Snow sliding smiles

You want a piece of me?

Just having fun jumping into the drifts. If you look really close you can see that Cassidy has horns.

Angel?!?

Heidi had great fun playing in the snow too.

This is how we started sledding until the tube popped! Then.......

Kansas style kayaking.

Redneck sledding at its finest. Uncle Dennis' kayak works for more than just flowing water. Thanks, Uncle Dennis.

Look out Cassidy! This is just before Brooke nailed her with that huge snowball.

Nice shot Brooke!

Not sure how much snow we got but it's still coming down. We haven't seen drifts like this since we were the kid's ages. This was taken on our way home from Paxico. The drifts went all the way across the road. The snow was blowing so hard it was almost creepy to see as it traveled down the highway like an erie ghost.

Christmas 2009

Wines' Christmas Eve Dinner 2009

Brisket, Texas Hashbrowns, Corn, Homemade Dinner Rolls, yum, yum!

Guess who is tiptoeing?

Christmas morning, love the cheesy smile.

Fun was had by all. Thanks, Santa!

Holiday Happenings

The weather had delayed our Christmas tree hunt until last weekend. Sunday morning, we made our way to Harveyville to the Converse Tree Farm. This years tree is much better than last years. It only took us about 15 minutes to find the charming little tannenbaum. Brooke also found several trees that she tried talking her Mom and Dad into letting her get just for her bedroom....but it didn't work. I wonder if she was thinking that she may catch the jolly old man in the process of his crafty works by having another tree right where she sleeps. Perhaps more loads of loot was the incentive. Most likely she was just filled with the spirit of the season. I have to admit, last years tree looked like Charlie Browns tree. Cassidy was sitting at the computer when the screen saver displayed a picture of last years Christmas tree. She asked, "Is that what our tree looked like last year?" "Unfortunately, yes." I said.

Little Miss Brooke was baking cookies. She wanted to help me out, so I told her to make cookies. She did all the measuring except for the peanut butter. Cassidy helped her out. She really felt special using the hot pads to put the cookies in the oven AND taking them out all by herself. As you can see she meticulously arranged them perfectly on the wax paper.
Bakers pride, a gift from Mom. Some things are just plain hereditary.

Cassidy got in on the fun as well.

Our second snow fall of the year. As you can see it was so beautiful. We received about 5 to 6 inches of the white wintery wonderland fluff. Then moved in the typical Kansas cold. This actually allowed the snow to stay for a few school free snow days of super sledding.

Big Buck for Bubba D, Baby

Dylan and Tim, along with our friend Jack, have been deer hunting since December 2nd. The first day, Dylan and Jack each shot little ones. The third day into it, I get a phone call from Dylan stating he got a 9 pointer and a big doe. Wow, was he excited. Not only did he get two big ones but he outdid his Dad. That made it even better. The first deer season ended December 12th. They are already talking about the 2nd season.

Christmas Programs

The girls each had their own night for Christmas programs. The first night is Pre-K through 4th grade, second night is 5th through 8th.

Brooke sang a song about "Snow day, playing in the white stuff". They have a very good music teacher that choreographs motion with singing. The kids really get into it and it makes the program really fun to watch. Very cute.

Try to hard to see if you can detect any attitude from these 7th and 8th grade girls.

Cassidy not only sang, but she played her flute in the band.

Teenagers Turkey Treats

Tim and I decided we wanted to have our own quiet Thanksgiving meal in our own home. Saturday we got a bird out of the freezer. This morning we went into town to do some quick shopping, came home and put the bird in the oven. Little did we know that this beautiful chef had decided to prepare all the trimmings HERSELF. She quietly asked her brother and her sister what their favorite side dish was. Fortunately, they both said the same thing - Green Bean Casserole. She made candied yams, mashed taters, green bean casserole, crescents and here she is stirring the gravy to put the final touch on things. Not only did she not ask for help she was refusing help.

Brooke lit the candles and we had a beautiful family dinner together.

I hope everyone had as wonderful of a time as we did.

Howdy, Heidi!

