Autumn is here!

I love fall! I think that it is probably my second favorite season!  All those things that indicate fall is here are so colorful!

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Give Me Some Liberty...

     Happy Fourth of July everyone!  Here is a cute quote that goes well with today....

              Charissa was out in the garage the other day getting ready to go do animal chores with some of us other girls.  She said, "Give me some liberty, or give me some death....but please don't give me both!"

            Rebekah informed her, "That means to let you go free, or let you die."

           Charissa didn't respond for a moment, then turned to me and said, "That's what it means?!"  *waving her hand in the air*  "the whole conversation?!"    : D   Then later she asked me, "Does 'death' mean 'die'?"

                                     *                                        *                                              *                                           

                  Tonight  we went to the annual patriotic concert in our area---it is equal to going to see the fireworks for us...nobody wants to miss it!  I loved it : D   Usually they have it outdoors, but it was rainy tonight, so the auditorium was packed!  There were people standing up in the back and along the sides of the building for the whole program : )  Thankfully, we were able to get seats.  Just barely.

               Also, some of you know how we like to keep track of how  many milkshakes our family gets at the fair each year---well we have officially started counting for this year : )  Last night we got 10 of them.   Last year it was 76 in one week : )   I wonder if we'll beat that this year?!!!

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

New Years Eve!!!!!

Hello,

Happy New Years!! 

This is what we did for New Years Eve!

Goatgirl46's family and the W--- family came :)

We had buckeyes, popcorn, mini pizzas, puppy chow, pinwheels, cookies, and I think that is all.  We also played games galore, like Dutch Blitz, Red, How's yours?, Pit, Pictionary, Mexican Train, and Phase 10.

Then we fed our animals and while the goat milkers finished up, the others jumped down from the hay bales, which was very fun. Then we played some more games and then I fell asleep:) The others must of went outside because they where talking about something I did not remember.

At midnight we went outside and banged pots and pans, blew our whistles, set the alarms on the cars off, and dropped the big blue exercise  ball.  After that, we ate some more food and said, "this is the first time we have eaten this year!" We "kids" stayed up all night, and went boot skating out on the ice in the field, and that was bunches of fun!

We all went to bed at 7:30 or 8:30 a.m.

That is all for now.

Have a wonderful year.

Anna

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year!

Every year, we like to have a New Year's Eve party with Goatgirl46's family, and the W-----, another family that we both know.  At 6:30ish, both families came, and we had a lot of yummy finger foods for our "supper" . We had pinwheels, little pizza snacks, puppy chow, "Texas caviar" (a yummy bean mixture you dip corn chips into), cookies, buckeyes,deviled eggs,  carrots and celery to (help balance the sugar effect!)  and more that I just can't remember right now! 

After we were done eating, we went outside to milk our goats.  While the goat milkers, milked, the rest of us jumped on the hay, off the hay, from haystack to haystack, and whatever else we could come up with : )  One of the stacks of hay is about 5 or 6 bales high, not very wide,and not very stable--so of course that adds to the challenge!  After the goats were milked, we decided to go into the house, where it was warmer. In there, we played games and ate more snacks, and played more games, etc, etc, .  The daddies had to either leave early, or go to bed early, so the mommies talked in the sunroom, and we "kids" played in the living room. 

  Close to midnight, we grabbed our whistles, pan lids, a blue exercise ball, the keys to the vehicles to set off the panic alarms, and headed outside again : )  Mommy gave the signal that it was midnight, and then the noise began!

 A---- dropped the blue exercise ball from the top our "tree house" (this is our favorite way of getting to see the "ball drop"),  Leah and I set off the panic alarms, Leah, Susannah, Cassia, A--- and Goatgirl blew their whistles, I banged on the bottom of a pan with a screwdriver handle (that is until I noticed it was denting the pan--then I stopped that!)   L---, Anna, and K-----, banged pan lids, and Cassia broke a wooden spoon from banging so hard on the bottom of a stockpot.  It was so much FUN!   After we were finished making noise, we went back inside and ate for the first time this year and wished each other a "Happy New Year" : )  Of course, we went back to the living room and played more games and watched as the hours marched by : )  At 3:00 we all went out to the barn again, to keep Susannah company as she fed her baby goats (see the previous post : ), and we were getting siller!  We jumped on the hay again, only this time, A--- jumped onto the unstable hay stack, one foot went into the crack between the hay and the door, and down he went--much to our amusement!  First we weren't sure if he had hurt himself, but then he started laughing so we knew he was okay .  We went back inside once more to play games, only now we were in "fear and trepidation" that the dreaded bad news would come soon---that somebody had to leave!  Every time somebody came into the living room we would say, "It isn't bad news, is it?!" 

