Oh Hello There... Me Again!

What's that?! Who am I?

I'm Ashley Butcher! Wife of Willie, or some people may have noticed on Facebook that he's now "Will". LOL He's gotten an earful from SO many people over that! I'm a mom of 2, yes count them, TWO little girls. Molly is almost 2 and Claire is almost 10 weeks! I'm still a stay at home mom living in Wake Forest, NC.

Wow how things have changed since the last time I blogged. At that time I had one child who was 8 months old, was about to travel to Alaska to visit my sister in-law and family, and the ultimate fangirl of pop culture! (I guess some things never change :-) )

I don't even know how to restart this blog... do I start where I left off?
Or do I just pick up where life is now?
I, my friend, am going with the latter.

So, here we go! First blog in nearly a year and a half!

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While my parents were in Nashville, TN visiting Sam, I worked at Two Old Birds. I have a small section at the shop with hand painted signs, scarves and other accessories. It's my little side hustle since I'm a stay at home mom! A friendly customer came in on Saturday and picked up one of the scarves. She asked if I have ever seen a scarf turned shrug/vest. What an interesting idea! She couldn't remember how to do it, so I decided to do a little research.

Here is my tutorial... ENJOY!

Hope no one is offended by my skull scarf! I love it... my Alexander McQueen look alike-ish!
(I could always wish for the real deal, but really? $295 for a scarf is not in my budget! I'll stick with my $12 purchase!)

Use a LONG scarf! I tried with a few different types, but one with more of a loose feel seems to have a flirtier/floatier outcome.

Step 1: Lay the scarf out flat (as shown below)

 

Step 2: Fold Scarf in half

 (imagine image with skulls facing top to bottom)

 I can't manage to rotate pic like I need to!

 

Step 3: Join together corner of folded end with the same side corner where fabric meets

 

Step 4: Tie in a knot

 

Step 5: Voila! Armholes!

Congrats! You've just created a customized shrug! 

 

If you prefer a shorter gathered look, tie the hanging ends up to your shoulders

 

 

(shown here)

 

 This is my first HOW-TO so go easy one me! It's tough stuff!

 

 

PS-- I feel like such a cheese being the model! Next time (if there is one) I'll find someone else! LOL!

Tuesday Mash-up

I have been M.I.A!

I have had so much going on these past few weeks, it's been hard to find time to put everything into a blog! I am going to call this a Tuesday Mash-up!

For Father's Day, Willie wanted to go to the pool! It was his day... so off to the pool we go. (I really wanted to go too, but it's more fun to let him think it was just for him) We lathered on sunscreen, put on our swim suits and strolled down to our neighborhood pool.

Molly while we were getting ready!



Soon after we arrived, I fed Molly and she went straight down for a nap!

She's sitting up so WELL!! She is also ready to crawl.. she still just hasn't conquered the moving forward part. She rocks back and forth, and can also belly flop forward! She wants to do it so bad. It's only a matter or days I think before she'll get it. Of course I've been saying that for the past 2 weeks. On her own time she will!



My Pandora charm bracelet!

For my birthday this year, Willie and Molly started this for me. I got the bracelet, 2 clips and the frog and baby carriage charms for my birthday. At the beach when we met up with my BFF since the 3rd grade Amanda, she gave me the little November girl charm to the right. And the newest members to my wrist are from my friends/neighbors, which was super sweet for hosting a bridal shower!

These mason jars were our drinking glasses for the southern style bridal shower I hosted over the weekend for my friend Song. Hopefully I will have pictures to share soon. I didn't take ANY pictures that day.

What was I thinking?

Father's Day night, we had dinner at my parents house. My dad was holding Molly on the couch and she fell asleep.

This MELTS my HEART!

Whelp, I guess I should get on with my many things on my

 to-do list today! And I have goals to complete posts I should

 have had completed weeks ago!

Til Then!

Zoo Who?

I'm a bit behind in the blogging world -- actually thats the story of my life.

