Special Delivery Wrapped in PINK!

We got a special delivery yesterday! It was a pink package for the girls from Grandma and Pap!!

It was a princess pool!! So, we blew it up and filled it up in the morning. Then after their afternoon nap yesterday they went for a swim!! Actually, Hayden did not take an afternoon nap (she just laid in bed thinking about the pool) because she was too excited about swimming.

Don't drink the water!

Little Layner was very excited about swimming too. I had to watch her very closely because she had no fear at all!!

We LOVE our new pool! Thanks Grandma and Pap.

Joy Ridin'

May Videos

Kissing Fish Face

Scott Comptois has turned into quite the photographer! Here is a picture he took today of Layne while she was kissing/making fish faces. We are thinking that those eyes are going to stay blue. How nice-big blue eyes!

Rainy Days

It's been raining down here in Georgia on and off for about a week now. It's been great for the garden! Yesterday we took a trip down to the crawlspace to watch daddy work on his latest wood working project-my kitchen island!! I thought it would be cute to get the girls all decked out in their rain gear.

Layne kept trying to get that hood off.

And of course, we have our nutty little Hayden.

Health Update: Jeremy now has this flu bug that's been going around our family. Hayden had it last week, I got it on Saturday, and now Jeremy has it. Everything started out great today. We woke up feeling great. So, we finished spreading mulch in the gardens this morning. We then headed over to the Comptois' house for a cook out with some friends. Jerm and some other guys did the cooking while the rest of us just hung out and had a great time. By the time the food was done Jeremy didn't have an appetite-I knew what was next for him! After we ate everyone went outside and watched or participated in a big game of wiffle ball. It was a great time! A little later I found him sleeping on a couch inside! So, we packed up quickly and headed home. He has been in bed ever since. He'll be back to normal tomorrow!

Lazy Sunday...

Layner and daddy are still feeling good, but apparently Hayden had some sort of flu bug and she passed it on to me. She's still battling with it too! So, we are just taking it easy today.

Layne thinks it's the funniest thing to cover up her ears with her hands. She also likes to slap herself on the side of the head. What a goon!

Here they are just looking out the window at Grady one day last week. Monkey see monkey do!

Little miss dress up!

Devil's Food Cake, Chocolate Ganache, Peanut Butter Cups....Oh My!

The moment I saw the pictures and recipe for these on Bakerella I just had to make them! There is a peanut butter cup inside each cup cake too!

I made a two layer 6 inch cake and 6 cup cakes. The filling is chocolate ganache with a layer of ground up peanut butter cups! The cake has chopped peanut butter cups mixed in! And as you can see there are peanut butter cups covering the chocolate peanut butter ganache icing!!

We are going over to the Comptois' house for dinner tonight. Heather asked me to make a dessert. Her favorite candy is peanut butter cups. I don't think that we will bringing home any left overs.

Fiesta!

I did this cake for a friend who's having a fiesta themed party for her sister. It's almond pound cake with butter cream icing. The accents are fondant and gum paste. The little "needles" in the cactus are thin spaghetti noodles! Hope they enjoy it.

Feeling Much Better!

Both girls took a LONG afternoon nap today-which worked out well since I had the cake to work on. Hayden was feeling much better and was ready to play! Layner is always up for playing.

Graduation Day!

Today was Hayden's last day of preschool for the year. All of the parents brought picnic lunches when they came to pick up their children. Daddy brought Chick-fil-A for us! Here is Miss Hayden with her teachers Miss Julie and Miss Glenda. She absolutely adores both of them!

Little Layner had some lunch too.

After lunch we all got ice cream sundaes! I thought it was odd, but Hayden didn't eat much of hers at all. You'll learn why later in the post.

And of course we had to find Darrin to say farewell for the summer!

Before we left Daddy and I had to clean up the table so I sat Hayden in a chair. The next thing I knew she was getting sick EVERYWHERE! Before I could even think about what to do some of the ladies from the preschool were there with rags and bags cleaning it all up. Poor girl. Jeremy had Layne but she was tired and fussing and wanted me. So, I took her and Jeremy comforted Hayden. At one point I looked over at them and Jeremy was gently cradling her like a baby, sweetly playing with her hair, and singing Jesus Loves Me softly in her ear. It made my heart melt. It was another one of those "My Daddy My Hero" moments in her life.

Today was the one day that I didn't have a change of clothes in her back pack. So, she left the preschool in daddy's arms wearing her Hello Kitty undies.

She got sick again on the way home, but she is doing well now. Guess she just had too much to eat and was too excited!

As Nutty As Ever....

This morning while Hayden was playing in our bedroom she found daddy's socks and shoes! She did this all by herself. Sorry about the dirty shirt from yesterday-sometimes she sleeps in her t-shirt. What a nut!

After our shower she jumped up on our bed with daddy and got a hold of his glasses. Such a nut!!

A Bakers Dream!

