This Is The Year

Meet Justin.  He is Ambria's absolute best friend, confidant and hero. It is this boy's kindness, support, and heartfelt concern that has gotten Ambria through her hardest, loneliest times.  We are so, so grateful for the blessing he has been in her life through all of this.  I couldn't tell her story without acknowledging him, and what a huge role he has played in helping her endure this trial. Ambria and Justin have been good friends for about 2 1/2 years.  They met while both performing in the school musical.  She was in 7th grade, and he was in 8th.  Their friendship became even stronger about a year later thanks to some silly teenage girl drama (insert eye roll), when he stood up for her to some other (girl) friends of his that had a problem with his friendship with Ambria, and started saying some not nice things about her.  He and Ambria were pretty tight after that - but nothing would strengthen their bond like the trial Ambria was...

I loved my weekend! I'm going to share it with you via TONS of pictures and videos...you should be used to that by now! It started off on Friday with an overnighter with the Young Women. We all stayed in the backyard of the Young Women's President in tents. We roasted hot dogs, and later on had S'mores. The simplified version...have you heard of this? Instead of graham crackers and Hershey's bars, you just use fudge stripe cookies and smoosh the marshmallow between 2 of them. So much easier...and very delicious! I also learned something new from the girls. Have you heard of roasted Starbursts? Yeah, I was skeptical too, but the girls insisted we try it. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised! You roast the Starbursts on a roasting stick, just like a marshmallow. When it starts to bubble around the oustside, it's finished. You let it cool a little so you can get it off the stick, and then enjoy! They end up kind of crispy on the outside, and full of warm, fruity go...

I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about my wonderful friend. Tanielle is my friend and business partner. She is the craziest (said with love), craftiest, most organized person I know. A couple years back she told me she wanted to start making and selling hairbows. As I was looking around online, researching what other sellers were doing for pricing, shipping, etc. I saw some really cute things and thought "I want to make bows!" I asked her if she wanted a partner and Ribbon Blossoms was born! We have had so much fun, even if we haven't yet achieved wealth unmeasured! You can visit her adorable blog here . 5 things I love most about her: 1. She is such a good mother. I always feel like I am telling my kids "not now" whenever I am in the middle of something and they interrupt. I have witnessed so many times where she stops what she is doing to listen to what they have to say, or look at what they want to show her. Lucky kids...I want to be more like that...