Homemade Butterfingers

Trent and I discovered this post on how to make homemade Butterfingers back around Halloween.  And you only need 3 ingredients - peanut butter, chocolate chips, and *drumroll* CANDY CORN!!  Hence why we probably discovered the recipe right around Halloween.

Several weeks ago Trent randomly mentioned how much he wanted to try them (he loves all things peanut butter!) so Aiden and I decided to surprise him one afternoon and have them ready for him when he got home from work :)

Preparing to melt the candy corn.

Mixing in the peanut butter.

I read through the comments on the original recipe and one guy mentioned that a 16-ounce jar of peanut butter is almost exactly 1.5 cups!  Because who really likes to measure out peanut butter?!

I also read in the comments that some people preferred them thinner so I spread the mixture in a cookie sheet instead.

Seriously SO GOOD!!  I will be honest, during the process of dipping in the chocolate I was thinking to myself, "These better be good or I'm not making them again."  I forgot how annoying it is to dip things in chocolate and have them still come out looking presentable.  I got pretty good by the end though.  If anyone has any good tips though, let me know!

And they were definitely worth it!  I'm positive we'll be making them again :)

Pure Joy

This kid is pure joy.  He's honestly happy like 90 percent of the time.  It makes us nervous that our first baby has been so easy, we just keep thinking surely one of our next ones will be hard.

So I forgot to put a point in Aiden's 8 month post.  Sometimes Aiden is a little too confident in his abilities in standing up and therefore will randomly lose his balance and fall flat on his back.

This was one of those times.

And at first he actually wasn't so happy.  He had a look on his face like he was about to cry, but I knew he was fine so I just started laughing at him. He just kept laying there, not moving, except for his eyes, so I hurry and grab my camera, and what does he do?  Gives me the biggest smile!! What a goof!

Then there's this sequence of photos.  PURE JOY!

And of course, the video.  Our families seriously can't get enough of this video!  I tell everyone that this is a video I'll watch if I ever need a pick-me-up because it makes me laugh every time.

I know I've posted it on Facebook, but in case any of you haven't seen it ;)

Actually, when we play this video now, Aiden gets this huge smile on his face and starts to laugh a little bit.  So now I feel like I need to get a video of him watching this video..haha.

8 months

Aiden Monkey turned 8 months yesterday!

Here's what he's been up to in the last month:

• A few weeks ago we finally started bathing Aiden in the regular bathtub.  We were just being really slow about getting a no-slip bath mat (it's an alligator!) and a kneeling pad (never realized they had these!) for us.  We also had maintenance come take the glass doors off.  They were a huge pain to get around while trying to bathe Aiden.

• If Aiden sees us eating anything, he comes crawling as fast as he can and makes a certain noise that we've come to learn means he wants some.  We give him teeny little bites :)

Here Trent was giving him a Kix.

Examining a blueberry.

• He pretty much always insists on standing.

Over to check on Sam (Tanis and Kent's dog).

• Speaking of standing, Aiden no longer gets stuck like that!  He figured out how to get down a few days after I posted his 7 month post.  Yay Aiden!

• We got Aiden a little highchair.  We just went with the Busy Baby Booster.  Aiden loves the activity tray that fits into the feeding tray :)

• Lately when Aiden puts something in his mouth, he lets part of it hang out.  It reminds me of a little puppy dog :)

Here he has my hair tie - there was a little clip attached to it that's in his mouth..ha.

• Aiden keeps calling people!  It's usually those on my speed dial (he's called Trent, my mom, Jen, and my dad several times), but he has also called a few people off my contact list.  I'm really sorry if you ever get one of these calls..haha.

Btw, I love his bed head in this picture :)

• He loves to play with measuring cups, silverware, anything that he can bang around and that makes a loud noise :)

• He has started making a face where he scrunches up his nose.  It's so cute!  I tried to get a picture, but it's hard to tell.

• When I'm washing dishes and loading the dishwasher Aiden often comes in behind me and unloads it..haha.

• To our dismay, Aiden has figured out how to open the DVD player and opens it all the time.  We're just waiting for the day that he breaks it :/  I wonder if there's any child lock we can put on it ?

And I think that's it!  

I seriously love to just sit and watch Aiden.  It's like I can see the wheels turning in his little head as he is learning so much!  And for your enjoyment here are a few more pictures from the last several weeks :)

Getting tired.

Do you need some tanning lotion?

Zonked!  He's getting so big!

Tess (in the background) trying to escape the camera.

Love Daddy!

Recycling Kick

I have been on a total recycling kick lately - well hopefully from here on out now!  Our apartment complex finally started recycling about a month ago and I was so psyched!  It seriously killed me before to be throwing it all in the trash.  Occasionally I'd take some things over to my parents' to be recycled, but not often enough.  Now I check everything to see if it can be recycled.  Do you all realize how much stuff can be recycled??  It's amazing!  I even often go into the trash after Trent and retrieve things he's thrown away that can be recycled.  Recycling has become a kind of thrill for me..haha.  Maybe it's the public health major in me :)

There's a label on the recycling bins that tells everything you can and cannot recycle.  I actually found out you aren't supposed to recycle plastic bags (at least in ours) which is kind of a pain.  I was hoping we'd be able to so I don't have to keep collecting them and returning them to the grocery store.  Oh well - I'm willing to do it if it means a healthier environment and planet!  So if you all have recycling available to you I would highly encourage you to take advantage.  Let's all go green!

And just for the heck of it, here's a video I got of Aiden eating apples with blueberries the other day (if you didn't see it on Facebook).  I don't know if he liked them too much!

Let's see, how can I tie this in?  OOH, I know!  I recycle Aiden's baby food jars!  Yay!

I Got Crafty!!

I was able to finish this beauty - my 4th of July wreath - this afternoon (I was actually able to finish before the 4th - hurray!) and I absolutely LOVE it!  You can find the tutorial HERE.

Aiden and I took a little trip (love our little trips) to Hobby Lobby to gather all of our supplies.  I just went ahead and got a 14" styrofoam wreath form.  And you can't tell, but my foam stars have glitter on them :)

Definitely the hardest part was cutting all of the little squares.  I'm a perfectionist and wanted all of them to be the same size.  Since the felt sheets are 9" by 12" I cut my squares as 2" by 1 1/2" (instead of 2"x2").

Actually, maybe the hardest part was dividing the wreath form evenly..haha.  I had my smartie husband do this since there was some math involved ;)

Do you love the Rhodes rolls rising in the background?  And Aiden's toy on the table?  Life with a cute baby :)

Trent snapped some shots for me of my work in progress.

I didn't even realize Aiden was smiling on the ground behind me :)

Making his way over to Dad.

Nothing to do with my wreath, but Aiden made it over to Dad :)

And ta-da!

I seriously love the 4th of July and all that it represents.  And I think red, white, and blue is the perfect color combination!  I could wear it all year long!  Last year we spent the 4th at the Stadium of Fire with Amy before she went into the MTC on the 6th.  Can't believe it's been a year!!!

Hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day!  And save this wreath idea for next year :)