McGuire Family Pictures 2008

Hey guys here are the pictures we took for Judy's Christmas and Pa-Pa's Christmas. They were so good and so much fun to take. Amy (my BFF) took them and her daughter Audrey was our helper monkey! She did a great job. They are taken at our local visitors center. It's really a great place to take pictures!

Christmas Newletter for 2008

Merry Christmas from the McGuire's

Merry Christmas to everyone! I hope this letter finds you all well and blessed this this holiday season. We are doing great and have had a very active year. Those of you who know me well know that I don't do well with Christmas cards. I always buy them and sometimes even address them but, I rarely ever get them all the way to be mailbox. So as in years past, I have taken to e-mailing our holiday newsletter and greetings. I love email and I don't know what I ever did without it. For those of you who don't know, I have also taken up the hobby of blogging. Blogging is simply a website created by me that I post pictures, notes, and video's to, in hopes that my friends and family can keep up with our wild and crazy lives. All you have to do it click on the link :
http://mythreesons-mythreesons.blogspot.com/ and read away. You can also leave messages on this site for me by clicking on comment. It's a great way to say in touch! I usually post new things on there at least once a week.
Brian had a pretty good year. He is still with Tom Green County working as a supervisor in the Maintenance Department. They keep adding more and more buildings to the County for them to upkeep so his department is pretty large now. He is currently taking applications so if you know anyone send him Brian's way. He keeps busy with work and being Caleb's full time tutor. He grades Math homework every night and can't wait to have Caleb graduate! He is currently volunteering in our youth department at church with our new full time youth pastor, Brother John Edwards. He signed up with help this fall and is really enjoying it. We had so far had several parties and a lock in which required us to stay up ALL night long with the youth group. I am happy to report that we made it all night long without falling asleep. Brian did end up breaking his cell phone and jamming his finger while playing dodge ball! We are getting old!
I am doing great! I am currently working at St. Luke Christian Child Development Center as a Pre-K teacher. I have 12 kids in my class and am having a blast! I get to glitter, glue, cut, color and play with playdoh. What more can you ask for in a job? I really do love it and love working with a great group of women. I also still keep busy at Hillcrest working in the Children's Ministry. I tell the children's story time, work in AWANA's, plan Children's Camp, and do VBS. Not to mention all the other swim parties, golf parties, and fun stuff we do all year. The children's ministry is growing every year and kids are accepting Jesus every year. I also keep busy with my own little rug rats. Caleb, Jared and Aaron keep me hopping!
Caleb is 12 and doing well this year also. Although, if you ask him he would rather drop the whole school thing and stay home. He is doing well with school this year and actually made a 100 on his Reading TAKS this spring. Because of this score, he has been invited to participate in the Duke University TIP's program. What is boils down to is that he was invited to take the SAT or ACT test to gauge his talent. Based on those results, he will find out the next step. So, in January he will take the ACT test with high school kids! It will be a hoot! He is currently enjoying basketball season with the Upward league and is playing in the junior high band. He plays Alto Sax and was able to play at a high school game and march in his first parade this year. On top of all this his braces are looking great and his is ahead of schedule and will get them off sooner. He also got his first contacts this year! He is currently working with the drama club at school and will be performing in a play this next year.
Jared is now 8 years old and is in the 3rd grade. He is also in Upward basketball this year and loves it. He is really good at sports and is still as thin as ever. He is loving 3rd grade and is getting ready for his first TAKS test. He made a 100 in Reading and missed one in Math on his first practice test so he was really happy. He is currently working on multiplication facts and can't wait until they are over! He is such a great kid and talks non stop about everything you can imagine. His teacher says it's like talking to another adult!
Aaron is 7 years old and is ruling over 1st grade. The little toot is reading at a 3rd grade level and is cracking his teacher up. He is a little smarty and can read anything you put in front of him including the Christmas list I had written with all of his gifts listed on it. But, at least I had a streak of genius and had written it in code. He did figure out a couple of things though. The little sneak! He also reads signs in the grocery store and loudly asks if we need anything on the "Cold Beer" aisle. He yelled it out to me 3 times before I could get a word in! He is also preparing for his first year in Upward basketball.
Well, that is the run down of our family. I hope each and every one of you are happy and healthy this holiday season. You are in our prayers and thoughts. Drop us a line sometime and may God bless you in 2009!

