Rachel's update (I made a blog!)

Maren: Dad, what are those?
Dad: I am making pigs in a blanket for dinner
Maren: Those are pigs? But where are their tails?
Dad: That is a good question.
Maren: (in a very blunt voice) Are they dead?
Dad: What do you think?
Maren: Well... I once saw the Tooth Fairy eat a live baby pig.  It was late at night and I was on the couch...

Miss Maren is constantly surprising me with the things that come out of her mouth!  I love just listening to her talk because everything is inventive and a little bit strange.  This inventiveness generally matches her creative outfits.  For the past two months she has been constantly in skirts for preschool and her favorite outfit is a purple plaid skirt paired with a navy/red striped shirt.  I figure there is not much in this world that she has control over, and it is good to let your personality shine. Last week she had a selection of shoes and she decided to wear one purple boot and one pink boot because she couldn't decide.  I actually got a lot of positive feedback from her teachers that day about letting her do thing on her own. She knows the general concept of matching clothes, but she likes her own style.  Good for her.

I can understand wearing a skirt in the cold because I rarely get cold and she seems to be the same way (besides, generally she walks through the garage into a warm car and from a warm car to preschool. No problem).  I am, however, adamant that she wears shoes.  I know. I know. I am a horrible mom, right?  It would seem that way in the morning when the time arrives to put on her shoes.  She generally ends up in the car barefoot holding her shoes until we get to our destination.  Which is why when she chose two different boots I was just ecstatic that she put shoes on of her own accord.

Lindsey

"It's a stick!"

This is officially Lindsey's first full sentence.  Today was our first Sunday family hike for the year, and we had a great time hiking around and exploring Q'emlin park.  Logan took the kids up to see some caves and I hung around with Lindsey.  We walked hand in hand as she pointed to every loose stick and proudly proclaimed "It's a stick!"  I see many more Sunday Family Hikes in our future.

February is the month of Birthdays and parties.  We have had family parties for Maren and Evelyn, a Valentine's Day party in Rexburg (more about that visit below), I volunteered in four separate class Valentine's parties, and next weekend we have a friend party for Ev on Friday night and a friend party for Maren on Saturday.  You heard that right! It is a back to back party weekend!


From the minds of our children

Ok. I think I have each of our kids' reactions down pretty well when I ask them to do something.  Here is a slightly exaggerated example of what might go through each child's head on any given day when I ask the kids to get in the car.

Evelyn: Today has been SO completely difficult! Sure I went to a birthday party and I went to the park and played for two hours but I fell down and bumped my knee! My life is SO difficult and now is the perfect time to pout and burst into big hot crocodile tears!

Adalie: (disclaimer: Adalie is our peacemaker and the one that I can completely count on to do exactly as she is told without so much as a peep so this is her reaction when, on the completely off occasion, that I put her in a timeout. She had a timeout this week and it is, honestly, the first time in at least a year). Life is so good!  I think I am going to skip to time out and exclaim "I love sitting in this char!" with a super cute smile on my face. I know I am the favorite!

Jackson: Ok. Set your feet solidly shoulder width apart. Clench your jaw. Stare at Mom defiantly without twitching a muscle. Don't even blink.

Maren: Mom just asked me to go to the car. I am so MAD because she would not let me bring markers downstairs because she told me I have not proven myself to be responsible with them down there.   She is the meanest mom ever! I'll show her!  I am going to write all over Evelyn's closet wall.

Lindsey: Oh!  I am being picked up again and put in this chair.  Hmmm. Maybe I will squirm a... Oh look! A shiny mirror on the back of the headrest. I am so cute!

Thankfully all of these reactions don't happen every time, but these are funny caricatures for each of the kids.

Evelyn

Sweet Evelyn is now eight going on thirteen!  I swear she has that eye roll down to a science... And I thought those crazy emotions were not supposed to make an appearance for at least another few years.  The other day she informed me "If you can not find me be sure to look in my "miserable spot."  Okay. She gets a lot of flack for this (and, to our credit, a fair amount of listening ear from Logan and I), but I have to poke a little bit of fun at the situation. It helps me cope. Especially when the crocodile tears start coming.

