Parker

Parker is five months old today! Wow--time flies! It's amazing how much a baby can change in just five months. We've been trying to be consistent in taking a lot of pictures and even writing down things he does as he goes through all his different stages. It's so much fun!! :)



Parker has learned a couple new tricks lately. A few weeks ago, he realized he has feet! For the first day or two he noticed them, he would hold his legs up in the air and just stare at his feet, back and forth from one to the other. Then he finally started to grab at them, and now he constantly tries to put them in his mouth. Makes diaper changes a little more difficult...



He also learned how to roll over! He had been rolling onto his side a lot, but that's as far as he got. Last Saturday he was on his side again so we started playing with him, trying to get him to roll all the way over. After a few tries he finally made it! He then looked up at us with a huge grin--he was obviously very proud of himself! :) unfortunately, he doesn't really like being on his stomach. So once he rolls over, he quickly gets upset until we put him on his back again.





We're loving every minute with our little man! We can't wait to see what he does next! :)

Cake decorating

I've made a lot of cakes before, but I recently tried something new--a wedding cake!
A couple in our church were married in February and they asked if I'd make their cake. I was excited that they asked me to do it! I love trying new decorating ideas! And looking at the picture she showed me, I didn't think it would be too difficult. How hard could it be to cover three cakes and then drape them with fondant?? HAHAHAHA!!! Yeah, I can laugh now...because that ended up being one of the hardest cakes I've ever made!
Because it was mostly for a display cake, two of the tiers were foam. So covering them and one real cake with the base layer of fondant was pretty easy. The hard part was draping more fondant around them. I make my own marshmallow fondant which is soft and easy to work with. But when I tried to roll out long narrow strips, they'd stretch and sag as soon as I picked them up and it wouldn't go on the cake. So I would take it off and re-roll it and try it again. Kyle came out to see if he could help and he gave some good suggestions for how I might be able do it. We finally got one to work and I ended up doing the other pieces the same way. But it still took several tries to get each of them on the right way.

This was the cake once I was finished with it. The flowers were put on at the reception site so this was all we got to see of it until after the wedding when we were sent pictures.


Here is a picture of the cake at the reception. I love the flowers she used--they definitely improved it!



Shortly after the wedding someone asked if I had been nervous about a big project like that... I guess maybe I SHOULD have been. I was working off a print out of a picture she liked and if it didn't work out they wouldn't have had a cake. :) Fortunately it turned out okay! What can I say?! I like a challenge! Which is a good thing because, in two weeks, I will be making another wedding cake! :)

Here are a few other cakes I've made....







I told Kyle I'd love to have a home bakery/decorating business some day. Who knows if it will ever happen, but it's a fun thought! :) When people ask me how I got started, I always tell them it was my Mom! She decorated cakes for years and always did a beautiful job! I'm so thankful she had the patience to teach me how to do it. Later on I took a few cake decorating classes, too. It's a great way to be creative and make others happy at the same time! :)
Thanks, Mom, for sharing your talent!!