Eons

It’s been a long time. That’s because this place has been very quiet for the past 2 weeks while Alixa and the kids were in Utah visiting all the people they know there. I thought about chronicling Jarom’s days, but “Goes to work, comes home, goes to the gym, watches TV, reads a book, goes to bed” repeated 17 times seemed boring. So now that they are back and have some adorable pictures to put up, I’ll catch you up on the last few weeks.

This is where Jenna can be found every afternoon, just like a cat

Let’s start with the day before they left. It was a pretty conventional day and Jarom arrived home from work to find Alixa doing something on the computer, Jenna arranging her animals on the steps so they could each take their nap, and Bo just waking up from his nap upstairs. Jarom went up with Jenna to get her brother. As Jarom was pulling Bo out of the crib Jenna told him she was going back downstairs. A few seconds later a thumping began. It lasted about 3 seconds, which is the exact amount of time it takes for Jenna for fall all the way down the stairs, courtesy of her blue monkey and Fufu, who tripped her up on the top stair. She was pretty banged up, but nothing too serious. It didn’t take more than a few seconds before Alixa remembered that she had scheduled a photoshoot in Utah and cursed the heavens for once again ruining her daughter’s face right before pictures. She ended up with a pretty good black eye, but the pictures turned out perfect, as you’ll see later.

All her animals, each with its own step for a nap. And the aftermath.

The day of her flight Lix brought the kids to Jarom’s office so that he could drop them off at the airport. His coworker, Dani, loves fat babies and is always excited by the prospect of getting to see Bo. So she came down to say hi to him. But apparently Bo hates Mexicans (Dani is part Mayan) because as soon as he saw her he began screaming bloody murder and wouldn’t stop until she had removed herself from his field of vision, and by that I mean that she had to go back inside the building. It was crazy, and something that Jarom had never seen before. Usually Bo is such a laid back kid, but he totally lost it. But after Dani was gone he calmed back down. So then Jarom dropped them off at the airport, and since Jarom and I weren’t invited, I’m gonna let Alixa take over and tell you all what happened.

This is what happens when you keep a 2-year old out until 9:30 every night

We flew out of Dallas from Love Field airport which is the absolute smallest airport I have ever been in. It was super nice, though because no one was there and it seemed all the employees showed up to work just for me and my kids. Security still took forever because I had a lot of stuff, two kids and a stroller. Everyone was very nice and apparently I don’t look dangerous because they let me through with bottles of water, containers of ready to feed formula and baby food without even checking it. They did, however thoroughly rub down my stroller to make sure it was safe. I was a little frazzled and ended up leaving our carry-on suitcase at security. I realized it only when I got to our gate and felt a little lighter. But I retrieved the suitcase and we made it onto our flight with no problems. The kids were really good on the way out there. Jenna slept for about two hours of the second flight and Bo slept for about 30 minutes. Other than that I spent the whole time trying to keep Bo on my lap and Jenna watched videos on my phone. Our flight was supposed to be 3 hours from Memphis, but ended up being four and a half because we were trying to fly around some weather that was moving into Utah. So by the end we were all done, but there was no crying from either kid, so it was a success!



Once we got to Utah, we were all so excited to see Grandma waiting for us. Thanks to the modern day marvel that is video chatting, neither kid missed a beat when it came to Grandma. Jenna climbed right on up to her lap and started chatting away with her and Bo allowed her to hold him while I got all the bags. It was a late night, but the kids fell right to sleep once we got home.





The next day was full of recovering. Kristi came up from Orem to hang out with us and we went to Café Rio for lunch and Tucanos for dinner. Nancy had to take missionaries out to both as some sort of reward and we all tagged along. This was the PERFECT way to start a Utah vacation. I love Café Rio and have missed it oh so much since we have left Utah. Eating at both places in the same day is a bit gluttonous, but I was on vacation, so I stuffed myself at both places. After Tucanos, Grandma let Jenna and Bo pick out stuffed animals at Build-a-Bear. Jenna loves Build-a-Bear and after she made hers, she was such a nice big sister and went back and made Bo’s for him too! We came home with some very cute animals. Jenna got a blue bear and put a sparkly pink dress and shoes on her and named her Bluebeary. Bo picked out a shaggy puppy and I chose to put a red Polo shirt on him. It was Bo’s very first stuffed animal. They are both welcomed additions to our horde of stuffed animals.

