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!" 

Ahh, to fall asleep anywhere any time

Is he just adorable. The swing doesn't work anymore - I guess three months of him sleeping in it all night with it moving was enough. Fortunately he is now sleeping well in his bed. We put him in his swing to sit up and play since he wasn't sitting up by himself yet. After a couple of little fusses this is how he ended up! Too cute! 

Momma, Santa Came!

Boy did he ever come! The kids got more presents than they ever needed. Santa even ate all the cookies that Ani and I made the night before. Ani had a great time opening presents for brother too. Ruston had a good time too. It wasn't long after we opened the presents that he was ready for a good long nap. It was just too much. We hope that you all had a wonderful day as well. We missed you. 

Christmas happiness