This week at school we had Mock Boards. For those who are unfamiliar with the board exam, it consists of doing a couple of fillings and a deep cleaning on real patients. For students who are getting licensed in the Western U.S. we also have to do a root canal on an extracted tooth which is mounted in a fake mouth, and there is a written portion much like the exam I just took in December.

Anyway, Mock Boards is a big deal event where the school does a simulation of the actual day of the clinical exam (fillings and a deep cleaning). All the paperwork is the same, the protocols are the same, and they try to make the stress level the same as the actual test day. They tell us that they are going to be ultra tough when it comes to grading, and we are supposed to look for patients with "ideal" cavities. What the heck is an "ideal" cavity anyway? How would you like your dentist to tell you that you have 5 cavities, but don't worry, they are "ideal." Well, this is what we do in dental school. Really, this whole test sort of seems like just one more hoop to jump through in order to receive the holy title of "Dentist." But I'm not bitter.

Well, it was a good attempt put out by the school, but I don't think they quite succeeded because in the end, this pretend test thing didn't really matter. There was no real pressure. If we failed then it was like "Darn, I guess I better do better next time," instead of "Darn, I guess the last four years of my life and several hundred-thousand dollars worth of tuition were for nothing." Don't get me wrong, I actually think I scored very well on this fake test (I am, after all, a wonderful dentist), and I am glad that I got to have a dress rehersal for the actual thing, but I just didn't feel the pressure. So, the point of all this is that Mock Boards pretty much took up my week as far as school goes.

Besides that, we had a pretty good week. Yesterday Rachel lined up a babysitter and took me on a date to the International Motorcycle Show which is on tour here in Cleveland. It was so much fun! Some of you know that I love motorcycles. Well, this was like the ultimate window-shopping experiance for a motorcycle guy. They had pretty much every make and model you could want out on the floor for you to sit on and test out. I think I will probobly always have a motorcycle, and since I'll be selling mine before we move in the near future, it was sort of fun to check out what was out there and contemplate what my next bike might be.

Also, Rachel (who has her motorcycle endorsement) was finally convinced that maybe she would want one too. Up until now she has been a little bit scared of them, but I think she got pretty excited about some of the little 250s. And who knows, maybe our whole family will ride motorcycles one day. Wouldn't that be cool?

Rachel's favorite bike at the show- a Yamaha V-Star 250. I think she looks good on it.

And here's what I think my next bike will be after we move- a Kawasaki Vulcan 1700 Classic. Simply beautiful.

This has been a hard week. Our kids have been transformed into three petulant rabid maniacs. I don't know what has happened, but the fact that Rachel has maintained her sanity throughout this entire week speaks volumes to her amazing nurturing abilities. Seriously.

I guess it's not totally unwarranted though. Addy and Jackson both got fevers, we think as a result from some vaccinations they recently received. Addy's temperature was up to 104, and I'm sure she probably had a headache to go with it. They are also both getting a bunch of teeth right now, which could also be causing some of the crankiness.

Evelyn, on the other hand, has no excuse. She is probably just starved for attention since we have been taking care of Jackson and Adalie so much. The thing is, she had a great week. She started her new dance class this week, and the ballerina dress that Rachel sewed for her is her new favorite thing. She is very cute when she is not whining, but those moments have been very few this week. Oh, the joys of parenthood.

There was a silver lining to the week though, and it came in the form of an email that Rachel received on Friday night. Things were very tense for just a moment before we opened the attachment containing results to her national interpreter certification exam. We have been waiting for four months for these results to come through, and they were finally here.

She passed! Rachel is now officially a nationally certified ASL interpreter. Her level of certification transcends any state requirements for interpreters, enabling her to work pretty much wherever she wants, doing pretty much whatever she feels comfortable with. It also doesn't hurt that she gets a $10/hour raise from the agency she works with. Go Rachel! I am very proud of her for going after this goal and it has been a long time in coming. She first decided to do it when we were living in Provo, but one thing led to another, and one child led to two others, and it is amazing that she has actually been able, finally, to realize this goal despite everything else that is going on. I love you Rachel, and I think you are amazing.

Here's Evelyn's new skirt that Rachel made. Notice how thrilled Isaac looks to be involved in this impromptu "dance class" taught by Evelyn.

