Family Fun

Because we have been so busy with the Draper Arts Councils production of "Christmas Without Mr. C" we haven't been able to enjoy a lot of the family fun that comes along with the Christmas season. We were finally able to enjoy some of the as we slowed down to celebrate Christmas.

First of all it was Ethan's first Christmas. He enjoyed the wrapping of his big brother and sisters gifts more than he enjoyed the gifts he actually got, but he was still fun to watch.

We had plenty to be grateful for this year, and most of that came from the fact that we are all happy and healthy.

After spending Christmas going from our house to Ryan's parents house to my parents house it was nice to get into bed early and relax.

Yesterday morning we got up to some great snow and so we deiced to take the kids sledding.

My pictures are a little bright, but you get the idea. The empty white space in the middle of Sheldon and Ryan is actually Allie. She has a white snow suit and gets lost in the snow.

Cute Allie after her first trip down the hill

Finally today was the annual Hoskins' Family Party. We go ice skating every year. Every other year I can actually ice skate, but Ryan was playing broom hockey when I finally got the kids fed and was able to get out on the ice, so there aren't any pictures of me. I really did skate, I promise.

Ethan just loving the idea of being the center of attention with all the adults around

Allie skating by herself pushing the bucket. She did however get a private lesson with Ryan's cousins wife who teaches skating for a living.

And Sheldon proving that he is big and can do everything by himself.

All and all we have had a wonderful couple of days as a family. We are very grateful that we could spend some quality time together. If makes you see what is really important.

As for the questions about my previous post. Yes we are moving. Due to some financial issues we are moving in with my parents for a few months. Hopefully things will start going a little better for us and it won't be fore to long. We will be moving in the middle of January.

Sorry

Okay, so I haven't been the best blogger as of late. We have been very busy with the play, trying to get things ready so we can move and just being a busy family of 5. I have thought so many time that I need to blog, but life just gets in the way and things start to fall apart. The Hoskins family is a bunch of very tired people who have very little time that isn't taken up by something. I think however that in a week things will slow down and I will be able to share all of the craziness that we have been so busy with.

Stay tuned!

Random thoughts Wednesday

So I'm stealing Emily's idea and doing random thoughts today. Since my life is a little Topsy-turvy that is kind of how things are in my head.

Why is it that the mornings you can't sleep in, your kids do sleep in? And why when you can sleep in they are up at the crack of dawn?

40 little kids in one space is just way to many.

Why do you have to have Parent Teacher conferences with Kindergartners when you are in their class at least once a month anyway?

Why is it that when you have way to much to do you always seem to get it done, but when you don't have very much to do you can never get it done?

Can you ever really have enough shoes?

Okay... that is probably enough randomness for one day.

Have great Wednesday!

We have put Ethan to work!

Last night Ethan decided that he was a big boy and could help us out with some of our work.

I guess the mouse tasted really good. :)

He was telling us that he needed some time alone to get all of the work done.

He hands are a little small to type, so he has to do the chicken peck.

He also had a couple of memos to write and some papers to fill out! :)

Isn't he a cute kid!

My Best Friend!

I think that a lot of times in our lives we take for granted the things that are most important to us. I for one am very guilty of just assuming that my best friend knows how grateful I am for him. When in all actuality I really do need to express it more. I have been blessed with an amazing eternal companion. He is the love of my life, my best friend, and one of my heroes. I know that I don't tell him nearly enough how grateful I am for who he is. He is loving and gentle, ambitious and truly amazing. I watch him stretch himself with new things and am awed by how he can put himself out there all the time. In the past few months he has tried so many new things and been success for at them. I on the other hand am very afraid to stretch my limits and as a result never really try anything new. He is a example of perseverance to me on a very regular basis. Ryan, I love you very much and thank Heavenly Father daily for allowing me to have you as my best friend.

p.s. Babe, I almost made it through this without crying. :)

Fun little post.

Okay I so I stole this off of Jenny's blog. (Thanks Jenny for the cute idea.)

Go you your pictures folder, then go to your 4th folder and the take the 4th pictures. Then give a little description of what it is.

Allie at Temple Square. Daddy asked her to smell the flower!

Okay now it is your turn. It's kind of fun to see what you have in your files.

