Moving Right Along

My goodness so much has happened the past couple months. We started school again, yay. We are the worlds biggest nerds and we love school. Good things have been happening with school. It is so nice to only be in classes that we are so passionate about. It makes such a big difference because we actually like the topics we are assigned. We are taking a social work research class with the worlds worst teacher.. ah. But the good news is we had a test last Thursday and we both nailed a 98% on the test which felt fantastic. I have also been blessed with understanding my Social Stats class and got a 103% on my exam, yes! Mark got notified that he is in the top 15% of his junior class.. figures that punk genius. We have put a lot of effort in getting homework done before Paxton gets here. We are happy to say that all of our papers... complete! We have spent a lot of time the past two months getting ahead so that we can spend more time with our little man. I really love having classes with Mark. It is fantastic to be able to hear each others opinions and learn form one another. I have one smart sexy husband that I love very much.  Here's our first day of school picture rocking the belly at 30 weeks!!! 

Luckily I have the worlds greatest mom and sister. Bayli and my mom threw me a baby shower at the beginning of September. It was so much fun and Paxt got such a haul. We are so thankful for everyone who came and supported us. My mom had her friend make the most adorable cake for it, I loved it! Barley wanted to cut into it it was so cute. I am excited and a little obsessed with Paxton's clothes.Now we just need him here to play dress up with :) 

 Mark and I decided that we really want to start early teaching Paxton about missions and missionaries. We started Paxton's mission fund with these cute little piggy banks and change. He has got to have close to $20 in it and he isn't even born yet. We cannot wait to raise our kids in the gospel and to teach them. I am thankful that I have such a strong husband who has such a wonderful testimony to be their dad. They are lucky! I went to my friend Vanessa Buttars house and in her families living room they had a sign that said "In this family we serve missions" I thought it was fantastic. Mom and Dad Hobbs submitted their mission papers again, what amazing examples we have in our lives.

 Since we weren't able to celebrate our first anniversary on the actual weekend or day :( Mark surprised me with tickets to the Luke Bryan, Thompson Square, Florida Georgia Line concert. We had such a blast together! I thought Paxton was going to be deaf forever afterwards :) It was so much fun to just spend time with my handsome husband and to laugh and enjoy ourselves. Our friends Jake and Kori Soffe were there too and we stayed at their house which was a blast. Thanks guys!

 Okay... I went to the Logan Pajama Outlet store and found this gem. I could NOT resist. Every baby bump needs a bear hug right? Pretty sure this is the most comfortable thing I have ever worn in my life and Mark is sick of me wearing it... but that's just too bad :) Yay for $4 sweaters

Mark had been working like crazy in the evenings after school. He is such a champ! Max and I tend to get bored without him. We are thankful for him and all he does for out little family. Mark and I were talking the other day about how much we love to have Max. He is so snuggly and cute and adds so much happiness to our life. We will have to see how he does with baby Paxton. 

 My parents are probably sick of my house. They have been so much fun and have visited a lot this fall. They came up and went to the Boise State game vs Utah State. It was fun to have them here. I love my family and feel so blessed to have such a strong support system and positive relationships with them.

Overall we are doing fantastic. I have had the worlds best pregnancy and have nothing to complain about. I am getting really anxious to meet Paxton and to do the whole birth thing... ahhhh..... I can do it! I feel so blessed that we were able to start a family when planned and that my pregnancy has been so smooth. Now its just a matter of time as to when Paxt wants to grace us with his presence! We had another ultra sound done on him last week to make sure everything was good and the good news is the doctor said that he passed the breathing test within ten seconds and they normally give them 30 min to pass. Yay Paxt!! We love you all and are so thankful for you. Until next time....

Jocelyn 

Baby P

I am officially 26 weeks into my pregnancy today. So crazy to think our little baby will be here so shortly! Time has flown by! Some of my family has been interested in how I am feeling etc so I thought I would just catch up on the blog and update our life :) 

I have been extremely blessed during my pregnancy  I guess since its my first I don't really know what to expect but from what I have heard from others I definitely can't complain. Besides some intense headaches in the first trimester I have felt fantastic. I have had no nausea  never thrown up and for the most part feel just like my normal self. Just the past couple weeks my body has started to feel tired and my feet are starting to get swollen. Lucky Mark, he doesn't have to deal with a sick wife. I think we are both pretty naive to "normal" pregnancy symptoms which we are both okay with.

