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!

Summer

How Lix arranges her shoes...

How Jenna arranges Lix's shoes.

She was hiding. Where's Jenna?

 Bo’s been walking a blue streak around here lately. He has gotten very good, but he still isn’t quite as good as he thinks that he is. This leads to some situations where it appears to outsiders like he is trying to kill himself. Two weeks ago at church he was walking around the library and got bumped by another toddler and smashed his forehead into a cabinet corner. During the week he tried to go face first down the stairs, which quickly became feet first, then face first again, repeated halfway down the stairs until Jarom caught him. Then last Sunday he tripped and hit his face on a chair while drinking from a sippy cup. The cup cut his frenulum of the upper lip and caused profuse bleeding. Jarom was working that day, so Lix had to rely on the help of Rob Ogden to hold Blake down while Bishop Short took a look at him. Rob is a bit of a snappy dresser, and sadly got some blood on his nice suit. So Lix took him some of her chocolate chip banana bread to apologize. Bo had a puffy face for a few days, but it didn’t take long before he was back at it, jumping off of couches and beds and slides all over the house, climbing up ladders and generally behaving as though he were invincible. As Grandma Nancy put it, “I don’t know how any of these children survive.”

Bo after bleeding everywhere at church.

Jazz Hands!

Jenna and Kenna are NOT pleased with this development. The top of the bed USED to be a safe haven.

 Even though he is a bit suicidal, he is also super adorable, especially when paired with Jenna. The two kids love to play hide and seek and wrestle, which consists of grabbing a blanket and putting it over their heads and then rolling around on top of each other and giggling. This game can be played indefinitely. They have a great time listening to music and dancing. And they love hanging out in the newly organized toy room (thanks Lix) reading books, building towers, playing catch, doing puzzles, playing music, etc…

Trying to look tough.

Jenna can FINALLY get the wood chips out of her shoe by herself. She now spends at least 50% of her playground time shaking her shoe. It has really freed up some time for Lix.

He goes down the slides all by himself.

A flower for you.

He loves to steal Jenna's chair for some light reading.

During the days they can usually be found at a pool or a beach. Lix has created a broad network of friends so she doesn’t have to visit the same pool twice in a row. Jenna continues to be a fish and loves to swim. Bo has been a little hesitant to embrace swimming but seems to be coming around nicely. Lix loves hanging out with her girlfriends in the sun, but it isn’t quite as relaxing as she might like because she has to try and keep suicidal Bo from drowning himself.

He doesn't love the water, but he does love the food.

So bright!

The Winn’s hosted a memorial day party with a few other couples from the ward, and it was a good time. There was a little friction when Jarom stated that he shouldn’t have to wear nice clothes because it wasn’t a nice party, which bothered Alixa to the point that she made some questionable gestures and remarks in front of the guests about her inconsiderate husband. The kids splashed around in the blow up pool in the back yard and had a great time. And since everything else we do around here revolves around water we got passes to the aquarium and visited for the first time. It’s a great place that will be awesome during the dog days of summer because it is an air conditioned environment that Lix can take the kids to and it is near Jarom’s work so they can stop by for lunch before or after.

Lix told her to "squat". This is what she did.

On a sugar rush after our first Bahama Buck's sno cone. See the blue mouth?

Holy straight hair, Batman!

He went to the corner to hide that fact that he was drinking out of the spray bottle. So sneaky.

As for Jarom, he seems to have spent most of the past few weeks at the dentist. A bunch of years ago Jarom cracked his front tooth playing racquetball and the work that was done to fix it needed to be redone. So he has visited a few times, which have all been terrible, but it is done now and hopefully this time it will last longer. What he really doesn’t understand is why dentists all seem to think that it is appropriate to try and carry on a conversation with their patients while their mouths are full of dental equipment and fingers and suction thingees. I don’t think anyone really likes being at the dentist, so just get in, get the work done, and get out. There just isn’t any need to make small talk about how the Rangers are doing or how many home runs Josh Hamilton has hit in the last few days or whether or not Miley Cyrus should be marrying that Helmsworth kid. Is Inappropriate Discussion a required class in dental school or something?

"Bats and Balls and little league teams; courage, faith and missionary dreams. That's what little boys are made of"

Bo's new room. We still need to add some artwork, and Lix needs to find the cross stitch she spend 8 months making, but it is on its way to being really cute!

A Twilight Eclipse

We are moving into full summertime mode around here. The weather is warming up and has been in the high 80’s most of the past few weeks. Lix has responded by organizing the ward’s mothers into a pool hopping club. Jenna and Bo love swimming and Lix loves lounging around by the water chatting with her buddies. And as an added bonus, it takes a lot of energy out of the kids so they don’t put up a fight when it is time to go to bed in the evening. Lix is looking forward to some wonderful summer months enjoying the Texas sun, which often seems like it is only a few miles away.

 

Lix has also gotten used to having a third child because Kenzie has been a working girl lately. The Ennas have had some wonderful times, and Lix has gotten a little creative in the things she does with them. You can only let those kids play in the toy room for so long before everyone starts driving each other crazy. So she’s gone shoe shopping, broken out the sidewalk chalk, hit up the pools, and also took a page out of Tom Sawyer’s book by giving them paint brushes and letting them loose on the back yard to paint the fence and the rocks and the table. It all turned out beautiful.

