Bring the butter, syrup, and sugars to a boil, keep bubbling over med heat until it hits the softball stage (240 degrees - use a candy thermometer)
Add the sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla and boil 1 more min - let it cool a few mins so it doesn't shrink the popcorn.
pour over the popcorn and stir
popcorn balls
use 1 - 1 1/2 batches of air popped popcorn for these balls
spread the popcorn out and let it start too cool
spray your hands with cooking spray and portion it out into 8 sections and ball up.
Continue to check back and ball and turn until they cool enough that they stay in their ball forms
gooey caramel popcorn
use 2-3 batches of air popped popcorn for this - serve immediately
crunchy caramel popcorn
use 3 batches of popped popcorn for this - stir and coat as evenly as you can
IF you want crunchy popcorn preheat your oven to 250 - spread it out in a pan and place in the oven and bake for like 20-30 mins, stirring occasionally, until it crisps up