Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve with the cousins. Shaun's brothers Chad, Mike and their family's joined us for Christmas. We all had a great time together. Christmas Eve we went to the church and played kickball & volleyball, afterwards we had a nice dinner.  After that we allowed the kids to open one present, (which you would think would ease the excitement and they would go right to sleep. We can dream big, right?) Later we read the Christmas story and sang songs together with Chad playing the piano. Then we sent the kiddos to bed (several times.)  

Christmas morning we let the children get up at 4:30am because Shaun was flying to Idaho to help his dad move out here.  The kids were happy about that.  After a few naps we went to a matinee and saw  "Bedtime Stories"   We had a good Christmas, we loved being with family.

Our family drew names and were given the assignment to hand-make  a gift. It was fun to see what they came up with.  

Dad made Shem P.J. pants

Mom made Isabelle a princess crown

Shem made Hannah P.J. pants

Dan drew Sarah a picture of a girl holding a dog.

Sarah made Aleena a scarf

Hannah made Dan a reading pillow

Aleena made Dad chocolate peanut butter balls

Isabelle drew Mom a picture with a note for her, Mom, & Dad to go to lunch.

Frosting cookies for Santa

We had a big to do around here for the past month or so, Daniel was given the lead roll in his Drama class.  He played Ebenezer Scrooge.  He worked hard and did a wonderful job.  Needless to say we were very proud parents.   On the same night Shem had a debate and his team won that so we were doubly proud.

A busy fun filled week.

I am going to work my way backwards this week.  Saturday we went to Silver Dollar City with Jerry & JoAnn.  The weather would have been nice had it not been for the wind and the clouds, it was a tad chilly. But we kept warm walking around and drinking hot cocoa. The highlight for Mom & Dad was the tour of Marvel Cave. (Partly I think because it was warmer than outside.)  We had a fun time and the lights were real purdy.   

We have had a good time with them here. They have been over almost every night for dinner. They had the Girls spend the night at their house on Friday. We will miss them when they leave next week, and be ready & waiting for them to come back.  It is hard to share sometimes.

The first part of the week we spent getting ready for 28 people to come have dinner at our house. So we moved furniture, set up extra tables & chairs, and decorated.  Since decorating is not one of my strong points I asked (begged) my deco guru friend to help me. This is the end result, I think it looked pretty darn good!      

Well the next day our house became a demolition zone. (I will have to take a picture of that.)  We took out a big cabinet & desk  then tore open the wall to find out what the running water sound and moldy smell was.  We found very wet insulation, wood & sheet rock. We had a plumber out but he couldn't figure out where the water was leaking from. So tomorrow someone who is an expert at finding leaks will come find ours. Which we are dreading will be in the cement slab under the flooring.   

So how many days till Christmas?  ( I haven't even started!)
Hannah & Aleena are 2 yrs apart but they are the same height. So we thought it would be fun to dress them alike so they would look like twins. They have had so much fun with this.  I don't know why but I keep buying Hannah clothes that are too big, I can't get over the fact that they are the same size.   

Hooray! they are here!

This picture of the kids outside of their Grandparents new house shouting Hooray they are here.  They got here Thursday night, we are excited to have them here with us. (Now if we could just get a few more of you out here!!!)  We went to their house and took pictures of the kids doing a countdown, then sent them one a day.  This was the last one we took.  

This is the newest addition to our family.  His name is Sammy he is a beagle/terrier mix. so far he is a pretty good puppy, he is sleeping better at night. (he has been inside because it has been very cold)  He loves sitting in front of the fire.  Sarah has been doing a very good job of caring for him. She has worked hard at saving her money for him, and just loves him to death. Sarah says"  I love him!!! He is starting to learn fetch and sit. He has been in our house for about 1 week. We adopted him on November 28, 2008(Friday). He was born on September 15, 2008. We love having him in the family!!!!!!!!"

I was so thrilled to have Family come out for Thanksgiving. We had My Mother, My Brother Dan, his wife Maureen & their two kids Will & Kate. My Sister-in-law Tiffiny & her two kids  Kolby & Kamri.  We are thankful they made the long trip here to see us,  we had a fun time with them.  

 

Here are some pictures of some of the fun things we did.  Shaun brought home from work the game "Rock Band".  We all had to give it a try but I think the teenage boys liked it best.  

   

Since the kids were having so much fun at home and didn't want to leave, the adults took a drive to go see Pea Ridge Battlefield park. A civil war site.  It was a beautiful day.

Of course while we were gone this is what the boys were doing. Don't they look dangerous?

