After a harrowing journey from our home in Cleveland (see previous post) we finally arrived in Rexburg where my family was all waiting for us. Once there, the fun and craziness was pretty much non-stop. Hang on and get ready for a lot of pictures and I'll walk you through what has happened in this last week. Oh- and by the way, this is not in any way chronological. Pretty much I just dumped a bunch of pictures on here and I'll tell the story of our week in the captions.

Story time with Haley! This was a daily (almost) ritual at our house. It is clear that Haley has been to a lot of story times with her son, Bennett, because she was awesome at marching around the room with toy instruments and feeding little puppets. It was great.

I also want to mention how fun it is being in a house with a lot of people. Crazy, but fun. This is what Christmas is to me. There is always something going on and usually many things going on at once. Kids are everywhere, people are cooking, laughing, talking, and just hanging out. People are always coming and going and the whole house is infused with this huge amount of positive energy that is just...well...Christmasy. I love it.

"Christmas Day" at our house was actually on Christmas Eve Eve because a lot of people were going to leave the next day (including us). Before opening presents we had all of the kids act out the Christmas story. That was interesting. I think Jackson has a future as a shepherd, but the rest was pretty much just total chaos- exactly as it should be. The present exchange was fun and Rachel's presents that she has been making went over very well. I was expressly forbidden to put a picture on here, but I think the best present was Ashland's green superhero-like spandex bodysuit that Griffin gave to her. Use your imagination. It was also a lot of fun because this is the first Christmas that I think Evelyn truly understood what was going on.

Laser Tag.
So here's a funny story: Haley stood right next to Grandpa the whole game encouraging him to go after the other team and acting surprised when Grandpa kept getting hit over and over and over again by some unknown shooter. The funny part- Haley was, in fact, the unknown shooter and Grandpa never realized they were on opposite teams! My grandpa is awesome!

I also have to say it- my team never lost. Even when Grandpa was on it!



Skiing. I love skiing. I don't get to go very often any more- maybe only 1-2 times per year. But we had a lot of fun at Kelly Canyon and it was a perfect day. Courtney and Ashland both shredded up the slopes on their snowboards under Griffin's careful tutelage, and Rachel, I think, wins the prize for the best wipe-out of the day (although I heard that Haley's face-plant was also pretty spectacular).

Quote of the day- "Rachel just makes her own path down the mountain."

I think everyone had a great time and it was fun being out with them.

I included this picture because one night my dad randomly called all of the kids together and then went into the garage and brought out this gigantic stuffed dog for them! I have no idea where they are going to keep this thing, and I know my mom was pretty excited about all the hair that fell off of it and got on the carpet, but I have to admit that it was the perfect surprise for the kids. After they realized that it was a toy and not a giant kid-eating monster (they scattered and ran for cover when they first saw it), Eva, Jack, Addy, and Bennett had countless hours of fun with this thing.

There's not really much of a story behind this one- just a bunch of kids in the tub and one very concerned Zoey.

Bowling. Every frame had a different requirement. Here we see Allison and Courtney as they bowl "between the legs." A lot of fun, a lot of laughs, and a lot of gutter-balls. Who could ask for a better afternoon on a snowy day in Rexburg?



Sledding. Evelyn loved this! We will definitely have to buy some sleds when we get home because I think Evelyn found her new favorite activity.We are still hearing about it. This is the one great perk of living on a hill without much traffic and a lot of ice. (Not such a perk, however, when you are driving a small car without much traction).

Well, I could post more pictures (we have hundreds), but I think that pretty much shows the fun we had with my family. What I can't show is the many, many hours of conversation and togetherness that really made this week so great. I have said it before, but I honestly believe that I have the greatest family on the planet and it is fun when we all get to be together in celebration of this wonderful Christmas Season.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Ok. I'll admit that I am not in the frame of mind to be sitting down at a computer right now and writing this blog. I've already tried begging, bribing, and bullying the other members of my family to write it for me, but they wouldn't give in. So I'm sorry, but you get me again today. And I am grumpy. Oh- and I don't have any pictures because we left our camera at home. So if you are like most people and you just scroll down to see the pictures then you might as well leave right now.

But really, aside from all of that, it has been a really fantastic week. On Tuesday and Wednesday I took my board exam for my dentistry license so it's awesome that I don't have to study for that any more. It was sort of getting to be a drag anyway and I was losing any motivation that I ever had. Also, on Thursday I got certified to do Invisalign ("invisible braces") for my patients once I graduate and I am pretty excited about that.

On Friday we got to the airport early and made our way to check-in and security. Only then did we realize that Rachel had left her driver's license in the car and our neighbor who drove us didn't have a phone. This was to be the beginning of a very long day. To summarize, we ended up begging our way through security and then dealing with three very wiggly, noisy, and hellishly cranky little children on three separate flights and a four hour drive before we arrived in Rexburg, Idaho. Seriously, it was the hardest day of travel I think we have ever had. We just kept reminding ourselves that at the end of the day we would be at our destination and that we would never see these people again who were casting hateful glances our way.

But now we are here. It has been an awesome couple of days so far and we are looking forward to a great time. Anyway, I'm going to sign out now because we are playing family games and I'd rather be a part of that than writing this blog. Like I said before- not in the mood.

Sorry.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Addy is making motor boat and turkey sounds right now and turning in circles until she falls over. Jolly would be a good word to describe her. Sometimes I don't know if she thinks very much- she is sort of an airhead. But she is a jolly airhead. That is our sweet cuddly Adalie.

Jackson, on the other hand, more than makes up for the difference with his over-analytical way of viewing the world. He is focused and he is intelligent. He reminds me of Oliver mouse in that Night-before-Christmas cartoon special (those who know what I am talking about can relate). Oh- and he never laughs. He chuckles. And it sounds like a chicken. Seriously.

Neither Addy nor Jackson have necks. They look like snowmen. Also, they have started playing together which is a lot of fun to watch. Two snowmen bumping and rolling around the room making poultry noises. We love our kids.

Evelyn also plays with them and they all get along pretty well. Sometimes it backfires though. Today Evelyn was showing them how to play "London Bridges." When she "took the key to lock them up," she grabbed Jackson and put him in a Chuck Norris style headlock and started swinging him around the room. We weren't too worried though since Jackson just made chicken noises through the whole thing. I think that means he was chuckling. I couldn't see his face though, and he just as well could have been struggling desperately for a breath of fresh air. In either case he survived and is now busy trying to steamroll Adalie (still making motor boat noises) with a baby stroller.

Never a dull moment at the Hazard house.

Well, this has been a fun week, but not too eventful since I am studying so much. This is crunch time and a lot of finals are taking place and I take the Board Exam in a week-and-a-half to get my dentist license.

But as fun as that is we were still able to get out a few times and do some stuff together. On Friday night Rachel and I drove out to Cuyahoga Falls and walked around the town looking at lights and watching the ice-skaters. Yesterday we all went to the Mall downtown in Cleveland where there was a gingerbread house display. It was good and gave us inspiration for our own gingerbread house that we will be making in January.

Also, Rachel has been busy at work sewing Christmas presents. The final results are looking good, and I think that Rachel is having a lot of fun making them. She is my hero when it comes to presents, and I apologize to everyone in advance, but all the stuff I am giving away is coming straight from the store. No creativity here.

Also, because of that pure lack of creative talent, I have no pictures this week. Sorry!