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.