Annual Holiday Show

I was asked to be a vendor at an annual holiday craft show this year. My main purpose was to get my name out there as a reputable baker. After brainstorming with my sister, mom, and Jeremy I decided to have photo books of my work made, make two dummy cakes, have business cards and post cards, and sell the caramel corn. I also had a little side table where the kids could decorate a cupcake like Rudolph.

It was a great opportunity for me to get some future business, now we'll just wait and see what happens!

Busy Days!

Here's a dummy cake that I have been working on for a craft party tomorrow. The cake is styrofoam covered in dry wall compound! The blue band and yellow stars are fondant though. The figures are handmade gumpaste. Cute little Holy family cake for Christmas!

Here's my other dummy cake. The snow is fondant and the figures are gumpaste. Silly Santa got stuck in the chimney!

I'll be selling caramel corn at tomorrow's craft show too and taking orders for Christmas! This is White Christmas. It's caramel corn drizzled with white chocolate and topped with Christmas M&M's.

Cinnabun (my favorite!). Cinnamon caramel corn topped with white chocolate and pecans. Seriously tastes like a cinnamon roll!

Bacon Cheddar-white popcorn baked with sharp cheddar, bacon, and kosher salt.

Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Our morning started at 4:45AM. We all got up and headed into Atlanta for the big half marathon. I think it was in the 30's this morning, so that was just no fun at all. Jan and Jeff came out for the race too! This picture was taken by Jerm around 10.5 miles into the race. It was so fun to see them and hear them cheering me on and waving frantically. I felt really great until right after this picture. At around 10.75 miles I hit a wall and really thought that I would have to walk for the last part. I just prayed that God would get me through-and He did! I struggled until the last mile and then it kind of hit me that I just had 1 MILE TO GO! And that mile was a little easier because it was mainly down hill. The entire course was pretty hilly if you ask me, but I was ready for it! YEAH I DID IT! According to my iPod I finished in 2 hours 7 minutes! My secret goal was to finish between 2 hours 10 minutes and 2 hours 15 minutes so I am very happy with my time.

Here I am after the race with my race shirt and medal!!!

Pretending to run up our driveway-definitely won't be out running for a few days!

Practice Run

We decided that we would have the girls practice sign waving this afternoon so that they would be pros at it tomorrow morning. They did a pretty good job! We'll see how they do at 7 in the morning...

1/2 Marathon Package!

I love packages-seriously though, who doesn't!? Well, this morning the mail lady attempted to pull up our driveway but had to stop half way up and back down because she was sliding on the leaves. When she pulls up that mean PACKAGES! I met her halfway and she had THREE packages. She said that she had to back down because she was afraid that she was going to drive over the edge and nobody would be able to find her-pretty funny especially because you can see the road from the "forest" beside our driveway. Pretty sure you'd be able to spot a beaming white mail truck easily. On to the good stuff though! Package number one was from Vista Printing: my business cards and post cards that I ordered for Saturday's craft show!! I know you guys don't care about that though. Package number two: An expensive to mail envelope from September (if you don't know my sister-she is a huge procrastinator and waited to send this envelope until yesterday!). There are signs for the girls to wave during the race tomorrow. The one that says "Go Mom" is for Layner and the one that says "Kick Asphalt Mom" is for Hayden. She also send a pack of Jelly Belly jelly beans (a safer jelly bean-there's a story to that), a memo pad (?), pink cheetah ribbon (?), a magazine to read while I recover, a motivational hysterical letter, and a special letter from bunny (her pet bunny). Awesome!! Package number three was from Mom and Bernie. It had these toe gel things in order to pamper my feet, the softest socks I have ever felt, and heal-tastic for after the race! Sweet! I also got a card from Johnny, but is says "Pre-Race Warm-Up. Open Thursday AM Before Race" so I don't know what it says yet. Although, I do have to be truthful and say that Hayden opened the envelop BUT I did not read it.

My family has been making such a big deal about this it has made me stop and realize what an accomplishment this actually will be. It's awesome to feel so supported and special. Thanks guys-I love you!!

