Almost Homemade Candies

I don't know about you, but I don't really have time to be Heather Homemaker.

I work a full time job, a part time job, am starting my next semester of grad school in 3 weeks and my husband works a later shift so I'm on my own with the babe some evenings.

I don't barely have time to pee some days, never mind bake from scratch, but I love giving food gifts because, seriously, I love food. 

Judge.

SO I'm going to share 3 of my super easy gift-away treats, that take almost no time!

(Ps. they're also full of short cuts!)

First up:

White Chocolate Covered Pretzels

I cheat super bad. I buy Flipz! Already dipped in white chocolate and only $1 per bag at Target!

You need:

Flipz

A bag of candy melts

sprinkles

a cookie sheet lined with wax paper

Grab as many bags of Flipz as you'd like, I did 3 bags.

Line them up/lay them out on the cookie sheet.

In another bowl, melt some colored candy melts ( I sometimes do red and green, Walmart only had red left-- so that's what I used!) at 50% power for a minute. Stir and keep heating at 20 second intervals until completely melted.

Drizzle the melted candy melts over the pretzels.

(I used a spoon, but you can use a fork or a pastry bag)

Add some sprinkles on the top and pop in the fridge for 30 minutes!

When they are completely hardened, break them up into individual pieces!

Done!

Another super easy dessert is my White Fudge Oreo Bark.

I love white fudge covered oreos but $3 for a small box, ehhh.

And have you ever tried hand dipping Oreos? It takes forever.

So this is my version!

You need:

 A package of Oreos

A package of Almond Bark

(Got mine at Walmart for less than $3, but you can always use white chocolate candy melts as well)

Sprinkles

In one bowl, crush up the package of Oreos into smaller pieces.

In another bowl, melt the almond bark at 50% power for 1 minute. Keep heating an addition 20 seconds until it is completely melted.

Pour the Oreos into the melted chocolate bowl.

Stir until well mixed.

Pour onto a wax lined paper and spread out.

Add sprinkles.

Put in Fridge for an hour or until hard.

When it's hardened, you can take it out of the fridge and break into bitesized pieces!

And my favorite!

Chow Mein Crunchies

These are seriously the most addictive, amazing things you will ever eat... and they're only 3 ingredients!

1 bag of chow mein noodles (yep, like the ones that come with your chinese food!)

1 bag of butterscotch chips

1 bag of milk chocolate chips

wax paper lined cookie sheet (or 2!)

Pour the bag of butterscotch chips and the bag of chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl.

Melt on 50% for 1 minute, adding an extra 20 seconds until completely melted.

Stir to ensure they are mixed well.

When completely melted, add in the bag of chow mein noodles.

Mix until all of the noodles are covered.

Once mixed, drop by the spoonful onto the waxed paper lined cookie sheet.

(I love big clusters but small ones are MUCH easier to eat!)

When the sheet is full, pop them into the fridge for an hour and when they have hardened, pop them off the sheet and enjoy!

Don't they all look so yummy?!

What's your easy to make crowd pleaser?

18 Months!

My little peanut has been in this world for 18 months!

Yikes!

At her well visit on Tuesday, she was 33 inches long and 26.4 pounds!

Finally wearing all 18 month clothes and a size 4.5 shoe. We actually just bought her new socks because her feet were getting too big for her other socks!
Lately, she loves pulling her shirt up so her belly is showing and then runs away laughing when you call her out on it!

Says Hi, Bye, Bay (Bailey), Mom, Dad, Hey, pat (as a verb), teeth, and night.
Sings to herself by humming to songs and bopping back and forth.
Does a "whoop whoop" dance and pats her chest then throws her hands up in a blast off motion (a la The Little Einsteins).

She understands what we're saying and will make decisions with us, "which as which one would you like?"
She can identify her teeth, her ears, her eyes, and nose.
She still blows kisses to the baby in the mirror.

Her temper tantrums are few and far between but are hilarious because she stomps her feet and ends up spinning in a circle.  Her pouty lower lip is a heart puller though and coupled with her big doe eyes... I die inside sometimes.
However, she's usually a great listener but we've found if you want her to come out of a room and she won't listen, if you say "bye" she comes running after.
If you put on your coat, she runs to the front door and tries to unlock it with any key or pencil she can find.

Wants to brush her teeth all day, and will say "teeth" and point at the bathroom door whenever we go by it. Loves the tub and will dump a cup full of water down her face and whole front side, but screams bloody murder and tries to climb out of the tub when it's time to wash her hair.

Is in love with Elmo, Mickey Mouse (and all his friends), and the Little Einsteins. Is especially in love with her Minnie Mouse plush doll that we bought and her Velveteen Rabbit.

Loves stacking her blocks that Nannie bought her in P-Town, and subsequently, knocking them all over. She likes throwing the ball up the stairs and then laughing as it comes back down. She thinks tickling other people is the funniest thing she can do and if she sees a piece of your skin, she "tickles" it and giggles until you tickle her back.
She loves trying to tickle Dave's feet but usually when she tres to tickle mine, she gets distracted and just tries to pull off my tattoo....

Shes knows how to unlock my cell phone, put it to her ear and say "Hi!", and loves facetime with Daddy while he's working. She loves playing with my tablet, my computer keyboard and headphones.

LOVES to write and color and read. Will go around the house searching for paper to write on. Will go into my school bag and take out pens!
Then she switches back and forth between left and right hand.
Can we check out how she writes though?
So cute!

Likes to climb on everything... especially up the stairs and unto the coffee table. When she's on the stairs or the coffee table, she'll hold her hands out, say "Hey", and then wait for you to hold out your arms so she can jump onto you.
The newest thing is "jumping" which is really just her going on her tip-toes.
Doesn't crawl, like ever, unless we're playing pretend and being animals.
Even on stairs, she likes to hold a hand, or a railing, and walk up or down them.

Eats everything.  Loves her starches, especially rice and breakfast potatoes. Loves when we have kielbasa or meatloaf. Drinks milk and juice (even though we still water it down). Will try and get her own yogurt, grapes, or blueberries when they are in the fridge. Loves being a vulture snacking on whatever other people have, including the crazy disgusting things like Dave's Salt & Vinegar chips.
But will only use "silver" silverware, or grown up stuff, even if it's plastic.

She's turning into such a little person,with her own personality, and while I love it, I feel like every day she grows by leaps and bounds.
Honestly though, I can not wait for this year's Christmas; it's going to be so much fun!!

Ps. how hilarious is her "leave me alone, mom" face??

Family Pictures: Holiday 2012 Edition

We had some family pictures down a couple weeks back and I am so in love with them.

Emmalee decided she wanted to be a beast for most of them.

Wouldn't sit still, wanted to run up and down the steps...

I digress.

Anyways, we are lucky to know an amazing photographer who was able to get some great shots anyways.

Warning: It's picture heavy.

I just love them so much!

Our Felt Christmas Tree

Yep, you read that right.

We have a felt Christmas tree.

Ok, we really do but it's not our real tree.

We have our Christmas tree up (but not decorated) and in addition, we have another felt tree up on our wall for Emmalee.

I know, it's very Dr Seuss looking but she was trying to help so I just did it superfast. Whatever.

All it took was 1/2 a yard of green felt (60% off) and a couple sheets of the 29 cent felt from Michaels.

I hung the tree piece up with some commandstrips.

Then the "ornaments" are just shapes cut out of the smaller felt sheets.

Felt sticks to felt, so I was done at that point!

Emmalee likes to pull the ornaments off and stick them back up!

It's great for her finger dexterity and imaginative play skills!

And it's super cheap!

What's not to love?!