the crisps

2012-01-30T19:45:00.000-08:00

this one we like to call "charlie asher, in his natural environment." i dont do this anymore, but i there have been times in the past that i found it difficult to wake up with the kids, especially charlie. (he's an early riser.) i would shoo them away, hoping they wouldnt wake up caroline, back when she was always in bed with me. they would go downstairs and basically have the run of the house. as i've mentioned, he is a picky eater but loves sugar. so he often wakes up super hungry because he didnt eat supper. on this particular morning, he was stuck up on the counter, and he had to pee. so he did. all over the counter. (not sure where his diaper was. he's potty trained now, but wasnt at the time.) so i came downstairs and this is how i found him. patrick said, and i quote, that's the funniest thing i've ever seen. i begged to differ!

the other day we had a very very special outing: patrick flew us to douglass (just east of wichita), and we had supper with the inlaws. i hadnt flown with patrick in such a long time, and this time was more special than ever before, thinking about where we're going to be flying one day soon. (that would be east africa, if you havent heard! more on that later.) it was also the first time charlie and caroline have flown with daddy. all in all, i was just overwhelmed with the goodness of God. with peace and excitement all in one. there's been a significant chunk of my life now that i completely gave up my dream of going back to africa. and patrick didnt know he'd be flying again. now here we are, our family together, trying to be obedient, in the center of God's will for us, and it just happens to be our dreams coming true. What more could you ask for?

she did pretty well, her ears didnt seem to bother her at all.

what a beautiful sight! i am trying to make better choices than i have in the 8 wks since breaking my foot, i figure i dont have any excuses anymore. so bring on the fruits and vegetables! i'm pretty sure i buy more produce than anyone else in pratt. the cashiers always look at my cart a little funny ;-)

sometimes i still cant believe i live here. the other day patrick asked me to drop him off at "work." he was loading a truck. and the night before he asked me to pick him up at the

we've been doing cereal for a few weeks now, and she likes that. the other day i tried introducing vegetables. green beans. it didnt go over well! every time she took a bite, she screwed up her little face in this grimace, it was really funny. patrick said, jana, you're starting solid food with JARRED baby food? i said dude, if it werent for me, you wouldnt even know people made their own baby food. but yes, things have been a little different with the third. at least we're still nursing, even though its much more of an inconvenience when having to take into consideration the needs of the others as well. and potty training while nursing, wow. that's fun. charlie's doing really well, though. after a few really messy days!

the kids were very blessed (spoiled!) at christmas by our families, as usual. the racetrack is charlie's and the dollhouse hannah's, but they both have fun with both.

this was our first christmas at home, but because of the foot, it was different than it would have been. patrick and i really worked hard together, and it was special. not bad for our first one, i think! we hope to have some of our own traditions. i think patrick making the turkey should be one. he did the most amazing job. really. amazing. (also, we enjoyed cheese ball and crackers with venison summer sausage, earlier in the day. so he has to get a deer every year, for that tradition.) the rest was a simple meal, relatively speaking. it sure took us enough effort, though. alvin and loretta joined us for christmas dinner.

i got this dollhouse off amazon, it was marked down from $100 to $30. pretty sure its because it got such bad reviews from customers, the silly thing comes apart every time they play with it. you do get what you pay for. its still fun, though. except all those little pieces just waiting for the baby to get in her mouth.

my little man loves helping me in the kitchen, and he always borrowed hannah's frilly apron. so i got him his own. he wore it all day.

the boy and his dessert, its something else. he had been wanting a candy cane, so i got him a little one. he kept calling it candy corn. just getting his holidays confused, i guess!

we have lots of exciting things coming up, that really deserve their own post. and since i am uber organized these days, maybe i'll get around to doing it soon :-)

2012-01-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

so we spent the actual christmas day at our house, and i have pictures of that somewhere i'll track down. then after that we went to david and des', and brett and jes came out to. i was nervous about the foot, and the kids not sleeping, and all that. but everybody helped out so much, and was so accomodating, brett and jess shared a room with hannah and charlie! we had such a wonderful special time, and i am so glad we were able to be together.

it was brett's birthday and our anniversary, so Des got us a special cake. it was beautiful!

patrick and i found that staying home for christmas isnt necessarily all its cracked up to be. everything depends on you, its alot of work! and we didnt even have anything big going on. but we worked all day friday and saturday to get ready, then sunday was pretty stressful, and patrick went back to work on monday. and to me, after christmas is the fun part. just eating leftovers, playing with the new toys, and being together. but we didn't have that, so we were really ready to go to the crisps for the weekend! des had to worry about everything, and we just ate and played.

Des had a quilt from a family member that she'd kept for a long time, and she made it into a tree skirt and stockings. It was such a neat idea.

the highlight of the evening, for me at least, was the cowboy and ballerina costumes des got for the kids. she made a tutu and headpiece for hannah.

we actually had pictures done, as a family. i should have more soon.

brett and jes entertained caroline quite a bit, they were practicing! I've been meaning to get a post about this for awhile, they are adopting a baby. everything is done, they're just waiting on God to bring them the right one. even have an adorable nursery all ready.

how can you tell we're in kansas? :-)

des made me, jes, hannah and charlie each our own bag. charlie's has a monkey, and hannah's is pink and has flowers like mine.

they re-enacted that little song hannah did in church, and charlie only knows a few of the words. but he got really into it, it was so funny. you kind of had to be there, but years from now, i hope i can look back at this picture and remember, "i just wanna know just wanna KNOW!"

a nasty christmas surprise

2012-01-05T21:30:00.000-08:00

so this length of time in between posts sets a new record, even for me! but looking back, i wont even know i didn't get around to reporting on events till 6 wks after they happened, right?

unfortunately, deer season came right in the middle of the broken foot saga. so we missed patrick during that week. But it was worth it, now that we have all kinds of good stuff in our freezer!

so one of these days, we had finally gotten around to doing school. (so glad its only preschool, because we've sort of taken an 8 wk hiatus!) and Caroline's rockin the bumbo, on the dining room table. and hannah says, mommy, i think caroline's pooping. oh, ok, i'll get to that in a second, i want to keep doing school. and then i forget. and i love the bumbo, i do, but i tell you what, its the worst possible thing for poopy diapers!

we are still trying to figure out what our christmas traditions are going to be, and so far every year i've made different things. but these were pretty good, i think they might make the list. charlie definitely thought so. but then again, he has more of a sweet tooth than anyone i've ever met. (and i come from a family that appreciates dessert!) You cannot leave this boy alone in a house with sugar, of any kind. in the morning, he will come downstairs before everybody else and just tear into anything that's out. i found about 12 reeses peanut butter cup wrappers on the counter. and he doesnt get sick. i dont know what to do, he's worse than a puppy. the other day they were eating lunch and hannah said, mom, charlie's standing on the table. i thought, surely she's exaggerating. but no, he was standing right in the middle of the table, with his shoes on, pulling on the chandelier. this boy thing is a whole nother world of parenting.

our evil rat king. and patrick has pretty big hands. this story deserves its own post. sticking it in the middle here does not do it justice. long story short, we realized we had a rodent a while ago, and patrick set some mousetraps out. then he tried glue traps. then he tried rat traps. then he tried waiting up, listening for it, then coming with night vision goggles and a sniper rifle. well, you get the picture. at least it was a gauntlet of traps all over the upstairs. but we couldn't put the rat traps out because of the kids. and we didn't want to do poison. but this thing was literally terrorizing us. caroline has been in my room because it was too hard to get around in the middle of the night with the crutches. so patrick has been downstairs, because caroline's been staying in our bed. one night i was coming back from charlie's room, half asleep, in the dark, on crutches, and something runs out across my path, from the bathroom into my bedroom. where my sweet baby girl was sleeping. what was i to do? i didn't want to wake anyone up. i didn't want to go in there, but there was no way i was leaving caroline alone with the thing. so i just went in and eventually fell back asleep. but it would get stuck on the glue traps, then get himself off. repeatedly. and leave sticky tufts of hair all over the place, so we could see where he'd been. and yes, i found some ON MY BED. (Lord, please let that have been during the day!) about this time charlie started talking about the "bunny" in his room. he would gnaw on the doors to the bedrooms, and in the morning there would be literally piles of sawdust on the floor. i just had visions of this demon rodent attempting to bite his way into my childrens rooms. patrick researched online what to do. he stalked it. i would hear it at night, but i'd be too scared to turn the light on. we just could not get it. i told patrick we had to go stay somewhere else. at least move down to the basement, even on crutches. then one morning i was getting dressed, and patrick was in the shower. he was still home, because he was taking me to the hospital to get an xray and see if i could get my cast off. now, you have to understand what our closets looked like. i have clothes in about 5 different sizes, and all seasons. 80% dont fit, so they are in bags, or even just sort of thrown on the floor of the closet. patrick had cleared nearly everything out, when he was setting all those traps. i had mentioned, you know you disturbed his home, he probably went somewhere else. then i saw alot of hair in another piles of clothes, in another little closet next to the big one. (old houses have funny closets.) i called him, but he couldnt hear me and we were late. so i was getting ready to reach into a drawer that had been open. when i SAW MY CLOTHES MOVE. yes. that's what happened. at that point i jumped back onto the bed, as fast as one can jump on crutches, and called patrick again. he comes streaking in (there may have been a towel involved) and i just point to the drawer. sure enough, he sees a long, nasty, disgusting tail. uggghhhhh. i do not handle this well at all. i am near tears. i am near hurling. i want to scream but i dont want to scare him off. patrick tries to shut the drawer to keep him in there, but he jumps out and hides under the bed. yes, the bed that i am on. this is even worse. patrick tells me to just exit the bedroom, but once again, i am on crutches and dont move very quickly and what if the thing runs out towards me and i cant get away from it? hyperventilating. i manage to force myself off the safety of my bed, out of the room. patrick shuts the door and puts towels under it so the thing cannot escape under the door. then its war. i hear banging and cursing and squeaking. i call the hospital and tell them i will be late, under the circumstances. then, as i remember what this thing has put us through every night, i am no longer scared of it. i am angry. i am very angry. i want patrick to let me in so i can help. but i am not much help on crutches. how does one catch and kill a rat? eventually, i believe, he pinned its tail down with none other than my trusty crutch. then squashed it dead with one of the glue traps. it was a most unsettling time, the whole week and a half or so. thank God we have neither seen nor heard any evidence of other such horrible creatures. but then i wanted to sanitize our entire upstairs. every single item of clothing we own, almost, was in piles in the bedroom. nasty, disgusting, hairy, gluey, some chewed through, smelly piles. and once again, i'm on crutches. hannah and i worked very hard to sort it, throw some away, get it down the 2 floors to the laundry, and stayed there basically all day. then when patrick came home he steam cleaned the floors, which had splotches of rat pee all over the place. since patrick works very hard, and i was disabled, we didnt' get cleaned up for a few days. i actually slept in the same sheets. (low maintenance, people, that's what we're going for! :-) I still have to remind Charlie that daddy killed the bunny and it is no longer in his closet. (i guess the thing liked to go back and forth between our closets.) You can all imagine how glad we were to catch this little beast. it was an early christmas present. i wanted to put his head on a stick as a warning!

we were up to other things, as well. for some reason i decided this should be the year we start christmas cards. then i realized i had been waiting until hannah was old enough to help stuff :-). if you didn't get one, please leave a comment with your adress!

my friend sarah invited all our little preschoolers at church over for a cookie making party. it was so sweet of her, she even came to pick us up, since i couldnt drive. the kids had alot of fun.

i wish it werent blurry, but i will still treasure this picture for as long as i live. ever since i've had my first baby, i get teary eyed every single time i see kids (even strangers) up in front, sharing what they have learned about the faith. whether its a baptism, testimonies from a mission trip, kids doing a vbs song, or a christmas program. it is just so special, so amazing, the promise and potential of young people committed to Christ, and what role they will play in the Kingdom. What it must do to the enemy to see these little arrows. so as you can imagine, when it was finally my little girl up there, i just couldnt stop! we almost missed out, though. i got a letter in the mail on thursday from her SS teacher, telling us what time to bring her there, and all that. I hadnt heard anything about it, probably due to my inconsistency with sunday school. (yes, i'm blaming it on the foot. you will notice i blame everything on the foot. unashamedly! :-). but these days i spend most of it in the nursery feeding caroline anyways. so, she brought me a cd of the song, and we practiced it fri/sat, and they "sang" it on sunday. as this was her first time being in front of people, i asked her about being nervous. she said, oh mommy, i dont get nervous, i'm a big kid!" :-)

2011-12-10T21:08:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the disorganized presentation of this particular post. Not that they're usually that organized. But the pictures are just all out of order. So, what a good way to start out, with a recent picture of our sweet Caroline! She just had her 5 mos birthday. (Hannah wanted to have a cake. Can you tell we like cake? :-) She's a chunk at the moment, way bigger than the others at her age. She likes rolling around, and pushes up on her arms pretty well. We love her to pieces, and she's doing great during the day. But bless her heart, she seems to be earnestly trying to make a co-sleeper out of me! Now I'm not against that, whateve works for your family. But Patrick and i like our bed the way it is. Ours. The two of us. Except after an hour of trying to get her back to sleep at night, I cave. Nearly every night. Usually not till early morning, when i know Patrick (poor guy!) will be up soon. She is doing better in the evenings, though, so maybe good nighttime sleep will follow.

