I don't really know how to begin this week. It was so full of activities that writing about it might take a while. So hold on and, if you want, just skip to the end where you can see it all in pictures.

So, this morning Evelyn got up really early and asked me for "purple yogurt." I patiently informed her that we did not have purple yogurt, but she was adamant that the vanilla yogurt in the fridge was purple. After I put some in a bowl to show her that it was, in fact, white she looked at me as if I was stupid, and then said in a very matter-of-fact voice, "Daddy- make it purple. Red and blue make purple."

Apparently Mama has been teaching the colors with food coloring.

Monday was a day of dates. In the afternoon during Jack and Addy's naps Rachel took Evelyn on a date to the science museum. Evelyn has recently been a bit obsessed with space and astronauts, so it was really fun for her to go the the space exhibits and have some one-on-one with Mama. If you remember, I took Evelyn on a date about a month ago where we watched a movie. Rachel and I decided to make this a tradition- each month we will try to take each of our children out on dates- or "guys-night-out" as the case may be. This month it was Rachel's turn.

Later in the day we got a babysitter and Rachel and I went to the Broadway production of Billy Elliot the Musical. The night out was great and the show was amazing. I love going to shows- especially musicals- and this one did not disappoint.

Tuesday I can't remember what we did besides going shopping. Sort of boring, but also a nice day of relaxation.

On Wednesday we packed the kids into the car in the morning and drove to Columbus where we went to the COSI museum. We had been there once before and decided it was worth a second trip. It was even better this time around because Addy and Jack are actually old enough to interact and have fun. I love having young kids!

Thursday, of course, was Thanksgiving day. We celebrated by inviting two other families (also students) over to our house for a shared Thanksgiving dinner and game night. The food was great- the company better. We feel so blessed to feel so at home here in Cleveland and for our extended family-away-from-family that we have developed. It is crazy that we only have about six months left here and it is sort of sad to think of leaving. Anyway- I'll address that in a different post.

Friday was the day that we abandoned all sense of reason in the pursuit of merchandise. Yes, I was at Wal-mart at 2:45 in the morning standing in line so that, at 5:00, I could buy a laptop. Fortunately I was able to get one, and Rachel now has a computer with a working "P." Later in the day we went to the mall and made our wish-lists for Christmas but didn't buy anything except for a couple of tacos. They weren't even on sale.

On Saturday we again loaded the kids up into the car and drove to Toledo to yet another museum. I should mention here that these two hour car trips are becoming somewhat of an ordeal since the heater has gone out on the passenger side of the van and instead blows out freezing cold air-conditioned air. This means that either the passenger (usually me) is really, Really, REALLY cold or that the entire car must adapt to "room temperature" which is dropping pretty low the farther we get into winter. Fortunately, the $3 part that I need to fix it is on its way and we soon won't have these issues any more.

Anyway, that was totally beside the point. The point is that we went to the Imagination Station in Toledo and that it was well worth the drive because the discovery museum is awesome. Everyone had a fun time and we could hardly get Evelyn to leave at the end of the day.

Like I said, it has been a fantastic, busy week.

This is Evelyn the "princess astronaut" at the Imagination Station

The kids table during Thanksgiving.

Addy at COSI. She loved splashing in the water and getting everything wet. Oh the joy!

Jackson at COSI. He just wanted to figure out how things work. He could be an engineer someday.


Before

After. It was a sad, yet long-overdue day.

Evelyn on her date with Mama. Here, she is landing a spaceship. She was very focused.

More pictures of Evelyn on her date with Mama.

Ok- these last three pictures were actually taken months ago, but they were just barely "discovered." I thought they were to cute to leave unpublished.

I've been demoted. I am no longer Prince Eric.

My name is now "Logan." I'm not Daddy. I'm not even Papa. Just plain Logan (Well- sometimes I am prince Logan). She probably picked up on this in nursery where all of her friends call me Logan. She knows I want to be Daddy or Papa and she makes a very deliberate effort to avoid calling me by these titles. She thinks it is funny. And she gets away with it, because...

...She is cute.

And she knows it.

Well, our cute little know-it-all also had her very first dance performance this week. She has been in dance class for a while now and was finally able to show us some of her moves. Here is a video- She is the one on the far left in yellow. Frankly, I think she stole the show. Then again, I am her Daddy (whether or not she wants to acknowledge that fact is her decision).




