Our crazy end of the year

We had originally planned on moving to Idaho.  Ben had a residency lined up in Pocatello and so we planned on celebrating Christmas with our families.  I was excited and so were the kids.  Then about a week before Christmas Ben decided to take a residency in Georgia instead of Idaho.  So we would be spending Christmas in Dallas without our families.  I was okay with that, there was just one problem . . . we didn't have a Christmas tree or any present for our kids. 

We have been so blessed to live in an amazing ward.  We had a couple of different families say that we could borrow their Christmas tree, because they had an extra.  So borrow we did.  We put up our borrowed Christmas day about 6 days before Christmas.  The kids were so excited to have a Christmas tree.

Reese was great at hanging all the balls in one place.  She also loved redecorating the tree over and over and over again.  She did this about every five minutes.  Benson loved taking the balls off and using them for throwing practice.  He also had a nice collection of balls he had broken.

Christmas Eve came.  I was suppose to be getting a package from my parents with a bunch of presents for the kids.  My mom accidentally put the wrong zip code on the package and so the package didn't get delivered in time for Christmas.  I was so sad because in the package was the one thing Reese wanted the most, a Doc McStuffin radio.  Thankfully we had a few other things to give her. 

That night we had meatballs for dinner and an ice cream party.  We also read a story about Jesus' birth.  Then we opened Christmas pajamas.

Benson was ecstatic to have Jake on his pajamas, even though he may not look it in any of the pictures I take of him.  He is in an anti-smiling stage.  Every once in a while I can catch him smiling, I just have to snap the picture quick, otherwise he will give me the worst scowl ever!

Anyways,  Christmas morning came and Reese gave us the best gift EVER!  She slept in until almost 8:30!  It was a Christmas miracle!  We got up and the kids opened their stockings and got lots of candy from good old Saint Nick.

Then we opened presents.  Reese was excited about everything.  She was so excited that Santa Clause visited us and even more excited about the presents he left under the tree.  He also left her a sweet note explaining why she would not be receiving a Doc McStuffin radio.  That silly Santa thought we had moved to Georgia!  So her radio would be coming through the mail.  She was a little disappointed but thankfully Santa had a couple more presents for her.

Benson wasn't too sure about this Christmas stuff.  All he wanted to do was open and eat the candy that had somehow mysteriously showed up in a sock.  We tried and tried to get him to come over and open a present but all he wanted was candy.  He finally came over after everyone else started opening presents.  He is such a stubborn little boy!

Santa must have know that I have been needing some extra help keeping our home clean, because he gave Benson a broom and a vacuum.

That vacuum has been put to good use.  Reese and Benson have been vacuuming like crazy ever since Christmas day.  That Santa is a very smart man!

Tanner also got a few things, but he was much more interested in eating.  Poor guy had to wait while we opened presents.

Ben and I made an amazing Christmas breakfast.  We made ebelskivers, eggs, bacon, and sausage.  It was heavenly.  While we made breakfast the kids tested out their new toys.

After breakfast we Skyped/Face Time with our families.  I love technology and the fact that we can talk face to face to our loved ones whenever we want!  It was so nice to see their faces.   That night we had a ham dinner.  One of our home teachers dropped off a ham the night before.  We seriously have been so blessed to live in such an awesome ward.  After dinner we loaded the kids in the car and drove around looking at Christmas lights.

Christmas was very different this year but it was also fun to focus on just our kids opening their presents.  The only thing I really missed was the Christmas Eve parties our families throw every year.  It was kind of lonely, but we did okay, I think.  After the kids went to bed that night Ben and I took down the Christmas tree and packed up all of our Christmas stuff because the next day we would begin packing up our belongings and moving to Georgia.

On the 26th we packed and packed and packed.  Then we took a break and went and had dinner with some friends in our ward.  It was great to get away from our super messy apartment and have dinner with some great people.

On the 27th we packed and packed and packed some more.  Ben's parents flew in on the 27th and they were seriously lifesavers.  I will be forever grateful that they were willing to come out and help us move.

On the 28th we cleaned the apartment and finished packing up the few things we had left.  After everything was done we set off for Jackson Mississippi.  I am so glad we only decided to drive 6 hours.  We didn't leave Dallas until 2 o'clock so we didn't get to Jackson until 9:30 that night.  It was a very long day and we had two very cranky toddlers.

