Day 142: Fancy Hair

I wanted to do something different with Ashlyn's hair than just a ponytail or braid. So I did a Dutch braid (similar to a French braid) off to the side (saw it online on a kid's hair style site I like). It turned out really cute (especially for my first time doing anything like that... I had never even done a regular French braid before) and she got comments on it when we went to the library. This is the hairstyle she will have with her Easter dress.

Day 141: Meow

Ashlyn loves to dress up. Some days she 100% gets into character. This day she wanted to be a kitty cat and even walked with me to the mailbox with the ears on. Too cute.

Day 140: Spoiled Cat

So here's a story all about the most spoiled cat ever. Ali loves to sleep on our bed. Always. But her favorite times to do so are when we are changing the sheets or there are clean clothes lying on it. I was just finished washing our sheets and I walked in to put them on. Ali was sleeping on the mattress so I waited to put the sheets on until she got off. I didn't even think about making her get off. The funny this is, I know Aaron would have done the same thing. :) Way spoiled.

Day 139: Jack Skellington Bow

Here's another creation. I haven't made bows in awhile (this was made almost a month ago), but I need to since there is a craft fair in less than a week. Plus I have one or two more designs to do. :)

Day 138: Finished Project

I absolutely love how Ashlyn's room came together. She still talks about how much she loves everything. Here's the finished A and how I did her bed.

Day 137: Mulan

We had a Mulan movie night that was really fun. Aaron and I hadn't seen it in a really long time and Ashlyn had never seen it. As part of the decorations, I printed out our names in Chinese and taped them to the back of our chairs. This is Ashlyn's.

Day 136: Push Pops!

I'd been wanting these for awhile and Aaron started encouraging me to get some to try it out. So I made brownies and layered them with gelato and topped with whipped cream and a maraschino cherry. It was definitely really fun! I have an Easter treat I want to make, too, with these.

Day 135: Step 2 of Ashlyn's "A" Project

And I began to make stripes. This little project was really fun. I like how it all turned out, too.

Day 134: Cornbread Taco Pie

I made this because it sounded like it would be good, but no super high hopes. It ended up being pretty tasty!

Day 133: I Feel Just Like A Rockstar

Ashlyn knows most of the dance the Fresh Beat Band does during the song at the end of the show. Here she is showing off her moves!

Day 132: Step 1 of a Project for Ashlyn's Room

By now, whoever reads this blog has seen the results of this, but here is step 1 of an "A" I got at Michaels to put in Ashlyn's room.

Day 131: A Card for Daddy

We had gone to see Aaron at work (before he moved to a store farther away... hopefully that's temporary) because his schedule was keeping him from seeing Ashlyn very much (close and then open the next day so I would see him, but he would be home/gone again while Ashlyn was sleeping). She wanted to stay with him so bad instead of going back home, so I suggested she make him a card. I wrote down all the words (the back says Love, Ashlyn) and she traced them herself. She drew a picture inside and added some stickers. She loved making it for him and, of course, he loved it, too. :)

Day 130: Mardi Gras

This was a fun movie night. It was Mardi Gras (well, the day before) and we watched Princess and the Frog. Dinner was black eyed peas and sausage, beans, and rice and cornbread. Yum!

Day 128 and 129: Bows

Wow. Well, this photo challenge obviously hasn't been a top priority of mine lately. But I do have pictures! I seriously wish I was better at staying on top of this. Anyway, let's get a few more up here, shall we? I'll get closer to present day at least. :)

For awhile there, I was just making bows left and right. Here are the Fresh Beat Band bow (wow, blurry... oops) and the Snow White bow.

Day 127: Hello, My Name Is Christina and I... I Have A Ribbon Problem

This isn't even all of my ribbon (though close to it). No wonder Aaron said no more ribbon until I sell some bows. lol

Day 126: No, It's No One's Birthday

Ashlyn always gets a free balloon at Publix but one day it slipped off her wrist and flew away. She was really upset, but she was a big girl about it. I was proud of her so I asked Aaron to stop by the store on his way home to get her another one. He found a Rapunzel balloon that he knew she would like. She asked what it said and we told her and said it was a birthday balloon for Rapunzel. It's still holding up and she still loves it.

Day 125: More Pretty Flowers

These flowers smelled amazing! The whole kitchen and living room smelled like flowers. The only problem is that they spilled pollen over everything. They eventually went outside in the screened in porch, but I miss how they made the house smell.

Day 124: My Love Bug

I found this mask at JoAnn's for $1 a month or two ago and got it to keep for Valentine's Day. Ashlyn did such a great job coloring it!

Day 123: Ice Cream Cake

Aaron had some friends over and since I didn't want to make a whole cake just for the three of us, I made it that night. It's a chocolate cake with a strawberry ice cream heart in the middle.

