Our New Family Motto: "You Don't Have to Shovel the Heat"

Y'all heard it here first: We are moving to Houston, Texas!

Our departure date is July 28!

Here is Cate in her new Texas outfit:

Cate and I picked out this cowgirl onesie while Sam was at his audition--yes, audition--to become the Executive Pastry Chef at Mark's American Cuisine. We decided right then and there that if Sam got the job we would purchase this get up from the hotel gift shop.

After I found this job posted online we worked together to get Sam's resume, cover letter, and portfolio together. We sent it off in the middle of June and within a day the Executive Chef owner of Mark's had called Sam and offered to fly him out to audition in the kitchen. Thus began a feverish few weeks of at-home preparation. Sam practiced four plated desserts that he would make when he got there. Here are photos of two of them (these are the rough draft practice versions he made at home--they were even better for the real thing!):

First, bread pudding made with chocolate donuts. This is topped with an almond toile (uh, that might not be how you spell that) cookie and served with a pistachio macaroon and tart cherry sauce.

Next, a lemon tart served with mint granita in a meringue basket and raspberry puree. Those are Pop Rocks on the end of the lemon tart:

The other desserts were a peanut butter banana s'mores and a goat cheese Bavarian with strawberry watermelon salad, basil, and a balsamic syrup.

Getting to Houston meant that Cate took her first airplane ride. Don't you love how skeptical she looks in this photo:

But she got the hang of it pretty quickly. Here she is on the plane:

While Sam was at his audition Cate and I mostly just hung out nervously in the hotel room. At one point we took a nap together in the giant hotel bed and when we woke up I found myself thinking, "Please let it be 11:00" but it was only 10:04. Sam's audition was six hours, from 8 until 2. I put off going to the pool until about 1:15 so that we'd have something to look forward to during the nerve wracking part. Here is Cate just before we headed out:

This girl is a fish! She loves swimming lessons so much and now she really gets the hang of getting in her bathing suit. As soon as I get it out she wiggles her whole body and squeals in delight. We had a great time at the pool! (It was the 4th of July, and so of course she wore her red, white, and blue suit from Grandma!)

While we were at the pool I was checking my phone every two seconds and Sam finally called. He had been offered the job! The next day we checked out neighborhoods and found a place to live. Within a week all the details of the package had been finalized, Sam had given his notice at work, and we had started to pack.

We are sad to be leaving our friends in Salt Lake, but we are so excited for our new adventure! I can't wait for warm Christmas. I'm already thinking about how we can have an outdoor element to Cate's first birthday party in December.

On our third date, Sam told me that when his kids turned one he wanted to make them cakes bigger than they were. Thus began our love story.

Clearly, a cake bigger than she is is a possibility--Sam made this wedding cake this week and Cate and I went to check it out:

Here is a better shot of it:

Not sure if I'll get to another post before we head out, but I'll get back on the blogging once we get settled in our new home.

See y'all later.

Ladybug Cake

Ok, so I didn't fall asleep while that last post was uploading, so here is one that is actually not about Cate. Sam made a ladybug cake this past week for a girl's birthday party. He also made 24 matching cupcakes, but he didn't take pictures of those. Here's The Lady:

Another Cake

Here are some photos of a cake Sam made this weekend. Sorry about the bad lighting, but hopefully you'll get the idea. The most impressive thing about this cake? It really does look exactly like the picture the bride gave him. Oh, and that he made it on Day 20 of 22 days of straight work without a day off. It's wedding season!

Another Post: I'm Getting Serious about Blogging. Seriously.

So Sam made yet another amazing cake today. Here it is:


And up close:


The branch part is made out of chocolate fondant. Sugared kumquats and lemon leaves top it off. Oh, and yes, it is sitting on a bed of wheatgrass.

I'm pretty excited about some of my recent projects, too! First, the food I made for my friend Karen's baby shower:

(Confession: Sam made the macaroons.)

And the little signs I made to say what everything was:

And, my most recent project, centerpieces for 6-year-old Kelsey's upcoming birthday party (there's a magician coming!):

Thanks for visiting.

Cakes, Cakes, and More Cakes

We're pretty sure no one even checks our blog any more, but now that Baby Major is on the way we figured we'd better start ramping it up again. Sam has made some pretty amazing cakes lately ... so we'll ease back in to this with some photos:

This is a cake Sam made for his co-worker's daughter. The baby's name is Brina, hence the giant "B." I actually helped with this--cut out the dots of fondant for the top layer and stuck 'em on there. Obviously the real talent is in the harlequin pattern on bottom.

And now for something a little different:

The bride's dad cut down a tree to make that cake stand! The meringue mushrooms were the bride's special request, and as you can see, they cover up a bit of the bottom layer. Here's a closer look at those beauties, which Sam made by hand:

When the bride's mom saw Sam putting the cake together she asked if she could take one of the mushrooms up to her daughter in the bride's room! Sam obliged and picked her out an extra good one.

All right, folks, that's a wrap for tonight.

Our First Post

We had big plans to have this blog up and operational before our wedding, hence the blog address on the favor tags,but that didn't really work out. So if you're here because you read the address on our favor tags, thanks for coming. Or if you came after seeing it on our favor tags and there was nothing here but you decided to try again, thanks for coming. Or if you came after you saw it on your favor tag and there was nothing here but you came back because you saw our next shameless plug for ourselves on the return address labels we put on our thank you cards, thanks for coming (back). We knew building readership for our blog without an adorable toddler would be hard enough. We've found it's even harder if we don't post anything. But if you'll promise to stick with us, toddler-less bloggers though we are, we'll promise to start posting. Deal?

Where shall we start? How about with a photo of our beautiful, delicious, amazing wedding cake:

Sam's boss, Raymond Lammers, made our cake. When we arrived at the reception location to change in to our wedding clothes, Raymond was there working on the cake. I was so mesmerized that I couldn't get myself to move from in front of the cake to the dressing room! I just stood there staring as the catering people bustled around, as the florist pinned corsages on, listening in a daze as my mom reminded me that I needed to get into my wedding dress.

One common question we get is whether we saved the top layer, as is tradition. The answer: No. We ate it the day after our wedding. The whole thing. Sam said we could eat it and he'd make me a new cake for our anniversary. So we did, and I'm sure he will. Ah, the joy of being married to a pastry chef!