The Tuesday after Memorial Day, Robin, Cooper and Wyatt, Willie, Molly and I headed to the NC ZOO in Asheboro. We had planned on going for about a week and we were all so excited to get together and go.

That morning, we loaded up in our car with packed lunches and bottles of water (and milk) and drove over to my sisters house in Pittsboro. We transferred Molly's car seat into my sisters Sequoia (it's a bus!), loaded in all the kids, and made our way to Asheboro.

Cooper and Wyatt were SO excited! Robin had taken Cooper when he was VERY little and was pregnant with Wyatt at the time, so this was basically their first time there too. Molly was a happy camper being pushed around in her "big girl" stroller.

We enjoyed seeing all the different animals. I really liked the zebras, gorillas, and the seals! Wyatt said his favorite was the

T-REX (aka not at the zoo) but later changed his mind to the gorillas, because Uncle Willie taught him to beat his chest like Tarzan. Silly Uncle Willie!

Cooper and Wyatt loved learning about the different animals, and there were a few expos on the outside of some of the areas. This photo below is a lady showing the boys the teeth of the alligators and the transformation a frog makes from tadpole to frog.

Wyatt loves to wear hats! Today's "hat" of choice was a gold crown. He was asked a dozen times if it was his birthday. Hilarious!

Can you see the exhaustion on these boys faces?

We were heading back to the main entrance after a long day of walking the entire park!



On our way home it starting POURING! We were so lucky to enjoy our day at the Zoo with bright sunny weather... glad the rain decided to hold out for us. As you can see, a little someone PASSED OUT!

We had such a fantastic time &

we will have to plan another trip to go again!

Our Long Weekend!

It's taken me until today (Thursday) to complete this blog. That should tell you what kind of WEEK I've had. All in all here is our past weekend in review.

Its very rare we have actual plans for our weekend. It's usually a fly by the seat of our pants kind of thing. This weekend on the other hand, was packed full of fun!


We originally had plans to have Molly's six month photo shoot in Chapel Hill, but rescheduled it for Wednesday instead! So that opened us up for a play date with Courtney and Davis, and Sara and William! Courtney had messaged me earlier in the week about getting the babies together for a play date, and we could chat about whatever and munch on some snacks! I was kinda sad we'd be missing out, but once the photo shoot was rescheduled, we made  a surprise visit at the Frye house!

Courtney was thrilled to see us when I rang the door bell. (thank goodness since I hadn't called to let her know of the change of plans) At 6 months, 6.5 months, and 8 months... babies only "play" but so much. But none the less, they had a great time crawling, babbling, and scooting all over the place. We mothers munched on some yummy snacks (these were awesome) Courtney had prepared and watched the babies "play." Molly napped a majority of the time, William (8 months) crawled and played so well with all the toys, and sweet little Davis "talked" and kicked his little feet on his stuffed bear!

Here are some of the photos from our play date!

Molly has started "crawling" backwards and gets stuck under EVERYTHING! Here is William coming to save her.. or play with whatever was under the table!

Courtney saved Molly from the coffee table, William was interested in what Davis had and Davis was wondering who his Mama was holding!

This is where things got interesting.

Davis and William each had a grasp on Molly!

Boy troubles already Molly?!

All smiles!

Afterward, Molly and I picked up Daddy and headed to Target. Molly sat in the shopping cart instead of her usual stroller... she likes this independence!

After shopping and dinner, we came home, and our baby girl was EXHAUSTED!

Sunday we made a 2 hour road trip up to Java, Virginia to Nana & Grumps' farm. Nana and Grumps are Willie's grandparents, and they've met Molly one other time. We've got to get better about taking her up there, but it's sometimes hard to make day trips of over 4 hours of driving with an infant. Molly did really well on the way up-- she took a nice nap!

We had decided to make the trip this weekend because Willie's Great Aunt Peggy and Aunt Cindy were visiting the farm for the weekend. So it was a great time to see even more family. They were very excited to meet Miss Molly.