Mark got to feel baby P kick for the first time on fathers day... pretty great fathers day gift!  We have decided on a name and are thrilled about that. Mark officially decided that he liked it when he decided it would be a good name to yell in the stands for basketball, typical. I am anticking a pretty large baby since Mark was over 10 lbs... yikes! I love to feel our baby kick inside me but he always seems to do it when I am just about to fall asleep. I was able to feel him roll completely over in my stomach the other day and that was for sure a new strange feeling. I hear moms say how amazing it is to feel their baby kicking and if I am honest with myself I would have to admit that sometimes I am a little creeped out by it! Takes some getting used to. 

I am still working at the assisted living helping the elderly. I really do enjoy my job but am finding it hard to lift my patients with this belly. Lots of back pain and sore feet are resulting from the 8 hour shifts. Luckily I have some really good coworkers to help out and to make me laugh. I have finally been called "huge" referring to my weight instead of my height... not too sure what to think about that. One of my coworkers was gone for a few weeks (happened to be the weeks that my belly started to really "pop") when she returned to work she was sure to let me know that I had a stomach that was huge. Haha some people are really interesting. I am used to people calling me that for my height but not for my stomach, I couldn't help but laugh. Probably not the BEST thing to tell a hormonal pregnant lady. I am going to try and last a couple more months working but baby P might make it impossible, at least in that job setting. 

Mark and I have had a really good summer. We have spent most of it working 40+ hours and packing our apartment to move. Just a few weeks ago we were able to go to California for Mark's side of the family reunion. We had so much fun with our family and playing on the beach. I even attempted to boogy board with my belly per Mark's request. Not a good idea... after a few decent attempts a large wave nailed me and my board got caught under my tummy. I had some pretty good bruises and burns on my stomach to remind me not to try again. Beach volleyball was a blast but a total fail of skills. I had a difficult time spiking and serving with my tight belly. But a blast watching my cute father in law kick trash on the court. 

We were able to move out of our tiny basement apartment and into a HOUSE. I love it!! No loud neighbors, a fenced in back yard for Max to run in, garden, babies room and all. I have had a really fun time decorating and am thankful for a loving husband that helped me decorate at midnight when I got into the decorating mood.

This week marks our 1 year anniversary. CRAZY! My older brother Jordon is also getting married this weekend. We are really happy and excited for him and love his fiance Rachel. They are getting married on the 26 in Boise and then having a reception in Rexburg the 27... which is our anniversary. I guess that means that we "get" to spend our anniversary at their wedding reception which results in celebrating our first anniversary another day. Which is totally worth it to see my best friend get married to his best friend. It definitely has been an amazing year. I love being married to my best friend. 

We are really excited to have our little baby and to be parents. Lots to look forward to and prepare for. My good friend Susan just had her little baby boy. We were able to meet him on Sunday and he is so cute! Crazy to think that I am going to be a mom to one of those sweet little souls in 14 short weeks. We also just found out that my best friend in the entire world Haley is also having a baby boy in December. I am so excited to get our little babies together and to have them be good friends! 

School starts in about a month, then real life begins again! We are nerds though and LOVE school so we are excited. I just need to become a little more social in my ward and neighborhood so I can get a good babysitter for our babe when he gets here! Luckily I only have classes for 4 hours on Tuesday and Thursday! 

We love you all!!

I found some cute old pictures of Mark when he was a baby! Love him! 

My sister-in-law sent me this picture of Mark and I at the airport after his mission... Bittersweet moment. So nervous and so HAPPY!

Review of our year ♥

 Review of our year in pictures:

January 2012: Bought my first car...now it's registered in Utah. Weird!

April: Jordon came home from his mission in Brazil....

May: I officially graduated from Western Wyoming 

July: Mark came home from his mission. Our first pic together in two years. 

July: Hobbs family reunion 

July 27,2012: We got married! 

 October: Our first Halloween 

November: Our first Thanksgiving 

December: We went on our cruise! 

