truly becoming a big girl. It has been interesting to watch her relationship with her parents lately. More and more she is becoming like a friend of theirs. During the move in she was quite helpful. Jarom gave her a large pile of little things that she could take into the house one at a time and she carried everything in her pile inside and up the stairs. When she goes to the store with Lix to help with the shopping they chat like girlfriends. She is also becoming very imaginative. She regularly puts her animals and baby dolls to sleep and feeds them elaborate meals. She has also started playing with things as if they were another. Rocks in the back yard become buggies that need to be fed leaves and have conversations with the other buggies that she has collected. Hangers become babies that need to be put to bed at naptime. It is pretty cool to watch her little mind go and see the things that it comes up with.

One thing that is definitely NOT bigger in Texas is the distance between our house and the other Winn Residence. That has been cut in half. Which is nice at 6:20 in the morning when Jarom leaves to go pick up Nate and head to work. They have decided to work a 7-4 shift in an effort to avoid heavy traffic and get home a little earlier to see the childrens. It is certainly the right decision, but Jarom is not thrilled about having to get up almost 90 minutes earlier than he used to. He did spend his birthday money on a spiffy new pair of sunglasses to protect his eyes from the big Texas sun on his drives home.

The rest of the week has been filled with all sorts of little errands and tasks. Lix and the kids came down to Jarom’s office for lunch one day and got to meet some of Jarom’s coworkers. Jarom made a trip to the dumpster to get rid of the last of the boxes that needed to be unpacked. The family went down to the local 24-hour Fitness and unfroze Jarom’s account so that he can once again work out at weird times. Lix can’t drop Bo off at the day care until he is six months old, so she still has to wait another week. We got the carpets cleaned, after seriously considering replacing them and then realizing that it was a little too expensive for us to do right now. So instead we got a new area rug for the family room, and it looks amazing. Jenna has continued to do great with the potty training, and has received a rocking horse and a new playhouse as rewards for her good behavior. Both were finds that Lix made on craigslist, which will make Brooke so proud.

The Winns also attended their new ward. It was pretty standard Mormon stuff, except that this is a ward that is dominated by young families. So there are 3 nurseries and about 120 kids in the primary. It makes for a loud sacrament meeting, but will sure be nice when Jenna has so many friends her age at church.

Here are some funny things that Jenna has said lately.

Alixa: Let’s put on your sunshine shirt, and then we will put your sweatshirt over that.
Jenna: Oh, that will be amazing!

Alixa: Jennabear, I love you
Jenna: No, I’m just eatin right now

Alixa put Jenna down for a nap today, and she didn’t sleep. She was singing very loudly and doing bum drops which were making huge thudding noises. So Lix went to investigate and noticed Jenna had thrown all of her animals out of bed. Lix asked her why she did that, and she said Pete had said "NO!" to her so she put him in time out by throwing him out of the crib.

Jenna: Mommy, I’m sweet like a popcorn ball