Top 14 in 2014

2014 was a great year for the Call clan.  We had a lot of changes and firsts for our family so without further adieu here is our top 14 in 2014.

14.  Ben found a great job in Georgia and we found ourselves moving even further from our families in Utah.  But Ben loved his job and he had a great experience working for Hyde Prosthetics and Orthotics.

13.  For my birthday Ben surprised me with the best gift EVER!!!  A surprise visit from my sister Michelle!  I seriously had no idea that she was coming and was completely surprised when I hear a knock on my door and opened to find her and Piper there!

12.  Our trip to Panama City.  Even though our car broke down on the way there, we had a blast going to beach and swimming in the beautiful ocean.  The only downside to our trip... Ben getting fried!!!

11.  Reese learning to swim.  We didn't sign Reese up for swimming lessons this year because they were outrageously overpriced so I decided to teach her myself.  After lots of crying and screaming on both our parts, she finally learned to swim!  It was definitely a proud parenting moment.

10.  My little sister Kaylee and my nephew Corbin came to visit.  They stayed for a whole week and we had so much fun with them.  Although I don't think Corbin will ever visit us again, he got REALLY homesick.

9.  New family pictures.  I love getting family pictures.  I don't enjoy the stress of getting everyone in coordinating outfits but I love getting back our pictures and being happy that we got a least one good picture of everyone.

8.  Getting Benson into a big boy bed.  That one was a relief because it meant that we could finally put Tanner in the room with Reese and Benson and we could have our living room back.  Yes, Tanner slept in the living room for the first 9 months of his life.

7.  Benson is potty trained!!!  Such a relief and it is so nice to only have ONE child in diapers!!!

6.  Atlanta aquarium.  This was the coolest aquarium I have ever been too and it was worth every penny!  So glad we took the time and money to go before we moved from Georgia.

5. Lunch dates with Ben.  We didn't do them often but it was always something I looked forward to.

4.  Halloween.  We had such a blast dressing up for Halloween this year!  But my favorite part was seeing the joy on my children's faces from everything that was going on around them. 

3.  Moving AGAIN!!!  Ben's work didn't have enough money to keep him around for the second half of his residency so he was in need of a new job.  Thankfully, he had a really easy time finding a new job.  Twin Falls Idaho here we come!

2.  Spending Christmas with family.  It was noisy, sickness was everywhere, but it was wonderful!

1.  Celebrating 6 years of marital bliss with this guy!  And we made it a family celebration this year because of lack of babysitters out in Macon Georgia.  We don't hope to continue this tradition.

We have been so blessed this past year in so many ways.  Here is to another great year and hopefully 2015 will be even greater!

Happy 19th

Since Ben and I got married 6 years ago we have taken my little brother Jared out to Red Robin for his birthday.  It is a yearly tradition and we have never missed.  Last year we were in Texas and in the process of moving to Georgia so there was no way we could make it home to take him out to dinner.  We were both bummed that we were going to miss our tradition.

So when we found out we would be moving to Twin Falls and we were going to be in Utah for dinner both Ben and I were excited to take Jared out for lunch on his birthday.

Jared's birthday is December 31st so we don't ever go out to dinner but to lunch because dinner at a restaurant on New Year's Eve would be crazy so we miss the crowds and go out to a late lunch.

We love Jared and I am so glad that he lets us take him out to lunch every year.  I enjoy going out with him and talking to him.  It is hard to believe he is already 19!  It kind of makes me feel old because my littlest siblings are getting older which officially makes me old!!

Oh and the best part about going to Red Robin for Jared's birthday is not the food, it is the Mile High Mud Pie!  Best thing on their menu by far!  I don't need Red Robin's food I need their Mile High Mud Pie!  Happy birthday Jared and please stop growing up!!!

SNOW

Our kids don't remember snow.  The only thing they know about snow is that Elsa makes snow in Frozen, they make a snow man named Olaf, and that snow is magical {and it seems fun to play in}.  Since we told them that we would be moving to Idaho and that is snows here they have been so excited to move, just for the snow!!!

