Februany

Happy Black History Month everybody! Alixa has spent the month coming down from her Utah Vacation high. For the most part things are the way they were before the trip, but there have been a couple of major changes. One of the first things that Jarom noticed when his family came back was the subtle influence that Kristi had on his wife and daughter. Alixa has been kicking up the fanciness quotient on her wardrobe, and even got a box of Kristi’s old clothes to add to her lineup. Most disturbingly, she has begun to wear leggings in place of pants. I’m sure that Kristi would be proud. As for Jenna, she has become a little more of a girly girl. I don’t know if that is directly attributable to Kristi, but I will blame her anyway. In fact, just yesterday Jenna was playing with some toy animals and her little plastic Simba fell on the floor next to a cobweb. As she was reaching for it she asked Lix what the cobweb was and was told it was a spider web. This immediately changed things and she was afraid to pick Simba up. After a few minutes she was able to extract him by gently gripping his tail and pulling him away from the cobweb, in the same way you might try to carefully remove a piece of cheese from an armed mouse trap.

Jenna likes to wear Lixi's "fancy" shoes. Lix has nightmares of when Jenna will be a teenager.

Thanks for the miles of bubble wrap Grandma. We are still working on popping it all.

One of Jenna's favorite things to do is "help" Lix bake by eating batter

Bo is in that stage of life where two weeks seems like an eternity and you can’t even believe that this is the same person he was last month. Sadly, he forgot the one trick that he knew while he was out west and will no longer stand on Jarom’s hand. Fortunately, he has replaced that trick with his new disappearing act. If you set him somewhere and then turn around to do something, he will vanish. He then reappears in other rooms, under tables, in the bathroom, or standing alongside a couch or the coffee table. He has become very fond of being upright, and seems like he is well on his way toward walking, which will only bring more trouble. He still hasn’t stopped smiling and loves to chat with you and will happily wave goodbye when you leave.

We have been watching a lot of the "Jungle Book". This is his best Mowgli impression.

Trouble!

Trouble!

He tried to go to sleep on the llama rug. It is so soft.

The house has been battling a winter bug the past week or so, and Jenna got hit the hardest. She was pretty bad for a few days, which were mostly spent watching movies on the couch and taking naps and doing a lot of coughing and sneezing. There wasn’t any throwing up, which is a huge plus, but the poor little girl had the saddest sick eyes I’ve ever seen. She had a lot of trouble sleeping through the nights so Lix set up the pack and play in her room to minimize the amount of distance a parent had to cover to help her when she would wake up. Jenna has lately been waking up crying loudly, which is a little sad and a little funny. The things that upset vary greatly, from bugs in her bed to frogs to shadows to not being able to turn the fan off. Sometimes she makes a little sense and sometimes she makes no sense, but usually you just need to give her a hug for a minute or two and she’ll calm down and fall back asleep. One time Lix went in there to find her crying and trying to get out of her bed through one of her windows. Lix asked her what was wrong and she sobbed that she couldn’t get her door open. Lix told her that wasn’t the door and laid her back down. Her imagination is incredibly overactive. It’s sad that she is scared of whatever it is, but the way that she relates those fears to you just makes you laugh.

Oh so sick.

So what if it is sunny and 65 degrees. She will still wear her owl hat.

Lix made her a belt for her beanie babies that she wore around all day long

Lix celebrated her 27^th birthday in Utah, but then had an encore event with her girlfriends when she got back. Ever since we moved here to Dallas her social agenda has been through the roof. This is the first time since college that she has had a large group of girls who are in the same life situation, and she is taking full advantage. It seems like she is doing something with somebody almost every day and usually one or two nights a week. She’s also been babysitting Kenna a lot recently. Jenna loves that, although the two of them occasionally have disputes. One day last week they were hanging out having a good time and Jenna referred to Kenna as Kenna Wee, because she says her L’s like a W. This upset Kenna, who corrected Jenna’s pronunciation. Jenna replied, “that’s what I said, Kenna Wee.” This toddler version of Who’s on first continued for a few minutes, with Alixa’s gleeful encouragement. We have since run the same routine with Jenna using other words that she can’t quite say, and the results are hilarious every time.

Home Depot has the BEST carts.

Valentine’s Day also came and went, and Jarom celebrated it by watching Breaking Dawn, Part I with Lix. This was a significant sacrifice on his part. He went into the viewing with very low expectations for the film, based on what he had seen in previous Twilight movies and his general disdain for sappy love filled teenage vampire romances and bad Kristen Stewart acting. Somehow, the movie still managed to disappoint him. And yet he has no doubt that he will end up watching Part II whenever that gets released. In case anyone was wondering whether or not Jarom loves his wife, there you go.

