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.

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.

nanner news and other happenings

so i would like to start off with many thanks to my good friend kari (from Georgia, Cote D'Ivoire, Senegal, France) (http://jkmassonfrance.blogspot.com), the professional. she helped me with my pictures. if you look at kari's blog, it's enough to make you not even want to try yourself. she works, makes all kinds of delicious food from ingredients she picked up at the local market, crochets/knits baby blankets for people like me, reads all kinds of good books, has an amazing blog, communicates well with her friends/family, takes long walks in beautiful places, takes care of a husband in medical school, and always has her nails done. and she does all this while navigating life in a foreign country. i can't actually figure it out. it's a mystery to me. unfortunately i never get to see her. miss you, kari!

i hadn't realized it has been so long since our last post. this here below is part of the reason. maybe our next child will be mellow, for this one is definitely not. it's getting better sometimes, but she still absolutely hates to be set down. and if she's really fussy, she hates to sit still even if you're holding her. i think she may be a child who needs lots of activity. that'll help me get my exercise! (makes those road/plane trips to see family difficult, though!)
she has this expensive, comfortable, soft vibrating music playing chair, but is it enough? of course not! :-)
the other day we made donuts. it was our first time, so we're allowed a few mistakes. which is good, because some of them looked like hockey pucks. patrick decided the holes weren't important. (other than the one i'm holding, they were all hole-less). and i had the oil too high, so they burnt on the outside and were all raw on the inside. raw cookie dough is ok, raw donut batter, not so much. in case you are wondering, no, this isn't exactly part of my post-baby weight loss plan!

so we had to take these pictures for the baby book, and i thought you might like to see them too. lots of work went into the nursery: patrick did numerous paint jobs, my mom sewed the cushions, bob made the footstool, and lar and my mom refinished the dresser. i absolutely love the nursery. we will be sad to leave our little house.
we have lots and lots of lettuce now, and soon broccoli and cabbage. i think my carrots are lost, and the peppers will die with the first frost. but it's fun for now. i'm reading a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver about her family's year of living on only what they grew and what was available locally. They did this to be healthier and lessen their impact on the environment. whether you care about the environment or not, you have to admit fresh food always tastes better. i'd rather only have tomatoes a few months out of the year then to have nasty tomatoes all year round. i'm not as hardcore as they are yet, but i do try to eat what's in season and buy local when i can. also, you should get Deceptively Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld. if you haven't heard about it yet, it's all about sneaking vegetables into your kids's (or husband's :-) food, in purees. I can't wait to try chocolate chip cookies with chickpeas. And brownies with spinach. honestly. :-) since we're on this subject, i'm also reading What your doctor may not tell you about vaccinations and How to raise a healthy child in spite of your doctor. all good, and if you have kids, or even if you don't, you should give them a chance. if you know what you're talking about, you won't believe what everybody else tells you.

so my sweet husband took me out on a date the other night. and i honestly hardly thought about Hannah, that's how charming he was. he brought these beautiful long stem roses, too. it was absolutely wonderful. i hadn't realized how much i missed him. like i said, she's super fussy at night, so monday nights when i go to orchestra are not patrick's favourite time. but this week, he managed to bake a harvest loaf and mulled cider, while watching hannah, for us to enjoy when i got home.
at the end of the day, we're all glad it's the end of the day! (i think this might have been the beginning, but whatever!) as you can tell, she's getting so big! i love her to pieces. she's really smiley sometimes, and she's very vocal. i wish we had a video camera, and i could post a video. she can roll over, but only one way. her legs are super strong, and she can push herself all the way up so her chest is off the floor, when she's on her tummy. she'll be crawling before long! unfortunately, we're sharing this nasty cold right now, so the other night she was up every two hrs. it must be really hard when you can't blow your nose! poor thing, she can't even eat well, because she can't breathe. anyways, moving on. We are excited about how God is leading us, for the spring. graduation is so close we can taste it, and there is a job opportunity that is looking really promising. we'll keep you posted!

