Hi there blog. I have been thinking about you. Thinking about a post. An update. You know, to let people out there know that I am still alive. That Gabbie is blooming. That we're busy - you know, the typical ordinary stuff.

It's late at night, everyone's snoring (including the dogs) and I'm waiting on the oven. Story of my life these days, but I am not complaining by any means!
This time, however I'm waiting for muffins that I'm making for my mom to mom Bible study in the morning (have I mentioned enough how much I love my Tuesday morning Bible study?!).
But for the past few weeks, I've been up late waiting on the oven for cake. Two years ago when I started taking cake classes at Michael's, little did I know that my life would have changed as much as it has now. 1. I'm a stay at home mom. 2. Doing cakes for work has turned into doing cakes for money. crazy. Really.
Two weeks ago I was invited to participate in a Women's Wellness Conference, the week leading up to it was exhausting to say the least.
These pictures are from the actual conference - above is my table, complete with me wearing my new chef's jacket that Brent bought me for Valentine's Day. (COMPLETELY his idea - sweet wasn't it? I got SOOO many compliments on it.) But more importantly, check out all of our hard work! My sister did MORE than her fair share of decorating - I am so fortunate! Below are just some random pics I took of the other tables and people walking around during their breaks (when they weren't visiting with us, they were in sessions on women's wellness)

One of my "fellow" vendors: Moncrief Photography. So sheik, isn't she? She was invited to take pictures for the event and as always won everyone over with her charming personality. So fortunate to have her as my friend, especially during crazy memory-making times like this one...
I was so very fortunate that my sister was able to come up for the entire week and help me - I honestly just kept saying, "I have no idea how I would have done this without you." She would laugh, but I know inside she was thinking the same thing.
We tackled decorating four different cakes on top of making cake for 300 people. It was insane to say the least. We stayed up until 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday - by the time the conference rolled around on Friday, we were. well. over it. Sad huh?
Jen - above working hard on one of her many creations. Below, she's eating up every minute with Gabbie.

We quickly got over those feelings once we started meeting some of the other vendors. Lisa Delaney - editor for Spry magazine. Teresa Epps - board member for Mercy Ministries. Sweetie Berry (not a vendor) but she was a fantastic contact hopefully a great connection to help get the business rolling. Holly Heath - personal chef who doesn't like to bake!
Then. Around the corner we see the Biggest Loser t-shirts. Tracy Yukich and Liz (sorry Liz, I don't know your last name) were at the conference!
Getting some great shots with the "celebs."
We would quickly come to realize that these ladies were so down to earth. We spent pretty much all day Saturday hanging out with these girls in between breaks. They were fantastic and we got to hear some really great stories about the show, their lives post-Biggest Loser, and just getting to know that they are just like you and me. Normal.
But back to business. As a result of all of our hard work, I have already completed three orders (you can become a fan of my page on Facebook - I update the pictures for all my cakes on there almost immediately upon completion AND I have a website: acakeboutique.com - shameless plug, what can I say?) from people who attended the conference and spoke with me about cakes. I have a potential wedding in May from a vendor who was at the show and man, I am floored! At the beginning of this year, when I posted about goals for 2010, I never imagined that three months into the year I would have the opportunities that I have to grow the business - especially the opportunities that have literally fallen in my lap.
Praise the Lord. That's really all I have say. I don't understand. It doesn't make sense in the flesh, but I know that God is always in control. He knows the plan for my life including this tiny little thing called A Cake Boutique.

Gabbie is doing fantastic. She is loving this beautiful weather we're having - we sat outside on our back porch after breakfast this morning and she loved every minute.

A few days ago, I had to run inside the mall for a quick errand and decided to put her in the stroller without using her car seat. I realized that since she can sit up by herself, it was definitely time, but man. I was a little sad. I realized she's not a fragile little newborn and she reminds me of that every day.
For example, last week when I was reaching to get something and she cleared all the cups on a counter at our friends house. Yep. She has curious little hands.
I love watching them explore all the exciting things in our world. If she can get it in her hands, she's more than likely going to make it to her mouth. As funny as that sounds, it's so neat to watch her explore with all of her senses - including her little tongue.
Brent put her down for bed the other night, he came out of her room laughing saying that she was up to his face and licked his cheek and giggled as it tickled her tongue. Then he laughed at her and she laughed at him. Such sweet little moments.
She's doing really well at sitting up all by herself without being so wobbly. I really think she might crawl just about any day - today I put her on her tummy and she was working her legs like she was swimming for her life. It was so funny.



She's doing really well at playing by herself in her pack 'n play in another room for about 15-20 minutes at a time. My BF did this with her little one and now at two years old, she plays in her room all by herself for moments at a time. It's great because it teaches Gabbie that she can entertain herself without my help. Gosh for the other 10 hours of the day, I'm right there with her. ha (and love it!)

Food is another fun subject. I started giving her cantaloupe this week and she loves it.
You can imagine if she enjoys exploring non-edible items with her tongue, how much more fun it is for her to actually put something that tastes good in her mouth. I've been giving her oatmeal three times a day now since she was 4 months old, but we have added a lot of other exciting foods to the mix: avocados, blueberries, raspberries, mangoes, pears, apples, kiwi, bananas, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, and broccoli. She has her days when she's ok with the green foods, then the next day she is not a fan (and I end up wearing a lot of it). I plan to persevere as I do not want a baby who just eats fruits and grilled cheese down the road. Any advice on this would be welcomed!
This one's kind of random, but oh so cute - Mya is quite the camera ham and LOVED Gabbie. Cute, huh?

