Cinnamon Carmel Corn with Pecans and White Chocolate

On my Halloween post, I mentioned some popcorn that I had made that Sean said was the best thing I have ever made- besides the gals. It is super good!! I wish I could take credit for the recipe, but can't. Every morning at 11 on our local channel 5 (KSL) is a show called Studio 5. I am a FAN of this show. There are cooking segments, home improvement, home decorating, beauty/fashion, etc. This is where I saw the recipe for this. It was made my a gal named Sara Wells she also has a cooking website that is www.ourbestbites.com. This popcorn would be a cute visiting teaching or neighbor gift- put in a cute celophane bag and tied with a cute ribbon. Let me know if you make it and what you think.

Cinnamon Carmel Popcorn with Pecans and White Chocolate

-12 cups popcorn (about 1/2 cup kernals) I use microwave and use 2 bags
-1 cup roughly chopped pecans
-1 cup brown sugar
-3/4 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 tsp. baking soda
-1 tsp. vanilla
-1/4 tsp. salt
-1/4 cup Karo syrup (honey makes a good substitution)
-1 stick real butter (1/2 cup)
-3 oz. almond bark (about 2 1/2 squares)

Preheat oven to 250 degrees

Place popcorn and chopped pecans in a large bowl and set aside

Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a 4 cup capacity microwave safe bowl. Mix well. Chop butter into chunks and place on top of sugar mixture. Pour corn syrup over the top of everything. Microwave on high for 30 seconds and then stir to combine. Return to microwave and heat for 2 minutes. Remove and stir and then microwave for 2 minutes more.

Remove from microwave and add in vanilla and baking soda. Stir to combine. Mixture will foam and rise. Pour carmel mixture over popcorn and pecans and stir very well so everything is well coated.

Spread popcorn mixture on a foil-lined jelly roll pan. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 mintues.

Remove from oven and spread on a large piece of parchment, waxed paper, or foil.

Melt almond bark according to package instructions. Drizzle over popcorn mixture. When almond bark is hardened and popcorn is cool, break into chunks and enjoy!

Any Suggestions?

I am the Ward Music Chair in my ward and just found out that I am in charge of organizing the Christmas Program that is presented in Sacrament Meeting. YIKES!! I am in need of any suggestions that any of you talented people might have. Please help!

HaLLowEeN

*WARNING: picture overload- I had too many I liked :)

Our computer broke down the week of Halloween so I have lots to get caught up on. We had a fun Halloween this year. The gals were sick the week before and Brooklyn missed 2 days of school but really wanted to go to the Pumpkin Walk with her class so I drove her over. And then we carved pumpkins on Monday for FHE. On Tuesday, our ward had a Trunk-or-Treat (which ended up being inside due to the snow) and a ward dinner. Gracie was in HEAVEN- this girl was born with her mama's sweet tooth and she LOVES candy so to have all these people handing her candy for no reason she was THRILLED! It was so cute to watch her and the permanent smile she had on her face the whole night. Wednesday, Brooklyn got to dress up again and had a Halloween party at dance. Last year, our cute friend Maggie was Minnie Mouse and Brooklyn decided that is what she wanted to be and remembered the whole year- so we got her a darling Minnie Mouse costume and she looked so CUTE in it! I was in Smith's in St. George with my sister-in-law Chels when I saw the cutest little Lady Bug costume for Gracie- of course I had to get it and it accompanied us on the Ragnar. Gracie actually loved her costume and the headband and wore it the whole time. Saturday, we went to Sean's parents house and played with cousins and ate some good food and snacks that Sean's mom had prepared for us. Thank you Gisele for you hard work- we appreciate it. And then we headed to Kami and Kyle's for the annual Petersen/Anderson Halloween festivities. Kyle had made a delicious chili and Kami made her scrumptious cinnamon twists (which I might add are to die for- just typing about it make me want one right now!) I think I ate about 25 of them. Jan made her usual "Witches Brew" which is homemade rootbeer and the kids were in heaven. Thanks Kami and Kyle for letting us party at your place. With all the parties we went to we ended up with a TON of candy and it has been fun trying to ration it out. I am sad that Halloween has come and gone- but now we have Thanksgiving to look forward to.

Brooklyn doing some Jedi Training at the Pumpkin Walk

She wanted a picture in every single one of these cutouts

Gracie didn't quite know what to think of the whole pumpkin carving

While Sean worked hard on the carving- I was making this delicious carmel cinnamon popcorn- that Sean told me was the best thing I had ever made besides the girls. :)

Gracie climbed up on Sean

Brooklyn took the carving VERY seriously

The finished results- the one on the end Brooklyn did all by herself and it had a cute little face on it- on the back she had also written "Em" and was very proud of it.

Trunk-or-Treat

Gracie in heaven with all the candy

Her little wings that were so cute and she actually left them on

Miss Minnie

My cute gals

I love this picture of Sean with his girls

Cousins at the Maynard's (not too easy trying to get a picture)

This is a classic picture! Brooklyn trying to take care of Garrett- him hating the dog head on- and Gracie trying to get a wrapper off of candy as quickly as possible!

Garrett, Brooklyn, Gracie, and Porter

"Witches Brew"

No, No, No

A couple days ago I was in the laundry room and I heard Gracie in the hallway- I have a clock sitting on a rack and she likes to go and turn the arms. I look at her and tell her, "no, no, no" and I went back to the laundry. Like 10 seconds later I hear it again and walk out of the room and see her standing there and before I can even say anything to her- she starts shaking her finger and saying, "no, no, no!" It was so hard not to burst out laughing. Do you think that she has heard those words a time or two?

Happy Birthday Sean!

