A Holiday High Five


I can't believe Christmas is just days away, and I still have three people to shop for and a mile long list of crafts to complete. This week was pretty great, Amelia and I made some awesome memories and just had a blast. Here is my high five for Friday post!

1. Amelia is learning the true meaning of Christmas by giving to others who might not expect it. Yesterday she gave a box of chocolates to our mail man and he was beyond thrilled. It was so cute to watch her walk out there shouting 'Merry Christmas'. We have a few more surprises to pass out so I will post about that later. 

 2. We dressed our cat up as Santa, and he was less than thrilled!

 3. This week we celebrated my Auntie Debbie's 60th Birthday! It was a blast!

4. We headed to the mountain Wednesday to play in the snow. It was freezing up at Timberline so we spent most of our time playing at Government Camp.  

5. This is Spirit our elf... and today he pooped Hershey Kisses onto peanut butter cookies. Too funny! My sister gave me the idea and my mom made the cookies. Amelia cracked up at this. 

And there ya have it folks, a little recap of my week. Now I've got to get back to some serious crafting. 

Ashley Elizabeth
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High Five for Friday


This week was pretty great! I feel like I got a few things accomplished, lost a couple of pounds and spent some time with my Mama!


1. My Mama spent the night last night and this  morning we got up and headed to see Santa. Amelia smiled on his lap for the first time ever and it was an overall fun day.


2. On top of seeing Santa we rode on the Bridgeport train. It just goes around the shopping center (it is outdoors) and it was a blast for Amelia.

3. Our elf Spirit has been pretty funny lately!

4. So this is the doorway going down to our basement... and that is the wall of gates I made to put our cat in kitty timeout. He has been naughty around the tree so he keeps getting in trouble.

5. I know the personal events in my life this week were of joy and not tragedy, but my heart aches for the families and friends of the victims in the two shootings this week. A gunman entered a mall located about 10 minutes from my home and opened fire, killing two innocent people before he shot himself. The shooting today in Newtown Connecticut has me praying as hard as I can. I've seen this picture floating around Facebook and every time I see it pop up again it gives me an uneasy feeling. Tiny little babes were taken from this world by the horrific actions of one person, when they were just starting their lives. I pray that we as a people figure out how to stop this. Things like this should never happen.

As I leave you tonight I ask you to pray as well for the victims, their families and friends, and our country as a whole.


Ashley Elizabeth
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High Five for Friday!


Hey All,
I'm excited to finally write this high five for Friday post! I promised myself I would step away from the Christmas crafting to post today. Lately things have been pure chaos, but I really like being busy and find myself enjoying the late nights. I have a list a mile long of things to get done before Christmas, I feel like an elf!

So here ya have it, my Friday post!

 1. I've been working on some new things for my Etsy shop. I absolutely love these hair clips! They are for sale at AmeliaBug. Keep and eye out for some new items in the near future.

2. Meet our elf Spirit! He has been visiting us since Thanksgiving... and I must say, he causes a lot of trouble. At least today he was only fishing instead of smearing toothpaste all over the counter and writing on our mirrors with lipstick. Oh and let's not forget the day he decorated our Christmas tree with Amelia's panties. I will share the adventures of Spirit with you all in another post. 

3. Our Christmas tree! It is finally lit and decorated. It looks so beautiful at night when it is lit... all 1600 lights! 

4. My little sister Grace graduated from fire academy this past Tuesday! I am so proud of her heading down the path to pursue her dream of being a firefighter. Good job little sis!

5. I have had quite the exhausted little babe lately! This was her on Saturday after her final Nutcracker performance. She is such a little beauty :) 

Well there ya have it, a few snippets of my week. Hopefully you will hear from me a little more often from now on. 

Happy Friday!



Ashley Elizabeth
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Dear Nutcracker, I love this time of year...


I said I would write a post the other day, but failed to deliver... that just goes to show you the chaos that is my life at the moment. So my daughter Amelia started ballet for the first time in September and immediately loved it. Shortly after she started taking lessons, the owner of the studio decided that he was going to put on the Nutcracker instead of a winter recital. Dancers didn't have to participate but Amelia was loving ballet so much already that we decided to sign her up. I didn't realize how much of a commitment a ballet performance of this nature would be for even a 3 year old, but I am so glad we were a part of the wonderful production. Amelia has had regular lessons on Thursdays and then Nutcracker rehearsal every Saturday for the last couple of months. Usually Saturday rehearsals were about two hours and I got to help a little with costumes and organizing the kids. It was a great experience for both Amelia and myself. This past Friday and Saturday were their performances. The show was held at a local high school's theater and practically sold out both performances (589 seats in the theater). I got to watch the Friday show and then I was backstage for the Saturday one. For a little ballet studio... it was awesome! I was beyond impressed with how everything came together and I am already looking forward to helping out with their next big performance. Here are a few pictures of the time we spent on this.






                                                  

The Sunday after Thanksgiving we went and got our Christmas tree. It is a beautiful 8&1/2 foot tree and I finally got it lit and decorated on Monday night. My mom, sisters and I are very picky on how we like our trees to be lit. We thread the lights on each branch and even going a little lighter on lights this year, I ended up with 1600 lights on my tree (16 strands). I will have to take some good pictures now that it is finished and post them tonight.




With getting ready for Christmas, doing a little shopping, running all over for ballet, having family over to our house and maintaining our elf on the shelf... this Mama has been busy! I have a lot of craft projects that I need to complete before Christmas and I am beyond excited! Well, this was a quick post but I will hopefully get around to another one tonight or tomorrow morning. I hope you are all enjoying the holiday season!







Ashley Elizabeth
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Absent Ashley


Oh wow, I have been gone for quite some time! I promise to post tomorrow!!! My daughter performed in the Nutcracker Ballet that her studio put on and it has been quite the whirlwind experience. We have been spending hours upon hours at the studio rehearsing and getting things ready. They just had their two performances last night and this afternoon... full update to follow. Right now I have a very sleepy ballerina that wants snuggles.
Ashley Elizabeth
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