We had a special time with Mom and Bob, they were such great sports about the whole broken foot thing and having to wait on me. (Just realized that could be taken two ways. and i mean it both ways. wait for me to catch up, and wait on me hand and foot!) We went to get our tree together, and we managed to make it through the whole thanksgiving weekend, pick out the tree, tie it on the roof, and it started pouring rain.

like i said, out of order. but what a cutie patootie. and also as i previously mentioned, roly poly :-)

Hannah "helping" Daddy as he cuts down our tree. what a guy!

they had this great photo op at the tree farm, but you know how these things go. if you dont, just zoom in a little. after a while, you give up trying to get a good picture and settle for one like this!

so, i attempted to take some christmas pictures of the kids. They co-operated alright, but still we couldn't get everybody looking and smiling at the same time. i think i'm going to have to cave and go to Sears. But really, in my current state, i think its an accomplishment that i even got them all dressed, and even attempted.

I'm curious as to when she's going to grow out of her double chin :-)

we had a wonderful special treat at thanksgiving with a visit from old friends the Larsons. Jeff and Chandra were friends from Frisco, and we hadnt seen them since we moved. We got to meet their daughter Adeline, and they got to meet Caroline.

Thanksgiving Day

Caroline started an extremely fussy pattern while my mom was here, in the evenings. Seeing as how I cant walk, Mom held her ALL THE TIME. Thank you!

My boys enjoying some pizza. Charlie LOVES pizza. He asks for it all the time. And he often says the brand name, I want to go to Pizza Hut! but he says pizza hot instead. its so cute, 20 years from now i hope i remember.

she's a momma's girl! One would think that by now I wouldnt mind letting the baby cry, and she would be really low maintenance because of having to work around everybody else. But for me, at least, it hasnt worked that way. At the beginning I was so concerned that we not develop bad habits, blah blah blah. Now, Hannah still nursed to sleep every night, so it isnt' like I actually did things by the book. But I stressed out that it wasnt by the book. This time around, I always think, its only 1 yr. It will pass so quickly. And then she'll be big and ornery and loud and crazy. I want to spend as much time as I can with this sweet baby, seeing as how she's the last one :-(. I actually want to rock her to sleep every night.

so we started solid food. raw carrots count as solids, right? (i'm kidding :-)

so, i'm doing the best i can, which is not that bad. At least my ability to accomplish things is not that bad. My attitude, now that's a whole nother story. The first week I depended completely on other people. Then i started to take care of myself. Then i started to take care of the kids. I'm getting around pretty well, I think. I just cant carry much. I can put Caroline in my Ergo and carry her around that way, but it really throws me off balance, so i only do that when she's really fussy, and to carry her up and down the stairs. I have a pair of crutches upstairs and downstairs, so i dont have to carry them up and down. Hannah is an absolute miracle worker for me these days, I depend on her so much. She even carries Caroline short distances. She brings my food to the table for me, all kinds of things. Charlie, now he's just totally taking advantage of my cripple state, and my inability to catch him! I must say, I'm gettin some killer arms and shoulders from this little adventure. 10 days till i go back to the doctor, and maybe i'll get it off in time for christmas! Dec 21 is the big day.

2011-11-20T18:51:00.000-08:00

so, the plan was to slow down some when we stopped babysitting. But I still had alot going on, especially at church. And lots of company coming, and the holidays starting, and all kinds of things related to that. So i didn't exactly slow down. i may have gotten busier because I had the freedom(ish) of making commitments during the day. it was on the way to one of these commitments that i got the kids all buckled and realized the keys were still in the house. being late, of course, i ran up the stairs to my back door, trying to take two at a time. alas, that was not to be, and my foot missed a step. i came crashing down in a heap, writhing and moaning. after a few minutes i realized hannah was standing there, and i didn't want to keep scaring her. and after all, we did have that appointment to make! so i decided i could get around ok as long i just kept the weight on my heel, and started hobbling off. carrying the car seat, diaper bag, and everything else, of course. i called the doctor later on to see if maybe i should come in and get it wrapped or looked at or something, maybe some pain medicine. because i did not have time to keep it elevated and iced and all that. we had just started painting the living and dining room, my dad was coming in 2 days, and i'm working (was working) on this big christmas event at church. it was swollen, but not grotesquely, and only a little bruising. Sitting on the couch with patrick that night, i said something along the lines of "i bet i'm going to have to stay off this for a couple days, i should really try to do that."

next morning i make it to the doctor, get xrays, wait for an hour, then she returns with stuff in her hands that does not look very promising. much to my surprise she informed me i actually broke my stupid foot, and much to my intense dismay, i have to be in a cast for 4-5 wks. not even a walking cast. an old school one. on crutches. CRUTCHES! I have never really hurt myself before, so this is a whole new experience for me. she knows i have 3 little children, and so felt the need to impress up on me the importance of not putting any weight on it at all, lest it not heal properly, and then require surgery. i, to be honest, have had a somewhat negative attitude about all this, even though i understand i should be really grateful it was just a little break on some side bone or something, didn't need surgery, and (Lord willing) should be off by christmas. but that isn't whats at the forefront of my mind most of the time.

i'm sure it may seem almost humorous when we look back on it. but at the moment, trying to manage wearing Caroline and maneuvering around on crutches is less than funny. i was going to just move me and caroline to the main floor for awhile, but i'm concerned about very quickly losing any progress i'd made in the post-baby weight loss department. so, i figure hopping up the stairs a few times a day, on one foot, seems to be pretty good exercise! i have to tell you, though, it isn't just the broken foot that hurts. being constantly on one foot really throws everything off balance. Patrick has worked amazingly hard on the house, finishing the painting, getting it ready for company, etc. My mother in law is coming to help, and then my mom will be here soon too. After that, we may get somebody to help out for a few weeks. It will be a memorable holiday season. i'll keep you updated!

2011-11-10T19:23:00.000-08:00

all snuggly!

Caroline got to meet her cousin Reese in Boston. Reese is a few weeks older. They were great buds :-)

my original thought was to make a gastronomic photojournal. but i was too busy eating (and taking care of Caroline) to take many pictures. Our first night we walked around for an hour trying to decide on a restaurant, then ended up going home and ordering pizza. but what pizza it was! fig, pancetta, and ricotta.

walking around the boston commons

the only thing i really wanted to do was go to the farmers market. even in october, there were stalls and stalls of beautiful produce. we just got baked goods and cheese. I've wanted to try fresh mozarella ever since reading Animal Vegetable Miracle (by Barbara Kingsolver). So when i saw this stall, i had to get some. And i mean fresh fresh. They made it that morning. it was SO good.

Lara recently moved into a new apartment. It's a 4th floor walk up (actually maybe 5. dont remember.), but the plus is this amazing roofdeck. Beautiful view, and you even have roofdeck neighbours on the buildings closeby. its just like hanging out in your backyard!

I didn't realize exactly how much i missed my kids until i got home. i felt like i could finally breathe again. they missed caroline quite a bit as well.

flash didnt work, but this is me and my friend sarah after finishing our super intense 5k (j/k), at the Run for Missions in Haviland. We are both avid exercisers, but she is suffering from bad first trimester morning sickness, and i haven't started exercising since Caroline. I actually won this little race last year, and found out i was pregnant the very next day. so i thought it apropos that this is what is kickstarting my exercising again.

we've actually had flurries twice already. The kids are so excited for snow to play in. Especially because its a tradition that we make hot chocolate on the first real snowfall. Last year Charlie was still kind of little to really enjoy the snow, and i had morning sickness pretty bad during the winter, so we're all looking forward to more opportunities. (except for maybe caroline, who will have to sit there bundled up like a snowman and watch us play.)

it's pumpkin bread time! (you think i made enough? sheesh!)

one for the rehearsal dinner, for sure!

as you can see, we havent been up to anything particularly out of the ordinary. but i am in the honeymoon stage with my kids again, since i've had 2 weeks now of just being with them! There was always so much craziness and fighting and messes and crying going on while babysitting, I'd forgotten how much I really do enjoy them, and just their company. I had no idea how much babysitting was stressing me out until we stopped! I feel like every day with my children is a precious gift. Perhaps still postpartum overly emotional, but every day i have a moment or two that i pray, Lord, please dont let me forget this. Burn this in my head and heart, so i can keep it with me forever. Their little voices, their little bodies snuggling at nap time, the funny smart things Hannah says, Charlie's facial expressions, Caroline's sheer baby sweetness. Dont get me wrong, the days are still challenging, but i often wish i could just freeze time right here. Sometimes I hear SAHMs say the day drags. For some reason our days absolutely fly by. I never fit enough in. We have alot to look forward to in the coming months, but i almost dont want to, because it means everyone, especially Caroline, will be getting older. We moved her out of our room, into Charlie's. (He moved in with Hannah). I feel like an empty nester! She's only a few feet away, but its the first step. Sharing a bedroom is not going well at all, Charlie flat out refuses to stay in his bed. He gets up, turns the light on, plays with toys, sits in the rocking chair and reads. No amount of "deterrent" is making any difference. We are open to suggestions from more experienced parents!

