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.