Grandma's Send-off Party

Grandma Sedgwick is a missionary!!! These pictures are now a couple weeks over due, and my mom has been to the MTC and is now enroute to Texas. We are so excited for her and have already enjoyed hearing about her adventures.
We had a fun send off party for her before she left for the MTC. Texas BBQ for dinner, western wear, big hair, photo opts., cherry spitting seed contests and a little send off program to remind mom how much we love and admire her. It was a perfect night. Look at all of these grandkids who will be praying for Grandma!

Women's cherry pit spitting contest.

Matthew and Stella preparing for the burping contest. What does that have to do with Texas, you ask?

The guys putting their cherry pit spitting skills to the test.

Cowboy boots were a MUST last night.

My two handsome boys.

Don looking good in his hat.

Mom with her kids, just missing Sarah.

I was going for big hair, though I don't think you can tell.

Our host. "Hi, y'alls!

Easter Traditions and Surprises

Easter is one of the best times of year in our house. Over the past few years we have done several things during the week before Easter to honor the life of Jesus Christ and to make His atonement and resurrection more meaningful for our kids. Some of our traditions include reading the New Testiment and having an "Old Jerusalem" style feast where we eat from a low table using no utensils. This year the menu included Challah bread, rotisserie chicken, lentil soup (not a big hit), nuts, dried fruit, melon and cucumbers. Of course, it's all done by candle light. This year I tried using oil lamps from Jerusalem to light our meal. It looked pretty cool until one of the lamps caught on fire. On Easter morning among the usual surprises waiting for the kids was this nest and little sign sitting on our kitchen table...

"Time to make a little more room in the nest. We'll soon have a new chick hatching in our family. We're having a baby!"

I have never seen two girls become so excited, and we have had nothing but baby talk since Sunday morning. The girls have rearranged everyone's sleeping arrangements and have just about chosen a name for their future sibling. Now, if they could only convince Mark that we need to find out the sex of the baby--these girls have plans to make. Matthew has finally gotten into it as well and has now offered to teach the baby his ninja moves. He has also insisted on feeding the baby oreos (via mom, of course). Thoughtful lad.

This was definitely an Easter to remember. Only time will tell whether the tradition or the surprise was the most memorable. Probably the surprise.

Spring Break

I've been blogging long enough to know that I have to post my photos before my text, but I forgot this time. Therefore, you can see the pictures and THEN read about what we did... Oh, dear. Abbie cooling off a the falls.

Soaking our feet at Palm Canyon. We loved it here.

Poolside with the kids.

Daddy and kiddos enjoying the fountain and waiting for the candy shop to open.

The rotating arial tram was NEAT!

Snow in April...in Palm Springs??

Someone is excited!!

It's Thursday afternoon (does 5:54 still count as afternoon?) and the forth official day of spring break. I am sitting at the computer sifting through pictures from our recent Palm Springs get-away as my three kids are in the backyard filling up water bombs and exploding them all over the yard and each other, while the winds blow and temperature continues to drop. It's been cold here. Since we've been home, we've had rain both days and it's really too cold to do anything other than go to the movies (Diary of a Whimpy Kid II).

Ahh, but that's alright. It's just nice to have a break from the normal school routine, and if we have to leave town to enjoy a little bit of sun, so be it. We are heading to Tucson in a couple of days to stay at our favorite place, and we'll get more than enough sunshine there to last us until the sun finally decides to shine in sunny San Diego...

The kiddos are still outside, and I haven't heard any tears yet, so I've got time to post a few pictures of Palm Springs. First off, I've never been there before. Weird. It's only a two hour drive from where we live, and the same distance from where I grew up, but I guess it took wanting to get away with a husband and three kids to get me there. I liked it. The temperature was really nice, we liked our hotel and pool, and found a lot of great outdoor activities. One of the highlights for all of us was hiking thru Indian Canyon. Who would have expected a gushing waterfall, a small river (or rushing stream) and a forest of palm trees all with in a short walk. The next day we took a 2.5 mile revolving tram ride up to the top of the San Jacinto Mts. and discovered SNOW at the top and beauitful views of the dessert.

