Someone stole the camera.....

So here's my apology and excuse for not posting anything recently -- for some reason, Bob has stolen the camera! It couldn't possibly be that he's working like crazy.....he bought a new building last Friday, started work on that one, is coordinating the build-back on the fire-damaged building, had tenants move out unexpectedly from our property in Albany, and is trying to document everything everywhere. Yeah, he's REALLY busy.....and working really hard.....

In other news, the girls are adorable. Danielle has now decided that "The Iron Giant" is her favorite movie, but it's really a toss-up with Veggie Tales. Ashley has decided that she no longer wants to stay in one place and is working REALLY hard to learn how to crawl. So far, she pushes up onto all fours and then lunges towards whatever she wants -- very soon she'll be my mobile little girl! Hopefully I'll get the camera back soon and you'll get to see new pictures.....

Playtime fun!

Grandma Sweetie found an adorable play-doh kit for Danielle's birthday....Bob, Larry, Junior, and Laura have been a great fun!!!

She loves to make all the characters.....
....notice that Laura has a tennis racket and Larry is riding a skateboard.....

In other news, Ashley has decided that the exersaucer is THE place to be!

.....she's figuring out how to reach for things (and get what she's trying to)....

.....and is generally just all smiles! What a cutie-pie!!!

My two cuties!!

Danielle loves to help Mommy and LOVES to hold Ashley. I actually caught a picture of it the other day....

....not quite comfy at first......
...but then BOTH of them smiled!! Moments like these make being a Mommy the best job in the world!!!!

Daddy with the Girls

Ashley has officially discovered toys!

....and where better to play than hanging out with Daddy?
Daddy loves his little one!!!

....and Ashley is loving her caterpillar....

On another day, Danielle was still sleepy after her nap.....and Daddy was trying to catch a few winks on the couch....

.....so they got to cuddle for a little while.....

Aw.....how cute!

Hello Kitty cake construction

Well, my Mom always made wonderful cakes for us, so I've been trying to keep the tradition alive with my own little girls! The first birthday was a butterfly cake that turned out pretty cute, last year was cupcakes on a tower with a Nemo theme, and this year ended up being Hello Kitty. How I was going to make a cake, I had no idea. So I decided to totally wing it -- and here are the results!

The napkin -- my inspiration.
And I'm such a geek that I drafted up the pattern and printed it out to use as a template for cutting the top layer out.....

.....which then got put on top of the base layer that was already frosted and sprinkled....

....and then came frosting, jelly beans for the eyes and nose, and black licorice for the wiskers....
.....cake scaps....which taste just as good as the cake, but have the added bonus of needing as much frosting as you want on them!

Bubbles!!!

Danielle got two different bubble wands for her birthday.....so of course we had to have a competition to see which one worked better!

Daddy tried the one he bought.....it was pretty good!
.....but it was put to shame by the second one (I'm blanking on who gave it to her -- sorry!)

So we had lots of fun with bubbles even though it was raining out.....

Craig had fun watching.....and check out the huge bubble in front of Danielle's face!

Did I mention that it was raining? So the bubbles sat on the ground for a LONG time.....hard to see, but it was kinda cool.....

Birthday Party!!

....and she blows out 3 candles!!! We had lots of friends over and had lots of fun, lots of food, and watched the kids eat lots of sugar.....

The Hello Kitty cake looked really cute, even if I do say so myself! And what's cuter than a bunch of kids helping with opening the presents?
....and then there's the showing off the presents....

....and of course, Daddy's present to his little girl....which actually originated with Grandpa Red Truck.....

....and the adults had WAY too much fun with the mini golf clubs....