It's Official!

My little brother is married!

Here's the cake that I did for them. White cake and white almond cake with chocolate and fresh raspberry filling, lemon and buttercream filling, and fresh strawberry and buttercream filling. Absolutely loved doing this cake for Johnny and Mwende! Thank you for having faith in me!

As you can see, Mwende was an absolutely stunning bride! She is such a beautiful person inside and out.

The flower princess did an outstanding job!

They had a very unique and personal ceremony that included a cute little poem that they read, a song that Mwende sang to Johnny, and best of all....Mwende's dad was one of the pastors that married them! It was beautifully done and was definitely centered around Christ.

Now they are off to spend a week on an island in south Florida for their honeymoon and we are ready to start our Florida vacation!!

Ready For School?!

Can you believe that the kids in Rockdale go back to school TOMORROW?! Hayden and Layne don't start for another couple of weeks though. I can't believe that I am going to be childless for 3 hours 4 mornings a week! What am I going to do with that time?!

Grandma's Farm

Here's Layner with one of the goats. Love this picture!

Surprises me that Hayden is so brave about feeding the goats.

The new addition to the farm. Hip and Eve. The girls were given the honor of naming the bunnies. Jan liked the names "Hip" and "Hop" so she tried to persuade the girls to name them that. Layne took the bait but Hayden stood strong with "Eve". So, there you have it....Hip and Eve!

What good little mommies!

Where Do I Even Begin?!

Let's start with last Thursday! After Test Kitchen we all started on our exciting road trip to Pittsburgh for my cousin's wedding and to see lots of family of course. We drove to Virginia Thursday night, stayed in a hotel, and then drove the rest of the way Friday morning. Great drive...everything was wonderful.

Mom and Bernie had a nice little birthday celebration for Layne on Friday night-complete with pizza, ice cream cake, and presents. Johnny and Mwende came into town too. Yes, I know that the balloons on this cake as well are a little questionable. Balloons just must be a hard thing for a cake artist to capture.....

Present time!

Layne is now an expert griller!

Saturday morning we were off to Grove City for my cousin's wedding. Pretty much as soon as we got to Grove City I started to feel a little dizzy and off balance. But, my grandma's (Marmee) house isn't air conditioned so I just chalked it up to the heat and humidity. The ceremony was beautiful.

This was my absolute favorite moment at the reception. Watching Hayden stare up at her daddy as she danced on his feet just took my breath away.

Sunday we had a big brunch for Layne's birthday in Grove City. Unfortunately, I was having the dizzy unbalanced feeling again so I wasn't much fun for that. Then we headed back to Pittsburgh for a busy day that began on the Gateway Clipper-Ice Cream Social Boat.

Next we were off to the incline that took us up the side of Mount Washington to......get more ice cream!

This was one of the look out points at the top of Mount Washington.

We walked through Station Square and ended up at this "dancing waters" thing which the girls LOVED!

Love the mo hawk look for Layner!

Monday we headed to the zoo. First stop had to be the train!

Then it was off to the Kid Kingdom in the zoo.

They loved these little jeep things.

And a little mini log ride around the pond was all good until Layne tried to stand up to touch the fish! Talk about scary moment!

One last ride on the carousel before we said goodbye to the zoo!

And that brings me to Tuesday....the day we left for our long journey back to GA. We left around 6am and planned on driving all the way through. Wasn't going to be a big deal we were going to stop in NC somewhere for a 2 hour break and then continue on the home stretch. Well, the trip started out with Hayden getting car sick a few times, which wasn't abnormal at all. She got sick on the way up too. We stopped for an early lunch around 11:30 and when I got out of the car I just didn't feel right at all. I ate a few bites of lunch and then ended up getting very sick in the bathroom. We all packed back into the car and continued on. I fell asleep for about and hour and when I woke up I asked Jeremy to pull over because I was about to get sick again. This continued on about every 5 to 10 minutes for a half hour or so. We were trying to get to a hospital because every time we pulled over I was getting dizzier and more exhausted and sicker. We finally made it to a gas station where Jeremy went in to get some Dramamine. That came right back up. I ended up sprawled out on the grass sweating with my eyes rolling back in my head. Jeremy called an ambulance. They came quickly and got me all loaded up in the ambulance. They managed to "blow out my vein" while trying to give me an IV but other than that I was pretty impressed. Of course you are hearing this from a girl who couldn't even keep her eyes open!

We got to the hospital, they asked a ton of questions, took blood, pumped fluid in me, wrote a prescription for nausea and wheeled me out to my car in pretty much the same condition that I arrived!! I was not impressed with that.

We stayed at a hotel that night and it was pretty much the same....my head was spinning out of control, I took my pills, and couldn't keep anything down. The next morning I had Jerm call the ER and ask them to give me something for the motion sickness NOT the nausea! So, they did and we were on our way back to GA. I have not gotten sick since I've been on the motion sickness medicine. We went to the doctor yesterday and she said that it's benign positional vertigo caused by stress. I just need to keep taking my meds as needed, relax, do nothing, and things will heal themselves. So, I have been sitting around semi spinning. I really can't do anything else....even if I wanted to. Well, I can type but I can't even walk a straight line! The girls are spending some time with Jeff and Jan so that I can get better and Jeremy is taking care of me and the house. I am feeling better each day and I am praying that tomorrow is the day that I wake up and am back to normal........