Also, Evelyn has made several discoveries around the house lately. Here are a few of them:

Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty) lives on our back steps. Apparently she is very moody, because sometimes she is nice enough to play with, and sometimes we must avoid that area at all costs (this can get tiring).

Belle and The Beast are now officially a part of our upstairs neighbor's family. She will reference these characters frequently when talking about the Tippetts. She even prays for them at night.

There are droves of monsters living in the trees. They are all different colors. The ones in our front yard are purple, but others can be orange, pink, blue, yellow, green, or gold. They are nice monsters, and they eat acorns and squirrels. They frequently come out of the trees to play but must take short naps every 3-5 minutes.

Needless to say, Evelyn has a very active imagination.

Here she is before the performance.

I am so excited to have Logan home. I didn’t realize the extent of how much I missed him until I saw him at the airport last night. My handsome, sweet, loving husband is home! Hooray!

My week was pretty crazy. The beginning of the week was an adventure thanks to daylight savings time. Was this insane tradition started by farmers who wanted an extra hour of daylight to work in the morning? I think we need to overthrow this tradition and start a new tradition of having an extra hour of light when we can actually use it… after work. Ok. That was my two cents (I actually don’t really know the reason for daylight savings, but that makes sense and I am too lazy to look it up). Anyway- daylight savings wreaks havoc on sweet little children’s sleep schedules. Enough said.

We have all been taking turns being sick this week. I was able to stay relatively healthy, but this morning I woke up feeling pretty yucky. Hopefully it will pass soon.

This week Jackson and Adalie learned all about playing with dolls. Both of them caught on really quickly to the idea of ‘hugging’ the baby. I watched Jackson walk around the room and take turns giving hugs to each stuffed animal or doll. He giggled and danced around the whole time.

This week was full of cleaning and organizing. I decided to streamline my cleaning process and have a list of things I clean weekly, monthly, and as needed. The reason I did this was because my recent cleaning style was to clean and make my house look beautiful once a day. This is great except for the fact that I didn’t always get around to the deep cleaning, and when the dirt snuck up on me I would become overwhelmed. I decided to clean a little bit extra while Logan was gone and I kind of got carried away. If I didn’t know any better I would think I was nesting! I actually had a good time doing it, and I am very proud of my results.

I enjoyed reading Logan’s blog this week (see below) because it gives you a glimpse into his daily life and how much he really enjoys dentistry. I get to see his enthusiasm every day, and it is good that the four people who read our blog can see a little bit of his excitement as well. Logan’s optimism and happiness are two of the things I love about him! I think he could be happy in numerous careers, but I think Dentistry fits him the best!

Here are a few pictures from our week.

Adalie and Jackson are both very excited about hugging stuffed animals and dolls. The giggles that accompany the hugs are priceless!

I love these flowers! This is our new bathroom (the toilet is under the shelf). I am not proud of myself for how unbelievably long it took me to get these up!

The picture below was taken a while ago when we bought Adalie and Jackson their new car seats. There are moments when I look at my kids and think, 'Wow, I have a lot of really young kids.' Whenever I look in the backseat and see them sitting side by side I have that thought.
This is not the most flattering picture, but you get the idea.

I have just finished what was, hands-down, the single most educational week of my career as a dental student. For those who didn’t read Rachel’s post earlier this week (a wonderful post, by the way), I was in Utah all week receiving training to place dental implants. And it was awesome! I’ll spare you the excruciating details here on the blog, but just know that I could talk for hours about how cool dentistry is. Don’t test me- I really could. For now I’ll just provide you with a short list about why dentistry is the coolest job ever:

-You get to use critical thinking and problem solving skills on a daily basis
-No two days are exactly the same
-There will always be something more to learn
-You develop extraordinary hand skills and are routinely working with a system which is calibrated in tenths, or even hundredths, of millimeters.
-You work closely with people, forming unique relationships with them, and always helping them
-Sometimes you dramatically change people’s lives for the better- this is intoxicating
-You can be your own boss and work according to your own philosophies and ideals
-You can be a business owner. This “business side” of dentistry can be taken to any level you want
-You are generally able to make a good living for your family, on a single income, and still have time to be with them

Am I a dental nerd? Absolutely.
Is it an obsession? You’ll have to ask Rachel. She, unlike you, has to endure my ramblings. I could go on and on…But I won’t. Instead, I’ll tell you why else this was a wonderful week for me.