Friday was a stay at home day. Bruce and Nancy had missionary interviews to conduct and so the kids caught up on sleep and I kept busy sewing. I brought out some sewing projects to keep me busy while Bruce and Nancy were away. I made three car seat canopies for some nieces who are due in the next month and with the extra fabric I made Jenna some summer skirts. Saturday, we drove down to Pleasant Grove to spend some time with one of my old roommates. We spend the day there and Jenna had a great time playing with Wes and Ev and Bo loved their new dog, Blue. He is about the biggest dog I have ever seen but he was very sweet. Every time Bo saw him, he got super excited and started waving his arms. He didn’t even mind when Blue licked him. I was able to go to JoAnn’s with Mandy sans children and it was fun to catch up and watch her mad skills when it comes to buying discount fabric. We ate Costa Vida for dinner which is NOT as good as Café Rio and both kids fell asleep as we drove home in the snow.

The next day was Sunday and Jenna woke up requesting to go outside and build a snowman. No one in the house was interested in going outside, so Grandma, being the genius that she is, got a bowl full of snow and helped Jenna make a snowman on the kitchen counter. She used raisins for eyes, and toothpicks for arms, and even put a curly ribbon necklace on him. Jenna thought it was great and so did we because we got to stay inside. We went to church at one and knowing Bruce and Nancy I was all geared up to stay for three hours of church in a different ward with two tired kids. So after Sacrament meeting I started taking Jenna to the nursery when Nancy looked at me and said “What are you doing? We aren’t staying” like I was crazy for even thinking about it! My jaw about hit the floor. Apparently they get enough church during the week being on a mission and only need an hour on Sundays. I didn’t complain one bit, packed my kids up and headed home. That night we were able to spend time with my Omi and Opa that live down the street from my in-laws. Jenna had a great time playing with her cousin, Eva and also my cousins Eliza and Colter. That may sound weird, but my cousins are actually 6 and 3 so it worked out. I loved catching up with my brothers, uncle, and grandma and grandpa. Jenna even put on a little performance of singing while my uncle Andy played the harmonica and piano. Everyone loved it. We followed that with a mean game of Mexican Train Dominoes and called it a night.

The next week was spent going to the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving point with all of my old roommates and their kids on Monday. Tuesday Bo got a haircut and Jenna got to play in some real snow and helped David shovel the sidewalk. We also went to the Church History children’s museum on Tuesday. It is a wonderful FREE place to take your kids if you are ever in Salt Lake City. There was a lot to do. Jenna loved building Nephi’s ship, playing on the touch screen computers, building a “temple” out of blocks, driving a car, feeding the missionaries with food she picked from the garden and eggs she pulled from the hens. We also got to dress up in authentic Mexican garb and dance some Mexican dances. It was awesome. Tuesday night I left the kids with Nancy and I went to a craft night at my old roommate’s house. We tried to make paper heart wreaths but only Laura’s turned out cute. It was still a lot of fun to hang out and chat with some of my favorite people.







Wednesday we got the kids up early and bathed them and got them ready for their photo shoot at FotoFly. My sister-in-law had taken her kids there when she was out in Utah and I fell in love with the pictures so I scheduled an appointment for my kids. The studio did not disappoint. They are so reasonably priced and our photographer did an AMAZING job with the kids. I got real smiles out of both of them and I even got pictures of them together without Jenna crying because Bo was touching her. It was a miracle! I am in love with my pictures. After pictures, we did some shopping, ate at Chick-fil-a and went home. That night we did some more shopping where Aunt Kristi (her fanciest aunt. I know that doesn’t even offend her other aunts because Kristi is super fancy) helped her pick out the tackiest and shiniest purse I have ever seen. She then picked out some sunglasses and a little mirror to put inside the purse. She walked all over the mall with her sparkly purse and her oversized sunglasses. She was quite the diva.








The rest of the week was pretty low key. Bo spent his time at home sleeping and perfecting his army crawl. He can now go wherever he wants whenever he wants. It is really fun to see the places he ends up. I love his newfound independence as it keeps him entertained for longer stretches. Jenna hates his newfound independence because he usually finds something to do with the toy she is playing with. The first time this happened she had a MAJOR meltdown. She has since learned that if Bo is near to move her toy to a higher elevation, or she just abandons the toy completely, surrendering before he can ruin whatever it is she is doing. Once in a blue moon, she will actually play with him when he crawls over and it is probably one the most exciting and rewarding things I have gotten to experience as a parent. I love watching them playing and laughing together. Jenna spent her time at home walking on the treadmill (which she figured out how to turn on and off by herself), playing with the plethora of stuffed animals grandma Nancy has at her house and pushing them around in the toy shopping cart, reading books, and playing with the missionaries that are constantly in and out of the mission home. Jenna grew particularly fond of the APs. The two weeks we were there were the two weeks before transfers, so the assistants were there every day. Jenna became best friends with Ewdew Wawson and Ewdew Cawdewwood. If they were there, she was constantly asking them to chase her around the house, which they more than willingly agreed to. If they weren’t there, she asked where they were and if they would play with her when they got there. It was really cute.





