Family Picture Day at the Beach

More Pictures

Isaiah got into a container of baby powder on the front porch, and when Aunt Jess found him and asked him what he was doing, this was the face he made.
Playing music together- no Crisp family gathering would be complete without guitars and singing.
Nana played Candyland with the older kids. Later they played a very LOUD game of Uno together too.
Everyone enjoying a sailboat on the lake. If sound were included with this picture you'd hear a lot of, "Hi boat," "Over here," and "A-Hoy there!"
Micah and mommy watching the waves.

Michigan Vacation

Eating breakfast together every morning- the kids around the big table and the adults sharing a smaller table off to the side. When did the bigger table become the "kid" table? When our family included 6 kids in 5 years. Just in case you need a refresher, starting clockwise left to right- Olivia, Esther, Micah, Isaiah, Garrett and Elijah. Garrett helping Elijah bury his legs in the sand. The lake was pretty cold for the first few days, but by the end of the week it warmed up and we were all swimming.
Micah sporting his shades. He was probably the most timid of our boys about going into the water, but even he was enjoying the waves on the sandbar by the end of the week.
The boys asked Olivia and I to bury them, and we were only to happy to oblige. They don't seem to mind being completely sandy and grimy for hours at a time.

Murder Mystery

Our friends Josh and Rachel had us over for a murder mystery dinner a few weeks ago. We had to come dressed as particular characters. Eric's persona was Cal Q. Later- a nerdy type. I was Penelope Lofer, AKA Penny Lofer- a rich snob. The whole dinner was a class reunion where one of our class members had been mudered and we were charged to figure out who the killer (s) was. It ended up that I was mostly innocent since another character and I had plotted to kill, but our plot had failed as someone else had gotten to our potential victim first. Eric was one of three who actually succeeded in the killing. He was the brains behind the murder- of course.

Pre-parade fun

The parade begins- I think they're watching the firetrucks here.



Travis, Tom's brother, helps entertain everyone until the parade begins.


Eric and Isaiah- again, trying to stay occupied until the parade.

Lawnmower Brigade

So in the Wilmore parade, they have a group of men from the community who dress up in white dress shirts and ties. Each man pushes a lawnmower in formation. They have a director who uses a whistle to direct them into new formations- turns, marching in single file, marching in two lines. It was in the top 10 funniest things I've ever seen. Eric says there is a YouTube video of it, and he'll try to find it.

Some international flavor in the parade. There are lots of countries represented in our little town, so it was nice to see some international color.


This was the house across the street from where we watched the parade. There is an older couple on the front porch and the man smiled from ear to ear through the whole thing- especially the antique tractors.

4th of July in Wilmore

Tom brought this hat and poster for Elijah just before we left for the fireworks. Micah and Isaiah stayed home to go to bed, but Elijah fought to stay awake and enjoyed his first firworks show. By 10:30, he was laying on my lap to watch the show, and if you know him at all, you know how infrequently he lays down to do anything. Even though he was tired, he thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks. He says his favorite part was all of the noises. That's a change from last year!













We all played outside with the beach toys we'd purchased at the Dollar Store. No beach in Kentucky but we're getting ready for our trip to Michigan. As you can see, Isaiah enjoyed a mud spa treatment courtesy his brother. He didn't seem to mind, but Micah freaked out about any little splash of dirt that found him.







What's better than a homemade cherry pie for dinner on the 4th of July? We had eaten all afternoon at Tom and Cassie's, so when we got home I made pie and we ate a backward dinner- dessert first (or for some of us, just dessert).



Wilmore Parade- A lovely hometown experience of which the highlight is the lawnmower brigade. It deserves its own post, but here are the other attractions.

Horses- of course.










A lineup of old tractors...

and I'll put more in the next post.

Isaiah, Micah, Elijah... (L to R)

Playing behind the couch- with all of the open spaces where our children could choose to play, they always choose cosiest spots. I was reminded of my childhood house in Rosedale this week. The little bungalow where my brother and I grew up. By all comparisons to today's standards, it was a pretty small house. But it never felt small to us. I remember feeling like we had all of the space in the world, and when I visit that house now, it seems really small.

