the hoskinson hotel

Our fall days have been filled with visits from friends who live both nearby and around the country. A friend of ours had surgery and stayed with us for a few days. We also had our friend come from San Francisco to stay. Last week my high school small group spent the night for a good ole' slumber party- complete with lots of food and scary movies. We also had friends over for dinner and friends over to carve pumpkins. Addelyn has had lots of fun hanging out with everyone. It has been a busy household but well worth the time we have gotten to spend with people we care about very much!

We took advantage of the great weather this past weekend and enjoyed some time outside with Addelyn. I hope that wasn't the last of our warm fall days!

Our friends Jon and Bridget came over the other night to visit with their little girl, Addison. Addelyn and Addison are three months apart and it was fun to see them together. We decided we will have many nights ahead of the couples hanging out and the girls playing together! Addison is such a cute little blondie!

*Jon and Bridget were the ones that suggested that Mark and I date each other- which sparked us hanging out after we hadn't seen each other since college. We will forever be thankful for that! :)

Markus, our friend from San Francisco (originally from Germany), came to visit and stayed with us last week. He is an amazing guy and it was so much fun to have him here with us. He is a missionary and is on staff with Youth with a Mission-http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org/ in San Francisco. Markus and I did a Dicipleship Training School together in college and he ended up going on staff with YWAM. It is pretty cool how that connection turned into the opportunity for our youth ministry to take high school teams out to San Francisco (which we have been doing for the last few years.) Markus has made a ton of friends in Iowa now and may even come live here someday. This is his third trip to Iowa already! :)

Our family with the finished pumpkins, whoops I showed you the finished product before the carving...

Our friends Kilra and Aqualya came over to carve pumpkins with us last weekend. Each girl picked a stencil to use and worked hard on carving. They did an amazing job. Mark and Addelyn and I helped a little but they did most of the work.

Addelyn helped by chewing on the pumpkin pieces.

As you can see, Addelyn really didn't care much about the pumpkin carving activity! She was more interested in grabbing the little pieces of dirt and dead ladybugs off of the ground (and mom kept busy trying to keep them out of her mouth!). Oh the mind of a baby....

i'll show you how to dance!

Anytime there is music playing, Addelyn has really been showing us her moves. I don't know where she is learning moves like this. Maybe from her dad? :)

10 months!

The sign had to have a separate picture all on it's own this month. Getting Addelyn to take a picture with the sign was impossible....

As you can see....she is much more interested in the paper than the camera.

Which is why I said, forget the paper, we'll just try to go for a picture!

Ten months has flown by. I can hardly believe it. We ended up getting Addelyn's nine month check-up right at ten months. She was in the 50th percentile for her weight, length, and head. An average sized baby! She is just under twenty pounds, 19 lbs. 3 oz. (my back and arms are starting to notice). She is 27.5 inches long. A growing girl!

The tired "I need a nap" stare

Eating meals gets more fun by the day as Addelyn is able to eat more and more table foods and enjoys feeding herself. She still has pureed food and cereal but has been trying many other foods. She loves green beans, cottage cheese, and Cheerios right now.

While I'm getting dinner ready in the kitchen, Addelyn loves to dig through this cupboard. She plays with the tupperware and pulls everything out. For awhile, it wasn't the most baby friendly cupboard but I finally got on the ball and moved things around so she can safely pull things out! It happens to be that in this picture, she had just found an open package of her favorite crackers and helped herself to them. I looked down to find her eating!

cowboys and cowgirls

The crew from OHC

My cowboy....

Oh wow.....not much to say about this... :)

The Hansen & Hoskinsons- wow, don't we look like we came right off the farm?


On Friday night was the Camp Wildwood Fundraiser/Barn Dance. There were a group of people from Orchard who attended and it was definitely a good time. Even more fun was the fact that we dressed up for the occasion. I have to admit, our household was bare when it came to finding cowboy gear so thankfully Jess Hansen supplied us with lots of great options.

Camp Wildwood is an amazing camp that provides a place for at-risk kids to go for a week and just be kids. I had the opportunity to go two summers ago and spend a week as a "Counselor-in-Training." It was such a great experience for me to be there with the kids from Waterloo, watch the counselors in action (they are amazing, giving people!) and see all of the kids' lives changed.

For more details, check out their website:::

http://www.wildwoodhillsranch.com/

Hartman Reserve Pics.....

This pic was taken at the end, Austin was grabbing Addelyn's shoulders and she was getting cranky!

Now why would we sit still for pictures?



These are some pics taken last week with Austin, who is just 8 days younger than Addelyn. It is fun to see them both develop and change alongside of each other! These pics were taken right at nap time so it was pretty interesting trying to get good pics. They are both very mobile now too so they didn't really want to stay in the same place for long. Fun times......

laughs with daddy

our little mogwai.....

