missing daddy, and a recipe to share

Yesterday I took Ben to the airport to fly out to St. Louis. He's there for good, and the girls and I will be joining him on March 17th. My mom flew in from utah to help me out with the girls and a few things I have to do while we're still here. He got there yesterday afternoon, and got settled in at the temporary place we'll be living through June. Today is his first day at work in his new branch. Yesterday went fine, and I think having my mom here really will help the time go by faster. I wanted to post a few recent pictures of the girls for Ben to see in St. Louis. This is the most recent one I could find of Kiersten.
This one of Kara is actually from my etsy shop, but I thought it was a cute pose.

Evie has been a happy girl the past few weeks, unless I've had to take her with me down to our old house in spanaway to clean or paint. She doesn't really like going down there any more. She has seemed to understand that Ben was leaving when we talked about it the past few days. She got a little upset when she saw him packing his suitcases, so I think she may remember that from the last couple times he has travelled. On monday she even got her little rolling suitcase and chased him around the house with it. Luckily she really likes my mom, so I've actually been able to get a few things done while my mom hangs out with her.

The girls were watching a movie in the car, and marshmallow lasagna kept getting mentioned. So Ben thought out a way it would be good, and asked me to make it. I used brownie mix for the sauce, graham crackers for the pasta, strawberries for the meat, and marshmallows for the cheese.

I layered it as you would a lasagna. brownie on bottom, then crackers topped with marshmallows and strawberries, then repeat.

here's how it looked when finished. It was super tasty. Things I will tweak for next time: equal parts marshmallow to strawberry. we really missed the strawberry when we got a bite without it. add marshmallows on top at the end of cooking to make a marshmallow crust on top. possibly substitute pie shell for the crackers. They were really good the first night, but the next day they were a little soggy and didn't add much texture any more. I might also make a strawberry mash or syrup to pour over the top. Anyway, if you try it out, let me know if you come up with any tweaks that make it better. :)

Ben called this morning and talked to Evie. She accidentally hung up on him and got very upset while I was trying to call him back for her. She was crying hysterically and begging for "dada" until I got him back for her.

Then she started up crying and begging for him again when he really had to hang up with her the second time. She cried for at least 10 minutes, and had a hard time calming down. I think she'll be really excited to see him in a few weeks.

Our Valentine's evening

I spent most of Valentine's day cleaning our rental home in spanaway. The tenants didn't clean at all when they left, and left some damage, so I've been busy down there every day since they moved out. After working hard down there, I picked the girls up from school. They were super excited to tell me all about their party at school. When we pulled into the garage, daddy was standing in there with 3 balloons waiting for us. That really added to the girls' excitement once they spotted him. He also had some stuff for the girls that he ordered online. Kiersten got a hoodie, Kara got 2 night gowns, and Evie got a special Mickey mouse.

The girls were really happy with their heart shaped boxes of chocolates, and valentine's themed pillows and blankets.

We took a video of Evie getting her Mickey out of the box. She was so cute and happy. I just wish I could have gotten her to smile for a picture with him afterward!

Here they are with their balloons from daddy. Every time I snapped a picture, someone pulled down on their ballon and got blocked out. This was the best one I ended up with.

Of course we had to get a heart pizza, as we always do. This one was barely shaped like a heart. Someone really didn't feel like going to a lot of trouble with it.

I already got my gift from Ben last week. the first day we were down in spanaway to do a walkthrough with our tenant, Ben surprised me on the way home by stopping at the jewelry store. I got to pick out some fun new earings. I chose a set of diamond hoops, and I am thrilled with them! Ben kept saying he was looking for a starbucks to get wifi on my kindle. I was totally annoyed, and kept saying, "let's just go home and use the internet". Then he seemed to be pulling into costco, and I reminded him we canceled our membership there. He said he thought there was a starbucks around there. As we pulled up to the jewelry store, I said, "there's no starbucks in there". he just laughed and told me why we were there. I felt pretty silly for being so annoyed with him, and being so oblivious.

We had my brother Nic, his 2 friends, and some friends of ours over for the superbowl on sunday. It was a fun time, and Ben was pretty happy with the outcome of the game. Of course I didn't remember to take pictures while everyone was over, but I did take a few before the party.
Evie's jersey is too small, but Ben really wanted her to wear it, so she just wore it without the snaps between the legs done up. These 2 did look pretty cute together. Ben has now lost over 40 lbs, and is looking good!

Kara absolutely refused to wear her jersey, and Kiersten was sad that she doesn't have one, so that problem was easy to solve by Kiersten wearing Kara's jersey. It kind of matched with mine, so we had to get a picture. Ben is kicking my butt in our weight loss competition, but I'm still proud of my 31 lbs lost. I still think I have a chance to catch up and beat him to losing 50 lbs.

The kids were kind of scared of Nic's friends, but they warmed up to him right away. Evie spent a lot of time following him around, and begging to be picked up.

Kara made chocolate chip cookies for the party, and Kiersten made chocolate dipped strawberries. She was so proud, and had to tell everyone that she had made them.

I had a different idea I saw on pinterest, but it involved white chocolate, which I thought I had, but didn't. so we improvised, and just tried to dress them up like little footballs. They looked better the night before.

On monday, Ben found out that he got a promotion at work, that is taking us to St. Louis. His first day there is feb 27th, so it's going to be a quick move. Our renters down in our spanaway house, also decided to break their lease, and move out this past weekend. so we are busy with those 2 things right now. When we have more details about when we're moving exactly, and get the logistics figured out, I'll probably be doing another post. We are super busy and stressed out, but also really excited to be moving and for Ben to be getting this promotion that he has deserved for a really, really LONG time!

My etsy shop is being featured on the pink senorita blog today! head over and check it out if you get a chance. there is a small giveaway going on as well.

9 years married!

We celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on wednesday. It is crazy to be married for 9 years now! I never thought I would still feel like a newlywed after being married 9 years, but I totally still do. I love being married to Ben, and still want to spend every second together that we can. I am definitely looking forward to the rest of our lives together. I got pretty lucky when I snagged my Benniboo!
I gave him a super lame-o gift this year. It was a game and a football shirt, but he liked it. It's hard being married to someone who is too impatient to wait for what he wants. He just buys everything he wants for himself. Lucky for me, he buys me nice gifts like this new set of china. I didn't want to get it all out of the packaging yet, so I just took a picture of one of the salad plates. This is exactly what I've been wanting for YEARS!

He also surprised me with a kindle fire! It has been so nice to have! I love that I can read at the gym without haing to try to keep my book from falling or closing, I can read in bed, or while the girls are in dance class, and I can check my email, etc whenever I want. Ben has seemed to really like using it to play angry birds.

Happy Anniversary to my fabulous husband!