Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Saying Goodbye to Las Colinas

Sadly, the time came when Heath and I had to move from our apartment in Las Colinas. I am a very sentimental person, so having to say goodbye to a place where we lived for 2 years and has piles of memories is just hard for me to handle. The hardest of leaving was that this is the home we brought Ella to for the first time. Here is an excerpt from "The Girlfriends Guide to Surviving the First Year of Motherhood". It describes exactly how I feel about our first home with Ella.

"Before you walk into your home with your new baby, stop and mentally photograph this house or apartment building so that you can keep it in your heart forever. In this mobile society of ours, there's a good chance that your child will not live in this place till she goes to college. You may move two or three more times during her childhood, especially if you find you like this mothering business and have more kids. But this will always be Bethlehem to you, the place where your family was born. You may not know it yet, but your most precious memories are about to be created here, and in years to come you will have forgotten if it had bad plumbing or funny shag carpeting. It's where you brought your first child. Welcome home!"

I'm not very good and expressing my feelings in words, so I love when I can find someone else's words that can describe exactly how I feel.

When the time came for Heath and I to say goodbye, we walked through each room with Ella and cried and told memories that we had in each one of those rooms. It was a sweet time. We loved that apartment. It was such a fun place to live. But there's always a time to move on.


Our front door

















Ella crashed after her long day of packing up her room.

Painting our rooms back to their original color


Our beautiful pool and view from our balcony. This is what I will miss the most. It was always so peaceful to look out of our living onto this, espcially during the many many sunsets I saw when Ella was first born.




Our balcony

Mother's Day/Ella's Dedication

May 14th was not only special because it was my first Mother's Day, but also because that was the day we had Ella's Dedication. Mine and Heath's dedication to spend our lives showing Ella God's love and teaching her how to live a life after His heart. We had lots of family in town and we got to spend the day together.
We had her Dedication at our church in Irving. It was SO special to have my grandad there to do the prayer.


John Durham introducing us.

Everybody ohhhed and ahhhed over Ella when they saw her!

My Grandad Angel giving the dedication prayer over me,Heath and Ella.





The Angels

The Hartsfields

The Angels and The Hartsfields!


Silly Daddy!!














After church, we all went over to my parent's, had a barbeque and swam. It was a good day.


My sister, Aunt Michelle!

My Aunt Natasha!

My Uncle Arthur and Aunt Sandy came from Houston to see our sweet Ella dedicated!

My Uncle Jim, Aunt Natasha, and their two cute boys Zach and Ethan!

Joshua is born!

On May 5th, Joshua William Murrell was born one month early and weighing in at 6 pounds even!! We are so excited for Peter and Melissa!! They are such special friends to us and I hope our babies are as well.


Sweet Joshua!



Kristin holding both of the babies! This is the first time Ella has ever looked big next to another baby!

To Grammy's!

The last weekend in April, Heath, Ella and I spent the weekend in Waco at Grammy's. A lot of Heath's family was in town and so we had such a fun time with everyone! At one point, we had put Ella on the floor on a blanket and about 15 adults sat around her and just stared. It's amazing how one little human can captivate an entire audience. It was really fun! Here are some of the most adorable pictures ever from the weekend.






Aunt Ashley



Aunt Cathy


I just can not get enough of that sweet smile!

"My First Elvis Shirt, Thank you, thank you very much." A gift from Grammy.

Grammy and Ella in their Elvis shirts.

Ella's Bee Happy nursery at Grammy's

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Easter

This Easter, April 16th, was also our first Sunday to take Ella to church. My mom bought her the most adorable Easter dress ever! It was a very fun morning. She did great in the nursery. Such a good baby!












Friday, June 02, 2006

Ella's friend Gage Jackson is born!

Today, April 12th, our good friends Linsey and David Jackson had their baby boy Gage! Another one of Ella's good friends is here!