2011-10-25T19:56:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Hannah, Caroline and I took Des out for her birthday. The tearoom I found online wasnt exactly what i had envisioned, but we had fun doing a girl thing. Hopefully it'll be a tradition. \

We also went to a pumpkin patch that weekend, and both Hannah and Charlie had their first horse riding experience. I missed it because i was feeding Caroline, as I miss out on much of life during the first year of each baby!

thanks meghan, for the adorable dresses!

she doesnt like tummy time at all. By 4 mos, hannah was scooting herself across the floor on her back. Caroline, not so much. But the doctor did say she was holding her head up really well for her age.

charlie loves. loves! playing outside. he will play outside by himself for as long as you let him. i wish he had more opportunity to interact with the natural world, exploring and destroying and building. right now he just makes a gigantic mess with the sand, but he has such a blast i have a hard time yelling at him.

he just picked up this screwdriver and started "fixing" a chair the other day.

hannah and mia

i've discovered that the easiest way to get kids to eat their vegetables is to have them prepare them with you. my kids always beg me for whatever i'm choppping up, even before its cooked!

yes, its a big girl bed. every stage seems to catch me by surprise. David and Des gave Hannah this bed, that matches her room so well, and Des made this beautiful quilt as well. It makes me sad, but its also special to be able to lay on the bed next to hannah when i'm putting her to bed, instead of kneeling on the hardwood floor next to her!

i cant believe she is old enough for the exersaucer! i had to pad it with blankets so she wouldnt fall over. and she lasted approx 5 min. We've been having a rough time with thrush, the last little while. It can be pretty stubborn, and has made it extremely difficult for Caroline to eat. Poor thing would just latch on, then pull off and cry. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. One day I finally just gave up and used a syringe to feed her. We both got a new medicine, and I started sterilizing the supplementers more, and its getting better.

all in all, we're doing well. Patrick is working long hours these days, we miss him. And I'm pretty sure its mutual! The big news of the day is, I only have 2 more days of babysitting. I was planning on quitting in the spring, but then it worked better for the family that we stop now. So, maybe i'll take more pictures throughout the day :-). I had a wonderful time visiting Lara in Boston, Meghan and Reese were there too. The logistics of 2 little babies on different schedules (or no schedules), and getting around the city with 2 strollers, made for an interesting trip. But we did get to eat alot of great food! And see some beautiful leaves. I did take a few pictures. many thanks to david and des for keeping the kids some, and then to patrick for doing a great job after that. the house was very clean and even smelled good when i came home :-).

in a nutshell

2011-10-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

"We are selfless followers of a self-centered God. We exist for the glory of God, and God exists for the glory of God. The ultimate key to joining together in radical obedience to Christ is found in fostering a humble view of ourselves and a high view of God. For when we see ourselves as completely dependent, utterly desperate children of God who live exclusively for Him, then we will give ourselves in total abandonment to Him for His great purpose in the world: the declaration of His Gospel and the demonstration of His glory to all the peoples of the earth." - Radical Together

2011-09-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

its now 1030, patricks been in bed for 30 min, and i need to head that way as well. but i feel like my life is passing by me at warp speed these days, and unless i document it some how, i wont remember it at all. as if it didn't even happen. charlie has a bad cold right now, and i just came downstairs from rocking him a little extra tonight. he barely fits in my lap anymore, he has to turn sideways. i know its cliche, but i couldn't help thinking, when did my baby turn into a little boy? honestly, the past 5.5 yrs have gotten crazier and crazier. what with 5 moves, babies one after the other, new jobs. the days may drag but i really do look back and wonder how we got here. the particular "here" today is school! we did some preschool books in the spring, but this is for real. a teachers manual, lesson planning, worksheets, little science projects, and everything. I could have a whole blog just on my homeschooling experiences so far (but so many other people have done that :-). A whole list of "i never knews". Such as, i never knew how frustrating it could be to try to teach a little person how to draw an oval. or to differentiate between d and b. or that Y does not say "whuh", even though it sounds like it. So far we really like my fathers world. I drew up a great daily and weekly schedule before we started back babysitting. And i think i've actually followed it one time. We always, however, have story time, as i can do that on the couch feeding the baby. and we always do school, when the toddlers are in bed. As for the other stuff, well, i have alot of great ideas. of course, coming up with ideas never got anybody anywhere. one thing we're doing i'm really excited about is our own little mission awareness moment, once a week. I downloaded a free preschool program (designed for use in churches, i guess) from Wycliffe. It has games, stories, crafts, everything you need. We got an inflatable globe, some coloring books of unreached/unengage peoples, an a-z storybook of bible-less peoples, and we're just learning all kinds of things. the other morning hannah came into our room to wake me up, with her backpack on, packed full. She said she was going to africa to tell people about Jesus. (yes, she's being indoctrinated. no, i'm no ashamed to say it!)

but life is not all serious! we had a great weekend when Lara came to visit, and we celebrated Charlies birthday with her, david and des, and pizza. (that last part really did it for charlie :-). We ordered a little cake (from the grocery store. yes, we cut corners these days. lots of them. i even use paper plates!) and i made the mistake of showing it to him in the morning, as we were leaving for wichita. he got so excited singing happy birthday, and then completely lost it when he realized we werent actually eating the cake right then, at breakfast.

i ordered it over the phone, and mentioned i wanted white icing, instead of the electric blue i've often see for thomas the train cakes. when patrick picked it up, there was a big sticky note on the top: NO COLORED ICING. i smiled when i read meghans blog, about parkers cake. they had a chocolate lego cake, to avoid the food coloring to make a brightly colored lego. i'm not the only one!

as it was day before labor day, i had to wear my white pants, right?! we spent the day in wichita, and by the time we got home that night, we (ok, I) were a little worse for wear. Caroline had had a blow out, (really stands out on the white pants), there was a milk stain on my shirt, all kinds of things. so we get home, unload the car, get the kids to bed, get some supper, crash. the patrick looks over and mentions i'm still wearing the poopy pants. "dont you want to change", he says? seriously? i passed that stage a few years ago. you know how many outfits i'd go through if a little poop/snot/dirt/milk/food on my clothes bothered me? :-) i'm doing good if i put it in the laundry at night instead of trying to get by with wearing it the next day. (emergency intervention: mommy makeover!)

similar to above perspective: didnt bring bathing suits, but find one of these nifty fountains? oh well. just strip them down and let em play anyways!

we havent made it out to haviland much since the baby came, she still cries alot, and wants to be either eating or sleeping. but there have been a few bonding moments.

the boy LOVES his dessert.

one of the things i have always associated with my sister is great food! all those years working in fine dining establishments, she's learned alot. she can no longer get me free food, now that she sells luxury condos. (too bad i'm not currently in the market for a luxury condo, i bet i could get a deal :-). but she can make it for me! pan seared ahi tuna, warm soba noodles with sauteed red pepper, and cucumber miso salad. it was amazing. all the more so because of its rarity in my current hometown.

we are at a monumental place: we've lived in pratt longer than we've lived anywhere. we noticed this when we spent our second saturday at "western fun day." i remember thinking last year, wow, my kids would be seriously easy to please if we stayed living here. western fun day definitely falls under the simple pleasures category, but they did indeed have fun. (charlie's sportin an uncle brett style here :-)

hummmmm, do you think i could rig up one of these in the basement?

panning for gold

fishing

ok, so her head seems kind of funny shaped. but so so so cute! she started laughing, a few weeks ago.

this is my boy right here, no mistaking it. as i've mentioned, patrick and i have no qualms about imparting to our children certain values. One of which, what it means to be a boy or a girl. no worries with these kids! i can see the differences in charlie so strongly, already. he needs to be interacting with the natural environment, and have the opportunity to throw his little weight around. i think most of his acting out can be traced back to a natural desire to just be a boy. poor guy, stuck with 5 females!

patrick noticed this little apple tree in haviland, and found out the owner lets anybody come pick it. so pick we did! this was patricks first apple picking experience. I so wished i could import the crisp fall air, the apple cider, and the cake donuts that i associate with apple picking. now we have to figure out something to do with all these apples.

this is a horrible picture, i realize that. but it made the cut because it was a momentous occasion in the crisp family. we went out for dinner, all 5 of us, and had fun. actually laughed and had fun with each other and the kids. now we've had dinners out that were fine, no kids running away or fights with the spouse. but this was really fun. i guess they're getting old enough for that. the highlight was sharing a molten chocolate cake. patrick and charlie actually fought over the last bite.

cooler weather has finally come, and we are so grateful. life with caroline is getting marginally easier, i think i'm figuring her out a little. for the childless out there, i know life with a baby seems like it should be easy. after all, it isn't rocket science. they're hungry, you feed them; they're tired, you put them to sleep. it just doesn't always work that way. we by no means have a schedule, but we do have a routine. she is the best little night time sleeper! the past few days i've actually gotten her to bed at a reasonable time, and she still is only waking up once, around 3 or 4. so she's sleeping from 10-12 hrs, waking up once. i think God knew that as crazy as the days are, i had to sleep. the bottom fell out last week, though, when i got sick. the not even have the energy to read or watch tv but can only manage to lay still in bed sick. thankfully it was the worst on the weekend, so patrick was there. but there was still caroline. he does the other 2, and she's my responsibility. which is fine normally, i dont mind her being completely dependent on me. until i simply want to die in peace, and she's screaming her bloody head off. we survived. but i tell you what, strep throat is not for the faint of heart. i think i got the flu at the same time. its taken me 2 wks to recover. i went in to the doctor after 4 days of feeling like someone was stabbing me through the ears and down my throat everytime i swallowed. she said, well, i know you dont like alot of drugs. . . Which is true. but some people think just because i choose to give birth naturally means i like pain. or i'm at least ok with it. but my opinion is, thats ok because its supposed to happen. that pain doesnt mean anything is wrong. this pain, on the other hand, meant something was desperately wrong. give me medicine! so she did. and i got better!

2011-08-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-08-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

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!)

2011-07-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

Hannah and her friend Mia, one of our babysitting kids. This was awhile ago.

We used to sit out on the porch in the mornings, before it got too hot. We would have story time on the swing. Nobody was able to sit on my lap well before, and they usually still cant now because I wear Caroline alot. But when it cools off (probably november!), we'll get out on the porch again.

one day, after leftover spaghetti, this seemed like the easiet option. he seemed pretty keen on doing it himself.

charlie absolutely loves hannahs old cowboy boots. wears them around the house all the time.

this was Fourth of July. I needed a distraction, so we went into the city. A really nice outdoor shopping area has this big pond, with a fountain and ducks and all that. The kids like going there. There's also a marble slab right there :-). And a barnes and noble. which, that experience is just not the same with kids. how it used to be possible to sit and read a magazine, or browse. not so much anymore. the other day, i drove to wichita to pick up the kids (who had been with david and des). we went into a barnes and noble to feed the baby, and i thought the kids could play at the train table. there was no train table. they stayed to help me, but she wasnt interested then. of course, when she was interested, we were alone. i dont mind nursing in public. but when you're trying to keep the baby under the nursing cover while chasing around 2 others, it gets more complicated. and charlie can only be so patient. sometimes it takes her 45 min to eat. i cant expect him to sit still that long. i guess its a good thing we rarely go anywhere!

on the way home that day, we stopped at texas roadhouse. charlie absolutely loved the peanuts. (you get buckets of peanuts, then crack them and throw the shells on the floor.) patrick and i could hardly keep up with how fast he was eating them. even tried to eat the shells.

Hannah likes to read books to charlie. he's very patient, too.

hard to believe he isn't my baby anymore. :-(

my real baby is much much smaller. and lighter. sometimes i still almost throw her when i pick her up, she seems so light!

we had our first outing with my mom, when she was about a week old. as usual, i've been in no rush to get out more than is necessary. at this stage they take so long to eat, and eat so often, there's a small window of opportunity in between. that, and the heat, and the fact that there really isn't anywhere to go here, has kept us home. but that's ok, we're starting to babysit in 2 wks, so we wont get too bored.

