You do the math

Nobody likes a buried lead, so we’ll start with the biggest news. Baby #3 is on the way. This latest pregnancy started with a bit of controversy. Sometime in June Lix decided that she was ready for a third kid. Maybe Bo and Jenna were behaving themselves particularly well or she just had a bout of temporary insanity, no one can say for sure. But she made the decision. And once she makes that decision she becomes very technical about days and times and body temperatures and all sorts of other weird things that you can read about on the internet if you are so inclined. The first week of July came around, and Alixa was not pregnant. And the next window for her to become pregnant fell in the middle of July, which you may recall lands smack in the middle of her Utah vacation. And yet somehow, Lix gets back and Jarom starts seeing literally dozens of pregnancy tests all over the bathroom, and they are positive. Lix had her first doctor’s visit today and everything was good and she was given a due date of April 17. In a last ditch effort to sell this pregnancy as a miracle and not the result of an ill-timed summer fling Alixa has dubbed all of her fantasy football teams “Immaculate Reception.”

But a new person isn’t all that is going on around here. Jarom turned 31 and celebrated by heading off to work. He has now climbed the hill to 30 and is on the way down. Nate and Kenz had their baby girl early and Nancy decided to come out to visit and help out a little bit, so she was in town to help him celebrate. He did take a day off of work to go with the kids and Grandma to the zoo, which was a wonderful day. It was the first week of school, so the zoo was pretty much empty. They got to watch the lion trainers run the lions through their tricks, got to feed some giraffes, watched a bird show, played in the creek, and perhaps the highlight of the day: The three little ones and Nancy rode Tiffany, a very chill camel. Nancy seemed to be the most uncomfortable one in the group, and dismounted after a few laps. But there weren’t any other people and Tiffany was already up, so the nice man let the kids ride a little while longer by themselves. After they were done Bo decided that he hadn’t gotten enough and climbed back aboard for a solo trip. All in all, a pretty great day.

The rest of grandma’s stay was filled with trips to various stores and purchases of more toys than any self-respecting kids need. But if grandmas aren’t good for that, what are they good for? The stay wasn’t very long, but we were glad to have her and hopefully she enjoyed her time in Texas. She did get to see Jenna’s new room, which Jarom and Alixa painted mint green and highlighted with purple curtains and some other decorations that remain to be added. They also moved her bed and moved her back up to the top bunk again. And fixes aren’t just on the inside. The fallout from the busted pipe is being fixed by a friend who is generally handy. As these things always do, it turned out to be a little more complicated than they initially expected. It turns out that the trees near the sprinkler pipes have done a masterful job of entwining their roots amongst the PVC and wires and made it a small nightmare to get in there and make the repairs that were needed. But Rob pushed through, despite the oppressive heat and the miniscule pay. He’s a trooper. And hopefully his work lasts a long time, because I don’t think it comes with a warranty.

Jenna has now started her two preschools. One is a group that Lix is part of where she teaches 5 kids twice a week. The moms rotate being the teacher, but Lix got week 1. It was a blast. The kids did some letters and numbers and made crafts and had activities and even got to make a volcano. They were supposed to meet me (I was told I could be the class pet) but Lix did such a good job planning that she never ran out stuff to do. So I guess I’ll be on the agenda next time around. Jenna is also enrolled in an every Friday class with a bunch of other kids in the ward, and that starts tomorrow. She is very excited and seems to really enjoy school, which is good. While we are on the subject of learning, Bo has recently become quite the reader, much like Jenna was. He won’t go to bed until you read him at least one story, and he is always excited to sit on your lap and listen to you as you read. In fact, Lix recently went back through Jenna’s pictures and videos from when she was his age, and she commented that she is amazed at how similar they are, in appearance and behavior. I wonder if this next one will be just like them or something different. It’ll probably be a redhead. Great.