Here's what happens. . .

Here's what happens when you add a fourth child to the mix. You forget that you have a two year old who likes to get into everything! Mostly things that she's NOT suppose to be into. Here's a typical morning, me putting her hair up. She sits still and doesn't fight me at all.
This picture would be what happens when you aren't watching your 2 year old and she gets into the cabinet in the bathroom with daddy's pomade in it. I guess she didn't want her pigtails any more and wanted a faux-hawk like her dad and brother.

Fun from the Crisp house

Me using Gideon as a shield from the camera.
Gideon just being cute!


I know it's dark, but it's too cute not to post. Olivia holding Gideon - for some reason she thinks she can't relax her arms while she's holding him.

Nana and Pa-pa with all the kids - this photo session went surprisingly well!
Garrett, Olivia, and Elijah showing us their mean faces. Check out the drool on Garrett's shirt, he was foaming at the mouth!


I'm so glad to be back in blog-land! It feels like forever since I posted. I wanted to share some of the other pictures from after we got home with Gideon. The house was buzzing with excitement, and six other kids! On that note, I want to say thank you once again to my whole "in-law" family who took on the huge task of keeping our kids while we stayed in the hospital. I don't think they will ever know what peace it gave me to know that the kids were well taken care of and loved while Josh and I weren't there. THANK YOU!

Gideon Pics

Jess will probably kill me, but this is the trooper after she had received her epidural. She was so relaxed that she took a quick snooze. Have I ever mentioned how much I love this woman? She is the best ever!!!

Welcome Gideon!!! This is right after the birth.

Gideon getting his nose sucked out and cleaned up. He is such a good boy so far.

Mommy and baby resting after the long night. Aren't they cute?

The kids were so excited to meet their new little brother. Garrett was making sure that Gideon would be sleeping in his room. We had to let him know that it would be a few weeks, but yeah, he'll sleep in your room buddy.

I'm sure that there will be more photos, but this is all for now. We are just so excited about the new addition of the family!!!

Gideon Joshua Crisp

We are excited to annnounce that Gideon Joshua was brought into the world at 12:09 am this fine Thanksgiving morning. He weighed 7 lbs. 3 ounces and was 19 inches long. We will have pictures later, I am on a hospital computer where I cannot download pictures. I will get those up as soon as possible. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!! We are!

Halloween take two

Lucy, Erin, Esther, Olivia, Paige, Sophie, and Garrett. (from left to right)

Super Hero's Unite!

Erin is the oldest VanSingle girl and Esther the youngest Crisp - they hang out together when our families get together. Erin is a good little babysitter.

Halloween take one

This is the first picture I could get of the kids from last night. Our church did a Trunk or Treat night and took photo's for all who wanted them. Josh tested out the background and unfamiliar camera with our kids. We have other pictures to come. . .including a "super hero's only" photo with some other kids from the church. Overall it was a great night. The kids learned that it's not all about instant gratification, when they had to wait for daddy to be done his shift of photo taking to take them out for their candy. Tough lesson, for all of us, let alone a 4 1/2 and 3 1/2 year old! But Wonder Woman, Superman and our little Pink Poodle (she only got called a sheep once) were troopers, even as the rain shower fell on them while they went house to house.

35 Week belly

This picture was taken last Tuesday at a baby shower for my friend Katie, who is due 2 days from now with her first! I was almost 35 weeks. I was measuring a little on the small side at my appointment last Monday, but my ob said she was going to give it two weeks before doing an ultrasound. I was a little stressed out about it last week - but know that I cannot control this, and it's not worth trying to. I'll let you know next week what she says about the measurement. Sorry there's no cute pictures of the kids this time - you'll just have cope with my crazy photo!

Pumpkins

The kids painting their pumpkins before the carving.
Final products - from left to right, mom, Garrett, Olivia, Esther, daddy - the kids really liked picking out their face designs, and mom and dad liked carving them A LOT more than the patterns.
At the pumpkin patch - the kids liked rolling down the big hill.
A really good picture of all the kids!
Esther up on the wagon trying to pick out her pumpkin.

Esther's Additions

Can you see it?? There's one in the other ear too - I like my bling!

The girls and I on Hayride night.

Olivia looking so grown up.

Garrett cracks me up in this picture! It was suppose to be a picture of the kids looking off into the distance, it didn't really work, oh well.

Three's a crowd - wait til there's four!

Hayride Fun

The wagon riders wait to head out on our adventure.
All lined up and ready to go! Check out Esther's pigtails! Her hair just started going up and she looks so cute! Another cute addition for Esther happened the next night at the mall (pictures to come later). Can you guess what it was?? (Those who know, don't tell!!)
Riding down the back country roads. That was fun - the kids thought it was great to ride without being buckled. Beth Jones, our pastors wife is in the blue sweater. Out host ofr the night, Esther Coffey in the red, than me and Esther.
Olivia sees the camera and can't help but pose for it!
Our fearless driver John Coffey.

We had a great time on Thursday night at a couples house from our church. They invited all the pastors over for dinner and a hayride. The weather was great (actually a little hot) and the company was better! I hope we didn't overwhelm the Coffey's with all the kids! Thank you for having us, everything was wonderful.

