Note: Ann Kelly’s 5 year old took the pictures so they are not the best 🙂

Ann Kelly and I met several years ago when our little boys were babies at church. We hung out a few times but it was a very casual friendship. We got together more because our boys were the same age and not because we were really friends at that point.

One of my first memories was being at Ann Kelly’s little boys second birthday party and thinking that it was the nicest and most organized kid birthday I had EVER been too! I also remember being there and thinking that I didn’t know anyone else there very well and trying to put the tray on the high chair and hold Ashton at the same time and I dropped the tray all over the ground. I was so embarrassed!!!

Ann Kelly remembers us hanging out some but then once I got pregnant with #2 we stopped getting together. We were very sporadic about hanging out until after the boys were both 3 and I became a stay at home mom. It was a very long drawn out start to our friendship.

What finally got us to start talking more was she gave me some ideas for my son’s birthday and I was determined to make these Toy Story Cupcakes. Let’s just say if our friendship can survive those cupcakes it can survive anything. After that my family went and picked a ton of apples from a farm and I had no idea what to do with them. That is when we really started talking on the phone because she pretty much taught me to can  and walked me through the first canning attempt over the phone.

After that we have pretty much been partners in crime on a lot of things. We were co-leaders for VBS at church last year, we started the blog together and got together with the kids all the time. She taught me when and how to plant a garden and how to can and freeze the garden bounty. We have one of those friendship where you can just show up at one anothers houses or come over in your sweats!

Last summer Ann Kelly got the news they were being relocated. We were both so sad to see them move but promised we would visit. We both value our friendship and have invested the time and effort to keep it going with a four hour distance between us. We try to take turns visiting each other every few months, text daily and talk on the phone frequently.

We are both so thankful for the blog because it has helped to keep our friendship going because we email, talk and brainstorm so much on it. The great thing is that we can go months without seeing one another and when we get together it is like no time has passed. Honestly, she is like the sister I never had!

• Getting to Know Amber
• Getting to Know Ann Kelly