Whiny the sequel

It’s February everybody, which means that it is once again time for some Deity-sanctioned basketball games! When it comes to church basketball games Jarom always has two clear goals going in: Win the game and drive someone on the other team crazy. He doesn’t always win, but he is batting pretty close to 1.000 on the other front. And this season hasn’t been any different. Going into tonight’s game the team was 1-1 and Jarom had sufficiently bothered at least 2 people. If anybody wants to remember some of Jarom (and Nate’s) past glory, you can read about this little girl.

Tonight’s game had a dire outlook from the start. There were only 4 players, so they had to make the coach (usually a player but with a damaged knee from last week) fill in wearing his jeans and unable to move faster than a brisk walk. But the shots were falling, and the other team played a passive zone defense which allowed them to milk a lot of clock to catch their breath and get a fifth, mobile player there. With a few seconds left in the first half they were up by 5. Then the real game started. Whiny McTemper, the other team’s point guard, got the rebound and pushed the ball up the court, with Jarom playing tight defense. He hit a great 3-pointer at the buzzer and proceeded to yell “Get off me!” Jarom responded by letting him know how tough he thought he was. This prompted some chirping from Whiny, and Jarom knew that he had found his target.

The forces of good held a small but consistent lead throughout the second half, and Jarom worked on Whiny every chance he got. The steam was building. With 3:00 left they had a 1 point lead and the ball. Jarom and others dribbled around for about a minute and then called a timeout. Then they did it again. So there is now about a minute to play. After some more time killing there is a wide open layup that is taken and missed, and two players simultaneously grab the rebound. It is Nate and Whiny. It is clearly a jump ball, but neither of them will let go for like 3 or 4 seconds as they roll around on the ground. Finally Nate gets off of Whiny, who is going crazy and looks like he is going to throw a punch. So Jarom, the unlikely voice of reason, steps between the two to avoid anything crazy. What could possibly upset Whiny more than Jarom holding him back? Nothing. So he shoves Jarom and explains to him in his best 3rd grade vocabulary that he is not to put his hands on him.



So it is bad guy’s ball with 10 seconds to play. They run a play; guy takes a shot, misses the shot and calls foul. Whiny starts screaming about how it was an intentional foul and how he can’t believe that they would stoop so low. He has sufficiently blown his top that one of his teammates declares that he is no longer interested in playing with him and walks off. So now they have 4 players and only a few seconds. They pass the ball in and time runs out, at which point one of the players (we’ll call him Whiny Junior) punts the ball towards the stage at the other end, you know, where the wives and children are sitting. Jarom comments on the maturity level of said action. This prompts Whiny to throw a punch at him. It landed on his shoulder, so no harm done. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he had no intention of hitting Jarom’s face, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if his right cross is just as bad as his jumper (bazinga.)

The game is now over, but Whiny is just getting warmed up. He starts up complaining to Jarom’s bishop, who was one of the players in the game. He says that it is embarrassing that a bishop would condone such terrible sportsmanship by members of his congregation. Whiny clearly doesn’t understand irony. The bishop wisely ignored him. So Whiny had to resort to passive-aggressive loud conversations that were with other people but really directed at the bishop repeatedly threatening to “call your stake president!”

Actual picture of Whiny McTemper

Most of the people go home, and a few, including Jarom, stay to play some pickup games. Whiny sits in the gym for about 15 minutes, despite everybody asking him to go home and cool off. Finally he leaves, but pokes his head back in 15 minutes later. It turns out that he and some buddies were just waiting outside for the pickup game to end so that they could confront the bishop and/or Jarom. They were once again asked to leave, and seemed to. After the pickup game ended Jarom left with a few other guys, wary of getting jumped. And as he got in his car and began pulling out of the church he saw another car on the other side of the lot turn on its lights and start moving. Undoubtedly this was those same idiots with the genius plan to follow him home, harass him on the road, who knows what. Even though they probably wouldn’t have done anything other than talk tough and try to intimidate him, Jarom figured it was a smarter move to just avoid them altogether. So he easily evaded their tailing efforts and made sure they didn’t stay with him as he went home.

All in all, a pretty awesome night. I will never cease being amazed at how emotional people get over things that are as trivial and meaningless as a loosely organized stake pickup basketball tournament with no awards or prizes of any kind. I’m just sad that nobody got it on film.

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!

