Annie Oakley & Wild Bill

When Mike was getting all of the Christmas decorations out of storage, he ran across his original Nintendo and Sega. What a blast from the past!!! (Side note: our kids have zero experience with video games - we're talking not even leapsters or anything) Really the only game that they could play was duck hunt, and since they totally get hunting and are around it, I agreed to let Mike teach them how to play. Well, it turns out they think it's pretty cool. Wyatt actually figured out how to aim and is pretty good, while Cora just points and gets lucky I think, either that or she's a natural with a style all her own! We've all had fun with it - Mike and I are constantly rematching each other at Dr. Mario, I'm currently the title holder! It's been a welcome new activity in the coooooold weather!

Brothers and Sisters

We are continually blessed by the sweet friendship that Wyatt and Cora have! A couple weeks ago (before the deep freeze set in) they had a playdate at the park with daddy, and then they wanted to go for ice cream (brrr!). That was fine by us though, because of course we went to Winegars and got a nice hot coffee! The top picture is of Cora, who likes ice cream, feeding the last few bites of hers to Wyatt, who LOVES ice cream! Usually he won't touch anything she's eaten off of (can't say I blame him, 2 year olds tend to make a sizeable mess out of their meals!) but he was all about finishing it up this day!

Paci Twins

Actually they are called Bicey and Binky by these sweet girls! A couple weeks ago we had Cora's sweet little friend, Elie, for the afternoon, and realised just what a couple of peas in a pod these 2 are! They both "needed" their paci's and friends (Gracie Cow and Porky Pig) to ride in the car. They then spent the afternoon playing my little ponies, doctor, dress up and dance!

Kickin off the Christmas Season

A few days before Thanksgiving we went downtown and checked out the Cocoa Stroll. We had dinner at the best little soup place to warm up beforehand, and then walked around to check out all the Christmas trees. Our downtown is so great, I just love all the events they put on throughout the year. For this one, at least a dozen businesess decorated trees with different themes and about a dozen more had wreaths. We only visited the trees, which were gorgeous, and each stop had abundant cookies and cocoa. Ours were about the only kids down there, so at every stop people were handing them cookies. I gave up for the night and just let them have all the cookies they wanted, they loved it and it just made it so much easier! My favorite stop was the Clymer Museum because they had about 12 trees (one was a coffee and chocoate themed tree)!

Wyatt's favorite tree - he's holding a "long horn cow ornament" that we later went back and bought
Cora's favorite tree, all snowy and covered with animal decorations - she too later got to go back and get the little bear she's holding.

Just happened to find scarves in one of the little shops that matched the cute hats I bought them this fall and the scarves are made to look like catapillars! Of course Wyatt had opted out of wearing his hat that night in favor of a hat that says "chicks dig big bucks!" (as in deer, not money) - something he rescued from Mike's Goodwill pile. Thankfully he can't read yet!

Cookie monsters!

Thanksgiving Day

We spent the day at my parent's again this year and had a great time. It was just us, my parents and my grandparents and uncle, nice and quiet. Wyatt spent the afternoon working on a new Legos set (well actually daddy did most of it), Cora watched intently and I got to visit with my mom and grandma, not to mention the delicious dinner - it was great!

Reading with Uncle Rick

We sure are thankful for these little monkeys!

Finishing up fall

The holiday season is in full swing and I have yet to catch up on the last half of fall! We were blessed this year with an amazing fall, so many fun times and great memories.

How Daddy cleans up

Need I say more.....

Tiny Dancer

I'm quickly realising that Cora is my artistic little free spirited girl. Much of her "attitude", strong will and spunk can be traced back to me, but free spirited I'm not. :) I sometimes struggle with that a little, but am really beginning to have joy in her free spirited, "life's a song and dance" outlook and ways of doing things. I posted previously that this fall she was old enough to get to do a special activity all her own, and no suprise, she chose dance. At this point I still do the class with her (it's actually called music & movement) so it's really hard to take pictures and participate. In the class we do obstical courses, play instruments, dance, play games, etc. Miss Sara, the teacher always has a theme or topic for the day; a concept she's trying to teach them. They have a ballet barre on one wall, mirrors on the other, and Cora likes nothing more than to spin, twirl, leap and skip while watching herself in the mirror. A couple weeks ago while Wyatt was at school she asked me to play dance class with her, so I was able to capture a little of what "dance class" is like for Cora.

All decked out - we don't dress up quite this much for the actual class!

But look at that smile - pure joy!

A beautiful bow!

Notice the feet on this one and the
next 2 - she's all about the toe point and watching herself! :)

For Great Grandma

Thanks for the sweatshirts! We just love matching!

