Honey Candy

A few weeks ago one of my boys begged me to make honey candy. It was not very hard to give in since our family loves honey candy and what a better time to make it than on a quiet Sunday afternoon in the middle of winter.  This recipe is from my sweet MIL and is really easy!

First, you melt 1/4 c. butter and 1 c. honey together in a 3 qt. pan. 
Then you add 2 c. sugar, 1/2 c. of water and 1/2 Tbs. vanilla. 
Slowly boil to brittle stage or 300 degrees on a candy theometer.

While the mixture is boiling set out a greased 15x7" cookie sheet. 
Make sure you have a hot pad under your cookie sheet as your pan will get very hot. 
When the mixture is ready, pour liquid onto pan.  Let cool for about 5-10 minutes.

When the candy is cool enough to touch,
take a small amount and start to pull it in your hands.
We always butter our hands really well so it doesn't stick.

I threw in this picture because I wanted to show off
the really cool aprons that my SIL, Toshia sent us for Christmas. 
They have come in handy several times!

When you can no longer pull the candy because it will get hard,
place it on another cookie sheet lined with wax paper. It's fun to make your own designs.
Allow to cool completely and then cover with another piece of wax paper
and hit pieces with a butter knife handle.  This will create the perfect size to suck on.

You can use the same wax paper to wrap the pieces in.  I like to store it in the fridge so it stays hard.  Even though these are loaded with sugar, these are a great substitute for cough drops.

Best Pre- Christmas gift!

Aunt Candy, Uncle Loyal and Braden
Patti and Rick Stott

Grandpa and Grandma Bradley

Even though Kevin and Caleb recieved their Eagle award in October, we weren't able to host their court of honor until December. This was a great day for everyone.

I consider this a family Christmas gift!

IT's the busiest time of the year...

This picture doesn't do justice to the large head on that prehistoric alligator!

These were great displays, but what the heck is a Longhorn bull doing with the dinosaurs?

Brielle really liked looking at the stuffed animals. Good thing they were behind glass!

The boys were tired of posing for pictures

Turkey treat found online. Caleb helped me put them together.

Our adventure in putting a gingerbread house together.

TaDah!

As most of you know, we were trying to drive to Portland for Thanksgiving. But, because of bad weather along our route and because Brielle had an ear infection and started new meds on Monday, we decided to wait until summer when we could enjoy the Portland area a little more.

After making this decicison, however, we thought we should go and do something fun. So we drove to SLC to tour the new Natural History museum. By new, I mean they just opened a week earlier! It was a beautiful day and we had fun looking at the exhibts. The best part was it wasn't crowded and everything was so clean. We spent most of our day there so when we got home in the evening, I shot off to the local store like a mad woman in search of the easiest and yummiest Thanksgiving meal I could find. All was pulled off and none was the wiser. I even had time to put together these little turkey treats to put on everyones plates. It was great and we enjoyed talking about things we were grateful for. One of the weirdest comments was from Kevin who said he is grateful for piano!?!? Really!?! Wow, Kevin is by far the one child who complains about piano lessons/ practice the most! Huh? Then for FHE the next Monday we put our Gingerbread house together. We aren't as creative as most people, but it was a fun thing to do. Now on to the big day......

Dating and diapers

Homecoming dinner

Homecoming dates
Sadie Hawkins

Also Sadie Hawkins

Bri the Bee

A wizard, Bro. Rapp and a bee

Not that anyone noticed my absence, but our computer got sick and had to spend a week at the computer hospital. Life went on as usual but I learned I could get a lot more done without this device around. Sad, but true.

Here is the latest from our little family.

