Call of Duty!

Well Michaels family needed a new car and so Michael told eric to trade in his car and buy him something nice. Stephanie told Eric that they need to buy a Jeep! This has been Stephanies dream since she first discovered what a car was. So Eric went out and looked around and surprised everyone with a Jeep CALL OF DUTY! He was test driving it! Stephanie couldn't believe it. We loaded everyone up and went for a drive. So awesome. So the business rewarded Eric for all his hard work with the purchase of a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Call Of Duty edition! This Jeep is SICK! This is Stephanie's dream car that she has dreamed about since childhood! She is so excited. The business bought this Friday, then Eric and Stephanie both went and finished filling out paper work on Saturday right before they went to the Jazz game! Loni and Stevo came over and watched the kids for us so we could go. With Eric being on the advertising board for Kneaders we got these killer seats 3 rows back from the court! behind the basketball hoop. Our seats ended up being just to the side of the basket so we could see everything and not just a pole. We went early and got to go downstairs in the Energy Solutions arena and eat dinner! Then during Half Time we got to go down again for snacks. It was awesome! We were even going to try and get a picture with Matt Harpring but it didn't happen. We did get a picture though!..Of the two of us. Not Matt. :0) This has been such an eventful month. So much has happened to us and we are so grateful and blessed. Just living the dream.

New Kneaders Open!

The stress of opening a new store is nothing you can explain. Eric has been working like a mad man trying to get everything to come together with out his brain exploding. Stephanie has been trying to help out with the basket making area, ordering all edible items to go on the shelves to sell and whatever else is needed to help Eric out as much as possible. Who knew ordering ribbon, tissue paper, jam, dips, vanilla, pasta, soda, different sauces etc would be so difficult and time consuming! What do people like? What would people want their basket ties with? What would people buy to got in their basket? etc....The Riverwoods location officially opened Today April 13th, 2012. Stephanie's amazing mother saved us by flying up and staying with us for a full week just to babysit her grandkids! Super mom/grandma. Stephanie called her mom friday night and Shelly flew up Monday morning. Stephanie was able to work ALL week with eric and run errands for him and michael. Mostly though, Stephanie was there for moral support. To keep Eric going, and relieve the stress as much as possible. There is nothing more stressful than having corporate people around you 24/7 as you are opening the store and having them switch things on you last minute and throwing you through a loop. We made it work though and the store opened great. We were ALOT slower than we had anticipated but was still a decent day. We had a friends and family night to help the employees and everyone work out the final bugs. It was really nice to see some of our friends from Pleasant Grove show up to support us, especially since we were still living in Pleasant Grove when this process began. It was also nice for our new friends from Salem to show up and support us as well. To have the support of friends and family as we start a new chapter in our lives is greatly appreciated. Eric's parents and siblings showed up and Stephanie's mom was there with the kids. Just so we all know and are aware, we didn't lock Grandma Powell in the house. Stephanie came home in the early afternoon some days and went out and did things with Shelly(grandma) and the Kids. They went bowling one day and quickly found out that Grandma Powell is an awesome bowler in real life and not so much on the Wii.!! They also went and got frozen yogurt too. Plus I'm sure Stephanie just being home was nice for Grandma Powell as well. One night Stephanie and Eric got home around bed time and after the kids were in bed Stephanie and her mom went to see the Hunger Games movie together. G-Ma Powell said she had a fun week, which is great! She is an awesome mom/grandma to help out like she does. Couldn't have done it without her. She flies home Monday morning and her adventure ends. We are excited for this new store and pray it is busy and successful. Eric and Stephanie have been so blessed in their lives and are truly grateful to the Lord for helping them get to where they are. They strive daily to continue to remember the lord and always involve him in their daily lives and the life of their businesses and serve others as much as possible.

Easter 2012

Wow! Happy Easter! First of all, this has been quite the busy Easter Holiday! Second, Jacoby fell down the cement steps in the garage yesterday and has quite the nice goose egg on his forhead. Just in case you were wondering why he looks like he just got in a fight. That's why. Of course it snowed again just two days ago so it is cold for another Easter. We did all of our easter stuff today! The bunny came early this year.(headed to marysvale tonight) The kids got new bikes from the Easter Bunny, and Jacoby finally got a Tri-cycle that he can ride! Stefans bike has no training Wheels. He wasn't too excited about this detail. Stefan CAN ride his bike without training wheels and this will be the year he gains confidence and rides well w/out those darn training wheels. When its a outside toy year, the Bunny always brings them on Saturday so the kids can ride and enjoy them before Sunday. As a kid, Stephanie remembers always going to Woodland Park with her family and doing the Easter Egg Hunt and raffle drawing. It was usually cold as most Easters are. Stephanie wanted the kids to participate in the town Egg hunt so we woke the kids up, found their baskets and headed up to the Loafer View Ballpark where the kids got to do the egg hunt. The only difference between Stephanie's childhood egg hunt and this egg hunt was Stephanie's eggs were hidden. These eggs were scattered all over the snowy ball fields! Must say though that all those eggs scattered on white snow was actually quite pretty. They had you line up on the 3rd base line and when you heard the Fire Truck horn you took off! Grab as many eggs as you could! They separated the kids by age into groups, so Stephanie had Janine and Jacoby and Eric had Stefan with his age group. Stephanie was a little nervous for Janine. Would Janine get out there and take those eggs before someone else could? Well, as the horn went off, Janine took off and grabbed egg after egg. Stephanie was so excited and helped Jacoby get a couple of eggs too. After wards you lined up and drew a raffle ticket from a fireman. Depending on what ticket you drew determined the prize you got. Janine and Jacoby's age group got to keep their eyes open as they picked their ticket. Stefans age group had to cover their eyes. Everyone had a great time racing for eggs. We then went home and rode our new bikes for a little bit and then we colored eggs as a family. This is always such a fun activity that the kids love. Plus Jacoby is finally old enough to somewhat enjoy it. After this we had our family egg hunt. That night we went down to Marysvale to stay because Kendal and Lisa blessed their baby, Drake, at church today. We weren't too happy to have to be some place else on easter, but as always it was a good visit. Grandma and Grandpa Allan don't hide eggs, they hide candy! Everywhere! Just when you think you found all the candy you end up finding another piece. This Eric tells us will happen for days! Too Funny! What a great Easter we have had as a family. Not only did we get Easter stuff done we also worked on the Riverwoods store trying to get things together for our Grand Opening this upcoming week! Can't believe we are opening our 3rd store!!! Wish us Luck!!!