The Hobbs Family

Happy Day!

2011-11-14T15:53:00.002-07:00

18 days short of 1 year after her surgery, and our little bug finally got her helmet off! Her scar looks awesome. Cyrus has decided it looks just like a callipepper (caterpillar), although it's hard to see unless you are looking for it. We are having so much fun with all of her crazy curls and being able to cuddle again like a normal little one.

She's also crawling now, which we were told she would probably skip. She's happy as can be now that she can get around and get in to everything!

What an exciting day for our little family!!

Yay Preschool!

2011-09-12T15:34:00.010-06:00

I cannot believe that my Cyrus is big enough to be going to preschool! Of course, if you ask him, he's 5 and should be going to kindergarten with his other friends. But, he absolutely loves his preschool class. He goes to Miss Jill, who is totally awesome, and asks to go every day.

I have to admit, Bentley and I have a great time while he's gone, and I don't even feel guilty because he's learning and playing. Preschool is pretty awesome. :)

After he had his backpack on, he wouldn't take it off the rest of the day. When we got to the school the first day I walked him to the door, showed him his teacher who came out to get him, and he took off running, no looking back. It was very important for him to show everyone his cool backpack.

Then of course, we went to the peach days parade, here's a few pics with our family.

And just a quick update with Bentley:

We went into her July appointment with her surgeon expecting to be done with the helmet. Unfortunately, her head is not growing as fast as he'd have liked, so she's stuck with it until November. Poor girl. :( She just gets so hot, we were hoping to miss the rest of the heat. Oh well. Better that everything gets fixed now. Other than it growing so slowly though, it does seem to be rounding out pretty well and we'll hope for the best. Her hair is growing like crazy under there, and with this new helmet with all the extra holes, it tends to sprout out them more often.

She spends a lot of time in her high chair because she loves to eat.

She's on the verge of crawling, which we weren't sure she would do because her helmet is so heavy. Her therapists are pretty impressed with how well she's done as she's gotten bigger and stronger. We're working on crawling and walking and we know she'll get there. She's been a tough little cupcake!

Our Crazy Summer

2011-09-12T15:15:00.008-06:00

We've been pretty crazy this summer, here's a quick update:

We always go to the fireworks in Brigham for the fourth and had an awesome time again this year. Bentley did not like them much, but we were expecting that. Cyrus had a grand time playing with all of his cousins.

Cyrus LOVES dinosaurs, so we had to go to the zoo and see them all. He was excited to go with his aunties and Jaron, and was able to name most of the dinosaurs there. He's a little smarty pants.

Poor little Bea had to have another surgery, although this one was just for tubes, thank goodness. She screamed and screamed after her first surgery, Cyrus did after his tubes, so we were expecting her to be horrible. She mostly just wanted to sleep. The only time she really cried was when the nurse started blowing bubbles to cheer her up. Apparently she does not like bubbles. :)

Cyrus with Jaron at the raising of the angel Moroni. They were so excited when it finally went up.

3-year-olds are so funny!

2011-04-07T14:53:00.000-06:00

Cyrus learned about Travis' deoderant and begged all day to wear it. Before bed:

"Mom, I was working really hard on my firetruck downstairs with my tools, and now I'm stinky and I need some of dad's stinky stuff on my arms!"

He's definitely a boy and farts a lot. After a big one, he looked at me and said,

"It's ok that was just my butt."

He's also pretty sure he has machine guns in his behind thanks to astroboy. He's a boy through and through.

We still spend a lot of time going to doctor appointments and a lot of time in the car so we play a lot of games.

Cyrus "Look mommy I'm a lizard!" (sticking his tongue out and wiggling around)

Mom "Ok what do you want me to be?"

Cyrus "You can be a garbage truck!"

How lucky was I? :)

One day this week i went to a funeral and so was wearing a skirt. Cyrus came up to me and gave me a huge hug, then grabbed my hands and said:

"Give me your hands! We need to dance cuz you're wearing a dress and I can twirl you!"

So we danced in the kitchen. :)

He tells me all the time, "I like you mom." and loves to give huge hugs.

I love my little 3-year-old!

Fun with Friends

2011-04-01T15:56:00.005-06:00

Good friends of ours had free tickets to the Jazz game (before all the fun players were gone!) and we had a blast! Cyrus loved it. We rode the Frontrunner... How cute is this?! During our primary meeting Cyrus and Kiya pretended to be the chorister and pianist, which is funny because they're both only in nursery. So cute. Cyrus with his friend Owen. He's been so glad they moved back!