Ten p0unds later, this lazy little brat is slowly stealing our hearts. She actually drags her pillow to her food dish to lay down while she is eating. Hard to believe she is the runt of the litter. Picking up new tricks in no time at all, she is really proving how smart she is. She is somewhat unsure of her occasional shower with Mommy and Brooke but we sure appreciate them. Dylan has decided she sleeps in her room and he doesn't complain about the 2:00 AM potty break.

Heidi and Brooke are still discussing dominance. Brooke made lots of headway today. She was teaching her to lay and stay. She also worked with shake, something Dylan taught her a couple days ago. It takes her no time at all to figure out what you want from her. Making her want to comply is what we must learn ourselves.

The prefect combination of insanity and serenity.

Putting the lack in "Black Friday"

Leslie and her kin are at it again.

These insane ladies all hit the town bright and early to hassle with the crowds and sales again. This has become an annual event that they really, truly love, and look forward to. They spend Thanksgiving Day shopping through the ads, psyching themselves up and preparing their war faces. They scheme plans of who hits what store first, and how many to buy, so that everyone hopefully gets everything they want. This is usually an outrageous success. Money spent verses money saved has no comparison. Most Christmas present are purchased on this one day--yet somehow we seem to continue shopping until around December 24 and a half. After their long day of trampling the stores floors, the husbands meet the women for dinner, usually wherever the women choose. This year was different though, for some odd reason Chet got to choose the locale. Olive Garden .....murrr. This is time to unwind, maybe have a drink, and share battle stories. Usually ending with the men driving the women home as the women snore in the back seat. That was you last night Debbie.

____________________________________________________

May all of your shopping experiences have been Merry and Bright!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all had as good of a Thanksgiving as we did. The Wines family spent the day at Leslie's Dads house. The weather was a little chilly, but definitely nothing like years past. I made Tim's favorite pie, Pecan. . . thank you to his mother for the recipe. There are several people at my Dads house who look forward to my pecan pies. Out of two pies we brought only one piece home. That pleased me more than ever because now I'm not tempted to eat it. . . . but Tim did.

Close call......

Tim was in a fender bender yesterday evening. Thank God, no one was injured. He was on his way to pick me up from work. I was waiting outside when Dylan calls me and says, "Mom, I was talking to Dad and he said, 'Oh Shit' and the phone went dead." I told Dylan I would try to contact his dad and hung up the phone. I stood there a couple seconds trying to collect my thoughts and try to decide what to do. At this point I didn't know if he was injured or not. In the short time I stood there Dylan calls me back to say, "Dad was OK". He called his Dad back because he couldn't stand the unknown.

Someone had backed out of an automotive mechanics shop, blocking both lanes, just over the crest of a hill waiting for another vechicle to back out. He didn't take into consideration that traffic would still be coming. Idiot! Tim had another vehicle beside him and a school bus behind him. His only route was to take the sidewalk and into the parking lot of the mechanics shop. By this time the idiot decided to pull back into the parking lot and they hit front end. Thank goodness the auto shop had a camera facing the street and it caught it all on video tape. They played it back for the police officer and the idiot got the ticket. He will need someone to read it to him as he "no obla Englais" Fortunately, he is insured and all will be ok in that respect.

We drove the car home. Has a dent in the hood and front fender. Broke the headlight cover but we still had headlights. Dylan was most disappointed because he like the stereo system in the car, not to mention it has speed.

Minor start to the holiday.

The Wines Family wishes all of you a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

White stuff.....

We had our first snowfall yesterday, November 16. What an exciting time. Not only was it our first of the season but our first treacherous drive to work. Thank goodness Tim is back to work because he was the one with the white knuckles, not me. The snow started falling about 6:00 am when I took Heidi out for her morning duty and by the time Tim and I left for work at 6:35 am the ground was white. The flakes were big and fell straight down from the sky. It was beautiful. It snowed on us all the way to work and off and on all day. . . . no more accumulation, darn! After school, Brooke put her snow clothes on and went out to play in what little snow was left. It's unusual for us to get enough snow on the first fall that you can play in. Normally the first snowfall melts when it hits the ground.