Aunt Suzi, Uncle Paul, Catherine and Grace, and Joey all arrived shortly after us. We had a delicious spread of ham, potatoes, zucchini, pineapple, deviled eggs, and so much more! Hope to make a trip there again soon.

Here are a few pictures from the Farm!

v

 A beautiful view on the drive up!

The one car bridge

Nana & Grumps' house

Grace getting practice! She'll be a big sister in June!

Aunt Cindy and Molly Anne

The whole group minus Aunt Cindy (the photographer)

We finished the weekend off with a delicious dinner at my parents house. We headed home exhausted from our day. Molly hadn't been sleeping well so I had my fingers crossed after a weekend full of busyness she would sleep all night. Not so much. It's a smack in the face when you've been so use to getting a full night sleep with an infant.

On a side note, we had to fill up the prius for the first time, over 500 miles later, and it cost us $35.00! Willie wanted to do a dance in the parking lot!



Cullen Calls

Everyone I know, KNOWS I am such a crazy Twilight Saga FANATIC!! TEAM EDWARD!!!! I even threw myself a vampire themed 26th birthday party. I just couldn't help myself.

the invite and centerpiece

Edward came to celebrate!



my date

 If Molly hadn't come when she had, I would have shown up to the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn:Part one ABOUT TO POP!

I'm serious when I say, I get phone calls probably daily from Forks, Washington. That is the residence of Edward Cullen! I'm just saying-- coincidence? Or is he seriously trying to get up with me?! LOL He must be scared to say anything, because whenever I answer-- no response. I just like to imagine it's him on the other end. Tomorrow, I'm just going to start talking like it's him. Crazy much?!

The other day I told Willie how I keep getting these random phone calls-and I proceeded to ask, do you think its Edward? Of course this was followed by a huge sigh and rolling of the eyes. Sometimes I'm worried he may sign us up for marriage counseling because of this Edward interference.

Do you think Molly would like a Twilight inspired first birthday party?! I could make it happen!

I'll stick with the theme I've already started....

much more innocent-- lady bugs!

I guess I will continue to wonder who is on the other end of my mysterious phone calls... but I prefer to think it's Edward.. much more fun!

A girl can dream!

So Long Gas Station!

After much discussion and searching, Willie and I took the plunge and went HYBRID! We purchased a 2012 Toyota Prius on Saturday. Although we have a growing family and you would think space would be a necessity, we decided gas prices took precedent. We went from an average of about 16 MPG to 50! Needless to say, we are happy to not have to visit the gas station as often. We have already put about 200 miles on the car and have only used about a quarter of a tank! YAH for going green!

I love the weekends because it's family time. Willie isn't at work and we just get to do whatever we want! Molly has become so much more active lately, and it's a blast to see what she can get into!

 Although she did not climb into this basket, she was excited to find out what was inside of it! TOYS!

Loved playing in all her new found toys!

 We do not normally let her eat her socks,

 but this was hilarious - and they were clean!

 Molly's new thing is to suck on her bottom lip!

Here she is playing with a little piano she scoots backwards to get to,

while sucking on that lip!

 First time sitting in the big girl high chair!

We met up with Sara and Molly's HTB (husband to be) at Southpoint Mall in Durham on Saturday night where we would later me my dear friend Julie and her husband Brian. Julie and I have been friends since sophomore year of high school. She has two darling rotten boys! And this was the first time she met Molly! I think she enjoyed squeezing on a little rotten GIRL!

Sunday, we worked out in the yard - planting new plants and re mulching the flower beds - thank you HOA's for nothing. Later Auntie Sarah come to hang out with Molly Anne. They played for a bit in Molly's new play area - new cushy mats and her many toys she's already accumulated!

We later went and walked the new Greenway trails for a while (a little less than 3 miles). They are beautifully built. I could have taken pictures, but that would have just been too unlike me!

Aunt Sarah and Molly playing!

Molly jumping in her jumperoo while we were working out in the yard! It was a little windy and her hat kept flying away! I guess we shouldn't have cut off the straps. Oops!