On the 29th we woke up and went to church in Jackson.  It was very different from any ward I had ever been too.  Everyone was so friendly and I think every single person shook our hands in that branch.
After church we continued our drive.  We didn't get in to Macon {that is the name of the town we will be living in} until about 11 o'clock that night.  I was out once my head hit the pillow.

On the 30th we went to go and look at the apartment that we had put a deposit down on.  When we got there we were in for a surprise. . . the apartment we were looking at looked nothing like the pictures online and I was not happy.  I thankfully have an amazing husband and VERY patient in-laws who let me look around for another apartment the rest of the day.  Everyone we talked to told us that there was no way we would be able to find an apartment to move in to by tomorrow.  We went to look at one more place and when we walked in to the office and told the leasing agent our predicament, she told us we could move in today if we wanted to.  She was great and showed us an apartment I like a whole lot more than the one we had put the deposit down on.  We signed the lease and decided to move in the next day because it was late and our kiddos were exhausted and to be honest, so were we. 

On the 31st we moved in.  We were all exhausted by the end of the day.  Our kids were tired from so many missed naps and late bed times, but they were seriously troopers.

We tried to let them have fun here and there and thankfully Grandma and Grandpa had iphones that they could play on/watch Super Why {that is Benson's favorite show and the only thing he wants to watch nowadays}.  We rang in the new year by going to bed at ten because the following day we had more things to do before Ben's parents went home.  

This has been a very stressful time for me, but thankfully Heavenly Father answers prayers.  We have been surrounded by wonderful people while we lived in Dallas.  I was so sad to say good-bye to so many good friends.  I am so thankful for wonderful parents and in-laws who help us out whenever they see a need.  Ben and I could not ask for better parents.  We love them and are so thankful for all they do for us.  This has been a wonderful year for our family, but I am excited to move on and start life here in Georgia.  I hope that 2014 is just as wonderful as 2013 was!

12 Days of Christmas 2013: Days 10-12

On the tenth day of Christmas the Calls gave to us, a temple popup book and a temple picture cube of the temple that Ben and I were married in.  These gifts are to help us remember how important the temple and the temple ordinances are to our family.  Without those temple ordinances we cannot be linked together forever.

On the eleventh day of Christmas the Calls gave to us, gloves to keep our hands warm.  I'll be honest, Christmas Eve was not the best day for me.  I was running around all morning trying to get a hold of a package that the post office let just sit at their office for days.  I was stressed out and very emotional so that is why this is a horrible picture and I somehow misplaced the envelope that said why we were given gloves. But the kids were excited about gloves even though they don't look it.

On the twelfth  day of Christmas the Calls gave to us, a really great surprise.  I was extremely surprised when Reese opened the present and there laying on the table was an ipad mini!  We are to use the ipad to help us learn.  The kids can use it for learning colors, numbers, shapes, letters and improving their fine motor skills.  We can also use the ipad to download the scriptures, church music, Mormon messages and other works of the prophets to gain spiritual knowledge.   

12 Days of Christmas 2013: Days 8-9

On the eighth day of Christmas the Calls gave to us, a book full of Aesop's Fables with a CD to listen to them.  We are to read them and learn the lesson that are in them to make ourselves better people.

On the ninth day of Christmas the Calls gave to us, matching ties for the guys and matching bracelets for the girls.

On the first Sunday of each month we are all suppose to wear our matching ties and bracelets.  This will be our effort to show support for our family.  On this day we will thing of our family and pray for each individual person, especially those who may be in need.

While You Were Sleeping

Dear Tanner,

Life has been crazy while you have been sleeping.  Sometimes I wish I could lay down next to you and sleep away some of our crazy moments.  To say the least, life has been very busy/interesting since you made your debut 5 weeks ago and we have so many stories to tell you!

Right after you were born daddy had finals and of course he passed all of them, but he was super busy studying.  But he always found a little bit of time to snuggle and cuddle with you for a few minutes each day.

Then daddy flew to both Georgia and Idaho for a week and a half for job interviews and we missed him a lot.  When daddy got back from his interviews he received his Master's in Prosthetics and Orthotics!  We are all very proud of him and we like to call him Master now! 

But while daddy was gone we had quite a few exciting things happen to us. 

