Happy Day!

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!

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

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!

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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. :)