We got our pictures back, and it was hard trying to choose which ones to put up here. thanks again to chad, www.photographybychadwick.com.
it was quite the experience, seeing as how she was naked. (translation: no diaper). chad's backdrop suffered a little. she's balding already. looking at these pictures, from a month ago, i can see how much hair she's lost. eyes are still blue, though.

here's our little cheerleader. i think my family has this outfit in 4 sizes now. unfortunately, it obviously hasn't helped the team. the season's still young, right?
i finally made it back to hiway 80 rescue mission, the homeless shelter/halfway house/rehab program that we do every month. this time, we got to bring her with us. it was so wonderful to have her "participating" in ministry as a family. she was even pretty good while we cooked.

so it's a girls weekend right now, with patrick away on business. or business potential. keep him in your prayers, if you think of it. we miss him. oh, who are we kidding? what i really miss is someone else here to hold her sometimes!

cows and smiles

so my little stinker is finally sleeping. this is her first nap all day, and it's 3.30! suggestions, anyone? she's growing like a weed, as they say. i can definitely tell. she spent her first night in the crib in her own room the other day. i felt like she was going off to college. :-( but she's doing good.
we went to the fair the other day, where hannah saw her first cow. i tried to find the smallest one. we also saw tigers, which was a first for the whole family. we wanted to go on the ferris wheel, but they were going to charge for her, even though she's just along for the ride. (get it? i know, i'm stupid)

this is my savior while i take a shower. she usually lasts about 10-15 minutes in it, i put it on the floor in the bathroom. and yes, she's smiling alot these days.

patrick organized a fly-in (people bring their planes and give rides) and barbeque for his fraternity last week, and he's here multitasking. this is hannah's favourite position.
alas, she doesn't spend as much time here as i like, but isn't she sweet when she does? looks so little in that huge crib.
daddy helping nanners take a bath.
please, enough of the paparazzi already!

a big hannah smile.
so all parents know this story. you suspect a dirty diaper, you change her, you think you can contain it, you don't get a changing pad, just use the couch, but wait, she wasn't done. so jana grabs the closest thing, a walmart bag, we wait till she's done, and go straight to the bath. oh the joys.

alas, things are not always this peaceful. but it makes for a good picture, right? this is my world, right here. and i wouldn't change it for anything.

i started babysitting about 15 hrs/wk for a friend's two little ones. i can take hannah with me, and it's working out so far. keeps us busy. i also planted a fall vegetable garden, so hopefully i take the time to take care of it. if i do, we'll have our own lettuce, carrots, broccoli, and cabbage all fall. i also started playing in the longview youth symphony. i never practice, but it's fun anyways. patrick babysits for me. we also enjoy going to his softball games every wednesday. especially last night, because they won! i can't believe it's almost october. we are praying about what to do in december, when patrick graduates. we're excited to see where God leads us. thanks for taking the time to check up on us.

home again

so we are finally back in tx, after 10 days away. It was long, but a wonderful trip. First we went to Brett (Patrick's brother) and Jes's wedding, then saw my family in charlotte. I stayed for a few extra days, and my family helped me with the baby while i recovered from my wisdom teeth surgery. fun stuff. I did the 2 upper ones, and i do the lower ones next week. I'm so sick of soup and smoothies!

this is patrick's puppy that we found on the side of the road. no, we didn't keep him. things are crazy enough around here right now. but he's cute, eh? then this is uncle brett meeting his niece.

while in NC, we stopped at a beautiful covered bridge. Nana and Grandma Jan watched Hannah while we went for a walk.

the wedding was beautiful. Here's the best man and one of his two favourite girls, all dressed up.

so as you can see, the nanners has come between us in more ways than one. but good ways :-).

brett and his beautiful wife jes live near Greensboro, NC. we're excited she's part of the family. finally, the girls outnumber the boys in the crisp family (4 to 3).

we stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast with the crisps. Patrick's parents live in virginia, and his grandparents in kansas.

Hannah got to spend a little time with her cousins, Kennedy (3) and Parker (1).

My mom was in Charlotte seeing my sister, so we got to see her some too. Did we mention Hannah can read already? well, soon, anyways.

My dad and Bunny got to meet Hannah too, but i don't have any pictures yet of them. We had some professional pictures done (thanks Chad) that we'll have up as soon as I get them. Things are going well, she weighed 8.5 today. we've had significant nursing problems that have really disappointed me, but I am learning to accept things as they are. She's here and healthy, so we are so thankful for that. Patrick's getting busy with school again. Last semester!