One Year

What felt like a couple months has actually been 12. That infant that was so tiny and slept longer at night is now a year old! I know I sound like a broken record but I just can't get over how fast it all goes...

• She now gives wide-open mouthed kisses on request and they are my favorite; even with the drool, if it's a sign of affection, I'll take it. 
• Eliza tries to put hats, headbands and sunglasses on and thinks she's pretty cool when we put them on her. And then she pulls them off. 

 Chet took this picture. She was so tickled with the goggles. 

• As long as she isn't hungry, Tanner is the favorite. She gets so offended if Tanner gets home from work and doesn't immediately give her attention. 
• She is really fascinated with dogs but once we get her close enough to pet them she doesn't know what to do and just waves her hands around while shrieking or giggling. 
• She has started pointing at things and saying "this". 

• The day before her birthday she had her first tumble down the stairs which is always really sad, especially when it's mom's fault... 
• Tanner and I went to Iowa to look at houses at the beginning of the month and Eliza spent her first night and two days away from me. She refused to take a bottle and barely drank any water so she was pretty happy when we got back. The next morning she snuggled Tanner like this for a good long time. It was pretty precious. Poor Austin was a little too close to the flash. And within a day or two Eliza was drinking water out of a straw just fine...guess she learned her lesson. 

• Her swaddle blanket makes her happy. If she finds one laying on the floor she lays her face in it and just has a moment. 
• She waves her hands and bobs her head when she hears music or someone singing. 
• Still only has two teeth but if the number of times she wakes up in the night is any indication then I think she will be getting some more in the next little while. 

• She is becoming jealous when others sit on my lap, unless it's another baby, then she gets really excited and tries to grab on to them while making high pitched little sounds. 
• The girl can definitely stand up for herself. She has an awful shriek that she does to let us know when she isn't happy about something. 

 We had a little celebration as a family with cupcakes. Mariah was so cute and made her own decorations and a gift for Eliza (beads on a string). 

 Eliza was a little afraid of her cupcake, she's always wary of new food; but she finally decided the frosting was ok and sucked it all off. She wasn't a fan of the cupcake though. Everyone else was though; who knew chocolate beet cupcakes with whole wheat flour could be so good? 

Austin helped her eat the frosting.

With every child it doesn't take long to know that they are just perfect for our family. They seem to fill a hole that we didn't know was there but needed filling all the same. We are so grateful for the joy and light that our sweet Eliza brings to this family. 

History Vacation

For the longest time I have wanted to go to Colonial Williamsburg. We planned on going last year and even booked a hotel but then Hurricane Florence decided to show up and change all of our plans, although the Smokey Mountains were an awesome change. So when I found out that our good friends from medical school would be in DC for a week I suggested we meet up there. Because I don't plan ahead very well I assumed Colonial Williamsburg was only half an hour away from DC. It wasn't until our friends had already booked a hotel there that I realized it was over three hours from DC. That made me a little apprehensive but Tanner was a good sport and we got a hotel room there as well.

We met up with the Hills at Mt. Vernon because I decided we might as well go all in on History. It was so fun to see our children meet each other again/for the first time. The last time they had seen each other (besides Facetime) was over three years ago. But they were instant buddies, not that they had a choice. By the end of the trip Mariah and Max were planning their wedding. They had a song and Max declared, "We're going to have fourteen children; ten boys and four girls." Chet followed that up with, "Mariah is going to be really tired." Oh you have no idea...

 If Max and Mariah don't hit it off in the future, we still have three more chances...even Norah and Austin got a little cozy. 

 We made friends with a friendly bull who liked getting his head scratched. 

 Checking out the pigs. 

 This was George Washington's view off his back porch; no wonder he never wanted to leave. 

After Mt. Vernon we headed out for Williamsburg in awful traffic. Thankfully we had the third Harry Potter on audio that kept the kids entertained. We had a pretty good night of sleep in our hotel and then woke up early and headed to Colonial Williamsburg. I really wanted to get something to remind us of our trip so Tanner humored me and let me get some hats...I have no regrets. 

 We walked around the historical part of town for a while.

 The carriage horses were a big hit. Mariah wanted to know all of their names. 

