Marketing Trends

Last night Steve was explaining to me a little bit about marketing trends.  He is in the spice business and every year he has to "forecast" what the coming year will bring.  "How many spices will we sell in the next year and how much should we produce?"  He looks at the buying habits of customers and trends in past years and then determines what will happen in the following year. He considers peaks in sales, for example, with spices there is a large peak in sales during the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentines).  This makes sense.  There are many products that have a peak during a certain time of the year.  But there are other products that I would think would be pretty steady throughout the year, like toilet paper.  That is what I would have thought up until today.

Today I was imagining managers from companies like Kimberly-Clark or Proctor and Gamble (companies who sell toilet paper among other things) sitting in their stuffy executive board rooms, in their nice double-breasted suits talking about toilet paper sales and puzzling over why there is a strange and unexpected spike in toilet paper sales that comes around the end of October.  Why the run on toilet paper all of the sudden?  I think I will become a sales consultant for them and have them pay me lots of money because I have discovered the secret...

I went to two class parties today, and witnessed at least 20 rolls of toilet paper wrapped around students and teachers.  A friend of mine used 18 rolls in her class party.  At our ward Trunk or Treat the other night there were probably 30 rolls used for the same purpose.  That is 68 rolls of toilet paper and only 4 parties.  It may be interesting to sit down and do the math.  How many rolls of toilet paper does the average American household use in a year?  How many Halloween parties wrapped unsuspecting teachers in rolls and rolls of toilet paper??  I would be really interested to see the numbers from some toilet paper company and see if I am right about their "peak season".  They may be puzzled as to why it happens,  but I don't imagine they are complaining about it.

Cinnamon Apple Cake... Delicious!!!

Here is something truly delightful for you to try.  To me this is a perfect "warm and cozy" fall-time treat.  (No, I am not trying to advertise for my husband, this recipe just happens to come from his website. :))

Funny Face

We got a little silly the other night, and here is the result.  Isn't it great what big brothers can teach their little sisters?

I know what you are thinking.  More baby pictures??!!  Well, I started something and now I have to finish it.  In honor of Sydney's birthday, here is her cute little life in review.  If you have no interest in sweet, little baby pictures then you don't have to look. :)

This was not staged, I found them just like this, I promise!

This little girl is adored by her brothers, and Spencer has been a very sweet and helpful big brother. He once told his Dad, "Whenever I'm sad, Sydney just makes everything right-side up again."

Sydney loves to dance, and when Tyler taught her the chicken dance, it became the favorite!  Here she is flapping her wings.

This is a classic Sydney face...

I am still amazed that we got a little girl, and so grateful!  What a blessing she is!

You've Had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

Well, despite my efforts and feelings on the matter, Sydney decided to go ahead and turn two today!  She has been practicing being two for several months, but today it is official! She is obviously a little confused on her age, because when asked how old she is, she holds up two or three fingers (depending on how well they are cooperating at the time) and says "three!"  I will say to her, "can you say two?"  "Three!"  I suppose we will get there!  

Here in Illinois we celebrate Columbus Day with a day off of school, some people even get the day off of work!  So, we took advantage of that and made a trip to the Pumpkin Farm to celebrate Syd's birthday.  We took a trip through the corn maze (this had Sam a little nervous) and we made it out!  Then we looked for some pumpkins.  The weather was perfect and we had a great time!

We also found this cute pig out among the pumpkins, he didn't like being called cute however!

After our trip to the pumpkin farm, we had some Elmo cake and Sydney opened some presents. Steve and I are still adjusting to this little girl thing, but we had fun looking at all of the "girlie" toys.  The boys were especially cute when searching for the perfect gift for their favorite little sister.

I think Sydney's favorite thing of all was this card from Grandma!  She kept opening it and looking at the pictures.  Thanks Grandma!

Halloween Fun

Sherry asked for Halloween pictures, so I dug through old pictures and found some goodies. 

Here is Dr. Spencer and his patient...

Spencer is too cool for the girls...

There you go Sherry, those were fun to look through again!

Another walk down Memory Lane

When Sam had his birthday, I posted some of my favorites of his pictures.  Since Tyler just had his birthday I thought I would do the same for him.  It has been a lot of fun to look through my pictures of him.  What a cute kid!  Why do they grow so fast?!!  By the way, pay no mind to the pale, tired looking lady in the first picture. 

This picture of Tyler with the apples was taken by my friend Carrie and is one of my all-time favorites! Priceless!  Thanks Carrie

What brotherly love!!!

Okay, so I can't say that this picture is really a favorite, as in fact it brings back really horrible memories, but it also reminds me of a really brave little boy!

Spencer took this picture!  He is our resident photographer.

This picture is classic Tyler, look at that enthusiasm!  (That wasn't even his gift, he's just super excited for Spencer!)

Gotta love that boy!