Asher Turns 2!

 We celebrated Asher's 2nd birthday with a candy themed party. 

Much to my demise his most favorite of things includes anything with sugar. 

The invitations were so much fun to create and I loved how they turned out.

 

Guests were welcomed with a few balloons and a Happy Birthday message!

At the front door a bowl of smarties and a large wooden 2 gave hints as to what was waiting inside.

 I am kind of obsessed with how adorable this little cake turned out. I made Martha Stewart's Vanilla Vanilla cupcakes and used the remaining batter to make a two layer cake. I added a teeny bit of food coloring to have the layers be orange and green. Inspiration for the cake found here.

I am also slightly obsessed with how adorable the dessert table turned out as well as those sweet little marshmallow treats. Not only are they super sweet but they are cute decorations as well (and so easy to make! Dip marshmallow in melted candy coating and then dip in sprinkles.)

String lanterns hung from the ceiling for an extra bit of color and fun. (Tutorial found here.) I loved how they turned out and think they would be a whimsical addition to any little one's room. My nephew now has these hanging in his room. :)

 

Little treat bags for the guests to fill with candy! 

Our original plan for the party was to have games in the backyard for all the little ones, but a few days before the party, the weather was hinting at a possibility of rain so I had the task of coming up with some entertaining ideas that could take place indoors. I found this inspiration for the table and thought it was such a cute idea (scan down through the party photos to see how they set up their eating space.) So, I lined our large dining room table with white paper, painted 'place settings' and added a centerpiece of balloons. 

I purchased a digital coloring book from a fellow etsy seller, Emmi Grace Kids and printed it for all of our little guests. For easy binding, I added a solid coverstock page for the cover, hole punched the corners and used a D-ring to keep together. The little guests loved this activity and were excited to take them home too. I would recommend this for any party! So easy!

 

 Menu

Hot Dogs + Chili

Chicken Salad Wraps

Greek Pasta Salad

Veggie Sticks (as seen here) 

Drinks

Lemonade

Sweet Tea

Juice Boxes

 

 The Birthday Boy!!! 

How cute is that picture of him with the bat?! He was so excited!

(P.S. The homemade pinata turned out great except on the outside... it kind of looked like a dinasaur egg! haha. I ran out of time to actually decorate the thing as planned when we realized I had forgotten to put a hook in it to actually hang it. We spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out how in the world we were going to hang a billion pound pinata. Nonetheless, it was a huge hit and the kids loved taking their swing at it... not to mention the amount of candy that came pouring from it!)

Overall the most amazing thing about this little birthday party was watching my little guys have so much fun. I was able to see Andrew interact with his buddies in a new way as he would drop whatever he was doing at the moment and show compassion to the one that was sad. He has the biggest the heart! And as we sat coloring together I thought to myself how blessed I truly am to have been given such a wonderful and sweet little boy.

And Asher was more excited than I have ever seen him! He gripped his treat bag with such fervor that even opening his presents would not convince him to let go. At one point he went running through the house with two bags of candy in his hands screeching sheer happiness! I about died laughing.

 This party is truly one of my most favorite of family memories and I will treasure it forever. 

(And hopefully you found some fun inspiration for your next party too. :)

February Goals Recap

On February 1 I posted my first of many monthly goals. I found so much motivation and encouragement towards tackling those goals just by getting them down on paper. And the accountability of making those goals public was phenomenal. February was unbelievably busy (which I am learning is the norm for my life) and yet unbelievably productive! Typically I crumble when facing super busy seasons. I get overwhelmed very easily and then even the smallest task becomes unmanageable in my mind. This crumbling then leads to an even longer to-do list because the demands of life are not just going to go away because I am overwhelmed.

Am I the only one who struggles in this way? I think it is the curse of the perfectionist who procrastinates because she is afraid of not being perfect....

This has been an ever increasing struggle over the years. Over the past couples months I have spent a lot of time praying through this specific struggle of mine, that overwhelming debilitating feeling I get when I look at the tasks before me, no matter how simple they may be. I am so thankful that God has ben so faithful to answer that prayer, providing so much focus and determination.

