Sunday, November 18, 2012

"My God is the God who will never forget"

This is a song on repeat for me lately.  If you are struggling to believe that God will come through or that you've been forgotten or overlooked or that your promises will not be fulfilled, may you be encouraged by the truth to these words.  

God's character is that 
He "remains faithful forever" (Ps. 146:6),
there is Joy in His presence (Ps. 16:11),
by Him all things are created with purpose (Col. 1:16)
those who hope in Him lack no good thing (Ps. 34:10)
those who look to Him will not be put to shame (Ps. 25:3)
He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love (Exodus 33)


"Holding My World" by Kristian Stanfill

And this is Your world, You made it
And all of creation is breathing because You sustain it
Jesus, by Your powerful word, You spoke out the earth and the heavens

So I will not worry or fret
My God is the God who will never forget
All of His goodness and all of His promises
He's holding my world in His hands

And these are your days, You give them
All for your fame and all for Your glorious kingdom
Jesus, You have ordained all things to dwell in Your purpose

So I will not worry or fret
My God is the God who will never forget
All of His goodness and all of His promises
He's holding my world in His hands

And I am Your child, Beloved
And all of my days my future is laid in Your promise
Jesus, to the end of the age, I am not alone of forgotten

So I will not worry or fret
My God is the God who will never forget
All of His goodness and all of His promises
He's holding my world

So I will not worry or fret
My God is the God who will never forget
All of His goodness and all of His promises
He's holding my world in His hands

Thursday, November 1, 2012

October

Here's a little bit of what we were up to in October...

We helped throw the last Baby Shower for a couple months!
A backyard couples' shower for Bentlee June
in honor of first time parents Caleb and Whitney.
(Bentlee June is on her way out as I type!)




I enjoyed some beautiful sunrises on my early morning runs...



I got bangs!
One of Kristen's roommates, Cristina, is a beautician :)



 Andy and I went to Schnepf Farms to try to get the Autumnal feel... didn't quite work!
But we still enjoyed time together.

Andy turned 26!


Making a wedding cake.

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, 
you already know that I made a wedding and groom's cake last week for 
our friends' (Canela and Reed Hoffman) wedding on Oct. 20th.

When they got engaged in June, I immediately offered to make their cake!
Little did I know about all that goes INTO making a cake...
but I figured, I can make cakes, so why not?
It turns out, I can make a wedding cake :)
but it's quite an involved to-do!

My mom was kind enough to fly out for 5 days and be my right-hand woman...
or my professional Instagram-er along the way :)

Now, I definitely over estimated how big of a cake they would need... 
but, with that being said, the cakes and frostings included:
over 36 eggs and 3 cups of egg whites 
at least 10 lbs of butter
4 boxes of cake flour
3 containers of cocoa
about 15 pounds of sugar
and lots of TLC!


getting 10 sticks of butter to room temp... this was just for one batch of frosting!

cooking sugar and egg whites (and making dinner simultaneously, thanks to the crock!)

the makings of Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I may buy stock in Pillsbury.

ha!  seems so small


We got started off early on Thursday.  See the bagel?  No time to sit and eat!



Friday: Icing and filling the groom's cake.

yummm



needed more buttercream!





Thankful for the fridge and freezer at our church's building!

Transporting the cakes.

My timeline...
1 week before: bake the chocolate cakes; make 2 batches of buttercream; make simple syrup
Thursday:  bake wedding cakes; freeze cakes overnight
Friday: Make PB buttercream; defrost, level, and frost all cakes; fridge overnight
Saturday:  transport cakes to site, stack and finish decorating wedding cake.  Enjoy the night!

After all was said and done!


Mr. & Mrs. Reed Hoffman

a beautiful setting for a wedding

The bride and groom approved!


lemon curd and raspberry preserves filled the vanilla butter cake layers



edited with Camera+ app

Saturday, October 27, 2012

My Birthday!

My birthday was back in September... September 27th to be exact :)
But I just wanted to post real quick about it because my friends are so sweet.
I've always grown up knowing about your "golden birthday", 
which is when you turn the age of the date of your birthday...
i.e.  Turning 27 on the 27th!

Well it was my Golden Birthday this year!  
I thought it would be so fun to throw a big golden-themed bash...
but as my previous post told you, 
my birthday kind of fell in the middle of a busy season for all of us.
I knew throwing another party would maybe be more of a burden than a blessing.

BUT my friends planned a surprise party for me anyway!
(Disclaimer:  I think I've gotten the reputation that I'm the kind of person who likes/needs surprise parties... But I'm not!  I totally appreciate them, but I'm totally fine without them!  If being thought of were a love language, that would be mine.  So I love to know that people are thinking of me, whether it be through a simple text, a card, or a planned event.  I just don't want to have the reputation of being high maintenance, lol!)
Needless to say, it was sooo sweet!  

We walked into lifegroup, and it was actually my birthday party!
Here are some pictures:

Poufs always add life to a party! :)




There was a golden wall for pictures!










I also had fun that day going to breakfast with sweet friends, getting a massage, going to lunch (for free!) with my friend Jessica, and celebrating the night before with Andy by going out to dinner at a fun hotel in Scottsdale.
Me and my man out to dinner.

Beautiful AZ night.

My sweet Emmy friend!

and Gracie Goo!

Love celebrating with girlfriends, old and new!

I love all things FREE!