 Our favorite part was the fife and drums parade. There were several different bands and they were all so good. The kids had to do their own parade at the end. 

 After that we headed to a pizza place (I'm sure that's what the colonists ate) and caught up. 

 The back of the Governor's Mansion had a stage where we were able to see some amazing performances from the Crossley and Hill children and it even had a little maze that the kids had so much fun in. Even though they had been walking around all day they ran around in the gardens for a long time. 

 Finally we headed to the original site of Jamestown, mainly for the adults. Our kids were done by this point and had decided that they really just wanted to go to a beach. 

 Thats Chet's done pose...luckily for him we were just minutes from a beach on the river so the kids had fun in the water for an hour before we said goodbye to the Hills. I'm so grateful they humored me with this trip. We just love that family so much and are so grateful for their friendship that we know will last forever. 

 That night we headed to the Wunderli's and went to church with them the next day (Our third Stake Conference in the last three months). It was fun to see our cousins and Solo again before we move. 

Our good friend Serge stopped by as well. 

 The kids had to show him their rocking climbing skills in the Wunderli's awesome rock climbing room. 

The trip was short but we are so glad we got to see some special people.

Easter 2019

I just love when Easter is further away from the first week of April and all the Crossley festivities that come with that week. We were able to really enjoy Easter this year. 

Our friends the Treus had an Easter Egg hunt at their house and the kids had a lot of fun. Austin kept wanting to run back and show me every egg he got but eventually he figured it out and got a bucket full. Mariah and Chet had no trouble getting a lot of eggs and at the end they even shared some of their eggs with some of the younger kids who didn't get as many. 

 Eliza didn't really get what was going on but she was happy to tag along. 

 By dinner Austin was exhausted...which made for some great photos.

The next day we decorated eggs and it was the calmest egg decorating we have ever experienced. Maybe some things do get easier as they get older. Although I spent most of the time bathing Eliza during the eggs so Tanner might disagree with me. 

This was the best picture I got on Easter Sunday. Mariah gave a talk in Primary and wrote it herself with just a little help from me. It was special to hear her witness of Christ and his resurrection. 

11 Months

• Eliza is on the move! She started crawling and by the next day she was pulling herself up to standing. Now the whole family is learning to keep the bathroom door closed and I'm constantly picking things up off the floor that could be a choking hazard. How do fourth children ever survive? 

• She had a mild case of Roseola and didn't want to be put down for a few days but we all survived. 

 She never snuggles me so this 30 second snuggle had to be documented; it's the one perk of a sick child I guess. 

• She is such a chatty girl and she is trying so hard to figure out some signs. One day she was frustrated with me and I could just see her trying to say what she wanted. Then she frantically began signing "more" with a look of excitement. She wanted to nurse but couldn't remember the sign for that but she was still pleased with herself and got the message across. 
• She has curl in her hair but once she's rubbed her head on something she loses it all. It's getting more curly with the humidity though and it is reminding me so much of Mariah. 

•  She may be our wild child. Our other kids would get nervous with being thrown up in the air or being held upside down but she loves it. Our cautious older three will have to keep an eye on her. 

• She is a very determined girl and once she gets her mind set on something there is no distracting her. If my hair is up in a hair claw and she sees it, she grips on to my hair and jerks my head down so she can get a hold of the claw. And she doesn't give up until I give it to her. The girl is fierce. 
• Whenever she hears the keyboard being played she freaks out until whomever is playing holds her on their lap so she can bang away on the keys. We always get a good laugh when she tries to push our hands away as we try to hold her at the keyboard. 
• She does not love the blender or vacuum. Those always bring tears. 
• Eliza has finally decided that bananas are not the only food in the world (although those are still her favorite). She gets really excited about popcorn and is so offended if her siblings don't share with her. She also tried hummus again and decided it was real good. 

One more month until a year!

Power of Prayer

This happened months ago but I have felt the need to record it. I want our family to remember the tender mercies we experienced during this time.

After a long month of Internal Medicine, with little physical activity, Tanner's back was really bothering him. He had sciatic pain that made it hard to sit. He tried to start working out again but that only seemed to make it worse. After a couple of months of being really careful and slowly working back into exercise he started to feel a little better.

