we're back!

i'm just going to do basic captions here, and you all can fill in the blanks with the details of our lives. it's taken me too long just to upload these things! this is hannah and brody, who we babysit. they love playing together and i love watching them. i think they could be twins.


painting a pumpkin (with a sharpie. i guess you can't call that painting). she scribbled "hair" on one side, and patrick did the face.

our pumpkin family. patrick did everybody's faces, being the artistic one in the family. he did me a glamour shots one :-)

we are so in love with this boy. he is the absolute sweetest thing. he is so mellow, i worry about neglecting him. he does spend a significant amount of time in the snugli with me, so i guess he's ok. only waking up once at night! he loves interacting with you, and sometimes he just sits there and talks to himself. i could just eat him! he's started focusing on things really well, like his bunny or the rings i put on his carseat. he is the baby everybody wants and i didn't think existed.

now this is true love, for hannah to give charlie her babou. on R, you can see how she's dying to have someone to play with! i think it'll be a few years, though.

i know it looks like he lives in the swing, but i can't very well take pictures of him when i'm holding him, so this is the only time i do it. and i'm the only one who does it :-)

so we went to our church's fall festival, which was a big outing for me by myself with them. she was too scared to do any of the little bounce house things, and i wouldn't let her eat the candy, so it was kind of pointless to go. but she did, however, have a blast taking these ducks in and out of the baby pool. not sure what the game was supposed to be, but i have to confess i was somewhat worried about her intelligence as i watched her do that over and over again. good thing i know she's a genius ;-)

yes, this is the same strawberry from last year. and charlie spent the whole time in the snugli, so nobody saw how cute he was. my niece kennedy went through this smile stage that Hannah is in now. when you tell her to smile for pictures, it's kind of scary!

we went to a huge airshow a few weeks ago that had, among many other things, that blue angels. i would never have believed it if i hadn't seen it myself. unbelievable what these guys do. crazy, in my opinion. Hannah loved it until she got too tired.

F 18s are loud! I hadn't even thought about ear protection, never having been to an airshow before. I was so worried about their ears, but they seem to be doing ok since.

the scary smile again. and thanks grandma jan, for the stickers!

good lookin' boy, all ready for church!!! (then he peed through his snazzy outfit and i put him back in pjs :-).

so there are good things and bad things about hannah being potty trained. she can go by herself but you never know what you're going to find. later in the day patrick yelled that she'd done it all again. i was confused how she'd done that when i'd never put it back. then i had to tell patrick that actually i just never cleaned it up. i guess i'm out of the running for america's next top homemaker :-). i never did, either. it stayed in a big pile until it was gone. those kind of things are just not priorities right now!

he's such a big boy. here he's smiling at daddy. i do think they look alike.

so we went to beavers bend state park in broken bow, oklahoma this weekend. stayed in a beautiful cabin with a porch swing. we had a great time mostly, except i woke up with a horrific case of pink eye on saturday. oh, i was so angry at the timing. i was hoping i could wait, but by saturday afternoon i was begging patrick to take me to the doctor. it was 30 min away, and meant we had to waste our precious time there and miss our scheduled hayride. but it was terrible. i never thought pinkeye was that bad, but i wanted to claw it out. it swelled nearly shut. and i was trying to hike, with charlie in the snugli. i was actually in tears it hurt so bad. i looked like a bad halloween leftover. the antibiotics kicked in about 12 hrs after i started, and it's definitely improved. I remember how many kids had conjunctivitis in senegal, and now i want to send over cases of medicine. we take so much for granted, that we just run to the doctor, pick up our prescription, and get better within a few days. most of the world just suffers through it.

the folk festival and craft show was this weekend, which was really neat. i love that kind of thing! they had all kind of period demonstrations (candles, soap, woodworking, etc), all kinds of different musical groups, food of course. and a petting zoo. we've been reading "is your mama a llama?", and then hannah got to see one.

yes, she's trying to smile.

sometimes i get so frustrated with her 2yr old ness that i don't notice her cuteness that also comes from being two. she loved these bears, and was standing in front of them saying "daddy bear, baby bear." i wasn't really paying attention until i heard someone else saying something to her about how sweet she was. and she is. she really is. we just have to remind ourselves sometimes!

he's such an albino. i guess that's what happens when you spend the summer months in utero :-)

it is so beautiful there. we would often just stop and look around, or listen to the water.

i felt so bad for making us miss the hayride, but we caught a trainride the next day. i love this picture. i think she had a fun weekend. patrick mentioned that she's going to start remembering things now. that's scary and exciting at the same time.

patrick went fishing once by himself, and then we all went together. mellowman just hung out in his carseat for a while by himself, and i tried unsuccessfully to keep hannah out of the water. she was having a blast, getting dirty and finding bugs.

i want to print out this picture and put it on patrick's desk so he can look at it when he gets really stressed!

so we survived our first time away with both of them. hannah slept in a big bed, and she did fine except waking up super super early. like 6. not cool. especially on vacation! charlie slept in a little travel bed and did great. he always does great :-)

peace and privacy. it was wonderful (other than the eye thing) and too short. next time we want to stay a whole week. and not be on a diet!

so it seems as if all i do is clean up messes. make food, clean up from food, do laundry, change diapers, and clean up messes. regular messes like the kitchen, and none regular messes like the ones that miraculously follow 2yr olds around constantly. like the entire tube of toothpaste squeezed out on the bathroom counter. (we've since invested in doorknob covers).


as high maintenance as she is, she is also very helpful. seriously. two of her newest "chores": she goes to get her's and charlie's hampers when we do laundry, and puts them back; she unloads the dishwasher silverware drawer. doesn't have the sizes down yet, but that'll come.

he doesn't actually look that small, does he?