This picture pretty much sums up how Adalie has been feeling.

Cinderella has become an official member of our household.

Those of you who we spent time with over the holidays are probably not too surprised by this development. For the rest of you, let me just explain that our beautiful, otherwise well-adjusted daughter has a complete obsession with this Disney heroine who, in my opinion, isn't all the way there. (She talks to mice and birds, lets her family boss her around like a servant, and spends most of her time "dreaming and believing" instead of actually "doing"). Anyway, here are some illustrative moments of our own little Cinderella:

The other day she was playing "dragons" with some of her friends. When they told her they were going to get her she ran away with her arms in the air screaming "don't rip my beautiful ball-gown!"

Rachel walked in on Evelyn as she was putting tape all over her Cinderella book. When asked what she was doing, Evelyn responded that the stepsisters had torn Cinderella's dress and that she was fixing it. Sure enough, there was tape right over each one of the rips in the dress.

Every pair of Evelyn's shoes has sudenly transformed into her "glass slippers." Yesterday I got her out of the car and noticed that she had taken one of them off. I tried to put it back on, but she became very upset and told me that it has to stay off so that "the prince could find it and put it on Cinderella's foot and get married and live happy ever after. Okay?"

Rachel saw Evelyn walking around the house in one shoe. When questioned where her other shoe was, she responded very matter-of-factly that "she lost it on the staircase." (We don't have a staircase).

One of Evelyn's friends did something to hurt Evelyn's feelings. In a very dramatic moment she put both hands on her cheeks, burst into tears, and then ran out of the room exclaiming "I am going to the garded to wept!"

We sure love our princess girl.

Rachel and I also had a pretty crazy date this week. The plan was simple enough:

1. Drop kids off at babysitters
2. Go somewhere to eat
3. Go to a play
4. Get kids
5. Go home

Here's how it actually happened:

1. Drop kids off at babysitters
2. Drive car into the middle of babysitter's lawn while backing out of driveway (nice move, Rach)
3. Spend time getting car un-stuck from snow in babysitter's lawn
4. Find a place to eat (Mongolian Grill)
5. Enjoy our meal with occasional glares from our waiter. Stare in complete shock as our waiter came and took his tip off the table while we were still sitting there (without even filling up our water)
6. Begin driving to the theatre
7. Run out of gas in the middle of the street. The roads are too icy for me to push car out of the way
8. I run nearly a mile through the snow in my suit to a gas station and borrow a gas can
9. I see a cop pulling out of the gas station and ask him for a ride back to the car. On the way there he calls his partner to update him on his status- on the radio I hear the response "Well, I think I am with the wife right now." (This is the only time I have ever had to ride in a lighted-up police car)
10. Find Rachel, still stranded in the middle of the road, with a cop behind her directing traffic into the other lane.
11. Get gas and drive to the Theatre where I drop Rachel off to get our seats
12. Receive a phone-call from Rachel that we went to the wrong theatre.
13. Rachel runs the two-and-a-half blocks through the snow (In a dress and high-heels) to the right theater while I continue to look for parking.Go to a play (Altar Boys- entertaining, but we've seen better)
14. Get kids
15. Go home

Really, I would have it no other way. It was a great night!

Here we go with the pictures. These are actually pictures from the week before leaving on our Christmas break. We forgot our camera and were not able to put these on the blog for that week. I have also included our Hazard family cousin pictures.


Evelyn's first haircut right before we left for Utah. I was afraid to cut it because I didn't want to cut the curls, but the curls sprang back to life after the cut.

We made chocolate dipped goodies for family night.

My little policeman and crossing guard. What ambitious little kids!

Playing in the snow with Evelyn. She absolutely insisted on the skirt. She is definately all girl!

Hazard cousin family pictures:

Our miracle picture. You would have to have been there in the chaos to understand.

I LOVE this picture. Evelyn is such a cute dancer! This is one of the skirts that I made for the girls. We used the skirts for the cousin pictures.

The handsome tough guys

The sweet little girls

When Adalie's turn came she really was not in the mood. Oh well. These pictures are cute anyway. Notice the perfectly placed tear.

