A Challange for my "Baking A.D.D"

So we've got the best possible deal for weekly Babysitting for Mason on days that I work all day- Gavin's Grandparents! I couldn't ask for better babysitters...
-They live close by & are on the way to my office.
-They're family (so we trust them very much)
-They've done this before (experience is a MUST!)
-They're not a DAYCARE! (no offense to other moms who have no choice, but I know Mason wont end up sick as often!)
-They follow directions from a crazy new Mom to a 'T'! (Granma even gives me detailed notes on what they did each day- score!)
-They don't really go anywhere, so Mason gets ALL of their attention and he also gets prime grade A naps! (a well rested baby sleeps VERY good at night!)
-It gives them Quality time with their great-grandson!

Of course, they wouldnt take any kind of payment in exchange for their nanny services- so I offered Gavin's lawn mowing services, but apparently Christopher already has that covered. I offered to bake cookies each week for Granpa and he loved the idea. So I'm officially being challenged. Normally, I'd go buy the pre-mixed dough and take the easy way out, or even easier, go buy bakery grade cookies. Heck no I can't do that. They're watching my precious baby boy for me- I should put more thought and effort into this! My problem is...I don't have the Bardin Baking genes! AMY DOES! I can cook, but I can't bake. If it takes any longer than 15-20 minutes, i lose interest & all effort is GONE, and the product might as well be ruined. I call it my "Baking A.D.D". Funny, i know but its very true.

So 2 weeks ago, I tried to make some kind of turtle cookies, basically they're sugar cookies with caramel & chocolate chips with pecan & walnut bits in them (yes I admit they were the pre-mixed cookie dough) and yes you guessed it, I burned the bottom of the cookies. DANG IT.

Last week for Valentines, I REALLY challenged myself, I made "Monika's Strawberry Love Cupcakes" from www.adamandmonika.com (A Foodie Guru in cooking & baking- Monika is awesome!) the cupcakes came out GREAT- the icing, not so much. Man i went to town with these, i even used my kitchen Aid mixer for these! The one problem was I HAVE NO CLUE where my cupcake baking pans went. Last i saw them was right before christmas, I used them to decorate my 'easy way out christmas cookies' and i have NO idea where they went after that (I was highly sleep deprived at the time, so who knows they could be in the garage, the backyard, or even in the bathroom for that matter! LOL) SO gavin had to go buy me some new ones, and in the end we ended up late for our dinner reservations for Valentines! I thought my cupcakes turned out pretty darn good, except I made the icing too runny (Monika's recipe even warns against that!).

For this week, tonight I have made "Samonella FREE Peanut Butter Cookies" things have gone pretty good, the cookies are completely from scratch, heck I didnt even make much of a mess (I only used 2 bowls! According to Gavin thats still too many!) I thought i'd be nice and make 2 dozen cookies (the recipe says it'll make 3 dozen, but apparently I roll ginormous size cookies.) it's probably a good thing I made 2 dozen, because in the process of typing this post in my blog, I have managed to burn 1 whole batch of cookies. (Grrrrrr....and now my house smells like burned peanut butter).
Maybe I should go back to pre-mixed cookie dough, or maybe I should have known better and offered my laundry services instead! haha! Well at least 1 batch of cookies came out good, now I just have to save them from Gavin!