Thirty…wow.

It doesn’t seem possible that I’ve been here for thirty years. I definitely don’t feel thirty, and if I’m being honest, I was not looking forward to hitting that milestone. But, I’m trying to be grateful for the years that I’ve been blessed with and focus on making thirty a great year!

I had a really great couple of weeks celebrating! I had lots of visitors and lots of fun!

The day before the big day, I started by new job! It was definitely the best birthday present :) On my birthday, we had cupcakes at work to celebrate, and then Colby, Joyce, Wade, the Littles, and I went to dinner after work! It was a fun night!

On Friday that week, Mom and Dad came up, and we went to the OKC Thunder game! It was so much fun to get to have a night out with just the fam. Plus, it’s always fun to get to watch my favorite boys play in person :) Mom and Dad had never been to a Thunder game, and we had a great night!! Little did we know it would be the last time we’d see Kevin Durant play wearing a Thunder jersey, but we won’t get into that tonight…

Sadly, the Thunder lost, but it was still a wonderful night!

On Saturday afternoon, we met Joyce, Wade, the Littles, and my grandparents for lunch before Mom and Dad had to head back home. They hadn’t met any of the Littles yet, so it was fun for them to get to spend some time with these babies that we love so much.

Saturday night, Ashton, Cathy, and I went to dinner to celebrate! We had THE most bizarre waiter at dinner, so we basically spent the entire night laughing, which was so good for all of us!

I am beyond grateful to call these girls my friends!

The celebration continued the next weekend! Neely came to town to celebrate with me! We spent Friday night in our hotel room eating pizza and watching Fuller House, because #adulting. I mean, what better way to celebrate than by watching the reboot of your favorite childhood show?

On Saturday, Caitrin came to play, so we had a fun day of shopping! I hadn’t seen Caitrin since Neely’s wedding, so it was wonderful to get to catch up and a perfect end to a wonderful weekend!

We stay at a hotel every time Neely comes because she’s highly allergic to the cat. We’ve stayed in a certain hotel near my apartment and had great luck with it. Until this trip.

Before she left Dallas, Neely bought some amazing cookies for us to enjoy over the weekend. We had one before bed on Friday night, and after a long day of shopping on Saturday, we were very excited about having more treats before bed. When we opened the box, we realized that a cookie was missing. We knew exactly how many we started with, and we knew exactly how many we’d eaten on Friday, so we knew something was not right. Someone had taken a cookie, and that was SO not ok. Our room bad been cleaned while we were gone, so we knew it had to have been a cleaning lady. Because we didn’t know what else had been messed with, we sadly threw the cookies away. But seriously, who does that?

These first six months of my thirties definitely has been full of challenges, but it’s also been six months of new experiences and lots of fun! I am hopeful that it is just the start to a great new decade!

I’ve been missing this little blog for quite awhile! After talks with Neely and some friends from work, I decided to try and see if I can bring it back to life!

So…here’s what you’ve missed!

I turned 30!

Neely and Caitrin came to visit me

My dad got his 4th degree black belt in tae kwon do

Jessica and I finally got to celebrate our birthdays together

I’ve had some really times with the Littles

Our sweet Natalie got married, and we had a fun TVP reunion!

Mom and I went to see Mamma Mia

I joined Snapchat! I mostly post pictures of my cat and make funny faces with the Littles :) Come follow! @ashleylately23

I went with Ashton, Cary, and Kiley to see 98 Degrees, O-Town, Dream, and Ryan Cabrera in concert! It was such a fun show!

I also ended up in the ER when my weird heart thingy flared up at the end of the show.

And of course, this little guy has been with me through it all.

It’s been a crazy few months, and I’m excited to share more about what’s been going on in Ashley Land! Stay tuned!

I can’t believe that as of today, I’ve been blogging for five years! It seems crazy to me that when I first started my blog, it was something I thought would probably be a short phase and that I would probably drop it after a few weeks. Once I really found my voice and this space started feeling like me, I realized that this could be a big part of my life.

Little did I know.

I feel like this blog is more real and more me than anything else I’ve ever done. I feel like I can be goofy and weird, and it’s ok because this is MY space! I can blog about headbands, country music, and my crush on General Holden on Army Wives, and you still read!

I’ve blogged about this a lot, but by far my favorite part of blogging is all of the wonderful friends I’ve made! Blogging brought me Neely, who I can’t imagine life without. It brought me so many wonderful friends across the country, and I’m grateful for each one of them! People who don’t blog don’t understand how we can form real friendships through our computers, but it’s possible, and I’m thankful for these relationships.

I am so thankful to all of my wonderful readers, those of you who are new to the blog and those of you who have been here since the beginning. If it weren’t for my readers, I wouldn’t be celebrating five years in this space. Even when I have taken weeks off of blogging, whenever I come back, you’re still here, and I appreciate your comments and emails so much! This is more than I ever could have ever imagined, so THANK YOU!

I’m excited to see what is ahead for this blog! It’s been hard to be around here the last few months, but I’m hoping to have a little more presence around here this year. I’ve missed being here!

Five years down. Can’t wait to see what the next five years bring.

*Huge thanks to my fabulous photographer Ashton and my wonderful photo editor Carly for the super fun photos and hand-cut confetti!*

Yes, I’m still alive :)

It’s been pretty crazy around here lately, so this little blog has been pushed to the back burner. Hopefully after the holidays are over and life slows down a little, I’ll have more time for blogging.

While I’m here, I did want to give a little update on life lately. Most of these pictures were going to have their own post, but today they are just going to all go together!

A few weeks ago, Ashton, Christine, and I went to Dallas to the Gaylord Texan for the Ice exhibit. The theme was Frosty the Snowman!

It was seriously amazing! I hope to share more about it soon!

This darling Little Girl celebrated her 5th birthday!

I hung out with four of the Littles for an evening. We made paper plate turkeys, and we had so much fun!

This is the only picture I took on Thanksgiving (that wasn’t food). I know, I’m a terrible blogger. But Little Man sure enjoyed crunching up the crackers for the green bean casserole!
Black Friday. I worked fourteen hours and had three Dr. Peppers. It was insanity.
Bekah and James came to visit me at the shop while they were in town visiting their family! I love getting to meet up with her when they are here! I love having blog friends that are real life friends too!

I finally got my Christmas tree put up! I love non-traditional colors, so there’s lots of purple, pink, and silver. Olaf was the new addition to the tree this year!
My little guy tried to help me wrap gifts, but I think he played more than he helped :)
Speaking of this little guy, he’s been such a snuggler lately! I injured my neck a couple of weeks ago, so I think he knows I feel bad. He’s been so sweet to me!
For the second year in a row, Neely and I got each other mugs from Ashley Brooke Designs! They are so fun! We opened them via FaceTime so we could pretend we were there together!
I’ve been so tired and so stressed and in pain, so I’ve been trying to take some quiet time every evening. I turn off all the lights, turn on the Christmas tree, wrap up in my favorite blanket, and fix a cup of peppermint hot chocolate to try to destress and relax. It’s nice to have a few minutes of calm in the middle of all of the holiday crazy! Hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in another night or two of blogging before the end of the year!

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