Day 122: Computer Nerd

Aaron got a few things he needed to make his baby work properly again. He built this computer himself 3 years ago and something broke or something during our move to Florida. He waited awhile, but used some of our tax refund to fix it up. I'll be a computer widow for awhile, but he loves working on it. :)

Day 121: Valentine

Here is what I came up with for Ashlyn to hand out to her friends at dance class since she had that class on Valentine's Day. A small pot with everything to grow either Forget-Me-Nots or strawberries (I had a variety of pots) and a Tinkerbell valentine attached to it.

Day 120: Mickey Cookies

We saw these cookies at the store and thought they would be perfect to make on Valentine's Day! We ended up making them later than that, but hearts and Mickey are good for any day. :)

Day 119: Fresh Beat Band

Ashlyn has always loved the Fresh Beat Band, but has grown to like them more and more. Now that we got her the soundtrack, she is pretty obsessed. lol The CD came with a small poster and she decided it should go on her door. So here it is with the sign that she's had for awhile (that my friend, Jamie, sent while we were still in Cuba... it says "Princess Ashlyn's Room").

Day 118: Our Little Model

Ashlyn was wearing lots of pink and when I asked her which earrings she would like to wear, she chose pink. I just thought it was so cool that she picked ones that matched. :) I wanted to take a picture and she just started posing. lol

Day 117: Table Decor

I had the flowers on one side of the table, but decided they would look great with the rest of the Valentine's decorations on the table.

Day 116: Tulips

Aaron got us some beautiful tulips for Valentine's Day. Yes, a little early, but he wanted us to be able to enjoy them not just for Valentine's Day. And they're potted so hopefully they'll last a long time.

Day 115: A Very Patient Kitty

Ali is very good with Ashlyn. Ashlyn loves to play with Ali, and is getting better at remember the correct way to play with her, but sometimes she wants to share too much. lol She never quite remembers that Ali doesn't want to play with her dolls, but she always tries to share.

Day 114: Earrings

I've been wearing jewelry more often lately (earrings and sometimes a necklace) since Ashlyn is old enough to not pull on them. She was awhile ago but I just never thought of it. Anyway, she loves jewelry and she's had sticker earrings for awhile and now she asks to wear them more often since she sees me wearing stuff. She loved these and wanted me to take a picture of her fairy earrings. :)

Day 113: New Bow Designs

I'm back to making bows again since there is a craft fair coming up at the end of March. I already know what kind of cake pops I'm making and I'm contemplating decorating cookies, too, but we'll see. Anyway, I like to take pictures of ribbon combinations I'm thinking of so I can look back. This isn't one of my favorite combinations, but I'm saving those for later because I'm excited about them. :) I should get a couple of new ribbons in the mail that I need and then I'll make them. Anyway, all I took today were pics of ribbon combinations. :)

Day 112: More Yumminess

Ashlyn and I baked oatmeal raisin walnut cookies this morning. Before I was watching what I eat I would easily eat one or two to "taste test" the batches. But I only ate one and, maybe, I'll eat one for after dinner. But I was proud of myself for stopping at one. Anyway, I knew Ashlyn and I would make these one day this week, but today was perfect because Aaron's boss (who we all just love) is in the hospital with an infection in his thumb and Aaron was going to go see him before work. So I packed a couple of cute bags I have with some cookies for him to take. Unfortunately I didn't take a pic of the bags and I forgot to take a pic until the rest were already stored in a bag, but you can still see how yummy they look. ;)

Day 111: Conch Shell

This is the painted conch shell I mentioned in an earlier post. Someone from the Philippines that worked in GTMO painted it for Ashlyn's first birthday. It's a unique souvenir from Ashlyn's birth place.

Day 110: Home is the Comfiest Place to Be

We have these two things on our breakfast bar or whatever you want to call it. The lighthouse is one of my favorite things. You put scented gels in the top and light a tea light underneath. Aaron and I got this while at Busch Gardens in Virginia years ago, probably before we were married. We went once a year and I just loved it and this lighthouse always brings back happy memories.

Day 109: Tinker Bell

We had our Tinker Bell movie night this night. It was a lot of fun. Aaron helped me make a tree in the corner of the room for our own Pixie Hollow. I love how the poster board he used as a branch/support doesn't look like poster board at all (in a good way). He took my idea and just made it look really cool. :)

Day 108: Fun With Pinwheels

We went to the Dollar Store today to pick up a few things for our movie night tomorrow. Ashlyn found these pinwheels and really wanted them (they came in a pack of 3). I figured every kid needs a pinwheel at some point, so I let her add it to the basket. :) She loves it and I just thought the fun colors of the pinwheel would lend well in making it a black and white picture with just the pinwheel in color. I'm loving it!! And, with that, I'm all caught up again. :)

Day 107: Cuban Memories

Shortly before moving from Cuba, we went to a craft fair. They always held one for residents to sell their crafty goods (except for food... they wouldn't allow it :( so no cake pops, but that's neither here nor there) every few months. Anyway, there is always one photographer or another selling their pictures and we found these two gems and had to grab them up. This first one is in our living room and has a picture of 5 of the animals that roam around the place (woodpecker, iguana, owl, hummingbird, banana rats) and a picture of the lighthouse.


