Logo Design Contest

I've entered a logo design contest at Somewhat Simple.

This is my entry!!
I'm #5

Go vote for me!!! PA-LEEZ!!!

Thanks, Love ya!! :)

Da Butte

Saturday we loaded up the kiddos and headed out to Gold Butte. This time of year there are usually tons of wild flowers and we wanted to go check them out before the summer sun dries them all out!

On our way down the long bumpy road we encountered this little guy!

Don't worry... Dustin took these with the telephoto lens. We didn't get very close to it.
Hello Mr. Turtle, come out and play!!

The kids were very intrigued!

Allie and Estefan wanted to know if it was a Ninja Turtle. Well of course it is. :P

After saying good-bye to our new friend, we kept on down the road to our picnic spot.
We stopped at the corals at Horse Springs.

The kids loved to run up and down the alley way.

When we went exploring at the spring, we found these two. At first we thought it was just one really huge frog, but it turned out to be two frogs. One was giving the other one a piggie froggie back ride!

We sure weren't disappointed by the wild flowers. These little white ones carpeted the entire desert floor.
It was amazing.

There were tall purple ones too!

Near the corals and right above the spring, there is this super long Great Wall of Gold Butte. We aren't sure who built it or what its purpose was, but its some kinda wonder! It starts at the right hand side of the photo (imagine me pointing) and goes clear up to the mid-center of the photo!

Another shot of the pretty purple flowers. I think they were my favy!

After we ate our delicious Tuna sandwiches with a side of Cheetos, we went up a mountain trail. When we got to the end of the trail we came to this amazing view!!

The next stop was to visit the Azure mine. This was the old mine house.

Peek-a-boo! I spy Estefan. :)

Allie was giving us the run down on how she would decorate it, if it was her house. We stayed here and played for quite a while. Its may seem funny, but it was nice to relax for a bit inside and imagine what it would have been like to live there.

The Mine

Estefan is our little billy goat. He'll climb anything!

There were more of these little yellow flowers all around the house.

Mark walking through the flowers. He even picked me a handful. :)

Mark's tough guy pose, look at those muscles!!

Seriously, there were flowers ev.ry.where.

I love how the pink cactus flowers contrast with the yellow. Amazing, beautiful, breathtaking.

Then we stopped at the windmill for a bit.

Our last stop was Million Hills.

We had a little snack and finished off the Cheetos and splashed in the cool stream.

Is there something wrong with this picture??

A huge fence maybe?... something to think about...

I always thought the burned up Joshua Tree's looked like they belonged in a Dr. Suess book...

and I was right. I found this little guy running around out there.

It was a beautiful, fun filled, family day.

I hope we are able to spend many, many more there in the future.

Model Behavior

This past Saturday our family went to Gold Butte. As I was looking through our pictures trying to narrow down some to post, I kept running into pictures of Allie.. well for lack of a better word.. modeling.

Girlfriend can work the hip!

and plays it serious too.

Oop there's the hip again...

and again!

Now the look over the shoulder pose. Nice.

I'll post some of the rest of the family too.. but these just killed me. 

Just love my sassy little girl!!

Good New and Bad News

I have to start this post out with a little confession...

ok a HUGE confession.

I don't know if you can handle this.

Ready?

Ok.. (breathe).. here it is.

I haven't scrapped once in the last 6 months! YIKES! I know!!

(sarcasm laid on pretty heavy here, if you couldn't tell)

Now can you guess my good news?!

I scrapped!!!

Five pages done, yesterday!!

But you ask, Lauren how is this possible?? Five pages in one day?

I've discovered a new best friend...Templates!

I used to be a template hater. I would say, its not really my work, its cheating. But let me tell you IT IS NOT!!!

Templates = Time and Time = Money Happy Family

Design kit and Template from Megan Turnidge

Design kit from Megan Turnidge and Template from Cindy Schneider at Peppermint Creative

Design kit and Template from Megan Turnidge

Design kit from GG Digital and Template from Megan Turnidge

Design kit and Template from Megan Turnidge

Now after my HUGE confession I don't know if you'll be able to handle my bad news....

here goes...

this time it is seriously bad... Cry your eyes out bad.

Megan Turnidge is retiring from designing!!!! :(

I told you.. terrible. I'm still crying over this. Truly, Megan's wonderful design kits made me fall in the love with digi-design. I love you Meeeeeegan!!

She is having a huge 50%-80% off sale at her shop.

So go get these wonderful templates and kits from Megan before they are gone forever.

I'm gonna go cry some more now.... :(

Wall Graffiti by Ike

My co-worker, Erin posted a super cute painting of her son Bryson, on her blog a while back (click here to see the post). She said her brother had painted it and that he was working on some for all his nieces and nephews. How sweet!

After seeing Bryson's picture, I knew that I had to have one.. or two or three!!

I asked Erin about it and she directed me to her brother, Ike's shop -- Wall Graffiti by Ike

I sent Ike this picture of Allie

and yesterday he sent me this picture of Allie's painting!

He's almost done with it, I guess he has some finishing touches to do and then its off to the mail!!

I can't wait!! Allie's bare walls in her room need some lovin'.

Go check out Ike's shop. He's doing everything for super cheap right now to build up his porfolio -- Allie's picture only cost me $24! Tell him Lauren sent ya. ;)

Mark's Birthday and CAKE!

This past Sunday we had a birthday party for Mark.

Anyone who knows me knows that I loooove cake and ice cream. Seriously, I love it.

So I will take any excuse to make a cake.

But this year I decided that I needed some help. I wanted to make Mark something fun.. like a boot or a tractor or something. But I was completely, completely lost on how to go about it.

Enter Jessica.

Jessica, my BFF (fur real, I said BFF. Yes, I am in 7th grade) is a cake maker extraordinaire!
Check out her website, a really cool girl designed it for her. **wink, wink**

Anyway, I called Jess up and she she started baking.

I knew she'd make something great, but I was blown away by what she did!!!

Look at the amazing cake she made Mark!

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It was three tiers high!! I had to rearrange the fridge for it to fit in! It was amazing!

Here, Mark is showing it to me. 

He says, "Mark's cake...

....don't touch it...

...ok."

Mark got lots of fun stuff.

(Raegan, I'm saving the silly string for when we come to visit you!)

But his favorite was a tractor and disc!

Dad trying to pry the disc out of the box. Holy twisty ties batman.

Hookin' up the disc...

Tractor = Happy Mark

Then he blow out his candles...

 but he needed a little help reaching the top of the cake! Thanks Papa Stan!!

Not only was this cake cute, it was yummy too!

We had a lot left over after the party. A LOT left over.

So Dad and Mark got a little crazy!!

Yum!

 Thanks Jess for the awesome cake! And thanks to all our family -- we sure love you guys!!

***sigh***

Mark is two.

Where did the time go?