Our cute kiddos

2011-01-07T15:05:00.007-07:00

I just wanted to put some pics up of Bentley and her helmet. She's starting to really get used to the idea of it, although she still sweats like crazy when she sleeps. But even though she's getting better, her favorite time of day is still the hour she gets to have it off. Mine too. We finally get to cuddle with her like a regular baby. :)

Cyrus is still getting used to having her around. We had to bribe him to get this close. Kids are so funny sometimes.

She loves this little puppy.

And loves her hands! I cannot keep them out of her mouth. Oh well, at least its not a thumb. She doesn't love her bop, but she has tracheomalacia and a tiny throat and sinuses so I think it's hard for her to breathe and suck at the same time.

Christmas and New Years

2011-01-07T14:45:00.008-07:00

Christmas morning was really fun this year. Santa did a pretty good job with Cyrus' presents. He liked all of them and had fun playing. He especially liked his tractors. You can tell by the look on his face. :)

Bentley didn't make it long. She's used to waking up at 6 and then going back to bed, not staying up to open presents. But she did look super cute with her christmas bow. Thanks Miranda!

For New Years every year we go out to Travis' moms and spend the night. We have tons of food, crab for dinner (Yum!) and play games and watch movies. It was a lot of fun. We danced the night away on the Wii, stayed up way too late, and thekids got up way too early. :)

Bentley spent most of the evening sleeping. Our little miss just loves her sleep.

We were all exhausted by the end of the night. You can sure tell huh? :)

Cyrus loved staying up late and clinking our cups.

Christmas...

2011-01-07T14:31:00.008-07:00

I gotta say the magic of Christmas is definitely bigger with kids! Cyrus was so in to Santa this year. We saw him 3 times at the mall. He began by telling him he wanted toys (as a parent I LOVE that answer!), then the week of Christmas he was so upset after we went to buy Bryker's birthday present (a nerf gun) and Cyrus decided he needed on for Christmas and Santa didn't know. So because it was almost Christmas he got to call Santa and tell him what he wanted. Thanks Spence, we owe you bigtime!

Christmas Eve we went to Hogle Zoo with my brother and sisters and had a ball. There weren't many people there and the animals were so excited to see the kids. The gorillas were doing fun tricks, and when the trainer came out she was having them do even more. She asked Cyrus to put his hand up on the glass so the gorilla would play and put his next to it, and he said, "No I'm not a monkey!" We had so much fun.

Bent spent most of the time in the stroller like this, or being held. It was pretty cold for a little one, and her plastic helmet gets really cold, but she was a trooper.

My sis Liz with her boys...

Us...

Amy, Brian, Jaron, and the soon to be baby girl.

Ben and Johanna and their kids

Bentley's Surgery

2010-11-28T16:22:00.009-07:00

Our sweet Bentley went in for her surgery on Friday. This is before the surgery...
And this is after. Poor thing. :(
But even by the next day she was feeling better and SMILING! Her first real smiles were the day after her surgery. It's hard to imagine anyone smiling after all she went through, but I think she still just felt so much better without all the pressure in her head.

She wasn't able to keep her food down well so we were in there 4 days and 3 nights. Long and tiring nights sharing a room with a sad 2-year-old.

But now, a week post surgery, she's feeling so much better. She's much more aware, her eyes are no longer wonky, and you can just tell she's healthier. Who would have guessed a surgery would have changed so much in our little one.

Cyrus loves trying to make her smile now.

Here's our happy girl! We are so blessed.

Here's a bit about her surgery for those who want to keep reading...

The surgery lasted about 2 times as long as we had anticipated. Luckily I had my parents, and Trav and his mom to try and keep me distracted. They cut out the bone from the bridge of her nose to the crown of her head. There was so much pressure that the derma of the brain was pinched in her skull so they had to stitch it together (sounds like the neurologist did an awesome job) and her bone was so thick there it took awhile to shave it down so it will grow correctly. Her hemoglobin was low so she did have to have a transfusion, but we were expecting that. But the surgeons did an amazing job and we were lucky they were able to do it endoscopically so she has a smaller scar and can heal better. I was so happy when I was finally able to go into recovery and see her, and we definitely spoiled her while in the hospital. I don't think she was in her bed except to sleep at night.