we were making muffins and i don't know where she got this, but she kept calling this bag muffin seeds. it isn't even a mix, i don't know why she said that. but technically it's true, i guess.

he still spends the night in our room, but sometimes he naps in his crib. it's crazy to think that soon he'll take up almost all of it.

as soon as he has a bedtime (instead of the 11 oclock one he has now!), i'll move him to his bed.

look at that belly! he hasn't that many baths so far, but i think he likes it. hannah, of course, loves to help. last time she dumped a whole bowl of water on his face because that's how i rinse out her hair.

it was cuter in real life :-)

family snuggle time

she crawled under when patrick was putting the crib together. then it really got me thinking. . .

i don't know why it's so yellow. if anyone knows, please tell me. anyways, sometime hannah puts on a cape (apron) and does her supper hannah impersonation.

the other day i turned around and she had everything she needed for poopy elmo. even a pad for the floor, and a plastic bag for elmo. it is cute, but everytime i turn around she's pulling everything out. there doesn't seem to be anywhere out of her reach!

so right before this i was saying to patrick, i think he's due for a poopy diaper. yes, we do alot of laundry.

this is how hannah plays golf, apparently. swinging both clubs in circles over her head. it's amazing charlie's lasted 6 wks here.

hannah had a great time with aunty lar while she was here. we also had dad and bunny come visit, but didn't get pictures! a belated sincere thank you to all our family who came to help. i don't know what we would have done without you!

Charlie and Daddy working on the plumbing. their first project together :-). (we had some serious garbage disposal problems. it looked like this for a few days.)

one of our favourite parks has a huge globe fountain thing. everybody plays in it. a few weeks ago we went, and i figured it'd be easier to strip her down to her skivvies. she had a blast. i guess next year i won't be able to do that anymore. she's getting so big!

so it looks like she's doing the chicken dance. not sure what that's about!

i thought this train david made was worth a shout out.

i hope they continue to bond as he gets older

no matter what you say to hannah about her (you're so cute, you're a stinker, you whatever) she says, no mommy, i'm hannah grace crisp. the grace crisp has a little bit of a lisp to it, it's so cute. i have to get it on video before she'll grow out of it.

this is pretty old, but it's still a family picture.

this is what normally happens.

So we've had a rough 10 days or so because everyone's been sick. In order of severity: patrick, hannah, charlie, and myself. we're mostly better now, just leftover coughing and runny noses. i wanted to let my faithful readers, all 3 of you, know that i'm going to be taking a blogging break for a while. i might put some random pictures up, but i am struggling a bit with having, or taking, the time i need to pay attention to my children. wholeheartedly, not just looking over my shoulder and saying oh that's nice. we have a 2 day family honeymoon Nov 15-16. I promise i'll have a regular update after that. but i'm not pursuing much else for the next month or so, like social or babysitting opportunities. i know some people can do everything, but i am not one of those people. i hope you understand, and when we come back, everybody will be the better for it. don't worry, i'm sure they won't change that much in 4 wks :-)

contrary to my regular nature, i refuse to make apologies for taking so long to update. it is what it is, and we're doing our best! we had company for 5 wks, and no, i was not too long, in my opinion :-). i appreciated every minute of help. the only thing I was ready to get back was more time with my sweet Hannah. she kind of pushed everybody else around, and we needed to get her butt back in gear. actually, I was missing the relationship. recently, all i'd been was The Enforcer, swooping in when I hear her little attitude from the other room, disrespecting a surprised family member :-). Now that's balanced with good close times again.

above: i love chocolate cake. (it's all about the icing, btw). patrick got me a gourmet Williams Sonoma cake mix, icing, and raspberry filling as part of my gift basket, and we made it together. i must say it was spectacular. alas, i am now back to my prepregnancy routine of less cake, more excersize.


(some of) the grand'rents with the kiddos



she has been doing amazingly well with her new little bro. aside from some rough hugs. no jealousy or acting out at all. she just likes to help all the time. this is a strange 2yr old. the other day she replaced the toilet paper. not on the dispenser, but she got a new roll from under the cabinet and set it up there. and when she took her breakfast bowl to the sink, she took mine too, without being asked. i know adults that don't do that :-). and she's so appreciative. I changed her sheets, and she noticed when she got in bed and said, "thank you for changing my sheets mommy!" we finally put the crib in what has been a well-used guest room, and all my fears about her missing her crib were unfounded. she is so excited to share her baby bed with charlie. even though he's still in our room. i'd like to get him down to only waking up twice in the middle of the night before i move him away. at 2 am, it feels like a long trek down the hall.



feeding the fish at the park.

i have no caption; she leaves me speechless :-)

yes, i have 2 children. still getting used to saying that.

never have i met a more helpful child. at least, she wants to be! it's often difficult to find a way in which she can help, especially if you're using knives or the stove. but apparently shucking corn was right up her alley. getting to pull things apart!

finally, a full frontal hug! no more of this awkward side hug business. the relief of no more watermelon belly.

yep. it's football season. not much else i have to say about that :-). perhaps i'd have more if our team weren't doing so poorly. but we're loyal nonetheless. patrick got to go the panthers-cowboys game last monday, in the new cowboys stadium, with my dad.

i don't know what you guys, think, but 100% of the people who comment on charlie say he looks like patrick, just like hannah did. or does she still?

The End!

ps. since you may be wondering, yes, charlie's doing well. we're all doing good, just tired. he's so much more mellow than hannah i think they have to be different species. I used to wonder if it was just me that thought she was so difficult, but now i know she really was a super difficult baby. thank the Lord, Charlie is not. He doesn't like to be put down awake, but he wears down really well. almost the second i stick him in the carrier, he's out. i still need to wake him up to eat, in the day. in his second month i hope he'll have more awake time during the day. and maybe sart eating faster.