 

 

 

 
I don’t want to make the girls feel bad or anything, but the best part of the last month has definitely been Bo. One is such a great age, because it seems like that is when kids learn the fastest. It really seems like he is a whole new person every few days. He has gone from crawling to taking a few steps to practically running all over the place in just a few weeks. On Sunday Jarom skipped sacrament meeting with him and spent the time in an empty classroom learning how to stand up in open space. He is very inquisitive and is supremely interested in whatever it is that you happen to have. A few days ago he spent about five minutes pointing the remote at the TV and pushing various buttons. He knew the TV should be turning on, but he just couldn’t quite figure it out. He spends most of his time wandering around the house with shoes on his hands like mittens, and is often climbing on whatever crosses his path. Jenna seems to enjoy playing with him more than she used to, although he still sometimes terrifies both her and Kenna simply by wandering near them. When he gets a little too aggressive and in her face she has taken to calling him a crazy doofus and/or hitting him in the face with whatever stuffed animal is nearby. He thinks this is hilarious and laughs hysterically. It really is fun to watch those two interact and become great friends.

 
Lix and Jarom were watching some videos of Jenna from when they had just gotten here to Texas, and it is remarkable how much she has changed in the past 8 months. She was very much a toddler, and now she is very much a little girl. It is great to talk to her and read books with her and listen to the things that she is able to learn and understand and apply from one topic to another. She still loves music and sings all the time. She also loves dance parties and will sing or hum along with the tunes. Today on the way to the gym she requested the bar closing song, which is one of her favorites. It’s funny the things that she recognizes and remembers and latches on to.

I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention Mother’s Day. Lix had already gotten her present in the form of countertops, but she also got some cards and some flowers and some honey, because she is so sweet and doesn’t go bad, even though she is nearly 30. She is definitely Jenna and Bo’s favorite mom and Jarom sure is glad to have her because she does an amazing job taking care of him and the house and the kids.

 

Happy Mother's Day!

1 down, 74.6 to go

Jenna is pretty good at holding up the number of fingers you ask her to, although it sometimes takes her a few seconds of intense concentration to go from one number to another. But we’ve been practicing with her so that she can show people how old she is, how old she will be, and now, how old her little brother is. Bo survived his first year without too much difficulty. He eats most everything he sees, which has allowed him to triple his weight, an attribute that comes in handy during his two-on-one wrestling matches with Jenna and Kenna. He and Jenna continue to become more and more friendly, although he still puts the fear of God into her whenever she is doing a puzzle and he starts to wander near her. In the last post I mentioned that Bo was taking a few consecutive steps. As is usually the case with these little ones, it didn’t take long before “a few steps” turned into “as far as he wants to go.” The only thing that keeps him grounded now is that he can’t stand up without holding on to something. We’ve loved having him around this past year because he is about as smiley and happy as a baby can get. And the fact that he is a cute chubby guy doesn’t hurt. The only drawback is that having two great kids like Jenna and Bo just encourages Lix to want another one, which means that there is going to be another one sooner rather than later(not an announcement, just a prediction.)

Good kids in their car seats

To celebrate Bo’s anniversary Lix put together a smashing party. She put up balloons and decorated the ceiling, made adorable cupcakes that looked like monkeys and tasted like little drops of heaven, and invited a bunch of friends to come by and enjoy it with us. Jarom spent the morning helping get the house ready for visitors by picking up rooms, vacuuming, and cleaning up the backyard. As he was mowing the 25 square feet of grass they have he was careful to avoid the rabbit den, lest he turn the backyard into a scene from Saw. But it was moving day for the bunnies, and he noticed that one by one they were hopping out of the den and heading off to face the world. So he snagged the last two and put them in a cage so the kids could see them at the party. The weather was beautiful and the kids had a great time playing in the backyard with a bunch of toys and balls that Lix got at the dollar store. Bo wasn’t a huge fan of the cupcakes, but everyone else was. For presents he got an entire fleet of trucks to butch up his playtime. He really loves pushing cars around, so it was a perfect fit.

Jemima Puddleduck and one of her baby bunnies

Bo's birthday cupcakes

Pictures of Bo on his first birthday

Two days later, Lix got her present in the form of new countertops in the kitchen. It was an all-day installation that made the house very dusty and cost us a glass sugar jar, but was well worth it in the end. The new countertops and sink go very well with the existing cabinets, so much so that Lix doesn’t think that they need to be replaced anymore. The undermount sink is great, and so is the fact that she can pull something out of the oven and just set it right down on the counter. And best of all, after a few days she says that she likes it even more now that she’s getting used to it.

Right after the construction finished we got our first Winn visitors in David and Kristi. They were making the move from Utah to Delaware and decided to stop in Dallas and hang out with us and the other Winns for a few days. They were wonderful houseguests, regularly helping out with the dishes and other chores. David and Jarom and Nate played golf a few times. Kristi helped Lix shop for a new paint color and new room decorations for Bo’s redecorated room. Then Jarom and David helped paint Bo’s room. The crew visited a local indoor safari park one day, but mostly just enjoyed hanging out. David caught up on all the Disney movies that he missed as a kid and watched the first half of several planet earth episodes before his daily afternoon nap. And after a week it was time for them to get back on the road and get to Delaware.

The dreaded eight-putt

Bo's interior designer

When Winn children misbehave they have to sleep outside on the rocks

Like peas and carrots, apparently

Now it is just us again. Bo is walking around everywhere, getting into more trouble than ever before. Jenna is still trying to learn how to use her inside voice. Lix is trying to teach Bo some animal noises. He can do a version of “moo” and “woof” and knows which one goes with cow and which one goes with puppy. The kids spend a lot of time wrestling together, usually over a blanket. They also both enjoy reading and will sit quietly on your lap while you read them a book, after which Jenna will ask to read the story to you, turning the pages and mixing the parts that she has memorized with sections of narrative that she makes up as she goes. Bo seems to enjoy both versions of the book equally.

 

You might think that Lix is a bad mom, and you might be right, 

but she just had to get some video evidence of her hyper-sensitive son