Caroline is doing really really well. I am very grateful. At first i was kind of worried because she would not be put down. even if she was really asleep, she'd wake up when i put her down. but then i started laying her on her stomach on the bed, instead of the bouncy seat or something. and what do you know, she sleeps till i wake her up. (yes, i wake her up. I dont want her to go longer than 3 hrs without eating. Or even 2.) my philosophy is the more she eats during the day, hopefully the less she'll wake up at night. and thats going well too. she has a fussy time in the evening, then goes to bed around when i do, 10.30 or 11. often she'll only wake up once, at 3 or 4. sometimes takes a while to get her back to sleep, but then she'll sleep till the other kids wake up at 7. Its a good schedule for now, and during the day i never put her down in her bed upstairs, she just sleeps where we are. the more noise the better.

there is no way to encapsulate the last 3 wks. it has been, obviously, a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences. super highs, and yes, super lows! It is very different with your 3rd i think, and subsequent ones i would imagine. i love her so much, but i feel like i'm not paying enough attention to anyone. i guess having a family means all paying attention to each other, so i shouldnt feel like its all dependent on me. but i do. (just noticing my keyboard is really sticky. too much multitasking, perhaps? should never eat grapes while working on computer)

so patricks job is going well, keeping him busy. he works for a hay broker in a nearby town, so his commute is about 40 min. thats the biggest downside to the job. also he's supposed to be there by 7. I never knew there was such a thing as a hay broker, you might be thinking. well, you dont live in kansas :-). Somebody has to get the hay from the farmer growing it to the rancher who needs it for his cows. Patrick does the transportation logistics, and other more hands on things at the farm itself. he gets to drive a tractor sometimes :-). and, he got to fly the other day! hopefully more of that soon.

in the midst of me doing the 3 kids by myself and patrick working 13 hr days, our air conditioner started leaking, and flooding part of our basement. unfortunately we didn't know right away, it was in a sort of closed off area. where i had stashed boxes and boxes of baby clothes. we got home after an extremely long day in wichita (my first time out with all 3, the same day i talked about earlier. we also did sams club that day. thanks to david and des, who got me a membership for my birthday. yeah!). Then spent the evening attempting to fix the air conditioner (patrick) and sorting through boxes of molding clothes and washing what was salvageable (me.) That verse about not storing up treasures where moths corrupts and thieves steal? God should have added mold. and He does have a point, I decided. Anyways, at least it still works. We just kept a bucket under it until he could fix it for real. Which he did. because he's super cool like that. rarely do we pay somebody to fix anything. we do have to pull up and replace the floor, but we were planning on doing that anyways. just not exactly now.

so we (I) have had some rough days. It helped so much to have my mom here for awhile, and then for the crisps to take the kids. but i think we'll be ok :-). I cleaned a bathroom yesterday. and dusted and washed windows and everything, actually. made me feel a little better. one thing i haven't done in 3 wks is make supper. but apparently my free ride is over, because tonight i'm making supper.

Sweet Caroline!

2011-07-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

this was on friday, we went to the store together to get food for the midwives. i was actually in labour at the time, but nobody knew. i was just extra crabby! it was the worlds longest labour, i think! sporadic all day, and i finally told patrick at supper time i thought we might be getting somewhere. David and Des came out and stayed at Jan's, and things started picking up around 11 or 12. then all night long i was stuck at the 15 min apart stage. i was texting with lar the whole night, apparently she couldnt sleep either. it was memorable! they picked up the kids around 8 the next morning, and then patrick and i went downstairs to the basement to focus. around 10 the midwives got there, and Caroline Joy came in to the world at 12.01 pm. 8 lbs, 6 oz, 19 3/4 in long. this birth was definitely very different from the rest. super long first stage, super short second stage. that's the abbreviated birth story :-). There was more bleeding than usual, but nothing our capable midwives couldn't handle. Just gave me more of an excuse for everybody to wait on me for the next week :-)
which they have!

our very first hug

patrick cutting the cord.

all dried off and warmed up.

love at first sight

I make no apologies for it taking me a week to do this, i've been spending time with my baby or my other 2 babies! thank you so much my wonderful husband for your support and encouragement, and my special gift basket! thank you david and des for taking the kids so patrick and i could just worry about me and the baby. thank you mom for coming and doing, well, everything.
we will not have as many pictures this time around, but we do have, i'll try to share. things are going well, i would say perfectly, except i cant sleep. she is a perfect baby so far, eats and sleeps like a champ. i, on the other hand, take about 2 hrs to fall asleep regardless of the circumstances. so napping has not been successful, and nighttime is a nightmare, but not because of her. she's just perfect, and the kids have done such a good job with welcoming her into our family. they love to hold her, and have not shown any negative behaviour due to sharing my attention. (of course, there have been so many people around giving them attention. we'll see how it goes when we all get back to everyday life!)

next post, we'll talk about patrick's new job. he started friday, and we're really excited about it!

2011-06-29T14:10:00.001-07:00

Meghan and Chad were blessed with another girl, Reese (yet to be middle named) Fulk. Everybody's doing well. I'll get a picture up soon. Somewhat jealous, even though she was due 4 days before me. Maybe i should plan on 4 days from now then?

2011-06-28T20:31:00.000-07:00

so i am the kind of person who likes to have everything together, everything under control. and while having everything under control, planning out the next thing to have under control. i am sure we will look back on this time in our life and laugh. or maybe just breathe a prayer of thanks we arent there anymore.

so patrick has been at this job since november, and has put alot of effort into the sales side of things. the first little while, there were no contracts, so he was on the road marketing nearly all the time. He hired and trained a new operator, and got 2 of the 4 trucks into decent working condition. All the networking has paid off, and July was all ready to be the busiest month they've ever had. However, in the past few weeks, the trucks have had nearly everything go wrong that could possibly go wrong. And last week, one of his operators quit on him. Right in the middle of a job. Patrick has been working harder than I've ever seen, and mostly physical labor, picking up the slack, while also doing the operations manager job, and dealing with equipment failures all over the place, some quite serious. just today, one of the 2 working trucks "blew up" (whatever that means) and is completely out of commission. But they're completely booked up with contracts, so he has to find another truck. and another operator, so he can get back to sales and managing. And did i mention that we're regularly having days in the 100s? and this hydrovac excavation thing is outside? and you have to wear jeans, gloves, and supposedly a suit overtop? except today he took it off because it was just too hot and you should have seen him when he came home. (I thank God every day for the uniform company. i dont do any of his wash!)

Then there's me. I may be the only 3rd time pregnant woman who actually reads things like babycenter.com, because its fairly useless advice at this point. apparently, the experts want you to relax, take naps, and exercise. well, thats wonderful, if being pregnant is your only role in life. for the rest of us, we dont relax or rest, so we dont have energy to exercise. and if we try to take naps, our lively 3 yr olds prevent us from doing so, and then we can only get through the rest of the day by eating oreos, and hiding it from aforementioned 3 yr old while she eats her cantaloupe. I'm not regretting committing to babysit until 3 days from my due date, because i figured as long as i have my own, whats a few more. but it is twice as much work. and i'm fairly confident that all 4 of them enjoy seeing me try to get up and down off the floor, which is why they make as much mess as they can. throwing food off highchairs, dumping every single toy tub out while i'm trying to do school, etc. And climbing on my lap constantly, elbowing me as much as possible. And another thing everybody says is let things go, you have to lower your expectations of clean house, meals, etc. Well some of us dont enjoy living in a dirty house, and that just adds to the stress. and really, who wants to bring a newborn into a dirty house? I cant sit and relax when my house is either cluttered or actually dirty. and as far as food, take out (even if we had that option here) is far too expensive, and sandwiches and cereal get old, for supper. so there you go, the work load stays the same, no matter how many wks pregnant you are. or how many wks postpartum. i have made some concessions like getting my kids to wear their pyjamas until they actually smell, before putting them in the laundry. child abuse? :-)

there are many things in our lives right now that we want to give ourselves too. patrick recently became co-ordinator of our church's mens ministry, which is basically starting from the ground up. i have taken on more responsibilities on the missions committee, and i would love to devote more time/energy to that. our wonderful, amazing children definitely deserve all the time and attention we could give them. i recently started teaching violin lessons, and am borrowing one myself from a friend. i actually imagined i would be practicing and getting back into it. and each other. we want to give each other more. right now we're like 2 ships passing. hes been leaving so early in the mornings, i dont see him then. by the time patrick gets home and washes the days dirt off him, i have gotten the kids fed, bathed (yes, i'm still managing to bend down into the bathtub) and into bed and tried to do some chores that i never get around to during the day, we attempt this pathetic youth group side hug (all i can manage right now) and exchange words like "wow, you look tired." "yeah, my back is killing me." "oh, mine too." and then we go to our separate bedrooms, because i am not a good sleeper at the best of times, and this, my friends, is not the best of times.

there"s this 3 syllable word that echoes inside our heads, some days louder than others. VA-CA-TION. or retreat, is really what we'd like, with each other, and then also with the kids. why does it seem like things happen all at the same time? and not just to us. my sister (not the pregnant one) has had 3 huge things, all at one time. i would like to be there for her more. just like she'd like to be here for me. and my mom would like to be here for all of us equally too, but they have so much going on right now. so i'm not trying to say we're the only ones in this boat. i know God doesnt give us more than we can handle, but i dont want to just survive. i want more than just making it through the day. i guess its just the season.

its 10.30, and even though i know i wont fall asleep till 12 or 1, i still need to try. the next few days are going to have much earlier starts than normal, so i need to at least try to be prepared. Thank God for his promise that we only have to worry about the day we're in. If i can learn that, this will be worthwhile!

(dont be surprised if there is no new post for awhile! patrick and i may have run off to mexico. :-)

2011-06-26T07:23:00.001-07:00

so my sister's in labour! we're praying for you meghan! (maybe this will encourage my niece/nephew's cousin to also join the party!)

2011-06-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

i dont have many pictures of the past little while, i just dont get around to taking them. and every day is basically exactly the same. we're definitely in a routine now, i run very few errands, just usually the grocery store on sunday. but for those that care, you can at least see how the kids are growing. and that charlie really needs a haircut!

every morning I do preschool with Hannah and Mia at the kitchen table in the basement while the 3 toddlers play. At least that's the idea. Generally they are climbing up on me, the table, each other, and screeching constantly. I'm hoping the girls will develop really good concentration and focus skills, from having to do school with so many distractions! If they're doing some copying or coloring that doesnt require a teacher, i'll sit on the floor and read or play with the others for a minute. But i tell you what, i dont' know how people have multiples. If i had 3 the same age, all the time, i just might go crazy. or maybe just at the 18 mo - 3 yr old stage.

we dont get to the park much, we have to walk, pushing the double stroller, and its just too hot most days. but we did try it once last week. hannah is really excited that she'll be able to push the new baby on the swing.
(next year!)

the other day, while in hutchinson for my orthodontist appt, i stumbled upon this cool little coffeeshop/bakery/deli place. and it wasn't a chain! i got so nostalgic for boone. i mean, i just didn't expect zucchini flaxseed chai tea donuts here in central ks! we'll have to go back. patrick was so sad he missed it :-)

theres a chance my car may have been overestimating, but not by much. we've only had a few days above 100, most often its in the 90s. i've been in ks 14 mos now, so this was my second wheat harvest. I still identified myself as a city girl, though, with some unintelligent questions. even so, i've learned alot in this place of grain fields and cows.

this is what we've been seeing this month. golden wheat fields and stormy skies. tornado season has been so bad this year for the whole country, i'm so grateful we've been spared. There was extensive hail damage to farms on both sides of patricks family, though. we need to appreciate our farmers more. i could never do it. so much work, and risk, for so little reward. thank a farmer today! (if any of you live near any)

so patrick's been thinking about building a bigger sandbox. i am all about that plan! once you get everybody in there, there isn't much room to play. to most of the sand ends up on the cement/ground around it. patrick has actually been seen vaccuuming the sand up off the grass. (but i do have to say, our lawn looks very nice :-).

this is a picture i have to keep for charlie's wedding. i discovered his hair is long enough for a ponytail. just so you know, he was upset about something else. he actually thought the hair was fun. thats what happens when you have an older sister, i guess.

so we're hanging in there. i never got around to one of those ticker tape things this time, but it's approx 2 wks. Brett and Jess are coming out 4th of July weekend, so one on hand i hope i dont have the baby early or we wont get to see them much. but then there is the issue of not sleeping. thats always the worst part. for me, anyways. in case you're wondering, we dont know what it is, and no, i dont have any hunches. we're settled on a girls name, but not a boys yet. we should probably get on that. suggestions? :-)

summer and crocodiles

2011-06-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

so we, like much of the country, have been "enjoying" august weather already! we are settled into a routine with the extra kids we have every day. Although i haven't been doing nearly as many fun, educational activities as i had intended, we are surviving! the other day we made our own pizzas, which i think they enjoyed.