Family Pictures at Draper Park

On Friday we decided to go enjoy the sunshine and take the kids to the park to do some family pictures. He is what we ended up with.

Ethan has just started sitting up on his own. Ryan thinks this caption should be:
"What are you looking at?"

Don't they look so cute. Sheldon has decided that now he has to play this super "Joe Cool" thing every time he sees a camera

Look Lisa it is actually a picture of me! Allie was crying so I picked her up to give her a love and this is the face she pulled when Daddy said smile. Even with tears she still smiles for the camera.

My cute boys.

All in all I think we got some cute pictures... now I just have to decide which ones to print. :)

This is what happens when your kids are quiet

So when I was a teenager and young adult, before I had my own kids I used to laugh when parents said that their kids were being to quiet. I always thought if they are quiet aren't they being good and not killing each other. I soon learned that this is the kind of things that happens when kids get quiet.

What year do you belong in?

I saw this on one of my friends blogs and thought it was cute. Try it out.

You Belong in 1958

You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Happy 30th Birthday Ryan

My darling, wonderful, perfect, loving, amazing husband turns 30 today!

Lets take a little walk down memory lane,

Ryan, his mom and older sister Brooke,

Ryan and the great yellow couch.

This is where my kids get it. :)

Isn't he such a stud?

Cute family when Ryan was 4

Big brother Ryan holding baby Phil

Ryan's family picture

Ryan's family picture with every one's favorite things

Isn't he cute... our wedding day 2001

Our cute little family pre-Ethan, 2006

Ryan Loves the cabin and playing in the river... he is just one of the kids

Babe, I hope you have a wonderful birthday. I am so lucky to have you in my life.

I can't imagine what I would ever do if you weren't by my side forever.

I love you forever and always.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Concentration

In our entryway we have a large window on the second story, and this time of year in the sun comes through it in the afternoon and makes a great warm spot. Yesterday I took Allie in to go potty and this is what I found.

Sheldon loves to pretend he is a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

He does his "concentrating" to get his energy back.

Historic Event

Look Ryan I'm actually posting. I know Historic. :P

So the past few weeks I have been in over my head with Super Saturday, Soccer, Dance, School, Doctor Appointments, and cleaning that I just haven't been able to really do or think about much else. Well the other night the family was helping me with some cleaning and I just couldn't help

snapping a couple of pictures.

Okay I know, something about slave labor, or child work laws. But doesn't she look cute vacuuming? She also said that it was her favorite thing to do, after putting way her laundry.

Sheldon vacuumed his room too, but I failed to get pictures of that. So next time I have them vacuum he will be in on the pictures. I just didn't want you all to think that we just make Allie do the vacuuming, it is not just a girl job at our house. :)

Go Away Big Green Monster

So....Allie needs to develop a personality. She is really quite boring...........or not. Just check out this video of her reading her favorite bedtime story to mom.

Humility

If you had asked me back a couple years where I would be in my career today, I would certainly not have told you that I'd be seriously considering a career change. Two years ago, my plan was to make about 10 times what I'm actually making right now (and it wasn't that unrealistic.)
I can hear the words of Alma ringing in my ears...."Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? (Alma 5:27)" Apparently I haven't because the past year and half has been more and more humbling.

A few months back, my Mom and Dad asked if they could come over to our house to talk to us. (is that EVER a good thing?) They shared with us some new things they had learned and told us that they were determined that their children have a food storage. They knew that most of us kids weren't really in a position to just go out and purchase a years supply of food. They had started the process of liquidating my fathers retirement account in order to make sure that their children had a food storage supply.

I have to be honest that at first I thought they had gone off the deep end (luckily they found a life preserver somewhere and have their feet planted back solidly on dry ground.) But I tried to open my mind to what they were saying and Kelsey and I have really tried to do what we can to get our food storage in order. We went from having a couple boxes from the cannery to having a year supply of most of the basic food items within a couple months. This is largely due to my parents drive to make sure that we are all prepared.

