Hobgood's Life in Pueblo: Hey all! I missed the Christmas card rush, so here is the news.

Time has escaped me once again as I become involved in work and family and just everyday life.

Our holiday season was filled with activities with each of the three families. It is so fun to see how the kiddos pair off in little groups. Logan and Owen are inseparable with Star Wars projects, battles, Legos and reading. Amelia and Wyatt enjoy art projects together. Laila and Wyatt are great buddies and love to run around the house screaming when chased by older brothers. Cavan and Molly just join in where they can and are very entertaining. Amelia and Laila enjoy girlie stuff and playing with animals.

Amelia

Shep and I spent Christmas with Ben, Brenda, Amelia and Cavan. What a joy it was to play Legos with the kids. Amelia got a set of girl Legos which she thoroughly enjoyed. Cavan is remarkably good at eye-hand coordination for his age. The funniest thing is the names of their inventions. The only downside was the little bitty Legos scattered on the floor. Nana invented an “ A and C area” which was designated with a box to keep the Legos out of the walkway. It worked like a charm. We also spent some time watching the kids sled down a hill in the yard, ate some great food, thanks to Brenda’s cooking skills, repotted some of the plants, and did some household projects. One of my joys is reading to the kiddos, curled up on the sofa with a good cup of tea. Amelia is enjoying kindergarten and producing some awesome artwork that adorns my fridge. She loves her animals and wants a cat in the worst way. After the cat smell fiasco in the house, we got her a Fur Real kitty for Christmas.

Cavan

Cavan is loveable as usual and has such a big boy voice.
He speaks slowly and with a very determined expression on his face. He has become interested in Star Wars like the cousins, and loves his light saber. The family also visited us in February and we watched the kids while Ben and Brenda went on bike rides in Pueblo. It was beautiful weather for them to get away for a couple of hours each day. Of course we got together with the Hobgoods in the Springs, which is always good for laughs-the cousins get along so well and are great entertainment. They all visited the Dinosaur Museum in Woodland Park. They kids loved it, and got some great pictures. Ben has really been busy with work and traveled to Canada, Kansas, San Francisco and Florida over the last couple of months. He has slowed down on the house projects and no longer works until 10:30 at night. I got to help him with the stone surround for the stove they put in – I had forgotten how artistic he is! Instead of doing a regular wall, he had to curve the corner and add hours of work, but it is beautiful. Brenda is busy as director of the Bailey Hundo – the 100 mile mountain bike ride in June. She is busy with registration and all of the board meetings and arrangements. It really is a year-long endeavor. She has done most of the painting in the house as well as keeping track of the kids 24/7. The kids keep her busy with transporting to school and back, and the other activities. They are settled in their beautiful home and can enjoy it more now that it is truly livable.

Josh, Bree, Owen, Wyatt and Molly are one busy family. We have been to their house a couple of times to watch kids for activities, spent time at Christmas opening their gifts from us, and went to Wyatt’s 4^th birthday party (a monster theme). Josh said that he woke up the morning he turned 4 and was really disappointed that he didn’t feel any different! Gee, I hope it always feels like that for him. I can’t say that for myself!

Owen

Owen has blossomed in 1^st grade this year. The Star Wars Legos are his toy of choice as well as the books about all Star Wars details. He seems to have grown up so quickly, become so much more independent and developed a great sense of humor, especially with Papa Shep. He is such a good big brother for Molly – very attentive and a great teacher (it must run in the family). Wyatt is going to Little Gym, and we are going to his class soon to see him in action.

Wyatt

He has the greatest belly laugh, so our goal is always to try and crack him up when we visit. Shep can usually get a good laugh out of him. He likes Marly (their dog) now after months of keeping them separated. One day he just decided Marly was okay. Molly is talking like crazy, and is remarkable easy to understand. She still climbs and jumps off of furniture like a little acrobat. We celebrated here 2nd birthday in December.

Molly

She is tiny, but mighty. The girl has no fear and a great sense of balance. It gives me a coronary to watch her, but the parents just take it in stride. She has no problem keeping up with the boys, and she looks so cute doing all of their Star Wars antics. Josh is busy as usual with the school year and all it brings with discipline and teacher evaluations. He is also playing tennis and doing mountain bike riding again in his spare time. Bree is one busy mom, but finds time for Yoga and activities with friends. We always love the chance to sit for them while they spend a couple of hours to see a movie or eating out.

