Trip to Montana

The boys and I were lucky enough to escort my dad up to Montana. We had a blast while we were there. We took my brother Ben with us. He was a TON of help! Thanks Benny! Here's some fun pics of everything we did!


Ethan at the gas station. He's getting his treats!

The boys always get spoiled to pieces whenever we go up there. This year was no exception. To borrow an expression, "what's that I smell? Something seems to smell rotten . . . SPOILED ROTTEN!" The boys were surprised with new bikes. I don't know if we have said this enough but, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!


Not only did they get bikes, but helmets to go with them. This pic was too cute not to share.


Playing with the cousins with bubbles. They seemed to think it was fun to pop them with their mouthes. It's a good thing they are nontoxic. Connor doesn't seem any worse for the wear.


All loaded up in Auntie Sue's Envoy. My Aunt Sue is amazing. She love, love, LOVES children and spoils them to pieces. On Tuesday she loaded all the kids into her SUV for an adventure. She is one brave woman.


The first stop was Happy Meals at McDonalds and visiting Grandma Mary. Grandma Mary is my grandmother's friend from her days at school. They get together every Tuesday and Thursday for coffee. Coffee is code for lunch and shopping. Occasionally I think there is actual coffee involved.


After enjoying a delicious lunch of Happy Meals we went to the park to feed the ducks. In some ways I feel like my life has come full circle. I remember going to feed the ducks at this very park when I was younger. It was so great taking my boys to do this activity that I loved doing as a kid! There are literally swarms of ducks. Connor loved chasing them. He is one brave little kid. He fed one of the ducks right out of his hand! Ethan loved quacking at them.



After feeding the ducks we jaunted over to the playground for some good times.


After the playground we went to, by far, the coolest place I have ever seen in Montana. We drove out to this quarter horse ranch, quite the ritzy place. There, in the pasture, with a couple of horses are 2 zebras and a camel. Yes, you heard me right. Two zebras and a camel, in a pasture with horses, in the middle of Northern Montana!!! Crazy! Connor LOVED this.


The camel was on the other side of the pasture by himself. My cousin, Dawson, and I hiked over to get some pictures of him. He was still kind of far away, so this picture is the best that me and my little Kodak could get with its blessed zoom feature.


This was only our Tuesday adventure. We were there for a fun-filled week. I will try and post soon about our other days of fun!

Butt-a-saurus and belching, what more could a girl ask for!

Connor has dinosaur underwear that he dearly loves. He also has a ritual involving him turning his back side to us, pointing his derrière at us and asking, "what's that?" One evening after bathing we had this conversation:
Connor: What's that?
Me: I don't know, what is it?
Connor: It's a butt-a-saurus!
Me: (Trying not to laugh) A what?!
Connor: A butt-a-saurus! It's REALLY big!
Me: OH!!!! A BRONTosaurus.
Connor: Yeah! A butt-a-saurus!

Ethan is improving his belching ratio. He is about 60% now. Meaning, 60% are real and only 40% are fake. Dinner this evening was absolutely symphonic!

Burping Contests

That's right. I, being the proud mother of two completely awesome boys, am proud to announce that Ethan and Connor have discovered the joy of having burping contests. Of course, 97% of said burps are fake, but they have a good time "UUUUURRRRP"-ing back and forth at each other. It is a sight to behold and completely hilarious! I love my boys!

Best $25 spent EVER!!!!

I bought myself an early birthday present today. It was the best $25 I have ever spent!

Oh, how I love the D.I.!

Ethan's Birthday

I know, I know, Ethan's birthday was over a month ago. I have absolutely no excuses . . . Oh well.

Ethan started out the morning by enjoying all the decorations that magically appeared over night! (And of course did not want to stick to the walls, so most of them had fallen down during the night) The best of which was all the balloons!



Since Ethan is our leap-year boy, we had two parties! It was great fun! The first one was Saturday, February 28, and involved all of Brian's family. We had a car theme, which might have been one of my more inspired ideas. Every kid was given an apple or orange box and instructed to turn it into a car. Paper plates were used for wheels and the steering wheel. (On a funny note, Connor kept getting flat tires the whole time he raced. His whole car was pretty much demolished by the time the race was over. We're REALLY looking forward to Connor turning 16!) We used ribbons to keep the car on their shoulders so they wouldn't have to hold it up the whole time they raced. Of course we had a race. We traveled the loop that went through the kitchen, living room, and bathroom. (By far, my most FAVORITE part of this house!)