Cassidy's was suppose to play basketball in Council Grove yesterday afternoon but the game was cancelled due to the snow. Our districts always goes overboard when they see snow because the roads were clear when Tim and I went home. That's OK, I was feeling guilty because I told Cassidy I wasn't going to go to her game because I would have to leave work 2 hours early. The minute I got to work guilt had set in but it was to late. . .I had to stay. So lets just say, I was very excited when I got the call the game was cancelled.

It truly would have been a good day to stay at home covered up on the couch watching all those chick flicks that Tim and Dylan won't let us girls watch very often.

Handsome, I might say!

The last of the Wines men and definately the best looking as well.

Dylan had to dress up for a school function and he looked so good we decided to take advantage of the situation and have a photo shoot.

Lucky for him, he got his looks from his Mother.

We couldn't ask for him to be a better person than he is.

Thanks, Dylan for being you.

Daddy, pleasssseeeee!

"Welcome" to our newest family member.

"Heidi"

The scarf is her halloween costume thanks to Cassidy. As you can tell, Heidi wasn't to sure of it.

Heidi, is a full chocolate lab. She was the runt of the litter and cutest. Very laid back and mellow for a puppy. Hopefully that doesn't fade. She is very smart and easy to train. Tim has spent the most time with her, not sure how tomorrow will go when he has to go back to work. Yes, Tim does have to return to work. He did tried talking me into letting him be a stay at home husband. Ha! Ha!

Who's training who here?

Scratch my tummy! Hurry scratch my tummy!

Pumpkin Guts and Goofy Butts

We purchased the pumpkins one week in advance and Brooke begged us every night to carve hers. We finally decided it was time. She was so excited to rip it's guts out. After cutting the top off, her comment to her Dad was, "This is my favorite part". She enjoyed pulling the guts and had to make a comment after each gooey grab of glob. Dad got the lucky job of washing and baking the seeds which turned out awesome.

Cassidy on the other hand was not as much of a fan of having her prissy little fingers covered in punkin entrails. She worked her way through the heebie jeebies for a while then got used to it. Dad told her that if she doesn't gut it, she doesn't get any seeds. That was all the convincing that she needed.

RAAAARRRRRRH!!!

Here the evil little blood sucking vampiress is posing with the silly smiling squash that she and Dad ceremoniously sacrificed. Scary, huh?

I'm really not too sure what to say about this picture. I guess frightening belongs here somewhere. This is what you get when you have a teenage girl that designs her own costume. If you look really close you will notice the huge eye lashes she sported with her costume.

The whole gang of misfits.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Her Dream.....

Future Cheerleader!

Brooke has loved to cheer for years. When she was three I made her a cheerleader uniform. She was so cute! Not only did she wear it for Dylan's ball games, she also wore it for Halloween. Brooke has had the chance to participate in cheerleader clinics for the past two years, but chickened out when it came time to perform in front of the crowd. Believe it or not, Brooke was shy. Wow, how time changes you. If you remember a couple post back, I put a picture of Brooke and her friend cheering at a football game. After that game, she has gotten a lot braver. It doesn't matter if a friend is beside her or not, she is cheering.

Practicing for four hours, you would think it would warrant at least 4 cheers, but no, they did two. Brooke was disappointed but at the same time excited, she got to participate. Let's just say the cheers she did learn, she knows very well and did them the rest of the game.

Last week Brooke was sick (flu) and home with Tim. When she would get a burst of energy she would get up and do a cheer. At one point she would have Tim sit in front of her on the couch and she would do the motions to a cheer and he would have to guess the name of that cheer. After a couple cheers, she would crash again...poor thing. I had to laugh because when I got home from work the items on the coffee table beside the sick girl were; a thermometer, a cup, a box of Kleenex's, the lamp and her pink piece of paper that had the cheers listed on it. Then I heard all about Tim's day. Tim did learn a cheer and he just can't say the name of the cheer, he has to put the motions with it. Big G Little o GO (clap) Go (clap clap)! Haven't been to a ball game with the both of them to see if Tim will stand and do the cheer with Brooke. I guess this post will have To Be Continued...

