Best Friends

My boy.

He is loving his new dinosaur best friends.

He now even shares.

*It's okay that my husband will be the only other person to be so happy about this.

*It's okay that Henry makes elephant sounds instead of dino sounds.

*It's okay that I gave him dinosaurs, hoping that now he won't get as excited when BARBIE FASHION FAIRY TALES comes on!

Sitting Around

Time at the beach...

better for the soul than I thought.

Rejuvenating.

*****

So, what have we been up now that we are home?

The night after we returned, we had cousins Megan and Madison down for a sleepover!

Spontaneous...love it!

This is the first time that all four girls have slumbered together under one roof!

Eating...that's how we roll here!

And since I had piles and piles of laundry from our trip, I decided to add another project! (You know, just to keep me extra busy!) My 8 year old is growing up. She's an accessory girl... So I bought a cheap floor mirror and some hooks. Jon hung them on Sunday, and I got to work. A little time and $9 later... Emily enjoyed her fun mirror gal! Little sister did too! Shhhhhh! And after her little fashion photo shoot, Laney was ready to bake! She's always such a great helper! While we baked, little brother kept himself entertained! Two week old balloon... and it's still a hit! (Hey...Elmo's on my diaper too?)

Our cookies were quite the hit!

Big sister came home from school and passed by the cookies...

opted for some healthy crackers and hummus...

because she's healthy like that.

We wrapped some cookies up for Grandma!

We were going to make cut out sugar cookies

(hence the paw cookie cutter)

but once we found the recipe for Oreo stuffed chocolate chip cookies...

we were sold!

And precious Henry right before we took cookies to Grandma.

He is really getting into dinosaurs!

Here's to taking some time out for just my family...

now to get back to the grind!

OREO STUFFED CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Follow the Toll House recipe on the chocolate chip bag. When ready to bake, put a cookie scoop on a silpat mat, press oreo on top and cover with another cookie scoop. Bake about 13 minutes.

I fit 6 cookies on each mat for a total of 18 cookies! YUM!

Spring Vacation!

Florida 2011...

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Jon's parents met us down South. It's always wonderful to have Grammie and Papa Larry there!

After our first full sun day, we drove to beautiful Marco Island.Joey's Pizza.

THE BEST! We had so much leftover!

Too bad Jon accidentally left our pizza on top of our rented mini van, then took off.

I'm pretty sure the white Mercedes behind us got the brunt of the pizza spill!

*****

My sister Andee and niece Abby traveled from Savannah, GA to meet us for a few days!

(My sis's hubs was in cold Indiana busy with military training.)

We hadn't seen them in 15 months!

The girls had a ball catching up with each other!

While the girlies played, this adorable guy had fun too!

We always take a day trip to Sanibel Island.

We were hoping that dolphins would greet us...

we searched for them...

No luck, but many of these entertained us!

Shelling...

We always bring home buckets of them!

And to check out the pier...

We love our shelling trip!

And after a car full of new shells and pounds of sand...

we always stop by ISLAND COW for breakfast!

Decor...adorable.

Food...great!

Muffins....AMAZING!

My sweet Laney...middle child...funny, crazy, wild!

Lovely Emily...the oldest...serious...creative!

Put my two girls together...whoa!

Silliness at it's best!

And my precious little man...just takes it all in...enjoys the ride.

Henry is just the sweetest little guy!

It doesn't hurt that he calls for MOMMY 90% of the time!

AND...

Vacation means WATER!

A bit of reading poolside is great too!

Our last night...

We HAD to end it with ICE CREAM!

And gumballs to go!

What a great getaway!

...Until next Spring!

I'm Back!

Eight days at the beach with my beautiful family.

Amazing weather, too much food, too much sun, too much fun and WAY too many photos!

I cannot wait to catch up with all of you!

Are You There SPRING? It's Me, Lauren.

Dear Spring...

WHERE ARE YOU?

You must be THERE, because you are not HERE!

Oh how we have all been waiting your arrival.

We were hoping you would be here by now.

We've been inside too long...going a bit CrAzY!

We have nowhere else to hide when we play our now boring inside games!

Today it is cold and rainy.
I know, I should be happy that it is NOT snowing or blowing!

Warm rain is fun...

Cold rain...just too murky.

But, Spring... since you haven't come knocking on my door,

you have given me more time to paint!

Meet SUPER OWEN!

I never show artwork on my blog before the client has seen it...

until my friend Jenny's order!

Maybe it's because I've known her for so long...

(She did love her LEVI canvases though.)

Since it's dark and rainy here, the lighting isn't very good.

I even moved my easel right in front of the windows for better lighting!

(See Spring? Guess you've even put a glitch on my artwork lighting!)

SUPER OWEN is for one of the cutest four year olds ever!

Owen LOVES his superheros, and they are ALL favorites!

He even asked if I could paint Indiana Jones too!

I sure hope that Owen loves his SUPER OWEN artwork!

****

And...here's a sneak peek of my next piece.

Yep, almost as big as my 5 year old!

Now Spring.... I'm off to dream of warm weather and sunshine!

Love~

Lauren