Our Christmas vacation was the perfect length. We had a wonderful time with family, and now it feels great to be home.

The second half of our vacation was spent in Sandy with my family (yes, this is Rachel making a guest appearance on our blog). We had a week and a half full of visiting, playing Munchkins (a fun new game we learned), playing with kids, playing in the snow, eating cheese fondue creations, playing Monopoly Deal (a fun not so new game we know), eating chocolate fondue creations, playing Robots (you guessed it! Another game we know), sledding, and it wouldn't be a visit to my family's house without creme brulee!

I have LOVED living in Cleveland, but having our kids so far away from grandparents, aunts and uncles is tough. One of my favorite parts of this vacation was watching Evelyn, Adalie, and Jackson have play time with my family and with Logan's family. This time is priceless.

On to Christmas!

Logan and I arrived at my family's house on Christmas Eve. We kept up with the Almond tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve. Afterwards, we didn't have time to bake cookies for Santa, so I let Evelyn decide what we should leave out for him. She didn't hesitate at all: Santa would have a banana and milk. Evelyn was very excited for Santa to come. I love that she is old enough to understand the real Christmas story and the Santa Christmas story as well.

On a side note... Evelyn is very well versed in the Christmas nativity story. So much in fact, that for about two weeks she was convinced that three of her fingers were the actual three wise men. She cut her finger and was very adament that the wise mens had an owie. She informed everyone that she knew of this fact, and even some people that she didn't know.

Back to Christmas Eve... After we put our sweet kids to bed we realized that there were a few things that were needed for Christmas dinner. We also realized that it is nearly impossible to find somewhere that is open on Christmas Eve at 8:30. After many phone calls we found a store across town that would still have smiling faces to greet us until exactly 9:00. I am thankful for the dollar toy section in this store because Logan and I realized that it might be a good idea to get special gifts for our kids that were from 'Santa.'

Christmas morning was wonderful! Stockings were stuffed, Santa's gifts were carefully laid out, and Evelyn was very excited. The Christmas feeling was in the air!

One of my favorite Christmas pasttimes is watching other people open their gifts. I remember one year my mom had me help wrap gifts (something I enjoy), and that Christmas was not fun at all because there was no surprise when other people opened their presents. Since that time, I don't want to know what other people are getting unless I have to. This year did not dissapoint. I had a great time watching all of the gift opening. I also had a great time doing the gift opening!

I am sure you are done hearing me ramble. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

I discovered a love for sewing this year. I borrowed a friend's sewing machine for exactly eight days. In that time I made 3 skirts (one for each of my girl's and one for their cousin Zoey), an apron for Evelyn and myself, five table runners, and a purse. I also made multiple magnet sets, a rug for the grandparents and a floor mat with a little town grid for play cars. As I was working like a crazy person I came to the realization that I could actually sew things for myself and not just when Christmas came around. Logan bought me a new sewing machine for Christmas and I already have a list of things I want to make! I never thought I would become the artsy homemaker type. I am not sure what I think about that image... But I do know that I enjoy sewing and creating new things.

This toy was a hit! I noticed that Adalie was more and more daring with her stunts. She started out pretty timid, but by the day we left she balanced on the seat standing up with no hands and and a huge grin.

One on one time with Uncle Brandon.

This is the only picture we have of our actual sledding trip. Jackson was a maniac. He loved going down with Logan, and he loved running until he fell down, and he loved playing in the snow. Evelyn had a great time playing with Brandon on the nearby playground equiptment. Adalie did NOT like sledding down the big hill. She was tolerant of the tiny hill, but her preferred mode of travel was being pulled in the sled. She also liked to just sit in the sled and observe everyone. All in all I think our kids each had a good time in their own way. This picture actually comes a few days after the next few. These next pictures were the first time the kids got to play in real snow (the first time we actually had snow gear for all of them).

Adalie did not enjoy the snow very much. She wanted to be held and reassured for almost the entire time. She was finally coaxed into hanging out in the sled while we pulled her around. Jackson joined her for a while, but he didn't want to sit still for long.

This is her happy face.

Evelyn and Jackson being pulled by Papa. Logan sure got a work out in the completely flat yard.

Introduction to the snow! We were very excited to finally have all of the snow gear we need for all three kids!