I used to think that food storage would come in really handy if there was an earthquake and I couldn't get to Harmons. I thought that it was for an emergency. I cannot tell you how important having our food storage has become. As I have seen more and more of my clients quitting the business and our families income and savings hit rock bottom, I have truly realized that food storage is absolutely for emergencies. It is just that sometimes those emergencies are only emergencies for our family. We used to spend a couple hundred bucks at Harmon's every time we went shopping. Without the ability to do that, we have started looking at our food storage like our own grocery store. We spend only a few bucks at the store when we need produce or a particular item, and we have tried to structure our menus around what we have available in our house. I can't tell you how good powdered milk tastes. (Yes...it does actually taste good...especially when you know that it's helping you to get through the tough times) Our food storage is a huge blessing to us and we owe that 100% to the drive and passion that my mother feels about having an adequate supply. Rick and Kaye have also helped by taking us to Costco and filling our freezer with veggies and meat to help us get through this.

Alma asks "Behold, are ye stripped of pride?" Apparently not. But I can promise you that I'm making progress. Thanks largely to the amazing love and support I feel from my beautiful family and both sets of my parents.

Now I'm trying to make lemonade. :) I just passed my test to get a license to sell Health and Life Insurance with a great neighbor of ours who has offered to mentor me to get me started in the business. So if anyone needs health or life insurance, give me a call. I'm determined to make some really good lemonade. (Just don't plan on catching me in a funny striped outfit with a weird hat on squishing lemons in a bucket....I'm still a little too proud for that.)

I don't want this to come across as "Oh woe is me" because when you compare our troubles to what our savior endured for us, ours is insignificant. Instead, I really want you to understand how grateful I am for parents (both mine and Kelsey's) that are in tune enough with the spirit to help us to prepare when even we weren't looking far enough into the future to see this coming.

Life Happens...

Yeah....life happens. You know that phrase about making lemonade out of lemons? Doesn't it seem sometimes that even if you did make lemonade out of the lemons you were handed that it would be so sour that you couldn't drink it? Sometimes life and our burdens can weigh so heavily on us that we feel like we may never get unburied.

Kelsey and I are in one of those times right now. I work in the title industry. With the housing market in one of its worst slumps in years, my income has been shaved to about 1/5 of what I was making last year. That wouldn't be a problem if we hadn't just bought a beautiful new home, or if we had been able to sell our old home and get the equity out of it. But the combination of all of these things has created a bit of a "perfect storm" for us and have really been teaching us some of lifes difficult lessons.

Then, to make things just a little more interesting, I decided to do another play. I love performing and have a really good time doing it, but it is a HUGE time commitment. It is truly like having a part time job that you don't get paid for. Not only am I a lead in the play, I'm also on the Draper Arts Council, so I have been very involved in the ticketing, advertising, set construction, etc. as well. It has been very fun for me to get involved in theater again. I remember now how much I love to be on stage. But this experience has definitely come with a hefty price tag. For the past three months, I have been in rehearsals Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturdays for 4 hours per day. The past month it has been Monday through Saturday. You can imagine the strain it has put on my sweet wife. We have joked about her being a single mom, but it really has been more true than I would like to admit.

In addition to taking on all the extra responsibilities that she would need to without me around, Kelsey has been taking care of the kids, coordinating school schedules, arranging soccer practices, donig her calling and basically being a super-woman. She has been stalwart and amazingly strong as she has battled through each day.

I don't mean to weigh you down with our problems. I just wanted to add a little bit of sugar to that bitter lemonade that we've been trying to make. I wanted you all to know what an amazing woman Kelsey is. She has put up with more in the past couple months than any wife should have to. She brightens my days and makes me want to be a better man. I am grateful to my gracious Father in Heaven that he has blessed my life with such an amazing, patient, beautiful woman. Kels - I love you!

When life hands you lemons, try to make sure the juice doesn't squirt in your eye as you're making lemonade. And find some sugar to add to it....it'll make it easier to drink!

-Ryan

Poor baby

I took Ethan in for his 6 month appointment and found out that he only gain 4 oz. in two months. Not good. :( Both the pediatrician and the lactation specialist told me that I should stop nursing and feed Ethan bottles and baby food. He needs to increase his calorie intake by 10% for the next month and then we will see how much he gains and see if we need to try something else. He is such a happy kid that you would never know that he is starving. I guess I should have figured something was up when he still wears 0-3 month clothes. :) Bad mom!

