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.

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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!