I recently read a great book, Loving the Little Years: Motherhood in the Trenches by Rachel Jankovic and though she was specifically writing about motherhood I gleaned wisdom that is very much applicable elsewhere in my life, especially this crazy business of mine.  At one point in the book she talks about our desire as moms to just give in to the frustration and throw our version of a temper tantrum. We break down, we cry, we stomp our feet, we get bitter or angry or both about this hard job we have in caring for our little ones (insert any job you have right now...). And though that temper tantrum may only last a few minutes the damage can last so much longer. She makes the point that when we give our little ones a task and they subsequently refuse, throwing their own temper tantrums... that we do not look that different. And at the end of the temper tantrum the task still has to be completed, i.e. the child still has to clean their room, they are just prolonging the inevitable with their crying and stomping. I am so much the same as those little ones. I throw my hands up and get frustrated, I cry and act like a 2 year old who has been told they have to clean their room, but at the end of the day I still have to get the job done. This little snippet of the book taught me so much about myself and about how I go about my days. I decided to stop wasting time and energy getting frustrated and just do the task that was causing the frustration. So far, this little mind reset has worked miraculously.
 
So, this little monthly goal project of mine has already been amazing as it is shortened that endless to-do list! Yipppeeee!

{February Recap}

Personal

Daily Bible Reading - I am using a plan on my iphone. It takes the brain-work out of it and provides a great amount of accountability. I am currently reading through Acts, Psalms/Proverbs, and Numbers. 

10k - I am running a 10k at the end of this month. The training is coming along. I was running before I was pregnant and the doctor gave me the ok as long as I took the training slowly. So I am doing the Couch to 10k program but instead of walking/running intervals I do a slow jog/run intervals. I really enjoy the running and I am sooo looking forward to the race with my girlfriends at the end of this month!

Unpacking - Yes! All the boxes are empty. The closets and garage are cleaned out and every room is decorated (Baby girl's room has some final touches I want to put on it but if she came today she would have a super sweet nursery to welcome her.) I am really enjoying our new house and am beyond thankful for God providing this home for our family when we were faced with such a time crunch. (I have some blog posts planned in the next few weeks that will feature our new house.)

Parties - Oh man. It was party month! An amazing baby shower, a super sweet ladies' valentines day party and then Asher's 2nd birthday party. Each party was super special and I can't wait to show you how they all came together!

Wife

Prayer Time WITH Aaron - Together we carved out time to sit with one another, read together and pray together. This does not happen every day but it does happen and is intentional = success
Prayer Time FOR Aaron - Our family, especially Aaron is just in a tough season right now and that naturally results in me spending more intentional time in prayer just for him. My prayer is that God will strengthen him, guide him, and daily provide wisdom and discernment as he leads this family and our church.
Intentional Time - We have made a strong effort to implement time together with the tv off and phones away to talk or read or pray. Again, this does not happen every day (except at the dinner table... which does happen every day!)  but it does happen and is intentional = success.

Mom

Play Time - This is a struggle. Honestly. I am the mom who wants to do crafts and have scheduled activities with boys who just want to lay on the floor and play with their cars... or wrestle... or play super heros. My prayer is that God will give me creativity in being a mommy and find ways to connect with my boys that are meaningful to them.
Prayer - Check. Can't. Do. This. Enough. :)
Plan Play Time - Fail. I tend to over-complicate things and this is one of those. When I said 'plan intentional playtime' I meant 'color a picture or do a puzzle together' but in my mind it turned into this big insurmountable huge preschool lesson I needed to put together. ha. So I just gave up and wandered aimlessly around the house while trying to 'play' with the boys. Anyway, its on the list for March so I'll let you know how this one goes in this coming month.

Business Owner

Web/Blog Transformation - There was a bit of movement on this but mostly research as to what changes I would like to make. This one made it on the list for March as well. :)
Begin New Designs - After some thought I decided the shop needed to reopen sooner rather than later so instead of beginning the designs for each of those listed, I focused on one and excitedly finished my first collection under the new and improved Ashlee Proffitt.

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In reality the biggest goals I reached this month were behind the scenes. My business was in need of a major makeover and that meant creating and implementing systems that will never make for a cute blog photo but have already improved my ability to be more efficient and productive giving me the most important thing, more time and mental energy to focus on being the best wife and mommy I can be!

Ok. Seriously. That was a long post. Next month's won't be so long. :) I would love to hear how you tackled your goals in February!

Maternity Weekend Wardrobe

 Our family had a fun and busy weekend. We made our first trip to the beach of the season this Saturday and although this is a weekend wardrobe post, I am positive you do not want to see a photo of this prego in a bathing suit. :)

On Sunday, we had a great time worshiping together at church and afterwards Drew and I had some mommy hang out time while attending one of his friends birthday party.