 Our first Christmas tree

 December 2012: We got a puppy!! 

Here's to 2013!

Enjoy the journey

Oh my goodness... let me say that again END OF SEMESTER! We are so very close to being done with the semester and I am so thrilled. Three more tests for me and four more for Mark and then we get to pack up and head to Flordia and our cruise! We are so glad to have the semester come to an end. This has been a wonderful semester... good grades... being my first with my husband... and good jobs! We are truly so blessed.
We were able to go to Salmon for Thanksgiving. We had so much fun with Mark's side of the family. I had to work on Thanksgiving so we headed there the next day. I was only scheduled for two appointments and one of the patients did not even need help which was kinda a bummer. We were able to see lots of family at Mark's house. His brother Jeremy and his family were able to come all the way from San Jose California! We just love that family, they are so much fun to be around. We weren't able to spend a lot of time with them but it was so much fun to see their growing kids and to visit with Jeremy and DNeill. We also were able to spend time with Mark's older brother David and his family. We had so much fun with David and Gina at ALCO. Total blast and definitely something I will always remember. Mark's older sisters Julie and Carla were there with their families too and we had so much fun visiting them. Our niece Sarah came up from BYU to visit as well. It was really fun to be able to spend some time with here since I rarely have been able to do that. It is fun to spend time with her and to hear all her stories. She is going to go on a mission this coming year and we are thrilled about that. Mark surprised me and let me stop and say hi to my family on our way back to Logan and that was so much fun. I love spending time with our families. We are so blessed to have such incredible people in our lives.
Well we can officially say 8 days until we leave for our cruise. I am so happy about it and am so excited for Mark to experience his first cruise. We are so very thankful that his brother Brian helped us out with our plane tickets. Like I said, we are surrounded by amazing people. We get to go to Cozumel, Belize, Honduras and the Cayman Islands.
Recently in a sacrament meeting it was fast sunday and people were bearing beautiful testimonies but one really stood out to me. A lady got up and bore her testimony on sharing her testimony. She told us that she was just recently re-baptised into the gospel and that this was her first time bearing her testimony. The spirit that she had was so strong. I was amazed at her strength and her courage to get up and bare her testimony in front of our ward. She told us that before the meeting she looked up testimony and what it meant. She said that she read that a testimony is strengthened by sharing it. I was so touched by her testimony. I feel like we know that simple truth as members of the church but we don't really take the time or aren't courageous enough to bear our testimonies. I just want to send out a little challenge to bare your testimony more often... we never know who we might touch.
Last night I was scrolling through some wedding photos and I was overjoyed with happiness. I am so blessed to be married to such an amazing man who loves me with all his heart. I found myself tearing up and even crying with happiness. I love how some candid (not sure if thats how you spell it) shots capture people's personalities perfectly. I found myself smiling and crying over so many photos that captured just how I felt on that day and wonderful shots of others that captured their true personalities. I am so thankful for my wedding pictures and for the joy that they bring me.
Our life is so good right now. I need to be better at focusing on the positives and realizing that life is beautiful and it is even more beautiful with Mark by my side. While working for Access Home Health and Hospice I have found so many things to be thankful for. There are so many people that are in need of a friend or just a kind gesture. It is our hope as a small Hobb's family to be that light to others around us. We feel so incredibly blessed to be where we are today and to have the support systems that we do. It really is important to just take a step back and enjoy the journey ♥

Family ♥

Just last week we were wearing sandals (sparingly) and now it's snow boot season! Ah... not to sure how i feel about this. I think I have a bipolar relationship with the snow haha. I was telling Mark last how growing up I always loved the snow because that meant ice fishing with Dad. I remember being like over joyed that he was going to take me ice fishing with him even if that meant that I had to get up at 4 or 5 that morning to get ready. It was always so much fun growing up going ice fishing with him. 

Well because the weather is changing that also means that the semester is winding down. It's good to think that we made it through another semester and are that much closer to our final year. We have really loved being here in Logan and going to school. The campus is gorgeous and they have a huge institute program here which is great. On Tuesday we get to register for next semester. We have our schedules all figured out and get to be in two of the same classes together... I am thankful for that! It is going to be so much fun.