After class every day I was able to drive down and see family who I usually don’t get a chance to be with. Out of all the time I was here, there was only one day that I actually got to bed by midnight. This was cool, because it meant that the rest of the time I was hanging out with some of the coolest people in the world. I spent time with Rachel’s whole family, talking long hours into the night with Wendy and Brandon. I got to help Donny inflate two 16 foot rafts and hang out with him and Alyssa long into the night. And I got to play Scrabble with Grandma Hill (I actually won- this is a momentous occasion) and talk with her long into the night.

The only problem is this: Out of all the time I was here, there was only one day that I slept past 3:30. You see, I have this natural ability/disability in which I will wake up between the hours of 5:30 and 6:30 every morning despite my bed time. Seriously, I could go to bet at 4:00 and wake up at 6:00. It is ridiculous, made even more so by the fact that I was already three hours behind my body’s natural schedule due to time zone changes and daylight savings. So I am pretty tired and excited to be home.

When I got home I found that Rachel is amazing and our house was cleaner than it has been in a really long time. She organized every cupboard, every shelf, and even scrubbed the walls. Wow! I love my wife.

I have no pictures of this week. Rachel might get on a little later and post some- I don’t know. Check back and maybe you’ll be surprised.

I just wanted to poke around here a bit to see if it was all that I had remembered. I haven’t been here for a long time because I have an amazing husband who is also an amazing writer that has graciously taken on the role of blogger in our family.

I absolutely love my life! Sure it isn’t perfect… My amazing husband is currently attending a very intense and very fun implant seminar in Utah, and my three kids decided to get sick the week of his absence. Daylight savings time is wreaking havoc on my children (specifically a pint sized new walker girl). Evelyn is definitely 2 ½ years old and she reminds me quite often. And finally- My computer is having major issues. The letter P needs constant cajoling, number eight absolutely refuses to work and five other keys are on the fritz. Be thankful for all of the letter P’s in this blog for they took some work. Hooray for electronics sales on the day after Thanksgiving!

Whew. Even with all of that I am loving every minute of this whole ‘mom’ thing. Logan and I are very blessed with our little family. I just wanted to take a second and give you an intimate look into each of our current lives. I am sure just the grandparents will read this. Mom, Nancy and Greg- This is for you!

Logan
How did I get so lucky? One thing I love about Logan is that he is passionate about what he is doing. He has a crazy passion for dentistry and I love to hear him when he gets excited about it. I know so much about dentistry, and I enjoy listening because he can make it interesting. I am actually pretty interested in a lot of things i.e. the plane of occlusion.

Logan is a very loving and caring dad. Evelyn, Adalie, and Jackson are pretty lucky. Logan takes time to do very sweet things with each of them. The day he left for Utah he took each of them on individual 30 minute walks to have some time together. He also took Evelyn on a date a few weeks ago (something that will happen many times in the future).

Logan is a wonderful husband. Last week he brought home flowers for me for no reason at all. He is very good at showing me that he loves me. Logan is my best friend and I love being with him.

The last couple of months Logan has been working hard in pursuit of a job that will take us to the northwest. We have a couple of good options and he is busy making contacts and looking for more opportunities. We are both very excited to move on to the next stage of our life. What would it be like to have both of us out of school?

Logan is also spending a great deal of time studying for the dental boards exam that is coming up soon. He studies in the morning at home while I go and work out. Did I mention that I have a wonderful husband?

Me
I am busy, busy, busy. I realized last week that we have events every single week day with our friends. Monday we have the option to go to the Children’s Museum with a group of friends. On Tuesday Evelyn have pre-school in the morning and Rosa teaches a Zumba class in the evening. On Wednesday Evelyn has dance class in the morning, we have a library story time we sometimes attend, and the Ladies Lunch with a group of friends. Thursday is pre-school in the morning and then I pick up Logan for our Institute Lunch date. On Friday we have park day in the morning. I really love being busy and having things for the kids to do. In the afternoon all of the kids nap at the same time and I am able to have time for myself and to get things done. Lately I have been creating a slightly new schedule so that I can have one-on-one time with each of my kids every day. I have really been enjoying this. I am really into the schedules if you can’t tell!

