Week 5 & 6 - Cake Decorating and more Bike Riding

The week started just like any other - waking up to this furry friend cuddled up in my bed.  He is totally spoiled, and he hogs the bed and snores and wakes me up at night to go outside and pee.  But I love him anyway.  

I had a doctor appointment.  I was about 8 weeks pregnant, but I just didn't feel pregnant and in my gut I knew something was wrong.  Sure enough when I went in for an ultrasound, it showed a gestational sac, but no embryo.  The doctor told me my dates might be off and that the baby just hadn't grown enough yet to be seen on ultrasound.  I was scheduled to come back in a week.  But I knew my dates were right and I knew this was another failed pregnancy.  I hate that I have to deal with this overcrowded parking garage and pay for parking every time.  Too bad that's not even the worst part.  



I took Isaac for a haircut.  I meant to snap a before and after photo, but I only got the before!  His hair had grown quite long and I kept teasing him that he was like a shaggy dog.

For our activity this week the Laurels requested to learn some cake decorating skills from Suzy Neeves.  Suzy went to school to be a pastry chef, so her skills are pretty impressive.  I think I was maybe more excited for the activity than the girls.  We had a cake decorating activity when I was in YW and it's one of the few that I actually remember.  (Amy, do you remember your family came to visit from Nebraska that week and I think I decorated my cake to say "Welcome Casebolts" or something like that.  I remember your mom was so impressed by that cake.  Ha!)

Sydney, Sam, and Gloria with their cakes.

That's my cake in front.  Suzy taught us how to make different kinds of flowers.

My cute friend Suzy and her beautiful cake.

I don't remember how or why we got started, but Luke and I count dogs every morning on the way to preschool.  We live 2 miles into our subdivision, so when driving out we always pass several dogs out on their morning walks.  We have names for most of them - Furry Face, Shorty, Sniffy No Tail, etc.  On the road that leads to Luke's school there is some farm land and occasionally we see the tractor out on the road.  And on that tractor there is also a dog!  Sometimes he rides in the seat up front, sometimes on top of a load of rocks or hay in the trailer, sometimes sitting inside the front shovel.  His name is Tractor Dog and it's always a good day if we see him.  On this day I had already dropped Luke off, but then I saw the tractor coming and I hurried to snap a picture so I could show Luke after school.  It's totally blurry, but I want to keep this memory of our dog counts & Tractor Dog.  

And here's Luke after school with one of his Trio block creations.  Probably some sort of a gun or blaster.  We have a no gun rule, but boys will be boys.

We didn't make it to the bike park on Saturday, but after some yard work we got Luke out on Isaac's old bike with training wheels.  He had fun just going up and down the sidewalk.

And pretending to fall off and be dead.  He is such a ham sometimes!

The Bermuda grass that everyone has around here goes dormant in the winter.  If you roll in it, you get covered in dead grass that sticks to your clothes like a magnet.  Charlie pulled out the leaf blower to help get the grass off of Luke's pants.  He and Conner (our neighbor) thought it was hilarious and kept asking to get blown over and over again.

Sunday was the Super Bowl!  I normally don't care much about football, but for the past few weeks all of Georgia has been on a high about the Falcons going to the Super Bowl.  I was admittedly pretty excited about it myself.  We had "appetizer dinner" and watched together as a family.  The boys loved the commercials and the Lady Gaga half time show.  It was an exciting game and the Falcons had a big lead during the first half.  Every time we would cheer poor Cracker would get so nervous.  He crawled up on the back of the couch and hid behind my neck whenever it got too loud.  Nerdy dog.  Unfortunately, the Patriots made a big come back and the game went into overtime.  The Patriots also won the coin toss and took the ball, and the win.  We were so bummed!

Luke had a dentist appointment.  He hadn't been in a little over a year because the last one was so traumatic.  Luckily he did much better this time.  He has a pretty sensitive little mouth, and I could tell he was hating the whole thing (he kept wiggling his little legs and gripping the seat).  I was proud of him for holding it together so well.  

Somehow Luke ended up with my phone on the way home from school.  He snapped this photo (and about 100 more) while we were driving home.  That's Towne Lake Pkwy, and just a few of the millions of trees that we have here in Georgia.