We love the holiday season but wish that we were closer to family. I had to work either Christmas or Thanksgiving and New Years Eve so I ended up picking to work on Thanksgiving and New Years. That means that we get to enjoy Turkey Day a little bit late. We are heading to Salmon the day after Thanksgiving to spend it with Mark's side of the family. We are super excited to see his family and all our nieces and nephews! 

Saturday Mark had to work all day from 9-5pm and I was trying to find something fun to do. I was trying to think of someone I could go do things with like a girlfriend or something and then I realized I don't really have a lot of friends here but Mark haha. Candace Clifford ... my old roommate from Wyoming... is here but since she is dating this nice guy from Weber State she is missing in action almost every weekend without fail. So I stuck to plan B and decided to just clean the house and do some homework. Around 10:30 as I had just finished mopping I heard some footsteps walking down the stairs into our house. Mark had told me that I had a surprise that day so I thought maybe it was him coming home early! I got kind of nervous when they knocked on the door because I was in my nasty "Saturday best" with a rag in my hand. I opened the door and to my surprise it was my mom and little sister! They had gotten up early that morning to drive down to Logan and spend the day with me. I was caught of guard because I was not expecting that, especially with the weather. 

It was fantastic to see them again. My mom brought us a whole bag full of meat that filled our freezer, which we are so very thankful for. She also brought us a loaf of delicious bread and showed me their new house plans! I am so excited that my parents are building a new house, but it is bitter sweet for me since I grew up in the one they are in now. I hurried and got ready and we were out on the town. One thing I love about spending time with my mom and sister is it almost always involves the word 'shopping'. LOVE IT. We went around to multiple stores etc. and had a blast together. We were able to find way way way cute bedspreads for some of the new rooms as well as a ton of cute clothes. I love going shopping with them because we seem to have the same taste. It was way fun seeing Bayli picking out clothes. She is growing up so fast! Every time I see her she gets taller and taller and I can not believe she will be a teenager this spring.

We ate lunch at Quiznos, they have the best chicken noodle soup ever! So good! It was fun to just spend time with them and to have a whole day filled with fun adventures. Mom took us to this neat old restaurant in Logan called the Bluebird and we tried an IronPort Cherry drink. My mom used to drink that sometimes growing up and wanted Bay and I to try it and it was amazing. I am definitely having Mark take me back there.

After a long day of shopping, laughs and fun new memories we ended the evening with Panda Express and Mark was there. It was so yummy! I am so glad that they made the trip down to see me. It was a much needed girls day and I loved having them with me. I am so blessed to have such amazing family members. There would have been no other way I would have rather of spent my day. It is such a blessing to have my best friends be my mom and sister. I love them so much and am so thankful that they braved the slick roads and spent the day with me. I LOVE THEM! ♥

Mark and I spoke in sacrament meeting today. It ended up going really great. We tied Elder Ballard's talk "Be Anxiously Engaged" and Sister Dibb's talk "I know it, I live it, I love it" together. It is so important that we are not only members on Sunday. We need to be active members of the gospel every day of the week. I really think that Elder Ballard points out a good analogy when he talks about his fathers bees and how they only brought 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey to the hive but that they 1/12 was vital to the life of the hive. I know that if we are good examples to those around us and serve with a happy attitude that our 1/12 will be enough if we all work together. It is also important that we serve with a happy attitude. When I think of someone who was anxiously engaged I think of Christ. However I don't think that he went about serving with the mindset of " Oh I hope this goes really fast" or " I really wish I didn't have to go" or "I have so many other things to do". I believe that Christ had a positive attitude when it came to service because he was converted to the gospel. Elder Ballard challenges us to pray for someone to serve. I know that this is important. Service can even just be a simple smile or a kind gesture. I am so very thankful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I know it, I live it, and I love it. 

Well the countdown begins for our cruise... 33 days. We can not wait!! We love and miss you all! Have a good week!

♥Hobbs 

( I was looking through some old pictures and found this! One day while we were dating Mark had put sticky notes all over the mirror in my room saying that he loved me. I am so thankful for such a wonderful, strong reliable husband. xoxo)