Carol and Dave-This is for you!

Hello. There is a reason I do not blog very often. I am really terrible at it. What might take someone just a few minutes to do, seems to take me at least an hour. For example, I just typed up a whole new blog entry-complete with a picture and a link to a website (quite a feat for me) and then promptly erased it. In my attempt to retrieve it I discovered that I had actually created it in some other blog I didn't even know we had. Beat that!

But today I will not let blogger get the better of me. I am going to persevere to help some people that I love-Carol, my amazing mother-in-law, and Dave my awesome brother-in-law.

Dave has created a website showcasing Carol's absolutely DELICIOUS homemade chocolates.

GO TO: caroljeancandy.com

Also, Dave has entered this website in a contest at BYU-so check it out and if you are impressed put the link on your blog and on facebook and you could be helping out a newly-married accounting major! What could be better? It could be fun! Thanks for reading. Oh, and don't expect me to blog again for a while. I have just about maxed out my blogging skills for the next 6 months at least.

Only three of us in this picture existed when I began medical school.

When I asked Tom to marry Tricia, I didn't have a job. It took my 7 years. But I've finally made it.

Thanks to all those who came to visit us. We had a great week and loved seeing everyone. We are sorry we have to cook again.

One conclusion is another beginning. Here is to 5-7 years of residency.

I realize it is time for a quick update.  Mostly my mom realizes it for me.    I feel like I should start off with Christmas, even though it was three months ago.  Here are the kids on Christmas morning, our first Christmas away from Utah.  

Speaking of Christmas away from Utah, here is what happens to your rootbeers in Wisconsin if you leave them in the snow for a couple hours.  

We had December and January off, before my final push to graduation.  We spent the time on the road interviewing, getting caught on some relaxation, and doing a little family vacation.  The kids had a pretty good time at the water parks, where we spent the last week of January thanks to the Hansen's inviting us to their timeshare.  My kids would rather drown than wear these floaties, but I convinced them to wear them for part of the time.  That way I didn't have to watch them.  Just kidding Mom.

Sam is in to building things.  He loves Kid K'nex.  We highly rec commend them for your children, as they are one of the only toys that Sam has played with consistently pretty much everyday for almost a year.  He is a little rambunctious and loves to tease his squealing sisters.  But he has a very sweet center and the tenderest little conscience you've ever seen.  He hates getting in trouble and hates seeing other people get in trouble.  He'll plug his ears or run into another room if someone in TV is doing something wrong (apparently fight scenes don't count).  A little while ago we went to a movie and I told him as we were walking in to put his treat in his pocket because the people didn't want us to bring treats in.  When we got to the front door, he wouldn't come in and said he didn't really want to see the movie anymore.  Eventually we figured out he was just worried about having a treat in his pocket.

Kate is a cutie.  She is my nap buddy, the only kid who will snuggle with her dad.  She is in princess La La land most of the time, wears a dress as often as we'll get one down for her, and carries around her little princess dolls everywhere.  For as girly as she is becoming, it is obvious who she spends most of her time with.  If you ask her favorite colors she'll say pink, purple, and blue.  Her favorite animals are kitties and sharks.  If she can't dress up like a princess, she'll pretend she's Batman.  She is a good example of the perpetual abuse cycle, passing on to Maggie, the abuse she gets from Sam.  Here she is dancing with Sam, who she convinced to be her prince for the dance.  (If you look close you can see Tricia's new haircut).

Maggie is on the verge of walking.  She can only take a step or two on her own, but she can cruise when she's pushing a cart.  The kids have learned to take advantage of this, taking turns making Maggie push them around the house on their little car.  Maggie is happy to comply.  This little girl LOVES her mom.  She cries when she walks out of the room.  She cries if Tricia hands her to me. She recently began to tolerate me once she's scouted the house and is sure Tricia is nowhere to be found.  This little girl can turn it on and off faster than anyone.  She can make the saddest most offended faces you've ever seen when a toy gets taken away, and then be back to her happy self the instant she gets what she wants.  So naturally, she usually gets what she wants.    

 

A week from tomorrow we find out if we matched into our residency.  We are going for a super competitive one, Radiation oncology, and there are only a hundred and something spots nation wide to go around.  Pray we land one of them.  The good news is, that probably means we'll be blogging again sometime later this month to let people know what our future holds.    

This is a game Sam likes to play on Sundays. We'll draw scenes from scripture stories and the other person will have to guess what it is. This one was his most difficult yet, mainly because it wasn't a depiction of one of the several fighting scenes he usually draws. After 10 minutes I still couldn't get it so made him give me hints. Here are the hints he gave me...see if you can guess.

