sugary sweet

Thanks for the support, dear readers. I realize I might be certifiably insane by registering for another marathon but it's very exciting as well. Nate is taking the whole thing quite serious as he just informed me about two new book purchases from Amazon: 1. something about yoga for athletes, and 2. Something about nutrition for endurance athletes. He tells me he really wants to avoid an injury this time around and he hears yoga does the trick....so he's going to read about it and let me know. He's such a nerd sometimes, but you gotta love him.

Okay, so onto the sugary sweetness from last weekend.

#1 After Nate, Keri and I went to the runners expo on Saturday Nate informed us that he has a 'secret errand' to run and was really creepy about where he was taking us. I, of course, automatically accused him of forcing us to enter a golf store where he most likely bought golf-related items behind my back, knowing that I would not approve. I figured he ordered something from a St. Louis store without me knowing about it and had to pick it up during our trip. I'm not sure why this was my first thought but I'm sure it symbolizes something deep about our marriage when I assume he bought golf crap without my consent.

He pointed the car towards the Central West End while Keri and I threw out guesses left and right: was he taking me to get a new puppy??? [his look of disdain told me this was not the surprise]. Was he taking us to Straabs? [besides being weird and totally unnecessary, going to a high-end grocery store was not even on his radar]. Was he taking us to church at the Basilica? [again, very odd and not likely but we had to guess SOMETHING]. I kept saying that there were no golf stores in the CWE, thus adding to my confusion. He just smiled and drove on, letting our imaginations run wild. I think I'd convinced myself he was taking us to Bar Louie to slam shots and dance on the bar---at 4 pm, by the way---when we rounded the corner and saw this sign:

So then I was all, "OMG....you ordered us cupcakes for our upcoming wedding anniversary! How thoughtful for you to remember we got our wedding cake from The Cakery, which has the same fabulous owners of The Cupcakery! {Ericka rules!} I bet you even got us the same flavors as our wedding cake!" Then I realized that although I love my husband dearly he just isn't one of those ultra-sensitive guys who would do something like that.

As we walked into the store Nate finally admitted the surprise: my mom had ordered me cupcakes for my birthday. But not just a dozen cupcakes would do----it's my mom, afterall. She just HAD to get me 28 cupcakes for my 28th birthday despite Nate trying to talk her out of such an obscene number. And let's remember that these cupcakes are neither small nor cheap, which makes 28 of them even more ridiculous. Here is her sneaky cohort with the motherload: yes, they required two whole boxes. And yes, my husband is a cutie:


During Nate's pleading with my mother on the phone, he asked her what in the heck we would do with 28 of these monsters? To which she replied, "I don't know....hand them out to your friends, take them into school/work, do what you want. But I'm buying 28 of them." You know it's a lot when you can't even fit all of them in one picture:


But you guys, they are so freaking amazing it makes my eyes bulge out of my skull. Can I get a little Will Farrell {a.k.a. Frank the Tank} here? "It's so good once it hits your lips." We managed to leave St. Louis with 18 of these babies and I was quite proud of our distribution skills to rid ourselves of 10 within less than 24 hours. It's a horrible problem to have, really....too many cupcakes, too little time:


Nate got to pick out the flavors and I must say that the "Tuxedo" might be one of my top picks. And as an FYI, we did have dark chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream for half of our wedding cake....and these cupcakes are JUST as good as the real deal wedding cakes. I think it's the real butter....


The "Red Velvet" might be one of the prettiest and of course it's like a tiny bite of heaven melting in your mouth, with all that cream cheese icing. This is the flavor that made Nate grunt the loudest.....inappropriately, of course:


I think the french vanilla cake/vanilla buttercream "Confetti" combo is the loveliest in pictures....don't you? Our other half for wedding cake was similar to this minus the confetti, plus raspberry fruit filling between layers. Mmmmmmm.....


But the "Peanut Butter Cup" with peanut butter buttercream/dark chocolate cake is probably the richest and therefore my favorite. A girl can't have too much PB in my book...

I could have taken a picture of each and every cupcake because they are just that beautiful, but I don't want you to be too envious of me. And besides, we attempted to freeze about 14 of these babies so that we can enjoy them on my actual birthday. We want to avoid a sugar overdose this week even though it's quite tempting to down one of these suckers every night after dinner. Isn't my mom the best?

#2 Speaking of moms and sugary sweetness, meet Clare:



My first real baby to shoot! My hands started tremoring as soon as she entered the room because all I saw was a new photography subject! One that isn't a dog or a flower or food. Yippee! In my honor she blew me some wicked bubbles, possibly gassy here?



She is about four months old and just the most squeezable little thing around. Her mommy and daddy are our good friends from college and we are so happy for them. I think they special ordered the most well-behaved baby in existence and I'll be picking their brains on that procedure some day. I want one just like this:)



I realized that shooting real live babies are tougher to capture than dogs. She was just so wiggly and adorable....it distracted me to no end. Also, my 1.8 had a hard time focusing on her in a lower light condition, which I find frustrating. But then again some of her shots turned out just fine. I personally love this one of Clare's daddy feeding her. If you could see the look of sheer adoration in his eyes it might make you feel a little weepy...or maybe that's just me:



Chunky thighs! In a pink outfit! With the most adorable booties ever! Squeeeeeee!



I had to include this picture because it makes me chuckle. You have Michael, who shares my love for photography, trying to capture Clare's beauty just like me. Then you have Conor, holding his lovely baby with pride. And then you'll notice a certain white dog in the middle looking utterly perplexed. He was beyond frightened of Clare and yet he was completely intrigued. He'd stare at me while I held her like, "WTF, MOM?!? What are you doing? Put that thing down! Don't you know she is a mutant human who is impossibly small? She will take over the world!" I'm sure he was jealous but instead, he took on the role of pensive Henry....as seen in this picture. He couldn't stop smelling her feet and really, can you blame him? I'm sure they smelled divine. Oh, I can't wait for the 'first born syndrome' to kick in with our little Henry someday when he has to share his parents with a little monster like Clare. What fun that will be.


I think Clare was staring back at Henry in this picture which probably made him lose his mind. Please tell me her eyes aren't the most precious things ever. Those lashes!


Tiny little tongue and her baby blues...


She finds my camera quite enthralling, obviously.


When she got all bundled up in her carseat/carrier thingy and went outside into natural light, you better believe I whipped out the SLR yet again. This one is a touch overexposed but I love it anyway. I tend to like my images on the brighter side anyway...so sue me:)


I had a hard time justifying making any of Clare's images black and white, just because we'd lose her gorgeous blue eyes. But this one was screaming B&W to me for some reason. Her mouth in this picture is my fave.....a near smile, I'd say:


Agh, babies. Why are you everywhere? And do you have to be so freaking cute all the time [or at least for the 1-2 hours I get to see you?]. She made it look so easy, that Clare. I just want to eat her up!

And with that I think I'll go defrost another cupcake.....if I can't have the sugary sweet baby I think I'll settle for second best. This one just so happens to have about a bajillion calories, of course. :)