Turkey Day Baking

The cake is for Angie. It's a marble cake with chocolate filling. I picked out all of the orange, yellow, brown, and red peanut M&M's so that it would look more "Thanksgiving-ish". The cupcakes are for our big family Thanksgiving tonight. It's pumpkin spice cupcakes with caramel cream cheese icing.

I got the idea from the "Hello Cupcake" cookbook that my mom got me last Christmas. It's a GREAT cupcake book with tons of cute ideas.

Hope Angie and family enjoys their special Thanksgiving dessert! It will give them all a sugar high...that's for sure!

Last night Hayden wanted to help Layne get her pj's on....this is as good as she could do. Hayden kept saying, "Layner, you're such a squirmy wormy!".

Here's a better shot of it. Layne's thing last night was to just randomly stand up and walk a few steps and then fall down and crawl. Then she'd stand up and walk again. Maybe she'll be walking on her own soon!

Daddy & Mommy Pilgram

Plymouth or Bust

The girls put on their pilgrim hats and posed for some picture this afternoon. Because I used ribbon instead of elastic for the tie the hats didn't stay on very well at all. They pretty much just didn't stay on for one second! So, we had to call daddy in for help.

I got the hats on over and over and over again and he was just waiting with the camera ready to snap away when the moment was right. The first one was the best shot we got without my hand and this is the best shot with my hand!

Packing for Plymouth.

Yes, We Are Where You Think We Are!

This picture was taken last night around 11:00 in the movie theater. Why were we there at 11:00 on a Thursday night you ask-for the New Moon premier of course! From left to right: me, Lisa, Sandra, and Angela-these are the staff wives from Discover Point. I was the only one that has not read the books so I was kind of along for the ride-but it was still a great night out!

The night started at Strip Restaurant in Atlantic Station. The food was great, especially the spinach dip. It was the best I've had! Then we were off to Starbucks for a little caffeine boost before the 12:01 premier. We then sat in the car in the movie theater parking lot and they told story after story (they have all been friends for a while) and we laughed and laughed. And our evening ended with New Moon. The movie was great-coming from someone who has never read the books and loves any love story! It was so nice to get out for a girl's night with some great new girl friends!

Oh, Our Little Artist...

As I have said before, the girls like to play in Hayden's room by themselves. Well, I walked in Hayden's room after they had been playing for about 10 minutes and I found Hayden trying to climb on her dresser so that she could see herself in the mirror as she "applied her make up"!

When I asked her, "Is this really what you think mommy looks like when I put on my make-up!?" she replied, "yes". Nice.....

Our Little Reader

These videos just crack me up every time I watch them. This was Layne "reading" yesterday afternoon. It just amazes me how much babies pick up and imitate. I mean she even changes the tone and pitch of her voice as she reads. Guess all those trips to the library and all those bedtime stories are doing something!

Over the Hurdle!!

I am so excited to share with all of you that this morning I ran 12 miles!! You may be thinking, well I hate to break it to her but a 1/2 marathon is 13.1 miles so she still have 1.1 miles to go. The reason that I am so excited is because I set out to run 12 miles last Friday morning and I physically could not do it. The sun was shining in my eyes for the first 6 miles and it was hot and my muscles felt tired most of the run. It was just a very hard run and at mile 9 I just couldn't go any further! So, I walked into Charokee Run's clubhouse and called Jeremy to come and pick me up. I know that I should carry my cell phone with me, but where would I put it!? I then proceeded to drink about a gallon of water from their water fountain. I just felt very discouraged and nervous about the fact that I was supposed to run 13.1 miles in less than 2 weeks. It was the first time that I really doubted my ability to do this.

