I keep saying how busy we've been but I think this past weekend was definitely the epitome of that...

We started the weekend by delivering a cake to a new friend from our church - this might be one of my favorites so far.

Then we got invited to lunch with some new friends we've made: Katie and Dave. They have really neat life stories selling their apartment in New York and literally traveling the world for the past year. Of course Brent and I love to travel, so this resonates with us. Anyway, they were house sitting at a fabulous place so they invited us over for a delicous-o lunch. Katie is a fantastic chef - rubbing shoulders with lots of foodies, including food editors for Real Simple. Pretty cool, huh? *sorry no pics of our yummy lunch, but it was awesome - take my word for it.*

From there we met my parents at the Country Music Hall of Fame. If you've never been, it's actually really interesting. Brent had learned that they were offering free admission all day Saturday, so we took advantage of that and had my parents meet us there. LOTS of pictures from that day (check out the album to the right), but here are a few of my favorites...

Brent's favorite country music singer...pretty sure Gabbie doesn't have a clue, but let's not tell Brent...
mi padres

a big wall of platinum and gold records..oh yeah and brent :)this was probably my favorite thing in the whole museum: this is the dress that Carrie Underwood wore to the Grammy's one year. It is made from over 120 yards of fabric and the train is over 8 feet long!! RIDICULOUS

Sunday was another eventful day as we dedicated Gabbie at church. We were supposed to do it last weekend, but of course we had the Winter Storm of the century so none of our family was able to make it up AND church was canceled. Funny story to tell Gabbie one day...
So we rescheduled this fabulous little ceremony to this past weekend. Brent's parents drove up on Sunday morning, the Sapps came and of course my parents were in town as well! We had a great morning and it was really neat because we ended up being the only family participating in the service that we went to. I'm going to do a whole separate post on her dedication - it was really special and deserves more space than this...
Sunday afternoon was filled with football - of course! We had a great time with some new friends from RHCC and a fabulous partay.
Now on to another busy week full of friends, appointments, and getting ready for some exciting times in the life of A Cake Boutique!
Here's to a great week to each of you.

I was looking through all the pictures I've taken since my last post and realized not only have we done a lot since my last post, but man, we stay busy. I thought when I started staying at home that we might become hermits, but we haven't. God has been so good to us and He continues to show his faithfulness to us every day. We are really excited about the opportunities to come in 2010!
So we had the Winter Storm of 2010 a few weeks ago. I was sooo shocked the day it started snowing. They call for snow here ALL. THE. TIME. I get excited every time, so I decided this time around I would just play the laid back game. We had all of our family coming in for Gabbie's dedication at church, so I went ahead with all those plans. I took a trip the grocery store late Thursday night, spent all day Friday getting the house spotless - you know, the usual stuff. So it's Friday around 10:00 a.m. and I'm upstairs cleaning the bathroom with the news on and I hear, "Snow has started falling in the Nashville area..." I look outside and this is what I see:

I was in the process of calling and emailing Brent pictures because so much snow had already fallen. By the time I had posted pictures on Facebook and emailed pictures to mom and Brent, I look outside (less than 10 minutes later - I know this because of the time stamp on my camera) and THIS is what has fallen:
So at this point I am so excited, but a little nervous because the Moncriefs are supposed to be in the car on their way to our house for the weekend. Much to the surprise of many, they actually decided to make the trip. They did really well with their time making it over Monteagle and into Murfreesboro with no problems. (of course all that with a lot of praying from both sides) Then they came to a standstill. Literally. For 3 hours they sat on I-24 with their engines off in freezing cold weather, ice, and snow blanketing the roads. All because of a really really bad accident involving over 14 cards.
Thankfully they finally made it to our house and we had three fabulous snow days together. What better way to spend snow days than with your best friends? We ate way too much bad food, played a million and one games of Settlers of Catan (AWESOME GAME!), watched the girls interact, we even ventured out to a HUGE hill in our area to go sledding on Sunday with the Sapps - now THAT was a lot of fun.

This one's sooo cute: Brent teaching Ada how to play ping pong. What was really cute was the next morning, she went in the room and pulled this little chair up to the table and waited for Brent to come in there again.

I love this one - the girls look like they're talking to each other. Ada is really really good at sharing - she loves to share her breakfast or any food for that matter with her buddy. She even lets her have frog sometimes which is a biggie!

This picture looks like we're at a ski slope - so funny!


Gabbie showing off her skills of sitting up and Ada getting down on her level so they can play together. So sweet!There were about 50 other people on this hill we went to for sledding. We even had someone feel sorry for us and let us use their inner tube and really really good sled. We had a blast!!
Ada is definitely at the age where she copies everything she sees. Here she's got my nursing cover and her frog - we just missed it, but frog was under the nursing cover and she was talking to him. SOOOO funny. We were all crying laughing.