Thankfully the snow did not disappoint while we were in Utah!  They got to build a snowman while they were at Grandma Jan's and at Grandma Hudson's house... well she had a surprise for them!

Her and Grandpa Hudson pulled out the four wheeler and sled's!!!  They were so excited!!! 

Corbin was over too, so they had a blast taking turns riding on the sled's in Grandma and Grandpa Hudson's big yard/field.

After about 5 minutes of riding on the sled all Benson wanted to do was drive the four wheeler.  I mean really, who wants to ride on a sled when you can drive.  Grandma was a good sport and let him help her drive.

They all had fun!  I learned something new about Reese today though, she is a thrill junkie!!!  The whole time she was on the sled you could hear her yelling, "FASTER Grandma!  FASTER!!!"

I'm just glad that the snow is as magical as they thought it was going to be!

Sick

Without fail every year at Christmas someone from our family gets sick at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Sometimes it is multiple people.  This year was no different from any other year.  Multiple people were sick and Reese and Benson were the lucky ones to get sick this year.  But the bad thing... mom and dad weren't around.

Ben and I went up to Twin Falls on the 26th to move our things in to our new apartment.  We took Jan, Kyle, and Brad with us and left all of the kids in the care of Crystal and Malia.  Those two were amazing because taking care of our little Benson is no easy task and they succeeded!

But anyways, about halfway through the day they noticed that Reese and Benson were running fevers.  They were the best little nurse and took good care of our kids while we were gone.  Of course they had to wrestle and pin Benson to the ground to get him to take any medicine but hey, I would have done the exact same thing if I were there.

We came home that night to two sick kiddos.  We put them to bed and the next morning they both had high fevers again.  This continued for the next few days.  On Sunday, the 28th, Reese woke up throwing up.  We were suppose to be heading down to Spanish Fork that night to surprise my dad for his birthday but it didn't look like we were going anywhere.  

Poor girl threw up for the next few hours until about noon.  The great thing about Reese being a little bit older, she can actually make it to the toilet now!!!  It is wonderful to have a child old enough to understand the concept of throwing up into the toilet!  I never thought something so silly could make me so happy, but it was nice not to have to clean up throw up out of the carpet every 30 minutes.

By noon Reese was telling me she felt all better and she wanted to eat lunch.  I learned a long time ago that when kids are sick you don't give them much to eat but Reese was ravenous and wanted to eat everything in sight.  I kept trying to tell her that maybe she shouldn't eat so much but there was no stopping her. 

Thankfully she kept everything down and we headed down to Spanish Fork that night.  My kids were still sick for the next few days.  Whatever they had it was not a fun bug.  But it just wouldn't be Christmas if someone wasn't sick!

Christmas 2014

Ben and his Dad drove into Utah on the 23rd of December.  We could officially begin our Christmas vacation.  I had been looking forward to having Christmas with family ever since we found out that Ben got the job in Twin Falls.

It was fun to do our own little Christmas last year but I enjoy being surrounded by family at this time of year.  We spent Christmas with Ben's family this year and it was CRAZY! 

There are now 10 grandkids and four of them are babies so it  made for a VERY loud house but it sure was fun to be surrounded by our family again!

Christmas Eve we went to Tepenyaki.  Ben was ecstatic!  That is his favorite place to eat and if that was his only gift for Christmas he would be okay with that.

This year Jan made a reservation for our whole family and we got our very own room away from all of the crowds!  It was great!  The food was incredible as usual and it was great to be away from all of the people.

 Oh and by the way our kids are crazy for not liking/eating any of their food!  They have no idea what they are missing out on!

After we stuffed ourselves we went back to Brad and Jan's house for our Christmas devotional and the kids opened up a present before bed.  They were so excited to finally get to open a present!  Reese and Benson had been asking all week long when they would get to open a present!

We got all the kids dressed in their new jammies and snapped a couple of pictures.  Then Kajsa, who is the sweetest little girl ever and she is also our niece, wanted to have her picture taken with Reese.