One Saturday I was lucky enough to take David’s ticket (he had to go out of town for a school interview) to go see Brian Regan. He was hilarious and I had a lot of fun going. Another Saturday the kids and I and Nancy went down to Kristi’s salon in Springville and got our hair and nails done. Jenna loved getting pampered. She picked out blue for her toes and purple and green for her fingers. Kristi gave her a super cute haircut and the while the rest of us were busy, she played with my phone. Bo took a nap in one of the massage rooms for the entire afternoon which was very nice of him. Another thing we did was eat dinner with my old roommates again. We had wonderful chicken tacos and played just dance on the PlayStation Kinect. It was awesome. Jenna loved it. I liked it too, but it turns out I am a horrible dancer.

Eating breakfast with David, and a chair for each of her animals

I was lucky enough to celebrate my birthday while we were out in Utah. It was the 2nd, for all of you who missed it, which was the day before I left. But everyone knows that one day of celebration is simply not enough for me on my birthday, and so in true Alixa fashion, I started the celebration a day early on Wednesday the 1st. My mother-in-law was nice enough to take my kids for the for the ENTIRE day so that I could go down to Provo unfettered and hang out with some friends and stroll around BYU’s campus. She agreed to take my kids before she checked her schedule, and ended up taking them to Tooele with her which is an hour drive for some missionary interviews. She said Bo slept the whole time and Jenna ran the missionaries ragged so it sounds like they had a great time. I sure had a great time with my “day off”. I ate lunch at Café Rio again with my friend Heather and then I went to campus and walked around and saw all of the new things they are doing. I bought the kids and myself the cutest BYU shirts ever which will make for a very cute picture one day. I also got to eat lunch with my brother and see my friend Megan. It was such a fabulous day. I had to head back up to Salt Lake City around 4 to get back in time for my pre-birthday dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Bruce and Nancy met me there with my kids along with Kristi and David and Jason. My friend Heather also came up so we could hang out some more. She got there just as we were all finishing, so Nancy offered to take my kids home and put them to bed so I could stay and chat with her awhile. It was so good to catch up while stuffing our face full of delicious cheesecake. We went shopping afterwards for a birthday present. It was a fabulous day before my birthday.

This is where Bo can be found these days: grabbing everyone's ankles

Thursday was my actual birthday. It was spent spending a little bit more time with my grandparents and shopping. Kristi came up from Orem to help me buy by birthday present. She again showed that she was Jenna’s fanciest aunt by dressing her up in a cute outfit made complete with a scarf and a super high side ponytail. She also put blush and lipstick on her and Jenna kept telling people how fancy she was all day. I got a heart rate monitor and some workout clothes for my birthday, which might not sound very exciting, but it was exactly what I wanted. We had so much fun together all afternoon. She was a big help with my kids all vacation and I loved all the time I got to spend with her. That night for dinner, we ordered Olive Garden and my brothers and one of my roommates came up to hang out with me. Jenna got to spend some more time with Eva and I had a lot of fun chatting and playing Bohnanza with Zak, Sam, and Abe. It was probably one of the best birthdays I have ever had.







Friday was a sad day as we packed up all of our stuff. We had everything ready to go at 11:30 so we could eat at Café Rio one more time before we left. Nancy ate with us and then it was off to the airport. We said a very sad and teary goodbye and headed for our airplane home. The kids were great, once again and slept a little and were very cooperative. We did have to sit on our second airplane on the runway in Memphis for about an hour but other than that it was a smooth trip home. I am always amazed at how nice people are when I travel alone with my kids. One random lady held Bo for me while I took Jenna to the bathroom on the airplane, and one nice man pulled my carry-on suitcase for me all the way through the Memphis airport because he could see my hands were full. It was a fabulous trip and we loved every minute of it. It was so good to see friends and family, but it was also really nice to come home to Jarom. He had my birthday present waiting on the kitchen counter for me when I got home; a brand new Kitchen-Aid mixer! We sure missed him but so glad we got to go!