On a better note, Evelyn is doing great in school and is now in accelerated programs for much of the time (in a wide variety of subjects).  I enjoy receiving letters from her on a weekly basis and responding to them through her cloud drive at school (what a great idea for a weekly assignment!).

Evelyn will be getting a dental appliance in her mouth to help her FINALLY stop sucking her thumb. She has mixed emotions about it, but overall I think she is excited for the boost of help because she has wanted to stop for a while.  We will see how this goes, but I am glad it is her decision and she looks forward to breaking the habit.

 Adalie

Addy is a very smart social butterfly.  She is in her own reading group at school because she is so far ahead of the other students.  In fact, this month she has started reading chapter books!  She devours any book she can find and has fun doing it.  Logan and I ask her questions after she is done and we have noticed that some chapter books she can easily answer questions while others she seems to have no clue what she just read.  We are now selecting books according to reading level so that her comprehension skills are emphasized.  Her current favorites are Evelyn's chapter books about fairies written by Daisy Meadows (PLEASE let that be a pen name!).

Adalie is still very recognizable by her cuddly nature.  Today I called her over to the couch just to give her a big hug.  She hugged me tight and ended up curled in my lap without even letting me go.  She snuggled there like a cozy little kitten.  I love Adalie snuggles and have no doubt what her love language is right now.

Adalie is our little peace maker.  She is kind, sweet, and does not seem to have a mean bone in her body.  One weird side to this is that sometimes she seems to have no opinion at all.  I wonder if this is because she is so eager to please others.  Whatever the reason, we definitely encourage having an opinion around here (for better or worse!).

Jackson

This boy is a very sweet-hearted instigator!  I think part of it is that he is a boy with a lot of energy in a house full of girls!  Poor kid...  I can't say that he is completely innocent though!  He has the sweet, caring brother role down, and he also has the irritating, pestering brother role down.

Jackson is my very best helper, and I am told he is an excellent helper in his Kindergarten class as well.  He loves to find extra jobs to do around the house, and he is always ready to earn money doing extra chores.  A few weeks after Christmas he approached me and asked if he could earn some extra money. When I asked him if he had anything in mind to buy he told me he wanted to bring it to the red kettle for the Salvation Army and donate it to kids who didn't have as much as he does.  He melts my heart!

Jack is doing very well in his Kindergarten class.  He has a group of friends who he loves to do art with.  He is very meticulous with his art (and any other project) and will work on it for as long as you will let him.  He is constantly drawing a variety of cool inventions and if you give him a second he will talk your ear off about each intricate detail. I love to listen to his imaginative ideas.

In church today Jackson was with a group of kids doing an object lesson. They were instructed to stand in a circle in front of the congregation and hold on to a bucket. Jackson noticed that the crowded group left out one crestfallen child who did not fit in the circle. Jack silently left the group, picked up a separate bucket, walked over to the little boy, and created a second circle with just the two of them for the remainder of the story. This melted my heart, and I think it affected everyone who saw it.  What a thoughtful boy!

Rexburg Trip

I absolutely love everything about living in Post Falls. The only thing that needs to happen is for families to move closer to us.  That is why weekends like last weekend are so special.  We packed up the car and headed to Rexburg to see grandparents and Griffin with his cute girls (we definitely noticed Ashland and Callen's absence).

Another great thing about these trips to Rexburg are that they begin and end with a road trip with the Love of my life (plus a few really good travelers). It is a win/win situation!

This trip did not disappoint. Here is a list of activities we did together.

• We had a great Valentine's day party complete with decorations, a wide variety of competitive balloon games, a heart Valentine/double birthday cake, birthday presents, and a lot of giggles and smiles.
• A visit to Grandma's Kindergarten complete with games in the gym, valentine decorating, cosmic yoga, and playing in the treehouse.
• Sledding- Including a CRAZY sledding accident involving our sweet Maren (details below).
• Spades with the adult
• The arcade

Thanks for the great time!  Now I need to get my own family closer so that a three day weekend is enough time for a great trip down there... hint, hint, hint...

"I made a sushi!"