Check Out this Contest on

My Newly Renovated Baking Blog!!

Click on the Sugar & Spice Sweets Link on the Right in order to get there.....or CLICK HERE

Basket Buddies

These two are just the best of buddies.

Mall

On Friday night after we met the wedding consultation lady we walked around the mall a little. The girls found the mattresses!

Farm Animals

Grandma and Pop have farm animals again. Here are the girls petting one of the baby chickens.

Then talking to it in very soft high pitch voices in order to comfort it.

Then Hayden got brave enough to hold it! They also have 2 goats-Zelda and Zoe.

Car Ramp!

This is Layne's birthday present from mommy, daddy, and sissy. We gave it to her early so she would be able to play with it for a few days before we go out of town.

This Little Piggy....well sort of...

Our Little Monkey is Almost 2!

Layne's birthday is this Friday! We are going to be in Pittsburgh for my cousin's wedding so we decided not to have a party. I know, can you believe that?! We've just had such a busy summer and I wanted a very low key celebrations for our monkey. So, we are actually having 3 parties for her!?!?! Tonight we are going over to Jeff and Jan's house to have a birthday dinner, Friday we are having a small birthday celebration in Pittsburgh with Mom, Bern, Johnny, and Mwende, and then Sunday morning we are having a birthday breakfast with the Grove City family, my dad, and Melody.

The cake is for tonight and it's banana cake with chocolate buttercream and cream cheese filling. Iced in chocolate buttercream and then covered in fondant. Accents are gumpaste, fondant, and chocolate. I got the design idea from one of my favs....Pink Cake Box! Love them!

It's a Sperm...It's an Egg....It's a BALLOON people!

So, here's Noah's first birthday cake. Lisa planned a balloon release at the cemetery after the birthday party at DP, so she sent me a picture of a beautiful cake like this but asked me to incorporate balloons winding up the cake. I was about halfway done with one side of the cake when I called Jerm into the kitchen and discussed with him how much the balloon cutout on my Cricut Cake looked like a sperm... and I was not the only one to have that thought.

David and Lisa had a very touching birthday party/remembrance of sweet Noah today. It was beautiful way to celebrate their precious baby who's up in heaven today.

Busted.

Last night after Test Kitchen I was working on icing some cakes. Hayden wanted to sit on the counter and watch me. When I sat her up there she said to me, "Mommy, I can't have anything else to eat tonight because I just brushed my teeth." A few minutes later this is what I found...icing face!

This is how we find Layne a few nights a week. Sometimes she falls out, wakes up, and cries and other nights she just falls out of bed but stays asleep on the floor!

Bridal Consultation Cupcakes

Aren't these the cutest boxes ever!? Paula Deen has stuff at Michael's now....along with Duff from Ace of Cakes! These are Paula Deen cupcake boxes. Love them!

This bride would like a henna inspired cake-that means TONS of piping! Anyway, we have talked about cakes and prices and all that. But now it's time for the sweet stuff. I am meeting her tonight so that she can taste some flavor combinations that she likes. White cupcakes and lemon cupcakes some filled with lemon curd and others filled with raspberry. Some iced with buttercream and other with chocolate buttercream. We'll see how things go tonight I guess!

I made these a month or so ago but I forgot to post the picture. It was a toffee cupcake with a caramel inside topped with chocolate buttercream a chocolate candy and caramel drizzle. They tasted good except for the fact that the hidden caramel inside sunk to the bottom and stuck to the wrapper and became VERY chewy! I'm going to keep experimenting with this one because I think it's a really good combo.......

A Taste of What's To Come....

I am having my baking blog professionally "renovated" and this woman is awesome! She's so nice and she makes me feel like my blog project is the coolest one she's ever done (even though she works on TONS a day and a lot are probably cooler than mine!). Here is a sneak peek at the new header for my baking blog. It's going to be so cool! It will have a section for upcoming orders and vacation dates....a categorized sweets gallery for easy searching.....and lots of different pages too!! Here's her link if you want to check it out...CLICK HERE

You Got A Problem

Layne helped me make dinner the other day. She kept making this face when I tried to take a picture of her. She's such a performer! Check out the new dress and silly bandz!

Special Mall Trip!

Today we all took a special trip to the mall....why do people go to the mall?!

To get their ears pierced! Hayden was so excited I think she was about to jump out of her skin. She was the perfect little customer for the "doctor".

She flinched a little with the first ear but was a pro for the second. No tears and she even got a lolly pop at the end! Tonight when I was cleaning them she even tried to do it herself!

Layne chillin' with her buddy Claire's Bear. Claire's Brear even has her ears pierced!

There was a choo choo train that kept going past blowing it's horn on the downstairs level. Layne was very distracted by that, so I had her sit on my lap during the piercing process.

Layne did have some tears, but she also got a lolly pop afterwards! They were both so brave.

Of all places, Victoria's Secret had this cute little pink polka dot dog in the entrance of the store. The girls just thought it was the cutest....until we took them to the pet store of course!