We decided to go to North Carolina to be with the Hiltons after Christmas. On New Years Eve, Tanner went and played basketball and ended up in the ER with excruciating pain. I was pretty annoyed with him as I headed to the hospital but right when I saw how much pain he was in all of that annoyance was gone. Baydon and his brother were able to give Tanner a blessing and once he got some pain medication he was able to relax a little but he was experiencing numbness in his leg and foot. After an x-ray he was released from the hospital.

Tanner got an MRI a few days later in Morgantown and met with a neurosurgeon. The Doctor was amazed with how well Tanner appeared to be doing with the amount of pressure that his bulged disc was putting on nerves in his spine, which was causing the numbness. He and Tanner decided to wait a while and see if the pressure would go down on its own. A few days later he began to feel burning in his foot whenever he had to go to the bathroom. The neurosurgeon decided that the safest thing would be to go in for a microdiscectomy as soon as possible. This was Saturday night and Tanner was scheduled for surgery Monday morning.

I began to feel so anxious. There were so many things that I was worried about: who would take care of our kids on such short notice, what were the risks associated with spinal surgery, how long would Tanner's recovery be, how was I going to do it all? We are so blessed to have wonderful people here who were willing to drop everything to take care of our older three kids while we were in Pittsburgh all day for the surgery. My friend Anna who is a nanny came over early that morning (and refused to let me pay her) and once she had to leave Jenilara brought her kids over and was there until bedtime (leaving a meal in the fridge) and then Melissa came until we got home late that night.

Tanner's surgeon told us to go to the ER because that would be the fastest way for him to get into his scheduled surgeries that day. We were so blessed to be able to get through the ER quickly. The ER doctor even said that she had never seen it happen that fast. All through this process Eliza was so good. She slept while we waited in the ER and charmed anyone who saw her the whole day. She helped keep me distracted during Tanner's surgery which was a blessing because I really don't like the waiting. For the longest time the screen in the waiting room said he was out of surgery and in recovery but no one had come to tell me that he was awake. Finally I went up to the desk and asked and they called and said that he was doing great and they were sorry they hadn't told me. As I left the waiting room I finally started to break down. It was all I could do to not bawl. The whole surgery I had been calm and collected but it was such a relief to know that all was well.

When the doctor came to talk to me he said, "I don't know your husband well but he must have a very high pain tolerance." He said that when he opened up the sheath the gel-like substance from his disc came shooting out. Tanner had been going to work and fulfilling his church calling (we had gone on a speaking assignment the day before an hour and a half away from home) all under extreme pressure.

I really love seeing Tanner after a surgery. He is always super chatty and loves everything. There was some show from the History Channel about the people who go and find antiques and Tanner couldn't stop talking about how fun that would be; normal Tanner probably wouldn't enjoy it that much. He also asked me several times what the doctor had said about his pain tolerance and then would ask, "You told my family what the doctor said about my pain tolerance right?" or, "Did you tell Chad what he said?". It was pretty cute because Tanner usually doesn't care too much what other people think.

For two weeks Tanner couldn't bend, twist, or lift anything over ten pounds. The kids were all very sweet with him and loved to bring him ice packs or talk with him. I was so afraid Austin was going to jump on his back and cause all sorts of damage but he was so good. After the two weeks Tanner was right back to work. The first weeks back he was in some pain but he has been making good progress. He still has some numbness in his foot that bothers him but we are hoping that it will either be resolved or he will get used to it.

Living so far from family this whole ordeal could have made us feel very alone. But leading up to, through and beyond Tanner's surgery, so many prayers have been said in our behalf. People fasted for us, and we received messages from so many family members the day of the surgery. Chad sent a text message to say that he had left his patients to go and kneel in prayer in his office during Tanner's surgery. Although I was physically alone in that waiting room, I didn't feel alone. I know that we have been lifted through this trial because of the faith and prayers of others. In the first session of General Conference, President Eyring said it perfectly when he said, "The family that prays together is together." During the surgery I felt so much peace and comfort and I continue to feel that peace. Because of the faith and prayers of our family we didn't feel alone.