Hot Air Balloon Festival!! Warning: Lots of pictures ahead.

Last Saturday, Heath, Ella and I loaded up into Amanda, Curtis and Jackson's suburban (thank y'all for getting that by the way!) and headed to the Plano Hot Air Balloon Festival! They have this every year and I always know about it and want to go to it, but for some reason we never have. So when Amanda mentioned a few weeks ago she wanted to go, I thought this is the year! It was such an incredible day!! We always have so much fun when we are with our sweet friends!!

On the way to the FUN! I think Jackson is wondering what in the world is wrong with Ella. How can you be upset when we're about to see HUGE balloons!


"Look Daddy...a BALLOON!!"


This was so cool! We made it in time to see the parachuters jump out of the plane and land just feet away from us. A couple of them had flags attached and they came down while a woman sang the National Anthem. It was really neat!


Corny Dogs...enough said! However, I didn't totally pig out because I'm saving all of that for our State Fair next month!


Let the hot air balloon show begin!! This was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen. There were so many balloons. One right after another kept inflating and then taking off. It was a sight that I recommend everyone seeing.


My talented husband took a lot of these cool pictures!






Diva Girl! "No more pictures, please."






My favorite picture of the day!






Sweet Jackson and his daddy!


Me and Amanda!!! We had so much fun together!




Ella saying bye bye to the balloons.




Jackson raising the roof or giving some praise for the balloons!


Precious family!! Amanda, Curtis and Jackson!


This was such a neat part of the day. When it got dark they did this balloon glow thing. I can't remember what they called it. But they inflated all the balloons and then the emcee of the night counted down from 10 and at the same time all the balloons would light up! They did it several times. It was amazing!

Thursday Playdates!!

I've been very laxed in writing on my blog this week. In fact, I didn't even realize until this morning that it had been AN ENTIRE WEEK since I posted anything. I couldn't believe it.

I think the reason is because I'm teaching a Bible study this semester on Creation. It is the hardest study I've ever done. Needless to say, it is consuming most of my thoughts and energy. It's been an incredible study and it's exciting all the things I am learning. I should post on some of the most intersting things. So for the next 5 weeks, I probably will be a little laxed. So please bare with me. But I am keeping up with all of y'alls blogs because that would just make me sad.

Anyway...

My playgroup a while back decided that we need to schedule a standing weekly playdate and Thursdays are the day. This is great for me because I get to look forward to it all week knowing that Ella and I get to hang out with friends!

Here are some pics from last Thursday's and this Thursday's.

Last Thursday we met at this great park right by my house. We had a picnic lunch and then the babies ran free.

Jackson and Ella on the swing!


Ella loves to laugh at Jackson. He is always so smiley and laughing that it is contagious.


Tobey and Ella!


There first go on the merry go round!


Ava and Amanda needed a spin around too!


This past Thursday we strolled around the Galleria! The babies got to play in the play area and then us mommies got to shop at Old Navy. Can anyone say perfect playdate?

Jackson and Ella the last few times they've been together have started an extended game of chase. It's so cute!!


Ella ran right up to Sunni at one point and asked for her to be picked up. It was sweet because Ella doesn't normally want to be held by anyone except her momma and dadda and grandparents.

The Weekend!

Yesterday Ella turned 19 months. Not much has changed since her turning 18 months. She's still so sweet and amazing, saying so many cute words and so fun! Yesterday, however, with her turning 19 months, she is now closer to being two years old than she is to being just one year old. I am so in love with this stage, I wish I could freeze her in time. But she's headed to two quickly. Why am I not pregnant again? :-) Just kidding.

Heath and I have had a fun weekend. Friday night we ate here:

We ate at the one in Southlake Town Square. For those of y'all who aren't familiar with this area, Southlake Town Square is a gorgeous shopping and dining opportunity. It's the perfect place to eat and stroll around on a cool summer/fall/spring night, which is exactly what we did.

After our delicious dinner, we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to buy these:

My kitchen rugs were getting so old, it was beyond time for new ones and they look so good! I love them. They make our whole kitchen look different.

