The Call's top 12 in 2012

I cannot believe another year is almost here.  This year has flown by.  We have had so many things happen to our family this year and so without further adieu here our top 12 in 2012!

1. We added our sweet little Benson to our family.  Benson's pregnancy was a killer on my hips but he was worth every single ache and pain.  We love this little man with all of our hearts and cannot imagine life without him.

2.  Ben graduated from BYU-Idaho and was accepted right away to UT Southwestern to study prosthetics and orthotics!

We had a huge decision to make and it made it so much easier to make when Ben was accepted right away.  We are so proud of him and all of his hard work this past year.  I know school has been rough on him but I am so thankful that I married a man who knows how to work hard and be optimistic no matter how hard things are.  The Lord has definitely blessed us this year school-wise.

3.  We drove 1,599 miles or 22 hours and 43 minutes from Rexburg Idaho to Dallas Texas.

Dallas became our new home this year and it was quite an adjustment for me.  I didn't think I would get homesick at all but this move was hard on me.  I cried a lot those first few weeks, but we love where we live now.  We are so thankful for the good friends we have made and are so thankful to be apart of an awesome ward!

4.  We took our very first family vacation ever.  We flew from Dallas to L.A to have an awesome family vacation with the Call's at Pismo Beach.

What a fun vacation we had!  We played and played and played.  The only thing that could have made this vacation even better would have been if it was warm while we were there.  Oh well you can't have everything!

5.  We took our own family vacation this summer to San Antonio.  We visited the Alamo, the Riverwalk, and Seaworld.  Such a fun couple of days but I think the best part was having Ben off of school for a week and a half.  We loved having him around for a change!

6.  Having my sisters Michelle and Kaylee come out and visit for a week.  I was in serious need of family during the summer.   I was so excited when my sisters told me they were coming.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been if Jen and my mom could have come as well.

7.  Reese has become such a big girl this year!  First we moved her out of the crib and into a big girl bed.  She was so happy to be a big girl and sleep in a big girl bed.

 Reese's other major accomplishment this year was being potty trained!  This of course had to make our top 12.  What a huge accomplishment for Reese.  We were all so proud of her becoming a big girl and going on the big girl potty!

8. Benson has hit some major milestone's this past year as well.  He now has 7 teeth!  Even though he still looks like a vampire those front 2 teeth have finally broken through.

He is also eating solids like a champ.  He eats just about anything and everything that you put in front of him.  He LOVES food, he definitely takes after his dad.

9.  I made Reese and Benson's Halloween costumes this year!  I was so proud of myself for taking on such a huge project and actually having their costumes look cute!

10.  We had our first Thanksgiving away from home.  I was so grateful to be surrounded by good friends this Thanksgiving and not even feel the teensiest bit homesick.  I took on the rolls and did a wonderfully awesome job!

11.  We got to visit Santa A LOT this year!  Even though our first experience with visiting Santa didn't turn out quite right, we got to visit him lots of other times.  Reese loved siting on Santa's lap and reminding him that she wanted a pink bike for Christmas.  Benson didn't seem to mind Santa either!

12.  We found ridiculously cheap airline tickets to fly home for Christmas.  I am so thankful we have been able to spend Christmas with our families.  I look forward to the day when we live closer!

We have been so blessed this past year.  The Lord has taken care of us in so many different ways.  I worry way too much and just need to remember to trust in the Lord.  He has always taken care of us and will continue to do so as long as we do our part!

I look forward to 2013 and the new memories and experiences we will have.  2012 you have been good to us.  2013 we hope you are just as great!

Happy New Year!

City Creek Mall

While visiting Ben's family we decided to go and see the new City Creek Mall.  We hadn't see it yet and had only heard how amazing it is.  Ben's parents live in Syracuse Utah and we could take frontrunner into Salt Lake, which we had never done before either.

Reese was especially excited to ride a train.  That is how we bribed her to take her nap{we are all about bribes}.

We loved riding frontrunner because it was something different than the same old drive down to Salt Lake.  Reese and Benson loved staring out the window watching the towns go by.  It was also super quick and once we got into Salt Lake we could just hop right onto Trax and ride it into downtown Salt Lake.

Kallie, Danny, and Wes came with us and the first stop was the Disney store.  Reese was in heaven!  She walked right into their miniature castle and gasped and then a HUGE smile crossed her face.  She picked up one of the pink princess wands and carried it around the rest of the time we were in the store.