These two had WAY too much fun together!  Reese has missed have a close girl friend that she could play with and do girl thing with.  Her and Kajsa hit it right off and they were two peas in a pod for the rest of our time at the Calls.

Then it was time for bed.  Reese couldn't wait for Santa Clause to come and Benson kept telling me that he liked presents but he didn't like Santa.  Needless to say they both couldn't wait for Christmas to come!

We were up by 7 a.m. the next morning.  We tried to get breakfast going but there was no containing 10 very excited kids so we went and opened presents.  They got to open their stockings first and found some very exciting treasures inside!

 And then it was time for presents!  It is what my children had been anxiously looking forward to all week long.  Reese went and grabbed a present that had her name on it that she had been eying all week long.  She would ask me every single day when she was going to get to open that present, so naturally that was the first one that she opened.  And what was inside did not dissappoint!

We did a very small Christmas for our kids because moving is kind of expensive but when they opened our presents and they got so darn excited... well lets just say I loved seeing their excited faces when they got something they had been asking for for a really long time.

The kids loved Christmas and they spent the next few hours playing with all of their new toys and showing their cousins what they got!  We had a great Christmas! 

What was the highlight of Tanner's Christmas?  This little purple feather duster that came with Reese's cat!

Oh and all of the grand-kids got new snow gear!  Thankfully it snowed on Christmas Eve so there was plenty of snow to go outside and test their new snow gear out in.  Reese had been DYING to go outside and build a snowman so as soon as breakfast was over she had her snow gear on and she was ready to go outside!

 She was outside playing with her cousins for like 2 hours!!!  She had fun to say the least!

And I got the BEST Christmas surprise EVER!!!  Brad and Jan gave me a new phone!!!  Not just any phone but the Iphone 6!!!  I was ecstatic!  My phone has been having a rough time and so has my camera so to get both in one present... BEST present ever!  We had a great day and we were so happy to be surrounded by family!

We were exhausted by the end of the day... 

some of us more so than others!

The flight

My in-laws Brand and Jan and my brother Derek came out to help us get packed up and moved.  They are seriously the best and I am always so grateful to our family that has helped us on every single one of our moves.  We are definitely blessed!

Anyways, the men were going to drive our stuff and our cars cross country and Jan and I were going to fly to Utah with the kids.  I was so grateful to not have to drive with my children for three day straight.  I think I would have gone crazy by the end so thankfully we only had to endure 5 crazy hours.

Our flight took off at 3:30 Georgia time.  That morning we got up got ready and ran a few errands before heading to the airport.  We still had to turn in our apartment keys but unfortunately no one was in the office.  We hung around Macon for 2 hours waiting for someone to show up.  I finally left a message on their emergency line asking them to please call me back because we needed to catch a flight and I needed to turn in our keys.  Someone called back about 10 minutes later and told me to leave the keys in our apartment. 

Then we were on our way.  At about 1 o'clock we stopped for lunch at a Pizza Hut.  They had their buffet out and it was delicious.  At bout 1:40 we got back on the freeway and as soon as we did we noticed that they traffic was not moving!!!  Jan and I both panicked!!  We could NOT miss our flight.  Thankfully the slow traffic only lasted about 5 or 10 minutes and then we were on our way.

We were both a little worried that we weren't going to make our flight because we still had to find the airport, turn in the rental car, and load up all of our stuff and make our way in a VERY timely fashion to our gate.  I seriously didn't know if it was going to be possible.  Then to make matters worse the phone GPS/SIRI decided to take us to the airport offices instead of the actual airport!!!  I tell you that SIRI, I don't trust her when it comes to getting directions.  Jan pulled the car over got GPS working and we were off.

We finally made it to the airport and we turned in our rental car.  Now came the hard part.  Between me and Jan we had 3 kiddos, 3 car seats, two purses, two backpacks, one diaper bag, one great big suitcase! 

