Happy 2nd Birthday, Molly!

Our little sweet pea is 2!  We celebrated twice this year with a friend party on December15th and a fun family day on December 22nd.

 

We went with a Christmas theme for her birthday, because we wanted to host a little ornament exchange for our friends and their kids.  It was fun and simple, especially since most of our friend's kiddos are closer to Owen and Wyatt's ages.

 

We made a little candy cane ornament.

 
The grandparents stayed past the party for lunch and present opening.  It was a really fun day!

On December 22nd, Molly opened her presents from us.  I love how we reacted with the same facial expression to this card!

 

Josh and I got her a little dollhouse.  She has played with it all day.

After lunch, we headed to a nearby nature-center for a "sleigh ride" and a hike.  It was almost too warm for jackets!

One of the best parts was all the fall leaves.

 Where's Molly??

 

 

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas...

Thanksgiving 2012 in Salida

This year, the Hobgood clan rented a big house in Salida, so we could all be together.  Josh's brother, sister, and parents all gathered for 4 days of fun, with 7 kids between the ages of 6 and almost 2.  The kids played non-stop from the moment they woke up until after they should have been asleep:-)  We had beautiful weather and were able to spend time outside every day. 

 

 Kid table!!

 We took everyone to a beautiful aspen grove, thinking that the kids would like running in and out of the trees.  What they REALLY loved was breaking the ice on this little stream.  Owen is standing back in the red coat in this picture.  This is the only picture we have of him during this outing.  He was running around on his own missions the entire time.  Wyatt and Molly were much more photogenic.

 

Cousins doing some teamwork coloring...

Watching "Elf"...

Playing at the park in Salida...

October video highlights - some reading, some singing, and some Halloweening

 

Happy Halloween 2012!

As most of you know, Halloween is Wyatt's favorite holiday.  He has been talking about it and making plans for it since April of this year.  Luckily for us, I think Halloween was everything he dreamed of.  We had three big Halloween events this year. 

 

First, a dress-up storytime at the library, complete with a pumpkin scavenger hunt, refreshments and a decorate-your-own-treat-bag craft.  The kids had a blast! 

 

Here's our cute little ladybug, knight, and superhero pumpkin, all ready for storytime.  Owen takes being a knight very seriously.

I couldn't resist some of these outtakes and action shots:-)

Our next event was the annual JDRF sugar-free Halloween party.  This was our 3rd year to attend and the kids continue to have a wonderful time.  It's always one of the highlights of the fall.

Molly was pretty unsure about all the games, but she still had fun running around and being cute.

Wyatt impressed everyone with his strong arm!

This is what Owen looks like when he's having a great time, but doesn't really want his picture taken:-)

 Then, it was finally the big night. They were all too excited about their glowsticks to really stand still, but we got a couple of cute pictures!

 

Owen's glow stick was a sword and Wyatt's was an axe. 

Superhero pumpkins have to know how to jump! 

Wishing Star Farm

We spent a beautiful Sunday at Wishing Star Farm, in northern Colorado Springs.  The kids had a ton of fun on all the attractions.  There was a barrel train...

...a giant swing made out of culvert pipe...

 ...a giant hay pyramid for climbing (look at that blue sky!)...

 ...pony rides (Wyatt refused to do this)...

 ...a 100ft slide into a little gorge...

 ...and a pumpkin patch!  We each got a pumpkin with the price of admission, so we were loaded down on the way out!  It was Molly's idea to ride with the pumpkins:-)

 

Photo highlights: September 2012

We took the kids up to the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, which is above the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  It was so beautiful.  If you're ever at the zoo, take the time for an extra trip up there:-)

 

 They sometimes like watching shows all cuddled together.

 Molly is our little trendsetter. 

 She also loves reading.  She follows me around most of the day with books, saying "Ree" (read).

 Wyatt has also been a little trendsetter.  There is no telling what he'll want to wear each day.  Maybe Halloween socks and a stocking cap on a warm September day?  He wanted to take this picture outside of Joann Fabric, where we went with my sister and mom to get Halloween costume supplies.

 Molly adores playing outside at the Belteau house.

 All the kids were extremely excited to wear new fall clothes last week.  Especially Owen.  Check out his Lego Batman shirt!