Doing Pumpkins, Part 1, OR The difference between Ana and Ethan

What is wrong with this picture? Well, you see we just started carving pumpkins and I'm sure you know the first step. Um...gutting it.

Ana tried cleaning it out with a spoon first, but the spoon handle kept getting stuck.

So she had to do it with her hands. She's not quite sure about this.

If you don't know already, Ana has a very sensitive nose. Ever since she was little she has had to smell everything before she eats, and she'll also tell you when you stink or when you smell good. Right now you can see what she thinks about the smell of pumpkins.

Meanwhile Ethan is looking at trains in a catalog with Lucas while other people gut his pumpkin.

Yuck

Posing for a picture

I got Ethan to come over and actually hold some guts. Was he thrilled, or what?!

Take the picture quick, Em, this is gross!!!

So what's this pool story?

Well, it's like this. Lucas was hot and wanted to swim, so he began dumping buckets of water on the living room floor. I was so upset at him. I knew it was naughty of him and I so did NOT help.

Okay, so the above really isn't true. Believe it or not, I was naughty too.

What really happened was that we both were hot and wanted to swim. There was no pool handy nearby so we decided to make one. We dumped buckets of water in the middle of the living room floor until Mom stopped us. Luke was probably 3 and I was about 5.

Anyways, here's the story. And to this day, pools have no more attraction to me. :)

Ana is like me!

Do you remember my story a while back about my newspaper sheep? Click here to see the post.

So yesterday Ana was tossing kleenex all over the house. Of course, Mom told her to stop, but a little bit later she was doing it once again. I went up to my room a little bit later to get ready for the day, when I noticed a kleenex on the floor in my room. I looked out my doorway and Ana was grinning at me. I mentioned that there was a kleenex on my floor and guessed that she put it there. She nodded and told me she was delivering newspapers. :)

Ana shut all the doors upstairs and threw kleenex inside to each "house". She also got some wooden mail envelopes and was delivering one to each person. (I got the Happy Birthday one! Apparently I'm seventeen now)! She even put a "bluebox" in front of my door as my mailbox.

Now that I write this, I remember when Luke and I were little, we put fake mailboxes outside our bedroom door for our mail whenever we got any. We didn't want anyone to hand it to us, we wanted it in our special mailbox so we could open our own mailbox and find mail. Well, when you're little, you don't get very much mail, so we got bored of the whole mailbox thing and threw our "mailboxes" back into the closet.

Our Christmas!

If you've been wondering how our Christmas went, here's the post you've been waiting for...

We celebrated our family's Christmas on Christmas Eve. The kids woke us up at 7! (7! HONEST! NOT 5, 7!)  Ethan bounced on my bed until I woke up and everyone else too. Us kids had to wait in the hallway upstairs while Mom and Dad set up the video camera, etc. Finally they let us come down and we began by opening our stockings. (You know what's funny? We always get a toothbrush and/or toothpaste from Santa. Isn't that weird?!)

Next we opened our presents. We do them one at a time so we can see reactions. Plus this way, the morning lasts longer. Dad and Mom get us each three presents each year like the wise men in the Bible brought three gifts. One book, one clothes item, and one fun gift. I got Wives and Daughters, (the book), some black, Cougar sweatpants that I absolutely love, and some c.d.s to listen to. Luke got a Christopher Paolini (spelling?) book(Can't remember the name of the book), a Cougar sweatshirt, and some good quality earbuds. Ethan got Ribsy, a Cougar t-shirt, and two trains. Ana got a book of several books of Biscuit, a cute puppy. She also got a Cougar t-shirt and a baby doll that moves its mouth and eyes when it babbles, giggles, sucks a bottle, and cries. It even has real tears. The biggest surprise and largest gift was a Wii! We've already played it. The boys love it especially. My back's muscles are all tight and sore from playing just two short games of boxing yesterday!!!! Along with all these from Dad and Mom, we of course each got eachother something and there were presents for Dad and Mom. I think everyone had a blast.

Next we hung out until brunch, (junk food that we never, ever have in the house), was ready. Then we spread out a blanket on the living room floor and ate while watching a movie.

Then we relaxed some more until later when we had a fancy dinner with china, fancy food, and linen napkins.

It was a great day!

Then we woke up early the next morning and began the long trip to grandparents. First we went to Mom's side and in the afternoon, we went to Dad's. After more food, presents, hugs, and talking, we headed back home.

So ended Christmas. But we're still seeing the after-effects of it. Candy fills our house, new toys are being found a place in our playroom, and Christmas gifts still sit on the counters and table.

