February Pictures of Baby Laila

 Here are all the pictures we received of baby Laila in Febraury.  Enjoy, she's a doll!

Newest Family Member Stormfly

 Some may say that a dog, two turtle and multiple fish and tanks should be enough for one family, but they don't seem to know Ethan in our family.  He is continually bringing stray animals and reptiles and fish home (the fish aren't lost, he catches those).  What did he bring home in February you ask?  A hurt little duckling.  I saw him coming, I knew he had something in his hands so I ran and locked the back door.  I told him that there was no way on earth he was going to bring another creature into the house, we already had two fish tanks taking up space on the counter.  Then he showed me this hurt little duckling that could hardly hold it's head up.  I'm such a sucker, I continually get taken in with this kid.  I figured the duckling wouldn't even make it a day so I unlocked the door and got a towel and the electric warming rock (from previous reptiles that we no longer with us) and wrapped up this little baby.  We all held it and cuddled it and it was then named Stormfly.  Yes, officially another family member all within an hour!  Sigh.  We got some water for her and wrapped her up and placed her on the heated rock and went to bed.  When we awoke to check on her the next morning she was holding her head up and sqwaking at us.  We got her out and she began following us around the kitchen.  If we put her back in the box and she couldn't see us she would get all stressed out and make noise until we paid attention to her.  I think we are in love with her.  We have tried to get her to go with different Mama ducks at the different ponds.  The mama's would try to gather her under their wings, but as soon as she saw us walking away she would begin to follow us quacking as loud and hysterically as she could.  So we are making a home for her and we take her out to the pond a couple times a day to get her in the water and help her forage around in the plants.  We'll see how long we can take care of her.  I've read that around 9 weeks you can release ducks back into the wild even if they have imprinted on humans if you keep them outside and help them swim and forage for food.  We'll see what happens.

2017 February Happenings

 Just showing the view at 5:20am going to Seminary.  I've enjoyed teaching much more than I thought I would and I just love the students, we have such a great class!  Getting up at 4:45 took a bit of getting used to and I definately have to head to by by 9:30 at night or I struggle remembering anything the next morning, but it's been worth it.

Troy and I attend the Superbowl festivities in Houston this month and Troy found a great burro rescue that we were able to go and visit and feed carrots to the burros.  There were 100's of them and 30 or so horses.  We road around in a golf course to see the ranch that houses them and to meet a few in person.  Ethan got kissed by a very talented horse that can count and give kisses!  Loved it.  The woman who gave us the tour said horses are like cats and do their own thing and burros are like dogs, they want to come say hi and be petted.  It was so true, the horses fought and pushed each other around for the carrots, but could have otherwise cared less that we were there, but the burros saw the golf cart coming and the just headed over and stuck their heads in and wanted to say hi and get a little head scratch along with the carrots.  We all had a great time, we'll probably go back again some time.

This month we also had New Beginnings for Morgan and Ana, with a super hero theme.  It was really fun and creative and the girls were adorable.  Ana's ROTC group had a Bingo Night as a fundraiser, a tad long, but enjoyable and Morgan took home a basket of goodies as she was one of the very first winners!  We celebrated Valentines day, there are some more random dog, seminary and eating out with Morgan pictures.  Ethan played on a city basket ball league, it was fun to watch him play.  Last year he rowed with a youth rowing team, but not really knowing any of the kids decided to do basket ball instead this year. 

The pictures of Grant as a little boy we had found and sent to Grandma Keller on her birthday.  The one with Aly and McCall was taken in Troy's office in the World Trade Center!  We had just moved a year before the attacks that took down the two towers.  A very sad day.