Logan

Becky, Devin, Logan and Laila came through for the trip north for Christmas. On their return home, they came by early because other family members were sick. We always enjoy these trips. Logan and Laila always crawl in bed with me in the morning so Mom and Dad can sleep in. We get to read books and have great visits. It is such a tradition for all of the grandkids to hop in Nana’s bed in the morning. It is always cut a little short when Logan gets hungry, though. My goodness that kid can eat! We had a great visit and Becky and Devin got to get out for an evening. The weather was good enough that they didn’t have bad roads to trave;. In January they came to Pueblo to leave the kids with us while they went to Salida to stay and ski Monarch for two days. The snow was perfect, and they had a great time. Shep and I took Logan, Laila, Owen and Wyatt to the Children’s Museum with Josh. Molly was sick, so Bree couldn’t come. Becky and Devin came back on Sat. night. The weather forecast was pretty bad, so the headed out Sunday morning at 8:30 and managed to outrun the storm. It was a good thing, because it got really gnarly here for the entire day and night. Logan loves school and basketball right now. He may play soccer this spring. Basketball is his favorite team sport, but he loves to ski, too. They go to Pajarito, a ski area 15 minutes away. Becky said it was really hard to let him take off on his own with a buddy and enjoy the slopes. Everyone knows everyone else, so the kids are always safe no matter where they go in town or on the slopes. He still loves to vacuum the rugs when he comes and this time he spent about 1.5 hours in the yard trimming bushes and raking up trash.

Laila

Laila and I had come in and I finally had to go out and bring him in when it was getting dark. He is crazy helpful! Laila is such a sweet girl. She probably likes reading the best, but she will set up stuffed animals and talk to them and arrange little piles all over the room. We also have these pink and blue snakes that were a game and she lined them all up on the rug and played for an hour with them just talking quietly. I think maybe she was playing school because she was making each group of them a picture. Pretty hilarious. She is skiing like crazy and carves her way down the slope. Between skiing and ballet, she stays in great shape. She will start kindergarten next year, and reminds Becky of the Kindergarten Roundup coming soon. Becky is busy at work and still running regularly with friends. She and friends hiked 5 miles into a hot springs, had lunch and soaked for 3 hours. I could use a good soak myself. Devin is still researching and hoping the government cooperates so he can continue doing what he loves.

I'm dressed for my prom (our event at work)

Work has been another adventure in transition. Julie (who hired me) that I also worked with at CSU-Pueblo, went to work for Black Hills Energy. I miss her terribly and of course it caused a lot of craziness as you can imagine. We had a huge fundraising dinner in February which put a lot of pressure on all of us since we were one person short. We hired a part time person to help out and survived the event and made some money. I worked 40 hour weeks from January through February and it about killed me. I much prefer my 20-30 hour weeks. I still enjoy the job and plan to stay until they kick me out. We have events planned for almost every month this year, so I never have a shortage of work. The board is not hiring an Executive Director until after May, so the interim is our marketing and membership coordinator, so she really has her hands full!

Shep has become a true community activist. He is involved in Sierra Club, Health Care for All Colorado, the Archeology Society of Pueblo and sings in the choir at Ascension Episcopal Church. I doubt that he will be able to work at an ordinary job, since he is always going to meetings! He loves the social contact. I trail along once in a while if they are serving good food.

We have had some beautiful sunny days, so I have watered my plants and am working on cleaning up the construction mess from the water line installation. I am planning a little sprinkling system in the back yard, but I have to move pavers and gravel, so I have been getting a good workout. Curves is great, but I much prefer working outside. This year we bought some furniture from our neighbors Ken and Carol. We now have a cranberry colored sofa and a huge chair with an ottoman. I recovered the chair so I will attach a picture. I spent two weekends while the winter weather was ugly and really enjoyed myself. Now I have to recover the rocking chair and ottomans and make more pillow covers. We play cards with our neighbors every so often and I think it is just an excuse to eat goodies and drink wine. Carol and I are both waiting for good weather to do some yard projects. She has a lot of lavender plants for me to thin out and put in my front yard. I still get to see my friends from CSU-P for drinks or lunch and we get to catch up on each other’s lives. Now with Julie gone from BHS, I need to be better about scheduling our get-togethers.

We are planning another visit to Sand Dunes in June! Yea!