Random pictures

Esther LOVES shoes (A girl after her Aunt Ange's heart)! These are a pair of dress-up shoes that she wears all the time - she likes to venture down the stairs in them too!
Garrett and Olivia putting on a performance for us. The horn was purchased at the dollar store and was one of those toys that looked like it would be fun but when you got it home the kids would realize how boring it was. However, the kids really did like it and have continued to play with it. Funny what kids can amuse themselves with.
Garrett spinning on the swing. He doesn't keep his legs tucked in, so he goes slower. He never did like rides, especially fast, spinning ones.
Olivia flies on the swing! She keeps her legs tucked as long as she can - she hasn't thrown-up yet!

These pictures are a little old, from when my parents came out - but this is what we've been doing lately too. The weather has been wonderful which I am thankful for. The longer we can be outside the better. Cabin fever won't take long to set in once the winter comes!

Reveal

I just posted a new blog site that for those of us in church work, but even for those of you that aren't in church work, but attend and participate in the work of the church should take a good look at. A couple of months ago I went to the Willow Creek Leadership Summit and was affected by what went on there. It was well worth it, but they presented some things there that were very eye opening for me, or may be not so much eye opening as much as I just didn't want to see it, about the local church. Bill Hybels did a quick sermon that is linked here and I think that it is well worth your time just to take a look at it. There is also a commercial on there by Greg Hawkins, who is heading up the research that you can take a look at and it is linked here. I believe that these topics are things that we as the church really need to start looking at. Well enough with the serious stuff, I'll let Jess get back to posting pictures of the kids. Have a good day!

Grammy and P-Pop!

Garrett, P-Pop and Olivia building in the sand. Surprisingly, the "houses" lasted a long time. Olivia gave Esther the "OK" to knock them over about an hour after building them.
Grammy and Esther enjoying the beach.
P-Pop dug a hole with O and G earlier and it had filled back up from the kids jumping in it. He thought it looked like a good spot to make a lounge chair. It must have been comfortable b/c he laid there for a while. Garrett was DYING to get his hands on the soccer ball under his head. When P-Pop gave it up, G only kicked it twice before he was done. I think G just wanted to make sure it was still a soccer ball after it was used as a pillow.
The crew at the beach. Olivia was being a super-hero, can you tell??
And lastly, my 30 week belly - only 10 weeks to go!!!!


We had a great time with my mom and dad this past week. There are lost of other pictures mom took with her camera, but today we went to the beach. I know what you must be thinking, "The beach, in September, in Michigan!!!!" But it was really nice. The kids swam, a lot and we enjoyed the warm sun. I haven't heard officially what the high was, but it was suppose to get up to 87 today! If it wasn't for the constant breeze, we probably would have been sweating. It was a great day to the end of a great week. It's so nice to have help with the kids. Like right now, Josh isn't at home waiting impatiently for me b/c the ratio is 3 to 3! Anyway, I'm so glad they were able to be here for the service Sunday and for the week! I love you guys!

Rev. Joshua Crisp

For some pictures from the night's events you can checkout Josh's mom and dad's blog (link on the side). John got some good shots and a video of the worship and prayer time. It was a great night!

Proud Moments

Daddy and newborn Olivia. So young, so proud to be a daddy!
The Crazy Crisp Clan - gaining numbers by the minute! Not as young, proud daddy of two, almost three.
More kids = more love. A little bit older, wiser, and a proud daddy of three.
Over the last 6 years we've had a lot of "moments." Good, lots of them. Bad, lots of those too. Ugly, some. Proud, absolutely! This weekend will mark one of the proudest moments for me as Josh's wife, best friend, and help-mate. Josh is being ordained this Sunday night as a pastor into the Wesleyan church. I think I am more proud in this moment than I was the day he, or I graduated college. There are a couple of reasons for that. One, we wasted time at college. I know I can speak for us both when I say we didn't use our full potential at IWU. Two, he worked really hard to get all his requirements done for this day. He had to complete 6 FLAME classes, which he did with enthusiasm and skill. He really did glean knowledge from those classes. And three, he completed the 300 pages (I'm exaggerating, but it was really long) of questions from the board who would interview, approve or deny his ordination. As of last December there where 23 people from the West Michigan District who were on paper to be ordained. This Sunday Josh will be on of 11 who actually will be. I think that's something to be proud of - and I am! I will stand proudly next to my husband as he's commissioned by the Wesleyan church. Remembering all the proud and not so proud moments along this journey we've been on to get to this moment. I am proud to grow, learn and love next to you, here's to the next 50+ proud years!

Incredibles

First coat of the logo on the wall. I think Josh did a great job on it - his hand was much steadier than he thought it would be.
Quotes from the movie on the wall. The red says, "It's a whole family of supers!" To the left the bottom saying is, "That was totally wicked!" And over the top of that it says, "Super-duper Dad!"
Quote #4 over the closet.

On Sunday I was home with two sick kids and got the urge to paint some sort of table for Garrett to have in his room. I remembered that this was down stairs not being used so I brought it up and painted it - I think it looks pretty cool!