This one doesn't have any fighting.

It starts with a P.

The structure *1 means a journey.

*2 is a crown cause that guy is wealthy

*3 are drinks cause those guys are partying.

Here are some more hints from Sam since no one has guessed it yet.

The three people on the left are in a house.

The three people on the right are in a far away land.

The Latest:  Here is Maggie in action.  She's becoming quite the mover.  When she's not going for toys she's busy laughing at her older siblings, saying "dada" and trying to eat our food.  She isn't crazy about her own food, but I found out today she likes M&Ms.  (Don't tell Tricia)

Kate's latest:  As uncoordinated as Kate was in that last video, she's actually quite the little gymnast, following in her mother's footsteps.  Here she is jumping on the tramp and doing the balance beam.  When she's not busy with gymnastics, she keeps busy telling people about the disney princesses and the mean mean villains in the disney films that she watches whenever she can convince us to turn them on for her.  There's little mermaid and the mean mean shark, Belle and the mean mean beast, Cindarella and the mean mean cat, Sleeping Beauty and the mean mean dragon etc.  We can't decide if she likes the princesses more, or the mean mean people.

Sam on Doctors:  Sam has had a rough couple weeks.  His asthma has been acting up and he's been coughing incessantly for most of the last 2 weeks.  He's had 2 nebulizer treatments at the doctors office, he's on an oral steroid, inhaled steroid, albuterol every 2-4 hours, as well as a daily leukotriene inhibitor.  Needless to say, he has seen his fair share of the doctor and had his fair share of medicines recently.  It is obvious that he doesn't think too highly of doctors or their methods.  Besides stickers, he doesn't see them as a source of anything but pain and suffering. The other day we heard him playing with Kate.  "Kate let's play doctor. I'll be the doctor.  You can either have a shot, some medicine that you don't even like, or howabout just a poke in the nose."  Not quite sure where the poke in the nose comes from besides one more unpleasant thing a doctor could do to someone.  Kate decided not to play with him. 

When we took the kids for flu shots a couple weeks ago, we had Sam go first to show Kate how to be brave for her shots.  He tried so hard to be brave for his sister.  He cried of course during the shot and then when the drama was over we said, "See Kate, he's all better now.  Sam tell Kate how easy that is."  

"Kate", he said trying to comfort her, "it hurts really really bad."

Sam has been exhausted recently.  This is him last night falling asleep on me while we were waiting for Mom to come say prayers with us.  He also has a huge apetite.  He's the first one to clear his plate each night, and the other day wanted me to order him another hamburger at Wendys.  I think it's the roids.  Here are some other recent pictures:Going for an Autumn walk with Maggie.Playing in the leaves.

Since we are more of the binge-type bloggers, here is a quick update since our last blog, 6 months ago. We spent two of them in Utah doing some away rotations at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. I loved my rotations, and my family loved their vacation. While there, we blessed Mags,

went to Bear Lake with Tricia's family,

Had a family reuniion with my extended family

and got to spend plenty of time with old freinds and family. We already miss you guys.

And one last video of the family. Since we only post about every six months, I thought I'd include one more video of us just hanging out the night before Sam starts school. Here's to another six months.

Here is our recent family picture compliments of Tricia's sister Laurie. Tricia is an amazing wife and mom. Recently she threw out her back but is slowly getting better. But even disabled, when she isn't busy helping me and the kids, she's busy helping the neighbors or doing kind things for someone else. She keeps me sane and the kids alive.
I just applied for a residency in radiation oncology. It's a tough one to get, but we are going for it and if it's meant to be, it'll be. People tell me the interviews should start coming by Halloween. Then I interview from November to January and then wait until March to know if I was accepted anywhere. Currently I am using a vacatoin month to study for step 2 of the boards which I plan to take at the end of the month. So the next few months will be exciting and stressful. Here is the rest of the family.

This is Sam the man. He's going to school, making new friends, and growing up incredible fast. The other day I bought a new football. When Sam saw it he said, "Well you know dad, now you have two footballs...and I like football too...and I don't have a big football like you... and I don't know if you can play with two footballs...hmmm...what should we do with your other football?"
"Would you like to have my old football Sam?"
" Okay, I guess I'll just have it dad."
Then he ran and got his little football and said, Here Kate, you can have this football cause I got a big football. Kate didn't care. Her hands were already full with her other stuff.
Lately Sam's been walking aroud saying, "I'm Barack Obama, and I approved this message." I'll be glad when the election is over and we can watch TV in peace again.

