Downtown Aquarium

One weekend, I wanted to take the kids so that Darren could have a few unterrupted hours of "kid-free" time. My mom and I were sitting around trying to decide what to do and it came down to the zoo or the aquarium. We asked Tevin whether he'd rather see animals or fishies to which he excitedly replied, "FISHIES!!!" I wasn't sure if he knew we weren't talking about the Pepperidge Farm variety, but I knew he would enjoy the experience regardless. So off we went to the Downtown Aquarium where we saw some pretty amazing sights. Tevin and Brynlee were both out of the stroller within a few minutes of arriving, and they pretty much owned the joint. This is the only picture I was able to capture that wasn't too dark or blurry. We finished our awesome afternoon with a fantastic late lunch at the Aquarium Restaurant courtesy of Gammy K. A very memorable day indeed!

This Little Piggy

I've been wanting to put Brynlee's hair in pigtails since before Christmas, which was right around the time people started saying she has a mullet. You know, Business In Front, Party In The Back? Anyway, I finally found some hair bands that don't slip out of her very fine hair (unless, of course, she's pulling at them, which she is inclined to do after about 20 minutes of wearing them). Here she is modeling her new 'do.

And She's Off!

Brynlee is now walking full speed and is doing it about 99% of the time. Here's some fun video of the progression from the first few steps (and Tevin's pretend first steps) to steady walking around the house in pursuit of a yummy granola bar. This is how she is now... no more crawling! Even outside on the rocks she prefers traversing the terrain on her feet. We're somewhat amazed how quickly this all came about. It was just over a month ago that she wasn't even trying to walk!

Little Walking Girl!

After only a few short months crawling around, Brylnee decided that she wants to go hands-free! Though she isn't walking everywhere (yet), she has gone from one side of the family room to the other without being prompted. She is getting more and more sturdy on her feet and knows she's doing something pretty cool. I expect her to be racing around the kitchen island with Tevin in no time!

Arizona Christmas

A few days after Christmas, we went down to Phoenix to spend a week with the Stauth family. Darren's sister and her family live in Denver and have made it tradition for 12 years to go down to Phoenix for the fun. This is our first year travelling to Phoenix after living there for so many years! This trip is something we will continue to look forward to, year after year. It will be amazing to watch as our kids grow as the Hobens have watched theirs turn into adolescents and young adults.

Christmas in Phoenix usually entails a lot of family, fun, and FOOD! I think we ate out almost every single lunch and dinner we were there! Our first evening there, Tevin enjoyed his milk in his "big boy straw cup", and Brynlee liked sucking on a slice of pizza. The whole family posed for a picture... I think there were almost 20 people there! The following night, we had Christmas with The Stauths at Darren's grandparents' place. Brynlee got two new baby dolls which she snuggled and loved so much. A few days after that, we enjoyed our traditional trip to Oregano's, a delicious Italian place in Scottsdale. We went to Civic Center Park for pictures. It was indeed nice to get out of the cold and into short sleeves for a week!

Christmas!

The first picture is actually from a few days before Christmas but it's so cute!

Christmas Eve was spent at Gammy's house with all of the uncles and aunt, and even great Aunt Kristin. We all had a very good time enjoying eachother's company.

Christmas morning, Tevin woke up and came downstairs to find that Santa had brought him a new electric train. It was chugging around the track which was carefully placed around the tree skirt under the tree. We were so excited to see his reaction that we forgot to get his face on film but it was indeed priceless. He was also excited to see that Santa had eaten all the cookies we'd made for him the day before.

Both kids were in awe of the events, and the fun continued at Grandpa's house on Christmas Day when they found a new red wagon to enjoy! We spent a very long time going up and down Grandpa's long hallway, back and forth, back and forth. We didn't get a lot of pictures of the events because we were so busy taking it all in.

Kyndall's Graduation

Kyndall is Darren's oldest neice. She graduated from CU Boulder on Dec. 21. We went to the ceremony up at the campus. Tevin clapped when everyone else clapped and when everyone stopped, he would put his finger up to his mouth and say, "Shhhh!!" It was so funny. Afterward we went to her party. We stayed all day and had a lot of fun with the family, including Grandma and Granddad who flew in from Phoenix for the big occasion.