Grapevine Main Street Days

Heath, Ella and I had the best day a couple of Fridays ago. It was Grapevine's annual Main Street Days Festival. It's one of 4 festivals that they put on every year.

While Heath was working that afternoon, Ella and I went ahead and went so we could eat corny dogs for lunch!!! Delicious! So we strolled around just the two of us looking at all the fun craft booths. I really wanted to buy something, but nothing really caught my eye.

The great thing about this particular festival is it focuses a lot on the kids, so there were tons of fun things for Ella.

The first stop we made (after eating corny dogs, of course) was the play dough section.





She didn't stay long at the play dough station because the bounce house caught her eye and we had to do that RIGHT NOW.



Her favorite thing to do is seat drops.


Check out the air she got on this one.


She had a collision with another little girl in the blue bounce house and hurt her cheek. So we had to move to the green bounce house because "NO BLUE BOUNCE!".




Heath showed up while she was bouncing in the green house and she screamed so loud with delight when she saw him. It was precious.

Then we rode on a blue choo choo train.




Ella eyed this balloon ride from afar and really wanted to ride it.


However, when our balloon went high it spun around also and freaked her out. She was screaming "NO HIGH".


This is me trying to console her. It didn't work and they ended up having to stop the ride. Thankfully we were the only ones on it, so we didn't ruin anybody elses ride.


Poor baby. As you can see, she was very happy that the ride was slowing down.


It was such a fun day. The weather and atmosphere were perfect! Just my baby and my man. If you live in North Texas, you really need to go to one of Grapevine's festivals because they are a lot of fun.

Happy Anniversary & Memorial Weekend!

Before I get into all the Memorial Day cuteness, I wanted to say again Happy Anniversary to my sweet husband Heath! Sunday was our SIX year anniversary. We had a really good day. Heath took me to this delicious steak restaurant and I got the most delicious steak I think I've ever had. It was called the Bleu Cheese Filet. This is the description from the menu..."Our fillet mignon wrapped in applewood bacon. Covered in a bleu cheese crust, served golden brown and sprinkled with roasted garlic cloves!" And yes, it was that good. It was a wonderful evening with good food and good conversation. Thanks Babe!

Right before leaving to eat, eat, eat on our date!


We had a wonderful Memorial Day. The Lewis' and The Murrell's came over to our house for some fun in the sun! Heath grilled chicken for our chicken fajitas and we had a huge bowl of guacamole. Kristin, Melissa and I have decided that's our favorite food, so every time we are together we have to have guacamole.

Kristin borrowed this from her sister so we could play on it for the day! It was a huge hit. How fun is this, right in your own backyard?!


Laney and Ella enjoyed climbing up the slide more than going down it.








I could never tell you how many times Joshua went down the slide, because it was A LOT. He didn't stop for probably 2 hours. And every time he went down, he had the biggest smile!


And he loved the water spraying on his face.


Ella, such a big girl!


Ella and Laney played together a lot in the baby pool, while Joshua continued to slide.




We wore the babies out. After the Lewis' left, Ella and Joshua laid one the floor together and watched a movie. I think Joshua lasted about 5 minutes before he was passed out.




Part Two of Memorial Day:

After Ella woke up from her nap, we got our swimsuits back on and her and I met the Murrells at our friend Becky's apartment for another swim. Her pool is awesome and great for babies. It was Ella's first time in a big pool since last summer! Swimming is going to be a lot more fun this year because Ella was way more into it.






We enjoy the silliness!


Becky taught Ella how to jump off the side of the pool and have an adult catch her. It took her a few times to catch on, but then she loved it.




Now this is what the pool is supposed to be about, right? Relaxing on your mat? That must have been a dream I had...


...because this is what it's really about now.


And what's a day at the pool without licking the water?


and licking it some more.


A good day spent with good friends and family!

And The Winner Is...

Imagine you'd worked all day, you've come home, made dinner, turned the Xbox on to occupy the husband (Heath added this part), bathed and put the baby to bed and finally sat down with your feet up, DVR remote in hand and pressed play to watch the much anticipated climax of a season's worth of tough competition.

And this is what you see...

Untitled from Janelle Hartsfield on Vimeo.

Are you kidding me? Thank God for the internet and of course your blogs. It didn't take me long to find out which David actually won.

You can't make this stuff up people.

The Weekend

This weekend, my parents, Ella and I went to Marshall, TX to visit my sister and her husband. However, it could not have been any further from a relaxing visit. We were there to work and work hard we did.

My sister and her husband moved to Marshall a year and a half ago and bought a house on a very beautiful acre of land. Well, the person who lived in that house for years and years before them thought it was a smart idea to build a gigantic shed like thing right in the middle of the backyard to block off the rest of the acre of land. So from her back porch all you saw was a little yard and a huge gross shed.

Our job for the weekend: tear down the shed. Along with, an old privacy fence.

Before pictures:

The privacy fence




The old shed




My brother-in-law and my dad's job was to cut down the fence and shed with chainsaws and other fun tools and the girls' job was to carry all the wood to a wood pile on the side of the yard. Y'all I could not even begin to tell you how many trips I took carrying various sizes of wood.


My sister and I carrying one of many. It was tough work, but we made it fun.


After we cleared everything out of the shed and the boys took down all the siding, it was time to push her over! It was fun to watch all the work we've done be completed.




There she goes!






Ella watching as it came down. She was so excited afterwards that she kept asking everyone, "Did you watch it?"


And now look at their beautiful view from their back porch. MUCH better! A pool is going up this next weekend where the shed used to be. That would have been a much better time for us to go down to help. :-)


Our huge pile of wood!


Ella had tons of fun running around in this huge yard! Grandad took a break to do some running with her. She was SO GOOD this weekend. All of us adults were able to work because she was perfectly content to sit on the porch and play by herself. She never threw a fit and I know she probably got bored at times. I'm constantly amazed at her wonderfulness.








She loved playing with these balls. I thought this was a cute picture because the 5 balls are the exact 5 colors in her shorts. :-) It doesn't take much to humor me. It really doesn't take much.




My sister bought Ella this really fun thing for them to do together. It's an egg, or what looks like an egg, with soil in it. You just crack the top off, water it everyday, and in 7 to 10 days an impatien will grow. This is perfect because my sister is coming to stay with us in 2 weeks and she can see Ella's flower that I hopefully don't kill. She's bringing a cute pot for them to transfer it to then. Ella is very into it, even though I don't think she quite understands that a flower will eventually grow from it.