It makes me wonder why we seem to think that having more children means moving into bigger houses with more bedrooms, playrooms and bonus rooms. Do our children really require all of that extra space, or is it just more convenient for us- for me? And what are the implications of living in a smaller space with a family of 5? Certainly we hear and see more of each others' business. At first I thought it would deter us from entertaining, but that has not been the case at all. In fact last Sunday we had 8 adults and our 3 children here quite comfortably. We may try to get out more often to escape our four walls. I think we go to the park, library, mall, store, walks, and bike rides more often now than we had, but is that really so bad? It has just gotten me thinking that in two years when we are transitioning to a new town, home, house once again, it would be valuable to remember our happiness and contentment here in this small house with the small yard. Someone please remind me of this when my greed tempts me to want bigger and better, always bigger and better. Why the need to buy homes that are at the upper end of what we can afford? Why not buy a house whose payment is only half of what we can afford? Just imagine the good we could do with the other half of all of those house payments- not for ourselves but for others.

New Pics

Pictures from the Icthus campground. The boys love to play there, and I think Eric has taken them almost every morning since I've been in classes. He really just asked me to post something to cover up his belly picture. He was tired of seeing it every time he opened the blog page.

Jess's competition

For those of you who haven't seen Josh and Jess's blog, you have to go there first for this one to make sense, but Jess, Eric says he's got you beat. :)

First Wreck- No Injuries

You'll notice Isaiah telling on Micah. He jumped out of the car before he could be implicated.

Micah experienced his first wreck today. The Corvette and Micah are both fine. The little yellow Corvette has gotten plenty of use (abuse) so far this summer, and it's still running strong. Fortunately it doesn't really go fast enough to do much real damage- just a few squashed lillies.

Future Blogger

Growing Up

Eric sent me this picture while I was in class today. You don't think he might be grooming his son for a particular sport maybe?

















Overheard this morning...


I'm in the bedroom getting ready, the boys are all eating breakfast. Eric is in the shower.


Elijah: Micah, when I'm 11 years old, you'll still only be like 7 or something.


Micah: I'm getting big too Ewijah!


Elijah: Yeah, but you'll never be as big as me.


Micah: Yes I will. I went off the diving board.


Elijah: No you didn't. I jumped off the diving board. You had to have the teacher help you.





Micah: I DID DO IT! I DID EWIJAH! I JUMP OFF THE DIVING BOARD! Hmmmph!


There is a tense silence and I can just hear Micah's blood boiling. Elijah is well aware of Micah's low boiling point and takes full advantage. The thought crosses my mind to go out to the kitchen and intervene before Micah ends up throwing his Cheerios at Elijah. I'm glad I didn't though because here's what I heard next.





Elijah: Let's not argue Micah. Here, look at my Bible Man magazine with me.


Micah: OK Ewijah OK.


I can hear the smile in Micah's voice, and I'm so proud of Elijah for seeing that he had pushed his little brother far enough. One of those lovely sunny moments in a parent's day when you feel like you might be doing something right.

The Newest Crisp- With a Haircut

Here he is, Harley Earl.

Elijah really didn't like Harley's haircut at first, but he says he's getting used to it now. When I first brought him home Elijah said, "Mommy, I don't think Nana would like it."

Sunday Afternoon Fun

Just thought I'd share our little Sunday afternoon creativity this week. It continues to amaze me how their personalities shine through so vividly when we sit down to create something.

Elijah can't wait to start painting. He requests specific colors, paper, and paintbrushes, but once he gets all of the materials in front of him, he freezes. "Mommy, what should I make?" "Whatever you want buddy. It's your chance to just create something you like."

He decides on a thin red line of paint, looks at it with disappointment, and asks, "Mommy, can I have your paintbrush instead?" Apparently after looking at my painting he thinks that he can be more effective if he uses my brush.

"Sure, we can trade, " I say. He tries again. This time he makes some dots then sits back, again discouraged by the fact that his picture just won't mirror the complexities of his vivid imagination.

