Parties and Pumpkins

The Hazard family fall traditions continued this week. This weekend we carved pumpkins. Logan and I have carved pumpkins together for the past four years. Every year our pumpkins get better, and this year did not disappoint! My pumpkin took five hours to carve, and Logan says “my pumpkin took at least a thousand hours… at least.”

I remember the first time I saw myself without my front tooth. I was horrified! I never thought anyone (besides Logan) would ever see me like that! Well, this week I think our whole ward and most of Cleveland witnessed me without my very important front tooth. I have not been able to put my tooth in for a whole week because my gums have been so sore from the surgeries. I decided that I didn’t want to miss the parties so I went anyway! If I think about it, then I am very embarrassed. I just choose not to think about it!

Friday was our annual ward Halloween chili cook-off party. Evelyn made her debut as a cute little spider witch, and she had a great time with some of the other little kids in the ward. Logan and I decorated a table and handed out candy to the kids. I decided to enter chili in the contest. This was the first time I ever made chili and I have decided that I am perfectly content buying canned chili for the rest of my life! I did, however, end up winning the first prize for the best overall chili! That was pretty exciting!

Saturday we had our CADA carnival. I really enjoyed planning this party with the CADA presidency. It was fun to see all of our ideas put into action. We had about twelve games (lucky duck, pirate treasure, cake walk, etc), a few adult competitions (corn hole, sack races, and basketball), and we had plenty of great carnival food. Everything worked out perfectly and I am excited to make this a tradition while we are in Cleveland.

Evelyn, Alta, and Rhoda played together on the table while we ate. These cute babies were all born within two weeks of each other!

I got a lot of practice smiling with my lips closed!

Evelyn and Anaya played on the floor for a while. Anaya introduced Eva to the exciting world of helium balloons.

This costume was a close second! We got this treasure in a bag of free clothes that came with one of our Craigslist purchases.

Here is Evelyn showing off our 'before' pumpkins.

Logan is absolutely amazing. This is Pinhead from the British horror film Hellraiser.

This is my first pumpkin. My second pumpkin is the scary one! It was difficult to get a picture of the entire pumpkin, so Logan took two individual pictures of the charactors and superimposed the picture of the actual pumpkin (actual sizes) in the center.

Memorable

The above pictures were featured at Andy Warhol's first New York solo Pop exhibit, entitled 100 Soup Cans, and 100 Coke Bottles respectively (He also did 100 Dollar Bills, but we couldn't find that picture on the Internet). So, why the sudden interest in Andy Warhol? Well, it's not really the artist that is important to this week's post, but rather the number 100. You see, on this day we are posting the one hundredth edition of The Hazard Chronicles.

So what did we do this week to celebrate such a momentous occasion? Well, it was actually an expensive week. Our car decided to break down last week and we had the honor of purchasing a new clutch. This was really exciting because we were really glad it wasn't a new transmission. There is always a silver lining!

This week has been one of those memorable weeks for Cleveland Craigslist. Logan and I have a short list of things we need to buy and can be patient enough to find a deal on Craigslist. This week we crossed three of those items off the list. I am the proud new owner of a great schwinn bike! This bike is in pretty good condition, fits me perfectly, and was a fabulous twenty five dollars. The second craigslist steal was a state-of-the-art 140.00 Eva size bike seat for 25 dollars. This bike seat is pretty cushy and has all the extras you can possibly dream of. Adjustable foot rests, comfy lining, and very large storage compartments that are the perfect size for library items or a picnic, and an incredibly easy attachment system that only requires about ten seconds to attach or remove. Not to mention that this seat has a higher weight limit than any others we could find so we can use it for longer. The third craigslist steal was a brand new pack and play for Evelyn. Keep in mind that I have been looking casually for a pack and play for about eight months now. Until last week, Evelyn fell asleep perfectly in her carseat if we were out and about or if she was at the babysitters house. Last week, overnight, she decided she would have no more of that. Hence the need for a pack and play. We found a practically brand new one with a design that Logan and I both like for twenty dollars. Score!

Besides the purchased items, two of the people threw in a bunch of baby cloths after seeing how cute Eva was. In celebration of our new acquisitions we went on our first ever Hazard family bike ride. Yesterday we bundled up our sweet babe and headed to the library. Eva smiled the whole way. As soon as she wakes up we are going on a bike ride to the fabulous Shaker Lakes.

For the last few months our Book of Mormon study habits have left much to be desired. On Monday Logan came up with a new idea for our study time. We have started reading the Institute Book of Mormon study guide side by side with each chapter. We read the information and then we read the chapter. Sometimes we find interesting information and go on a tangent to find out more. This has been so much fun for us. We have quickly become more interested in learning background than finishing a chapter. There is a really cool talk that I would highly recommend about the history of the Book of Mormon. Logan and I learned a lot when we read it. If you would like to find out more... just click on this really long address. http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1982.htm/ensign%20november%201982%20.htm/scriptures.htm?fn=default.htm$f=templates$3.0

On Thursday I set a new record for myself for the longest time spent in a dentist chair. It all started at 9:00 and wasn't over until three thirty. I had three pretty big gum surgeries. I had two apicoectomies and one of my front teeth was pulled (what little I had left of it). My swelling is finally starting to subside a little bit. Yesterday the left side of my face looked like a softball had snuck into my cheek, I couldn't even open my eye! Today it has shrunk down, but is still pretty noticeable. The great thing is that the swelling numbs the pain and my swollen lip prevents people from seeing that I am missing one of my important front teeth! There is always a silver lining... I am still trying to figure out how I am going to interpret tomorrow as there is no way I can put my tooth in by that time... Logan had to take a picture because he got a kick out of seeing me try to smile.