   This is the crazy part of it--the bad news never came.   At about 4 a.m.  Goatgirl's mommy came in and we were just sure the bad news had come!  But instead, she said that Goatgirl could spend the night--of course that made us happy!  A little while later, Mrs. W. came in and we began to groan because we were just knew it was bad news now!  However, she was just telling us that she needed to rest before she drove home, so of course we were happy that we had some more time to play : D  Sometime in here, the W.'s  got out a yummy dessert called "Surprise" which was made up of bananas, Cool Whip, cream cheese, strawberries, and pineapple---and it was yummy! At  about 5 or 6 o'clock, we went outside just to try to wake ourselves up, and ended up going out to a big ice pond in the field next to us--- it makes a wonderful skating rink!   So we went "boot skating" for a while, and tried to be quiet so as not to wake up the neighbors---hopefully we succeeded!   If any of our neighbors looked out their windows about then, they would have said, "Those crazy kids!".  We joked about skating until sunrise, but none of us actually did that! We went inside and had more snacks, and began another game of "Phase 10". At about 7:00, Daddy woke up and teased us about staying up all night .   We were about at "phase 2" when we decided we might as well milk our goats for the morning, so some of us went out--we were beginning to wind down!  At 8:00, the W----- left for home, and Goatgirl and the rest of us bedded down in the living room and slept until noon!   I think some of them might still be sleeping or have gone back to bed!

   I think that was the most fun New Year's Eve party I've ever had!  It was so crazy and yet SO much fun!!!

And now, for some pictures!  

Leah and Susannah dipping pretzels in white chocolate

The finished result

Cooking for the party : )

"Puppy Chow" --a yummy, chocolatey, peanut-buttery cereal coated in powdered sugar : )

Cassia cooking for the party

Our skating rink : )  Only when we were skating on it, it was dark except for the neighbor's security light : )

I should have taken more pictures of the actual party, but alas, I did not  .  Well, it is time for me to take a break from the computer  : )    May God bless you all with a wonderful new year!

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Christmas...a few days late

 We had a wonderful Christmas!!!  And I hope everyone else did too!!

Here is the order of our Christmas day:

8:00-8:30...the last person woke up. I believe that the younger ones were up early  Of course! 

9:45-10:00...breakfast was started--we had quiche and donut muffins. Yum! 

11:10...we started opening our stockings.  We usually go one at a time starting at the youngest.

11:40...we started opening our presents...also going one at a time.  We like it that way, so it will take longer and so we can see what our siblings got.  A few times we all tore into one.

2:00ish...presents are all opened; we start putting all the food into the ovens that we prepared the day before.  Then we all go and read our new books, play with our new toys, or paint with our new paints.

5:30...we eat dinner.  Ahhh...it was so good!   Gourmet potatoes, ham, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, seven layer salad, sweet potato rolls, green bean casserole, corn casserole, coconut cream pie, pumpkin pie, peanut butter pie, and apple pie.

6:something...we get dishes done, after that it is time to feed the goats, and then we either play games or go enjoy our presents some more.

Here are some pictures of Christmas day:

 ~Two angles of our Christmas tree before we started digging in

 ~Anna, Leah, Susannah, and Jessica...waiting to open their presents

 ~Susannah and Jessica being very silly...more like demonstrating how Isaiah opens his presents, and this picture was taken at a funny time! 

 ~Isaiah...

~ Bekah got her first Bible!

 ~Susannah with her *new* fabric for another Edwardian apron!!    A do-it-yourself kit

 ~Noah very excited

~Cassia and our new book called "Needle Work Skills book 1"...something that daddy and mommy got for all of us.

 ~Charissa got a doll dress

 ~Jessica with her new poke bonnet    We all sing songs from "A Muppet Christmas Carol" that Belle sings because she had a poke bonnet on

 ~The living room after we opened presents...

~The library after we opened presents...where we throw all of our trash

 ~Isaiah was running and jumping into it

 ~Noah and Isaiah with their new pj's that Susannah made them

We had a lot of fun, as you can already see

                   and

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving!!! Today Jessie, Lyssa, Cassie and I were making as much of the food as possible for tomorrow.  What a menu!  Turkey, gourmet potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, green been casserole, rolls, pumpkin pie, peanut butter pie, coconut cream pie, and apple pie!!!  YUM!!!!   I can't wait!!  

Friday a few of us are going to go to Jo-Ann's big sale!!   That is so much fun!   Then Friday afternoon we are going to go pick out our Christmas tree!!  We always try to get the biggest!! : )  Saturday we might post pictures of it....one year we got a tree that was one inch below our 9-foot ceiling!!!! 

Saturday we are going to our aunt and uncle's house for Thanksgiving there!  

Guess I better go,  supper is ready!  

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!!!

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~