For church, I paired a sleeveless empire waist dress (perfect to define a waist when you really don't have one!) with a camisole, knee socks and boots. Silver accessories made the look complete.

I am still on the hunt for a perfect photo spot (i.e. not backlit) for these weekend wardrobe posts, so disregard the not so beautiful photo. :) Can you believe how big my belly is getting?!?! ahhh.

Goals for March.

Last month, I created goals for the month of February. They were actionable and there were not too many of them. The overall goal being to create more accountability as I will post each month's goals and then how I reached the goals at the end of the month. I will be doing a separate post (maybe early next week) on how my goals for February went, but overall it made the idea of reaching certain (seemingly impossible) goals manageable and I think it was a success!

Thank you to those of you who shared your goals for February with me! I can't wait to hear how you reached those goals and what your goals for this upcoming month are!

For March:

You will notice that many of the wifey/mommy goals are the same. Those goals are pretty much a daily plea with God to help me tackle those and are unchanging. Until those things become effortless they will be my priority goals for those specific areas of my life.

Free Printable for You!

I created a little monthly goal printable for you as well (just click on the below image, save to your computer and print!). I left blanks for you to fill in four areas/roles in your own life. Use the space below the blanks to list out a few actionable goals you would like to pursue this month in each area of your life. It's in a 5x7 layout so you could easily print it out, frame it and then place it somewhere that you would see it daily. This way you are easily being reminded of your goals through this next month.

I would love to hear about your goals for March and to see how you use your monthly printable!

Enjoy!

Vote For Me!

I submitted a few of my favorite designs from the recently launched Inspired Kids collection. 

Take a second and vote for your favorite design! (or designs!)

Thanks so much friends!

Vote for my design on minted.™ see more from Ashlee Proffitt vote for me! Check out my competition in Christmas photo cards and Save the Date cards at Minted.

Weekend Wardrobe Is Back!

My wardrobe over the past couple months has mainly consisted of sweats and t-shirts. Dressing my ever-growing belly has proved to be interesting this time around. My doctor swears I am not any bigger with this pregnancy but my clothes are not quite fitting the same as they did in previous pregnancies... or maybe this pregnancy is just flying by a bit faster than the other 3 so I keep forgetting that I should be this size. Either way, I bought my first pair of maternity jeans a couple weeks ago. Yes, first pair after already having 3 children. haha. 

My goal is to take a snapshot of my belly in said outfits from now on in the hopes of encouraging all of your pregnant ladies to dress those bellies in style. :) But for this week my little wardrobe board will have to do (insert your own mental image of a watermelon under the clothes.)

Party Time! 

We celebrated Asher's 2nd birthday on Friday evening. He had an absolute blast and so did we! I wore a kelly green strapless sundress that has more of an empire waist than the dress pictured below so it's a perfect fit for a growing tummy. I paired it with green beaded earrings and silver bangles. Simple but cute (and it matched the party decor of course!)

 

Chilly Florida Sunday Morning

I took advantage of an oddly cool Florida morning by pairing a white collared shirt (last time I will be wearing it for awhile... barely got it buttoned!) with a navy sweater and skinny jeans for church yesterday. I added leather slouchy boots in a camel color and silver accessories. I liked the look and the thought it was preppy chic.

I found this adorable blog post on what to wear in your 2nd trimester (although I am entering my 3rd this week) and found lots of cute inspiration there. Whether you are pregnant or not, she has cute outfit ideas and hopefully you can find some inspiration too!

What do you think of the wardrobe choices? Would you wear these with a pregnant belly? 

What fun things did you get into this weekend?

Daily Snapshot.

A little peek into my Wednesday. 

1 & 2. Lots of craft projects to finish up for Asher's little birthday party on Friday! It's candy themed - his most favorite thing!

3. Enjoying my new workspace

4. Lots to do, but crossing things off that list! Yippeeeee!

5. Printing, packaging and shipping out orders!

6. Finishing up the Inspired Kids collection. I needed to add a few more for the boys and I am even more excited about this collection than I was before. I have 12 designs that are geared towards boys and 12 designs for girls... I wonder why I needed 12 of each? That is coming up later. :)

. . .

What are you doing on this Wednesday?

A little reminder for you:
"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."  Colossians 3:17