A Maryland Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, we took the quick 3 hour trip to Maryland to visit the other Crisp family.  It's always fun to get the kids together, and heck, it's fun for the adults too!  We enjoyed sitting around in our jammies all day, playing games, doing puzzles, and a little home improvement project on our long weekend.

Esther on Elijah's shoulders.  This happened EVERY day, multiply times a day.  These two connected this trip.

Garrett and Micah, the video game boys.  They love the Wii the most and play the best together on it.  They really encourage one another and keep each other laughing while playing together.

Isaiah patiently waiting for his turn on the Wii.

Me and Amani taking a nap.

The kids saying their Thanksgiving prayer.  

Nora eating in a big girl chair.

This was lunch one day.  This is more what meal times looked like!

Garrett and Isaiah playing checkers.  Garrett is thrilled that I'm taking his picture.

Chilling out watching a movie.  Right before I snapped this pic, Esther had her head resting on Elijah's shoulder - so much love!

My husband goes a little crazy with nothing to do after a couple of days.  Erin gladly put him to work on ripping out the carpet in the entry way of the house.  The carpet was no problem.  The linoleum was a different story.  Not sure what they were going to find under it cause some concern but didn't stop the progress.  After ripping up the floor, they found, perfectly good hard wood, barely effected by the elements!

What they did find was lots of little, yet strong, staples that were holding the flooring down.  After some trial and error, they figured out how to get the staples out without breaking them and with no damage to the floor.  Way to go guys!

They're going to love me for this picture, don't you think?!?!?

Same gamers, new day.

Aunt Erin had lots of helpers in the kitchen.  Isaiah and Gideon were on duty this night.

More games.

Olivia rockin' it out on Guitar Hero.

Horse rides courtesy of Elijah and Olivia.

Gaming again.

Another 3 year old

To my sweet Gideon.  You are joy, laughter, sweetness and sass all wrapped into one little boy.  You love playing outside but always with someone.  Riding your bike, jumping on the trampoline and swinging (yourself) on the swing are your favorite activities.  You eat non-stop, until dinner when you, all of a sudden, don't like anything.

You are potty trained, much to my amazement and delight.  I was ready to go into your pre-school years fighting you, but you have surprised me. . .THANK YOU!

You love your blankie, your family, your Aunt Ange, napping with your P-pop, and Mickey Mouse Club House.  You love getting in the dryer with Nora, wrestling with Garrett, singing and dancing.  

Most of all you love to play the guitar and drums.  At church you always want to go on stage to sing and can always be found "drumming" the seat in front of us to the beat of the song.  You are a joy and a light in our day.  Love you my Thanksgiving baby.  Happy Birthday Gid.

Halloween weekend

Here are the highlights of our halloween weekend.  Saturday we hung out together - just relaxing.  That evening we headed to the Medford parade, a long-time family tradition.

Enjoying hot chocolate while they wait for the parade to start. 

Mom, Dad and Indy join the picture. 

This kids interacting with the pirate.  Garrett wanted to know where his eye patch was. 

Love him! 

 The daddy's with the 1 year olds.

The grandchildren did not want to get a picture all together.  

Esther as a princess. 

Olivia as a butterfly. 

Garrett as some sort of Bakugon (sp) character. 

Gideon the giraffe. 

Nora the pumpkin with all the kids.

How do you potty train?

It has begun.  Potty training with Gideon.  I have a feeling we will be in this for a long time.  I am not encouraged at his lack of enthusiasm or bribeability (if that's even a word).  However, I am able to get him to sit on the potty for long amounts of time.  And have had success with him actually going #1 on the potty, so we press on.

The kids can often be found reading to him.  And he is often sitting on the potty in front of the TV.  Neither scenario works for him. . .see below for his trigger.

All alone in the closet - then he will go.

And he must be all alone, NOT playing peek-a-boo with Nora.  Even if it is so cute.

What I like about Garrett

Homeschooling gives me a unique opportunity to daily see my children living life.  I know these are things that I would find out eventually, but in a matter of 2 weeks I have learned so much about my second child.  He has been such a pleasant surprise to home school.  Last year, we took it easy with kindergarten.  He enjoyed himself and we didn't push it too hard.  Knowing what was coming this year, because I did it with Olivia last year, I was worried about him.  I worried that he would be unfocused, unmotivated, and just plain uninterested.  He has proven me wrong!!  This kid is determined to get his work done, and get it done fast.  We are working on doing your work efficiently and with your best effort, not necessarily as fast as you can go.  When I give him seat work, he sets to his task.  Most of the time there's no tears, arguing, or whining.  I am amazed when I look down after giving him a paper how much he's gotten finished without a word.  He doesn't look around at what Olivia is doing, he doesn't try to catch a glimpse of the TV in the other room, he just does his work.  I love it!  And him!

And then there's his art.  This kid is NOTHING like Josh or I in this area.  Josh is artistic, but his creations never come out the way he pictures, so he doesn't enjoy the process.  I don't like the process, because everything I make looks horrible.  Garrett never asks for my help.  He creates his masterpieces within the guide lines of the craft, but always strays away to give it his own unique flare.  He sits, content in his creativity and final product, like no other kid I've ever seen.  I love that he is so different in this area than most of the rest of us in the family.

 Garrett's watercolor and crayon name.  He did all his letter's himself (the girls both asked for help to make it look like the sample).  And his "camo" like painting is nothing like what it was 'suppose' to look like, but he didn't care. . .and I think it looks great.

Just for comparison sake, this is Esther's paper.  She started out wanting to write her own name, but quickly asked me to write her name because she didn't like the way it was turning out.  Her painting is closer to what the sample looked like, blocks of color separated by the spaces in the letters and lines. 

Happy Birthday to my baby.

It doesn't seem possible that my baby is 1!  September 19th was Nora's 1st birthday.  She happily walked around being the center of attention, which really isn't anything new since she is the apple of everyone's eyes in this house.  She posed nicely for pictures, opened presents, played with cousins, and of course, ate cake.  I couldn't have asked for a better day, or a better baby.  I love you Nora Lynne.

First day of school

This year we are once again homeschooling the kids.  Thanks to a pep talk from our pastor, Josh is now Principle Daddy/Crisp.  He sat down with the three older kids had gave them their marching orders for the year.  I'm excited about this year and so are the kids.  Esther was busting at the seams with excitement before we started.  And Olivia and Garrett were great students on the first day (aren't they all?!?).  

Our non-traditional "first day of school" pictures in front of the house.

No shoes for these kids!

No back packs either.  But lots of smiles and love.

Nora is almost walking and is so happy about it.  I can't believe she's almost one!

Chef Garrett

The kids love to help me in the kitchen.  I let them measure out dry ingredients and pour them in.  Olivia's gotten really good at cracking eggs.  And when all else is done, stirring is always a good job for a kid.  Today I ventured out of those comfort zones and let Garrett cut up some vegetables for our chicken pot pie.  After he washed his hands and the veggies I let him go.  I sat next to him and diced the chicken while he worked on the celery and carrots.  He talked all about being a cook. . .that he was doing so well at cutting up the veggies. . .asking me if the pieces were small enough. He talked about going to a cooking class and making something for me.  And how he would bring home the recipe for me to make too, and it would be really good.  These are the days I want to remember.  Thanks for the quality time buddy, I love you.

Artist and Attitudes

Check out this masterpiece by my little guy.  He's such an artist.

Not sure if he's using that toy lipstick for it's intended purpose or as a microphone.  

Either way, he marches to his own drum, and makes me smile all the while.

And, check the attitude on this chick's face.  Could she be anymore sassy?