We kept Tanner in his car seat and Jan carried him, her backpack, her purse, and she was pushing the suitcase.  I had my purse, the diaper bag, Benson's car seat, and Benson's hand {because he is not capable on his own}.  Reese had her backpack and her car seat {we turned it into a booster seat for this trip}.  And we were off.  Two minutes later Reese tripped and fell with her booster seat and told me she couldn't carry it anymore.  So I decided to take it, which meant I couldn't hold Benson's hand.  I thought he would be okay, I would keep my eye on him.  We came to the escalator and I was right behind Benson, I told him to go and he went.  Little did he know that the floor was going to split and down he went.  He banged his head HARD and we were blessed that he didn't split his head open.  Thankfully he calmed down quickly and we were off again.

Jan took the Booster seat from me so I could hold Benson's hand and we told Reese to push the suitcase.  Our next step in our journey was the elevator.  It opened and it was packed.  We told everyone we would catch the next one but they insisted that we could fit so in we squeezed.  Two seconds later Benson realized that there was a dog on the elevator and he started freaking out.  Thankfully we only went down one floor and we were out.  Otherwise I don't know if I would have been able to contain Benson.

We took two trains which were the highlight of Benson's day.  He still talks about them all of the time.  We checked into our flight and checked our suitcase and Tanner and Reese's car seats which made our load a LOT lighter and much more manageable. 

We made our flight thankfully and so began our 3 and a half hour flight to Denver.  We kept Benson's car seat to contain him so we strapped him in, buckled Reese into her seat, Tanner was in my lap, and we were ready. 

Reese and Benson were great on the flight.  They were so excited about everything!  Tanner on the other hand was tired and did not want to sit in the same place for 3 and a half hours!  Jan and I passed him back and forth trying to entertain him but it only worked for a part of the time.  The last hour and a half Tanner screamed and there was no consoling him.  He wanted down and we wouldn't let him down and so he screamed and screamed and screamed. 

I was so happy when that flight was over!  I booked it off the plane with Tanner and as soon as we were in the Denver airport I let him crawl to his hearts content!  We had an hour and a half layover in Denver so we played on the escalators, elevators, took walks, made some new friends, and ate dinner. 

Then it was time to get on our next flight.  As soon as we got an the airplane Tanner started screaming again!  He knew what was coming and he was not going to sit through another hour and a half flight. 

Thankfully Jan had the great idea to put Tanner in Benson's car seat this time and put Benson on my lap.  As soon as Tanner was strapped into the car seat he zonked out and he stayed that way for the rest of the flight.  He never made a peep!  About 10 or 15 minutes into our flight Reese told Jan that she was tired, laid down on her lap, and went to sleep.  Benson on the other had was too excited and was awake almost the entire flight.  He slept the last 15 minutes.

But we made it to Utah!!!  It was so great to be back!  We were EXHAUSTED and ready for bed though.  As we were going to pick up our bag and car seats I saw my sister Kaylee, then my brother Jared, then my parents!?  What in the world!?  They surprised us big time!  It was wonderful to see them and they ended up being a BIG blessing to us.  Jan and I had two cars to pick us.  She was going to pick up the car that her and Brad had left at the airport and I needed to pick up my brother Derek's car.  We weren't sure how we were going to divided and conquer.  But since my parents were there they went and picked up my brother's car which we waited for our bags.

Well our bag came but not the car seats!  This day seriously could not get any longer!!!  So Jan went and tracked down our car seats while I sat with the kids and visited my brother and sister.  A few minutes later Jan came back to tell me that the car seats never made it on the airplane!!!  At that point I didn't know if we were ever going to make it home.  About 20 minutes later Jan came back with our car seats.  They had somehow miraculously found them in with the ski stuff!  And so we were off!

I said good-bye to my family and loaded up my tired kids in my car.  We made our way to Syracuse and by the time I got there are all my kids were asleep again.  I herded them into Jan's house, we got them ready for bed, and FINALLY put them to bed.  It was WAY too late.  It was only 10:30 Utah time but to them it felt like 12:30 {Georgia time}.

After we put the kids to bed I gave Jan a huge hug and told her thank you!  I could not have done that without her!  We both vowed to NEVER fly again!  At least not with kids!  When my head hit the pillow that night it was the best feeling EVER!