No More Home Improvements?

How many times have we said that? Kenzie must have said it at least a dozen times during our current project. I still don't think it will stick. She will get the urge to do a bathroom or something like that in a month or two.

The Winn home has been busy the past two weeks. Two weeks ago two of the hospitals I work for went live with their new electronic medical record. It was a busy time for me and I worked a whole lot. While I was gone, Kenzie stayed busy taking care of Kenna and finally mudding and taping the wall that we built for Kenna's room. She got a little angry at me when I told her that I "didn't know how" to mud and tape and so she took things in to her own hands and did it all by herself. She did very very well. It no longer looks like we live in a construction zone.

The wall was not enough though. I mentioned that built in bookshelves would look good if the TV was mounted above the fireplace. Why not build shelves as long as we are going to paint the upstairs? I made about a thousand calls to Kevin Slaugh who provided wonderful advice on what type of wood to use, how to build them, the average support needed per length of shelf, etc. Kenzie drew up some plans and I was off to Lowes. Kenzie was in charge of picking paint and I was in charge of building the shelves.
Enter the "incident".

And now we reach the "incident". Anytime we build something in the Winn home there reaches a point where something goes very wrong and the fact that either Kenzie or I is tired makes an unfortunate situation worse. In the kitchen it was the shelf that Kenzie wanted in place of a cabinet (my fault). In the bedroom it was the 2 coats of paint that did not fully cover the original color (my fault). This time it was the pizza (my fault).

Friday night the baby went to bed at 7 and Kenzie was making some pizzas for us before we started our long night of painting the living room. Everything was going fine, Kenzie took the pizzas out of the over and put them on the stove. She then takes the fork (not a spatula) and tries to use the fork to move the pizza from the stove to the far counter where her plate is. Why not move the plate closer or use a spatula? No reason. Kenzie made it about half way to the plate when the pizza slipped off her fork and all the sauce and cheese went right on to her hand. Her instincts took over at this point and she began to fling her hand wildly to get the sauce off. I had been cleaning (sitting there doing nothing*) and turned around when the commotion occurred and was surprised to see pizza sauce all over the walls, fridge, ceiling, and my clothes. I was standing a good 10 feet away and had little red spots all over me. My first question was "What happened?" ("How did you do that?" To which Kenzie responded that she had just received third degree burns from a pizza. To which Nate responded "There is pizza sauce all over the kitchen. Alright I guess I'll go start painting." *). She was already running her hand under cold water and yelled at me for not asking if she was ok. I was just so baffled at why pizza sauce got all over the room. It was everywhere. I mean everywhere. Kenna's toys, the trash can, the dishwasher, the cabinets, the chairs..... I just wanted to know how this came to be. I then proposed that one of us could clean it up and the other could start painting. Not good. (* note the edits Kenzie made to make the story accurate.)

I learned an important lesson. Husbands - always ask your wife if she is ok. Don't worry about the mess or what needs to be done, ask if she is ok. You can find out HOW something happened later, just ask if she is ok NOW.

Kenzie handled it like a champ - it was definitely my bad. She did earn her keep though. We painted till about 1 AM and I told her I was going to bed. I was half asleep but glanced at the clock when she joined me in bed at 4:30 am. This is the girl that won't stay up till 12:00 to watch a movie. Put Harry Potter on her ipod though and a paintbrush in her hand and she will work till the wee hours of the morning.

The project turned out very well. Jason and Annie brought their kids down for a visit this weekend so when we were not painting we got to hang out with them. It was especially fun to see Luke, Kenna, and Jenna crawl around and bother each other. Luke and Kenna are total bullies but we are trying to teach Jenna to fight back.

We have a few finishing touches to put on the room and the shelves, but they are mostly done. And wouldn't you know it, Kenzie told me last night, "No more home improvement projects". I don't believe her. I told her to go cook a pizza or something.

Nap Time

Kenna's crib is against the wall right next to the window. Today she was a bit more fussy than usual, so I decided to put her down for a third nap. She was quiet for a while so I went to check on her. I thought she had gone to sleep, but no. She was standing up in the corner of her crib nearest the window and had the curtains drawn back and was peering around to look outside. I wish I had been able to get a picture. It was so cute. It was one of those things that you know you'll always remember and laugh about.

Easter Burro

I have fallen prey to the advertising majors that take advantage of suckers. That's right, I am a sucker. I have no shame admitting it. Kenzie's sister and mom are in town and so I took her sister early Saturday morning to help me fetch Kenzie's Easter present. The original plan was to get a pile of ones from the bank and then get a whole bunch of Easter eggs and hide 1 dollar in each egg. The goal was to have fifty or some ridiculous number of eggs and make it annoying for Kenzie to find them all. We got the ones no problem, but when we got to Walmart the only Easter eggs that were left were camouflaged eggs (who knew that they even made em). I thought that it would take her a bit too long to find the camouflaged eggs so we went on to a more pretentious Walmart named Target (pronounced Tar-Jahhh).

And that is where the advertising majors got me. The Easter decorations and decor were located in the very back of the store. As Anna and I were walking towards the decorations, a flashy wonderful display of pinata's caught my eye. I suddenly thought of a wonderful way to spend the Easter morning - with a Easter pinata! I chose the donkey, filled it up, and hung it out for Easter morning.




Sad to say, Kenzie was not as excited as I thought she would be. She got even less excited when I handed her a two-by-four (we don't have a baseball bat), put a tie around her eyes to blindfold her and spun her around in circles to disorient her. She still managed to find me and start beating me with the two-by-four without a problem. She managed to get the Easter burro open and now has a wad of one dollar bills to spend at clothes stores at her leisure.

Consequently, if anyone ever feels down about their net worth or if you want a present to seem way better than it is, simply get 1 dollar bills to solve your problem.


Grandma LuLu is in town with Anna and we have been busy scooting around Richmond and they have been busy spending Grandpa's hard earned money. It is great to have them around and we have already done what Winn's do best - cruise through all 19 episodes of Modern Family in just 1 day. Anna is hooked and managed to drag Grandma down with her.

We had a great Easter dinner with Grandma and Anna and we were even graced with the presence of Jansen (UVA law school friend who I knew at BYU) and his significant chicka Jen (girl who Kenzie and I very much approve of and who is trying to use UVA law school friend who I knew at BYU for all he is worth :-). We had a rockin good meal and had a great time with the company.



And now I get to talk about my Kiddo. She is getting more adventurous by the day and now will actually climb into the fridge rather than just standing in front of it.
Her and her cousin have learned several tricks and they love to perform. They even know how to raise the roof or show how big they are.
And sometimes I get to play dress up with Kenna and put things on her head. She loves it.

She also thinks that dad and mom's sunglasses are pretty cool so Kenzie got her some of her own. She likes to rock them. Notice that Kenzie puts labels on her pajamas in case she forgets what she is.
And my kid still does not like carbonation.



That is our life the past few days. It is so great! I love the little girl in my life and I like the somewhat older girl in my life too. I am really lucky to have such great girls around.