But today I decided to try again for that 12 mile mark-what other choice did I have? Before I left Jeremy said, "Are you sure you don't want to take your cell phone?" I told him that if I had my phone it would be too easy to quit and call him-I just HAD to run the 12 miles and get this monkey off of my back! I felt so good pretty much the whole run. I even held off on taking my gel until mile 7 (that's when they are offering electrolyte beans during the actual race). When I ran the 9 miles last week my average pace was 10:11 per mile-which is much slower than normal but I chalked that up to the distance. But today when I ran 12 miles my average pace was 9:34 per mile which is much more normal for me. So, maybe I was dehydrated or not 100% or something on Friday. Because today I proved to myself that I can really run this race next Thursday morning and I will be able to finish it!! I just can't wait!

Grady Ride

Grady is such a good sport! Layne just bounces up and down on Grady-like he's a toy horse or something!

You know that sister had to join in on the fun....undies and all!

The other day I wanted to take the girls outside to swing so I told Hayden to get some clothes on since she had taken them off during her "rest" time. This is what she came outside wearing-a dress that grandma made for her, floral capris, and flip flops. What a nut!

This morning Layne decided to put mommy's bowl on her head. A little red hat.

Miss Monkey likes to climb up on sister's chair and play the piano. I think she just likes the adventure of it all.

Hayden woke up early this morning and all she wanted to do was lay on the couch-no breakfast, no getting dressed, no school! Yes, I said it-No school! I knew she must not have felt well if she didn't even want to go to school. She has a bad cough and I bet she just feels run down too. So, maybe she'll go to school tomorrow.

This afternoon we went outside since it's in the 70's! Hayden loves to pick these and blow the little seeds everywhere.

She couldn't quite get all of the seeds off of this one-mommy couldn't get them off either!

And here is what Layne does with hers......

Help....

Then it was time to slide. Layne didn't want to go down the slide by herself for some reason, so sister helped out.

They were going a little too fast during this time. They both ended up on the grass!

Wednesday's Meet 'n Eat

On Wednesday we had the Cipolla's over for dinner. It's so nice to have a scheduled time that we see them now. They are such an encouraging amazing family and we feel so great after we hang out with them. After dinner all the kids just kind of sneaked into the family room and just started to play together while the adults staying in the kitchen and talked. Hayden, the mother, made sure that the babies were well cared for.

Yesterday the girls sat on Layne's toy chest and stared outside. I think they were trying to send me a hint. It WAS really nice outside, so we swung!

The girls adore the swing set. I am so glad that grandma and pap gave us the money to get one and I'm glad that Jerm diligently searched for a great yard sale one instead of letting me get a cheap one from Wal-Mart.

I think Layne actually enjoys swinging more than Hayden-if that's possible.

She held this ball almost the entire time that she was swinging. Not sure why but it made her happy.

Daily Adventures

Layne decided that she wanted to catch up on some reading yesterday morning-Every Woman's Battle. She flipped to the important pages, pointed at the words, and jabbered away.

At lunch she decided to stick some bread up her nose, which doesn't surprise me in the least. When I was little (probably about 2 or 3) we were out for a family walk after dinner and I picked up a cherry seed and stuck it up my nose. Off to the hospital we went. Now that I type that I am unsure if the cherry seed story was with me or Johnny. I know that one of us stuck a cherry seed up our nose and the other stuck a pea up there. Needless to say, it runs in the family and since Layne is a spitting image (personality wise) of me as a baby it just didn't surprise me when I saw it.

Here's Hayden catching up on some of her reading as I put clothes away. Gotta get comfortable in order to enjoy a good book, right?!

Tonight we are having Jonathan, Rebecca, and Geo over for dinner. So, this morning I got to work on the bbq chicken and brunswick stew. Layne decided that she was going to test out those tempting onions that were sitting in front of her. She actually ate a few pieces before she decided that she didn't really care for them.

She helped me put all of the onions in the brunswick stew pot. What a good helper. And she made sure to say "thank you" after each handful.

Daddy Day

On Saturday I had an all day staff meeting up at the church so daddy got to spend some quality time with the girls! Here they are playing on our bed-what nuts!

They had breakfast at the Waffle House. I guess everything went well there because I didn't hear any stories...

They went to look at a house somewhere and then they both fell asleep on the drive home. It was a good daddy daughters day and I was sad that I missed it (but very glad they had the bonding time without mommy around!).