Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving this year we packed up and headed down to Killeen, TX to see Cyle come home from Iraq. The drive down was fine minus a little traffic and a lot of sun shining right in my face. At one point I saw a car drive by with what looked like cardboard and pillows stacked up over the passenger half of the front windshield. I figured they had the right idea but since I wanted to make the trip in once piece I opted for my sunglasses and holding my head at odd angles to keep the main blaze out of my eyes.

I have to say that Kenna is quite the traveler. She loves the car because she knows it means she can hold the little DVD player or iphone and watch as many shows as she wants. She didn't even ask to get out of her seat once. She just kept requesting more movies.

30 minutes later...

She fell asleep holding the DVD player after the first 45 minutes. I tried to gently take it away but she woke up and screamed so I let go and she want right back to sleep - she stayed that way for an hour.


We stopped at Jason's Deli so the bug could eat and to give her a break from the car. When we walked out she saw something that caught her eye. It was a 6 ft tall bear statue and of course we had to go see it so she could give it a pat and a kiss.

enjoying the complimentary icecream at Jason's deli

We finally made it to Athena's house. Kenna went to bed and we worked on the pies for Thanksgiving dinner - pumpkin, apple and chocolate. They turned out pretty good if you ask me.
I can't complain about hot sunny weather in Dallas anymore because it is much worse in Killeen. We woke up to a blazing sun on Thanksgiving morning and a nice, crisp 70 degrees. While not my idea of Thanksgiving weather it was nice for Kenna because she got to go to the park with Daddy. Apparently everything was a little wet so Nate used his shirt to dry the swing off for her. After that whenever she saw that something was wet she kept saying, "iss okay Daddy. just dry it with your shirt."
I got to have the morning off and Athena and I just hung around chit-chatting and deciding what she should wear to pick up Cyle. It was a lot of fun. Sometimes I forget that I am anything but a mom so it is nice to have reminders that I can still hang out with adults, not talk about kids and have fun at the same time.

Some of Cyle's family came in later that day. We have now added another Grandma and Grandpa to the mix - Grandma Colleen and Grandpa Chuck. Poor Kenna now has so many grandparents that she never has any idea who we are talking about when we say grandma and grandpa. Cyle's sister has three kiddos who came too. We kept telling Kenna that some 'friends' were coming so that is what she called them 'my friends.'

"What my friends is doing?"
"My friends is funny!"
"Where my friends?"

While I don't think she learned any of their names, she did have a great time and fell in love with the dog they brought with them - Whinnie. She followed that poor dog around the whole time loving it and giving it kisses. It was a trooper.

All day Kenna also kept telling anyone who would listen that we were going to "go get Cyle at Iraq on the airplane."

By the time it was time to go, Kenna was exhausted. We had tried to put her in her pack-n-play for a nap but somehow she managed to climb out of that (it couldn't have been from the 30 stuffed animals in there with her that Nate let her pack - I was working, he was packing) so the nap was a bust.

On base we got to see horses (since Cyle's unit is 2nd cavalry) and listen to loud music and watch the kids dance around and have fun. Finally the soldiers all pulled up in these buses and got out behind them and the crowd had to shout, "move that bus!" Kenna thought this was really funny and joined in the cheering with her own 'move duh bus!'

The buses pulled away and the soldiers marched across the field. There were quite a few and Kenna was confused. She thought we were going to get Cyle from Iraq and after trying to see him for a few minutes exclaimed, "There's too many guys here."

We did finally manage to find Cyle and took him home for a nice Thanksgiving dinner. Kenna stayed up until 10 that night and was so tired when we got to the hotel she fell right asleep. Unfortunately that didn't last all night. Now for my side note -

Normally Kenna is a champion sleeper but when we travel or when she isn't feeling well she will end up sleeping with us or one of us will sleep with her. I love this because it is the only time she will snuggle with me. She glues her little body right along side mine. If I'm facing her she snuggles so our foreheads are touching. I don't know why but she has to be right next to you so you have to claim your spot quickly or she will snuggle you right to the edge of the bed. Then to be sure you are really there and not going anywhere she will put her hand right in the middle of your face and fall asleep like that. If I didn't love it so much I'd hate it.

helping load up the car...

Back to Thanksgiving - the next morning we all went back to the base and visited the tanks and helicopters. They have some old machines lying around that you can look at and though your probably aren't supposed to, crawl on. Kenna is very fond of driving and thought it was great to have a jeep to herself.
We also visited the 2nd Cavalry museum where Kenna saw lots of 'angels' (i.e. the wax people dressed as Iraqis wearing flowing white robes). The museum was actually very cool and detailed the action of the unit from its formation. There was also a section dedicated to 9-11 and the events that followed.