for some reason we have a plethora of ladybugs in the backyard, and the girls have really taken to them. our first biology project, we've checked out books on ladybugs and i'm wondering how long they could stay in a jar. ideas?

and of course, just throwing the ball is very entertaining at this age. charlie can throw, but catching, not so much.

we also made popsicles, which was fun, except those molds are worth the money, i think. we made ours in plastic cups, with popsicle sticks, and they were so topheavy, the girls couldn't hold them. but it was fun.

last weekend we went to wichita for some relatively easy family fun before we add a nursing infant, which, while a special stage, sure complicates things for awhile. we went to the zoo with david and des, and the kids had alot of fun. then we spent the night at their house, just east of wichita, and the kids slept the whole night!!! thats a huge step for charlie. he, like hannah when she was little, has not been a good traveller. i don't think he's growing out of that stage so much as just feeling more comfortable at their house now. which is great because he will be there for a day or two when the baby comes. the next day we went to their church, and as always it was such a blessing to not only be together, but hear David preach.

the day before, i asked hannah what she wanted to see most, and she said the alligator. i dont' remember if this was an alligator or crocodile, but close enough. how do you tell those apart, anyways?

it. was. hot! i was even trying to get the kids to drink gatorade. by the end of the day i was seriously considering the electric wheelchairs!

there are supposed to be rhinos back there somewhere.

so i do believe we have everything we need for the baby now. if we aren't mentally prepared, at least we will be physically. i got my supplementer out and ordered a few new parts, we have a small stockpile of donated milk already, and the birth supplies came as well. all we need now is a baby!

since, as i already mentioned, even simple things are going to get harder to enjoy, i took the kids to the sprinkler park in our closest "city" of hutchinson. charlie was able to enjoy it so much more than last year. he is growing so much. every few days i hear a new word. they play really well together, and i know they will enjoy sharing a room soon. hannah is flying through her second preschool book, and we're excited about the new things she's learning.
patrick has alot going on as well, now leading a mens bible study, and playing the bass on worship team. i find it difficult to think about anything else other than my intense desire to no longer be pregnant. so, we'll see how the next few weeks go!

better late than never

2011-05-31T11:55:00.000-07:00

i only got half of our easter pictures up, so here are the rest. i realize they're basically all of the same thing, i just couldn't choose. i'm sorry if its boring, but when i go back and look at our blog 20 yrs from now, i wont' mind! so after our big family brunch and easter egg hunt on saturday, we decided not to have more company on sunday afternoon, so it was just us, mom and bob. our sunrise service was moved inside :-(. but thats ok. it ended up being a beautiful day.

thank you guys for making the effort to come and be with us! we loved sharing this most special of all holidays with you again, it meant so much to have you here.

i'm pretty sure charlies saying, uh, mommy, do you know my diaper is so soggy its squishing out my pants?!?

if you've tried to take pictures of multiple children before, you know most of them turn out like this!

its so windy here nearly all the time, you'll lose your easter bonnet if it isn't attached!

so i may even say this, unfortunately, was our best family picture :-). at least we tried!

2011-05-17T20:15:00.000-07:00

so last weekend, i got the most amazing mothers day gift of a day in the big city of wichita, with friends. friends! i can honestly say i don't know if i've ever done that. i've tried to make friends, but when you move so much, stay busy having babies, etc, i just haven't "hung out with friends" much. But this was wonderful. A pedicure (which is a yearly event, approximately!), lunch at jasons deli, and target. all in one day! thank you patrick! and my friends. So, patrick stayed very busy, taking the kids fishing. quite the undertaking. we've decided perhaps ours are a little too young. but i think they had fun!

our temperatures have been all over the place for the last few months, we had 2 days that were upper 90s, 100+. So, we broke out the baby pool. It was fun, getting kind of small for both my kids, though!

this is charlies bathing suit from last year. its 12 mos. i was hoping it might finally fit by now!

bedhead, anyone?

patricks cousin denton graduated from highschool, and they held his party on their farm. only 20 mos, but i tell you what, don't get between a boy and his tractor! :-)

this is my toddler after a long, hot day. ok, it was actually only noon. but it sure seemed like a long day. he just wasn't in a photo op mood!

Things are going well in the Crisp household. We've gotten through 2 full wks of babysitting fulltime, and i feel much more confident than i did. I remember a few years ago when i did my "day in my life" post. i think i felt busy then. its a good thing you grow into things. if you had told me then what my life would look like now. . . Although sometimes I would like to sleep in, stay in our pyjamas at least until 9, my personality does work better being busy and productive. So being forced to be ready for the day by 8 is good, most of the time :-). We're done with breakfast by 8.30, and the kids (there are 5 now) play in the living room while i clean up and do any urgent business. Then we often head out to the porch for story time on the swing. The two big girls and I read, and the 3 toddlers play. We head down to the basement for circle time, get our blanket out and sit on the floor and do silly preschool things that they love. Then the 2 older ones and I sit at the table and work on a few pages out of their books. Well thats the idea, but the other ones always choose then to fuss and squawk and bite each other :-). And also all climb on my (ever shrinking) lap at the same time. But we get through it. Then my youngest charge leaves for the day, and the rest of us eat lunch. During quiet time, I do lunch clean up, get some work done on the computer, and some house work if i'm lucky. After quiet time we do a fun activity like puzzles, games, or painting. Then we often go outside to play, and/or work on supper prep. I do my grocery shopping in the evening now, and housework, well, whenever i can. I am working for 6 more weeks, so hopefully we'll have a really good routine down before the baby.

The midwife is coming for our home visit this Saturday. I dont' know if its because its the third, because we haven't found out what it is, because i simply don't have time to think about it. But i dont' think it seems all that real to me just yet. The pregnancy part does, just not the going to have a new infant in the family part! Patrick is staying very busy, he's been working on the yard every weekend, it looks so good! He crushed his finger between two 70lb boulders in the process of making a border for the flowerbeds, and broke it. There was also quite the gash, so we went and got him stitched up and all that, too. He's getting more involved in choir/worship at our church, and is starting a mens bible study. very exciting. i sort of started teaching someone the violin, too. You know the options must be limited if he asked me: i don't even have one, and i haven't really played in years. but we'll see how it goes.

Kids are doing so well, I know charlie is really growing up because he's started throwing tantrums :-). If i hadn't done this before, I'd be really worried. When he gets so mad that he's arching his back and nearly throwing himself out of my arms. But he's such a sweet boy, and learning words all the time. (Go, car, shoe, boot, hat, cup, ball, cow, down, choo choo, bowl, mommy, daddy, Hannah, Hadley, August are just a few). Hannah is growing in so many different ways as well. She can write most of her letters without help, and numbers as well. She is retaining alot of what I tell her. (preface: remember that we have no problem at all with "brainwashing" our kids. we feel that's actually our purpose as their parents). Today we were talking about my taking maternity leave, to rest. Hannah asked if Daddy was too. I said no, he has to work. She says very seriously, yes, Daddy has to work to make money. Lots of money. To give it all away to other people. (this is something we are recently really trying to practice, not just preach). Then she turns to Mia, the older girl, and says, do you do that too? And Mia says yep, we give all our money away to the people at the bank. I didn't know whether to laugh because it was so cute, or cry because I'm so touched by whats happening in Hannah's little heart!

2011-05-01T19:11:00.000-07:00

Hannah loves school, and enjoys practicing writing. she used her nifty white board to draw some numbers the other day.

we inherited a tiger costume the other day, which the kids love. one of the things i really want to have is a good dress up box. so much fun!

no, we don't actually let her mow the lawn. but anything and everything patrick does, especially outside, she wants to help. it we can have the patience to let them "help", we'll have some great real helpers as they get older!

we enjoyed a surprise visit from Sorani, our old midwife, who attended me with charlie's birth. she happens to be good friends with our current midwife. small world. smaller, actually, because the midwife i'm seeing right now is from the small town where my mom lives, in canada. anyways, sorani was in town visiting, so got to see her. it's part of what makes it so special to me, they really care how we're doing, how the kids are growing, and that she made the effort to stop by. i occasionally talk to my first one, too.

any guesses as to what my son is begging for in this picture?

red peppers. he had a fistful of red pepper strips, and just kept shoving them in. its strange, they'll eat nearly anything if its off the counter, while i'm cooking. put him in the highchair and put it in a bowl and he'll throw it on the floor! he's definitely a very picky eater these days. the other day i left him screaming in his highchair for 45 min, because he refused to eat his carrots. i finally just put him to bed (he fell asleep in the rocking chair :-), and then he ate the carrots happily when he woke up. soooooo stubborn!

but oh so cute! honestly!

the other day, Mom hannah and i headed up to another town for a special girls day. (this is where i go to the orthodontist. also has a starbucks, target, hobby lobby, bookstore, sprinkler park, and a really cute downtown with a few boutique shops and restaurants. alas, we don't live there.) there is also a family children's theatre, and we went to a play on the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Hannah really enjoyed it, keeps asking to go back. she sat still so well. We also visited Patricks Grandpa Alvin in the hospital, where he had to stay for 2 wks, after a throat surgery. but he's home now, and healing.

we topped off our day with special dinner out at chilis. you should have seen hannah's face when she saw the desert we split. that girl loves her chocolate. and that's definitely nature, not nurture! i guess some things get passed down wether you want them to or not. right, mom? :-)

yes, more food. on Good Friday we went up to another town that had an outdoor good friday service. we were a little early, so we got lunch. Its primarily an Amish/Mennonite community, so the restaurant had alot of pie. hannah got her own piece. (it came home in a takeout box and i threw it away yesterday :-)

one of patricks relatives had this overgrown go cart deal in haviland, and he drove the kids around in it. charlie was very serious and cautious the whole time, but then when i took him out he threw a fit and tried to climb back in. he's going to be all boy!

we had fried chicken at grandma jans this weekend, finished off with cherry cobbler. of course charlie would eat nothing but rolls, so he was all about dessert.

i like fried chicken and pie, i really do. but sometimes my tongue wants something different, too :-). i'm getting the inkling that many people think Asian food = soy sauce. i'd like to debunk that myth, as even in my very basic chinese food, i find the above items essential. sesame oil, chili garlic sauce, hoisin, rice vinegar, and ponzu. and yes, i can get all of them here! and that's just chinese food. thai is a whole nother set of flavours. but patrick said we've had enough asian for awhile :-).

i did manage to squeeze in some lettuce wraps, though. messy, but soooooo good. made me want the cheesecake factory. they have the best lettuce wraps there.

i was the only one in the family to enjoy this one, my quinoa broccoli chickpea salad. oh well.

i fnally tried tagine, or my version of it. i made it once with apricots, and once with raisins. pretty good.

charlie's on a cow kick right now. any animal is a cow. i wish i could upload video, so you could hear him emphatically contradict me when i say, no, horse. COW. horse. COW. its pretty funny.

so, tomorrow i start babysitting fulltime. we'll have 2 extra girls all day, and one little boy in the mornings. we'll get into a routine, then i'm taking 6 wks maternity leave. Next year i'll be doing preschool with Hannah and the other big sister. I read a letter to the editor, or a send us your questions thing, in cooking light the other day. The person said, I am a mother of a 2yr old, and i dont have time to make supper. A 2yr old, as in only one child. When i think about two 4yr olds (who i'm trying to homeschool), two 2yr olds, and a nursing infant, i start to hyperventilate just a little. soooo, if you think the bloggings been sporadic thus far, expect it to get worse! we'll see how things go. i'm going to be super duper organized. at least that's the plan :-)

2011-04-25T19:47:00.000-07:00

as i'm sure you've noticed, i haven't been terribly excited about updating the blog recently. mostly, i don't get around to taking pictures. but thankfully, with grandparents around for easter, pictures got taken! mom and bob were here for awhile, and david and des came, with grandma jan, for a wonderful brunch on saturday. we had our easter egg hunt, and a special time doing the resurrection eggs with the kids. it was so special to be with family.

i'm sorry about the squashed pictures, i'm not sure what the problem is. but it makes me look skinnier! :-)

the adult side of the table :-)

this was the first time hannah has ever tried to cut her food. she did alright!

it was amazing to see how much more hannah has picked up about the easter story, even since last year. she absorbs so much, and obviously much of it is beyond her grasp. but every year she'll learn more, and charlie will start too. the opportunity we have as parents to help pass along these truths is so humbling and exciting.

happy easter, everybody. we have a few more pictures from sunday i'll get up soon.