What a wonderful week! We are excited to see what next week brings.

This picture is going in a frame. I love it! Eva is a natural biker.

Here is me trying to laugh after my surgery- Logan had to take a picture!

Eva was so cute while I made zucchini bread this week- she just sat on the counter and played with the zucchini peelings and laughed.

The Autumn Harvest

This week was great because it was "Kaplan Week" for me at school. Basically, it was a week off from the normal routine so that we could focus on studying for part one of the dental licenture exam (which I am taking on December 4- Ahhhhh!) This means that we had no assignments, no projects, no competencies, and no study after school. It also means that we got out earlier than normal on most days. For Rachel, Evelyn, and I this translated into a week of fun!

On Monday we went to a local apple farm and picked a whole bunch of apples. Seriously, we sort of went wild. Evelyn even got in on some of the fun and had a great time playing in the trees. We are hoping that this apple-picking thing will become a Hazard tradition that we carry on through the years. Even if we don't have apples where we are living we can go pick something else around harvest time, like beets or figs. Anyway, because of all the apples, we have also done a lot of baking. Our favorite recipe so far were some delicious apple dumplings that we had the other night.

The next day we started gearing up for Halloween. Haloween is a great holiday because you get to decorate your front porch/yard with scary things, so we planned it all out and took a trip to the local Halloween stores (you know- the dollar store, Wal-mart, etc.) We got all of the stuff we needed, including some cool-looking skulls, a green strobe light, scary music, and of course several pumpkins to be transformed into scary jack-o-lanterns. Stay tuned for the end product on a later post.

On Saturday we went kayaking on the Cuyahoga river with Scott and Kate Homer. Actually, Kate watched Eva and their cute little girl, Sal, while the rest of us did the river. Thanks Kate! The river was mellow due to low flows, but still a lot of fun. Rachel used my boat, so I got to use their giant 16 foot sit-on-top and that was adventure all of its own. Since the boat has about the same turning radius of a small aircraft, it required a bit more planning than I am used to to negociate the rapids, small as they were.

And finally to finish off a great week of fun, our car died. Yup- it's pretty sad. I think it's the transmission, but we won't find out till next week. On the bright side, it allowed us to have an impromptu date night and "go out" to eat at Wendy's while we waited for the tow truck to come. Also, we are so greatful to all the awesome friends we have for helping us out while our car is getting fixed; within a little over an hour from the time our car broke down we had a ride to church the next day, an offer to borrow a car, and someone was on their way down to pick us up from where we were stranded. If any of you guys ever need anything please let us know.

Anyway, despite the less-than-ideal ending to our week, we still had a great time enjoying the great Fall season of Ohio. It is beautiful out here and I can already tell that I will miss it when we leave (someday).





Apple picking was a blast! Evelyn had a lot of fun trying to eat the apples...and the leaves...and the grass...and the sticks on the ground...etc.

Also, check out the video from this week that is on the next post- I promise that you will smile if you do.

She's Cracked!

I don't know what it was that she thought was so funny, but Evelyn really let loose with the giggles today. It was almost as if she couldn't contain all the happiness and just had to let it out.

This is a great video of a happy bug.

Ode to Evelyn

We have our beautiful cheerful baby Evelyn back! She was snatched by the body snatchers for a week and a half! Every day this week was better and better until she was our laughing happy baby again. I dedicate this post to her. As I was taking pictures this week, I realized how grown up she looks and decided to do a post that featured her.

This week we went kayaking again with the Homers. We had a fabulous time playing around in the reservoir. Bring on the rivers

On Friday the ward decided to use the institute building for a football tailgate party. It was advertised as the BYU/Utah game. Logan and I decided to decorate cupcakes with our new decorating set. We had a great time making red and blue cupcakes. When we showed up we realized that BYU was actually playing Utah State. Oops. You can tell we don't really follow football... I just assumed that it was the Utah vs. BYU game. Well, we still had a lot of compliments for our cream cheese chocolate chip cupcakes.

Saturday was the first session of General Conference. In the morning we went to a HUGE 'baby sale.' There was a one dollar admission charge and the whole gym was full of 'vendors' selling their baby wares (the sale was held at a middle school). We bought a lot of cute pants for Eva and some warm pj's. We also got the deal of the century on the cutest Halloween costume ever! You will have to stay tuned for Halloween pictures to see our great find.

Evelyn looks so grown up in this picture!

Her exploring face

Evelyn finds enjoyment and excitement in all of the little things in life. She loves to explore and learn about the world around her. Again, it is amazing the little lessons babies can teach us.

This picture cracked me up because she looks just like Winnie the Pooh

The wonderful baby sale