Growing up

It is the first few weeks of the New Year, which means that there are lots of new toys to be played with and huge crowds at the gym and not a lot on the big Winn’s agenda. So I will tell you a little about what the small ones are up to. Jenna seems to be getting older at an alarming rate. She spends most of her time these days singing. She knows a lot of songs, but most of it is more like a musical- she simply sings about whatever she is doing at the moment. And she sings very loudly. There are only a few things that can get her to quiet down, and they include watching a show and listening to music. So those things probably happen more than they should.

This is what Jenna wants for her birthday

Jenna has also quickly become an iPhone pro. It is amazing to watch how quickly and easily little children can understand technology while their grandparents who have attended a few years of college (but didn’t graduate) can’t seem to figure out the most basic email functions. Some of Jenna’s favorite things to do with Lixi’s phone are an Easy bake Oven app, Barbie I Can Be, and Angry Birds. And she is getting very good with the more traditional uses of the phone. Her new kitchen set came with a cordless phone and she can often be found wandering around the house with it held up to her ear, having half a conversation with Opa or Kristi or Grandma or others. Her imagination has really started to blossom, and it is quite entertaining to watch. Last week she rescued an imaginary kitten from the play area at Chick-Fil-A and came running over to Lix with her hands outstretched to show it to her. She named it Furry Furry, and brought it home and has shown it to several momentarily confused visitors. This behavior baffles Alixa because she has no imagination and is unable to pretend anything.



Jenna has also started to interact more with Bo. They take baths together and she not only tolerates his presence but also shares toys with him and doesn’t freak out nearly as much when he happens to touch her. She talks to him more and more, includes him in her prayers, and generally treats him more like a brother and less like a piece of furniture, which is how she used to see him.

But the biggest sign that Jenna is growing up is that Lix straightened her hair for the first time. She’s been wanting to do it for a while, so she threw an episode of the Backyardigans on her phone and had Jenna sit through it. It went very well. Jenna loves it, and people seem to agree that she is pretty cute. Jarom thinks that it makes her look much more like Alixa’s daughter, although he still thinks they are both cuter with the curls.



Bo seems to have turned into a real person overnight. He has always been cute and fat and cuddly, but his personality is really starting to show up now. He is very curious and works quite hard to move himself around the room to get whatever it is that interests him. He is not a great crawler, and will only move backwards if he manages to find himself on the hardwood floor, but he is rarely in the same place that you left him when you come back into the room.

He also won't stay where you put him in the crib, refusing to be comfortable

He has also started to be more active in the tub. He loves his new bath toys and has learned that if he lays on his back and kicks his legs as hard as he can he will soak his mother and make her shriek for him to stop, which he thinks is hilarious and encourages him to continue. Lix is working on a few tricks that he is getting better at, like waving goodbye to people and raising his arms when she says “Bo is soooo big!” He has also begun to enjoy reading books, especially before bed. His favorite right now is Brown Bear Brown Bear and he will give you dirty looks and holler if you don’t let him turn the pages. And he is growing a few teeth as well. This, combined with a cold he has been fighting, has rendered him slightly more troublesome during the evenings, a development that neither Jarom nor Lix is thrilled about. But they and Jenna love him more than ever and are very happy with the kind of kid he is turning into.



There was also a surprise visitor who stopped by this week. Alixa’s dad is trying to land a contract with a company here in Dallas and had to fly in for 24 hours for some meetings. So he stayed the night in the guest room and got to the house in time to read Jenna her stories and help put her to bed. The plan was to meet him for dinner before his flight took off the next day, but there was a malfunctioning GPS that kept them from finding each other and the Winns just shared an appetizer at the Cheesecake Factory before sadly packing up the kids and heading home. It sounds like he might be coming back somewhat regularly, especially if he’s a good salesman, so we are looking forward to more of these surprise visits in the future.

Jenna fell asleep on the way to meet Opa for dinner

This is what happens when Jenna hides in Alixa's new blanket

A few funny Jenna-isms

Jenna: Flamingo is sitting on his eggs to keep them nice and warm
Jarom: How many eggs does Flamingo have?
Jenna: He has three.
Alixa: Is he going to be a mommy?
Jenna: No, he’s a daddy so he’s just waiting for a mommy.
Alixa: So where did he get the eggs?
Jenna: He got them from Target.

Alixa(as Jarom is lying in bed coughing): Tell daddy " I'm sorry your throat hurts."
Jenna: Daddy, I'm sorry your throw up hurts.

Wake up, wake up, wake up, it's the...