2011-03-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

so i went to CO last weekend to ski, which was interesting. I wasn't worried about getting hurt, I was very careful, but breathing was such a challenge. That, combined with the fact that I have done absolutely no strength training, even very little walking in the past 6 mos, made for less than usual energy on the hill. But it was fun, and, as usual, i sure appreciated the food. there was a french bakery in the little town, which was amazing! croissants, baguettes, panini, crepes. so good.

i know food at ski resorts is expensive. but i still nearly choked when my lunch here rang up to $10.07.

david and des watched the kids for a few days while i was gone. thank you very much! i was a little concerned how charlie would do with the sleeping, but it wasn't too bad. they sent me this picture, above, on my phone. getting him all ready to help with the baby!

the kids definitely liked patrick betther than me by the time i got home! the next day they kept asking for him. charlie really says daddy well now.

just playing in the playroom, with one of our babysitting friends.

hannah loves to "write" her name. its fun to see the different stages she is going through in the learning process. i think there are a few extra letters in there, but it's recognizable! (to me :-)

patrick, david, and a few friends of patrick's went on a fishing trip this week. only one night/day, but he had fun. it was in OK, and apparently really pretty. They were after paddlefish, which I had never heard of before. But we have a huge bag in our freezer, so I hope it's good!

i guess you can't see, but the sign for one of these runs was called "high anxiety." i did not take that one. there was nother called "bag of bones." really, where do they come up with this? i preferred frosty's freeway. which was also a black, just for the record. but happier :-)

yes, those are runs. no, i did do them. and my dad and lar graciously stayed with me.

Believe it or not, it snowed this afternoon in KS. didn't stay, of course. we are doing well, baby is fine, as far as we know. charlie seems so old these days, he's just talking so much. can't understand much, but he knows what he wants. hannah is such a good helper when i'm babysitting, and enjoys the other kids. charlie isn't thrilled about sharing my lap, but i guess it's good for him. we are starting to look to easter, mom and bob will be coming to visit. hope it warms up soon!

rolls and roles (warning: soapbox moment)

2011-03-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

So the other day I made these rolls. Dinner rolls are my nemesis, as Patrick put it. I've tried a few times, no more than 3 or 4, and I've failed every time. Sometimes a miserable, inedible failure, sometimes just not as good as say, the freezer kind. These looked amazing, but it was downhill from there. but I was encouraged enough to give it another try without worrying i'd be wasting all the ingredients.

Fast forward a few days. I had really been needing to clean out the fridge. The fridge (and microwave) is one of those things I just don't get around to on an incredibly regular basis. it's enough of a struggle to keep the floors and counters washed. but the fridge really needed it. I'd been talking it up for a few days too, and Hannah really wanted to clean that fridge! So we finally got around to it, and she helped take food out so i could wash, then dry the shelves before putting the food back. it took about 3 min of this before she told me "it wasn't that much fun" and was going to go to do something else. Now at this point, many of you may gasp in horror and be tempted to call social services on me, but I requested that she stay anyways and continue helping me, until we finished our task. (I understand she's a child and her job is to play and learn, but in my opinion this fell in the learning category. not learning how to clean the fridge, but learning how to focus on a task, and finish it.) believe me, she gets plenty of time to just play! She asked why she needed to do it when she didn't want to, and i said something about how we each have our roles in the family, and that's why we need and value each other, and at the moment her role was to help me with this.

anyways, she (in a wonderfully mature way that i could stand to imitate sometimes) was fine with this plan. After a minute of silence, she said with the excitement of only a child who has just learned something new and wants to teach you too, "Mommy! there are 2 kinds of roles. The kind you eat, and the kind you do." This, in a nutshell (ok, a fairly large nutshell. maybe more of a can of assorted nuts), is why I've chosen to stay home with my kids. and to continue to, for quite a while.

There is so much Patrick and I want to teach them, not just academically but about rolls and roles and so much more. (most days, in regards to those 2 specific things, i can probably just say, don't copy me, and she'd learn her lesson :-). And i want to be there when she makes a new discovery. Not to say that we are all they need, or they don't also benefit immensely from spending time with others, mostly family members at this age. nobody cares about those teachable moments quite as much as patrick and i do. we may not be the most qualified, but God gave them to us anyways, and we are so humbled and thankful to be their parents. i know this is cliche, but my time with them is so precious, i honestly do think it will take all 18 of their years at home. I know this doesn't mean much to anybody else, but really, in 20 years, you won't be re-reading my blog, i will. and maybe Hannah will. and i want her to know how proud i was of her, and how i never regretted a moment i spent with my children.

friends or strangers?

2011-03-13T19:43:00.000-07:00

Hannah is getting to the age where we needed to have the stranger conversation. Especially before we travelled through the airport last week, i wanted to make sure she was reminded about people talking to her she doesn't know. That's difficult to avoid, as many people do offer to help when i'm by myself travelling, and many people do like children. But nevertheless, we set some ground rules. So you can imagine she was somewhat confused when I approached people along the way we didn't "know."

In the Atlanta airport, there is an older Ethiopian woman who works in one of the terminal food courts. 3 yrs ago Hannah and I passed through there, we got stuck for 8 hrs. She was such a help to me, and every time we have the opportunity, we see her. Patrick has also stopped by, in my place. It means so much to her that we've made the effort to do that. She was just thrilled, and hugged me and the kids repeatedly, expressing excitement about the new one. Like many immigrants, if there's one Senegalese, there's probably more. The Atlanta Bread Company in the airport has always had Senegalese workers, and this time was no exception. I hadn't met these ones yet, but we talked anyways. There's another Senegalese man who works in a Dean and Deluca in Charlotte, and I met him a few years ago. He always tells me to come by and see his family, that his wife will cook for me.

While in the airport, I saw a group of people looking lost. A man and 2 women, both wearing pagnes, or wrap skirts in bright, colorful fabrics. As we were waiting for the elevator, they stopped in front of me, one woman unwrapping her skirt and retying, but still discreetly, however they manage to do that! It made me so nostalgic. I knew they weren't Senegalese so I didn't approach them, but the man tried to get my attention to ask how to get to the baggage claim. I found it for him, then asked where they were from. Like every immigrant does, he told me Arizona or some such place, until I asked where he was from originally. He said the Congo, and I told him why I was asking. His entire countenance and demeanor completely changed. His face broke into this huge smile, he grabbed my hand and made a traditional african handshake, introduced me to his companions, and asked after my family. I expressed regret that we needed to get to our next plane, and after enthusiastically wishing God's blessing on me, we went on our separate ways.

Hannah could tell there was something different between me and this "stranger." She was concerned that I was acting so friendly to someone I'd never met before. I got down to her level to look in her 3 yr old eyes and wondered how i can communicate these important truths to her. What makes a friend? How important that handshake was to that man. How important it is to go out of your way to help people who are new to our country, who can't read signs or the money or anything. How so many people have helped me in so many countries. And what it means to someone to establish a connection with them, no matter how small, when they are in such a situation. I can never imagine what those folks have been through before they left their country, or how they made it to mine. I wish I could have done more for them. But maybe it didn't happen for them, maybe it happened for my little girl to start seeing opportunities, and start learning more about the big world in which she lives, and what she can do to be a part of it, to love the people in it.

In looking for a picture to illustrate my rambling story, i stumbled upon this interesting blogpost. if you have any connection to africa, you should definitely read it. i just copied this one paragraph, which i thought was funny and very apt!

http://awoliam.blogspot.com/2009/12/guide-to-african-handshake.html

"If you aren’t good at, or are in any way averse to, shaking hands then perhaps Africa isn’t for you. If you have a fear of regular and repeated hand contact with complete strangers, stay clear. It’s not only the plentiful quantity; the sheer number of handshake variations can lead to confusion and an awkward beginning. Like dancing, if you don’t know the moves, you’ll end up uncoordinatedly fumbling and fondling rather than achieving the desired, well timed embrace. . .

If you’re a computer game-player, perhaps it would help to think of it as a “combo” of smaller handshakes, resulting in a more effective, killer, finishing-move handshake! POW: FRIENDS NOW!"

2011-03-02T20:00:00.000-08:00

charlie is getting so big! apparently he still thought he could fit in the dolly high chair. he's a little jekyl and mr. hyde, though. such a charmer lots of the time, waving and smiling and laughing, hugs and kisses. everybody loves him. and then. . . . the early terrible 2 comes out! he's a thrower; if you offer him something he doesn't want, he won't just refuse, or push it away, he'll take it and throw it violently on the floor. the messier the better. today he dumped the entire box of cheerios on the floor. he loves to put things in the trashcan. and loves loves to play in the dishwasher. he likes to put his own things in it, and then shut it. if you try to prevent him from shutting it, he gets very very angry. so feisty! he also likes to sit in a regular chair now, at the table. i know i shouldn't cave on things like this, but this morning i let him sit in a chair. the table was absolutely covered with yogurt. but at least he ate, i guess. he's definitely mimicking words, daddy, hat, poop, ball, bed. he and hannah are big enough to roughhouse now, it's so fun to see them playing together.

in charlotte next week, we walked downtown for a little while. it was sort of cold, just because we weren't prepared, but it was fun. we found croissants, which is something i miss here, not that i ate them alot before. so we had baguette bread, regular and chocolate croissants. charlie apparently liked his!.

my little man, just jumped right on this equipment thing and started operating it! he really enjoyed plaing with parker's fun big boy toys. huge smiles!

it was much easier to get pictures of charlie, because he's slower than hannah. she was tearing around so much with her cousins i couldn't catch up. she learned big kid games like freeze tag, and had a blast.
+

i thought they looked alike, but meghan said it's just the hair. both really blonde.

occasionally i see things here in pratt that not everybody else is used to. such as this truck going through the mcdonalds drive thru. cows and wheat, all over the place. or hay or whatever that is. (you can tell i'm still new here!)

NC was good, eventful. i got some super cute kids clothes (in my opinion) at great prices, thanks to my sister and her consignment sale. i also had a new experience with my first ever ambulance ride. I've been to the ER before in the middle of the night, and i waited forever. i have to tell you, the ambulance is the way to go! they start helping you right away, on the way, and then when you get there you get right in to a room. of course, i still ended up being there for 5 hrs, waiting on the doctor, then test results, but still, it's the way to go! (until you get the insurance bill). i woke up with stabbing pains in my chest, making it nearly impossible to breathe. a few other symptoms later, my dad decided to call in reinforcements, and next thing i know i'm getting an EKG just like i learned in school! they threw around a few options (heart attack, blood clot in lungs, broken rib for no reason) before settling on pneumonia. (I ended up getting an ultrasound, and baby looks good. right on schedule, 4 limbs and all.) so the pneumonia showed up on cat scans, and they sent me home with antibiotics and that was that. my family helped me sooooo much throughout the whole thing. meghan spent the night with the kids at the hotel, where charlie slept approx 1 hr. anyways, when those kinds of things happen and then end up being relatively nothing, it does make you more grateful, instead of taking it for granted. a few days of chest pain and some coughing was all.

we're back in KS, and i had a wonderful surprise to come home to. I'll get a picture soon.