This next one we got for Ashlyn's room. It's a horrible picture of the pictures, but the colors are beautiful. All different pictures of hummingbirds with "lights" added into the flowers to make it look fairy tale-like. I love it. It's not up in her room yet, but soon. Actually, now that I think about it, this is kinda the color scheme I want Ashlyn's room to be (since green is her favorite color but she still is a girly girl, hence the pink). Again, the colors just don't come out in this photo, but it's really nice.

Day 106: Raspberries With A Surprise

Every week during grocery shopping, I let Ashlyn pick a new fruit (or an old favorite, but we try to do something new most of the time) to try. This time was raspberries and she loved them! One day I decided to give her a little treat and put in some butterscotch chips inside. I saw the idea on Pinterest and they used white chocolate chips, but we only had butterscotch at the time. She loved them so much!

Day 105: Day To Day

Aaron's dad had picked up a Disney calendar from a bank or something and brought it for Ashlyn awhile back because he knows how much she loves Mickey. I put it over her bed and every morning we mark off the day, talk about what day it is, and sing a song about the days of the week. She's pretty good at knowing what day comes next (our morning every day: Me: If yesterday was Friday, today is.... Ashlyn: Saturday!). Not perfect, but there has been a big difference between the beginning of the year and now. This is the picture for the 25th, so ignore the date on the calendar. We hadn't marked the day off yet. lol

Day 104: A Screened-In Porch With A View

I've taken a picture of the lake we can see from our back yard, but never from our back yard. So here is a pic I took in the direction of the lake from just inside our back door. Directly in front of us is the laundry room and to the left is the pool gate, but it is very nicely landscaped and you can't see inside the laundry room too much so it's nice. Lots of people walk their dogs past our window so it's cool to look at all the cute fluffiness. :)

Day 103: Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!!!!

I love me some Starbucks. Like, seriously. I hate coffee, but their caramel fraps (and some other things that either don't have coffee or you can't really taste the coffee) are soooo good. Anyway, Aaron got off work pretty early this day and took us to the zoo since the weather was so nice. Afterward we stopped by Riverside to grab some lunch at a pretty park. Before heading home, we walked over to the Starbucks. All the store signs had scroll work that I just love.

Day 102: Pretty Girl

Ashlyn wanted a braid this day instead of just a ponytail and requested I take a picture of her. :)

Day 101: Pretty Precious Plants

Okay, I'm ready to sit down and fully catch up on the pictures. :) We got these plants and put them in pots very shortly after moving into our apartment. My mom would be so proud of me. She always said she had black thumbs and could never keep plants alive. These take very little care, though, and we made sure to get plants that need little sunlight since they are in our screened in porch. They always make me smile.

Day 100: Baking!

Aaron's grandparents sent me this cookbook for my birthday. I can't wait to try something out of it! I'm thinking I'm going to try one of the cookies in it next week. :)

Day 99: Beach Cottage

While in St. Augustine a few weeks ago, we saw this sign in one of the little shops and I just loved it because our guest bathroom is kind of a beach theme. We're still working on it little by little, but we're trying not to be TOO literal. So far we have this sign, a shell that was painted by someone in Cuba that has Ashlyn's name and stuff on it that we got for her 1st birthday, and a picture of an anchor made of Cuban sea glass made by a friend of ours. Everything else is going to be the color scheme of light blue, beige, and coral. We did add a shelf that is a bit wavy to represent the ocean, too. I'm liking it so far. :) I'll take pics of more when it gets closer to completion. We're not in a hurry. We get stuff whenever we find something we think would be perfect. Actually, this picture kinda stinks. The colors and everything are much cuter in person. :)

Day 98: Tiaras

Ashlyn liked having her hats on the wall so much, I put up her tiaras, too, just across from the hats.

Day 97: Book Maze

Ashlyn just loves to make book towers. She will "read" a book, put it down, read another, then stack it on top of the first one. She can make pretty impressive little towers but this day she decided to make something different. She stood them up and said she was making a book maze. :)

Day 96: Hats

In Ashlyn's closet (which I still haven't put the finishing touches on... I need to get on it) she has a dress-up area. I decided to put push pins on the wall to hold her different hats/headbands. There are a couple missing on the bottom there because I just couldn't find them quick enough, but it works out really well and she can see what all she has and what she wants to dress up as.

Day 95: Tale As Old As Time

Aaron and Ashlyn were coloring a Belle cutout before we went to go see Beauty and the Beast in theaters.