I am still waiting for my NIC Interpreting test results. I received an e-mail stating that all tests taken in September will take approximately four months to send results! Previous results had been coming in anywhere from three weeks to two and a half months. I am waiting as patiently as possible. I recently found out that I will receive a $10.00 an hour raise if I passed the test. I hope I get the results soon so that I can actually enjoy that raise before we move!

I am very excited for Christmas and I am overwhelming myself with how many things I want to make! I am starting to get into the Christmas spirit even though Thanksgiving hasn't even come yet! I am excited to see all of our family over the Christmas break. Evelyn has given the name 'Cousin' to all of her stuffed animals and dolls. I think she is excited too.

Evelyn
Evelyn surprises me every day with how smart she is. Of course I am her mom and I am going to be biased! When she had barely turned two she started writing her letters. I was shocked. I didn’t show her how to do this because I didn’t think it was possible that young. She showed me otherwise. Her favorite letters to write are H, A, e, E, O, D, and I. She often points out objects that resemble letters, and she will sit down and use random things to create letters she knows. The other day she was sitting in the back seat and she suddenly said, “Look- It’s an eight!” She had taken her roll from Institute Lunch and poked two holes in it to create a perfect letter eight.

Evelyn is very organized. I was downstairs today stacking up empty boxes and empty containers when I noticed she was moving them around the room. She took each container and set it exactly centered next to each and every post, furnace, or tall object in the room. There were twelve objects in all and I bet if you took a tape measure they would have all been exactly centered whether it be against a skinny pole or the wide furnace. She was very focused and she had in her mind exactly what she wanted to do.

Evelyn is a princess. I am not sure where she learned the meaning of this word, but I am beginning to think she was born with it in the very front of her mind. She constantly wears dresses and will refuse to put on jeans (this makes me sad because I think she is really cute in jeans). The other day I gave her a new shirt that happened to be blue. She absolutely refused saying that the shirt must belong to Jackson. Even when I explained that it was too large for Jackson she insisted that it was his because it was blue. Where do kids get these ideas??? I know it wasn’t from her parents.

Pre-school has been so much fun for her! I love to see the artwork that she brings home. She does a great job coloring in the lines and using a variety of colors (until last week when she went through the crayon bin and picked out all of the colors that resembled pink). She has also learned how to do dot-to-dots. This last week Holly taught a space/planet theme. Evelyn and I went to the library and picked out books about each planet. She loved to read them and even learned a few facts about almost all of them. She became obsessed over a picture of an astronaut and this week we went to the library in search of astronaut books. According to her she is a ‘princess astronaut.’

Adalie
Adalie is quite the ‘Moma’s girl.’ She LOVES being cuddled and held ALL the time. I have repeatedly timed how long it takes for her to crawl from wherever she is in the room and wiggle her way into the center of my lap. It has never been more than eight seconds from the time I sit down. I love these cuddles, but it makes it difficult to play with Jackson and Evelyn when I am always holding her. I have come up with some creative ways to play while not making my lap available. Don’t get me wrong though. I love her cuddles!

Adalie has just learned how to walk! Up until three days ago she didn’t have any desire or motivation to do it. Three days ago she just started taking steps. Her magic number was seven because each time I counted she took seven steps before sitting down or falling. Two days ago she repeatedly crawled to the coffee table to stand up. Then, she walked into the sun room until she fell. As soon as she fell she would crawl back to the same spot on the coffee table to stand up and do it again. She did that repeatedly. Yesterday, she was a full fledged walker. She was dedicated and she caught on quickly.

The other day at the dinner table I noticed that Adalie was folding her arms during the prayer. She had one hand daintily over the other and held in front of her. She has been folding her arms with us ever since then.

Yesterday I played ‘tea party’ with Jack and Addy for the first time. Adalie got a kick out of ‘pouring’ the tea. She made the ‘tea pouring’ sound and everything! Jackson loved pretending to drink out of the cup. This arrangement worked out well. She kept pouring him tea and he kept drinking it.