We are so thankful for everyone's thoughts and prayers and glad the surgery is over and she can start healing. :)

Our Latest Addition... and the blessing

2010-11-09T14:50:00.012-07:00

Yep that's right. The boys ganged up on me and decided they needed a puppy. We named her Clover and she's an English setter. She's a really good puppy and I have to admit she is fun to have in our family.

This was the morning we surprised Cyrus and brought her home. He was so excited! She was his favorite puppy of the litter, and she absolutely adores Cyrus.

Bentley was blessed this last Sunday, and she looked absolutely adorable. I had so much fun dressing her up and putting her outfit together.

Here is the Hobbs family...

The Hobbs kids...

The Kunzler girls...

And our little family...

And I just had to stick this picture in. I love Cyrus's evil face while she's screaming. It's probably a good thing he doesn't want to hold her all the time. :)

Halloween at the Hobbs

2010-11-09T14:39:00.011-07:00

Halloween was fun this year, it's so much better when you have kids to dress up and take trick-or-treating! Cyrus was a spider and Bentley was little miss muffet.

We carved pumpkins for the first time together this year and it was lots of fun. I think it will become one of our new family traditions! Travis and Tom's favorite was definitely blowing them up afterward. :)

And as always, this is how our big nights seem to end with Cyrus zonked out in his carseat. He loved halloween this year!

The Babe's Surgery

2010-10-15T17:15:00.005-06:00

Just for a quick update...

Bentley's surgery will be on November 19th. What she has is called metopic synostosis where the plates in her head fused together before she was born. We're lucky she only had along 1 seam which is pretty uncommon, although its also uncommon to have it in a girl and the second child.

Here's how her surgery will go. She'll have a pretty small incision just inside her hairline. The plastic surgeon and neurologist will go in and cut out the seam of bone so that her head can grow normally. The surgery will last about 2 hours and she should only have to be in the hospital for a few days. After that, she'll need a helmet for awhile, but it's a relatively simple surgery (it's hard for me to say that because she is so small and it involves her head and brain, but we're getting used to the idea.) It sounds like the docs we have are the best down there which is really saying something at Primary Children's! Now that we know the day of her surgery we're planning on blessing her the first Sunday in November. We're so thankful for all of your help and prayers in our behalf and will keep you updated as the day gets closer.

Bentley Update

2010-10-07T16:38:00.005-06:00

Here are some newer pictures of our sweet baby girl! She's 3 weeks old now and has grown an inch and weighs 7 lbs 11 ounces. She still doesn't love to eat, but it sounds like she might be developing a milk allergy and as soon as we get that figured out maybe it will change.

She's already much more high maintenance than Cyrus was, but she's such a good baby. She sleeps between 6 and 9 hours a night and rarely cries (she's a snorter!). So no drama there, but we've been to quite a few doc appointments in the last few weeks. Here's what is going on:

It's hard to tell in most of the pictures, but she has a bump on her forehead that we found out is because the plates fused prematurely. So, we have an appointment with a neurosurgeon down at Primaries next week to check it out and schedule her surgery. Hard to imagine giving up such a little one for surgery, but we know it's for the best. Without it her brain and head will grow abnormally causing developmental problems. We're also going in to the audiologist to check her hearing again. Her ears are so tiny no one is surprised she's failed the hearing tests so far, and at this point we're just hoping her ear problems are because nothing can drain out of her tiny ear canals!

Cyrus still loves his baby sister most of the time. We're so blessed to have such a good boy and beautiful girl! All of this just really makes us realize what a miracle these little babes are! There are so many things that we could be dealing with that could be worse. We'll update again as soon as we are able to speak with the neurologist and have the tests done next week.

The Newest Arrival...

2010-09-18T22:26:00.010-06:00

BEFORE: On our way to the hospital...

AFTER: 6 hours later...

And here she is! Travis picked her name.
Bentley Nola Hobbs
7 lbs 6 oz, 19.5 inches with light hair, long skinny feet and a big head. :)

Cyrus' first look at his baby sister "Bentwey." He only asked to have her put back in mommy's belly one time. Then he spent the rest of the visit trying to feed her chips.

On our way home. Miranda made her a sweet little bracelet to wear home and grandma made her a blanket to match with her coming home outfit.

Cyrus has been so good with is baby sister, much better than I expected. He still won't hold her, but he loves to try to help her if she's crying and asks her to watch him play. He's also started giving her kisses which is really cute. She's so sweet we love having her in our family! I'll update again soon after some much needed sleep.

Summer Update!