We also attempted to do a little sledding in our backyard with our neighbors. This was before we hit the HUGE hill. Our neighbors are from Canada, so they schooled us in sledding....


Here are some more sledding shots from the big hill we went to:

This was SOO much fun: Brittany, Casey and I all on the inner tube together FLYING down the hill. Of course we didn't make it ALL the way down, but at least 3/4 of the way before crashing....Brittany has the whole ride on her Flip video - it is hilarious! I really love this first picture of all those kids just standing on the hill watching us. LOL
...and the crash. Brittany had actually fallen off about 2 minutes before, but she ran down to us and has it on video. That's Casey on the left crawling back over to the tube. I have a nice big black and blue bruise on my knee thanks to this thrilling ride!




A few pics of our precious girls:


Yep, she's sitting up. Of course I'm having to hold her hand a little to get a get picture, but she's doing great. What a champ!And this is what Fletcher thought about this post and the weekend activities:

More posts to come of all the other stuff we've been up to these past few weeks, but I think this post probably is more than you all wanted to see or know about the Whitakers....

Hey Opp Knockers!
I wanted to give you all a heads up that we will be making this blog private. We know we have a great group of readers and don't want to leave any one of you out. Please send either Brent or I an email if you want to still be able to access the blog.

You can also just leave a comment here and I'll get your email address - I'll make those comments private so that your email address won't be public.

I will be turning the blog private by next week.

Thanks everyone!

If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere. - Frank A. Clark

I love the concept of a "play date." They kind of baffled me until I had been home for a few weeks and needed some adult interaction. I quickly realized that no matter the age of your child, you are eligible for playdates. Why? because 75% of the time they aren't really for the child, but they are for the moms.
We had a fun playdate this past week. I think I'll just start calling all of my adult interactions play dates. I mean what's really the difference in how we used to just hang out with friends? food. laughing. conversation. maybe some games. a movie. I mean really they're not that different from what we used to do with our friends.
Oh wait.
Now we have a munchkin to add to the mix. THAT'S how they're different. And the fact that all my pictures now are just of little ones instead of adults and my adult friends.

You know you have a baby and they have ROCKED your world when...
You're feeding her for the night. Your husband enters the room and through silent, forced movements he understands VERY clearly to not take one more step in your direction. He then understands through the look of your eyes that he is to sit in the floor at the foot of the bed with all the lights off until the feeding is finished.
Yep. I have a very alert 5 month old.
Feedings are very smooth until someone. something. anything. enters the room.
makes a noise. makes something that sounds like a noise. she thinks it made a noise.
the dogs bark. the dogs move. the dogs raise their head.
brent enters the room. brent leaves the room. brent's in the other room and moves.
i have to scratch my noise. Get the picture?

but of course...I still love her!

When Brent and I were in Gatlinburg last year while I was pregnant, we visited our favorite little bookstore and I bought "Everything About Baby Food."
I'm going to write the authors I think and suggest a few additions to the book:

1. When changing your baby from a milk-only diet to a cereal and veggies diet, expect for what comes out to look a little like what is going on....

2. Be prepared that EVERY. SINGLE. movement will become a distraction to eating. EVERYTHING. Including your own husband who just walked in the door...
3. Invest in a full TRUCK load of really really big bibs. As in they cover the entire baby while they eat. Otherwise you will be doubling the amount of clothes you're already washing.
4. Finally - the most rewarding part of introducing new foods is the sweet smile of satisfaction that comes after having so much fun with food!

I think we all have those friends that you may not talk to every day - maybe not even every week, but when you do get together it's as if you've seen each other every day, you talk all the time and you just pick right back up where you left off.
When I left the credit union 2 years ago, I had just developed two really great friendships with two girls: Kelly and Cherie. It was one of the toughest days I've had when it was my last day and I had to tell them and my other coworkers good bye. I never imagined it to be so difficult. When Kelly & Cherie came for a visit last year when we were in our apartment, we had such a wonderful time.
This visit was no different. We did a whole lot of nothing besides laugh, eat, play silly card games, listen to Kelly & Brent be hilarious...you know - the typical stuff. Here are lots of fun pics from the weekend! Enjoy...


Gabbie LOVES her toes right now -

Everyone reading - pretty funny!Yummmm
Who can't withstand the humor of Kelly? Even Gabbie thinks she's funny
The girls hangin' on the couch. Fiona felt left out so she had to hop into the moment.

Fiona has to be involved in pretty much anything!