oodles and oodles of christmas pictures

being canadian, we have christmas crackers. not the food, but the little gifts inside a toilet paper roll with the loud popping thing. ok, not a good description. anyways, the tissue paper crowns are very important. lar made all of ours.


this is my nana, and hannah's GiGi. they met for the first time.


we don't have many pictures of patrick. i think he was mostly trying to stay out of the way!


out at the cottage, going for a walk. that's hannah under the blanket.

we went for a sleigh ride. and let me tell you, it was COLD. i'll put up video later.

christmas eve.

hannah enjoying her rocking horse


kennedy and parker on the snowmobile. i ran one of these into a ditch when i wasn't much older than kennedy. that was also the year i played the donkey in the christmas play my sisters and i put on every year. patrick finds that hilarious :-)

gibi lake. you can see the dock and the lawn chairs, so you know it isn't always this cold. this is one of my happy places. while in africa, i went here in my daydreams a million times.

when we first got to the cottage, we kept our coats on. who am i kidding, i kept my coat on the whole time. hannah was obviously not bothered by the weather.

just turn your head sideways to see my handsome man in his snowmobiling suit.

patrick taking me for a spin on the lake


my mom made hannah this beautiful stocking. she makes everybody's stockings. and the first year, the baby can always wear their stocking!

the sleeping cabin mom and bob made from the old shed.


the real cottage, that they've also done a ton of work on. my grandpa built this a long time ago.

meghan and kennedy.

so, i'm in charlotte and patrick's just back in tx for the night to load up the truck. desiree and i are driving down to auburn on monday. unfortunately, it's farther than i thought but still better than longview! patrick had a great time in florida, and is so excited about his new job. i haven't seen him this excited about anything since, well, me, i guess. and that was a really long time ago :-). he has only good things to say about his new colleagues, and is so confident we are where we're supposed to be. i'm off to bed because my little girl has taken to waking up every few hours again. i guess she just doesn't travel well. my next baby, we aren't leaving the house for at least a year!

2 more weeks!!!

due to my lack of time and editing skills, these are in no particular order. this is my baby's good morning smile (as she tries to steal my coffee.) it may have been on this particular morning, maybe not, but i remember looking at her face as she greeted me, gurgling away in her crib, who wouldn't want this beautiful precious little thing? then i remembered the four times she woke me up in the middle of the night, and noticed the four different bodily fluids on her pjs that i had to clean, and thought children definitely are a miracle, that we love them so much!

i will remember this little scrunched up smile face she does until my dying day. kind of reminds me of grandma loretta :-)

hannah and daddy are really getting close these days, especially yesterday. i guess now would me the time to mention that we aren't doing all that well! Thursday, i got sick. violently ill, actually. i went to the hospital, and most people who know me know how i feel about the doctor. i was literally begging for drugs. i think i threw up 20 times in about 6 hrs. anyways, tmi. we were in the er for 5 hrs or so, most of which hannah slept through, but then she was up at 7 am, ready to go. enter my knight in shining armour, mr. patrick crisp. he'd never played nursemaid before, but i must say, he was amazing. brought our relationship to a whole new level, him having to take care of me and hannah all by himself. and wouldn't you know how he gets repaid? yep, he's been in bed all day. karma, my hiney. we're only praying hannah stays well. on the same not, brett has in the er this week, for the same thing, and went home but still isn't better. then desiree broke her arm last night! (and they're coming to tx/al to watch hannah and help us move.) the crisp family is struggling, to be sure.


my time with patrick has been little to none recently, so really we're just posing here. hopefully once we move to auburn and find a babysitter we can start dating again. i miss him!

patrick with hannah and parker. he did a great job, but no, this does not mean we're ready for another one :-).

scary picture of both us, but nonetheless, i finally got to spend time with kennedy, just playing. it was great. i almost think the day after christmas is better than christmas itself. we had fun. at least i did :-)

kissing cousins. we are moving to alabama, right? (no offense to any native alabamians out there. i'm just kidding) parker gives great kisses, it only looks like he's trying to eat you :-)

due to the change in scenery, hannah was up all hours of the night. thankfully my mom (and others) were there to help hold her.




this is a long time ago, at patrick's graduation party. this is wyatt, hannah's boyfriend. they look good together, i think.

my friend leigh (wyatt's mom) decorated this cake we made. she did a great job. because of how busy we were then, i didn't give patrick (and his graduation) nearly the attention it deserved. i am so incredibly proud of him. he worked so hard, with so many responsibilities and distractions, like me, hannah, and working nearly full time. it's been a long hard road here at letourneau, and we are so happy it's over. God has taught us alot, but we are ready to move on!
go patrick!!!!!!!!!!!! you're the man, honey.

and we're back to christmas morning. this beautiful rocking horse was handmade by Bob. we couldn't take it on the plane, my mom's going to bring it later. i have no idea how much time it took. (and he made one for the other kids, too). it was so special. and hannah loved it!

she was interested in the wrapping, but she enjoyed her gifts too.

we did get a family picture, amidst the chaos. my sister's supposed to be sending me pictures, since we didn't take many. and i still haven't gotten around to figuring out the video camera. soon, i promise.
i was going to wait until i got a picture emailed to me (ahem), but instead, you can go to http://jkmassonfrance.blogspot.com, to see me and hannah and aunt kari (not related, just a habit i picked up in the imb). first time in 3 yrs, i've seen my good friends kari and jonathan! they were in the states for christmas, and drove from atlanta to meet us in auburn, and we met them for coffee. thank you so much, guys! i was so excited to see you. next time it needs to be for longer. :-(

so, patrick leaves in one week, then will come back just to load up and drive to auburn. God has really provided for us in these difficult few weeks in between jobs, and we are grateful. however, the sooner we get started, the better! thanks again for checking on us.

technical difficulties

so one last merry christmas, and happy new year from the crisps. i seem to be having problems uploading pictures. not sure what the deal is. i didn't have very many anyways, becaus now that we have our video camera (yeah!) we took mostly video while we were gone. we only had one night at home from Dec 18-Jan 2, so we are glad to be here now. For a few weeks, at least.
We did have a wonderful Christmas in Canada, albeit busy and crazy with all the people. patrick finally had a white (and completely frozen) christmas, and we did all the usual stuff: ice skating, sledding, sleigh ride, snowmobiling, i even tried snowshoeing with my moms fancy shmancy high tech snow shoes. (i sank right through the snow anyways; too many cookies and eggnog, maybe? :-) we even spent a night at the cottage, where patrick helped make holes in the lake to get water, and warmed the seat up in the outhouse for me :-). it was an adventure. My nana and Bob got to meet Hannah, which was fun. right when we were finally getting settled and calmed down we had to leave. then we turned around and went to auburn, where things didnt' go exactly as planned, but c'est la vie. we're learning lessons along the way. we had one house we thought was just perfect, we felt so good about it, and then somebody else's offer got accepted right before (literally hours) we made ours. i was very sad. but we found another one, and are happy and excited. i like the area, and it's much closer to our families. the crisps are coming down to help us move, and i'm going to nc to see my family while patrick spends a week in florida for their annual sales meeting and training (i think). our house is under contract, but not done yet. it seems there are always things that come up.
January 1 we reached the 2 yr. mark in our marriage, and we thank God for his faithfulness thus far. we are excited about the newness of this year, and our move. all the opportunity!
I will post the new adress soon, and more pictures when i can get it to work.