2010-08-23T21:15:00.008-06:00

At our last appointment, the doc let Cyrus listen to his heart, and he thought it was so awesome. He was a little disappointed there wasn't a baby in his belly, but is now even more excited for his little sister.

This was at the fireworks with his favorite cousin Jodi. He loved the fireworks, but was even more excited to play with Jodi. He still begs to go play with her every day. :)

Dr. Hess had a party at his hangar and gave everyone rides in his little plane. Cyrus loved all of it including going up and down like a rollercoaster over Willard Bay. He was a little freaked when we turned and he could see down the wing. He was convinced the airplane was "falling."

One of the days we were in Salt Lake we decided to stop at the zoo and play. Always a good time!

We also stopped at Gateway to visit Rach and went into Barnes and Noble for awhile. Cyrus found all the stuffed animals and lined them up so he could read them stories.

And this is the reason I can't keep the house clean. While I was cleaning the rest of the house, Cyrus found all of his toys and lined them up in the living room. I had to sneak to get the picture with the bucket on his head. He told me it was his hat. :)

Fun at the Hospital

2010-07-03T12:59:00.007-06:00

Well, after 8 ear infections in just over a year we decided it would be best to get Cyrus tubes. He had so much fun with all the nurses and was so excited to spend the morning with grandma. He got his medicine a little early so got to spend a lot of time in the wagon riding around the hospital seeing all his friends because he was too out of it to walk. Then grandma took him to the OR, and everything went good until he woke up and realized I wasn't there and it took ages and lots of stickers and juice and cookies for us to calm him down, but now he's doing really well. He had a lot of fluid in his ears and the doc expected he would be able to hear a lot of different noises. The entire next day he kept saying to me, "Mommy I can hear a lion!" He also thinks everything is "too loud." We're just glad he's doing well and hope the tubes fix the problem so we can stay out of the doctors office for a while. Well, at least Cyrus.

We're getting closer and closer to getting our little one here. Only a little over 2 months left. How time flies. Cyrus is getting excited. He likes to try to feed her and give her drinks from his sippy because he knows she must be so hungry in there. He'll be a good little helper. We hope. :)

So Cute!

2010-06-08T14:52:00.003-06:00

Grandma: Cyrus you're having a baby sister! Are you excited?

Cyrus: "Ya."

Grandma: What are you going to name her?

Cyrus looked up at her with his big blue eyes and said, "Jesus Christ."

Not a name we had been considering but apparently it's on his list. I love having a 2-year-old! :)

Also we had our target ultrasound and got a really good profile of the baby. And guess what... she looks exactly like a Hobbs. I was hoping for a little more of me in this one... maybe she can have some of my calm, but lucky for her she has such a cute daddy!

Our Future...

2010-04-24T17:15:00.005-06:00

We are finally back online after having our computer gone being fixed for a bit. I feel like I have so much to catch everyone up on, but I'll keep it short.

We've been seeing a lot more of this again...

Definitely more of this...

And since we already have such a cute one of these...

We thought we'd try one of these...

Yep that's right! Baby girl Hobbs will be here in September! :)

Cyrus and Kyah

2010-02-24T16:44:00.002-07:00

Cyrus has his first girlfriend. Doesn't it look like a prom picture? :)

It's a New Year.

2010-01-26T14:37:00.006-07:00

Well, it's a new year which means new goals. We let Cyrus demonstrate a few of our basic family goals for us.

Eat at home more, and eat more healthy foods. We learned eating with chopsticks makes you eat slower and less, and we let Cyrus try it with us. He couldn't get it to work with his food, so...

Try new things. If that means reading your book while sitting in a laundry basket then so be it.

Read more books. Cyrus doesn't think daddy reads his books correctly (he doesn't, he likes to make up his own words) so he gets a little confused and annoyed. :)

Be more helpful.

Make more time to play and have some fun!

Stay positive and keep smiling (even when its freezing outside and your mom bundles you up so much you can barely walk!)

We're looking forward to 2010 and all the great things that are going to come with it!

Christmas!

2010-01-26T14:15:00.007-07:00

Our Christmas this year was so fun! We were able to spend a weekend in Salt Lake with the Hobbs where we saw the lights, visited Cabellas, did some shopping, saw santa, had some good tasty food and swam in the hotel pool. All the kids loved it and it was so fun to get out for the weekend. Funny that just being in Salt Lake felt like a vacation. :)

We also got to spend a lot of time with my family. We saw the lights and had my grandma's big party. Cyrus got to open his first christmas present of the year and he was having so much fun playing it was hard to get him to sit still long enough to open it. He loves playing with all the kids in my family, but his favorite is Jodi. She's close to 16 I think and they just have a ball together.