I totally slacked and didn't get a post done for Sean's Birthday. His birthday is on the 12th and I have got to say we had a great day- he even said it was one of his best birthdays ever. He had the WHOLE day off of work- yay!! After we dropped Brooklyn off at school we took Gracie to Paula's and then him and I went to lunch and spent the afternoon together running errands- not too exciting but it was just the two of us so it was very enjoyable. And then that night we went to Texas Road House with our families. When I went in to get our seats- I asked them if they did anything for Birthdays and they pointed to a saddle sitting there and said we have them sit and that and sing to them. Of course I didn't tell Sean what was coming- so he got to saddle up and and be given a very loud "yee haw!" I try not to get too mushy on my blog, but I have got to say that I have such a fantastic husband! He is such a good daddy to his little girls- they love him so much. As soon as they hear him at the door they go running waiting for him to get in with the biggest smiles on their faces. Sean works so hard for our family- between working and going to school he stays plenty busy and I am so thankful for how hard working and supportive he is! We love you so much Sean!

"YEE HAW"

Las Vegas Ragnar Relay

So last weekend the 9th and 10th- I participated in my first Ragnar Relay in Las Vegas!! It was a BLAST!!! Leading up to it I was starting to get anxious about going because I was leaving the gals for 4 days and 3 nights. Brooklyn has had sleepovers here and there, but I have never been away from them for that long. My supportive teammates kept encouraging me and telling me that I could do it. And I did- I missed them though! We left thursday night and drove to St. George. Our starting time wasn't until 11 AM. We had such a great team- there was me, my sis-in-law Chelsea, good friend, Karlie, my friend from my ward Lori, my sister's sis-in-law Mallory, and my good friend Kara. My friend Lori had run the Wasatch Back twice, but for the rest of us it was our first Ragnar. We were so excited to start. Mel started us off and then our second runner was Karlie. We gave Karlie water and were getting ready to leapfrog ahead and a runner started yelling at us and pointing to the tire. We looked and it was F-L-A-T!! Not just a little low, but flat. Crap! So LUCKILY for us there was a another team "Hell on Heels" ahead of us. (We ended up being close by them the whole time and we would cheer for each other- they became our adopted team). They had a guy in their car that got out and was going to work on changing it- thanks Rob. So Rob got out and I hopped into their van and they took me to my starting point. Poor Karlie didn't know what was going on and was wondering where we were. I gave a water bottle to the volunteer where I started from and asked him to tell Karlie what was going on- like 2 or 3 minutes later and Karlie sitting there not knowing what was going on he told her. So she got in with them and they took her back to the Durango and got Chelsea. When I got done with my run- my team still wasn't back- so I got back in with the other team and Rob made me a sandwich and they got me some gatorade. I might add it was SO hot- I wasn't prepared for that. We really were so blessed to have them. Finally- as I was sitting there my team showed up. It turned out to be quite the ordeal- thank you to the town of Logandelle for helping us out! We ran through the "Valley of Fire" and it was beautiful. We exchanged with the other van and headed toward our first rest stop at Lake Mead. Around this point, I started getting a terrible headache and just wanted to sleep but couldn't. To make a long story short- I got sicker than a dog- the headache was still there and I was so nauseated and dry heaving. I don't know if after my run I was dehydrated and then overhydrated too quickly or if I got some sort of heat stroke or something like that, but I was sick. It was our night run and the run I was looking forward to running. As it got closer to my run we knew that I wasn't going to be able to do it- thanks to Karlie and Chels for doing it. At this point we also learned that our second van had gotten a flat tire. Seriously were we cursed or what? But we got to our second rest stop and I was able to get a couple hours of sleep and when I woke up- I felt MUCH better and was able to run my last leg. When our car was done we headed to the finish line and waited for our team to finish. When the last runner got done our whole team ran across the finish line together it was a good way to end the race! Thanks to my team #199 Wayne's World- we had a blast together and everyone did great!! I couldn't have done this without a great supporting team back home. Thanks Paula for watching Gracie when I left. Thanks mom, dad, Nat, and Brett for helping with the gals on friday night and saturday!! Thanks to Sean for spoiling the girls rotten while I was away they had a BLAST!! Thanks to my sweet girls- Brooklyn told me she would be cheering for me in her heart while I was gone and I could definetely feel it! I love you all!!

(On a side note- although we had a ton of fun there was a tragedy along the course. On Saturday morning a 35 year old man named Jeremy was giving support to one of his teammates and was hit and killed by a drunk driver. His wife and mother-in-law as well as extended family were on his team and saw the whole thing. Even though running the race there were over 200 hundred teams we really were 1 big team- my heart aches and goes out to Jeremy's wife and his little family of 2 kids.)

Chels, Lori, Mal, Karlie, me, Kara

The flat tire

Valley of Fire

This is cute Mal wearing the get-up that was had to wear at night. (I say we like I wore it)

Finally feeling better and starting my last leg- 4.4 miles

This is our whole team at the finish line

Sweet Taylie

Some of you may have heard of this sweet little girl named Taylie- she was diagnosed with cancer not too long before her mom had her 3rd baby. I heard of this family a month or so ago from a friend and my heart has ached for them. I cannot imagine how if would feel to have to deal with something like this. I know how much I love my sweet gals and all the funny and crazy things they do- it would be heartbreaking to have to see one of them suffer like that.

There are all kinds of efforts being made on behalf of this family to raise money for them. You can find out more by visiting Taylie's webpage at http://www.tayliebug.com. My cute fried Kylene found a sponser who will donate 2 dollars for every post that is made on someone's blog, facebook page, or twitter page. Please post this and tell your friends to post this. And then let Kylene know that you did so- so she can keep track of it all and let the kind and generous sponser know. You can leave a comment on her blog at http://adashofseason.blogspot.com/ to let you know that you did it.

Let's do what we can to help this cute little family!