On Saturday we went to a sushi night with the gals at Logan's office.  I loved the sushi!  This is saying something since Logan can be quoted saying, "Rachel does not eat anything that breathes underwater." This quote is not necessarily true because I really like shrimp and now I am a fan of sushi.  Maybe my tastes are finally growing up!

It must also be noted that I failed miserably in my attempts to create sushi.

Maren's preschool Valentine party



Notice the creepy baby in the background.

  

We have an EIGHT year old in the house!  I love this girl and I am so glad she is ours!

Valentine's party at Grandma and Grandpa Hazard's house

The first run of the day.  Picture a sweet little girl bouncing up the sledding hill excitedly trying to catch up to her dad.  Now enter the other cute child excited to go down her first run.  When these two desires collided this was the result.  Maren hit square on by an inner tube which caused her little body to be flipped completely over into a back bend while trapping her face flat in the snow as the tube continued down the hill.  This was one of the worst things I have witnessed as a parent.  I hope to never repeat any kind of experience like it! Thankfully, there were no permanent injuries and she took it like a champ (although she did spend the rest of the sledding trip in the car recovering).

Me: Jackson- Where are you? It's time to go. Put your shoes on.

       I enter Jackson's room to find him laying face-down on the floor.

Jackson: I can't get up...I'm too busy obsessing over the weight of life's problems.

Too much "Inside Out?" I think so.

A random picture of Jack. He filled this bucket up with water and then sat in it as his "swimming pool." All was fun and games until he couldn't get out again. I finally had to turn him upside-down and shake him out. He didn't like that much.

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On Saturday we went to the annual Spokane boat show. For the record, I really like these sales shows- Cars, RVs, motorcycles, boats, outdoor stuff...whatever. It's not like we're actually going to buy anything (except for maybe some food), but it is fun to window shop and it gets us outside of the house.

Rachel and Lindsey in a nice cabin cruiser. One day we'll have one like this (but not really...it costs more than our house).

This is us on the island we're not going to visit with the boat we aren't going to have.

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On Sunday we had a Hazard Family Super Bowl party. Honestly, it was pretty cool. Our kids chose teams and made signs to support them. We got to pig out on junk food. We saw some pretty funny commercials. We even watched a little bit of football. The kids watched almost the whole game before getting bored and going downstairs.

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Maren is officially four years old now. She is lucky because she gets a lot of different parties- a family party that took place this week, a pre-school party, a friends party, and maybe even a little celebration when we go visit Grandma and Grandpa this weekend. She deserves it. Maren has an extremely likable personality and is just fun to be around...usually. She tells great jokes and stories that all end with the main characters dying (she'll make a great tragedian one day). She gets up earlier than the other kids to spend time with me. She is outgoing and funny and at an age where she can still pull off "cute" pretty darn well. That's My Maren. Happy Birthday!

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Here's a few more random pictures:

Evelyn's Reader's Theater

Our kids are so excited for summer they put on their swimming suits and created a water slide. Yes, that is snow next to them.

A child? Nope. That would be Rachel. I don't think she likes the edges.

The Theatre

Those who know me well know that I love live theater- especially the big Broadway variety with show-stopping musical performances and insightful, literary plotlines. I will attend pretty much any chance I get, and consider myself lucky to have lived in places where there are ample opportunities for such entertainment. There is also something magical about the stage with actors in costume, and watching a drama unfold right there in front of you in real-time; a scripted drama, sure, but meaningful nonetheless for the simple fact that no two performances are ever exactly alike. For all these reasons and more, it is rare for me not to be thoroughly entertained by a show.

Every once in a while though, a production will fail to strike that chord with me, and I walk away feeling a little bit cheated. Sometimes this is predictable, such as when we take chances on little-known shows played by actors with emerging talent (other times however, these are the best kind). What I didn’t expect though, was that I would feel this way after watching the show that swept the Tony awards, won a Grammy, was hailed by the New York Times as “the best musical of the century,” and has earned an ongoing spot on Broadway for the last five years running.

