The Hazard Chronicles

Welcome to a glimpse of our crazy lives!  A few weeks ago Logan was gone for a dental conference in Seattle and I decided to document our day with video.  This is the first video I have ever created! I am kind of proud of it.  Before I get to the video I thought I would write a brief (we will see how brief it actually ends up being) summary of what is going on with each of the kids. Feel free to just skip to the video if you would like to.

Evelyn- Evelyn loves her pre-school!  Mrs. Scholes is fantastic.  She has transformed a level of her home into a pre-school complete with a tree house reading fort, tables for centers, a play corner, reading rug, and much more.  She has six students and lots of creativity. I think Evelyn’s pre-school will actually be funner than kindergarten because there is so much one-on-one attention, time to do extensive crafts, and time for field trips.  She is having a great time.

On Monday Evelyn was in Adalie’s room and I overheard the conversation.  Evelyn said, “Guess what Adalie?  It is quiet time and I get to go outside!  You have to stay in your room and you can’t come with me!”  When she came out I casually asked her what she had been saying to Addy.  Without missing a beat she gave me this sweet smile and her head tilted to the side she said, “I was just telling her how much I love her.” Wow…

Evelyn enjoys sitting down and sounding out words in books.  She is constantly asking me how to spell things, and she is constantly trying to spell things herself by sounding them out.  She also has a great grasp on addition and subtraction and she will often make up story problems.

On election day I talked to the kids about how wonderful it is to live in America and about the great opportunity we have to vote and give our opinion about the leadership of our country.  We talked about how there are two main people, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, who want to be president of our country.  A few minutes later she came in to me and said, “We took a vote.  I want Mick Romney, Adalie wants Mick Romney, and Jackson does NOT want Mick Romney.  Am I right?  Did I win?”  Evelyn decided to take the election into her own hands. 

Jackson- Our little man started pre-school a few months ago.  He is really having a good time.  The other mom’s have been praising him a lot!  With the more difficult projects he is often the only one who understands the directions and follows them well. 

Jackson has some excellent gross and fine motor skills.  Since he was 18 months old he has known how to hold a pencil perfectly, and he also has great control and understanding of his body’s capabilities.  He can balance on most anything, he is like a cat when it comes to jumping onto the floor from any height.  He lands with perfect balance on both feet.  He also is the best climber of the bunch.  He just instinctively does some pretty crazy moves. This also may be due to the fact that he has absolutely no fear!

Our little man is doing pretty well on the potty!  He has been going kind of consistently.  He can go on command and he can tell me when he needs to go.  I think he could be pretty well potty trained if I was a little bit more consistent.  He is very proud of himself!  I love that!

Have you ever seen those vacuums that you leave in a room forever and they vacuum for you?  That is Jackson.  He loves to vacuum and he will do it forever!  I can leave him in a room and when I come back it will be completely spotless (he shows off this talent in the video).  He also is the best cleaner ever!  He loves to organize and get things looking nice.  Lately he has been pushing his limits to see if he can get away with saying ‘no,’ but I think his desire to be clean and organized is winning the battle.

Jackson is in a speech class with two other boys.  He goes to the local elementary school twice a week for a half an hour each time.  They play fun games and he has a pretty good time. I have noticed some steady improvement in being able to understand him. It is still definitely not easy sometimes, but it is getting better! He is doing well with recognizing letters and he is even writing some of them.  Last time I taught he was the only one in the class who could master writing the lower case letter e.  Nice work. He also knows his colors, shapes and how to count.

Lately Jackson has been singing about everything.  He just makes up his own songs about things he is thinking about, things we are doing, or what he can see.  He is very entertaining.

Adalie- Sweet Adalie is also really enjoying pre-school.  She loves to tell me about what happened in class.  Her favorite thing to elaborate on is what they ate for snack time.  This is always a very exciting thing to share.  She is doing very well dwith letter recognition, color recognition, and counting.  I think she can count forever!  She figured out the pattern and there is no stopping her.  

Adalie loves to talk.  She can talk about anything and she has recently begun asking me questions about things. She is becoming more and more interested in the world around her. Sometimes Adalie can be a little bit flighty.  She kind of floats around and seems to just be clueless about what is going on around her.  It is kind of funny to watch.

I just asked Evelyn if she could think of something special about Adalie.  She said, “Adalie is special because she has more dresses than me.” Did I mention that Evelyn is still quite obsessed with princesses and with wearing dresses?

