A New Favorite

Lately I've had something of a hankerin' for some caramel popcorn, so the other night we decided to make some! It was super delicious and easy to make. I even sent some home with my parents as a snack to eat on the plane. We just used a recipe from allrecipes dot com (cut in half):

Ingredients
1 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 quarts (20 cups) popped popcorn

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (95 degrees C). Place popcorn in a very large bowl.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Stir in brown sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Boil without stirring 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in soda and vanilla. Pour in a thin stream over popcorn, stirring to coat.
3.Place in two large shallow baking dishes and bake in preheated oven, stirring every 15 minutes, for 1 hour. Remove from oven and let cool completely before breaking into pieces.

The picture above is not mine - it just looked way better than mine did.

Below is a picture of Emily sorting through some of our home storage for us. She climbed into the tote all by herself!


And here is a picture of our popcorn which, though doesn't look as appetizing as the picture above, still probably tasted way better, I bet.

Jump for Joy!

Lately I have been shopping for clothes of this sort:
In size 0-3 months.

Mostly just cute pictures

I haven't posted for a while but nothing has been happening and sadly, I'm not really one of those people that can make an interesting post out of nothing.
The last couple of days have been eventful though, with Grandma and Grandpa Bartlett coming into town. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of that so I will have to wait to get their pictures before I give any more details.
I did, however, get some good pictures of the new shelf we bought and put together yesterday (exciting, I know). Since I stopped working and started being a full-time stay-at-home mom, I have been trying to make our apartment a little more homey and pleasant. In other words, I have switched over from making money to spending it. But that's a whole nother issue. Anyway, here is a picture of the mostly-done shelf and our little baby putting it to some good use.
Lately, since we babysat a two-year-old girl who preferred order to chaos, Emily has been imitating her and working hard to learn how to set up her animals instead of knocking them all over after we set them up for her.
Here she just noticed the camera and gave us a proud smile.

And here I've just put the middle shelf in, which made it more difficult for Emily to play, but didn't damper her spirits one tiny bit. What a little trooper!She's a keeper, she is. Joseph says she looks like a boy in this outfit, so please notice the bow in her hair that you can see in the two top pictures.

Help with dinner

To make up for yesterday, Emily has been extra helpful today. First she took a two and half hour nap, then she helped with laundry, and then she helped with dinner. It's kind of a complicated process for a baby. Here she's checking out what's in the cupboard.
She's seen what she needs, but now she has to reach it. Those cupboards are just so darn deep.
And finally, after some digging, she has her prize and is emerging from the cupboard.
Here is what she came up with for our meal. She'll just pile it there in the middle of the kitchen for easy access.
Some Ramen noodles, blueberry muffins, and some chow mein. Delicious.
Actually, maybe not the Ramen noodles. She just pulled them out to stash them under Mom and Dad's bed. Where they belong.

Our little Cookie Monster

Today while I was doing the dishes, I thought to myself, "what a good little baby I have that will play so quietly on her own while I do the dishes." One sinkful of dishes later, I decided to check on her.
Does this face look a little guilty to you?
My good little baby had just polished off two chocolate chip cookies and was probably wondering when I would come along and intervene. Here she is posing alongside her accomplishment.
And I had just finished mopping the floor, too.

Fun at Grandma's House

We took a break from research and humidity to visit Grandma! It's amazing how nice ninety degree weather can feel when it isn't coupled with air so moist that you have to swim from your apartment to your car. Our family had a pair of weddings this week. My younger brother, Nathan, married the lovely Stephanie Handy and my lovely sister, Rebecca, married dashing Jeff Tucker. The weddings were very nice. Pictures and receptions were a little bit hectic, but still nice. Best of all was just being back around family. We've missed these guys.Waiting to take pictures.
Nathan and Stephanie
Rebecca and Jeff -- Rebecca glowed all day. She has a fantastic smile.
Amanda was excited for an excuse to buy more dresses for Emily. Rebecca used navy blue as her main color.
Nathan and Stephanie went with a chocolate brown theme.
Amanda, of course, also looked great.
I was particularly excited for free milk and icecream.
While we were in the neighborhood, we had to take a hike up the canyon. It's beautiful. I miss mountains.
Grandma's house has weekly flood irrigation. Emily thought it was a neat idea, but got tired of it pretty quickly. The water was cold and the grass was slippery.
Grandma has some neat toys. This inflatable "jumpoline" was awesome, but Emily, just recently comfortable on her feet, chose to stay near the edge.
Until daddy started to chase her.
Ah. This water is much better than irrigation water.

We had a great time. We're sad to leave, but it's time to go back to work.

About two hours shading her upper lip

I found a fun way to tweak those special photos. Unfortunately, I lose patience with it before I can make it look realistic, but it's still fun. I basically just followed these instructions but instead of using Photoshop, I used Gimp (because it's free).

Joseph's talents

In my effort to introduce Joseph more fully to the internet world, here is a post dedicated to one of Joseph's many talents: being a better cook than I am.
This morning when I got home from my last night of work he had this surprise for me! He'd made them last night because I always wanted to buy them premade from the grocery store and he hates to spend a lot of money on things he can make for cheaper. They were very delicious. And, even better, Joseph doesn't really like California rolls so I get to eat them all. He's a good husband.

And here are a couple of other unique facts about Joseph:
He ALWAYS checks the expiration date on the milk that he's buying. Or the milk that he's about to drink. I guess when milk is as big a part of your life as it is for him, that's important. Emily is following in his milk consumption footsteps. When she has a sippy cup of whole milk she swigs it so enthusiastically she looks like Napoleon Dynamite drinking his Gatorade after his dance groove practice session. Today the bottom shelf of our fridge broke because I put too many gallons of milk on it.
Joseph LOVES checking the mail. It's one of the highlights of his day, even when it's only junkmail, like today when we only got one letter and it was a credit card offer for Janet Cooper.
He was recently called as choir director in our ward. I call him the choir master. He's very good at it and the members of the choir really like him. He composes his own accompaniments and arrangements.

He's a pretty talented guy.

Joseph's Disney Princess

You Are Cinderella!

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

I made Joseph take this quiz and look who he is! I got boring old Pocahontas. Cinderella's way better.

Joseph wouldn't let me post that without posting this quiz that he made me take, so for all you nethack fans out there (all two of you),

# |.
###u#+.
|)

If I were a NetHack monster, I would be a unicorn. Most people are only after one thing - I try to maintain a quiet and respectful distance until I feel sure that I can trust someone.

Which NetHack Monster Are You?

Joseph is a killer bee, which he should be very proud of.

Business as usual

Do you mind? I'm trying to eat here, thank-you very much.
We've been trying very hard to keep her from standing up in her high chair. Unfortunately, tightening the safety straps has only been marginally effective.