Love,
The McGuire's











I

Cold Weather, Warm Soup

Good afternoon! I'm sitting here with a cup of hot coffee and soup bubbling on the stove. How are you guys? It's cold out there! Texas weather has been nuts this year. The only great thing about it is the fact that it's been cold enough to kill everything. However, with each cold front we start coughing, sneezing, and wheezing. Caleb is the last victim. He started feeling so bad at church today that I took him home after the children's story time that I do. He is currently in his P.J.'s drinking hot chocolate and coughing up a lung. I think it's just a cold really. He is just a very dramatic sick person. I don't have a clue where he gets the drama!
Well, our first semester tests are over. This is the first year Caleb has had to take them. Through much prayer, studing, whining, tears, and drama he did pretty well. He made a 100 on his Sciece test and passed everything else. I've learned that the studying wasn't the worst part it was the "review" sheets that came home that were nuts! Here are a 100 questions to guess at and here is your book, get ready GO! On the up side though, Brian and I can tell you anything you need to know about Texas history now! I would hate to be a military family that moves around a lot! The kids would have to learn history from every state! Yuck! At least Texas history has good stuff like the Alamo, Indians, and guys running around trying to free Texas. It's pretty interesting really.
I finished up school Thursday and Friday with two half days. The kids were dismissed early both days. The Christmas party went well. I had set aside 1 hour for it but was pushing to finish it up. I don't have a clue why really. The kids really took forever to eat, I think. I got lots of goodies from my kids. They are really sweet. I love opening presents! I got a gift card to Chili's, ornaments, a Willow tree angel, and a lot of other little things. We made bean crosses (you mainly pick out pretty beans and mix them regular white glue, and then spoon them on a cross. Then seal them with a craft sealer to make them shiney) for their parents gifts this year. I hope and pray the stayed together! I had to hot glue them like crazy! I figured out I didn't have the glue wet enough and it dried too quickly. If the glue dries quickly it makes them brittle and they crack! Nightmare! Next year I'll know better. Live and learn! I've also learned that when you do a test craft you must do the actual project the same way. I had made one cross for a test and it turned out perfect! However when I did the "real" project, I mixed a "BIG" batch and tried to do them all at once. Have you ever watched a 4 year old spoon beans on a cross? It takes them FOREVER!~!!!!!!. No wonder the glue dried before they got done!
One last note about my boys. They are so sweet. Yesterday, we had a family get together with our cousins from Abilene. Aaron and Jared went out early with Brian to help get everything set up at Me-Maw's. When I got out there, they were outside picking dead grass and putting it in a large holiday tub. They said they were making their own manger scene. When then got inside they had made a Baby Jesus from brown construction paper, tape and markers (it was so ugly it was cute!) and wrapped him in a dish towel. Aaron had written John 3:16 on a piece of construction paper and had made Me-Maw roll in up like a scroll and put it in Baby Jesus' bed. He had it spelled Jhon 3:16 and had written on it ...whosoever blevin him shall not parish but have everlasting life. It was so cute! I know he thinks "believe in" is one word. I think it's the Texas accent! So this holiday season, I hope you "blevin" Jesus Christ and that you are living each day looking forward to his return. I love each of you!

JJ

Tis the Season

Ho Ho Ho and Merry Christmas season! It's less than two weeks away from Christmas and every time I change the little chalk board at school and mark off another day I hyperventilate! I can't believe the time is flying by! I remember as a kid that I thought Christmas took forever to get here! Now as an adult I wish I had a "stop time" invention that could help me get ahead a little. If I hear another person on the radio tell me to stop and take time to relax during this busy time of year I am seriously going to put my foot through it! Naw, it's really not that bad. I'm just relaxing after a wild day. It started off with brunch at Wendy's house, she is our pastor's wife. It was filled with great food and 5 lbs. added to my waist! All the lady's brought their favorite holiday dish. I had a lot of great stuff. My favorite, I think, was the Martha Washington candy. I forgot that Mom used to make this type of candy at Christmas. I wish I had all of her old recipes that I remember from my childhood. I remember the fudge and peanut brittle but not any of the others. After the brunch, I met up with Brian and the boys and did a little Christmas shopping. We wandered around Wal-Mart and made at least 5 laps around the store. (Will that help take off the 5 lbs. of sugar I gained at Wendy's????) We ended up getting a couple more gifts crossed off the list. The list is still wildly long at this point though! After the Wal-Mart shopping trip we regrouped at home for about 30 minutes and headed out for choir practice for the boys. They are singing tomorrow night at our Christmas program. I'm not this year. After the St. Luke 2 month, child induced, running cold I had from September to mid November, I ended up missing most of the rehearsals so I'm sitting out this year. After, choir we headed home and crashed for the rest of the day. Jared is still trying to get over the cough he had last week and Aaron stayed home from school on Friday with a fever and sore throat. The doctor called in some antibiotics for him and today he is feeling much better already.
Next week is a full week again. We have a Pajama party for the Polar Express on Thursday. We get to wear PJ's to school. (Joy, Joy, That 5 lbs is going to look great under my pink penguin PJ's) Hee Hee:) Then on Friday we will have our blow out, all out Christmas Party. This is my first official Christmas Party as a teacher and I am half looking forward to it and half dreading it. You would think by the talk from some people that it's the social event of the year. If you have nothing they are not happy, if you have too much they are not happy, so hopefully I have hit it just right. However, I don't think they will ever tell me what they really think, I will just listen to the grapevine to see what I need to tweak for next year. I have a great class and great parents so this year is going to be a piece of cake for the most part.
Factor in all that plus, Caleb having his first ever semester tests, Jared's party with 2 dozen cookies, Aaron's party with send $5 and they are getting it all, and Caleb's party with us bring Cheesecake and this week should fly right by. Oh don't forget the basketball practices which are in full swing.