In Sept. Skyler was asked by two girls to attend Sadie Hawkins. I didn't grow up around this kind of dating phenom, so it was fun to see Skyler be dotted on and asked in fun ways. The first girl doorbell ditched this contained filled with blue craft paper and goldfish. The paper was scrunched up and had words on it. Skyler put the words together to reveal the message. It said.."Out of all the fish in the sea, will you go to Sadie's with me?" He responed by making a poster and putting it on her car. The next girl came a couple days later and strung this movie film all over the front porch. the note said..." Sadie's would be picture perfect if you would go with me." He had already made arrangements to go with the first girl, so he drew a picture of an umbrella which said, I'd like to offer this rain check, sorry." and rolled it up with a candy bar inside and gave it to the second girl. A month later was Homecoming. He asked a girl to go and got a couple friends together. The group of 6 came to our house in the afternoon to decorate cakes and carve pumpkins. Then they took their dates home and a few hours later picked them up and had pictures takes in their dressy attire. THEN, they came back over here for dinner which was fondue, salad and breadsticks! What!! This was just homecoming! Can't wait till prom!

The twins have earned their Eagle Scout Awards and we are in the process of planning the court of Honor. There are 2 other kids who have also earned their Eagles and will be joining us. We will be getting out the invitations soon. It will be Sunday Dec. 18th.

Brielle is 14 months old and is walking everywhere. She is at that stage where she has to open every cupboard and drawer she sees. SInce we have new cabinets and din't want to scratch them up with the safety locks, we have found some nice thick rubberbandsthat we can wrap around the knobs. So far it works. She isn't talking yet, but can understand us pretty well. She is learning things like; nose, eyes, ears. She will pick up her shoes and bring them to us if she sees someone putting their shoes on. We have abandoned the bottle and she is good with her sippy cup. For Halloween she was a bumble bee. I found this costume at a yard sale for $2. I loved that it was so warm! She only went to a couple houses with ehr brothers, but it was fun. Caleb was a wizard and Kevin put this mask on that looked just like this guy from our ward!! We called him Bro. Rapp.

Out takes

Skyler trying to imitate "Uncle Rico" from Napaloian Dynamite

Little Miss Vampire trying to take a bite of my nose

Trying to get Brielle to smile

Skyler shilding Brielle's attempt flash the camera

sharing my secrets to a great smile

again, trying to make brielle laugh

just for fun

Everyone knows, a good family picture doesn't just happen. There were over 1000 pictures taken in 1 1/2 hours! It was work, but we had fun. Here are some of my favorite out takes!

family...isn't it about time?

we will do what we can with me, the rest look great!

this was a spontaneous shot!

There are 100 of these because Bri would never look up!

Funny!

fix my hair!

my 4 men

Caleb

Kevin

Skyler

fun

Ok, so it's been 2 years since we had our family pictures taken! We missed the prime oppertunity to take them when Brielle was little. WE had a friend takethese and I think she did a great job. Now I just need to pick out the best and have her FIX (photoshop) ME!! My bronzer is too orange, I hate my hair, and I wish I had changed into the black loafers instead of wearing those black sandles! UGH! Everyone else looks great. We even got some great ones of Bri.

You know the drill. Vote for your favorite, these are headed to a Christmas card near you!

Happy Birthday Baby vampire!

Who's teaset is this anyway?

Yum, pink cake!

I'll pose as long as I have my pink balloon!

Vampires like bananas? Who knew?

Look, I'm walking!

Utah State Capitol building

Well, believe it or not, our little girl turned one on September 1st! And as you can only imagine, I made sure she had the right amount of pink decor to go around. Decked out in her pink tutu and ready to party, Brielle was fun to watch as she opened her gifts. I love that Kevin made sure she knew how to use her new teaset. She wasn't too fond of eating her cake, but did lick the frostine off.

Brielle now has her first 4 teeth, but surprisingly not the 4 you would be expecting! Her bottom 2 are in and as of last month her top "I" teeth have come in, making her look very much like a vampire! It's a little weird, but I have seen it before and a friend said her teeth came in that way too. Then Mark says to her, "And you turned out OK" Good one Mark!

Brielle has also started walking about 2 weeks ago. She is taking more and more steps everyday. She is also climbing on everything! It is crazy tring to keep her out of things. Her favorite thing right now is to climb on the dining room table! Help! I forgot how busy toddlers are!

So, my boys enjoyed their last weekend of summer going to the State capitol building for a tour. Then on to sweet tomatoes for lunch, and a new school clothes shopping event! So tired! But a great day.