The weather was very nice, about 70 degrees.  The girls decided it was hot enough to jump on the trampoline with the sprinkler under it. They pestered so much that we finally gave in, they lasted about 10 min. Swimsuits in November? 

  

What a great Thanksgiving!

I am Thankful!

I love my  family and chickens.  I am thankful for family and cousins and flowers and food and clothes or you would be naked. And mom and dad and water and you. 

Love, Aleena  

I am thankful for my family, and I love my mom & dad and I just turned five years old and I had a Barbie cake, I loved it.  I loved my presents from Samuel & mom.  

Love, Isabelle

Dear people,

        If you are reading this you will know a lot  about me!  I've got 3 sisters and  2 brothers. There names  are Sarah, ME, Aleena, and Isabelle(sisters),Dan and Shem(brothers). I have 8 people in my family.I love my family.My favorite food is lots of stuff but mainly ice cream. I love snow very much. My bff's are Reagan, Madison, and Allison. I'm thankful for my family, friends, and food. Sincerely,

                                                                                                                                        Hannah                             P.SI,m #1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!                              

                            

People

I am the oldest granddaughter on both sides of my family. I LOVE dogs!!! I'm very thankful for my family. I am 11 and the oldest in my class. I am in 5th grade. I have the ultimate awsomest, coolest, funniest,funest,etc. teacher in the whole wide world!! (drum roll please) Mrs.Vannatta!!! 

                                        -Sarah

Dear Reader, 

  I wish to thank all my friends and family, for what they all do for me, and the fact that they are my family.  I am thankful for my religion and my bishop, Bishop Scott, and his counselors.  I am thankful for my chance to live on this earth and for my Father in Heaven.  I am grateful for His son, Jesus Christ, who died so I could live.  I wish you all a great fall, a great Thanksgiving , and a Merry Christmas.

Shem Sedrick

Sup peeps.

I guess i am thankful for my parents and heavenly father  and relatives and a wonderful house and a country where we are free but soon we won't be because a certain person won the election and now we are all in big trouble, but I am thankful anyways.

~~Dan~~

I love this time of year ! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  I am looking forward to my family coming out to share the holiday with us. I have enjoyed having my mom here with us. I am thankful for so many things it is hard to name them all, so I will say this I am thankful to my Heavenly Father who has blessed me with everything I have.  I am so thankful for friends & family, We love y'all.

Happy Thanksgiving

the last birthday of the year

When we saw this sign we just had to get a picture.  The reason is  we have a nephew named Josh Jenkins.  Although he is a little to young to be running for city council and he lives in another state.  we thought of him every time we saw one of these signs.

Hannah got some Mom time this weekend when  she came with me to a smocking retreat.  We stayed in a house on a lake, worked on sewing projects and ate very good food. The ladies loved having Hannah there. We enjoyed our time together.

 We had our last Birthday of the year.  Isabelle turned 5 on Tuesday. She was very specific.  A yellow doll cake (gem princess), an umbrella, and a mood ring.  She got diamond rings to share with her guests.  She was so happy to have her Birthday finally here that she didn't even complain when it was time for the "Spanking Machine"!    

* On a side note: Isabelle has found a best friend. We had a family move into our ward and they have a little boy named Samuel just Isabelle's age and they became fast friends. His mom and I wonder if they knew each other in a previous life.  There is a picture and a little story about the two on her blog that you can link to on

the side, it's the Scates Family.

Our first (Bakers) dozen eggs, every morning it's a fight to see who gets to check for the eggs.  When the kids get home from school the first thing they ask is "how many eggs did we get today?"  Now that the days are shorter we have been turning on a light so that they will keep laying eggs. The eggs right now are really small but I believe they will get bigger.  You can see the size comparison of our egg next to a store bought large egg. 

The first week of November

We decided to have a little fun on our own.  We begged (not to hard) my mom to watch the kids for us on Fri. so Shaun & I could go to Silver Dollar City by ourselves.  It is a theme park with rides, shops, shows & demonstrations. We got season passes this year and every time we take the kids we are going in all different directions, and we never get to do or see the things we wanted to.  So we figured it was our turn, we had such a good time I think we will have to do this more often.

This week I took Mom for a couple of different drives. The first one was to Pea Ridge National Military park.  It was a civil war sight.  This field we are looking out at in this picture is where one of the battles took place.  As we were enjoying the peace and beauty of the scenery it was hard to imagine the events that happened there.  

The second drive we took was on the Pig Trail, so named because it is like following an actual pigs trail that winds this way and that. Also it was used by people coming to see the Arkansas Razorbacks play football. It was a very pretty drive.