So what was it about The Book of Mormon Musical that got to me so much? The answer, really, is that I just didn’t like it. The humor was too raw and abrasive for my tastes. Oh, there were plenty of times that I laughed out loud, and the song and dance numbers were some of the best I have ever seen. Additionally, I think that people who see the show as a skewer to the Mormon religion or to any other specific group of people are probably missing the point entirely (or have not seen it). Also, like any act worthy of Broadway, there were moments of poignancy and deeper themes to consider- gems hidden (or not so hidden) throughout the storyline that cause a person to think about things in a new way. In this case, I think the writers make an important commentary on the nature of religious faith, believe it or not, in a really good and charitable way. They also tell a touching coming-of-age story including themes of emotional and spiritual maturity that, for many people, will hit very close to home. It did for me. There really was a lot to like here. But in the end, for me, it just wasn’t enough. The whole thing felt tainted in a negative way by the gratuitous use of sexual and scatological references that, even for the makers of South Park, were way over the top. Like I told Rachel, it seemed like a good idea somehow ended up in the hands of a bunch of sixth graders with an expanded vocabulary. It was rather disappointing.

Anyway, I am still glad that I saw it, and even though the night wasn’t “magical,” it is always fun to dress up and go out with Rachel on a date and eat good food and have good conversations, and then come home to sleeping children. That is magic enough to make any night extremely worthwhile.

New Bike

If you know Rachel well (or even if you’re just a casual acquaintance), then you may know that she loves riding her bike. Last year she started participating in races, and this weekend she finally went all-in and bought herself a brand new road bike. It’s a nice one too, apparently. It has an all-carbon frame and fancy components…yeah, I’m not really a bike guy, so I can’t really say much more. You’ll have to ask her for details. All I know is that it weighs about as much as my running shoes do, and costs about as much as a nice electric guitar. It’s a fun bike to ride.

Getting her new bike was also the entire focus of our day on Saturday. See, we have a lot of bike shops around here, but Rachel is too cool for that. Instead of just going down the street like I probably would have done, we had to load all the kids in the car and drive 6 hours to a little-known shop in some out-of-the-way place in Washington (round trip, including one flat tire, one unintentional detour, and one stop at Little Caesars for pizza). To her credit, she got it for like $600 cheaper than she could at the local places, and we actually had a lot of fun in the car, so I guess the trip was well worth it. I am glad our kids are good travelers.

Now I just have to get myself in good enough shape to keep up with her on my mountain bike. Not likely!

These pictures were taken on a walk I went on with the kids while Rachel was in the bike shop. If you look closely, you will notice that Maren only has one shoe on. This was her fashion statement and she insisted on it. Whatever.

Rachel with her new bike

Invent Idaho

A few weeks ago on this blog I threw a minor tantrum about Evelyn’s school project, Invent Idaho. I talked about how the expectations on these 2^nd graders were way higher than what they could actually do on their own, and how much time the project took on the part of the parents. I haven’t changed my mind either- I still think this project is better suited to older kids. What I have to say though, is that Evelyn is totally rocking it. Her project won for her school and went to Regionals last week. It won there too, and is now headed to the state tournament in Moscow. I am very proud of her. Even though Rachel and I supported her and helped her with a lot of stuff along the way, she is the one who had all the ideas and who did all of the work.

For those who are curious, her invention is a “Rattle Stopper.” It is basically a bungee cord with c-clamps on the end instead of hooks, and she uses it to hold down a part of our BBQ grill that rattles in the wind and keeps her up at night. It is incredibly simple, but I guess sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.

Here is Evelyn’s advertisement for her product:

Evelyn Hazard #8

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

The Rattle Stopper

The name of my invention is the Rattle Stopper.

I think the Rattle Stopper is great for many reasons,so you should buy it.

One reason is it does not cost much! It only costs $5.99!

Another reason is the clips come in colors!

Colors like orange, green,purple, and black.

Finally,the Rattle Stopper makes a shape.

The shape it makes is a rainbow

Now you know why the rattle

Stopper is the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a completely random picture of Lindsey. There is no story associated with it, but I figured it had been a while since she made an appearance on our blog. Isn't she cute? 

The End. Have a nice week!