Quattro Tasti

 claudia, brock, maggie, eduardo, josh, jaitlin, joni

best boss she could have had!

Kelsey and Maggie in the kitchen

eduardo (whom she calls edweiner), maggie and josh

Maggie has a job! She is working at a new place in town called Quattro taste,

pronounced 'Tah-stee'. It means the Four Keys (the owners last name is Key)

Maggie LOVES it so much! She loves her boss, Joni, she loves her co-workers (mostly kids she knows from school - and a bonus is that her oldest friend Josh was hired too!), she loves the food they serve, she loves how close it is to our house - you name it, she loves it!

At first when she announced that she wanted a job, I wasn't the biggest fan. I wanted her to stay focused on school, and frankly, still have time to hang out with me! But, now that she is actually working, I see that it is great for her! (and I still get my time with her!)

She and Josh are typically scheduled to work together - mostly because Joni thinks they should date - and both of them can't get over how much fun work is every shift! Maggie works Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. That doesn't leave much time for a social life, but she is ok with that right now!

At Quattro they serve salads, sandwiches - like a salmon sandwich, a peanut butter and banana panini, and my favorite sonoma chicken salad - mini pizzas, pies and the most yummy soups. I hope this new little business survives here in Forney - the food is so yummy that I'm certain it will!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours...

( Appreciate this photo, as Charlie is scared to death of Shae, and the cats were mad about these bows - this dumb photo took FOREVER to take!)

Heartbroken

As we unpacked to decorate for Christmas this year, i was heartbroken to find two of my favorite decorations smashed. I am so so sad. We have had these nearly our whole marriage.

You will be missed Mr. and Mrs. Claus.

A.R. Star!

A.R. stands for Accelerated Reader - a program at the elementary schools where a kid has to read a book and take a test on comprehension - kids earn points for each test passed. Typically, teachers require that each student earn a minimum number of points each 6 weeks (like 5 or 10). Each grade announces a winner for the most points earned - it's sort of a big deal!

To be honest, while most kids work very hard to be an "A.R. Star", Tim thinks this is dumb. Most of the books he reads are higher level and not on the A.R. list, so he never earns more than about ten points PER YEAR!!

Well, this past 6 wks, he decided to read the Harry Potter series - which is on the list!

As a result of reading all six books, He won the A.R. Award!!

As you can see above, he didn't even realize they called his name! Usually at this point in the Academic Pep Rally, he isn't paying attention (remember, A.R. is DUMB!)

I love his face here! - he was so confused about his win! He was asking, "Are you sure I am the winner?"

As part of his reward he got to participate in the wrap a 'teacher/elf' contest along with the other A.R. winners.

He was still pretty confused here - later I asked him why he seemed so weird and he confessed that he thought another kid had earned more points and he was feeling guilty for taking the spotlight! Oh, my sweet boy!

I think he ended up with over 170 points!! He may just win the over all award at the end of the year! Great job Tim!

Playoffs!!

Last season, Tim's team didn't make it this far - but this season, they have come together to be a FANTASTIC team! This was the final game - for all of the marbles!

Before the game - hanging out in the stands.

Zak, J.R., Phillip,Hasheem and Tim

Tim in action - 5 boys after that ball - that is TEN legs poised to kick Tim at any moment!

He is a brave kid!

They ended up the second place team - I don't think any of them were too upset - I think they were all pretty excited to have made it so far! Way to go Drifters!!

PAINT!

This year we used girl named Stormi Butler for our Big Shots ads.

One of her ideas was to do a paint shoot. She had Maggie jump in with her to make the ads more fun! Here are a few of the shots from that crazy day!

The first few splatters thrown - that paint was COLD!!

I think Stormi was saying, "Oh Maggie, You are going to be SO sorry for that!"

It took some serious scrubbing to get the girls clean, and I think there will be paint splattered on the Butlers fence for years to come - but it was worth it! I love how some of these photos turned out - Good idea, Stormi! And Thanks to her mom for providing the clothes, backdrop and paints! You can see more of these shots on the Big Shots Photography Facebook page!

My favorite day of the year!

I LOVE FORNEY HOMETOWN CHRISTMAS!!

I love the cheesy little parade, I love the booths of vendors selling their wares, I love the free hot cocoa, I love the Christmas choirs - everything about this day is terrific and gets me in the Spirit of the Holiday!

Above, Maggie and Haley wait for the Parade to begin

Below, Tim and Jeremy were so embarrassed to have this photo taken! Nobody wanted to be associated with the wiener!

The boy scouts had a marshmallow gun booth, so the boys insisted on stopping there to make a gun! Guess how many marshmallows were all over my backyard by the end of the afternoon!

Tims GF, Michaela performed in the holiday choir!

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Later that evening, I took Maggie and Haley to see their friend Becci perform in the Nutcracker. None of us had ever been to an actual Ballet before. We enjoyed it, but those male dancers really need to rethink their costumes - yuck!