so my firstborn turned 4! we just had cake and ice cream with david n des and jan. the big news of the day was hannah's big girl bike, but all those pictures were on des's camera.

 Patrick gave me a wonderful gift basket for doing such a good job having the baby. It had all kinds of neat things in it, new towels, candles, lotion, other things, and, like last time, this amazing chocolate cake mix from williams sonoma, and icing. We used it for Hannah and Patrick's bday. He also remembered to get Caroline's initials engraved on my necklace, to join the rest of the family already there. that was really thoughtful.

 As i've mentioned before, Charlie loves him some dessert! Hannah does too, but she often leaves half on her plate. My son was a much higher sugar tolerance, apparently. And its also much harder to get him to eat his vegetables. we have the most luck while we're preparing the food. like here, they just halved a cucumber and walked around eating it like an apple. But then today, i tried to give him a plate of sliced cucumbers before his sandwich, and he was furious. he's gotten into such a bad habit of refusing to eat, walking around playing, and then just going to bed hungry. he doesnt mind, apparently. but today i decided no more, he needs to actually eat like the rest of us. i had to physically hold him in his chair until he gave up fighting me. while wearing caroline. there's alot of screaming around our house :-)

 i've discovered the wee one will actually take a nap outside. she'll sleep for maybe an hour. as opposed to her 5 min, inside. so as you can imagine, i was excited about it!

 this is also really rare. a happy baby, when she isn't being worn! just chilling with daddy.

 i know the light is bad here, but i wanted you to see her smile!

 so saturday, patrick had to go to work (agriculture doesnt respect our work week!), and he took hannah. Saturday being my cheat day, i decided i wanted biscuits. I really wanted to make and enjoy my breakfast, then get to my long list of saturday chores. i did not want any helpers. but charlie was standing next to me, saying "Big. Helper?" "Big. Helper?" and i thought, i should probably make this a priority. We did it together, and i gave him a pile of dough to make his own. he preferred to mash it with the pastry cutter. All was well and storybook perfect until i put them in the oven. apparently he wanted to eat it right then. I kid you not, he screamed the ENTIRE time they were in the oven. 15 min. He was so angry, I had to hold him away from the oven, or else he'd pull it open. "READY NOW! READY NOW" Over and over again. poor guy. there is only so much i can do to explain why he cant eat them right away. but warm biscuits drizzled with honey makes everything better.

 that's right, we're juicers now. well, the men are. ok, mostly patrick. me, i'd rather just eat my vegetables whole. but if it works for him, i'm all for it.

 2 wks ago we had a sunday school social at a little lake around here. Hannah had her first time on one of those dangerous machines, and patrick had his first time waterskiing. I, unfortunately, had my hands full with my fussybutt baby, and no bathing suit that fit me, so i stayed on the bank. but i definitely will be there next year, because there was tubing too. I love tubing.

 When they mentioned this lake plan, i was really apprehensive about all those kids and water. but i was so impressed by all those daddies and how they played with not only their own, but everybody's. It takes awhile to make friends, but it looks like we'll be here long enough to do so. we're off to a good start, i think. We really enjoy our sunday school class, and being together is crazy with all those kids, but fun!

 Hannah is next to her little friend Emmy, who turned 4 just a few days after Hannah. Her mom, also named Jana, had a baby just a few weeks before me (her fourth). and they just started using the same my fathers world kingergarten curriculum that we're starting.

so last week we were turning off the dirt road from my midwife's house (6 wk postpartum checkup), and we blew a tire. down to the rim, right away. were were nearly 2 hrs away from patricks work, and he only has a pickup anyways. no room for the munchkins. thankfully, the AAA membership we got last summer when i drove to canada alone had yet to expire! they said to wait for a towtruck. But the towtruck only had room for me, not my 3 carseats. eventually we got 2 trucks. hannah and charlie rode by themselves, in the front seat, without carseats. i just kept telling myself, people do this in other countries all the time! Apparently, no men in south central kansas know how to change a tire, because during all that time with my 3 little ones on the side of the highway, not a single person stopped!

 you know those commercials with the dad trying to make an exciting family vacation in the backyard, and the kids wearing their snorkel equipment or something in the baby pool? if you leave the lid off the sandbox and get a good rain, you have a 'beach in a box' right in your backyard. who needs an expensive vacation? :-) (other than me and patrick, that is!)

 the super tasty raspberry mint lemonade patrick and i made for hannah's little birthday party. I peeled the lemons and let them sit (macerate?) in the sugar for a few hours, then poured boiling water over that and let it sit, then strained it, and added ice to that concentrate. then we put raspberries in the blender, added the mint, and presto: restaurant quality!