So I have been trying to find a cake decorating supply store in Atlanta because I just knew there had to be one there. Ok, when I say "trying to find" I mean that the idea of searching for a store on the Internet has entered my mind numerous time but I just never remember to do it....if we're being honest! It's just hard when I get a last minute order and I don't have the supplies that I need (specialty cookie cutters). I could get them from the internet, but then I have to pay outrageous shipping costs to get them in time. Or there are just certain things that I can't get at Michael's or Hobby Lobby but I don't want to pay the shipping to get them. Well, one of the baking blogs that I follow (the list is on the right hand margin of my blog) is Bakerella. She just awesome! Any way, she did a post on "Where I Shop" and surprisingly she lives in Georgia and she shops at a store in Tucker which is only 30 minutes away from here!! Click here to see her post on the amazing store that I can't wait to visit! So, if you ever want to get me anything for any occasion toss around the idea of a gift card to Cake Art. We may go there to "look around" on Saturday-I can't wait!!!!

Tryin' Out a New Smile

Today was water day at preschool! I made such a big deal about it all last week and this week. We picked out her bathing suit and outfit LAST Thursday and talked about it every day. Here she is suit on, bag packed, and ready to go!

Ok, now she's ready to go. Like the new smile she's sporting!?

Too bad it was too windy today for water day. Her teachers had the kids play with water in buckets inside though. So, it was kind of the same....

As soon as I got to the church to pick her up this afternoon she looked at me with those puppy dog eyes and said, "Mommy, we didn't go in water today." She was so disappointed.

Different shirt (mommy's shirt) same smile!

We got her water wings for her graduation present. Graduation from the 2 year old class in preschool. Thursday is actually her last day, but I gave them to her today. Now all we need is a pool to swim in!

10 Months Old!

We are a day late, but little Layner is 10 months old! Only 2 more months until her first birthday and the planning has begun (ok, I've been planning for a few months now). She is crawling like crazy, exploring everything, and trying to eat anything with the 6 teeth that she has. Layne loves food, especially big people food-none of that baby food stuff. We are pretty sure that she is going to be a mess on her birthday when she digs into that cake!

Box Buddies

Hayden being sweet as usual!

After I put the diapers and wipes in Layne's storage chest I gave the boxes to the girls to play in. Man did Layne have a blast. She just stood there and screamed with joy the entire time.

See what I mean!

Two funny Hayden stories for the day:

When I girls woke up I was making Angel Food cake to go with our strawberries for dessert tonight. We talked about the cake and how we were having it after dinner. So, Hayden said to me, "Mommy, when is the angel coming tonight? After dinner?"

As you know, Hayden is becoming more independent even on the potty. When she has to go poo poo she tells us to "leave me alone please and close the door". After she had pottied I went in the bathroom to help her out. As she sat on the toilet and pulled up her undies I turned the light off (just to be funny) and she said, "Turn light on" and when the light came on she looked at me sternly and said, "That wasn't funny".

Missing Slice Cake

I have wanted to make a cake like this for a while now. When my neighbor asked me to make a cake for her daughter's birthday I knew it would be a great chance to try this cake out-especially because she said she wanted to be surprised! It's almond pound cake with strawberry icing. Everything is edible except the cupcake wrapper. The big cupcake is for the daughter's 5 year old son.

Holy Macaroni

Day After Mother's Day Reflection...

I went to bed Saturday evening with the thought of waking up to the smells of homemade pancakes and freshly squeezed orange juice. This was going to be the morning that I didn't have to get out of bed early to let those wining dogs out. I could just roll over and wake up gradually. I wouldn't have to lift a finger all day. Everything was going to be done for me. I would be Queen for a day! Ahhh.....Mother's Day-what a wonderful day it was going to be! Or so I thought.

"Here we go again" were the words that woke me abruptly at 4:30 am. Jeremy had kidney stones, again, for the 20 millionth time (or at least that how many it seems like he's had). He has gotten to be quite a pro at passing those tiny buggers.

The first time that I experienced this process I wasn't sure what to do. It seems like it's a really painful thing and I am a nurturing person that hates to see people in pain. Well, I quickly learned that I am only to do things when and how I am asked. Nothing more, nothing less. I now totally understand that since I have given birth on two separate occasions. I basically wanted Jerm to leave me alone until after they gave me the drugs!

So, on Sunday morning I waited to be called upon-got him some pain medication, crackers, and water. He rolled around, moaned and groaned for about 30 minutes and then we were back to sleep. Not so bad. Thoughts of that scrumptious breakfast sent me back into dreamland. Until around 7:00 when I heard Jeremy moaning again. More kidney stones!? He asked for another pain pill and crackers. Yes sir!

Needless to say, the combination of 2 pain pills in 2 1/2 hours on an empty stomach and passing 3 kidney stones wiped him out! So, I got up with the dogs and girls and we let daddy sleep. The thought of homemade pancakes was stuck in my mind so Hayden and I made them together while little Layner observed our every move. We woke daddy up for breakfast, wolfed it down, and rushed off to Sunday school since Jerm is the teacher for the next few months!