While daddy was gone to Georgia we had a major ice storm here in Dallas.  We haven't really seen any crazy weather while we've lived in Texas but this storm was one to remember!  Our power was out for 32 hours.  The airport shut down so daddy couldn't come home, the freeways were pretty much shut down, school was cancelled, and the city pretty much closed for days.  Thankfully we are surrounded by very kind people.  Our neighbors helped mommy clean all the ice off the car and they helped mommy open the doors to our van, because they were frozen shut.  Then some very kind people in our ward let us come to their warm home and warm up for a while.  Some other kind people built a fire for us in our fireplace, they fed us dinner, and another family let us sleep at their house for the night, because our power was still out and it was just too cold to sleep in our apartment.  Mommy thanked Heavenly Father that so many people were willing to help us while daddy was gone.  We are so blessed!

Daddy finally made it home from Georgia, but was leaving the next day for Idaho.  Thankfully Grandma Hudson was coming for the week.  We had so much fun with her.  We decorated Gingerbread men.  Reese loved putting all the candy on her little man but not Benson . . . he is so silly.  If Grandma put any candy on his gingerbread man he told Grandma, "no, no" and took it off.  He liked eating the candy more than decorating!  Maybe next year will be different, I doubt it though because your older brother seems to have been cursed with mommy's sweet tooth.

Reese and Benson caught really bad colds while Grandma was here.  They were coughing, had fevers, runny noses, and were pretty darn tired/moody.  We mostly stayed home and watched movies, hung out in our pajamas, read books, and made lots and lots of snowflakes.

There was one thing mommy wanted to do while Grandma was here and that was go to the Nativity.  Every year our Stake gathers up thousands of nativities and puts them on display, it is beautiful!  Mommy wanted to take Grandma and Aunt Michelle so we ventured out.

It was beautiful and so peaceful compared to mommy's chaotic life.  It was nice to take a breather and remember the reason for the season.

Your brother and sister loved playing in the stable and pretending they were Mary and Joseph.  Reese took good care of baby Jesus and wrapped him up so he wouldn't be cold.  She will be such a good mommy one day.

Grandma had to go back home to Utah and we were all sad to see her go.  That night, Reese came into mommy's room crying and told me that her ear hurt and that she needed a band-aid on her ear.  We didn't get much sleep that night, but thankfully all of Reese's tossing and turning and crying didn't seem to bother you.  You slept through everything.  We went to the doctor's the next morning and Reese had an ear infection.  We made a run to Walmart to pick up some meds for mommy's two little sickies.  Mommy could tell Reese was really sick because she wouldn't eat anything, she was laying on the floor at Walmart the whole time we were there, and when we got home she fell asleep on the couch {that never happens}.  Mommy felt like she was running her own little pharmacy and it was hard trying to remember everyone's medications.

Daddy finally came home after all the chaos was done with.  He was offered both jobs in Idaho and Georgia.  We were so excited to have a job but daddy was a little stressed out with his big decision.  After lots of contemplating and praying for guidance, we decided to accept the job offer in Georgia.  We are so excited for our future.  Mommy is a little nervous to move again and start all over and move even farther away from our family in Utah but it will be a great experience for Daddy and I am sure we will have lots of adventures and stories to tell you about Georgia.  We are moving after Christmas and we still don't have anywhere to live, but I keep reassuring myself that we will find something.  We like to keep life interesting Tanner, otherwise we would just be so bored!

Mommy and Daddy love you so much Tanner.  I feel so blessed to be your mommy and thank Heavenly Father every day that you came to our family.  Thank you for sleeping so much and making this very stressful time in mommy's life a little bit easier.

12 Days of Christmas 2013: Days 6-7

On the sixth day of Christmas the Calls gave to us bags of popcorn.  For some reason my children decided that they needed to wear hats to open our gift today.  Don't ask me why.

 But anyways, we were given bags of popcorn.  One of the bags was for us the other was for us to give to a friend.

On the seventh day of Christmas the Calls gave to us a CD with songs for the kids to dance to or stretch to, along with some bean bags that go to some of the songs.  We also received an I Tunes card so Ben and I can enjoy listening to some good music too!

12 Days of Christmas 2013: Days 4-5

On the fourth day of Christmas the Calls gave to us a new ornament to hang on our tree.  This ornament is to remind us of the value of family.

On the fifth day of Christmas the Calls gave to us a plaque with our family name on it.  This gift was one of my favorite gifts.  I have always wanted a board with our family name on it, but I especially love this one, because it is to help us remember how valuable our family name is and that it should never be tarnished.