2011-02-14T20:00:00.000-08:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, does that mean a thousand words is just as good as a picture? because we're somewhat short on pictures! It has been an eventful few weeks, but i didn't have the camera out. then i did use it, and misplaced it, so when i really wanted it, i couldn't find it! so Hannah has become quite the artist recently, maybe thanks to brett and jes' christmas present! she can now draw people. or something like it. the one on the right is me, apparently. i mentioned how i don't look very happy. so, we erased my my mouth and she drew me another one. don't i look happy now? what does that say about my general overall countenance? :-)

so last week got off to a bang. monday we had lots of kids, and so it was most unfortunate when Charlie and I started throwing up. What is worse than a toddler being sick, or a busy mother being sick? both at the same time. and i have the worst gag reflex known to mankind. it was not a good day. you know how hard it is to get an 18 mos old to throw up in one place? thankfully we have hardwood. Hannah started to ask us to go upstairs to throw up. oh, gee, how can i accomodate you my dear, the healthy one?

it took me a full 5 days to get back to normal. due to pregnancy, i guess. patrick came home 3 days in a row to me already in bed, waiting for him to take over. and take over he did! what would i do without him? he even made things like fettucine alfredo.

we were going to make a cake together, as a fun activity. but as i ate nothing but toast and applesauce for the week, he was on his own. so he did it himself and decorated it specially for me! so good!

as you may have noticed, the middle of the country has been getting alot of snow. the first round, 2 wks ago, we didn't have much accumulation. (we wouldn't have gone outside anyways, with highs of 10 and windchills below zero!) this time, we got more snow than i've had in my adult life. (not strange, considering i've been in the south, and senegal) unfortunately, it was difficult to summon the energy to get everybody bundled up and outside much. we did one day, just me and hannah. we made snow cream, which was actually really good! 1 gal of snow, 1 c sugar, 1 Tbs vanilla, and enough half and half to make it liquid. then we added cocoa, because we like everything chocolate :-).

so we recovered in time for our valentine's day weekend. saturday david and des were here and we met them for lunch. so nice to be able to do that now that they're close! then we went to a special dinner here in town that a church was putting on as a fundraiser. it was a japanese hibachi grill theme, and really quite authentic. childcare was included in the price of the ticket, so we dropped them off in the nursery. patrick said i looked the nicest i've looked in a long time. which i think was a compliment :-). yet we still didn't take a picture. it was a fun evening.

then sunday we hosted a sunday school fellowship, which for some reason i thought would be fun to do a fondue theme. not a single picture of that either. not the pretty luminaries patrick made for the walkway. not the co-ordinating plates and table runners. not the strawberry cream cheese cupcake tier. not the impromptu picture wall, with everybody's wedding pictures. not the 16 people we had squeezed into our dining room. it was so much fun. at least i thought so. if i picked my head up from my plate, i noticed i was the only one actually using my fondue fork, everyone else just put it on their plate. this was no small undertaking. it was very much a group effort. i drafted 2 friends to help me, and with the 3 of us working very hard, we were ready on time.

fast forward 4 hrs. 11 pm. everbody's gone. i'm standing in the kitchen, surrounded my piles upon piles of mess. the 2 big cooking pots, the 4 cheese pots, the 4 chocolate pots, and everything in between. i have 3 extra kids coming the next day. (patrick offered to help, but he had a really big day today and had to leave early). it all worked out. now tonight i'm working on getting chocolate out of all my white tablecloths!

my children are doing so well, i (we) love them beyond our comprehension. even so, it happened again. for the 3rd time in my life. lying in bed last night, feeling a tiny flicker in my belly, i had a sharp fear: what if i dont' love this one like i love my others? how can I possibly love someone else as much as I love hannah and charlie right now? i remember sitting in barnes and noble with my mom, a few days before charlie came, sobbing because i was worried i was going to resent baby 2 for intruding on my life with baby 1. and before Hannah came, i was convinced i would see her as coming between me and patrick, taking my attention away from him. (which in a way, she does, of course!) but i know better this time. when i look at charlie and hannah, hold them, teach them, laugh with them, i still can never imagine loving anybody as much as i love them. i guess that's part of the miracle. 20 wks today.

this old house (long and descriptive!)

2011-02-01T19:59:00.000-08:00

we had just enough snow to make a snow castle, even though it was mixed with grass and dirt!

so we put charlie at the table for the first time, instead of his highchair, and of course he loved it. thinking he's big stuff. of course, didn't make him eat any better. bread, fruit, a few vegetables, yogurt, and ocassionally peanut butter. i've started giving him a multivitamin. i guess all he's missing is protein, though.

the best kind of story time.

ok, we've been in this house for 7 months, and i should have done this along time ago. actually, i should have had before and after pictures. we were too busy working, i guess. so the kitchen. we did the most work here. patrick took out the old floor and laid this tile himself, along with quarter round. we repainted the cabinets, inside and out. we got new countertops, and had to get appliances because there weren't any. we also repainted the walls. i think we did a good job, but now we're both no longer crazy about our decor! by the time you get aroud to getting something decorated, you don't like it anymore.

the kitchen from other side. it's part modern (stainless steel appliances, dark tile and countertops) and part not (the roosters, our gorgeous wood counter)

this was the laundry room, right off the kitchen. we moved the washer/dryer down to the basement, and made this into a pantry/office. there was already a cabinet above the washer, so we took the doors off and patrick made shelves all the way down. then he built this little desk in to the wall, for my computer. it's perfect, except only super organized people should have an open pantry, i think. mine's usually a disaster! we continued the tile here, and into the entryway, then painted it all the same colour.

the back door. used to have a giant cabinet here, which really took up all the space. since we made the other little room into a pantry, we didn't need the storage space so we took out the cabinet (all this was much harder than it sounds!) and put in this bench, added the coat hooks and baskets, and we've got a great little entryway. we changed the door, as well, it used to be a solid one, but we wanted to be able to see. i still need curtains for it, though

the kitchen has extremely limited counterspace. there was this wallspace free, and i wanted some semblance of an eat in kitchen, so bob built this amazing counter here for us. we love the contrast, yet how it all goes together. hannah will sit here and do some preschool work while i'm doing dishes and charlie's sleeping.

the basement. oh, the basement. this is the room where the wall caved in. obviously not something we could fix ourselves. contractors did the outside of the wall, but patrick did the drywall himself. then we painted again. then we put down new carpet. that wwas half ourselves, half professionals. sometimes you start something thinking it shouldn't be hard, and it doesn't work out that way! we spend alot of time down here babysitting. if we stay in this house for awhile, it will make an amazing school room too.

attached to the playroom, we use this as a nap room or an extra guest room. this room was extremely dark and gloomy, with wood paneling all around. that had to go. i painted it yellow, to match the rest, and we laid new carpet here too. have you ever painted paneling? it's very hard, because the roller wont' work in between the panels. oh, we spent soooo much time in this basment.

so it's a pain to cart all of our laundry up and down 2 flights of stairs, but i have to tell you, it's nice to be able to have piles of laundry around, not in the middle of the kitchen or living room. our deep freezer is here too, and there's also a small bathroom with a tiny shower. that has not been updated, and deserves no pictures!

the basement goes around in a circle. after patrick made our new table, we put this one down here crafts, games, sometimes school.

some of the small details of this house jumped out at us from the beginning, looking at the pictures online. this little bench is right at the front door.

all throughout our house, everywhere i turn, i see evidences of how much people have given us. in bedspreads, furniture, or just remembering how hard they worked to help us. we have some amazing family! this little table in the hall is something my mom had, and she gave to us. there are alot of old houses around here, and the dark wood trim is common. someone had already painted this trim white. some people think it takes away from the character, but i like it brighter. we have quite a bit of work to do here, there are cracks all over the walls from when they braced the foundation.

downstairs bathroom. functions as guest bathroom, as well. this bathtub deserves it's own post. the whole room, actually. we tore up the tile on this floor and patrick laid more. we also stripped the wallpaper, sanded, and painted again. there were numerous broken pipes, all over the house, and i think here is where it started. patrick's spend alot of time in this bathroom! so the tub had been used for something else, i have no idea, it was in horrible shape. at thanksgiving, david helped patrick wash and sand it, then patrick re covered it in bathtub stuff. it was already back in the house by then, and that stuff is strong! we had to go to pizza hut for lunch while it dried. me being pregnant and all :-). the bathtub plumbing was something else, too. that stuff is very expensive, but we found parts here and there, and patrick worked on it forever. it's quite an accomplishment. and i think it adds so much character.

so this is the guestroom, which yes, we painted ourselves. it's quite bright. but it works. patrick had to go through this wall to fix pipes as well, so there were giant spots on the walls that had to be repainted. we didn't want to do it in the same brown.

i know the light's bad, but this is the dining roon. our table fits perfectly.

hananh's room, which should look familiar because nothing in it has really changed in 3.5 yrs! we painted here too. actually i was painting in this room when patrick came upstairs to tell me the wall caved in, and to stop painting because we might not get the house.

this, you can deduce, is charlie's room. i just love how everything came together in his room, the newest addition being this rug david and des had. it works perfectly. and it's so nice to play on a rug instead of the hardwood floor. not sure where baby will go when he comes.

so this is our room, which we painted as well. the closet is terrible, but other than that, i love it. i'm over the yellow, i want to completely redecorate our room. but, we'll probably wait till we move again!

there are windows on both sides, which is great for light, but it gets very very hot in the summer!

and the living room. this brings us to the end of our home tour. thanks for coming! (thanks to david and des for this rug, as well!)

2011-01-19T14:48:00.000-08:00

another random collection of pictures, some before christmas some since. I love candid pictures of my family. we are keeping this piano for a family member who doesn't have room in her house right now. I would love to take piano lessons. maybe i can trade for babysitting. . .

my little superstar. she posed all on her own. actually, did i post this a long time ago? might have. sorry.

charlie still loves to play in the dishwasher. no, i dont' let him. but it's hard to keep him out. he can actually open the door himself. do they make locks for that?

our preschool group had a "happy birthday Jesus" party. they did crafts, and had lots of fun. it was Hannah's first little party.

