She is almost 4!

At what moment was it when my baby turned into this beautiful little girl? I am not sure, but I know I am so proud of every moment that I have with her. I love these photos of her because they are truely my Ani. Ani is growing into a very sweet, passionate (that is a good word for it) person. She can melt the hearts of everyone in a room with that smile. Virgel said tonight, that when she is older she could go 130 mph in a 15 mph school zone and never get a ticket with that smile! I wish I could capture her little devilish giggle in a jar and open it whenever the world doesn't seem quite right, because all you need is a little of that giggle to know that with patience and time, nothing is really that bad and somehow it is all part of God's plan. Just giggle and let the innocence of childhood fill your heart! I love you Anibear, mom

What?

You mean you didn't buy these chicken nuggets for me? He would NOT let go of these nuggets for over an hour! He just kept rolling around in the floor chewing on them!

Food? Yeah, I like food!

This started out as a bowl of refried beans! It ended up as an even coating of refried beans! YUM!

How many things can you find wrong?

So, it looks like my little girl fell asleep playing? Nope. She actually went to sleep with Minnie Mouse, from Disney; her white tiger from Aunt Lynda and Aunt Sue; her all time favorite baby since she was a year old, a barrett, a pony tail, a book (just under the cover) and most importantly with her princess 'slippers' on. I took the shoes off and the next morning found that she got in her drawer, got out socks and put them back on. She has now worn these shoes, I mean slippers, to bed for at least a month straight. Silly, sweet, precious girl!

The Painting

Okay, I have had issues with my picture program. I finally got it fixed. Here is a picture of the painting I bought at the Wyland Wall. It didn't come out great, but you get the idea. I am sad though, since it is a brand new release it is going to take until AUGUST before I receive it! AGH! Good thing I took the picture! ;(

Whaling Wall 95

This is Wyland's 95th mural and the very last one he will ever paint in the US. It was 4 miles from the house. He has painted the walls to promote education and of course save our oceans. While I have never been one to obsess over much less really care about celebrities, this is one person I was excited to see. He was very nice and very willing to take this awesome picture. He talked to both of the kids and played with Ruston. Too, cool. His paintings are so incredibly beautiful. Many of you have seen the whale tail painting "Great Tails of Whales" which is a Wyland hanging in my living room. Well, now you know who painted it. (of course it is NOT the original!) Virgel let me buy a second one during the wall painting. Woohoo!!!! The new one is Manatees in the Mangrove. This was an awesome opportunity to see him paint. It was SOOO effortless! 

An Altogether Awesome Aunt Visit!

I was blessed to have two of my Aunts, Aunt Sue (California) and Aunt Lynda (Wisconsin) come visit us on Feb 8th. I haven't seen either one of them in SEVENTEEN years! Sometimes it is amazing to think about the small choices in our lives and the big results they can have. They got together and decided to come for a long weekend and see me and met Virgel and the kids. It was AWESOME. I love them both so much. We stayed up and talked until it was much to late the night they flew in. The next day we didn't do a whole lot, but a lot of visiting. We had lunch at Gilbert's; a neat little place on the bay where you can watch the boats sailing by. The last picture is Aunt Sue and Ani on the dock where you can tie off your boat for lunch. They had live music, which we really enjoyed. The next day we went out on the boat. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect boating day. The sun was bright and the water was calm. Sunday was a definate difference. It was rainy and cool, but we "braved" the weather and headed to Key West. We weren't there long, but it was a lot of fun driving down for a late lunch. We had a lot of time to talk and catch up. They shopped till they dropped on Monday, while I worked and flew out on Tuesday. I miss them already, but I can not begin to tell you how overjoyed I was to see them. 

Popsicle anyone!

While it looks like he doesn't like the popsicle, he LOVED it. He actually ate the entire thing. The funny thing is he made the same series of faces each time! 

Look at me! I can CRAWL!

Yup yesterday (2-18) Ruston crawled for the first time. He is still a little wobbly, but he is officially on the move. We are in trouble now. I guess it is time to buy the child locks for all the cabinets! 

It's Disney World Brad!

That's what Ani told Brad when she saw Mickey at the entrance to Disney. They were soooo excited. Pooh was the first character we saw. Ani was a little hesitant at first, as you can see she got over that quickly! Ruston thought he was pretty neat too! 

A Disney Weekend!

We had a great time this last weekend. We took Ani, Ruston, and Brad (Ani's best friend) and headed for Disney. We stayed the weekend and hit Epcot as well. We had a great time and really enjoyed being there with our friends. As you can see Ani loved the characters. Ruston didn't mind his "first" kiss either! It was so amazing to watch Ani with the characters. You could see in her eyes that she really believed that who they really were dressed up as. I loved it, it was one of those great mom moments. 

The kiss, the hug, the exhaustion, the friendship!

That about sums it up.

Happy New Year!

One of the neat things about where we live is the big Hilton hotel and restaurants across the street put on a great fireworks show for New Years. Our subdivision fills up with cars that drive down to see it. All we have to do it walk out our front door. The show is about 20 minutes and is beautiful. The best part is we don't have to get out and drive or fight traffic! I hope everyone had a safe holiday! 

Last room!

Well, since the house was already a mess, we decided to spend the New Year's weekend redoing our room. Finally, all of the nasty carpet is out of the house. That only took a year! Ani was a big helper! The pieces of flooring were just about as big as her. She was so proud of herself. "Look Momma. Look what I did!"