The Crisp's

"When I consider your heavens, the work of our fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"  Ps 8:3-4

The longer I am a mother, the more I find myself relating to David in his psalms. It seems I am constantly crying out on behalf of my children. I learn more and more every day just how small and out of control I am. Welcome to motherhood, huh? Thank goodness for prayer! :)

On that note, I want to thank everyone for praying for us during the whole knife-in-the-eye incident. We were blown away at how everyone, even people we didn't know, rallied around us in prayer. We prayed for a miracle and that's exactly what we got! For those that don't know about the latest Crisp drama, Tac's eye is okay and everything turned out fine.

So what else is new with us? Well, this is our "project" season, so that includes putting up new fences at the ranch, working on taxidermy, landscaping around the house, and building a barn. Al is a great multi-tasker and is constantly going in every direction. Ainsley has now survived her brother for 5 months and is doing great. I wish I could just hit a "pause" button at this stage in her life. She still thinks that I'm the most wonderful thing she's ever seen and all she has to do is smile and I melt. And as for Tac, we are in full swing toddlerhood....."It was the best of times, it was the worst of times"..... At this point it seems my child has been inhabited by two separate beings; One moment he is the sweetest, most charming little boy you've ever seen, and the next moment he's on the ground throwing a fit because I won't let him put peanut butter on the cat. I am continually amazed at the ability a toddler has to instantly produce tears. From the moment the word "no" rolls off my lips, there are big crocodile tears rolling down his face and the world is ending. Even so, this is such a fun and exciting phase and it is definately never boring!

I realy wish I had more time to post because I really love blogging and there's so much I want to share. It's just that when I do have a spare moment there is always something else that takes priority.... like sleep. So, here are the last few months with the Crisp's.

                                       This is "Bar-code." Crista tooks pictures of him with the kids back in January. REALLY makes me want a zebra!!

Off to South Texas- For our 8th anniverary (can you believe that??) we went to south Texas for Al's nilgai hunt. Brent and Kennedy went with us and each of the guys brought home a trophy. We spent a few days in Odem with Al's parents and then got to stay in Concan for a little vacation time.

Al and Brent with their nilgai's and Al with his bow-kill javelina

 Me and Kennedy. She's actually the one that first spotted the nilgai! And just when Al was getting frusterated about us talking too much. Just think, if he hadn't brought us girls along on the hunt he wouldn't have gotten the nilgai and he'd be behind on his gossip!

 While in Corpus we went to the Texas State Aquarium. Tac LOVED it! Curtis and Linda also took the kids to feed seagulls on the beach and to see the Lexington. Tac is still talking about the "big boat."

Ainsley's 3 month pics

 Tac has thoroughly enjoyed doing the landscaping around the house. The only thing is he thinks that yard work is a clothing-optional activity. The second the water comes on, his clothes come off. I wonder where he could've learned that....

Ainsley's first dance.

Easter 2012

This is Easter at Mom's.

You can't even imagine all the fun (and the candy) contained in her living room floor.  

So, speaking of Easter.... the Easter bunny brought Tac a fishing pole! This is Tac catching his trophy perch.

And this is Tac after he fell in the creek.

I'm not sure Al has the patience required for fishing with Tac. :)

              All my working men. The new fences really look great.

Curtis and Linda also came to the ranch to help during our fence building. Curtis is a pretty mean bull dozer driver!

The great fish release!

 Kanyon and Erika, as well as Mom and Dad got to come down that weekend.

More ranch pictures. Al is becoming quite the bow-fisher!

And.... Tac skinny dippin' in the creek! He can't help it-- he comes by it honestly. If you'll notice the pair of legs in the top of the picture below... well,.... I had to crop the picture to be able to post it!

Breakfast with the cows

Ah... Tac's pet duck. There's actually two of them, given to the kids for Easter by Ranna and Poppy. I really didn't think the poor things would survive long enough to get this big.

pretty girl

This is our latest project- the barn, biult on the north side of the house. I'm actually going to be a little sad when this project is finished. It's been nice having the guys working right here close to the house. Tac goes out there several times a day, and just before he walks out the door he'll hollar to me, "Goin' work on barn."

(Above left) The Gray cousins: Chad, Misty, Trever, and myself. Me and the kids went to the lake a couple of weeks ago to see them. Chad and his new wife Leisel were down from Idaho and this is the first picture of all four of the cousins since we were very small.

And after the lake, we made two different trips to the McBrides in Burnet. We have so much fun with them and really love visiting and watching the deer and turkeys.

 Al's dream child-- A 190-class baby!!