She seriously loved the Disney store.  The only bad thing was she wandered off really quickly and she got lost really easily.  Thank goodness we had a lot of eyes watching her.  At the end of our time at the Disney store Reese grabbed her cousin Wes and they went back into the castle and had a tea party.  They grabbed cups, silverware, and anything else they could use to have a tea party.

After we finally convinced Reese that is was time to go, we headed outside and ran into the actor Corbin Allred {the main actor in Saints and Soldiers}.  I tried pointing him out to everyone but they didn't see him.  But we did run into him again on Trax and I pointed him out to everyone.  I was just too shy to get a picture with him, but there is my claim to fame!

We then went over to the play place and let the kids run and climb and play.  Reese and Wes were in heaven.  Benson got pushed over by a little boy and there were kids everywhere, but we did find a safe place for him to play . . . right inside an egg!  He was as happy as could be!

Then we met Brad {Ben's dad} at Olive Garden and had a WONDERFUL dinner.  Jan was going to ride back with Brad to the house and the rest of us were going to take the frontrunner back to Syracuse.  The waitress told us to go on 2nd South to take Trax back to the frontrunner station, so we did.  Unfortunately Trax was nowhere to be seen.  We decided to make a run for it.  We had about 15-20 minutes to make it before the train left.  If we missed the train we would have to wait ANOTHER hour before we could go home.

So we ran.   Four adults and three children running through the streets of Salt Lake.  Thankfully we had strollers otherwise I don't think we would have made it.  We made it with about 4 minutes to spare.  My lungs were on fire and my face and ears and legs were freezing but we had made it.  Such a fun memory now but I really didn't think it was too funny as we were running through the cold dark streets of Salt Lake.

Christmas 2012

Our Christmas this year was great.  Well honestly I was sicker than a dog, well maybe not that sick, but I felt pretty darn horrible.  I got a really bad sore throat about 2 days before Christmas.  Christmas Eve was the worst day.  I felt like I was swallowing knives and my body ached like crazy.  But that is besides the point.

Christmas this year was spent with the Calls.  Our Christmas Eve dinner was wonderful!  We went to Tepenyaki and it was fabulous {as usual}.

Reese was terrified of the fire.  It was hilarious to watch her.  They lit the grill on fire and she put both hands on the side of her face and just shook.  Poor little girl, but she LOVED the food and she loved trying to use the chopsticks.

We gave Benson noodles and boy was he IN LOVE!  If he ran out of noodles he would sit and scream at me until I put more noodles in front of him.  He was in heaven!

After dinner we came back to the Calls and had our Christmas Eve devotional.  The kids put cookies and milk out for Santa and then Trey {our nephew} said we needed to put glitter out on the lawn for the reindeer.  Well we were fresh out of glitter so we put granola and glow sticks out on the lawn so Santa would be sure to find us.  Then we put the kids to bed and I followed right behind them.

Christmas morning came and Reese climbed into bed with me and Ben.  Someone made noise upstairs and Reese said, "maybe that is Santa and his reindeer".  She was so excited for Christmas and she was so sure Santa was going to bring her a bike.  Well unfortunately there was no bike under the tree, but Santa did leave a nice little letter for Reese.

The letter thanked Reese for being such a good girl and told her that Santa left some very special presents for her at her house in Texas because they were too big to bring home on the airplane.  Inside the letter Reese found two pictures.

That is right, Santa left her a bike and a kitchen set at our apartment in Texas.  We had to explain it quite a bit to her but I think she finally grasped that there is a bike and a kitchen set waiting for her in Texas, because she then asked us if we could go home to Texas!

We didn't have much for Reese and Benson to open because our Christmas was coming to Utah, but we had a gift for each of them to open.  Reese opened up some new pots and pans to go with her  kitchen set.

We got Benson some cars but he was more interested in Reese's pot and pans.  They have had so much fun playing with these pots and pans I can't wait until the can play with the kitchen set too.

The only other thing Reese asked for Christmas was a flower.  Don't ask me why she wanted a flower but she really wanted one, almost as bad as she wanted a bike.  So when she found a flower in her stocking she was quite excited!

I loved Christmas this year.  It is so much more fun with kids who understand what is going on.  Reese was so excited about everything and it made Christmas that much better.

These guys had so much fun playing together.  They are the best little buddies and cause quite a bit of trouble.  But it was so fun to watch them get excited about Christmas.

