The Circle of Life

And 'round and 'round we were going this past weekend!!

Last week I spend Wednesday and Thursday mixing up three 3x batches of frosting and who knows how many batches of cake batter, making the cakes for my sister, Laura's, wedding. Thursday night we loaded almost everything into the car; Friday morning Daniel loaded up the cakes and icing (the cakes were un-iced) while I got Susannah fed and ready to go, and we trekked down to North Carolina. It's a 4 hour trip and we made it in 5, with just two stops.

Laura & Branden

Friday afternoon before the rehearsal I iced all the cakes. There were three tiers for her cake - a 16", 12" and 8". Everything was going along great. I was very, very pleased with how everything was going so well, but the more I iced the 12" cake the more it was cracking. Any cake-decorators nightmare. I hurried up and finished, then put the dowel rods in it (to support the 8" cake that was going to go right on top of it) and put it in the fridge, hoping the dowels would help hold it together and it wouldn't crack anymore. Just in case, though, I called another sister who was coming from the hotel to the rehearsal, and had her stop at a craft store and pick up separator plates and pillars.

Saturday morning we headed back over to the church so I could finish the cake - I just had to put the ribbon and icing decorations on it and assemble it. The 12" cake had split a little more overnight, and Julia and I decided it would be best to go with a modified cake than have a crashed cake. Julia did a great job on the flowers, and I thought the cake turned out beautifully! I did talk to Laura on Friday and made sure it was ok with her if I had to do the pillars instead of just the 3 cakes stacked on each other like she wanted.

Our family of 3

Since the wedding was in the evening, most of us stayed Saturday night at the hotel, and a bunch of my siblings came to our room and hung out till about midnight :) Susannah was great the whole time, and went to bed very easily in her pak'n'play right there in the room with us, even with the TV going and people talking.

She enjoyed visiting with herself in the mirror, too :)

Sunday late-morning we loaded back up (minus the cake, thank goodness!) and made our way back home. Daniel got bored with the interstate, and since we weren't pressed to get home he meandered us home on more scenic highways instead. It took a little longer, and we ended up stopping a couple times, but we got home :)

Soon after we got home, my mom called to tell us that my great uncle had passed away, and that the memorial service was Tuesday evening. I knew I was going to be gone again all day Monday, babysitting our 2 nieces on Daniel's side, but I really wanted to go to the memorial service for my uncle, so I just mentally shifted gears and knew it would be even longer till I'd get this week going.

Well, life just kept getting more exciting!!

My sister, Sally, who was unable to go to the wedding because of the impending arrival of their baby, gave birth Monday afternoon! Daniel made arrangements to get off a little early Tuesday, and we were able to go to my uncle's memorial service and then afterwards we went by the hospital to meet baby Marie Grace!

Marie is about 1/2 a pound lighter and a couple inches shorter than Susannah was when she was born... she's so tiny :) And she has a TON of hair :) But she's also very cute! I knew Susannah had grown, but Marie makes Susannah look like a giant :P

Sally and I holding each others' baby :)

Marie and her Uncle Daniel

After we left the hospital (did I mention that the preacher for the memorial service spoke for about 30 min. too long??!!), Susannah still needed her last feeding for the day along with her last solid-foods meal which we had to push back for getting the the memorial service kinda on time. So we trekked back to Rachel's house and I nursed and fed her there. She ate really well, then we loaded her back up and finally turned in the direction of home. We got home about quarter to 2am. *zombies*

Needless to say, this week has been anything but normal :)