Dear Friend,

Don't be horribly mad at me.

You know life, and sometimes it gets to me really good. But, I have finally finished your bridal shots. Here is a peek.















I'm finishing up "The-Day-Of" photos and then they will be shipped off to finally greet you and the hubs. I hope you like them. I had a lot of fun working on them.

-Ash

Howdy Y'all!

So I'm planning Jack-Jack's first birthday party.

Theme:

Cowboy/Western

Colors:

Red

Brown

Outfit (for Jack):

Cowboy Hat

Cowboy Boots

Jeans

Games:

Horseshoes

"Pin the Tail on the Donkey"

Pinata

Decorations:

Balloons

Streamers

Gift Bags:

Bandana

Sheriff Star

Cowboy Candy (?)

I have only gotten this far because my great friend Bernadette has helped me...a lot (like 90% of these ideas were from her). But my dilemma??

I do not own a single piece of western/cowgirl clothing.

And since I'm encouraging everyone to dress up, then I better be. But where in the world can I find boots and a cowboy hat? And what kind of shirt?? Flannel? I know this sounds ridiculous.....but I'm in need of some help here. Western is completely out of my sphere.

Any suggestions?

Also, any tips/ideas to go along with the party theme would be greatly appreciated.

My Days

"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."

-Annie Dillard

Sometimes it's hard for me to remember that these individual days that go by, string together to make up my life.

For example: My Jack.

Day by day I have seen him sleep, play, roll over, scoot, crawl, stand, walk. String those together and I have an 11 month old boy who I can hardly keep up with now. I think about how fast he is growing up and these thoughts roll through my mind: did I spend enough quality time with him today? Does he know how much I love him? Does he know how much I love his daddy? Did he see me happy today?

Unfortunately....he hasn't seen this lately.

Sometimes I get caught up in the day-to-day routine that I don't enjoy the life around me. So, this next week I am going to try and enjoy my life and the things I do, instead of feeling guilty and frustrated about the things I don't do. Let's see how I do.

Sneak Peek

Family pics today.

I was able to snatch this one before Bernadette took over as our photographer.

I can't get enough of this boy!!

More pics to come.

Favorite Christmas Things

I love Christmas music.

I have listened to it for the 5th day in a row at work and I'm still loving it. The best place to listen to it on your computer: Pandora Radio...the Christmas station. Let's see if I still love it by December 25th. :)

The Season Starts

I have 14 people on my Christmas list.

I must say that is a lot better than having 53...which is how many people are in my family plus 3. But I am proud to say that I, Ashlee Lynne Hatch, am more than half way done with my Christmas shopping. This would be no big deal for those of you who are not Bart (which I'm safe to say is everyone), since you have not seen the behind-the-scenes, Christmas time Ashlee, who procrastinates buying presents until a week-and-a-half before the big day and prays that everything she bought online will be shipped in time. It's quite nice getting it all done sooner than later. Did I mention it's only December 1st? Ahhh, so nice.

Now, as soon as all the presents are bought, I get to enjoy my absolute FAVORITE part of Christmas. Wrapping the presents. I love wrapping presents. All you have to do is look at my wrapping paper and curly ribbon collection to know that I love wrapping presents. That being said...if any of you need to wrap Christmas presents (or any presents in general) and dread doing it yourself...bring them over. I would love to wrap them for you. I'm getting giddy just thinking about all the wrapping I get to do. :)

And just because I hate posting without a picture, I have enclosed a more recent photo of my darling Jack-Jack, who is (I hate to say it) 9 months old.

How he got so big, I cannot tell you, but he sure is a cutie.

I Should Be...

...preparing a lesson...washing dishes...sending an email...brushing my teeth...

but I'm posting pictures of my boy instead.

He is the best thing that's ever happened to us.