Chris Ward comes for a visit!

Chris is one of our dear friend from our church in Geneseo,Il. She was like an adopted mom to Jeff and I for the five years that we were there! It was so special to have her come down and see Ella! She came down for four days and then Ella and I rode back up north with her to visit friends and family.

I really enjoyed the time with her at our house. She is quite the seamstress, and was gracious enough to bring her sewing machine with her and make curtains for me for our family room. She slaved over them and cranked out five lined panels of curtains in two days! They are beautiful! She also brought a BEAUTIFUL quilt and playmat quilt she made for Ella! Thank you so much Chris for sharing your amazing talents and skills with us!

Chris had fun giving Ella a bath!

Just got done feeding her a bottle so mommy could get some rest!

Going shopping with mommy and Chris! Sounds dangerous to me! :o)

Hangin' out on the back porch! The weather was beautiful when she was here! Chris thought it was HOT, but I guess we are just used to it.

Cutting out the curtains!

More fun bath time!!!

Poor thing! She worked SO HARD to get those curtains done!!!

Play and snuggle time!

The beautiful quilt Chris made to match Ella's nursery!

Us being silly!! :o)

Just hangin' out the night before we left for our road trip! Spending time with daddy! He didn't get to go, so he wanted to soak up some time with his baby girl!

Haha! I love this picture! It's Chris with the Whole French Family!

Thank you so much Chris for taking the time and making the sacrifice to come down and see us! It was such a joy to have you! Thank you for all the beautiful gifts you gave Ella and for your generosity to Jeff and I! More importantly....thank you for your friendship! We love you like family!!! So special to have to with us!

Random Summer....Inbetween Company

Jeff and I had a pretty steady flow of visitors during my maternity leave! It was nice to have all the help and to be able to see everyone. We had a few weeks in between visitors where we were just able to enjoy the newness of being a family! Ella is such an easy baby, and we just ate her up! Here are a few random pictures from those few weeks that I love!

Sleeping in my bouncy seat! Thank you Grandma Lowery for my cute and comfy dress! Daddy loves it because it's brown!! :o)

LOVE those kissy lips!!!

We went on a long walk on Memorial Day! It was really hot...so Chester decided to jump in Ella's pool and cool off!

Carrie came over for a while to hang out on Memorial Day!

We went to a cookout at the White's before the concert in the park. Clay holding Ella!

Concert in the park on Memorial Day

Happy little family!

I love my little girl!!! I love it when baby's take a nap on your chest! So sweet!

Ella loved Cory! :o) She chilled out with him during the concert!

Our first "date" since Ella was born! She came along of course, but it was fun to go out to eat as a family!

Dinner at Abuelo's

Proud mommy!!!

My Beautiful Sisters Come Visit Ella!!!!

My sisters Deann and Dawn came down to visit us when Ella was just over a month old! We realized that because of life circumstances, we had never had sister time...just the three of us! We were so far apart in age growing up, and by the time I was old enough for us to all want to do things together, they were married and had babies. So, this time with the three of us together was PRICELESS! I wish we could make a yearly event of it! I love my two sisters more than anything! They are so loving, and are beautiful on the inside and outside! I am so thankful that God blessed me with the privelage of having them as my sisters! Not only are you my sisters, but you are some of my BEST FRIENDS!!!! I love you both SO MUCH!!! Thank you for making the sacrifice to come meet your baby sister's first baby! It meant the world to me, and I will always treasure the time we had together!

This is a picture of Ella after she went swimming in her baby pool from Aunt Deann for the first time! She bought Ella her first little bathing suit and a little baby pool! I am sad we weren't able to use it when they were here, but the weather was a little too cool and rainy. Jeff and I put her in there for the first time the day after they went home. I accidently uploaded these pics backwards, so they go from the end to the beginning of their trip! :o)

Ella wasn't quiet sure what to thing of the water at first! She loved water from the very beginning, but this was much cooler than her bath water!

Still not sure what to think! Her first swim lasted about 2 min! It was fun to see her in her cute little swimming suit though!!! :o)

Daddy checking out Ella in her first swimming suit! Thank you Aunt D!!!

Deann and I were both not feeling well the whole time they were here! :o( This was the last day when we went out to eat on the way to the airport! She was starting to feel a lot better and was sad that she got so few pictures with Ella! I love this one!!

I LOVE MY SISTERS!!!!!

All dressed up for church on Sunday!

Some special time with Aunt Deann

You can tell Deann and I were both feeling under the weather in this picture! But I still love it! Even Ella is smiling for the camera!

Aunt Dawnie loved to sing to Ella! And of course Ella LOVED it when Aunt Dawnie sang to her! :o)

Snuggle time with my Aunties!!!

Aunt Dawnie had to see the Nakey Baby!!! :o) Bath time!!!!

I LOVE this picture of the three of us!!! Such a happy little family!

You can definetely tell Dawn and I are sisters in this picture!!! :o) Love this one! I love you Dawnie Doodle!!!

Singing to the baby!!

My sisters were such an amazing help to me! They even took the night shift one night so Jeff and I could get a FULL NIGHT'S SLEEP! I never knew how amazing that could be! It was so much fun to be able to hang out just the three of us! (well, and Jeff too, but he let us have our girl time! ) Thank you again so much for coming to see us!!! We all love you!

Mother's Day.....and Tami Comes for a visit!!!

Poor baby girl! We couldn't resist...Uncle Tim sent Ella her first pair of Nike's and we had to try them on her! As you can see....she wasn't as thrilled as we were! Thank you Uncle Tim for my cute shoes!

Mother's Day was so special for me! Not only because it was my first, but it was also Ella's baby dedication at church. What an amazing gift it is to be a mother. I don't take it lightly and treasure it EVERY DAY!

Ella doesn't looked too thrilled about going to her baby dedication in this picture, but she was a perfect angel up on the stage. We had people come up to us after church and say that from where they were sitting, she looked like a doll! They werent even sure she was real! LOL

Daddy, Uncle Tim, and Ella on mother's day. This was Tim's last day before he flew back home to Colorado. Thank you for coming to visit Uncle Tim!!!

Here is a picture from Ella's baby dedication. We were one of several families that were having a baby dedicated. They read them meaning of each baby's name and chose a verse that went along with the meaning of their name. They also gave Ella a nice certificate, and her first Bible!

As we dropped Uncle Tim off at the airport, we picked up my childhood friend Tamara(or Tami to those of us from the good ole' days). I hadn't seen her in several years, so it was great to be able to reconnect! Tami has three little boys and is a very busy mommy, so I really appreciated her taking time out of her very busy schedule to come down and see us! Thank you so much for making the sacrifice! I hope we can see each other more often!!!


This is a picture of us at one of Jeff and I's favorite Texmex places....which has since then closed!! :o(

We went and got a pedicure together. Ella behaved pretty well!

Thank you so much for coming down to see me Tami! It meant the world, and I had a ton of fun! Thank you for being such a huge help and letting me get some much needed rest!!

Chad and Tamara have started their own photography business in the last couple of years, and Tami was gracious enough to spend several hours taking newborn pictures of Ella for us! They turned out amazing!!!! I am so thankful to have these precious pictures captured from when she was just a month old!! Thank you so much for taking the time to take these for us! We LOVE THEM!!