Our new home!

Well this is our new home. It is not finished yet, but it is brand new and we will be able to move in by the end of June. I get to pick out a lot of the stuff in side the house like colors, tile and flooring. We are pretty excited about it. This will be my last blog until we are settled in our apartment (staying in an apartment until we can move in our house - it is in town and above the movie theater! Pop corn anyone??). It is moving day today, so I better get moving!

Happy Birthday Ani!

My little girl is 4! We had a party last weekend at the community pool. It turned out great. We had a lot of her friends from school come and play in the pool. I have a lot more pictures, just not enough time to post them now. Hopefully, I can post them once we get moved. She had a ton of wonderful presents. We swam first until all of the kids turned blue, then we headed in for cake and ice cream. This could have been a mistake! The kids were all a little tired and fussy, but they had a great time! Happy Birthday baby!

Good bye FIN II

This is the group that I hired when we first moved down here. They have really made my time here a joy. I could not have found a better group of people to work for me or support me and they have all become my friends. We have tried to get together for the last year and finally, we did it. We were missing two of the team that transferred to another plant and also missing from the photo is Silvio, pictured above with his wife. We had a absolute ton of food, thanks for cooking Kirk and Victor! We tried to play a little Cranium, but may have had a little too much spirits for that game! Thanks for coming guys, it was great!

Ruston says good bye too!

Mrs. Rita, Mrs. Carol, and Mrs. Carman took wonderful care of Ruston. He was taking a good nap when we woke him up, but as you can see when his favorite teacher, Carman held him he was a happy little man. They made such a great bond. Ruston didn't like taking a bottle for a long, long time. Carman was the only one that could consistently get him to take the bottle. We all cried when we left. It has been a true blessing having such wonderful loving people take care of our children. We are going to miss you all so very much.

We will miss you KLC!

We brought a cake in for Ani's last day at school. All the kids had a good time and enjoyed the cake. We have been truely blessed to find such a wonderful place for our children. I always knew they were in good hands and dearly loved. I hope that their new school is as wonderful.

Winds of change. . . .

sometimes start as a soft gentle breeze and before you know it, they are blowing with the force of a hurricane. I think we have now reached hurricane status! Virgel and I have decided it is time to leave Florida behind. We have accepted positions with a new company and are excited about the change. I will not say where we are going on this blog. We have our reasons. Our new jobs start in mid-April. We still have to find a place to live! We have a lot to do in the next month, but we are excited and looking forward to the change. Our email and cell phone numbers will remain the same for a while, until we are settled so you will know how to reach us. We will be making our way through Mississippi and Arkansas in the first week or so in April, so hopefully we will get a chance to see many of you. We miss you and love you all. . . . .

Ahhhhhh

Sometimes, I think I am a little nuts with all of the pictures I take and the scrapbooking that I love. Then I run across pictures that capture the essence of the day so perfectly like these and my passion is reaffirmed. We took a boat ride to Nest Key when Aunt Sue and Aunt Lynda were here - we were so lucky with the weather. We all had a wonderful time. Ruston really liked eating the sand! He is quick, REALLY quick! (these are a little out of sequence, forgive me. I had a few technical difficulties!)

Look who is standing in their crib!

March 3rd, Ruston stood up in his crib. What a cute toothy grin! He has his top two front teeth and will have the next two front teeth in a matter of days. It is a good thing, all he wants to do is eat. I can't wait until he is a teenage boy with a teenage boy appetite. Maybe with all of those teeth he will really be able to eat those nuggets soon! Who needs baby food when there is chicken nuggets.

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.