Last weekend, while Mark was on a guy's trip to Nashville for some sporting events, Addelyn & I visited my family in Steamboat Rock. What do you want to bet that Aunt Jiller will be mad that I put this picture on the blog?! :) That is Grandma Lora giving Addelyn her bottle.

Addelyn & I with my Grandpa and Grandma Kramer (her great-grandparents)- of course, she wasn't looking at the camera- she was much more interested in Sadie, the dog!

Notice, everything goes to the mouth!?

This month, at our house- you'll find us having lots of fun, as Addelyn makes us smile and laugh more than you can know. She is changing by the day. She has been saying things like, "dadadada, mamamama, nononono" for awhile now but just recently has discovered the meaning of some of the words. Last weekend, she said "Mama" to me a number of times when I was leaving the room or when she wanted up. Of course, Mark was gone on his guy's trip and still doesn't believe it. It happened though. I think he was hoping for "Dada" or "Hawkeyes" for the first word. Yes, I am serious, he is working hard on teaching Addelyn the word and symbol of the Iowa Hawks. Addelyn has also been understanding the word "no" and today just before her nap, reminded us of how she understands the word. She is often trying to pull herself up and mess with the DVD player. We say no and re-direct her. Today, Mark and I were sitting on the couch and she pulled herself up and grabbed the DVD player. We both said, "No, Addelyn." She stopped, turned and looked at us, and grunted. We both couldn't keep ourselves from laughing. It was the cutest thing. What do you want to bet I won't be saying that in about a year!

I have been calling Addelyn our little mogwai. You may ask, what in the heck is that? Did you ever see the movie Gremlins? It came out in the 80s I think. There is this little cute furry creature called a mogwai on those movies. They make this purring/gurgling noise. That has been the only way to describe Addelyn's new noise. It is a deep-throated, purr or gurgle and just makes me smile. She often does it in the car on our way to Ilene's house (her babysitter) or sometimes in her highchair at night. If you need a little reminder of what a mogwai is, look at this link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gremlins

She is fast these days. Crawling and pulling herself up - everywhere! We can't leave the doors open that lead to the stairs- she can climb up all of the stairs now. She is cruising along the furniture. Will be interesting to see how long it takes her to walk!

Ahhh...fall weather has finally arrived. Stay posted for some new pics from our picture day with the Hansen family at Heartman Reserve yesterday!

If you get bored of my blogging, you must remember that this blog serves a purpose for me. It really is my journal, where I am putting down important milestones and dates of Addelyn's life. So hang in there with some of my details. :)

Challenges for the Heart

At Orchard Hill Church, over the next six weeks, we're inviting people into the following challenges. I just wanted to share this with any of you that are interested. There is a blog set up too...I'd encourage you to check it out. I'll keep you posted on how our family is responding to some of these challenges.

www.challengesfortheheart.blogspot.com

Prayer:

- to pick up a prayer calendar at the information counter and to commit to praying for those who are under-resourced in the Cedar Valley and throughout the world. There are prayer bracelets available that will also serve as reminder for you to be in prayer for God's compassion and justice to manifest through His people.

-Join together to pray on Wednesday evenings from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in rm. 141 at OHC.

Identifying with the poor:

During the week of October 12-19, we ask you to consider how you and your family might choose to remember and identify with those in need.

- Eat only rice and beans the entire week or part of this week.

- Refrain from any discretionary spending this week (restaurants, malls, etc.)

-You might consider fasting from all food for a given time this week.

There will be an offering box at the information counter Oct. 19 if you wish to give the money you saved this week. The money will go to mission efforts in Haiti and Mozambique.

Child Sponsorship:

- If you already sponsor a child somewhere in the world, we ask that you bring your child's photo to the information counter on Oct. 5, 12, or 19. We will make a copy of the photo and place your sponsored child's photo on the wall.

- Consider sponsoring a child from Haiti or Mozambique. You may sign up to sponsor a child on Oct. 5,12, or 19, at a counter in the main lobby.

-Write and send a letter to your sponsored child. Remember your sponsored child in prayer.

World Vision Experience: AIDS

On November 6-11, The World Vision AIDS village will be set up in the community center of Orchard Hill Church in order to help grow our hearts for the millions of people impacted by HIV/AIDS.

- There are many opportunities to volunteer to be a part of this experience. Learn more and sign up to volunteer at www.worldvisionexperience.org or contact Brian Carr at ICWR@cfu.net.

The village will need set-up volunteers on Nov. 6, hospitality/operating volunteers Nov. 7-10, and tear down volunteers on Nov. 11. In all, about 350 volunteers are needed!

- You may make a reservation to experience the AIDS Village at www.worldvisionexperience.org. Click on "reserve a ticket" and locate Orchard Hill Church on the page. Plan on 30 minutes to walk through, not recommended for children under 12.

We hope that you and your family will participate in these challenges which we pray will turn all of our hearts toward God and toward our neighbor in need.