Happy 1st Birthday, Molly!

On a very snowy December 22nd, Molly Katherine turned 1!  We were supposed to celebrate with the grandparents over lunch, but everyone was snowed in, so we celebrated with our little family of five.  Molly really loved opening presents.  She got a picnic table (which she loves to climb on...yikes!)...

 ...some walking ducks (Wyatt might like these more than she does!)...

 ...and a new book...

 We made her pastel angel food cupcakes.  The best cupcakes ever, according to Josh!

Molly had never tried any sweets before.  We discovered that she likes them!  She INHALED her cupcake.  The frosting was really pale pink, so the boys decided to call her "pink Santa."

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!

Snow Day!

It finally snowed enough to play outside in snowsuits.  Yahoo!!

Happy Thanksgiving...plus Molly is 11 months old!

Our little Molly is 11 months old! She has been walking for a couple of weeks and LOVES it!  She keeps herself busy walking, climbing up the stairs, playing and reading.  She loves books and will turn the pages, point to the pictures and babble, just like a big kid.  She now has 5 teeth and is about 17.5 pounds.  She is a great eater, trying most foods...even broccoli!

We had a great Thanksgiving Break, with Josh off for the entire week.  One of the highlights of the week was going  to a climbing gym in Colorado Springs.  Owen took a climbing class with one of his buddies, and Josh and I climbed with friends.  It was our first time climbing in YEARS and we all had a blast!

We also had time to play at home, building Trio creations and being "brave cowboys", as Wyatt says.

We made a "thankful" tree this year.  Josh, Owen, Wyatt and I added a handprint with something that we were thankful for every day, for 10 days.  This is the finished product.

We spent Thanksgiving in Monument this year.  We played, both inside and out, most of the time.  It was nice enough to be outside without a coat!  Josh and I had time to do an epic Christmas shopping trip, the boys (including Josh and Pop) saw "Puss in Boots", and I caught up with a high school friend.  It was a wonderful holiday!

Molly has mostly been working on walking this month, so here is a little video of her "achievements."  You can see how excited she gets at the end of the video when she finds books.  She sure loves reading!

Get up, Stand Up

Molly is officially walking!  And standing up on her own and taking a few steps before falling (which is hard work considering all the chaos she has to walk through!).  Each day, she improves, so we may have a GREAT walker on our hands by the time she turns 11 months next week.  Until then, enjoy this little video of her progress!

A Very Hobgood Halloween 2011

Our Halloween started off with the annual JDRF sugar-free Halloween party.  It was a beautiful day at the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs.  There were tons of fun games, a pinata, and pizza inside, but we mostly took pictures on the grounds.  The boys were very excited to be in their costumes (Darth Vader and Anakin, who is the younger, "good" side of Darth Vader).

 Later that same day, we went to a family Halloween party at a friends' house.  Josh and I dressed up for the first time in years.

 Here's our cute little cat!

 They had a pinata, too.  It was much too tough to break with a light saber, but little "Anakin" had to give it a try!

On Halloween, Owen had a "Books on Parade" day at school (the whole school brought books containing their character and had a parade through the school), followed by trick-or-treating in our neighborhood in the evening.  Molly was too tired by the time night fell to go door-to-door, but she sure had fun being a cat earlier in the evening!

It was beautiful weather for trick-or-treating and family pictures by the pumpkins.

There were many, many light saber battles between our light and dark sides of the Force.

 This picture is a slightly fuzzy, but I just had to share a shot of the little cat tail in action!

Molly is 10 months old...

Molly is 10 months old now and busier than ever.  She still is just crawling, but is experimenting with standing and walking (holding onto our fingers or pushing a toy along) more and more.  She also started talking a little bit, saying "dog" (her word for all animals) and "that" quite often.  She's been teething like crazy, with 4 teeth total and at least 2 more on the way.  She is still not quite 17 pounds...I think she's too busy to gain much weight right now.  Somehow, we got to the end of the month and realized that we were too busy to take many pictures/videos.  All 3 kids (plus Bree) had colds, Molly was fussy with teething, Josh went hunting (a success! Ben and Josh both got deer), and we had visits from Lauren, Becky/Devin and family, and Brenda and the kids.  Here are a few cute shots from the few pictures that we took...

In both of these pictures, Molly was trying to get away from Owen, as he crawled after her.

 Molly loves to eat, especially bananas.

 Owen went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch earlier in the month. 

 Wyatt was busy trying to line toys up all along the outside of his blanket.

 Owen had "crazy hair day"at school.  He wanted spikes in his hair, like Darth Maul.  It was getting too long to work with gel, so we used little clips.

Wyatt is showing us his best monster impression.

We mostly have videos of Molly trying to talk this month.  If you listen closely in the first segment, you can hear her say "dog".  The second segment shows how she can really crack the boys up.  She said "doey" one time and everyone completely lost it.  The video shows the boys trying to make her say it again.

Epic Battles

Do all brothers love to play fight?  Owen and Wyatt sure do, whether it's with light sabers, nerf swords, or their bare hands, we can expect at least one amazing battle each day.  Here are a few that we recently caught on video.

Molly is 9 months old...

Molly is 9 months old!  She is almost 17 pounds and is getting her top two teeth (she got the bottom two at 6 months).  She is so, so happy, as long as she can get on the floor and play.  One of her favorite places to play is the tunnel.

Molly is super busy, as always.  She crawls, pulls up and holds onto things with just one hand.  She's experimenting with letting go and trying to launch in different directions.  She has not figured out that she can take steps on her own, though.  We just started putting her in the walker in the garage and the push-walker in the house.  These toys have driven her busy behaviour to a whole new level.  She's on the go so often, that I had trouble taking her picture...she never stays still.  The next few pictures made the boys laugh because they are "typical" Molly-is-playing looks.

 Molly and Wyatt are enjoying a little walk through a community garden in downtown Colorado Springs.  We went there on one of Owen's days off school.  Owen said it was the best day ever!  I think he was ready for a day at home with the little ones (and mom).

 I couldn't resist sharing this cute pictures of the boys at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, from when Lauren and Jerod visited.

Now for the Molly videos...

The first video shows some of Molly's new accomplishments: trying to communicate and trying to walk.

I had the first video made and ready to go, and then she started doing all sorts of other cute things!  The second video is more of a "day in the life" look at Molly...a few snippets of how she acts most of the time.  The little bouncing and launching move cracks us up.  The boys never did anything like that!  We keep thinking that one day she'll just spring up into a standing position:-)  And, yes, we're listening to Handel's Water Music, one of Owen's favorites.  My grandmother would be proud!

Tiny Town 2011

We visited Ben, Brenda, Amelia and Cavan over Labor Day weekend, and, as is becoming tradition, we made a trip to Tiny Town. 

All the kids had fun, but Wyatt just about lost his mind.  He could have explored the little houses for hours and hours.

 Wyatt and Amelia were cute little partners.

Heeeeeeeeeere's Owen....

Molly even got in on the action!