He loved everything he got for Christmas from Santa. We were all pretty spoiled this year. We love Christmas!

Quirky!

2009-12-15T14:35:00.007-07:00

Cyrus is almost 21 months old! I can't believe it! Just for fun I thought I'd post some of the quirkier things he does now. He loves to have his picture taken and loves to say "cheese!" with a big scrunched up face.

He likes to have his bed filled with blankets and stuffed animals. I don't quite understand it although Trav says he'd do it if he could. "think how warm and cozy it would be!" Whatever.

Cyrus was really sick for awhile. He had an ear infection and bronchitis which turned to tracheitis and he couldn't breathe. Poor kid. He loves his blankets so much and was so tired he'd lay down on them wherever he could find a spot. Even the kitchen floor.

His favorite snack is chips. One day trav left a bag of his favorite chips downstairs and after a few minutes of too much quiet I peeked in at him and found this. Asleep with his hand in the chips.

Like I said he loves his blankets. He puts them over his head in the car too sleep.

I don't have a picture for it, but he loves dip. Mostly ketchup, but he's not too picky as long as he can dip his food. He spent almost 30 minutes after we were done eating spearing each kernel of corn on his fork and dipping it in his ketchup. I don't know where he came from, I hate ketchup!

And who knew this is what you were supposed to do with stickers! We love our silly little guy! He definitely keeps us entertained!

Fall Catch Up

2009-12-15T14:23:00.006-07:00

I know, I know we're a bit behind. But I'll do my best to catch everyone up...

First Halloween!
We love Halloween! My grandma always has a big party and she makes tons of different homemade soups and bread (she is an awesome cook!) and all the kids dress up and go trick-or-treating. This year we were just going to dress Cyrus up in some biker clothes, but he learned to talk like a monster so I had to make him a monster costume. A little insane starting a costume 4 days before Halloween when you have as much time as I have, but he was so cute as a wild thing! And he was nice and warm being in his costume all night :) He growled and talked like a monster all night! So cute!

We have the best leaves at our house in the fall. Not so fun to rake up and get rid of, but all the kids love them! This year all the neighbor kids came to help me rake/play and had a ball! Thanks guys!

Thanksgiving...always fun, we get to have lunch with my family and dinner with Trav's which is so much better than having on and off years. I made rolls and pies, the rolls were awesome, but I think I'm giving up on pies. Not my thing. Cyrus loved it because my family completely spoils him. He played with my cousin Jodi all day, who is one of his favorites, and she let him have whatever he wanted. Fun for him, not so much for me since all he wanted was pickles. Yep, pickles. I think he ate about 20 of the small uncut dill pickles. Nothing else, just pickles. He stunk like pickles for 2 days! Yikes!

Then at the Hobbs he got to help grandma snap the beans. He spent almost an hour saying "snap, snap." Luckily grandma bought enough beans he could ruin a few.

YAY!! New Family Pictures!

2009-11-07T22:33:00.005-07:00

Our last family pictures were done when Cyrus was 2 months old, so we thought it was time for an update!

Our fantastic photo friend took them for us, Thanks Shantel!

For a preview...http://slurpee4bys1grl.blogspot.com/, or you can check on Facebook. :)

Update with Pics

2009-10-13T14:33:00.010-06:00

Cyrus is now 18 months old and started Nursery! Yay! He's been transitioning really well, and it's so nice to be able to do things without running around after him!
We went camping with some of our good friends the weekend of Peach Days and had so much fun, minus all the dust! Cyrus likes to run and fall too much to stay clean for long.

We also went to the duck pond to feed the ducks. It was fun. Cyrus' favorite part wasn't feeding the ducks, but luring them in so he could stomp out into the water and scare them all away. Thats what I get for having a little boy! :)

We went to the zoo one day with Amy, Rach, and Jaron and Cyrus spent most of his time with his auntie Rachael. He loved making noises for the all the animals. This was his pig face. It's my favorite!

My little monkey. He wasn't happy until he climbed up as far as he could on the lion statues.

The best part was the quiet drive home!

Cyrus has always had a ton of energy, and here's a good example of trying to get ready for bed. I put this in just for you Gav since you like to see Cyrus jump!