Hoping

Yesterday I had a conversation with Alex that went something like this.....

Me: "Alex, you know what? I haven't given you NEAR enough kisses today!"

Alex: (climbs in my lap) "Yeah, you haven't."

Me: (smothering the poor child in kisses) "I love giving you kisses. I hope when you are older you'll still let me grab you and give you kisses and you won't be embarrassed."

Alex: "I will let you."

So, there is the proof!!! When he is older and gets embarrassed just by me looking at him I will whip this out and prove to him that he once told me I could kiss him whenever!! hahahaha

Official name (I think)

Thank you to everyone for submitting their name choices....but I think we've come up with one on our own that we like......

Krandy's Sweet Co.

We decided to do Sweet instead of Cookie just in case we get crazy someday and decide to branch out into other types of pastries and sweets. I think it's a simple, easy name and with the logo that we are working on it looks really cute. I made some lemon cookies that turned out great last week. That adds one more cookie to my menu. I made snickerdoodles this afternoon that need a little tweaking, but they tasted good as well. I have about 5 other kinds I need to test out in the next little while too. We have a busy kitchen!!

Um, sorry guys, need your help.....again.

Soooooooooo, I've decided not to enter my delicious cookies in the Pillsbury contest. (Just by SUBMITTING my recipe Pillsbury automatically owns the rights to it and I am NOT ready to give it up that easily, yet! More than a year of my life has gone into perfecting that recipe!) So I don't need a name for them anymore. I very much appreciate everyone contributing and trying to come up with names though and since I did promise someone would get cookies I am going to pull a name from a hat to see which lucky little devil gets the cookies!!! I will document the event with pictures so everyone knows I'm not cheating and picking my best friend to get the cookies (Yeah, you know who you are!!!). That will be coming soon!!

In the meanwhile, I have a new naming contest for all your creative minds! I need a great name for a cookie company. I am not going to influence you by saying the names we've thought of so far - I just want to see what comes from those gorgeous brains. I want something fairly short, easy to remember and fun. Please submit as many names as you can think of. The more the merrier! Andy came up with a name and created a great logo for me. I really love the logo and the colors (pink is Samantha's favorite color and orange is Alex's favorite), so he thought it was fun to include those. I'll post a picture of the logo when it's complete. Thanks again for your help......get brainstorming!!!

I just love this face. Especially with a hat on. He has the perfect shaped face for a hat. Look at those eyes!!! He's going to be a heartbreaker, I just know it!
I love this face eating cookies too.

MBAs suck

Flattering Pictures of Me courtesy of my children

The first 2 were taken by Samantha and I think the last one was taken by Alex. Very talented children, I know!

Home Depot

I'm sure a lot of you know about the kids projects at Home Depot since every time we go there are more and more people there!!! But here is the deal: the first Saturday of every month Home Depot has a kids project that they do for free. They get a little orange apron and a pin for every project. It is great! The project for March was race cars and they were a hit!

I love the looks on their faces in these pictures! Silly kids!

Last night my sweet parents watched the kids for HOURS while Andy and I went to dinner and the opera. We went to dinner in downtown Salt Lake at a restaurant named The Metropolitan. We lucked out being there on a Monday night because they have a "locals" menu every Monday with a 3 course and a 5 course fixed price menu that was much cheaper. I had a beet soup, bison short ribs and an assortment of ice cream. Andy had a cesear salad, lamb and a chocolate torte. The food was great and we liked the restaurant and service. I think we would definitely go back.

After dinner we walked to the Capitol Theatre to re-issue our tickets that we forgot at home!! Whoops!!! Thankfully when you buy the tickets they take your name and address so it was easy for them to look us up and reprint the tickets for us. I have very fond memories of Capitol Theatre and going on daddy-daughter dates with my dad. My parents used to get lots of tickets to plays and my mom would let us girls take turns going with my dad. He would take us to The Olive Garden before the play and then we would enjoy staying up late at the play. It was always just so fun to have one-on-one time with dad and that is what I remember most! (Love you Daddy!!) I was shocked at how crowded the place was and it looked as if almost every seat was full. It certainly felt very crowded by the women's room line!!! I was so giddy at the start and couldn't wait to see what the most famous opera was like.......and they didn't disappoint!! It was funny and quick moving and the voices were amazing!! Andy and I enjoyed the whole thing and even though it was extremely long (3 hours 15 min), it went by quickly and I didn't even look at the time. I was just amazed I stayed awake for the whole thing since my usual bedtime is 9 pm!! I didn't get to bed until midnight and that is the latest I've stayed up in YEARS!! It was a very enjoyable evening and I am lucky to have a husband who enjoys the same things I do and is willing to go to the opera with me! Thanks to Andy for taking me, thanks to mom and dad for staying with the kids, thanks to the lovely lady who made my fun black dress and thanks to Kami for making my jewelry. Only a half-thanks to the makers of my fabulous red shoes.....they looked great but gave me a blister!! Totally worth it!!

