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.