Christmas Eve

 Time to open a present

 

 Time to stand on the box

 

 Ahhh....Christmas Jammies.

 

 Somebody didn't like her Christmas jammies

 

 Here hoping that Santa comes.

My Friend the Squash

Duke got really attached to this squash.

 He hauled it around like a favorite stuffed animal.

But Steph wouldn't let him take it to be with him.

Our kind of Photo Shoot

   I have a philosophy

...if you're an amateur photographer just take A LOT of photos,

 you are bound to get at least one good one.

Here's  our latest photo shoot for Duke's first birthday.

Steph was snapping the shutter and I was running "distraction".

A few photos that you won't see framed on the wall.

 Okay Kiddo...let's rock that faux hawk.

 Noooo...not another photo shoot.

 High Five!

 Finger...psssss....rocket.

 No more pictures.

 Awwww....cake.

 Okay...maybe you've had a bit too much cake.

.

Grampa Karl loves this picture of me

and wanted us to get a picture of Ethnie in the same pose.

.

Here's Ethnie...staring at a jelly bean that she can have 

if she sits really quietly with her hands in her lap.

 

Oh the things we do to get that perfect photo
...the one for the wall.

Duke's 1st Birthday Cake

   As Steph and I perused Pinterest looking for an idea for Duke's birthday cake,  we kept saying "we are going to keep this birthday party simple".   Of course my idea of simple and Steph's idea of simple differs.   Me: "Really can't we put a toy dump truck from the Dollar store on top of the cake and call it good". 

 Steph: "Nope".   

So glad we didn't.  This cake was SO fun to put together. 

And I LOVE working on projects like this with Steph.  

And boy can we make a mess!

 Melting the marshmallow for the fondant

 

 Mixing the powdered sugar in...lots of powdered sugar!

 It's getting really stiff here

...where's "Pa"  when we need some man-muscle?

 

 Time for kneading...very therapeutic.

.

 Divide and color.

Yeah...and try to keep Ethnie's blue play dough out of it.

 

Time to create...

Can we make this look like the vision in our heads

... a combination of several different cakes on Pinterest.

 

 

 

 Chocolate rocks.

 

 

 

 Finished!

 

 

Happy Birthday Duke!

How our days roll.

 

 

 

We are going to miss the little people.