A good answer

One day Ana and Ethan were fighting. I don't remember what it was about, but Dad went to go take care of it. He took Ana and Ethan aside and asked them what happened and how they handled the situation. Then he told them what they should've and should not have done. And how they ought to handle the situation if it happened again. He summed up by asking them a question,"Now what have we learned from this?" There was silence. Then Ana spoke up. "JESUS!"

Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

"And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
This census took place while Quirinius was governing Syria.
So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the ciy of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his bethrothed wife, who was with child.
So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn."

Luke 2:1-7

Later this baby would grow up, be tortured, and would end up dying on a cross for you and for me. And would you believe that this baby named Jesus was God's only son? His only, perfect son. So Jesus died on the cross as a sacrifice with our sins on his shoulders. Now because of this, we can have a relationship with God which was something the people in the days before Jesus couldn't have.

We celebrate Christmas to remember how God gave up His son for us. And how Jesus was born into this sinful world. Remember this as you celebrate Christmas tomorrow!

Our cat, Collar Dude

We all love our arrogant, annoying, cuddly, and sweet C.D. Ana and him especially are best friends. We have had such good luck with our cats. Although a couple of them have been arrogant, they all have loved us and have been sweeter than most cats. Junior, (one of our cats that ran away), was extremely sweet. Whenever he was held, he would put his little paws up on our shoulder so he could see what was going on. One time he even licked Lucas's ear everytime Luke turned to take him outside. It was like he was pleading to please still be held. He also became a mother to our kitten triplets, (his younger brothers and sister), when their mother refused to feed and take care of them. I think we all miss him a lot. Grizzly was my best friend cat. He was attached to me more than anyone else and would even nose my face when I clucked at him. Once in a while he comes back, but Collie always scares him away again, even though they're brothers. Stitches was our mother cat that gave us our five other cats. First two, then three kitten litters. Pepsi is still with us. She is very fat and her tummy sways as she walks. She is the talker of all our cats. She always is telling us something! Splotchy, (Ebony), was given to our great aunt because our neighbor threatened to shoot our cats if they were on her property. Splotchy was the wanderer so we had to find a new home for her. Gus was one of our first cats. He was wild when we got him, but we tamed him and he soon became very sweet and adorable. So anyways, this is the story of our 7 cats! But this post is about Collar Dude. Long story about the name.

The poor cat suffers betwen the two youngest. Right here he is being buckled into their doll's stroller.

He didn't stay there long.

Mom helped next.

And he was actually pretty content. He sat there really nicely just staring at everyone and everthing.

Ana was able to push him around everywhere. And both of them were happy.

The End

Pumpkin Carving, The Process

Lucas has amazed us these last two or three years with some extroadinary pumpkin carvings. The finished pumpkin looks like it was very hard to carve, and though it was quite the process and had many hand cramps along the way, it was actually pretty simple.

Lucas chose a humungous pumpkin this year. I mean HUMUNGOUS!

I mean it looks like it should have its own chair like a person. It was big.

That's just one of the bowls of guts. But going back to the process... Lucas started with cutting off the top, and reaching his hand in and taking big ol' handfuls of guts. Fun...

Lucas had drawn what he wanted his pumpkin to look like and then he cut out letters and shapes and taped them to the pumpkin.

He next used a poker thingy from a pumpkin kit to punch holes around the letters and everything. This is the hand cramping part.

This was it when he was finally done with all those holes! You can kinda see how it's punched in.

Up close..

He next took off the paper. You can faintly see the bats and the word, FREAKY.

Now Lucas used the holes as a guide as he cut. The holes make it so much easier!

And he kept cutting and cutting and cutting...

After punching out the pieces, this was his pumpkin.

Ta Da! A finished pumpkin. A finished interesting pumpkin. A finished, interesting, freaky pumpkin.

The rest of us stuck to triangle eyes, noses, and a smilie face. BUT SOME OF US HAD TEETH! (We couldn't let Luke outdo us)! :)

Bad News today about court date

Go to http://www.emwantsmore.blogspot.com/ to read about it.

Court Day

As I said on Em Wants More, today is court day. We are all praying and we need your prayers too! If we pass court, we will travel 8-16 weeks later. So we could leave as early as February!

Merry Christmas! And a Happy New Year!
Emily

The Best Big Brother in the World and Ana's Beauty Salon

How many 13 year old brothers will let their 5 year old sister do their hair? Sorry about how blurry the pictures are, I was peeking around the doorway to take the picture! Lucas even left a barret in his hair and we were hoping he'd go to my game with it in!! But he took it out!