All in all, we loved the time together and enjoyed being in a new town and environment.

OK, I just heard someone yell, "shakin' bacon!!!" and turned to see the kids IN THE HOUSE with the water balloons exploding on the wood floors. Busted. No more blogging for today...

Sister Sedgwick

Big News in the Sedgwick family this week! Virginia (aka mom or grandma) got her mission call to serve in the Dallas, TX mission. Her primary calling will be to work in the Education Resource Center as a welfare missionary. Mom's call came on Thursday and she was nice enough to wait until the evening when we could be together to open it up. The family who could, gathered at Debbie and Greg's house to witness the exciting opening. Seeing my mom so anxious to open her call made me reflect on when I opened my own mission call, and how I flagged down the mailman and begged it off of him. So exciting!! Anyway, once we all arrived and got everyone in the family who was available on the phone, mom read the assignment letter to all of our sqeels of of excitement. We are all so proud of mom. She is amazing to me, and I am so happy for her. She leaves on May 30th.

He's Not Tired

This is a typical "conversation" with Matthew on a day that he doesn't get a nap.

Typical setting: In the car.

Matthew:

**yawn** "I'm not tired, mom. Why do you keep saying that???"

Mom: "I didn't say anything, buddy."

Matthew:

I'm NOT tired, OK? **yawn**

Mom: "OK..."

Brian Head Family Reunion

Last weekend my mom hosted all of us Sedgwick's for a family reunion at Brian Head, UT. Talk about a wonderful time! We all trickled into Brian Head on Thursday night to a cabin that was large enough to hold all 40 of us. Friday and Saturday mornings, after a great patriotic devotional (it was President's Weekend after all) we all headed up to the slopes to spend the day skiing or snow boarding. The funnest (not really a word, right?) part of the day was all being together. The perfect snow wasn't too bad either. I won't mention the near blizzard-like conditions.
In the evenings we ate dinner together, sat in the hot tub, watched movies, played games and chatted until we finally forced ourselves (or should I say, until we forced the 11yr olds) to go to bed.
Thanks for such a great time, mom. It's something we will all remember!

A crazy bunch of cousins trying to make the biggest human pyramid in Brian Head history.

Four wheel drive came in hand on more than one occassion...

The basement of our reunion headquarters was a perfect place for hanging out.

Grandma with some of her loving admirers (aka grandkids).

My family climbed a 20 ft snow bank to pose for this picture. There was so much snow this weekend.

The cabin was in such a pretty setting. I loved the huge amount of snow, the tall trees and views of the ski slopes.

Valentine's Tradition

Everyone in the family looks forward to our Valentine's Day Fondue Fest. The kids especially love the fact that there are "no limits" on how much chocolate they eat. Traditionally I make a delicious milk chocolate ganache and have plates full of strawberries, bananas, cream puffs, donut holes, pretzels and marshmallows. This year we did things a little differently. Emma is on a Dairy Free diet right now as an experiment to see if her headaches improve without milk in her diet. So instead of milk chocolate ganache made with heavy cream, I used a darker chocolate (no milk) and cashew cream instead of dairy cream to make the ganache. The sauce was a success, though we all missed the sweetness of milk chocolate. On a side note, her headaches have gotten a lot better over the past several weeks without dairy in her diet.

Oh, to be Three!

When the girls were little they loved to wear princess dresses. Emma wore them 24 hours a day (her pj's had princess themes). But, most of all, Abbie and Emma loved to dress up, wait for Mark to get home from work and dance around the family room with him. I think Mark really liked it too. He would turn on all types of music and twirl them around the room until they were dizzy--which took a very, very long time.

