Made it 4 years without

This last week I had about 4 dessert assignments,
and made super easy Magic Cookie Bars.
This consisted of a homemade graham cracker crust.
The first batch I made, I hesitated for a minute
realized I didn't have a rolling pin,
and continued forward by pounding the graham crackers
while still in the bag--
This actually worked surprisingly well,
and completely mess-free

I knew I had 3 more batches ahead of me
and thought it a good idea to buy my first rolling pin
Made a special trip to the store for this round piece of wood
that ended up being a 50$ grocery store trip.

Anxious to use it for the first time, I started rolling
With limited space on my counter--full of all the weekend's projects at once
And none of them having been cleaned up,
I rolled out about all of the crackers that I would need
and my last roll was quite a spastic one.
The majority of my crackers ended up on the floor.

I'm not sure why I felt like I needed this rolling pin so badly,
but so far it's cost me 50$,
2 extra packets of graham crackers,
it's invited the summer ants to invade my kitchen to help clean up the crumbs I couldn't find,
and it's just a big clunky item that takes up my utensil misc drawer.

In the future--I recommend the plasitc-package-pounding method.
Who needs a rolling pin, anyway?
I made it 4 years without one.

Nothing Better

Other than a few cute floppy hats, and those darling tiny newborn socks, I think I just made my favorite baby purchase--ever! We bought a forward facing car seat (a few months premature, but my mother's instinct said it would be fine)

There is nothing sweeter than looking in my rear view mirror to see Andrew smiling at me.   He loves to adjust the arm rest, and use the cup holder.  Whenever we drive past the horses by our house, we roll down the windows and he neighs at them.  We have opened up a whole new world for him, and it's so fun to see his big beautiful eyes soaking up the new world around him.

I must admit that my rear view mirror is rarely at a safe setting where I can see the road, it's typically framing Andrew, so I can see him dance to "Party Rock" and sing to the "Jeep, Jeep, Jeep, Cheap, Cheap, Cheap" commercial!

Addition to the family

*This is way past due*

Uncle Brigham is finally home!

Brig left on his mission when Andrew had only
been baking for about 3 months

I faithfully sent weekly letters with updates

We made video calls on
Mother's Day and Christmas

But Andrew didn't know Brig,
and Brig didn't know Andrew

The reunion was sweet for Brig,
but Andrew was hesitant.

Andrew would dish out high fives,
and would "pound it",

but Andrew would get much closer

Within a few days, Brig is the favorite

Andrew gives the best hugs to Brigham.

He still gives good high fives,
but it sure is cute to see them cuddle or play soccer together.

Brig loves to speak Spanish to Andrew,
and I think the combination of 

Spanish and soccer is going to
give them a pretty sweet bond 

Can't wait for uncle Joseph to get home to meet Andrew--again