Here is a little sneak peek at the new Jerry & JoAnn Sedrick Home.   25 days left!!!  

Spooky? Well not quite.

Halloween costumes:

Sarah - Tinkerbell from the book  "Peter & the Starcatchers"

Isabelle - Cowgirl with a chicken in the background for a more real effect.

Shem - Mathmagician from the book "The Phantom Tollbooth"  ( this is so totally a Shem costume!)

Hannah - A foxy Fox, enough said.

Daniel - Link an Elf from the "Legend of Zelda"  (of course in his cool sword swinging pose!)

Aleena - ? She could not decide what to be so she just wore a Halloween outfit and 

put on a hat for 

Moms pleasure.

Sarah had her 11th Birthday on Tues. She wanted a dog cake so this is what we came up with.  A cake with paw prints and little toy dogs all around it. She was very happy with it, of course the next best thing would have been a REAL dog.  We have told her if she wants a dog she will have to save $100 so that we know she is serious about it. So far she has $60 I am figuring that by Christmas she will have enough $.  Grandma got her a dog book for kids that has all kinds of information for her to read up on & prepare for.   ( What are we getting ourselves into?)

My Mom flew in on Mon. to stay with us for 2 weeks we are very glad to have her here. We have not had much of a chance to do anything with birthday, costume making & halloween.  We did make little time Sat. to go see the Wal-mart Museum & today we went for a sunday drive to see the fall leaves & Parley P. Pratts grave.  Next week we plan on doing a little more sight seeing.  

Our first broken bone

Normal collar bone

Broken collar bone     

About 2 weeks ago Isabelle was sliding down the stairs in a sleeping bag and somehow she fell on her shoulder and head.  Well we watched it for a few days and she could move it and it was hurting less so we thought it was getting better. After about a week she started favoring it again and we noticed the large bump so we thought we had better take her in and get it checked.  I thought maybe it was a fracture, but the x-ray showed that there was a complete break.  So now she has to wear a brace for 6 weeks.  The only complaint I got from her was when I would lift her out of the car.  What a trooper.

 

On another note:

My friend Jeannie and I made apple pie filling and canned it this week. I just love how it looks in the jars.  Those of you coming out for Thanksgiving will get to have some.

Sarah made this fun orange creamcicle fudge. It didn't last long, it was so good. She is getting to be a pretty good cook.

 

A look back

Well, not a lot happened this week except trying to work on the boy's new beds (you will get pictures of that later) So I will show you a picture of Aleena's birthday which was in August. First she wanted a ghost cake, then as we looked for ideas on the web she came up with a hundred other ideas.  She finally decided on a Littlest Pet Shop cake.  I have a friend that told me how to make a fondant cake and VOILA  Aleena and I created this cake.  She loved it.  I will probably be making more of these cakes.  

Oh, look at this cute little egg.

This is our FIRST egg, Yeah!  We found it yesterday while cleaning out the coop.  We had all the old litter out and the new litter back in when we noticed this egg right by the door. We have no idea where it came from? (well that was silly, it came from a chicken of course.)  I thought we had a few more weeks until we started getting eggs so this was quite a surprise.   So now the kids will be hunting for eggs everyday.   

We officially have 2 teenagers!

                                                  

                                                                                                   

Shem turned 16 Saturday & Dan turned 13 today.  Shem goes in tomorrow to get his official drivers license, which he is very excited for.  We mentioned dating and he doesn't show a lot of interest.  Cars? Girls? I guess cars win. ( I am really OK with that!)  

Dan has been bouncing around the house all day declaring that he is now a teenager. It's a big mile stone, I remember turning 13 and being excited to finally be a teenager. Oh the little pleasures. 

For their presents this year we are doing a room redo. We painted their room and are in the process of making loft beds, we will add comfy chairs, lamps, & dressers after the beds are done. I will post pictures when it is done. (hopefully this week!) 

Oh! on another note I learned to make beans!  We have some very good friends from Mexico,  An awesome family, our kids are the same ages. Anyway she taught me how to cook the beans, make refried beans, pinto bean soup, sopas (kind of like a soft tostada), potato taquitos, & salsa.  Very Good!  We ate them before I could take pictures. I guess I will just have to make them again.

1st post, Wow I did it!

I have decided to learn how to do a blog so that our families & friends can be a part of our lives. We miss so much being so far away, and my communication skills are not so good.  So I will set a goal to post once a week to let everyone know what is going on at the Sedrick household.  So here it goes...