Soccer

Long time...no updates! I think I might finally have 5 minutes to post a few new things! We've had a really busy, but very fun past few weeks.

One thing that we've been doing for the past 6 weeks is soccer for Wyatt. This is first sports sort of class/ practice that he has gotten to do and he LOVES it! His coaches are a couple of college age guys and they are really good with the kids, very patient, encouraging and know how to have fun. The soccer that he is doing right now is through our rec center, so it's indoors, and is for kids 3-5. They warm the kids up with some running and stretching and then do drills teaching specific skills that are involved in soccer and do some game sorts of things. This past Wednesday was the last day for this fall and they ended it with a game against the parents. I sent Mike out as our rep in the game (I love soccer and would have gone, but it was ALL dads!) and it was really fun to watch the kids try to get the ball around all the big guys. He had the best time, laughing, running, grinning and just super eager to kick the ball, throw it in, be the goalie, anything he could have a turn to do!

All smiles - especially when it's his turn to do something!
Waiting for his turn with his buddies Emmit and Jesse

With coach Eric - Wyatt thinks very highly of coach Eric!

Look at that grin!

Silly before Sunday school

From left to right we have Kitty, Wyatt, Prena, Cora and Charlie Horse (yep - she named him herself!), all posing for Daddy before church last weekend.

Moss.....

Wyatt (while eating soup): "Mommy can I have a straw to suck out all the moss?"
It took me a minute but I realised he wanted to drink the broth with the straw, but thought it was called moss??? :)

When it rains.....

"you need your brun-ella (umbrella) mommy" Cora tells me. :)

Fall Fun!

The weather so far this fall has been a bit "unconventional" shall we say! It seemed like forever before it cooled of to the point of calling it "fall" and then it was just flat COLD! However, we have not let that get in the way of having fun! The kids have discovered the joy of riding ponies, we've visited pumpkin patches, picked apples and enjoyed the AMAZING color that God has given us to enjoy!

Nashville

About a month ago I had the amazing opportunity to go to the national MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) convention in Nashville Tennesse! This was the 1st time I'd ever left the kiddos for more than 2 nights (this was 4 nights, 5 days), 1st time flying since our honeymoon (before 9-11) and 1st time flying alone! Quite the land mark event for me! Thankfully the trips there and back went totally smoothly and I figured everything out and didn't get lost. :) The convention itself was spectacular! The hotel was incredible and the convention was full of great information, resources, speakers, music, etc. It was a very busy 5 days with little sleep and it took me about a week to recover, but I'm looking forward to next year! Thanks to my friends and family that helped Mike out while I was gone, it was such a treat to get to do this!

Our worship line up included Matt Redman, Plumb, Natalie Grant and Mathew West - they were all SO good and SO nice!
Some of the beautiful sights in our hotel. It's 3 big clear domes that have "outdoor" areas, so you feel like you are outside, but really you are in a lovely temperature (and humidity) controlled environment!

Downtown Nashville on the Cumberland River

The 7 of us who went to convention this year!

Partners in crime

Even partners in crime chill out every once in a while!

Back to school family night

A few weeks back we had a little Hobbs family, family night! Pizza and brownies were ordered, along with a movie and a family campout in the front room. I pulled out my "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook and made the brownies and pizza from their recipies, which included spinach puree` in the pizza sauce and spinach and carrot puree`s in the brownies! I'm sure watching the movie while eating helped, because ALL of them ate ALL of their dinner! I was so happy! Even Mike wasn't totally aware of what I had "hid".

We watched a Veggie Tales movie, "The Pirates who don't do anything" and I have to say even Mike and I were really into it! At the end they do a little remake of the B52's song "rock lobster", only the veggie tales do "rock monster" - I have to say it was pretty awsome! Ever since then the kids want me to play Rock Lobster in the car all the time (yes, I am admitting to owning a B52's CD - but it's from a very long time ago!).

Then we all attemped to camp in the front room. There was a bit of running and bouncing across the air matteresses, but in the end everyone settled down and slept great!

a little to wound up to sleep!

running across the beds

watching the movie

thumbs up for spinach in the brownies!

First day of school 2009

Their cute little school

Wyatt and his good friend Jesse

ready to go - kitty and all :)

The new "bigger boy" back pack - yes I did notice that it matched his 1st day outfit! :)

This year Wyatt is in the 4/5 class at his preschool and goes to school on Mon/Wed/Fri from 8:30 to 11:30. He has the same teacher and assistant teacher, and mostly all the same friends are back from last year. He is loving it, and Mike and I just feel so blessed to have such a safe, caring and fun place for him to go to school! Go Mrs. G amd Miss Naomi!