Kate Loves her Abby Cadabie doll. It is her only stuffed animal with a name, but only because it came with one. All 7 of her kitties are each named "kitty kitty kitty" and all 3 of her baby dolls are named "baby doll". Everywhere Kate goes, she carries with her some combination of the kitties and dolls along with her pink blankie and her "fippy pup". Each morning at exactly 6:00 we hear her get out of bed and begin walking to our room. It usuall takes her a few minutes and we know she's on her way because she keeps dropping things and has to stop to pick them up. Then she walks in to our room and one by one throws all of these items into our bed and then climbs up to snuggle with us and tell us that she wants to eat dinner and watch the little mermaid.
The other day when I was studying she walked into my room with her kitty. I asked her how her kitty was and she said, "Well, he needs a time out."
"Oh no, how come?" I asked.
"Well, he's not listening to me...and...he hit Sammy."
Apparantly she's become quite familiar with that process.

This is Maggie. She looks a lot like Sam. She hates to go to sleep, and isn't very fond of rice cereal. She loves to laugh at her brother and sister. She loves being tossed in the air. Her mother isn't very fond of her being tossed in the air. She's definately a smiler and a charmer and is actually very good natured most of the time, contrary to the fussy child she was for the first 3 months of her life. We all love this girl to death.

This is us at the Wisconsin Dells. Tricia requested to be the one taking the picture. The Wisconsin Dells is the Las Vegas of water parks. Instead of casinos water parks line the strip of this little town just a couple hours from our house. I was presenting a poster at a conference and we decided to make a mini family vacation out of it. The kids had a blast. We'll planning to return in January. Yes I am that white, and no I haven't done a push up since I began medical school.

Guess who started school? Its hard to believe I have a child old enough to start school when I haven't even managed to finish that portion of my own life yet. He only goes for 2 hours a day, and by the time they get done with snack time, nap time, recess, play time, and story time, I don't think there is any formal learning occurring at all. But he's developing his social skills and getting to know new people. He talks about one little girl in his class in particular. And so far he loves school which is good I tell him, cause there is a lot more where that comes from.

Kate was tired.

Ever since moving to Wisconsin it has been one of my goals to make the pilgrimage up to Green Bay to “worship” with the other Packer faithful at Lambeau Field. When a Monday night season opening ticket became available to me (thanks to a buddy who is friends with a former BYU now Minnesota Viking player) I finally got my chance. No Brett Favre, but we got to see Aaron Rodgers debut and a Packer victory.

Meet Miss Maggie Crosby!!

Born: 4/22/08, 8lbs. 3 oz., 20.5"

Mom greeting Maggie just after the delivery (which went so great!)

Sam is excited to be a big brother again. He keeps saying, "Oh, I just love you baby Ellie". We then proceed to tell him that her name is Maggie, not Ellie. He just tells us, "you can call her what you want, but I am going to call her Ellie". Ok Sam.

These are my most favorite people in the whole wide world. I can't believe that just a few years ago I didn't even know any of these people existed and now they are my life. Creating a family is the most amazing experience I have ever been allowed to be a part of.

And here is a close-up of our sweet little angel girl. We are so grateful that she is here. Thank you for all of your prayers and for all of your help. We love you all and are so grateful for you.

Love, Marc, Tricia, Sam, Kate, and Maggie

The Difference Between Boys and Girls

Here is a video of the typical night at the Crosby household. After dinner Sam loves to wrestle with his dad and Kate loves to kiss everyone better. That is one of the major differences between boys and girls at our house!

Happy Birthday to Sam!

A mother's ode to her eldest son on his 4th birthday:

Sam,

You are the best son I could ever imagine. I love everything about you. You are so much fun and you love life with all of your heart. You are sweet and kind and you try so hard to do the right things. You are a great big brother to Kate. You are smart and handsome and the best 4 year old boy in the whole world. Thanks for letting me be your mom. I will love you forever.

Sam decided he would like a cheetah & great white shark party. Pretty random until you know that they are his favorite land animal and his favorite underwater animal without question! Here is a picture of a great white shark jumping out of the ocean (modeled after a video that Grandpa Crosby sent to us). Thank goodness four year olds are easy to please, right?

(Joel Townsend, Sam, Sam Tyson, Tyler Hansen, Mikayla Hunter, Sadie Townsend, Mike Kam). These are some of Sam's favorite people. He has such great friends and we were so glad they could come. Please take note of the amazing great white shark pinata in the background. Marc stayed up very late making it look as much like a great white shark as possible and Sam loved it!

And a post would not be complete without a picture of our little miss Kate.

She is always ready for a party!

**Not pictured here are two of the greatest people that I know-Amanda Hansen and Jill Hunter. They came and helped me with the party and I don't know what I would have done without them. Thank you guys-you are the best!