Sweet Shop First Birthday!

Candy, candy, and more candy!

The cake on top is Layne's cake. It's supposed to look like a giant cupcake. I carved the swirls in-it's not all icing piled on!!

She wasn't too clingy to mommy so that was good. She had a great time!!

I made cookies and cream, starburst, snickers, and cotton candy cupcakes!

Layne took time to test the icing....

Then she realized how awesomely sweet it was!

And she DUG IN!

Hayden and her buddy Hannah hanging out on the deck. It cooled down a little so everyone ended up hanging out on our new deck-it was a great day!! Hayden is now on her way to Florida with Grandma and Pop and tomorrow Layne and I are leaving with Pappy for Florida. We'll be gone for 2 whole weeks!! Can't wait!!

Present Time

Here is Layne sitting on the big cardboard box that her brand new chair came in.

Here's the gang opening Layne's BRIGHT GREEN chair! (Check out daddy's new glasses!)

"Wow, it's green!" When it arrived we weren't too happy with the color, but the sellers would not respond to our emails asking for a refund (go figure) so a bright green chair it is!

Now they both have a chair to sit and play in!!

Ride in the Birthday Express!

After Layne opened up her birthday present from us-LIME green chair- the girls decided to play in the cardboard box while I cleaned the bathrooms. I looked down the hallway and this is what was coming for me!!

Happy First Birthday Sweet Layne!

She wasn't a big fan of having a crown on her head this morning. I can't believe that my little baby is a year old today! Time has gone by so fast.

I made her special birthday waffles this morning!

She loved every bite!

A year old and she still has those mysterious ice blue eyes!

Playing on the NEW Deck!

"You mean to tell me that I can drive this car on the entire deck!?"

She loves to try and push herself in the car.

Hayden attempts to use this scooter that was given to us by Jerm's boss. She's still a little too small for it though.

Check out some of the finished product! Jerm does such good work....with the help of Jonathan, Kenneth, and John!!

Look What We Found

The other day when I was baking away in the kitchen Layne found the drawer under the oven. She loved to crawl in and out in and out!

We all knew that this was going to happen-big sister had to join in the fun!

Jamie's Baby Shower Cake

Here's the mini cake and cupcakes that I did for Jamie's baby shower today. The cupcake stand is homemade too! I think that I am going to get a lot of use out of it so I am really excited about that!!

The cake is chocolate with cookies and cream filling. The little figure is made of gum paste.

These are lemon poppy seed cupcakes with buttercream icing. The pea pods are laffy taffy with green m & m's.

These are chocolate cupcakes with a mint 3 musketeers in the middle with buttercream icing.

Almost Done!!

Well, the deck is almost done! Jeremy's friend John is going to come over with his "deck staining machine" to help Jerm stain the deck. Then it will be D-O-N-E and ready for Layne's party!!

Here is another view of our huge gigantic enormous deck!

Good Old Shopping Cart...

So, the other day I had the girls with me while I grocery shopped. I didn't want to walk out of my way to get one of those cool car shopping carts so I just got the regular old cart. I put Layne in the seat and Hayden sat down in the area where you can put the heavy bulky stuff (like a child!). I knew it was risky with the whole fingers and wheels combo, but I put her down there anyway. Bad move! About half way through our trip I stopped the cart to get something from the frozen foods isle. When I started going again there was some resistance-like the breaks were on or something. Then I heard a scream. Hayden's thumb was in between the metal and the wheel when I started moving the cart!! She came over to me crying saying, "Mommy, you run over my finger!". My heart just broke. She was in so much pain and we both knew it was my fault. So, for the rest of the trip I held Hayden and comforted her every time she cried and reminded me that her finger hurt because "mommy ran over it" while Layne was entertained by eating the paper that the list was written on. Needless to say, we left the store with a bruised swollen thumb, mouth full of paper, strawberry milk & York Peppermint Patty (so I was feeling really bad about Hayden's thumb so I got her some treats!! Yikes!), and a sorry mommy.

Here is what it looks like 3 days later!!!

Sleepless Nights...

Hayden has started coming into our room around 6 in the morning. It hasn't been a big deal because I get up around 6:30 to go running. But, recently she has been coming into our room anywhere between 1am and 6am!! Most of the time she just crawls into bed and I don't even know she's there. Jerm just moves her into her bed when he gets home from work around 4 or 5am. We are trying to explain to her that she shouldn't come into our room until the sun comes up, but that doesn't seem to be working. Well, I guess she came into our room last night at some point and when Jerm got home he took her back to her bed. This morning when I got up to go running I peeked into her room and she was gone! I heard some heavy breathing coming from the family room, so I walked in there and found her curled up on the couch sound asleep. I guess she woke up and didn't want to come back into our room so she came out to the family room! What a nut.

Celebrating Deck Doneness

(well....almost doneness)

I am posting some deck pictures because one of my family member who shall remain nameless but is a brother of mine said, "Enough pictures of the girls sleeping, I wanna see the deck!". I am sure that he was just kidding though!

Layne had a good time crawling around on the deck last night.

Peek-a-Boo!

I gave Grady one of the zucchini from our garden and he actually ate it! He snacked on it for about 2 days-here are the leftover scraps. Thank goodness he can't get up into the garden because of the electric fence, or he would be veggie snatching every day!

Layne making a phone call....

Saying, "bye bye".

*I just realized that there really aren't any good pictures of the whole deck in this set! Maybe I'll try to get some today-sorry nameless brother!!

Afternoon Sweetness...

The girls take their afternoon naps at the same time-by design! It gives me some time to get some things done and relax too! Today, I decided to risk waking them up in order to get some sweet slumber shots. The only two times that Layne sucks on her fingers are when she tired or when she is sleeping.

We haven't gotten to the "getting dressed" part of Layne's day yet-as you can see!

This sweetie is wearing her second pair of pj's today!

Project Deck Extension

Recently, we bought a tub of deck stain that was marked down about 80% from the original price-in other words we got a great deal on it! That small 15 dollar purchase got the wheels turning in Jerm's head. He came to me one day and said, "If we ever want to extend the deck now would be a great time since we haven't stained it yet." So, after we ran the numbers and he told me about some of the future plans for our newer larger deck (single door leading to the deck from our bedroom, screened in porch...) I was sold!!

Kenneth and Jonathan came over on Friday ALL DAY to help out with the foundation. They were a huge help!

Yesterday it was Jerm, Hayden, and I in the rain working on the fun part-laying the deck boards.

We worked until dark but didn't quite finish. Ad a matter of fact I am being called right now-time to work on the deck again!!

Fabulous Fourth at the Horse Park!

We went to the Horse Park yesterday for the 4th of July. They have a big event up there every year complete with games, crafts, food, and vendor booths. Discover Point had a booth set up with free family pictures, plinko, and fans. We handed out tons of information about the church and Kids Jamm (a big event for kids in August). It was HOT but a lot of fun.

When I got up this morning I could barely walk because my ankles hurt so bad. Funny thing is that it had NOTHING to do with the 6.2 miles that I ran yesterday morning-it was standing on pavement in flip flops for 5 hours!!! Crazy.

Hayden got to hold a sparkler for the first time. Miss Caution was very careful and just stood very still while is sparkled away.

This is Ryan-Hayden's "BFF" according to Ryan. They get along so well and have the best time together. Ryan has three siblings...all boys, so I think she loves hanging out with another girl.

Miss Layne loved the fireworks. She thought they were the coolest most funny thing in the world-no tears for that one!

Miss Hayden on the other hand was only happy if she was sitting in the car-so that's what she did. She was very scared of the fireworks while she was outside. We kind of figured that she would be afraid and Layne would love them.