I'm not an ambiturner

Summer just keeps ticking along here in East Texas. It’s hard to believe that we will celebrate our nation’s independence from France next week. The Winns have been super busy doing all manner of summery things. Let’s recap. Several weeks ago Bo’s hair was starting to get long enough that it wasn’t really for boys anymore. Lix decided that instead of paying someone to give him a trim she would just have Jarom shave his head with the clippers. This was the worst idea since the Knicks decided to give $60 million to Eddy Curry. It turns out that Bo has a mortal fear of hair clippers, and he started screaming/crying as hard as he could the moment the clippers touched his head. Sadly, at that point there is already a large swath of hair that has been cut, so you have to try and finish it. He didn't exactly hold still, so there were a bunch of spots that got missed, but they did eventually get through it. And it was agreed that next time Lix would pay a few dollars and spare everyone the terror of going through that again. There was an interesting side effect of the haircut - Bo doesn't look like his cousin Ethan anymore. Now he looks like his cousin Luke. I guess this family shares a lot of characteristics among the boys and the length of your hair will bring out different ones.

How to spend a hot Dallas summer? In the pool

Drinking cold shakes

Riding the Carrotsell at the mall

And hanging out at the indoor safari park, riding elephants and jumping on trampolines

 

And it wouldn't be summer without the 10 month long baseball season. The Texas Rangers have a AA team that is located right in Frisco, and Lix organized a field trip to see them play with about 5 other families in the ward. We got tickets to sit in the grass beyond the outfield wall, which was great because we just spread out a bunch of blankets and the kids could run around and play with each other throughout the entire game. The tickets were free, the parking was free, and Lix avoided the temptation of buying a $6 hotdog, so it ended up costing nothing. And it was fireworks night, so at the end of the game they cleared the grass and sent everyone over to the seats to watch the show, which was the best firework show that Jarom has ever seen. Jenna and Bo were completely in awe. And the team won the game, sending them to the playoffs. So a good evening all around. We didn't get home and in bed until about 10:30 so there were some sleepy bears in the backseat on the way home, but they got to sleep in the next morning. And now Jenna keeps asking when she gets to go to a baseball game again.

Enjoying the baseball game

Sometimes Bo tries out new ways to eat his food. Look Ma, no hands!

This is also Jenna's birthday month, which is about how long we've stretched out the celebration. Lix has spent many of her evening over at Brooke's house making a playhouse for Jenna, which is now complete but still needs a frame over which to put it. Jarom has been taking a lot of heat for this the past few days, and it has been the source of great stress in his marriage. But in the meantime she has about a thousand other new toys to play with. She had her birthday party on Saturday, a few days before her actual birthday, and there were about 10 kids that came to play in the water in the backyard and have cookies and open presents. Jenna seemed to enjoy the fact that her friends were coming over, even though she spent most of the party digging in the dirt by herself or playing with Kenna. The parents of the more troublesome children stuck around, and the adults sat in the air-conditioned kitchen chatting and watched the kids play in the backyard through the windows. Everyone seemed to have fun and Jenna got some new dolls and coloring books and we didn't lose any of the children.

 

 

On her actual birthday she got to open up her presents from Mimi and Opa. It was a box with some typical three-year old stuff highlighted with an adorable tea set that is probably a little too nice for Jenna at the moment. It will have to be a supervision only toy until she's a year or two older or it might get broken. We were also going to do a video chat with Grandma and Grandpa and Kenna and have them open up their presents together, since they got the same thing. But our modem broke and Time Warner couldn't get someone out for 5 days so there was no internet at the Winn home. It was like we had hopped in the DeLorean and gone back to the stone ages. Jarom was talking on the phone one day with Annie and she asked him for a good movie quote from Rambo. He didn't know any off the top of his head and he couldn't even look it up on the internet. You know you don't really appreciate the internet until it is taken away from you and you can't instantly look up Rambo quotes. How did he even live before college? But the Comcast guy did come and fix the modem, and Jenna was finally able to open her present with Grandma on the computer. She got a little power wheel ATV, and has spent a great deal of effort trying to figure out how to turn the handlebars so that she doesn't smash into every wall in the house. One of the kids favorite pastimes now is to have Jenna drive the ATV in a circle around the dining room table (always left, NASCAR style) while Bo is hanging on to the back, half pushing half hanging on for dear life.

Jenna had a little accident in Nate's backyard, so Lix stripped her down and hosed her off

As far as developmental updates: Jenna had her three year checkup and passed with flying colors, although the doctor mentioned she might be drinking too much milk. Lix has taught her how to play cards, and legitimately lost to her daughter in Go Fish only a few minutes after teaching her how to play. She has joined the chore-doing demographic and is now responsible for putting away the silverware from the dishwasher. Her favorite thing to do lately is build block towers, and she seems to have a future as an engineer because she is able to get them to be pretty tall. A few weeks ago her thumb got smashed in a door and the nail finally fell off last week, so she only has one thumbnail at the moment. She is a great big sister and loves to play with Bo. Bo is as cute as he can be. He follows Jenna around like a puppy and loves to wrestle with her. He has also begun pushing her toy stroller around the house, picking up whatever stray toys he finds and putting them carefully in the seat, like little treasures. He has become very communicative and will respond well to instructions. He has also started nodding yes and no, which is hilarious. It takes a lot of concentration for him to do it, so there is a lot of eyebrow and mouth movement along with the fat, bobbing cheeks. So Jarom and Lix ask him a lot of questions just to see it and giggle.

Collecting treasures

Bo can't pass a ball in a store or a house without playing with it [cue Jarom's sigh of relief]

Jarom is currently training for the Hottest Half, a half marathon here in Dallas that is run in the middle of August. Nate has been talking about running a half for over a year so they finally signed up for one. Hopefully between the training and running the race in 100 degree heat the experience will be awful enough that neither of them will ever want to enter a long distance race again. It has been interesting to see how much Jarom sweats. On a recent hour long run he weighed himself before (209.4) and after (202.2) just to see. That's a disgusting shirt. He has also started his lacrosse coaching career. Some kids in the ward signed up for a summer league and they didn't have a coach at their first game so their mom's took advantage of their position as primary presidency (where Jarom and Nate are both teachers) and told the Winns they had to help out. I figure Jarom has been on the receiving end of about 9 million hours of coaching during his life, much of it voluntary, so he'd better get started repaying it. As coaches, they are 1-0, so there's nowhere to go but down.

Wearing the authentic German outfits that Opa got them

At the aquarium

Lix had been busy taking care of the children and planning things like preschool for Jenna in the fall. She continues to have social engagements regularly and really enjoys hanging out with the good friends she has made here in Texas. She also continues to be a gym rat and can be found at the Frisco Athletic Club most mornings of the week, followed by afternoons at the pool. Its a rough life, but someone has to do it!