Thoughtful Post

Normally my posts have a lot to do with what is going on at the Hoskins' house. Today I guess that is also true, but it is going to have a little bit of a different touch.

As a member of the Relief Society presidency I have the chance to teach a lesson every few months. I happen to be teaching on Sunday and have been on my knees a lot the past few days trying to come up with something to teach about. This morning it hit me. I have been doing a lot of personal research on confidence and self-worth, and I got wondering if anyone else feels the way I do. I think that a lot of the time in our lives as stay at home moms we feel as though the things we do day in and day out really don't seem to matter. No one applauds me when I make a really great pan of Macaroni and cheese. The only time anyone notices that the laundry seems to magically get done every week is when it doesn't get done for some reason and they don't have underpants in their draws. I don't get a pat on the back for getting the kids to school on time, or remembering to sign the endless things that come home from school. And I don't get a bonus when the baby gets to the doctor appointments every time, or the treat for class are already in the school bag before the kids walk out of the door. Yet, day in and day out I do those things. Do you ever wonder why? I have been thinking a lot today that there is a very fine line between knowing your self worth and still trying to be humble. President Hinckley always had the personal philosophy, that I think would be something that would greatly enrich my life it I could adopt it. He said, "I believe in myself. I do not mean to say this with egotism, but I believe in my capacity...to make some contribution to the society of which I am a part, [and] to grow and develop. ... I believe in the principles that I can make a difference in this world, be it ever so small." Today is my day to step back from the details of my live and reacquaint myself with the big picture. Everyday that my kids go to school with clean clothes on, all of the proper things in their back packs and a kiss before they walk out my door, I am making a small contribution to the world, because I am raising kids who know that they are loved and can function in this world. Everyday that I take a minute out of my crazy life to talk to a friend in need I am contributing because I am making the world around me a better place to be. I do believe in karma... what goes around comes around. I have become so preoccupied with my own weaknesses and that of faith in the Lord's ability to use those weaknesses for my good. Dr. Thomas Harris made the wise observation on insecurity and confidence: "Most people never fulfill their human promise and potential because they remain perpetually helpless children, overwhelmed by a sense of inferiority. The felling of being okay does not imply that the person has risen above all his faults and emotional problems. It merely implies that he refuses to be paralyzed by them." I think that for me, and maybe for some of you, to often I wallow in my weaknesses so much that I don't allow "weak things" to "become strong." then use the guise of humility, when in all reality it is a lack of confidence.

I am challenging myself to believe in what I am doing and with that, believe in who I am. I was put here for a reason and if the only reason is to raise strong, productive and confident people that in and of itself is something really amazing.

First day of School!

Today was Sheldon's first day of Kindergarten. I can't believe that I have a child old enough for public school. He got on the bus at 7:50 this morning, and was as happy as could be. Mom on the other hand cried on the walk home, and then followed the bus up to school to make sure that he was okay. :(

Last week he had his assessments and so we snapped a couple of pictures inside the school.

Here he is by his class room door with his name on the wall. He was really excited to see his name on the bear.

He really wanted to show me that he could open the door by himself. That is what big kids do.

I'm sure that tomorrow I will have to do the same thing and follow the bus up, but hopefully by the end of the week I will be able to just let go. :)


Just a little side note: Ryan said that only really cool boys could wear pink to the first day of Kindergarten and make it look great! Thanks Grandma for all the wonderful school clothes!

First day of School

Today is Allie's first day of preschool. I'm not sure if I am happy or sad about it. She is so excited that she is now a big girl!

She loved the sandbox at the schools play ground. Which surprised me a little because she doesn't really like to have dirty hands.

She wanted to make sure I got a picture of her happy school face. She is going to have no problem with me leaving her at school twice a week. :)


She is cute even when she isn't sleeping. :)

Tired Allie

Allie had a bit of a melt down today. While she was sitting on the stairs she got really quite and when I went to look this is what I found.

I would have let her sleep longer, but if she gets a nap during the day then she doesn't sleep at night and then the next day she is a bit of a handful.

The Great Green Jell-o Festival

Every year out stake has a Jell-o Festival. I was just cleaning off my camera card preparing for the first day of school and I found these pictures of Sheldon, Ryan and Allie rock climbing.