Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Caramel Apples

I will first apologize to my friend Jen, because I told her I wanted to make these with her, but I was dying to make them yesterday, so I did it without her. (Don't be mad, lol) But they turned out AMAZING. I love the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory apples and decided to make most of them like the apple pie kind. I did a few others as well, but none were as delicious as the apple pie. It was really easy and really fun and got me excited for fall!

And I will tell you this... they actually tasted better than Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. No more spending $5 for an apple when I can just make it myself. This could get dangerous :)







Recipe:

Caramel Apples

I was able to dip 9 medium size granny smith apples and still had enough caramel left to fill an 8x8 greased pan with some delicious caramel.

Ingredients:

2 C Brown sugar

1 C Corn syrup

1/2 C Butter

1 Can sweetened condensed milk

1 t. vanilla

Directions:

Combine the first 3 ingredients and after the butter is melted stir in the can of milk.

Cook to soft ball (230 degrees with a candy thermometer). Stir constantly.

Stir in the 1 t. vanilla.

Remove from heat. Dip apples into the caramel, then if you aren't using chocolate, roll in nuts, or candy.

I dipped them in caramel, placed them on a greased cookie sheet and let them cool completely. You can put them in the fridge if you want to speed up the process. Once cooled, drizzle with chocolate and cover with toppings.

I melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and some white chocolate chips.

For the apple pie apple, I used melted white chocolate, then sprinkled on a cinnamon and sugar mixture. I used on the other apples, crushed Skor bar for the toffee flavor and M&Ms (which melted down because they were too heavy).

Other suggestions: Sprinkles, crushed Oreos, mim M&Ms, mini chocolate chips, chopped nuts, crushed candy bars.

Also, you can use popsicle sticks or any wooden stick to hold the apples. I just found some sticks in the craft section at Smiths. Worked beautifully.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Week 16

We've made it to week 16 and I'm feeling back to normal. I wasn't totally sick before, but mainly exhausted. Now, I'm feeling really good. I saw the babies last week and they were wiggling around and so cute. One was facing the camera and one had it's back to us. Only 2 more weeks until we get to know what we've got!

On a couple of side notes... we bought a house that we close on this week (hurray!) and Dane is a walking machine. He was walking before, but he was always nervous to go on the hardwood. Now he just walks around everywhere and hardly even wants us to hold his hand anymore. It's so cute to hear the little pitter patter of his feet coming around the corner. He just follows us around all over the house.

Now for the bump pics.

16 Weeks with Dane
16 Weeks with Twins

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Gender Guesses

We find out what we're having on October 3 and if you have any desire to guess, there is a poll on the right of the blog.

I'll tell you what we know so you can have a little bit more of an educated guess... we are still unsure if they are fraternal or identical. The doctor's are guessing fraternal, but that could mean any combination of gender. I'm telling you this because obviously if they were identical, then boy/girl wouldn't be an option, but we just don't know! Leave a comment with your guess too so I know who thinks what.

I'm dying to find out, but we only have 2 1/2 weeks left! Just in time for our trip to NYC so we can share the news with family. Yay!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

11 Month Update

I love this age. Everyday Dane just gets more and more cute and fun. He is really growing and learning so much. I can't believe how much he changes from day to day. Here are a few of the new things.

- He's walking!! I would definitely say he's walking now. He will walk on his own all over the carpet, but step onto the hardwood floor and if he doesn't have your hand, he's not going anywhere. He will walk everywhere holding our hands, but if I let him go on his own on the carpet he will walk wherever he needs to go. He's taken 20 steps in a row on his own, so I would definitely consider him walking now. And again, he never crawled, lol.

- Saying more words! He says, "Ka" for car and makes a noise for the car (it sounds like gargling). He points at them outside and his toy cars and just LOVES cars. He says, "Ch" for "lunch." He says, "Duh" for duck. He says, "Pah" for pig. Says "tar" for guitar. My favorite is when we say prayers and say "Amen" he says (all by himself without us asking) "men!" So adorable. Those are the new ones that I can think of at the moment. And it's funny because he's getting good at signing now, but he can say the words, so it's kind of funny. He will sign "ball" and say "ball" at the same time.

- He finally started standing up in his crib. He's been able to pull himself to standing for awhile, but just recently realized he can do this in his crib now.

- He learned how to drink from a straw. Hurray! It's makes it easier than trying to get him to drink from a cup and then he grabs it and spills it on himself :) It's also the cutest thing ever to see him drinking from a straw.

- He's generally a VERY happy baby. You can get him to smile so easily and he loves to wave at everyone. He gets mad when he falls down walking and can't get back up. Since he can't crawl to somewhere to stand up, I need to help him sometimes.

- He is in this biting stage where he thinks it's funny to bite you. Mainly just me though, so don't be worried. He will come over, grab my leg and just go at it. And it doesn't feel good when he's got 6 teeth in there.

- Another funny thing he does, he LOVES to have you smell his feet. He will either just stick his foot in your face, or you can say, "Can I smell your feet?" and he will gladly offer them up to you. And once you start, he can do this for a long time.

- Loves the DVD "Baby Signing Time" As soon as he hears the music he just smiles. It never fails. (yet)

I love watching him grow and learn and explore the things around him. He is just such a smart, loving boy and his personality is really blossoming. I am excited to plan a birthday party for him too! We will be in New York for his actual birthday, so we will get to celebrate with family. I'm excited about that. We may do something low key at home so that I can make a cake and not have to bring his presents out to NY, but we'll see. He LOVES balloons and it'll be fun to have those around for him to play with. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful, sweet spirit that I can teach and love and have with me forever.

These are taken from my phone, so not the best quality.

His first sucker


He LOVES to "play" the guitar. He actually strums it.


Eating a pear (one of his favorites, and mine), probably watching Super Why or Signing Time


First little electronic ride at the store


Meeting a mini horse


Wanting me to smell his feet :)