Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Congratulations!


lar in middle (yes, i know we look alike)

lar on left (if you were wondering) with Bob.

lar on left again



I would like to give a shout out to my big sister Lara. She has sucessfully completed all the required work for her Masters in Criminal Justice. It's been a long road, but she's all done.






Ode to Lar


Since I was little, always there for me and wanting to help
(especially in this one bar in aspen, CO)
Incredibly unselfish and generous
Ridiculously hardworking
Full of energy (even when everybody else is asleep)
Lots of fun (especially on car trips)
Full of good advice (on clothes and boys and stuff)
Strong willed, opinionated and independent (all of which I consider very admirable qualities!)
An amazing, creative cook and drink mixer
came to visit me even in Africa
Excellent skier
wonderfully silly when need be (to defuse tension)
and i could go on and on
but most of all, one of my two favourite sisters, and best friends.
I love you Lar. we're so proud of you!
auntie lar with hannah

Sunday, November 25, 2007

pictures, pictures, and more pictures



these are in no particular order. i'm in a rush :-) so, one night we decided to go to a neighbouring town to look at christmas lights. we'd gotten quite a bit of snow, but figured the roads would be ok. we figured wrong. halfway there, we got stuck behind an accident. hannah doesn't like the car in the best of the times, and it's especially bad when we stop. so pretty soon, she starts crying. then screaming. then hyperventilating. i really wanted to take her out, but with the weather, i thought she was safer in her seat. we tried playing catch phrase to pass the time. then it started to smell bad. then really bad. we finally did a u turn right there on the highway. when we got home and took her out, she was covered in poop. covered. her great grandma jan and nana put her right in the sink for bath. good times.

her first time down a slide. patrick broke his wrist (or hand or arm or something) on this when he was little.

great grandpa alvin crisp

i'm not sure david has decided what he wants to be called yet, but i call him the amazing get hannah to sleep person. we didn't hear any crying we just look over and she's asleep. 2 days in a row!



hannah's first snow. (she slept through most of it, as well as through her first thanksgiving .)

brett, jess, patrick and i went fourwheeling. bad idea. it was beyond cold. my toes froze, just like skiing.

brett and jes.

the crisp grandparents. (Hannah's wardrobe in this and all other photos provided by auntie meghan and kennedy. many thanks!)

great grandma jan, hannah's new best friend.



uncle brett, entertainer of the year

the requisite thanksgiving afternoon football watching.

my family

the other side of my family

day after thanksgiving leftovers.





my little aviator baby. she does pretty well on the plane.

greatgrandma loretta and hannah

a great grandpa who can get down on the floor and roll around with hannah!

patrick, david, des, brett, jes

hannah opened her first christmas present and very stereotypically had more fun playing in the wrapping.

we're making good progress on the job front!

Thursday, November 22, 2007

the beautiful people (well, not all of them)




so we've only had one full day with our family in kansas, and we already have so many pictures! so i thought i'd better squeeze in an update here.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

silence!

so, totally uncharacteristic of my life right now, i have peace and quiet. It's sunday am, and here i am, all by myself with my coffee. how's that for strange? i wasted some precious free time already just trying to decide what to do with said time. i know i never write much, just pictures so people far away can see Hannah. So i thought i would.
last night we were getting her ready for bed, and she looked at me, and patrick asked me how i felt when she looked at me like that. I was stumped, because there really are no words to describe. Now I've always been a kid person, especially babies. But i had no idea how much I could love my own. I know it's cliche. But I hardly even like kids any more compared to how much i love my own. i never knew i could love so much. As my mom can attest to, due to many teary phone conversations, i used to be very concerned i wasn't going to love her enough. Due to a surprise pregnancy and a somewhat busy time in our lives, i didn't think i was ready for Hannah, and sometimes had a somewhat ambivalent pregnancy. I just didn't seem as excited as other pregnant women. I was also super protective (perhaps somewhat unhealthily!) of mine and patrick's time together, and resented any intrusion. I thought i could never love someone like I love Patrick. Lo and behold, since the second I looked into that child's eyes, while she was still attached to me, i've been smitten. And much to my surprise, i love her better than Patrick. Not more, that's not what i said. but i wish i could love patrick as well as i love Hannah. So unselfishly, not putting any demands on her to meet my needs. never getting irritated. (and that's a miracle, because she wakes up ALOT). completely rearranging my life and my desires and putting myself last, and be glad to do so. isn't this how i'm supposed to love Patrick? so in the end, i love them both more than i can imagine. my whole life wrapped up in these two bodies, one big and one tiny, sleeping in my bed next to each other. they both teach me how to love. they both love me in return, more than i deserve. Alas, I hear my precious daughter. let me go get her before she wakes up my precious husband.