as part of being more dedicated with preschool, we're doing a craft a week. you might not think that its that hard to do a preschool craft. you'd be surprised! glue, googly eyes, and glitter all over the place. we painted last week (thanks again, brett and jes!), and charlie got to do that for the first time. the question is, what to do with all these things they create?

i think that's enough info from the crisp family for now!

lots of pictures!

 this was July 4th. btw, we had a great time seeing Brett and jes when they were out for the weekend, and i've been waiting to talk about it till i steal some pictures from Des' FB page. we hadn't seem them in a while, and it was so good to spend some time with them. they make such an effort to interact with the kids on their level, and have so much patience for them, its amazing! we had alot of fun!

 another one from the day of her birth, when patrick introduced her to the kids.

 charlie is such a big boy now, he does so many things. one of which is pulling up the stool in the bathroom and washing his hands himself. of course he loves to do this, as often as possible. (translation: dont even bother washing the floor. it'll only look clean for a few hrs). one of his favourite words is "self". as in, i want to do it myself. its a difficult stage, because he cant' actually do alot of it himself. so he's wanting to be more independent, but also quite clingy these days. i think because of the baby. there is just alot of crying still, but less of it is from me :-). he and caroline both do their part! this morning i asked charlie a question, and he said, 'i dont know either.' kind of caught me by surprise. he was just repeating what i often say to him, but it was still in context. he asks what everything is, and where everybody is, so he's stringing some words together. The most common word is still "no". in response to everything. gets kind of old! so he's a whiny butt much of the time these days, but still very sweet.

 as you can see, this is just a random assortment of old pictures.

 i got him his own backpack, because he loved hannah's so much, and so he'd be ready to go to nana and pop pop's when the baby came. such a big boy!

 sisterly bonding.

 the first bath. i think she's only had one more, so far. and they aren't the leisurely, play in the water, try to get her to smile kind. just the hold her up by one arm and splash some soap on her kind. it is different this time :-)

 charlie asks to hold her all the time. he generally lasts about 10 sec before pushing her off. but he has started saying 'done' then waiting for me to take her, instead.

 we have a nearly identical picture, but 4 yrs ago. i have no opinion on which child or parent i think caroline looks like.

 now i know technology has its downfalls, and i would be the first to list them, but i do have to say, there are good things too. this picture was when we were skyping with brett and jes. as you can see, caroline was very excited to see her aunt and uncle for the first time :-). charlie had a blast, too. it was good because we had just seen them, so he rembered.

 finally, i put her in some girl clothes!

 i love the stretch. everytime i take her out of the carrier, there's the stretch. she is doing well, eating and all that. but i think she likes to be held even more than hannah did. charlie would fall asleep in the carrier, then i could put him down and he'd stay sleeping. this child, not so much. so i'm wearing her basically all the time. i dont' mind, but it is hard to do alot of other things, like carry charlie. or change him. or have anybody sit on my lap. i only have 3, and i feel like its still hard to meet everybodys needs. (hence the aforementioned crying). so she eats every 2-3 hrs, very ocassionally takes a nap on the bed, and hangs out in the carrier the rest of the time.

 my mom and sisters sent me this fun balloon bouquet on my birthday. complete with a little pail of hershey kisses tied on. the kids really enjoyed the balloons and the chocolate, i am proud to say, is in the freezer! (most of it)

 charlie still eats mostly cheese, bread, fruit, and plain yogurt. and anything sweet he can get his hands on, like this big bowl of strawberry shortcake.

 doctor is a favorite game. he's old enough for them to play together, but hannah gets frustrated alot when he doesn't do what she tells him to. such a a firstborn! :-)

 but good buds nonetheless.

 hannah participated in vbs this year for the first time. i think she had fun, but still asked to stay home on the last day. it was a cooking theme, hence the hat.

making (and tasting) the birthday cake.

patrick got to fly again this week, back to south dakota.
i want to welcome 2 new babies to the world, alec glenn masson, born to my friends kari and jonathan in senegal, and Mirren Bridget Rosenburgh, my cousin's new daughter in Ottawa. (that would be canada :-). i so wish i could see and hold both of these babies, but so far away!

patrick has 2 great aunts diagnosed with cancer recently, one fixed through surgery, hopefully, and one undergoing treatments for the next little while. (the family is so glad to have david and des closer, they've been a huge support, practically and emotionally, in times like this.) so we've are praying for them. mia and hadley come back on monday, so we'll see what our new routine looks like next week. (to be honest, it'll probably be next month before we have a new routine. for awhile it will just be more like chaos!)