The first Winn Christmas was a wonderful success. It turns out that we don’t need any parents or siblings to have a great time. Lix decided to start the celebration by throwing a gift exchange party with a bunch of her new friends. This required that the house be put together, which meant that Lix and Jarom had to spend an evening repainting the dining room and its 12 foot walls. The room used to be a mustard yellow and is now drizzle, which is a sort of sea foamy blue-green. The painting was followed by the putting of stuff on the walls, which is one of Jarom’s favorite things to do. But things were all done by the time the party started, and it was a big success. About a dozen women came and had appetizers and shared presents and generally enjoyed the fact that they had left their kids at home with their husbands.

A few shots of the new room and wall decorations

For her gift, Alixa had purchased a wonderfully soft blanket from Marshalls, but they had forgotten to remove the security tag. So Jarom was sent back to the store to have it removed. While he was there, he purchased another wonderfully soft blanket because he thought it would be a nice present for Lix. He brought it home and hid it away, and didn’t really think about it again for a few days. Then he got a call from Lix while he was at work. She was going through the credit card charges and noticed that Marshalls had charged her twice for the one blanket. This was not something that Jarom had considered, because until recently Alixa would not have even been able to log into the accounts to see the charges, that’s how little she cared about the finances. But now that she is on a budget she apparently watches them like a hawk. So she quickly caught the double charge and rummaged through the garbage until she found the receipt that Jarom had thrown in the trash and then called Jarom to see what should be done. He did his best to calm her down and convinced her to wait until after the weekend to see if the second charge dropped off. She didn’t seem thrilled about this solution, but accepted it anyway. On Christmas morning when she saw the other blanket she was quite relieved. I’m not sure which she was happier about, getting the blanket as a gift or the finding out that Marshalls wasn’t overcharging her.

Jenna working the train table, some cute hats from Amanda, and the kitchen set

Christmas Eve was spent over at the Nate Winn house, having dinner and playing games with a few friends. The food was great and there were lots of leftovers. Lix made a wonderful chocolate cheesecake and none of it fell on the floor. After the party they came back home and watched some football games while Jarom assembled a new kitchen set for Jenna and celebrated his third consecutive championship in the Winn family fantasy football league. Christmas morning Jenna woke up and came downstairs to find her kitchen set, which immediately made her go to the bathroom. After that, she wanted to know where the food was, so some of that had to be ordered. She has been cooking all sorts of goodies for everyone in the house ever since. Jarom also put together a train table that is supposed to be for Bo, but he can’t use it yet so Jenna has been putting it through its paces. Jarom and Lix mostly just enjoyed watching the kids play with their new toys. The got to call some grandparents and cousins and had a nice brunch with Nate, Kenz, and Kenna, but mostly they just lounged around and enjoyed a day with the family.





On the 26th Jarom took advantage of his day off by getting up and heading out to play a round of golf with a friend from BYU who was visiting Dallas for the holidays. It was a little chilly, but very fun. Afterwards the Quigleys drove up to Frisco to eat lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and come over to the house to hang out a little. It was fun to see them with a little kid. The rest of the week came with wonderful weather, above 60 degrees each day. So Jarom left a little early from work a few days and took Jenna down to the park to swing and play and enjoy the sun. Those are the days that Jarom will remember in July when it is 110. On Saturday it was almost 70, so Jarom and Lix decided to get a real babysitter (the kind you have to actually pay) and go play a few holes of golf. Lix played out of her mind, making two pars and shooting a 50 over nine holes. She even beat Jarom on one hole, which prompted an immediate Facebook post. She was a little upset about a scrabble loss earlier that day so she took great pleasure in rubbing Jarom’s face in it. He was very happy for her. And the kids seemed to enjoy the babysitter, so they might start doing this more often.








For New Year’s Eve the whole crew headed over to the Bishop’s to play. Bo brought his pack and play and went down pretty quickly, while Jenna managed to fight off sleep until after 10:30, when they took her home to her bed. It was a good end to a good year. There have been a lot of changes and stress, but we are all quite happy with where we have ended up and very optimistic about our future here in Texas. We have already made lots of friends and feel very much at home. Hopefully your year was just as good and that the coming one is even better.

This is a current favorite pose of Jenna. She has to go potty.

Only one quote from Jenna this time, but it’s a good one. While shopping in Target a few days before Christmas Jarom was headed up to the checkout with Jenna when she looked over and saw the little girls section.
Jenna: Can we go over to the clothes?
Jarom: Do you need any clothes?
Jenna: I don’t need any clothes, I just want to look at clothes. C’mon, it will be fun.
This girl is going to be big trouble.