My feet hurt!

OK I spent all day in the mall (well really about 5 hours but, it seemed like all day) and I only have two presents to show for it! What's up with that?! Hey guys how have you been? Sorry I haven't posted in such a long time. I don't know what I have been doing really except over committing, running around like a chicken with my head cut off, and shopping til I drop! Let's see where do I start?

Thanksgiving was great. I spent time with my brothers and sister in laws and had a great time. I didn't see my kids most of the day because they were busy playing outside with cousins. They ran, played, and explored all over the country. They really love being out in the country.
After Thanksgiving Amy and I did our traditional door buster shopping on Black Friday. She picked me up at about 4:20 a.m. and we hit the doors at Wal-Mart this year at 4:35 a.m. The madness started at 5:00 when the employees cut the plastic holding all the specials. I stood by a $25 pre-lit Christmas tree for my room at school. Then piled on about $75 more dollars worth of items (for the life of me I can't remember hardly anything I have now) and waited in line to checkout for about 35 minutes. I have NEVER had to stand in line at Wal-Mart before. What I realized throughout the day is that since the economy is doing such a nose dive, we were now fighting the crowds of people for the good deals. In the years past, all the rich people would stay home because they could afford not to fight and bleed with the door buster crowd. I think this year the rich people were shopping and some of them ain't so nice! Naw, just kidding but the crowds were nuts this year. We got caught in line at Office Max and I thought I was going to have to shoot the little "happy" guy sales person. He was WAY WAY WAY to cheerful for that early in the morning and kept suckering people into buying the extending warranty. Yes, Amy was put into a trance by the "happy" man and ended up with $2 warranties on all her stuff. I'm sure he made employee of the month or something but I wanted to scream "put my stuff in the bag, take my stupid money, stop talking, and no one gets hurt"! After that, the lines everywhere else seems pleasant!
After Thanksgiving week was over, the real world showed up and it took me forever last weekend decorating my room at school, cutting stuff out and getting ready for the three weeks before Christmas. The boys didn't want to go back to school at all. I think they would stay home forever if I would let them.
This week went fast. The kids got back into the homework routine but now we have started basketball practice. Aaron's is Tuesday, Jared's is Thursday, and Caleb's is on Friday night. It's going to get old fast! They are all going to have a blast doing it. Brian got suckered/volunteered to help with Aaron's team. He said at one point he told them to get a drink and they all took off in different directions. He was just glad they came back! I think he is having flashbacks of T-Ball! They will start the season in January.
Last night, I hosted my first bunco game. If you are the hostess you get everything together food, players, and bunco stuff. I made lasagna, homemade bread, salad and Judy made a wonderful banana sour cream cake! It was good and we had a lot of fun. I really like just showing up though. It was stressful getting everything together! I counted the bunco prizes when I was wrapping them about 2 hours before the thing started and figured out I was one short! Judy just happened to call me about 5 minutes later to see what I was up to and she was at the mall! I had her pick up the last prize for me. I promise you I am starting to LOOSE MY MIND! I have lost a bag of crackers somewhere that I had at school the other day and I have still NOT found them. I wonder sometimes if someone is just moving my stuff around to make me NUTS but, if they are then they are following me home!
Next week is full with St. Luke Christmas pageants, basketball practice and Caleb's band Christmas concert, plus AWANA's and who know what else. Maybe, I can rest after school gets out for Christmas holidays! I'm not going to hold my breath though! Hope you all have a great week!

Love ya,
JJ