Ethan's Recipe Book, Eat if you Dare

Ethan was watching me make pizza one day, and he decided to come up with his own recipes! Delicious, right??

Sarah's goldpancake bread
10 cups of milk
8 cups of sugar
70 drops of vanilla

Mix until you arm hurts!! put it on the stove 299 degrees put 800 pepperoni's on it!!!!!!! then serve
by, (buy), lots of pepperoni

No kidding, this is what it said. No changes at all.

Recipe for Phil's biscuit pizza's

ingredients

2 cups of flour
1 spoonful of cornmeal
1 full cup of milk
2 corn on the cob's (cut up)
1 cup of salt
2 spoons of sugar
4 teaspoons of shortening

bake for 50 min,, 359 degrees when it is out put sauce, pepperoni, and cheese then in the oven for 15 min. then serve

But that's not all of these recipes...

Anne's Cupcakes

1 cup of salt
2 cups of milk
4 cups of shortening
2 drops of vanilla
3 cups of flour

put sprinkles on it put in 15 min. then serve

So go ahead, try these recipes. But don't expect me to come over to help eat them up afterwards. I may be Cook Ethan's sister, but I also know that's too much salt!!!! And vanilla!!!! ANd milk!!!! AND sugar!!!!

I figured since Christmas is coming up, I had better show our Halloween pictures!!

So this is what Ana and Ethan decided to be. A cowgirl and doctor. The cowgirl stuff were mostly all things we already had in our dress up. Ethan's outfit came from the dress-up section at MEIJERS. It was on sale.

Ana Mae. You can't see it, but she is even wearing cowboy boots that Ethan got from his cousin!! The horsie was a Christmas gift many years ago. The bandana is mine, and the jacket is Ethan's. The hat is from the dollar store. She was so cute, except she had a hard time getting treats while holding a horse. And holding on to her hat as it was foam and quite easy to blow off. (Notice how she has to have her puppy in the picture)!

Here's Ethan as a doctor. He is cutting Lucas open with scissors. You can't see it, but he's grinning behind the mask! Ah hah! Finally!!!!! I'm sure glad he's not a real doctor. He's kinda scary sometimes.

Lucas and his humungous pumpkin. That HE, let me repeat, HE, had to get the guts out of! No help from ANYONE! The pumpkin says freaky on the top. (One of his favorite words). And there are bats below it. Yuck.

Me and my pumpkin.

Caught... again.

Ana seems to have this thing where she falls asleep on our animals. First Woody, now Collar Dude. Grandpa and Grandma were over and Ethan came into the living room to tell us that Ana fell asleep with Collie. We went in there and saw them. C.D. was actually asleep!!! It was adorable!

Collie wakes up. What's going on??

A close-up picture

Three Legs

One day I tied together Ana and Ethan's legs so they could have a three leg race. They liked it a lot, but kept toppling over. Ethan, the serious one, would come up with a plan so they could walk and run together, but Ana would get this grin on her face, twinkle in her eye, and fall over "accidentally" so Ethan would fall with her.

Look how Ana hooks her arm over Ethan to support her weight. He's basically her servant.

Umm, I think they're gonna fall. This isn't looking good.

Funny pictures

Lucas, Ethan, and Ana...

Ana's Hair

These pictures were taken in February of 2009.

Yes, this is how Ana's hair looks when it isn't in those braids or pony tails!

There's a lot of it..

How long it is.. (See why she hates getting her hair done??) Do you really blame her?

We had a professional hair stylist braid Ana's hair one time. After a LOT of screaming and crying that she needed to take a nap, Ana's hair looked like this.

All those teeny, tiny braids!

This is how Ana's hair looks now. Every few weeks, Mom has to wash, shampoo, and comb out every curl, then braid it. (This usually takes two days as it is quite the process). This hair style works out really well! We're pretty happy with it. Occasionally Ana asks me to pull her hair up like mine, so I pull all the braids into one big pony tail. Then she has a new hair style! :)

Last Winter

Our family- Last Christmas. Ana is adorable, but it's amazing how much we've changed!

Ana and Ethan and their snowman we all worked hard on.

You see, this snowman is a gardener. He is planting old beans(seeds) and has a shovel in hand. And, actually, we are missing that shovel. I wonder if we lost it after we used it for this handsome snowman.

Ana and Ethan with the gingerbread house last year. Those things are a PAIN!

But wasn't it pretty??!!

But take a look at this one! Uh huh! This is Luke and mine. Butterscotch chips surround a pond. We have evergreen trees, a path, and lots of candy. We had SO much trouble with this! The frosting was a pain.