Now things are different. There is still someone dressed up waiting to play with Mark when he gets home from work. But, there are no more princess costumes or dancing. Today it is Matthew waiting on Mark's arrival. Many days this picture represents what (or who is waiting at the door). Let me interpret: Army pants, Superman cape, light saber in the background, sword in hand, ninja hood coving his head and a Batman mask at his feet. That pretty much sums it up. Ten minutes into play he trades all of this in for his fireman costume. No matter what he is wearing, he and Mark run around the house chasing each other with swords or practicing their ninja moves-which are quite frightening. It's a fun time. And with all of this make-believe play, my heart is warmed to know that though Matthew loves to pretend he's a good guy or a bad guy, he still has his priorities in line. The other day he ran up to tell me that he doesn't want to follow bad guys, he wants to follow the prophet because he knows the way. That little guy makes me laugh! There is something so delightlful about a three year old child. They absorb everything, want to know how to get to China, are concerned about getting bigger but still love to snuggle, and have no end of imagination. I love the terrific three's!!

Here's to all three year olds out there, you make life alot of fun!!

Hooray for Hollywood

The Santa Monica Pier was a big highlight for the kids. Who wouldn't like riding a roller coaster over the Pacific Ocean??

A couple days after Christmas our family, along with our friends the Glauser's headed up north to check out some of the touristy spots of LA. In all of my years of living in Orange County, I had never spent much time north of the Orange Curtain and was looking forward to spending some time with my family up there. We packed two days full of fun and even saw a movie star at lunch (Don Johnson, and yes, he was wearing sunglasses).

Lunch and Shopping at the Grove (place of our important Star sighting).

La Brea Tar Pits

This mammoth found here at the La Brea Tar Pits looked pretty big compared to Emma. Excavation at the tar pits still continues today. In fact, almost all of the ice age fossils on display in the world are from here.

I was pleasantly surprised by the La Brea Tar Pits. It was much more interesting than I had expected and not gimicky at all.

Mann Chinese Theater. Gimicky (is that a word), yes. Crazy people? Yes. Crowded? Yes. Do I need to get out of the car next time I am in the area? No.

I was surprised by the beauitful view that awaited us after we drove the windy roads up to the Hollywood sign. Who knew??

Looking the opposite direction from the same spot, this was the view (it looked closer in real life).

Stay out of this amigas way!

Matthew is making sure that Abbie is having a good time watching the indian dancers near Olvera Street.

Angels Landing train (pictured behind me) served the wealthy locals in the early 1900's who would take their butlers shopping at the Grand Central Farmer's Market. Today people use it to get to their high rise. The ride is just $.25 .

Mark and I were married at the Los Angeles LDS Temple (moment of silence, please) and this was the first time we were able to go back. It was beautiful all ablaze in Christmas lights.

Christmas Highlights

A picture speaks a thousand words, or so they say. I wanted to share a little bit about the great Christmas we enjoyed around here and decided to do it in pictures. I hope you enjoy the over abundance of pictures G&G Rowen. To the rest of you, I hope you don't mind too much. Santa's little elf enjoying an outstanding Christmas party!

The family with Santa--where does this fellow find the time??

Christmas morning was a blur of excitement.

Emma was thrilled to add more Webkinz to her collection.

Matthew's new bike is just his size and NOT purple.

Oats and celery for the reindeer, of course.

Cute in their new PJ's.

Abbie and Emma were enjoying watching the action of the cousin's gift exchange hosted by Debbie and Greg.

We always have such a great time being together. Christmas Eve was, of course, no exception. We had a full mexican spread to feast upon including tamales, enchiladas, beans, rice, El Torito's cilantro salad, flan and fried ice cream. Egg nog smoothies (a must) and appetizers started us off.

Seriously. What a handsome guy.

Hum, what shall I eat next?? Actually that really wasn't what I was thinking.

The cousins are in this picture just waiting to get started with the gift exchange. I don't know why Matthew is pulling at his face.

Of course no family Christmas Eve celebration would be complete without a reading of the account of Christ' birth. We took turns telling the story with scripture, carols and pictures. It was lovey. Merry Christmas to all!