Can they do it?????

YES, THEY CAN!!!

WE'RE NUMBER ONE

The Mission Valley Jr Viking Volleyball team, coached by Aunt Debbie, took 1st in their league tournament yesterday. They were 5-2 going into the tournament. One of the losses shouldn't have happened (against Chase County) but everyone is entitled to a bad night and I think the whole team was having one. The second loss was just this past Thursday to West Franklin. I would have to say this was truly their toughest games all year. The girls went into the tournament knowing they could bet Chase County but were leery about West Franklin. The first set Mission Valley put them away. West Franklin come back to take the second set and the third, well we showed them we were the best. The girls played awesome games. Excellent team work and you could tell they all wanted the same thing. Thank you, Aunt Debbie for all your hard work into these girls.

Cassidy digging and making an awesome pass to the setter. She made several awesome sets for the hitter and one being a kill from the hitter. She doesn't get to play much varsity but when she does she fits right in and her drive to do her best is AMAZING! Way to go Cassidy!

Playing the back row beside Kasi Kraus. It will be an interesting season next year. There were only three 7th graders that dressed out for yesterdays tournament. Thank God Cassidy got to be a part of this. It brings joy of tears to her mothers eyes to see Cassidy play the way she does. She has natural talent that she is still discovering when she makes awesome plays, like the one above. We love you Cassidy, keep up the hard work.

End of 1st nine weeks!

Parent Teacher Conferences

The kids are all doing well in school. Tim and I are very thankful that our kids are in tune with their grades and they care.

Lets start with Brooke, she is an outstanding reader and a very good helper. Her teacher had no complaints. Brooke is really liking school this year. Her teacher is a mother to a little girl, Lea, who I babysat for 2 1/2 years. I have to admit, I'm glad those daycare days are over but I do miss the kids. Brooke's dibbels test have her scoring extremely high. Her second favorite to reading is math. She has a math worksheet to do every evening and does it with no complaints or help. Whenever Brooke tells me she is bored I tell her to go get a book and read it to me. She does without hesitation. It shocks me every time this happens, but makes me proud. Check out the angels kisses on these two girls. Gracies, the girl in the picture with Brooke, has a sister who plays volleyball with Cassidy.



Cassidy's 1st year in junior high is off to a good start. It didn't take her anytime at all adjusting to different teachers every hour. Cassidy is always on top of her grades checking them at least twice a week to make sure she has all A's. She is frustrated because she keeps seeing a B in computer/typing. At conferences with the computer/typing teacher, Mrs Browning, Cassidy said she couldn't do better on her timed test. The teacher, in her teacher voice said, "Cassidy, if I knew your middle name, I would use it right now, you can do it." Tim and I at the same time said, "Rae!". The next day Cassidy said the teacher used her full name in class. I have this feeling before to long Cassidy will have an A in that class. Getting in to see every teacher takes quite a long time. Parents are not given a scheduled time to visit teachers. You stand in line outside the classroom door. When we got to Aunt Debbie's classroom door (Science) we had 3 parents in front of us. Cassidy said, "Mom, you can talk to Aunt Debbie any time", so we went on. Debbie caught me the next evening and said she was waiting for us to come visit her. Sorry Aunt Debbie, maybe next time.

Dylan, where do we begin. His first teacher Mrs. Spoon (English) said how Dylan can do better than he is if he would just applied himself and he needs to read more. He will flat out tell her he doesn't like to read. This is the teacher that said last year that she doesn't have teachers pets but in that class she did and it was Dylan. Dylan, on the other hand would come home saying how he disliked that teacher. After we told him what she said, there weren't too many more complaints. On to the next classroom, Chemistry, the teacher commented on the fact that he is the class comedian...he can thank his dad for that. Very outspoken and will flat out tell her if he doesn't understand something in class. Dylan and this teacher get along very well. The rest of the teachers were very pleased with him too.