Adalie likes to ‘read’ books out loud.  She will sit up on a chair and read to anyone who wants to be in the audience.  I mistakenly thought it would be quicker to let her read the bedtime story the other night.  I have never had so much elaboration and time spent on a page.  She was very particular about explaining everything in the story and everything that was going on in the picture. She also made quite the show every time she turned the page. 

Adalie has a new favorite color every day.  Evelyn keeps trying to convince her that pink is the best color of all, but thankfully Addy is holding her ground and choosing colors like blue, brown, and green.  Adalie can definitely be a girly girl, but is it possible to be a tomboy girly girl?

The other day the kids were in the car and Evelyn piped up, “Adalie, I am sorry to say this, but you kind of talk funny.”  Adalie refused to believe it and Evelyn decided to list all of the words that Adalie mispronounces.  I timed Evelyn and she went on without pausing for three full minutes until we arrived back at our house.  It was really funny.  I hadn’t really noticed other than the fact that everything Addy says seems to begin with the f sound!

Adalie has been a very good ‘tryer’ when it comes to going potty on the potty.  She will sit for a very long time and be very patient even though she still has the record of only going once so far.  She gets very excited and very proud of herself.  I love seeing her little eyes light up.  She doesn’t seem to be getting discouraged, and she is a very good cheerleader for Jackson when he goes.  She gets almost as proud of him as she does with herself. 

Maren- Wow this girl is growing up!  She will be nine months this week. I don’t think she ever stops talking!  She even has a gurgling growling sound every time she eats.  She is scooting/crawling along all over the place!  I have noticed that she scoots when the floor is soft and she will crawl on harder surfaces.   Just yesterday she started pulling up to standing and she now pulls up on everything. 

Maren is simply a joy to have around.  She is the happiest/most content baby I have ever seen, and she puts up with a lot.  Know that during the video when it looks like she is being tortured she is just full of giggles! Right now Evelyn is holding her under her armpits and spinning around.  Maren is talking and giggling like crazy.

Which brings me to my next thought.  Maren is now successfully able to ‘play’ with each of her siblings.  They all interact with her a little bit differently, but Maren lights up whenever she sees any one of them.

Maren’s hair isn’t growing at all in length, but it continues to get thicker and thicker.  It is almost the exact same color as Evelyn’s.  Where is this red coming from???  Also, her eyes are getting greener and greener every day.  I love them!  What is up with our genetic pool?  Twins, red hair, green eyes, and three older siblings that look nothing like one another .  Maren is a great mix between Evelyn and Jackson. 

Maren is definitely a momma’s girl.  She can be pretty fussy sometimes for babysitters.  She also has shown a little bit of an independent streak.  I didn’t know that was possible this young!  I am surely in for it.  Anyway, she refuses to let me put in her pacifier.  She insists that she does it all by herself. She will throw a fit if I try to do it.  I have just learned to hand it to her and let her twirl it around and wiggle it until it makes her way into her mouth

Me- Why not put a little bit about me in here?  I am having a great time being a mom to these sweet little kids.  Life is definitely crazy!  Some moments are crazy fun, some moments are crazy and not so fun, and some moments are just plain crazy!  I must say that peace and quiet is definitely a treasured commodity, but I can also honestly say that one day I will really miss this time. 

Marketing for the practice has finally settled down into a doable routine.  I have stopped running just enough to create a manageable schedule to meet all of the deadlines for the ads and articles I am doing.  I have been having a fantastic time watching my ideas ‘come to life.’  I love creating the advertisements and I get excited when I have the final product (I actually just ordered 15,000 holiday mailers this morning).  I enjoy seeing my designs in print and seeing the response that they are getting. 

This past month I have been reclaiming my life again.  I feel like a much better mother, wife, and home maker now that the crazy initial set up phase is over.  I am also busy  getting my   house back in order from the chaos that reigned for a while.  This feels good.  I like being orderly and making things nice.  I am also proud to say that I have been back to cooking homemade meals every   night.  For the first time in our marriage I would routinely get to six o’clock and realize that I had no idea what we were having for dinner. Needless to say, those days were not very healthy…

I am excitedly trying to get ideas ready for Christmas.  I am very excited for this holiday season!

I will now quit my rambling and get right to the video!  Here is what a typical day looks like in the Hazard home.  The only thing missing is my amazing husband (he was in Seattle for a business conference). 

Hey- this is Logan, the amazing husband. I’m doing well too. I love my family, I love my wife. I love my job, and I love my life.

…And I can write poetry :)

I look forward every week to Papa Fridays when I take the kids to Library story time and we make crafts and stuff.

By the way, the next time I get on this blog I’m getting up on my soapbox again. Be excited.

On to the awesome video...