Saturday afternoon, Heath's sister's came over for the day. We ate, ate and ate some more. There's this great Mexican restaurant in Dallas called Luna De Noche and they have THE.BEST.QUESO! Last time we were there, we bought the recipe and now can have THE.BEST.QUESO. anytime we want! So we ate much queso, quacomole, fajitas, and brownies. mmmmm. Oh and we played Sequence! That is a summary of what we do most of the time when we get together with Heath's family. I look forward to it for days. :-) mmmmm. Have I said that already?


Aunt Cathy swung Ella for a veyr long time cause that is what she requires. You know, she's a little obssessed with the swing.


Heath's sister Ashley.

Cathy brought these shoes with her for Ella!!! Can a pair of shoes get any cuter?

Ella's Aunt Cathy is often the bearer of many great shoes for her. She gets them all from the greatest baby store ever, BabyStyles. Cathy is the one responsible for the gold Mary Janes that I am in love with. Thank you Aunt Cathy!

Hope y'all had a fantastic weekend!

Ava Elizabeth

I still have more to write about my Kansas trip, but I had to take brief break from it to blog about my new camera! Which is still so fabulous. I have a couple of friends, Amber and Corey, that are hopefully going to give me a couple tutorials.

I have to extend my break to announce the birth of Ava Elizabeth to my very good friends Lauren and Tyler!! Lauren went into labor Monday morning at 1:00 a.m. and had her sweet Ava at 1:00 p.m. Monday afternoon. Y'all, she had her naturally! That means no epidural. Such a lost concept. It wasn't on purpose though. She moved through labor quicker than they expected which kind of forced her to forge on without drugs. And she did and she did a great job!! She is every woman!

This was the perfect photo opportunity to try out my new camera. Ava weighs 8 lbs 2 oz. Such a sweet face.


Ava and her new mommy of only 5 hours!


These are my good friends Melissa and Melissa. I work with both of them at our church and we have SO much fun in the office! They both are pregnant and due only 2 weeks apart!! This is so fun for me that isn't quite yet ready to be pregnant again, but I feel like I get to kind of experience it again through them.
Lauren's mom is such a sweet grandmother. She reminded me so much of my mom. Totally, 100% there for her daughter and new grand daughter, such a great helper. I could tell how much she is in love with both them.


Doesn't Lauren look amazing? This was the next day after she had her baby naturally!

I interrupt this blogcast for a very important message.

Heath came home Friday from work with a surprise gift in his hands. It was a pink super woman gift bag filled with tissue paper. I was shocked and touched that he bought a random gift for Ella. Heath asked Ella and I open it together. The top gift was a sweet outfit for the Punkin. It's adorable and Ella squelled with delight when she saw it. I was so impressed with my hubby. But there was more...

I was thinking, another something for Ella. This is so fun. I love random present opening parties for the punkin. So I was totally shocked when she pulled the tissue paper off of the bottom gift and it was A NEW CAMERA for ME!! I squelled! Jumped up and down as Ella cracked up at me.

A little background:

I have had my sights set on this camera for several months. When my birthday came in April, my sweet friends and family knew how badly I desired this camera, so they all gave me birthday money to help with the cost. Since April, I've been saving up a little here and there becuase it's a rather expensive/extravagant gift. I didn't think I had yet saved up enough, but behold I now how the camera of my dreams, The Canon Rebel XT! It actually seems so much sweeter that I had to wait a little bit to get it. I am able to appreciate it's wonderfulness to the full extent. Well, not to the fullest yet, I need lots of training on this sucker. :-)

It was so sweet of Heath to buy the camera without me knowing and to surprise me in such a sweet and creative way. He's good at that.

You can imagine that we took 200 hundred pictures this weekend. We had a blast with it.

Just a half hour after I was surprised with the camera, Heath and I met Amanda, Curtis and Jackson for dinner. It was my first photo opportunity and I took advantage of it. They were so sweet to let me play with the camera and take lots of pictures of them.













Goodbye dear old camera. Even though you were probably the first digital camera ever made and you are way behind the times. Even though you take 5 seconds to take/process each picture and I've missed countless adorable shots. Even though in those moments I've wanted to give into my rage and smash you against the wall, you have still been there for us in our most precious moments. You were one of the few in the delivery room with us and captured my most favorite and special pictures that I will ever have. You really pulled through for us on that day. And you have captured some of the greatest memories of our lives the last 18 months. I am thankful for you stretching your limits to the fullest for us.


Hello fabulous new camera!