The creative process . . .



The race looked something like this . . .



My race car cake turned out well and was super delicious! Sometimes I go so overboard when I make birthday cakes they look amazing but taste awful!



Everyone seemed to know exactly what to get Ethan . . . FOOD! The kid loves to eat! Thanks to everyone who helped us celebrate! We had a great day! We love our Ethan and we're so glad he's a part of our family!

Catch-Up

I hope nobody minds, but I am going to have to play catch up for a little while. As the Kung Fu Panda would say, we have so many little nuggets of "pure awesomeness" that we would love to share with the world! All I can say is that it is good "there is no charge for awesomeness . . . or attractiveness." You all would be in trouble!


Speaking of attractiveness . . . you've got to love the blue!

Ethan has discovered the fire place. He loves to play in there. It is like a fun little hide out. Unfortunately he is FILTHY after climbing in and out of there. He will purposely throw toys in there just so he can go and retrieve them.



Connor is just as busy as ever. I love his enthusiasm for everything and love that he loves to run. It just brings this kid so much joy to run! We went to the Fun Park for my niece, Ashley's birthday. This video is of Connor and my niece Hailey. I think it pretty much epitomizes Connor. He reminds me of those old cartoons where instead of their feet you see a cloud of dust. Classic Connor.

We're Still Here . . . Sort of . . .

That's right, the Hobbs' family is still among the living! Somedays I feel as if the world has been kicked out from under us. I guess that is the way life goes. As a brief update for everyone, as of Thanksgiving Brian has not had a job. It was nice having him home for the whole month of December. Thankfully I am a crazy person who starts preparations for Christmas in July, so the boys' Christmas was all done and taken care of by the time Brian was out of work. I have loved having Brian home with me and the boys. The boys and I have been very spoiled. As you can well imagine though, there is a little bit of stress when your husband announces he no longer has a source of income for you and your family. The night Brian told me there was a possibility that he might not have a job in a couple of weeks I was a mess. There was the initial freak out of, "oh my gosh, what are we going to do!?!? We have boys that we have to take care of, bills that have to be paid, groceries to buy." You have absolutely no idea. By the next morning though, the faith had sufficient time to kick in. Knowing that the Lord would take care of us, and knowing that maybe this was an opportunity for something better to come along. Little did I realize . . .

December was a hard month. Brian without a job, and then a couple of other little nuances. Things like having your credit card number stollen by a Red Box machine, a flat tire, a carbon-monoxide scare that involved firemen in all their gear (seriously, terrifying!). All in all, a long month. It's good Christmas was in there to put a good spin on the month. Christmas was fantastic! It seemed to rule out everything that was hard about December.

January seemed to come with an explosion. My sweet, practically perfect (Mary Poppinish) sister-in-law, Cheryl was having some struggles with her leg. She went to see a doctor who told her it was probably just a strained muscle, but told her if it was still bothering her in a week to come back. A week later it was much worse. Her thigh muscle was hard and had a HUGE bump. The doctor took an X-ray and then scheduled her for an MRI the next day. He also told her with a little bit of intensity that this was much more important than school right now. With the MRI came a diagnosis of bone cancer. Even typing that now it seems surreal. My awesome,thoughtful, amazing 20-year-old sister-in-law has bone cancer?!?! All of the sudden every single one of our trials comes into perspective. How in the world can we complain about anything after seeing this sweet young woman go through something that no person should ever have to go through. I've had an aunt with cancer, and a cousin who was diagnosed with cancer at just 1-month-old; but I didn't understand. I didn't see either of them on a weekly basis, communicate with them on a daily basis, or see how it affects my husband, the person I am closest to on this whole earth and his wonderful family.

Our blessings have been so numerous throughout this . . . things that were once a challenge and trial are now blessings. My husband not having a job has been heaven sent; a true blessing. My wonderful grandparents invited us to come move into their basement which has presented a myriad of blessings all on its own. I've been able to serve and grow closer to so many people. Service truly does teach you to love.

My sweet little sister-in-law has started a blog, for anyone interested in following her progress. She is truly an inspiration to all of us. I don't say that lightly. She is amazing. Her attitude is astounding. She is teaching us all how to face every challenge and trial that we have head on. Her blog address is cherylhobbs.blogspot.com