We had quite a few get togethers before christmas, so the pictures are probably interchangeable. what was memorable about this one, though, is that this is what our table looked like 45 min after designated start time. in the end, we had 2 people come, out of 10 invitations. oh well, lots of leftovers, right?

if we had had a christmas card, this would have been on it!

oh my gosh i love them!

while waiting for our neighbours to come, we had some special family time. charlie wasn't actually asleep, but apparently he was close. perhaps the story was a little over his head :-).

we had our own little christmas before we left for canada, for the kids to open presents from us and family here. grandma jan came, and we had fun!

so, charlie's become quite independent, especially in the eating department. oh my goodness it's so messy. he used to be ok with a spoon, now he's reverted back to his hands. and he loves to put it on his head.

hannah got some neat gifts at christmas, including this huge activity book, centered around a stable. all kinds of crafts, games, stickers. she's had a blast.

these are the pjs my mom made for charlie. they fit him perfectly!

a playdough ice cream factory, also a new addition to our toys. i even have fun with this one. it does make me crave marble slab, though.

so we had a little wintry weather, not too much but enough to play in. i took the kids walking to find enough of a slope to sled down. it was bitterly cold, by anybody's standards. an older gentleman we passed smiled and said, that's what makes a good parent. i smiled politely, but inside thought, my goodness, i wish it were that easy.

we went out the day of and bought a sled and shovel. yes, we were that prepared. hannah really wanted to help shovel.

so i know many people succumb to holiday weight gain. i imagine i'm leading the pack, with 11 lbs. i guess it's ok, though, if my post christmas belly has a heartbeat.

a brief christmas snapshot

2011-01-11T12:54:00.000-08:00

Warning: not for the faint of heart. or weak stomach!
so, we made it up to my mom's (on Gibi Lake, 40 min away from Kenora, Ontario) very uneventfully, thank the Lord. Driving was good for me, actually, because every time we got out along the way, i got a little more used to the cold. It was in the 20s when we left, and it stayed that way the whole time, it wasn't bitterly cold while we were there. we played outside every day. Unfortunately, there was a stomach bug going around, which i always succomb to. (that makes the 3rd time since the summer!). so 21/2 of our four days there, i spent in bed. our family stayed in the little sleeping cabin that mom and bob renovated from a shed, for my Nana, when they moved into the big cabin. it's really cute, 2 rooms, and a bathroom. (no plumbing yet, but it's all set up). it's heated with a wood stove, in the sitting room/bedroom/hannah's room. patrick got quite proficient at making the fire. it does start out quite warm, then gradually cools off. a few nights it was HOT in our cabin. i had been sneaking outside to throw up so i didn't wake anyone else up, and the cold fresh air felt good. but it was so hot that night i stripped down to less than my pyjamas. then all of a sudden i ran outside to throw up again, having forgotten i wasn't properly attired. not that the animals cared, it was just extra chilly that trip. oh, memories.

this is the lake in winter. it felt nearly this cold when we were there in summer, too! :-). we enjoyed the snowmobile, cruising around up and down the road or pulling the kids on the sled. this is patrick and hannah.

deer hunting is easy here!

our little walmart hat held up really well! so did my texas born, southern raised daughter. she had her cousins to help her out, in the snow.

sorry these are out of order. my mom got both older girls a special doll, like american girl but a canadian version. then she and bob made beds, she sewed all the linens, bedskirt and all. then made matching pyjamas and robes for the girls and their dolls. (why i didn't inherit any of that, i'm not sure). Hannah puts her doll to bed every night, beside her.

charlie got some nifty toys, but he was pretty taken with the ribbon. he loves wrapping things around his neck. scares the pee out of me.

hannah's housecoat. i'll never lose her in the dark now!

hannah helping me help charlie open his stocking.

thankfully we got the sleigh ride in after meghan was sick, right before i got sick. parker hung out it the car quite a bit, but hopefully he won't remember! if i were really good at this, i'd have the picture from 3 yrs ago, with hannah a little pnut of a thing, wrapped up in a furniture blanket thing.

charlie did well outside too. this is the best little sled, babies can sit in it and just hang out. of course, he's old enough now he wanted to get out and explore, too.

so this was the view in, well, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, Manitoba, and Ontario. Until we hit the lakes and trees. so beautiful. (chad had great pictures, i'll find some of his)

this was our cabin. very cozy. and extremely comfortable beds! it's right next to the outhouse, if you're into that kind of thing. in the winter. in northern ontario.

now if i were really REALLY good, somehow i'd get the picture of me and my sisters in a tunnel we built in california when i was, oh, 6 or 8 or something. we had an amazing little snowfort. as these kids get bigger, i know their snowforts will too.

so bob amuses himself with the snowmobile, and my mom choooses this. snowshoeing, if it's something you aren't familiar with :-). just like anything else, it's come a long way. on the left are the traditional, the right, i'm sporting the fancy newfangled ones. it was neat, good exercise. there has to be a whole lot of snow to really appreciate snowshoeing, but i liked it. unfortunately i didn't have the energy this trip to try cross country skiing. that's really good exercise.

patrick and i on our romantic snowmobile ride. there are horror stories of snowmobiling on the lake, and finding yourself on open water. so patrick liked to go REALLY fast on the lake. now me, i was moderately concerned with say, flipping over and getting crushed under the very heavy snowmobile. so i liked to plod along. once again, if i could get a picture, it would be of my and my sisters, 6, 8, and almost 10, when we spent christmas out at the cottage as children. my parents got my grandpa a snowmobile for christmas, but told him we'd rented it for our trip. unfortunately, we crashed it before christmas officially came. it survived though, and so did we.

i told my mom even if we didn't get a picture of her and charlie, it was ok, because her snowsuit hasn't changed in quite a while, and the one charlie's sporting has been passed down to 4 kids now. since no face is exposed, you could just exchange one year for another, and nobody would ever know :-).

so the hockey was pretty mellow this year, but i imagine that's also something that will change as the kids get older. and if we can all manage to stay healthy. i didnt' even put skates on :-(.

My Nana got married at Christmas, they eloped :-). Chad had many more pictures i'm going to track down and put up later.

i am so glad we went, even though it's forever away and i was sick most of the time and charlie didnt' sleep at all so he sort of slept in my bed, patrick went to hannah's and hannah to the floor but still we didn't sleep! it's so beautiful, i just need to see it every once in a while. and my children's childhood is turning out so drastically different from my own, it means alot to me to be able to share some experiences with them. poutine being close to the top of the list. (french fries, cheese curds, gravy, and vinegar. yes, vinegar. just trust me.) and i even ate that when i was borderline still sick, just because i had to have it before we crossed back over the border. falling asleep to the sound of the snowplow scraping the road (that was at the hotel en route). tourtiere, buckeyes, rice pudding. but not just food. even things like wet snow gear hung up in front of the fireplace. hannah did great, in the car, and with the sleeping. she's so much easier now. Charlie did well in the car too, but around hr 8 he starts to lose it. and we already covered his sleeping. it's horrible. i can't believe they didn't kick us out of the hotel. so, new years was uneventful, as was our anniversary. (5 yrs - yeah us!). i'm babysitting as much as i can, and patrick's traveling alot, marketing his business. david and des moved here last week, we're going to go see them when they're settled. and for some reason i kept on throwing up, even once i got better. hmmm.. . .

2010-12-22T05:42:00.000-08:00

ok, we're off to canada. almost. the van (old faithful it is not) wouldn't start this morning, of course i can't blame it on her, we are the ones who left the lights on. the battery was so dead we couldn't even jump start it. so, patrick went to buy a new battery. auspicious beginnings!

the long awaited party post (warning: may be time consuming)

2010-12-18T09:03:00.000-08:00

Preparation

I know they don't remember their first birthdays, but i do. i was so excited about charlie's party, i'd been planning it for months. and months. i'd lost so much sleep over menus, invitations, decorations, music. Going to garage sales to get theme decorations. Scouring used cd stores for the right background soundtrack. I don't know why it matters to me, but it does. It's fun. Initially, I wanted to do a whole lunch, traditional picnic food with a twist. Big baskets of fried chicken, biscuits, done family style at long plank tables. Outside. With pony rides after lunch :-). Bobbing for apples, until someone told me people don't do that anymore because it's somewhat questionably hygenic to share the same water like that. Country Living was going to come do a story on it :-). But that would have been waaaaay too expensive and too labor intensive as well. So we settled on an in between meal, and were able to invite more people. Mom and Lar came, and helped so much. I hope we had fun, I did. I know patrick was glad it was finally over!

Above: mom and hannah unwrapping caramels for caramel apples, our take home gift.

i apparently have little control over where i get my pictures and text to go i'm sorry. anyways, hannah is mixing up the poppyseed citrus vinaigrette dressing for the sweet potato salad. There was a ton left over, so i guess this opinion was not shared by all, but i absolutely loved it. i like potato salad ok, but in the end it just tastes like mayonnaise. this had orange juice and poppyseeds and pecans and red onion and all kinds of things. so good!

Lar and I working on the fondant. Here, there are only a few options available: the white, then you mix color in yourself, and i hear that's difficult to get it distributed through evenly. or small packages of various colors, primary or pastel. so, that's why we ended up doing each layer a different color, all patched up at the back. It was alright.

We had quite a few things I wanted to get done around the house/yard, as well. Here, Patrick is digging holes for a new fencepost, and gate. I love seeing Patrick working with the kids, or at least letting them "help." I know charlie will learn so much from him.

We had some regular white cake, and another layer pumpkin with cream cheese filling.

Someone getting curious a little early!

Party

We used alot of animals and stuff from his bedroom on the tables. we already had the sawhorse and planks in the garage. the basket i got at a garage sale for $1. and the fabric at Hobby Lobby for 50c a piece, i think. we also had ham biscuits, herbed devild eggs, and sliced apples and cheese.

Any time you're outside, you're taking alot of chances! it was still very, very warm, first weekend in october. our grass hadn't been planted, so it was dirt everywhere. but i think that contributed to our theme :-). everything kept blowing away, reminding me we are in fact in KS.

I am so thankful my mom and Lar made the effort to come all the way here for such a short time. Having their help, but even more just celebrating with us, is so special to me. Thank you guys!

Post Party

In my opinion, the after party is what it's all about. The post adrenaline rush, kind of like walking out of an exam. But more fun :-). You can relax, eat because you don't have to worry about the guests having enough. have a drink, if you're into that sort of thing.

The tag says thank you for coming. we couldnt' leave them out, because it was so hot they'd all melt. But of course when people start to leave I forget we even have them. So we had a ton left over, and ended up giving them to the neighbours!

"I'm cool and glam like Auntie Lar!"

"Please, no more pictures!"

I love what Charlie's doing here.

Before i had children, i never anticipated how i would feel when i looked at them. Actually, it happens even more when I look at pictures of them. maybe because in pictures they aren't whining or fighting or pooping :-). They just look angelic, to me anyways. I am so thankful God gave me my children, and thank everybody that had a part in celebrating with us, not just then but all through their lives.

happy belated birthday, Charlie!

the new and not at all improved crisp family blog

2010-12-07T20:23:00.000-08:00

alright folks, i have no idea what was wrong with the old page, but blogger, since it's free, i guess, is not in the customer servicce business, so here we are. i might go back and do some from charlie's first birthday, but other than that it'll just be current activities. because there are more than enough of those to choose from! Thanksgiving was wonderful, we saw lots of family, some extended family I'd never met before. We loved having Uncle Brett and Aunt Jess around, they are awesome with my crisplings!

of course these aren't in order. (really, if i came back with some perfectly well written, well designed blog, you wouldn't even believe it was me :-). we got our christmas tree thanksgiving weekend, which i think should be a tradition. patrick actually cut it himself! this was the first of many times charlie tries to get up close and personal with the tree.

i can't decorate the tree without christmas cookies, so hannah and i whipped some up. i tried not to control too much as she decorated the cookies how she wanted. (with nana overseeing)

my mom always gives gifts for each sunday in advent, so we opened the first ones a day early.

this is the cookie girl, right here! i think she ate 6. just that one night.

after our second thanksgiving dinner on friday, there was some target practice going on. i remember 6 yrs ago (i think), my first thanksgiving in haviland, before we were even married, patrick teaching me to shoot in this exact spot. this year he helped Jess. charlie and i just watched :-).

so ever since this summer, hannah loves to pretend she's roasting "mousemellows". here a pile of leaves did the trick.

thank you for going the extra click to our new blog, and i'm sorry for the last few months! Patrick has been working very very hard at his new job. He would like to hire another operator but right now there's only one, so he's sort of doing that job and the manager/sales job. he's often out even after dark, and it's getting fairly chilly here! The kids and I are doing well, we are just starting to babysit more. That, I hope, will keep us busy. or busier. we love our house decorated for christmas, i really will take some pictures. the most recent renovation was getting the clawfoot tub back in the main floor bathroom, Patrick's working on redoing all the old plumbing. more leaks! i'm not sure where's he's picked up all this knowledge, but i'm so proud of him. oh, charlie's walking!!! yeah! we're thrilled. i was done lugging him around :-). he also got 3 teeth all at one time. ok, thanks again for being here. i PROMISE to do better now that i have no excuse!