The Hazard Chronicles

Right now it is 11:00 on Saturday night. I just got back from a wonderful date with my girlfriend, Rachel. We saw a movie and ate pie and held hands and talked about random subjects without even mentioning babies. It was great! It has been a long time since we have been able to do this, and it was a lot of fun to be able to forget about our three lovely children for a while. Don't get me wrong, I love them all dearly, but it was nice to have some time to focus on each other. All we have to say is thank you, thank you, thank you to our neighbors who bravely offered (with a little bit of coercion and bribery) to watch the kids while we were out. "Always have a date night" was one of those things I'd heard a lot but I don't think I ever fully realized the significance of that advice until now.

Our babies are doing great! They are starting to follow a more predictable routine now, which makes it easier for us to get out and do things. Also, they are becoming more smiley. Today I was holding Adalie at church and she looked right at me with her big blue eyes and gave me the biggest "I love you" smile that I have ever seen on her. I about lost it. I sat there and looked at my family- all five of us- and thought to myself "Gee whiz, I think that I am just about the luckiest guy in the world".

The other day, Adalie was screaming uncontrollably (she does this on a regular basis). We were trying everything we could to console her, but it was all to no avail. Finally, Rachel came over with Jackson, who reached out his hand and held on to her, sort of like he was saying "It's okay, I'm here now." When he did this, Adalie immediately stopped crying and just stared at her brother. Rachel and I were both amazed. It might have been coincidence, but I prefer to think that these two babies have a special bond that comes with being twins.

And Evelyn is as cute as ever…Maybe even cuter if that is possible. Her new favorite things are stars and airplanes. Several nights I have taken her on night-walks. We go to a big open area that is near our house and lie on the grass (she puts her head on my shoulder) and point to all of the stars. She is also very good at pointing out airplanes, the moon, and clouds if they are present. She likes this so much that we went and got those glow-in-the-dark stars for her bedroom. Bed time has never been easier.

We've been trying to get some shots of the babies smiling. This is easier said than done. Here are some of Jackson that we captured right after the moment, but you can sort of tell what his smile looks like. Stay tuned and I'm sure we'll get some better ones up. Rachel is very diligent.

Evelyn thought this was pretty silly. Jackson tolerated it.

We have been loving the Autumn weather. These leaf pictures were taken on a walk we went on yesterday. While Evelyn was playing in these leaves she fell down from the top and literally somersaulted down the pile and landed in a heap at the bottom. She thought that this was so fun that she insisted I lift her back up so she could do it again! Cute girl!

This picture is not an illusion- we found this MASSIVE pile of leaves on our Sunday evening walk. I threw Evelyn in and she totally dissapeared! How fun. Even Rachel and I joined in on the action on this one.

Here are some pictures of Adalie. She really is a very cute girl, but she insisted on crossing her eyes while we were taking these.

We got such a large positive response to our short little video last week that we thought we'd post one more. Rachel took this right after we got home from a Sunday evening walk. We have come to accept that virtually every outing ends in tears- but that is better than not having outings at all which is the only other alternative. Evelyn is just good through it all.