After painting contentedly for 5 more minutes or so, he makes up a story about his series of dots and lines and proudly announces that it is finished. I of course enthusiastically affirm his efforts and proudly hang his art on the fridge.

Isaiah comes in next. He prefers to sit on my lap while he paints and chooses a brush and color indiscriminately. Being 2, I think he really just prefers the textures and motions of painting. He loves to squish his chubby fingers into the splotches of paint on his paper, swirling them around. He too ends up with a series of swirls and lines and stays engaged about as long as Elijah did.

Micah joins the painting party last, but when it comes to art, the boy has stamina. Elijah and Isaiah had gone outside to play, so Micah sat alone at the table. I was unable to participate as fully WITH Micah as I did with Elijah and Isaiah since I was starting to make dinner, but he almost seemed to prefer it that way. I'd stop by the table between potato peeling and mixing to affirm his efforts and he barely acknowledged me prefering instead to focus on filling every square millimeter of the top of his page. He painted contentedly for as long as the other two boys combined.

Here is a picture of all three pieces of artwork on our fridge. See if you can guess who made what?

New Tents

Thanks for our new tents Grammie. We are having so much fun in them on our deck. We're really trying to convince Daddy or Mommy to sleep out here with us, but it hasn't worked yet.
Love, The boys

New Family Member

We added a dog back into the Crisp mix. Now we are fivecrispsandadog for real again. Harley came home with us from Nana and Papa's and he's been doing great. Here he is in the van on the way home with us. We'll get a better picture up after his hair cut tonight. The DVD player is behind him on top of a basket and he's sitting on top of his cage in the van.

Memorial Day

Here is our most recent pic of the cousins. This was Memorial Day weekend at Nana and Papa's house. We, of course, had a wonderful time visiting and the kids enjoy each other so much. We all noticed that we didn't have to break up any major fights the whole time we were there except for the occasional scuffle between siblings which happens even when we're not all together.
Left to right we are- Isaiah, Olivia, Esther, Micah, Garrett and Elijah

Isaiah's Birthday- Little late

Isaiah did turn 2 a while back... April 29th. For some reason I missed blogging about it, but he had a Sunday School class picnic for his birthday party. :) We opened presents before church that morning.
Isaiah is such a special little guy. We love his energy and independence. His nickname lately has been Houdini as he can escape from any room, seatbelt or door- regardless of the locks and safety precautions we try to put in place. He is an adventurer. He is not a baby any more and wants to make sure we are all aware of how big he is. While he rushes to be big like his brothers one minute, he is content to curl up on your lap and rock for an hour the next (if he's really tired). We love you Zay!

Mr. Independence and Gardening

Cassie and I are planting a garden at their horse farm! So far we have, 9 tomato plants, 2 rows of corn, and one green pepper plant. Half of it will be vines- watermelon, canteloupe and zuchinni, the other half green beans, corn, spinach, lettuce and tomatoes. Anyway, the boys and I packed up our gardening and water fun items and headed over to their house at around 4:30 this afternoon. The boys entertained themselves with very few interventions from mom for a whole hour in the water, dirt and mud. We ate with Mr. Tom and Ms. Cassie, and then went back to the dirt for another hour where they were almost as well entertained. I kicked myself for not bringing a camera, but where in the world do you put a camera when everything is wet or muddy. Imagine three little boys, covered in mud, climbing into a round rubermaid tub full of freezing water, laughing their heads off, then jumping out again only to go role in the dirt and repeat the process. Needless to say we were all pretty dirty when we got home.

Snack, soap and stories and everyone was in bed,(Eric is at a track meet), so I decided to take a bath. I left the TV on CBS, ready to watch CSI as soon as I was done. I stepped out of the bathroom looking forward to a new episode only to find Isaiah. He is sitting on the coach with the remote control in his right hand, his cup in his left, and on TV...not CSI (thank goodness) but Larry Boy. He had climbed on top of the table by the TV, put the movie in the VCR himself and climbed up on the coach to enjoy a late night movie. One of those times when it took everything in me not to laugh.