Jackson
Jackson is a maniac! He is into everything and he gets places very quickly. I love watching him figure things out. He is not satisfied until he learns how something works and he has figured out how to do it. I can just see the wheels in his head turning. He enjoys figuring out how to stack objects.

Jackson loves to organize things. I often find him setting out objects on the floor or placing a group of objects that are similar into a cupboard or cubby. The other day he was carefully placing each piece of play food into the cupboard. He opened and closed the cupboard before and after placing each item inside.

Jack loves to copy behaviors that he sees. A few days ago I put a book on my head to balance it. Ever since then he has been trying to balance various items on his head. Just another fun place to store things!

Jackson is very much a man with a plan. He has a place to go and he has plans for when he arrives. He likes to play with you if you are involved in his plan. Lately he has been making more room for his Momma in his plans. He has recently started crawling up to me and taking residence in my lap. I LOVE this! He doesn’t always stay for a long time, but he has been coming over to visit quite frequently. I quite enjoy his visits.

All of the kids-
Bath time is a great time of day! Adalie thinks she is a fish. She lays on her stomach and flops around while giggling madly. Jackson stands with his feet apart and splashes his little heart out while giggling madly. Evelyn splashes and tries to get Jack and Addy to copy her while she is giggling madly. I just sit back and watch while occasionally using the shower curtain as a shield from all of this wild splashing and giggling. Evelyn has become quite the helper during bath times because she likes to soap up Jack and Addy. This also involves much splashing and giggling.

Whoever said that twins just innately are better at sharing and waiting their turn did not have twins. Jack and Addy are both very good kids, but waiting has not been pre programmed into their systems. I mentioned above that Adalie loves sitting in my lap and that Jackson has recently become a fan. This is great except each of them wants to be in the middle and doesn’t want the other any where near me. Forget the idea of having one of them on each knee. I end up with two crying toddlers. This has been fun for me to manage lately. Other than this minor issue, both of them are pretty happy and pretty agreeable.

Right now Evelyn is still sleeping and Jackson and Adalie are walking in the living room both waiving their arms around like crazy people talking, shrieking and giggling. Life is good.

I think that having siblings (whether you have a twin or not) is a great help for children learning how to share. All three of the kids sit around the dinner table in their booster chairs. Often I catch them sneaking food to each other. Jackson will put it just in reach of Addy and wait for her to take it. Addy will do the same thing. Adalie will also give food to Evelyn (she sits in the middle). Evelyn routinely gives Jackson and Adalie some of her food. Last week I was watching as Jackson gave something to Adalie. She ate it, and then passed one of hers on to Evelyn. I love my kids!

Are you still with me? Congratulations. I hope you enjoyed this super long glimpse into my happy life. After all of that I don’t even have any pictures. What kind of a blogger am I??? If the truth be told I am the kind of blogger that can’t figure out how to get her new camera off of a crazy weird setting…

I hope you enjoyed all of those p’s.

Have a wonderful week.

Well, here I am eating a burrito in the Las Vegas airport, watching the zombies at the slots, and waiting for my flight to arrive. I'm tired.

Earlier today I took each of the kids out on individual “daddy walks.” It was nice. We walked down to the creek and threw sticks and rocks into the water. Last night we rented Toy Story 3 and watched it with Evelyn. It has been a nice week.

And now I am leaving for a week-long course in dental implant placement. We came across a great deal where one of the premier implant training institutes is offering the full course to dental students at a fraction of the cost that I would pay as a dentist. Rachel will be left alone with the three kids. She is a little bit nervous about this and I love her for allowing me to go- especially since it seems like they are all coming down with some sort of sickness. I am very excited.

Anyway, there’s really not too much to report this week. Addy is now a full-fledged walker. It is funny when Addy and Jack walk next to each other because when one starts to fall they inevitably lean into the other for support, forcing a “tackle contest” between the two. Addy usually wins due to a substantial weight advantage, but Jackson can definitely hold his own in such contests and does not go down easily. Either way, it is entertaining.

No pictures this week- sorry. I guess it’s ok though since you got a double dose of the Hazards last week.

I couldn't resist putting these pictures up. These were taken by our friend Jenny at the Halloween party.