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

FIRSTS

Our life has drastically changed over the last year or so
We have had lots of "Firsts"
Here's a little overview of our Firsts:

*12/2009: Announcement of our FIRST baby
*04/2010: I graduated from BYU
*06/2010: We bought our FIRST house

*09/2010: Our FIRST baby, Andrew, was born
*5 weeks: Andrew's FIRST smile
*10 weeks: Andrew rolled over for the FIRST time
* 2 months: Andrew got his FIRST passport and had his FIRST international flight; FIRST trip to Vegas
*6 months: Andrew sat up for the FIRST time, FIRST trip to 7 Peaks, and many after through the summer
*7 months: Army crawling everywhere, calls everything DADA
*12 months: Andrew's FIRST Bday--didn't let go of his balloons for a week
*11 months: FIRST teeth finally!(top 2 came in first)
*13 months: FIRST steps, quickly turned to running and kicking soccer balls
*15 months: FIRST word: HOLA!

*10/2011: Mom's FIRST real job at BYU
Dad didn't have many FIRSTS, but has been consistent but proactive as he grows our home business, making all of these FIRSTS possible

What a wonderful year full of FIRSTS!

BLOG POST TITLES

Every major event or small ironic thing that happens in my life makes me think, not so much about how it will affect me, or what long term consequences will be, but rather "WHAT IS A CUTE BLOG POST TITLE FOR THE EVENT?"
I think I need to gain a little perspective,
especially because I rarely blog
I don't think my mentality of titling my life will change,
so I guess I just need to blog more :)

Stay tuned for a more consistent blogging pattern

CURLY

I always assumed that my kid would have curly hair.
Andrew has straighter hair than his dad has.
My curls did get to him somehow, though,
His toes seem to be curlier than my hair is,
They are always in a tight tight "foot fist"
At least he got my "curls" somehow :)

MOWGLY JUNGLE CHILD

When my little jungle child doesn't like how the texture of the ground feels on his legs, he gets up on hands and feet, bum straight in the air, and takes off. He looks just like Mowgly from the jungle book!