We headed home soon after that and poor Kenna was so exhausted that she fell asleep and slept for the entire 3 hr. car ride home. Once again she was holding the DVD player and jerked it back when I tried to take it. I finally won by snatching it from her as she was stretching.
Overall it was a very great Thanksgiving. We are proud of and grateful for Cyle and his service but we are also glad that he is getting out and - moving to Frisco? We are pushing for that. Aside from Jarom and Lix, Cyle and Athena were our first taste of something familiar since leaving Richmond and I found that I was actually homesick for them after we left. I'm glad he is back now because that will mean lots of visits and good times!

Singin' in the Rain

This week flew by. They just seem to keep going faster and faster. We went to an ice skating show this week. We thought it would be a wonderful Christmas performance but it turned out to be little more than a glorified dance recital. This did not dampen Kenna's spirits at all. She waited in line to see it for 30 minutes, sat through the snowman building contest (another 30 minutes) and then watched then entire hour long show. She LOVED it! She kept twirling her arms along to the music and at one point she grabbed her leg and lifted it up in front of her like she'd seen the skaters doing and cried, 'look mommy ine ice scaping!' She got a little tired at the end but it was worth the wait to see Santa. He came out and waved with his elves and Kenna screamed to him that she wanted a barbie for Christmas. Cute.

She still loves her 'cowboots' and puts them on all morning so they 'click clack' on the tile. She also likes to wear my shoes around. She'll come out of my closet and say, 'look mommy ine wearing click clacks!' This means in addition to picking up toys I'm also tracking down my shoes scattered around the house. It is a good thing she is cute.

For your entertainment, here is Kenna dancing to 'Knees Up Mother Brown' and singing some of her favorite songs. She sings all day and talks nonstop but she sure is cute.

Pop Tart Wife

To you, this is just a Pop Tart. A delicious pastry that can be eaten hot or cold when you are in a rush or on the go. It has a full serving of fruit and is healthier than eating an apple or banana for breakfast. But to me, this Pop Tart has a greater meaning. Let me explain. Monday is grocery day in our home and whenever I want an item from the store my job is to put it on the dry erase board on the fridge. I normally do a great job putting down the things I need, but every so often I forget.

Forgetting is the worst. I mean, there have been 1 or 2 week periods that I have been forced to go without Tostitos because I was too dumb to write them on the board. Other times I have gone for days without salsa or Frosted Flakes. I know, I know, we are in a recession and I should learn to do without. But these are the staples of the Winn diet. These are the things I can always fall back on when I need a snack.

Back to the Pop Tart. I realized this morning that I had eaten my last Pop Tart last Thursday and I forgot to write it on the board. I knew that Kenzie had gone to the store yesterday and so I despaired at the thought of having to eat fruit for breakfast for a whole week because I neglected to write two words on the dry erase board. But then a little glimmer of hope caught fire in my mind and I remembered that I married Kenzie. She may not be able to remember the little things like when our first kiss was (still open for debate) or to call Lixi to tell her when she leaves for In N Out but this woman knows me and I ventured a guess that she would anticipate my Pop Tart needs.

I opened the pantry door and lo and behold 16 delicious pastries were wrapped in silver lining awaiting me to come and release them from the confines of their packages and put them through the fiery inferno of the toaster and eventually deposit their warm deliciousness in my tummy on my drive to work.

To you it is a pastry. To me it is a symbol that reminds me that my wife rocks. I have the best Pop Tart wife ever!

Our House and House Guests

So - we finally have videos of our house. It has been a lot harder than you'd think to find the house clean enough for videos, but here we go.





This week my best friend Sommer came up to visit with her two kiddos, Jack and Amelia. While hanging out with her and three kids in the mix is much different from the days where we used to just lay by the pool for 8 hours at a time, go out to eat and then sleep till 11 the next morning, it was still a lot of fun. And while we were both pretty much flat-lined and ready for bed by the time the kids were, I'm sure the day will come when we will be fun again.

We spent the time at the park and the mall where we road the carousel and watched the figure skaters at the indoor ice rink (that's right, the mall is huge). Kenna was fascinated by the skaters and was so excited to tell Daddy, Jenna and Lixi about it. She spent all day talking about how she saw, "the guys skapin and jumpin and twirlin." One day Nate and I will take her and she will probably skate better than either of us. I've also decided that watching the figure skaters can be a weekly activity since she loved it so much.

The kiddos had a ton of fun playing together, though Kenna couldn't always remember Amelia's name and kept asking things like, "where's somebody go?" and "wass at girl doin?" She was sad when the left and I'm sure we'll be getting together again soon.


And now for the funny thing Kenna did this week -
--Kenna has become re-obsessed with her Boots and Dora dolls. She takes them everywhere and if she forgets them she will say, "Oh! I gotta get boots and super cool expa-dora" (the line in the song is boots and super cool exploradora)

--Kenna still likes to play in her "cub house" with every toy she owns.

--Kenna got some fancy new shoes and she told me, "I can wear those to church and the lady will say look at me ine such a cute dor-ble." Apparently we tell her that too often.

--One day Kenna was playing in the toy room and all the sudden she runs into me shrieking, "Mommy mommy daddy's home!" She was so excited she had seen him pull up she kept screaming and jumping. He is so much fun and she loves him a lot.