He made it through Sunday school, but that was about it. Once we got home he was a prisoner to the couch for the rest of the day. He couldn't even get up without felling nauseous! The poor guy would attempt to get up and join us but ended up quickly retreating to the couch every time.

So, the girls and I celebrated Girl's Day instead of Mother's Day! We laughed over lunch, chatted as we cleaned, splashed in the sprinkler, and acted silly as we shopped. The absolute best part of my day was at the end. Hayden, Layne, and I went into Hayden's room and just hung out. I have been so busy with work, tutoring, cleaning, and cake baking among other things that I have sacrificed that "do nothing down time" so many days! We just laid together on her floor and talked and laughed until I cried. I was able to reconnect with my astounding 2 1/2 year old and 9 month old. It reminded me that this IS where I want to be, this is where I belong-HOME!

My Mother's Day was not a day for me to be treated like a Queen for the day. Not a day for me to relax and be waited on hand and foot as I had envisioned-would I have even enjoyed it if it had been? It was a day for me to reconnect with what's most important in my life, a time for me to get my priorities straight. A day for me to reflect on how blessed I am to have two remarkable, intelligent, precious, healthy little gifts from God. A time for me to realize once again what an amazing gift I have been given- the task of loving, nurturing, educating, and training our girls for their place in the world as adults. Who I am as a mom is in large part because of my mom’s influence, and someday our girls will come to understand that their mom helped shape who they are as parents and women. But don't get me wrong, Jeremy and I are in this together and we BOTH play very important roles in our girls lives. But today was my day to realize what I had been sacrificing and missing.

I feel terrible that Jeremy had to endure the pain of kidney stones in order for me to experience these revelations, but would I have realized all of this if I was the honoree yesterday!?

Breakfast Smiles

Layne rarely wakes up in a bad mood. She is normally awake when I go in her room. She's just content playing in her crib all by herself.

After breakfast she explored under Hayden's table for a while. Still all smiles!

Working at Grandma and Pop's

We met Matt, Jamie, and Dennis over at Jeff and Jan's today in order to do some yard work. They had done most of it by the time we made it there. Jerm did get to go in the pond to do some work in there. Hayden had a great time jumping on rocks and swinging over the pond-with Uncle Matt's help of course!

Swinging solo...

Not anymore! We would put shoes on Layne more often-she has a TON-but she really hates shoes.

Busy Weekend....already!

This is a baby shower cake that I did for the assistant director at the preschool. It's white cake with lemon filling. The bottom tier is iced in butter cream. The flowers, towel, and soap are made of fondant. The water is homemade gel icing! I may add some little white fondant bubbles in the water-haven't decided yet. Hope they like it!

Princess cake for Josie. This is for one of the ladies that works at the OB office. It's for her 4 year old daughter who is having a princess party on Saturday. The crown and wand are gum paste and everything else is fondant. I found out the hard way that humidity effects fondant! The cake survived though...so far!

Recent Footage

Amazed....

You know those conversations that totally catch you off guard in a good way. The ones that you walk away thinking, "I never knew that person was so amazing!" Well, I had one of those conversations today at work. I was sitting in my office that doubles as the copy room. I also share it with the woman at work that makes all of the copies-I believe that she is considered learning support. The room is a big rectangle that used to serve as a computer lab. Her desk is at one end and mine is at the other. We speak to each other every day, but it's just those shallow, friendly, safe conversations. As I sat at my desk this morning totally consumed with the work on my laptop I heard her say, "Well Trista, today is my 7 month anniversary of being cancer free." As I looked up at her one thought came to mind-I have been working in the same room as the woman for 3 months, how did I not even know she battled with cancer!? Over the next 30 minutes she shared her amazing triumphant journey with me. She has had so many surgeries that she has lost count. From tumors, to seizures, to lung cancer, to infused organs, to a hysterectomy, to more and more tumors. This woman is one of the most positive and upbeat women that I have met. Her stories of constant pain and struggles broke my heart but as I listened intently I kept thinking, "this woman is amazing!". Her life serves as a great testimony of God's healing power. She truly is a light shining on a hill for God's glory. -God is everything to her and she will tell you that. She gets her strength and positive attitude from Him.

Those Eyes!

This is a picture that was on Matt and Jamie's blog. They were over a few weeks ago and I guess that's when he took it. As you can see, he's an amazing photographer! Speaking of amazing photographers-Becca came over the other day and took some pictures of the girlies. I'll share them as soon as I get them back!

Pink Ice...

Layne wasn't too sure what to think about the pink ice plant in the garden. She's so funny when she encounters new textures.

Our Little Southern Belle

We went to the store tonight. Hayden went back in her room to get her shoes before we left. She came out with this hat too. She wore it the whole way to the store and even in the store. Oh well-she can pull it off!

Class of 2009!

A friend at church asked me to make a graduation cake for her son. He's graduating from Eagles Landing Christian Academy. This was kind of a scary cake for me because it wasn't all fondant! She wanted buttercream. There is a way to ice a buttercream cake so that it looks smooth just like fondant-this is what I attempted to do! Hope they like it.