Grandpa (Wake) Forest is back in town again!

Thank you Grandpa Forest for a wonderful week.
We all had fun!

Grandpa's "day bed"!

Brooke keeping her promise of making a batch of cookies for Grandpa.
He claims some of them made it home but we wonder.....

Tim took this picture while Grandpa was here. Just because he thought only in Kansas would you see shirtless boys playing in a snow pile. Notice one is even wearing shorts.

The Great Eight!

Our youngest is now 8 years old. Where does time go? She had a fun filled weekend. Tim and I have decided that the kids don't have a birthday, they have birth-weekends. Hers started off with 3 friends staying overnight with her on Friday. Saturday we had her famous dinner with her Godparents and some friends. The grand finale was a Royals game at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday.

A lady I work with, Lisa, went to a Taylor Swift concert. Lisa pulled strings to get backstage and took pictures of Taylor. She later found out that Brooke loves Taylor too. She framed some of her pictures and gave the collage to Brooke.
As you can plainly see, Brooke loved it!

Grace, Brooke, Gracie and Hope

Brooke discovering her DSi that she wanted so badly.
Now she can hook up with her sisters DSi to play the same games.

This is the famous finger food feast Brooke request each year for her birthday.

Wyatt Glotzbach, son of Michael and Sara (Leslie's oldest nephew).

Nose bleed seating at "The K".

The closest thing they had to beautiful cheerleaders!
Brooke and Cassidy were scared to death at first but by the end of the game, 3 hours later, Brooke didn't mind the steep setting of seats.

Easter Bunny!

Wow! What a wonderful and beautiful Easter. It's always great when the whole family can get together and relax and just have fun. The older the kids get, the easier and more laid back the holidays are. Julie had Easter at her house this year. She lives out in the country, north of St. Marys. Big house with lots of yard. Even the weather cooperated. Sunny and 80. Doesn't get much better than that. The girls could wear their spring dresses and not have to worry about covering them up with coats.

I don't wanna stay dressed up!

Brooke got to ride a dirt bike for the first time.
Keep in mind she is the one who likes speed!
We might be in trouble with this one.

Sweet Sixteen!

Dylan Lee Wines

4 months

14 months

2 1/2 years

16 years

But not necessarily always sweet.

We hope you have enjoyed the gun show.

Daddy-Daughter Date Night

Last year Brooke was sick and couldn't attend. This year Cassidy decided she didn't want to go. This made it even better. They each had their own date with their Dad.

Brooke had her hair done at a beauty salon. She also decided how she wanted the beautician to put it up and it looked great.
What an energetic little girl, whoops, lady.

Look out world, here comes Brooke!

She loves being the center of attention.

Now that's what I'm talkin about!

There is never a dull moment when Brooke is around.

Remodeling

What a project. I don't think either of us knew what we were in for. This is looking into the kitchen from the dining room. As you can see, we now have a bar, well not completely but close enough.

Yipeeeeeeeeeee!

There is no way we could have done it without the help from my Dad. Thank you very much Dad. Although, I am still wondering if we shouldn't hire Tim's brother-in-law (Kainaan), from Montana, to help us finish the project. There is no doubt in my mind that it would go a lot faster.

One of my favorite stories is, the same evening we framed the bar in, Tim and I had gone out with some friends and it was killing Dylan to not have a counter top on the bar. He went to the shop and cut a 1x12 and nailed it in place for a bar top. He even located our two bar stools and put them in front of it as well. What a wonderful son he is.

Dylan assisting again. He always seems to show up when we need someone strong. He had just finished splitting wood, and, stacking it on the front porch. He has been such a big help this year. Tim and I are starting to wonder what it will be like when he goes off to college. I don't like to think about it very often, it makes mom sad.

We are trying to cut the center out of the eight foot ceiling to raise it to nine and make it kind of dome shaped. Tim really hopes that this turns out right, he is just going to "wing it" for the framework.

This is what happens when we are not working.

Dylan and Cassidy are always picking on each other. Cassidy wasn't putting up much of a fight here, but she did refuse to let Dylan get her all of the way into the kennel. They were horsing around with each other all day and this is where it ended up. I think this was in retaliation for some kind of ice in the britches thing that she had done to the plumbers crack. It is a joy to watch them. We have such wonderful kids. We wouldn't know what to do without them.

TeEnAgErS!?!?

Is it teenages or teen-angers, either way they are so hard to figure out these days. One minute they are having fun with friends and the next minute. . . . I don't like to see them so down but that is how life rolls. I would like to be able to tell them it gets easier the older they get but I am not to sure about that anymore. Unless you drink alcohol and have a car to run around in, or away from the cops, you don't fit in. It's sad that kids think they need to have these things to have friends.

I do remember the feeling when I was a freshman, getting ready to go to a new school, in a new town and wondering if I would ever fit in and have friends. It took a long time before I could really trust anyone but it did happen. I do remember all the talk about going to parties but thanks to my parents I was not allowed to but this didn't keep me from fitting in. I played sports and that is what I loved the most. If you played any sport, you were not suppose to drink but that didn't matter to a lot of them. Playing sports meant more to me than drinking. On the court, I got along with everyone and had fun but off the court, it was a different. Team mates had other friends they hung out with and I did my own thing. This didn't keep me from being both the Queen of Courts and the All Around Girl my senior year. I just wish I could get my kids to understand that.



As you can tell we have been having some drama around the house with the teenagers. I don't know why but this morning my head was spinning and I thought about my sister-in-law Melody, who blogs every time she needs to vent.



Don't get me wrong with this blog because I do love my kids very much and wouldn't trade them for anything.