Friday Five

Here we are at yet another Friday.  These weeks are going by so fast! We are still getting off of our Disneyland high from last week and Ellie is all about saying "no, no, no, no, no!" even when she means yes.  So we are having a bit of fun, I am sure you can imagine.  We miss Disneyland like crazy, it was so fun to have four family filled days and basically NO social media, but let me tell you it is so nice to be home! It amazes me with how much Ellie has grown and matured over the last few weeks and what a big girl she is!!

O N E 

I painted Ellie's nails for the first time this week. She LOVED it and was so good.  I have this thing about messes (I don't like them) and so far I have trained Ellie to be quite clean.  {Of course eating mashed potatoes is always a mess and usually ends up with Ellie giving herself a potato facial...maybe she is on to something!}She just stood there watching while I painted and was very patient while I held her hands in a death grip until her fingers were dry.  Then I told her to go show Dada her nails and she is such a girl and showed him "correctly" I just about died!!  She is still quite proud of her nails.  Although she is plagued with the same "skill" I have and had her pinky nail chipped within 10 minutes! I cannot get over how much older she looks now with pink nails. #wheredidmybabygo

T W O

Spring is arriving here in the PNW and I have to say that I am super excited about it.  The snow cap on the mountains is pretty low so that means that we are most likely going to have a pretty dry summer, which is always a bummer.  But with our mild weather lately I have a feeling that all our spring blooming bulbs are going to make an early appearance.  Speaking of tulips, aren't they the most beautiful flowers?  They always bring such happiness to my winter eyes.  We are so lucky to live within a few hours of the Tulip Festival in Skagit County, Washington.  Thomas and I have made it a point to visit every year since we started dating and its a Spring Date I always look forward to. You can read more about our Spring Tradition here.

T H R E E 

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We are two days away from GREEN MONTH! You guys, as soon as Valentines Day is over I get my green on for St. Patrick's Day. Our house is decked out in green (it is my favorite color after all).  Why do I love St. Patrick's Day so much? Well because it's my birthday!! I can't believe that I will be 31 this year, how crazy is that because I swear I just turned 24.  I absolutely love having a holiday birthday because I like to think that all the stores and everyone is getting ready to celebrate my birthday.  I was looking through my St. Patrick's Day Pinterest board the other day and I have so many great recipes on there that I NEED to try out this year.  Check it our for yourself! I would love to know if you try any of them yourself.

F O U R

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I won a Minted giveaway.  Well I finally decided on what I was going to get from there and ordered them earlier this week.  I have been seeing this all over the internet and I so wanted to get one for Ellie's birthday last year but couldn't stomach the price.  Since I had "free" money I thought why not and put it right into my shopping cart.  Then I was wavering what else I should get since my order had to be over the amount I won to be able to use my "free" monies and finally decided on this for Ellie's toddler room.  I am so excited for these to come in the mail. 

F I V E 

At MOPs this week we were encouraged to share our story and then on FB yesterday I came across a story with the hashtag #ihadamiscarriage.  Nearly all of the women at my MOPs table have dealt with either a miscarriage or Infertility, God knew what He was doing when He put me at this table.  While you can read it in detail here I don't feel like I even talk about our struggle enough on the blog. Which might be a good thing actually because ya'll would probably get sick of hearing about my four miscarriages and battle with Infertility.  The thing is that miscarriage is a loss and something that the mother never forgets and often thinks about every single day.  For some reason we choose to fight this battle privately, whether its because we are ashamed that our bodies can't do their purpose, don't want to come across as a "poor me" individual, don't think that people will understand, or whatever our reason may be.  But the truth is that miscarriage defines us.  That doesn't mean that it can define us in a bad way, just how we view our world.  When we open up and start talking about our losses it is so crazy how friends and co-workers come out of the woodwork and share their story as well.  Oftentimes I find the courage to share because someone else shared before me.  I think about my four angel babies every day.  I am so thankful to have Ellie in my life and know that out of all the babies in the world God hand picked her for us, but I still think about my bio-babies up in heaven and can't help but wonder how they would have turned out.  We plan to adopt again, after we raise some money and get our finances together, but I also dream and pray daily for a miracle pregnancy.  The thought though of getting pregnant again scares me because of my past traumatic experiences with 2 ectopic pregnancies and the other two losses we have had.  But I have hope and faith and know that God will grow our family in the way that He has planned for us.  I am so thankful for this spot on the internet where I can share my heart with you and let go of some of this pain, to share my story and to give courage to others.  

♥ Ashley

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