By the end of the day we were all exhausted.  Benson was so tired he decided he couldn't make it to the tub and so he decided to take a bath in the sink.  He loved it even though he was a little too big for the sink.

I am so grateful we got to spend Christmas with family this year.
  I have loved spending so much time with them.  
We hope you had a very merry Christmas!

We sure did!!!

Family Pictures

We had family pictures taken with Ben's family right before everyone started getting sick.  This has been quite the Christmas vacation.  When we left Texas Reese and Benson both had VERY runny noses.  They started getting better but right after taking these pictures Reese got the flu and was throwing up.  Then I got the same flu {lucky me}.  Ben and Benson never caught it, thankfully!

Ben and I didn't love any of our family pictures but these were my two favorites

And this one I love just because of Reese's smile.  I found out I could make her smile if I told her to say George instead of cheese.  I just wish Ben didn't look funny.

I LOVE this picture of Reese.  This one we printed off and is going up on our wall.

And Benson . . . well he was done taking pictures so we didn't get any really cute ones but these two were my favorite.

I love my chubby cheeked boy!  

Fun with the Hudson's

We spent a little time at my parent's house before heading up to Ben's parent's house.  We went to my parent's ward Christmas party and Santa was there.  Reese was so excited to go up and see him and make sure that he remembered that she wanted a pink bike for Christmas this year.

This year was our year to spend Christmas with Ben's family so we had an early Christmas with my family.  My parents had some fun plans but they got a little spoiled when my sister Kaylee's basketball game got pushed back to 5:15 instead of 3:30.

So we all went and watched and cheered on Kaylee and her 9th grade basketball team.  After the game we rushed home and ate Cafe Rio dinner.  Then we put on REALLY warm clothes and coats and gloves and anything else we could find and loaded up onto my parent's trailer to sing Christmas carols and look at Christmas lights.

Unfortunately it was raining while we were caroling and riding on the trailer so it was FREEZING and then when we turned the around and headed home the rain was blowing right into our faces!  Good memories!

Thank goodness my parents were prepared and had hot chocolate for everyone.  It helped warm us up a little bit!

I was soaked by the end of the ride and Reese and Benson had had it, but it was a fun memory and one they won't ever remember!  That is why I take pictures so one day I can tell them all about this picture and how miserable they were!

After our cold ride, we headed inside and our present opening began.  We were all pretty excited to open presents . . . especially my nephew Corbin!

 

Benson got a guitar and radio.  Before he even got the present open it started playing music and Benson got excited and started dancing.  He is the music lover in our family so this present was perfect for Benson.

Reese was quite excited about her tea set that she got.  She has been asking for one forever and she was ecstatic to finally get one!

Reese was also very excited about her new princess dress-ups!  She was so excited she was jumping up and down and I couldn't get her to just smile for me.

But I definitely got the BEST present I could EVER ask for!  My siblings and I always draw names  and this year my extremely talented brother-in-law Stephen drew my name.

He drew Reese and Benson as Tinkerbell and Peter Pan.  I am in love with this picture.  I cannot wait to hang it up in our house and show everyone that comes over.  So if you come over to our home it is safe to say that you will get to see my AMAZING Christmas present!

I think Benson's favorite part about Grandma and Grandpa Hudson's house was this little car.  He couldn't figure out how to get up on top of it but he liked to push it around while dragging behind it. 

Reese LOVED Lucy the cat.  The whole time we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house she just wanted to go outside to see Lucy.  She would ask everyone to take her outside to see Lucy.  Thank goodness for the big front window where Reese could sit and talk and play with Lucy, while I stayed warm.

Reese also loved playing with her cousin Corbin.  The played the game Fibber together.

And although they didn't have any idea how to play, my sister Jen was a good sport and helped them play.  I think they had a good time.

Reese and Corbin also had a sleep over.  They helped Grandma make gingerbread houses and .make home made ice cream.

Then we got on our pajamas and watched Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.  It took a lot of convincing Reese and Corbin that they wanted to watch that movie but finally they agreed with me and Grandma that in fact they did want to watch that movie.

Reese was scared of the abominable snowman in the movie but thankfully Corbin was next to her to tell her it wasn't real and by the end of the movie Reese was fast asleep.

Thank goodness cousin Corbin was there to use as a pillow.  We had a blast with the Hudson's this holiday season.  I am so thankful we were able to come to Utah for Christmas this year because we would have definitely missed out on all of these fun memories!