I am also greatly appreciating her sleep patterns as I learn that a lot of babies her age and younger aren't sleeping through the night or consistently taking naps.

Brent's staying busy too - he has a new position at work and it has taken him to a four day class to get prepared to take his exam to get his insurance license. The first full hour of today's class was "How to take a test." Yep. That's right, then they dove right in: "Insurance 101" - literally, those were the titles. Wow. When he texted me today and told me, I just replied, "Thank you for working so hard so that I didn't have to return to an insurance company..." wow
So please be praying for him this week throughout the class as well as for the exam on Friday. As he put it, if he doesn't pass, his office will not let him live it down.


Here's a cute video of Gabbie girl playing with one of many toys she got at Christmas. She is talking a little bit at the end...

The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. I called on the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies. Psalm 18:2-3, NLT

I love this verse, don't you? I find such peace in reading that God is my rock. We might say that so many people or things are our rock, but truly God is the only one that fulfill that role for us. Man my little girl is 6 months old today. I am so excited to watch her grow every day, yet get a little sad when I think how quickly her little life is flying by. I love every second and love that I get to savor all the time I have with her!
She had her 6 month check up today and she is doing great. We continue to get comment after comment about how small she is, but her doctor is pleased with her growth. She continues to be moving up on her little growth curve on the chart even though she's only in the 25th percentile for weight and 10th percentile for height. Who would have ever guessed that I of all people would end up with a small baby? I am definitely surprised, but just as I told Brent there are PLENTY of up sides to a little baby: 1. She doesn't outgrow her clothes as fast 2. She has stayed in size 1 diapers longer which is awesome because I have a whole closet full thanks to my parents 3. She will stay in her carrier longer which means I can keep her sleeping longer on our outings.
So there are plenty of good things about being small and I'm very sure that one day soon I'll be talking about how big she is! I mean it is inevitable that the child will be the tallest girl in her class one day - her mother is 5'10" and her father is over 6'2".

Here's my little lamb as of late....she's an angel and I love her more and more every day!

Becoming parents is a whole new ballgame. I know. That's not so profound. But seriously you start to realize all the responsibility that God has put on you when you are given a child.
That responsibility becomes even heavier when you start to think about leading and directing your child to love God and teaching them that He is the Lord of your life. (and oddly, I'm not sure most adults know what that means, much less how to teach their child what that means...)
I suddenly just thought of Proverbs 22:6, "Train a child in the way they should go and when he is older he will not turn from it."
That's all of our goals as parents, right? Teach them. Train them. Make them the best little people we can.
This past week we dedicated Gabbie at our church. We had to go through a brief class a few weeks ago at our church to help explain what dedication is as well as what it is not. It is not salvation, but rather a promise, commitment to raise your child to love God, and know all that they can about Him.
I can't wait to tell Gabbie all about her dedication because it sure ended up a little different than we originally planned (doesn't everything!)
Originally we were going to dedicate Gabbie 2 weeks ago. Well if you flip back through my posts, you'll see that was the weekend of our Winter Storm of the century. The Moncriefs were planning to come up on Friday for the dedication on Sunday, so they started their trek. What should have been a 2 hour drive turned into 5 hours because of the crazy snow, but they persevered and made it here for a great weekend. Unfortunately none of our other family was able to make the trip as originally planned because of the crazy weather - both of our parents as well as some extended family in Alabama were all planning to come.
Obviously we felt bad because the Moncriefs had made the trip and wouldn't be able to come back the next weekend, but our church chose to reschedule the dedication to the following weekend. So this is my opportunity for a big THANK YOU to the Moncriefs for coming up - enduring the elements and having a great weekend anyway!
So this past weekend, we finally got to do the actual ceremony. Usually there are several families participating, but we were the only ones. It was really special being all by ourselves. My parents, Brent's parents, and my cousin and her husband all came on Sunday to witness Gabbie's dedication.
It was a really special time and our church definitely does a very stellar job at making this a very unique time for families.
We chose a life verse for Gabbie which is:
"Be not weary in well-doing for you shall reap if you faint not." - Galatians 6:9
Brent and I have always noticed how determined Gabbie has been from day one: from holding her head up really early to being determined to get her little arm out of her swaddle so she could suck her thumb (Brent does a really good impression of her using all of her little might to get that arm out). We picked this verse to coincide with that determination and hopefully encourage her to continue that determination throughout her life.
Thank you to our parents and the Sapps for coming to to the dedication, as well as to the Moncriefs for coming the weekend before and our extended family for planning to come even though the weather wouldn't cooperate.
Here are some pictures from our special day....

Before we went into the service, our preschool minister snapped a quick family photo. A few minutes into the service, she presented this picture in a frame for us to keep. So special!
Our community life pastor, Brent Hutchinson talking about Gabbie and the specialness of dedication. Gabbie was enthralled with him.
Praying with Brent - Gabbie was definitely more interested in him than praying...



I forgot to take pictures with the grandparents and the Sapps at church, but we got them at the house. Here with Mammaw and Pappaw.

and with Pop Pop and Ti Ti.

very excited to see her Pappaw...