Disney on Ice and Peeps

Saturday we took the kids to Disney on Ice in Salt Lake. We, of course, forgot our camera so I only have a couple pictures of the kids with their loot. We spent $95 on the tickets and a whopping $71 on food and drinks and toys (1 lemonade, 1 bag of popcorn, 2 cotton candies with Flounder hats, 1 sword for Alex and 1 Tinkerbell light twirly thingee for Samantha). It was ridiculous!!! But the kids LOVED it and had a great time so it was worth it. I just love watching them get so excited and amazed at new things. Alex was dancing to the music and being totally adorable. He had a whole bag of cotton candy though, so he was on a bit of a sugar high!!! After the show we took the kids to the Pie Pizzarie for dinner. It was a very fun afternoon.

THESE, however, were the find of the day in my opinion.......
I laughed so hard when I saw them and just HAD to buy them for the kids!! Stuffed animal Peeps!! Why didn't they think of these sooner??? I hate to eat Peeps, but I love our tradition of burning them with a torch after they get all stale! We included the kids in our tradition last year and they didn't enjoy it NEAR as much as Andy and I did!!

Okay, let's find a favorite so far

Please leave a comment telling me which one of these you like best so far. This won't necessarily be the final name because I am making a double batch for Andy's work on Monday and having them submit names as well. But they are programmers mostly and not too artsy, so we'll see what they come up with!!!

1. Chewy Gooey Melmac Cookies
2. Gooey Chocolate Melmac Cookies
3. Choco-Mel-Nut Cookies
4. Gooey Choco-Mel-Nut Cookies

or, on a totally different wavelength...
5. Triple Threat cookies

One of the reasons I don't get rid of him!

I am allergic to my bird. I had two other birds before Chewy and I wasn't allergic to either of them, but I lucked out with this guy! The other day he was molting and I was sneezing my brains out and my thoughts went to my sister Kami who I'm sure I could convince to take my birdie (hehehe). But then little Chewy decided to redeem himself and feel better and plain old crack me up!!! This is what he does when he wants to get out of his cage. Look at the bottom of his cage and watch his little head bob up and down.

Hmmmm

Since the cookies are filled what about putting "surprise" or "filled" in the name? Plus, they are kind of chewy so I'd like to use that descriptive word in the name.

Ready, Set, Come up with a Genius Name!!!!!!!

What if...

What if I did it like this instead....

Choco-mel-adamia

OR

Choco-mel-nut

Does that make it better or easier to read and pronounce?

Survey

Hello family and friends! I need your help. I am trying to finalize a name for the cookies I will be submitting to Pillsbury. The cookies consist of the best dough in the world, macadamia nuts, chocolate and caramel. The first name I came up with (or was it Andy?) was Chewy Chocomeladamia Cookies. Chocomeladamia being a mix of Chocolate, Caramel and Macadamia. Please leave a comment and tell me what you think of the name. If you have any ideas on a name please feel free to tell me that as well. I am open to suggestions!!! If you leave a wonderful name and I end up using it for my final submission I will overnight you a dozen of the cookies!! Believe me, THAT is a good prize!! Just to inspire you and also taunt you, here are some pictures! Thank you for your help!

It's hatching!

I just gave each kid a Cadbury Mini Egg for eating all of their lunch. They examined them thoroughly before putting them in their mouths and determined they were shaped like an egg. After about a minute Samantha bit into her egg and shouted out to me, "Mom, my egg is hatching!!!". I thought it was pretty clever.

Scary Samantha face

Samantha claims this was her favorite ride at Disneyland. But I still think she was scared. Take a look at the video and you be the judge! Actually, the first time I saw this video I almost cried because of how scared she looks!! It was late and the end of a very tiring, busy day, so I can't really blame her. She talks about it a lot though and says she wants to go back.....so maybe someday we'll go back.

Just a little something to make Kristi smile

I won't spoil it for you by intro'ing it.

Way back when....

I haven't taken any pictures recently so I'm kickin' it old school with this one. I believe this was Halloween 2006. Look at these little babies!!! And we didn't even have Cole-baby at this time which is terribly sad to think about. Good times and cute kids. Love it!

Tootsies

Probably the hardest part of spring for me is my feet. Confused? Let me splain......no, let me sum up (points for the first person to name the movie that comes from!!!). My feet have been treated so well during the winter. All comfy and cozy in thick socks and comfortable shoes. Nice, warm, tall boots. Lovingly rubbed with lotion every night before bed........then BAM!!! Spring hits and I suddenly expect them to endure harsh, cutting sandals as I expose them to the elements. Sockless shoes that are majorly cute, but majorly NOT comfortable. Every spring I end up with countless blisters and sore spots all over my heels and toes until my feet toughen up. By the end of summer they are so tough I could walk barefoot across glass. But not in the spring. My feet are more like men in the spring. Whiny and annoying and begging to be comforted and snuggled. (By the way, that totally wasn't a jab at Andy....I just thought it was funny.....true, and funny). And so, with 2 hot spots and 1 blister on my foot already........let spring BEGIN!!!!

The Colonel

It's been a long time since I hijacked Kristi's blog to post something that fits my twisted sense of humor, so here goes! For your consideration - "The Colonel"