12 Days of Christmas 2013: Days 1-3

Last year Ben's parents started the tradition of the 12 days of Christmas.  We were excited to know that they would be doing the same thing this year.  This years theme is "Some of life's fondest memories are made when gathered around the table".  Each day we receive a gift with an envelope and a card inside explaining the gift and a story to read.

On the first day of Christmas the Calls gave to us some games to play together.  We received cards to play Go Fish and The Water Game.

Reese was so excited to play a game together.  Instead of playing Go Fish we played the matching game.  She was quite good at remembering where all the matching cards were.

On the second day of Christmas the Calls gave to us a stocking with Jesus' name on it.  We are filling the stocking with slips of paper of kind things we do for others.  Then on Christmas day we are going to give a gift to Jesus by making goals of how we are going to become better people in the year to come.  Then next Christmas we will open our goals and tell how we did with that goal.

On the third day of Christmas the Calls gave to us the cutest doormat I have ever seen.  The card we received that day talked about how our families should stick together no matter what.

Santa

Today we went to Bass Pro Shop to go and see Santa.  Reese was so anxious to see him and she was all smiles while we were in line.

Benson didn't want to even look at Santa and I knew he was going to be one of those kids who cried and screamed while on Santa's lap.

We waited in line patiently and when we got up to see Santa . . . well just look for yourself.

At least Santa is smiling and Tanner looks pretty darn cozy/happy.  My other two darling children, well I think this would make a nice mug shot of them!

Merry Christmas from our happy children!

Picking a Name

Picking a name for our children can be quite difficult for me and Ben.  Actually it is almost impossible for us to agree on a name, especially boy names. 

Before we found out that Tanner was a boy, I was secretly praying for a girl because we had a name picked out and ready to go {we actually both agreed on the first and middle name, and there was no fighting involved}.  When the ultrasound tech told us we were having a boy I was dreading what was to follow.

Ben informed me after the ultrasound that he would like to choose our little boy's name because I got to choose both Reese and Benson's names.  I reluctantly agreed and so began our quest for a name for our baby boy. 

The first name Ben threw out that he truly loved was Bradson/Bradsen.  I'm not even sure how you spell that name.  When Ben told me that was the name he wanted I laughed and asked him if he made up that name.  "Yes!" he said, "Isn't it a cool name!"  I laughed and said we were not naming our son Bradsen/Bradson.

The next name Ben was really adamant about was Rob.  I told him no way and then he began trying to talk me into the name.  He asked me and I quote, "When you think of the name Rob don't some really cool people come to mind?"  I told him no that I didn't know anyone named Rob.  He then went on to name a bunch of people he knew named Rob but unfortunately I didn't know any of them.  Then he named Handsome Rob from the movie the Italian Job.  I told him that he was definitely not who I wanted to name my son after.

I tried giving some input and making a list of names that I liked.  I gave the list to Ben and he went through and crossed every single name off and then added Bradson/Bradsen and Rob.  We weren't getting anywhere.  So I got to the point where I avoided talking about baby names period, because I got frustrated/upset every time we talked about baby names.

At about the time I hit 33 weeks in my pregnancy, I realized I couldn't avoid baby names forever so we started talking about names again.  For a week straight we laid in bed at night and Ben would name off names he thought were great names for our little boy, among those names were Bart, Art, Calvin, Lloyd and my personal favorite Frank.  Those were the names I sat up in bed and said, you aren't really serious are you?  He was dead serious.

After many late nights, we finally agreed on a name, we were going to name our little boy Elliott.  We were both excited about the name, that is until we told Reese.  When we told her what we were going to name her little brother she said and I quote, "Elliott . . . no that's a dumb name!"  Ben and I looked at each other and said maybe we should rethink our name choice. 

And so back to the drawing board we went.  We had talked about the name Tanner a couple of times but I never really loved the name, but it was growing on me because honestly, anything was better than Frank. 

We had asked Reese what she thought about the name Tanner a couple of times.  There was never any hesitation about whether she liked the name or not.  She loved it!  In fact, she told me that one day when she had a baby she was going to name her baby Tanner.  It was definitely a keeper.

 So after much deliberation and many sleepless nights we decided to name our baby boy Tanner {after Ben's good friend} Robert{after my dad} Call.