2009 has been a very quiet year for our family. We are not quite sure what to do not anticipating a move, a change of house, or not having an addition to our family. We have enjoyed our surroundings this year in Minnesota.

DOUG is still working for SuperValu keeping the grocery business running smoothly.
He is also still helping in the Young Mens in our church. I'm not sure he ever wants our boys to grow up and be 14 after being around all these boys for the past 2 years.
Doug has also had the privilege of working in the St Paul temple every other Saturday. It has been a great blessing in our life.
Doug is most grateful for the time he is able to be at home wrestling with the boys.

BONNIE has the blessing of staying home each day taking care of these energetic boys. She has had fun taking the boys to the zoo often this year. She also has enjoyed watching Andrew continue to read and has started to teach Jacob to read.

She is teaching the 6 year old kids in our church and has enjoyed being in Primary with Andrew and excited to see Jacob come into Primary.

ANDREW is 5 and has had a very busy and exciting year. This past summer he started soccer for the first time and loved playing. He even kicked 4 goals.

Andrew started Kindergarten this year and has LOVED every day. He goes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday all day. He rides the bus with the big kids and comes home on the bus with the big kids. He loves getting to eat lunch there too. Andrew loves to read and his Mom is always trying to find things to challenge him in reading. Andrew has also enjoyed getting to know lots of new friends at school.

JACOB is 3 and a ball of energy. Some days we wonder if Jacob is going to be a gymnast. He loves to do flips and cartwheels all throughout the house. He is always bouncing off the couch. It has been an adjustment for Jacob to have Andrew gone all day to school. He always asks if we can go get Andrew from school. He is starting to enjoy the one on one time he has with Mom though. Jacob loves to do anything with his "best buddy" Andrew. They play outside on their bikes and also love to play super heroes. Jacob also is enjoying learning to read and doing school work with Mom.

DANNY is 1 and a very happy kid. He loves to play with his brothers. It's fun to see him laugh at what his older brothers are doing. He loves to play catch and to climb on everything in our house. Every inch he grows, he finds another cupboard to explore. He keeps us on our toes trying to "baby proof" our house from this little climber.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

This past spring we took a vacation WITHOUT CHILDREN to The North Shore here in Minnesota. This is the area up along Lake Superior. This is in our top 10 most beautiful places we have ever been. It was AMAZING! We hiked a lot and saw the amazing waterfalls and cascades. If anyone would like a tour of The North Shore, we would love to take you up there!

This summer we took our 22 hour road trip to Utah. Our first stop was North Logan to be with Doug's family. We camped up Logan Canyon for part of the time we were there. The boys loved being dirty, playing with their cousins, and hiking with Dad. Bonnie was happy to survive the mice problem and Doug loved being up in the mountains again. We had a great time being with family laughing, eating great food and singing silly camp songs. We are still singing about a baby shark and a moose:)

After our stay with Doug's family, Doug flew home to work and Bonnie and the boys stayed 2 weeks longer. We drove down to Cedar City to spend time with Bonnie's family. This was the first time in 2 1/2 years that we had all been together. In those 2 1/2 years, there have been 6 new cousins born into the family. It was fun for all the little kids to get to play together. We had fun riding the 4-wheeler and having a big water fight with grandpa.

A summer wouldn't be complete without a trip to the State Fair. We had a great time taking our friend Brandon, who was visiting from Arizona, with us. We rode plenty of rides, saw different shows and animals, but most importantly, we ate lots of fried food.

In October we where lucky to have Doug's sister Kristin, her husband Bryan, and daughter Tasha come to visit. We had a great time taking them up to Duluth. We also went to the Science Museum and the Mall of America. It is always fun to have family come to visit!

We are very grateful this Christmas Season for our Savior. This Christmas we have tried to teach the the boys more about the true meaning of Christams which has been wonderful for all of us to remember. May we each be able to fill our Savior's love for us this season and all year long.

Merry Christmas and
Happy New Year!

Love the Hobbs Family

We would love to hear from all those who read our "green" Christmas card. Please leave a message of what you are up to this season.