Friday, November 16, 2007


so, we're back home, and glad to be here. we did, however, have a wonderful and super busy time. i wish we'd have taken more pictures! hannah has now shown off her scooter skills to every body, so she needed a new trick: grabbing her feet. she does it all the time now. i think she has so much fun she forgets to scoot. and yes, she's barebottomed. it's my mom's trick (though i'm sure others do it too). give them a little time each day to air out, and you'll avoid diaper rash. it is kind of like having puppy, though. i have to follower her around with paper towels!

so we've decided to start solid foods. Just kidding. patrick isn't a big fan of our lettuce (apparently i planted it to soon, so it sprouted, and now it's really bitter.), so he gave it to hannah. and she now puts everything in her mouth.

last night was a milestone: she played with a toy. (of course, in her mouth)


so this is how i found her after her (5 min.) nap today. not quite sure how that happened.


almost ready to crawl!

like i said, everything in her mouth. patrick does such a great job of holding her during dinner so i can actually eat with 2 hands and nothing in my lap. i have to say, it is so amusing (in a sweet way) to hear my 110% testosterone filled husband followed EVERY SINGLE WORD with a W. as in toesy woesy. nappy wappy. bathy wathy. you get the point :-) i had to tell him it was starting to get old, though.

so, we lost. but i did have a great time with my family at the panthers game. lar came in from boston, but she was taking the picture.

i know she's unhappy, but i had to get a picture of my cheerleader. i know it doesn't look like it, but she did really well, despite the noise and no nap.

this is the best picture i was able to get, with 3 squirmy little ones. this is my beautiful niece and nephew, kennedy (3) and parker (1). i know it's cliche, but seriously, they grow up so fast. thankfully we'll be seeing them again at christmas.
it was also so great to have lunch with my sisters. and the good Lord made Hannah sleep through the entire thing. i had so much fun, we hadn't done that in a long time. we do miss our family. i'll have pictures soon from the crisp family thanksgiving.

Thursday, November 08, 2007


so i'm not sure where she learned it, but my daughter has an absolute perfect pout. (granted, this is a bad angle, but whatever!) how she gets that lower lip out so far is beyond me.


thanks to grandma jan who brought back this adorable outfit from Europe. it was just in time for chilly (at least as far as we texans are concerned) weather.

she just melts my heart. I get to see this all day! (and all night, sometimes. that's not quite so special. :-)

we have to leave around 7.30 for work, so sometimes she's still asleep and patrick just puts her straight in the car seat. those are the easy mornings!

this is my goodlooking husband in one of the airplanes he hopes to be selling. we're still talking to them, but no definite word yet.

a little big, but maybe she'll grow into it this winter. nothing too exciting going on, just wanted to let you all know how we're doing. she's mobile now. if you put her on the floor, she uses her feet to scoot around on her back. i've thought of strapping a rag to the back of her head so she can mop the floor for me. (hey, start them young, right?) she moves all over the place, until she runs into a wall. kind of like those vacuums that go by themselves. then you turn her around so she can go the other way. this morning i put her on the bathroom floor (moderately clean!) while i took a shower and patrick found her stuck behind the trash can. and she has that baby bald spot on the back of her head, it looks like you ripped off a name tag or something. she talks alot, and she can push herself all the way up on her arms. she also grabs on to everything. she keeps pulling the speaker cord out of the computer, actually.
we (hannah and i) are going to NC this weekend to see my sister for her birthday. then it's almost thanksgiving! hope you are all doing well. we'll get more pictures soon.