--She was watching Little Einsteins and told me, "They're in theyre rockin ship!"

--Kenna has taken to bringing animals with us when we go places and she insists that they are buckles in, adding an extra 5 minutes to the time it takes us to go anywhere.
--Kenna is a parrot and I'm am hearing some of the things that I guess I say to her all the time -
-'ass-a-lootly' you can (absolutely you can)
-'soore sing jay bean' (sure thing jelly bean)
-sooooouuunds great!' (sounds great)

November Begins

And it is still in the mid 70's. We live on the surface of the sun. Seriously. It is always sunny here. Sometimes I wake up and I just wish it could be cloudy. I don't have much to say about this week except to report that Kenna has decided to veto sleep entirely. She won't nap, she won't go to sleep at night and she is up between 5 and 6. It is fun. My dad left on Tuesday morning so the house is quiet again. Kenna woke up that morning and asked where Grandpa was. Then she looked at me, smiled, started nodding her head and asked, "Can we go trick-or-treating today?"

Also, I have a job lined up and will start working this coming Friday. I'm doing PRN at a rehab center. It sounds like a pretty good deal. There are about 17 centers around Dallas so they call at the beginning of the month and tell me what days they need filled and I tell them what days I can work. Then if they have unplanned openings they call at the beginning of the week. Luckily I have a flexible babysitter.

So, now onto the funny things Kenna did this week -

Kenna recently remembered that she has a white board attached to her kitchen set. She has spent a lot of time this week writing up grocery lists and asking me what else we need. - "How bout do we need some grapes? Oh no wait. I already color that right here." (pointing to a scribble on the board).
Our pantry is huge and Kenna can walk into it and shut the door. One day she took her shopping cart in there and when she came back out it was full of food (pasta, rice, couscous). She pushed the car around for a little while then stopped it in the living room and said, "Surprise Jenna! Happy Halloween! I brought a snack for ya!"

We made mac and cheese for lunch one day and I handed Kenna the butter to put in the pan. She looked at me and goes, "Can I eat it?" I figured she'd think it was disgusting so I said, "Sure." Well, she didn't think it was disgusting. In fact she liked it so much that she had a second bite. I had to pry it out of her hands to get it into the mac and cheese.

Her Elmo potty that she no longer has any use for is now in our bathroom. Nate feels the need to give Elmo a high five every time he uses the bathroom so I will randomly hear Elmo's voice saying things like, "You're growing up just like Elmo!" or "Elmo is so proud of you." One of those times Kenna was sitting on the bed with me and I looked at her, gasped and said, "Daddy is using your Elmo potty." to which she screamed, "NO! Tell him to use the big potty!"

Kenna also has adopted a strange way of eating. She wants tons of whatever she is having but will only take one bite out of it and then move on to the next. For example she likes to eat carrots and ranch but she want to have the whole bag of carrots so that she can pull one out, take a bit, set it on the table and then get a new carrot. Weird.

Kenna picked out the boots to wear on her own. She wore them to the park but then realized she couldn't climb in them. Luckily mom brought a back-up pair. She calls them her "cow boots,"

Well that's it for fun Kenna stuff for the week. I know that most of our posts are all about Kenna or reporting news about our lives for those who live far away. There is a reason for that. I don't like to talk about my feelings but Nate says I should give it a try because people might want to hear about how the move is going for me. So, for those who don't care or who don't want to be depressed - stop reading now. You've been warned.

I miss Virginia every day. I hate that it is always sunny here and I am ready for cold weather. I feel like a horrible person for complaining because I know we are very blessed to have a good job and a nice house and our health and blah blah blah but I am just homesick. I think that mostly, I miss pushing Kenna on the swing in our backyard. I have so many memories of doing that for her whole life that it is hard not to have that anymore. In fact I can't look at pictures of her swinging without tearing up. Can you believe that I am most sad over something as dumb as a swing? Then again even if we had one it is so sunny and bright out all the time that I don't know how often we'd swing. I miss having trees and shade in our yard, and weather that actually changes and I am really missing seeing the leaves changing color.

I miss our little house. The house here is nice, but too big. I pick up and clean all day long and it does not make a difference. It is still messy at the end of the day. It doesn't feel like home. We put up our nice, seven foot Christmas tree (I know it is early. Kenna asked for a whole week) and it is dwarfed in this house. I looks like a Charlie Brown tree.

Just as much as the swing, I also really miss the small town feel of the west end and the trees that were everywhere. I miss the Children's Museum that was right around the corner. I miss having Nate home as often as he was and the great routine we had down. I miss my Barnhills. I miss our old ward. The one here is nice, but big and everyone is the same.

All that being said I am very glad to have Nate and Kenna. Kenna can still make me smile everyday and we have fun going to the park and cooking together. I'm glad Jarom and Lix are close by. I'm glad Nate has a nice job. We found a nice gym to join so that is good. Oh - and I like having a three car garage.