Lauren Elizabeth

2012-01-17T21:04:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Mike

So yes I am a little late on the post but yesterday was a pretty full day and there was not a lot of time for blogging. My sweetie pie of a husband turned 26 yesterday. It's official he has made it to the late 20's. I just love this boy so much. He is such a fun person to be around. He is always making people laugh. He often comes home and tells me the funny comments he made in class that day( he is just so proud). He is really athletic. I have always loved that we could work out together or hike together or anything active. He is always game for anything. He is such a thoughtful person and is always trying to help me out. He spent all weekend helping me babysit in a home with 6 girls including myself and even watched My Girl with us. He is such a stud. He watches stupid TV shows with me just bc he knows I love them. He works hard in school and has always had a job since I have known him. Mike doesn't have to work but he chooses to so that we can save for school. I admire him a lot for that. He is great with kids. The little girls I nanny just adore him and I love it. This past year has been so huge for him with taking the DAT and applying to dental school and taking his hardest semester yet. He survived and did it with style. He is an amazing person and I am so lucky to be married to him. I hope the next year is just as great!

2011-12-12T15:37:00.000-08:00

The Gingerbread House

2011 Edition

Last year my mom and I made a new pattern for the gingerbread house. We have been making one ever since I can remember. In the last few years the mentality of it all has changed to "Go Big or Go Home". This year we added a few more things and went with a whole new roof. It was a long process and my mom needs a lot of credit on this one. She has been feeling super sick lately and still powered through it all to keep this tradition alive. So here are a few pictures from Saturday. Special thanks go to Mike, Steve, Dayna and Kate. This was a group effort.

Check out that chocolate rock foundation.

pretty sweet right?

notice mikes satellite dish hahah

New flower boxes this year

we attempted to dormer window this year. It was an architectural challenge but we prevailed.

Max made a soccer ball....

Steve and Dayna rocked the chimney.

2011-11-21T07:55:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving Crafts

Yes I made more glitter pumpkins and a new Fall leaf garland for our mantle. It was just meant to be though. I was out shopping and got a whole bag of the smaller pumpkins and the 2 glass beaded ones for 3 dollars. That's a screamin deal folks. I did suffer some serious hot glue burns from this project. That is a lot of leaves on there. Mike got me hooked on the new show Pan Am, so I just plugged away while watching all the episodes. It was so easy as long as you have a paper cutter that scores. I did do it over 2 weeks so if you are going to make one of your own be prepared. I have a few ideas for our Christmas mantle, but since we will be gone in Florida most of the holiday, I am going to have to pull that together ASAP. I have a feeling I will still be using glitter.

2011-11-17T12:48:00.001-08:00

I'm Thankful

During this time of year I am so thankful for my family and all that they do for Mike and I. My parents are so generous and my siblings are the best and so ready to help us out whenever we are in a bind. It's a wonderful time of year to think about all of the blessings we have and this is just one of mine.

2011-11-14T18:59:00.001-08:00

My Latest Project

So I made a garland very similar to this for our mantle for Thanksgiving. The only difference is I used a lot more green and I had more variety in my colors. I did use the gold ink pad but a lot of my paper was metallic and it didn't show up as well. I still love it. It was so cheap to make and it looks really pretty with my glitter pumpkins. I will get some pictures up soon once I make a few more finishing touches.

I was trying to find some pictures to post of anything we have done recently. Yeah you can guess it. I had none. But I did find some from about a month ago when mike and I were going on a date and decided to document it. So I thought I would throw them on for fun.

There we are in all our glory. I'm making more pillows this week for our couch and possible painting a dresser. If I am really lucky I will make some progress on my Christmas skirt that I started over conference weekend. Yeah it's a very time consuming skirt. You will see why some day.

2011-11-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

Hocus Pocus and a Lot of Glitter

These are the things that my Halloween season consisted of. Dayna and I got on a serious DIY kick this year and I totally loved it. My house looked so festive. I have now become motivated to do a mantle for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will see how long my enthusiasm lasts on that one. We made our own glitter pumpkins this year which I seriously loved. Clearance pumpkins and half off super fine glitter are pretty much magic words to me right now. We made cute silhouettes of witches and crows. And last but not least we did the cute DIY Halloween banner on Me Oh My Mama. I also decided to decorate with my fully decked out witch hat from our witches night out at Gardner Village. We also had the pleasure of doing a blast from the past night with Sam and Dave where we watched hocus pocus, ate cookie dough and watched a childhood fav.

Sorry for the very crappy pictures. I ran into the room and took a few in the middle of carving pumpkins

Now for the Activities

We had our annual pumpkin carving extravaganza ( Doesn't that word make it sound like we went all out) We popped in my spooky sounds CD that my mom gave me my freshman year of college and carved away. Here are some of the results from the photo shoot after. Please excuse the running hair and clothes. It nasty I know.

And of course Dave rocking his sail boat pumpkin

And last but not least our Costumes. Mike found the idea this year. We thought we would go for the theme that has been consuming our lives for the past 6 months... Dental School! So here we are Mr. Tooth and the Tooth fairy.

We might have pulled these costumes together the 3 hours before the Party. There might have been a good amount of hot glue used b/c of the time constraints. We figure we can just reuse the pillow when our kids lose their teeth. I mean who doesn't want a giant tooth to sleep on?

2011-10-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

Playing Catch up

Surprise surprise I stink at blogging once again. I have had a serious wake up call over the past few weeks. I have now realized I have about zero personal time in the day. Remember awhile back when I said I was going to try and blog every FHE. Wow I failed miserably at that one. So no more promises about blogging all the time. I'll do it when I can and that's life right? So since the last time I blogged I had my golden birthday, the big 25 and ran a 10k and had another wedding. Life has been craziness. Mike had his first dental school interview at Michigan. It went awesome! We have both been all over the place and realized that we hardly see each other. We have decided this probably needs to change. So lets hope I get better at managing everything I have to do and that I can actually get more pictures up of all the projects I do. I have decorated for Halloween and maybe before that holiday actually rolls around I will have some pictures up. For the time being here are some pictures of what we have been up to.

The whole group in the muddy finish line

Steve looks like he is a different race

Muddy love

The girls just posin it up

Me being my fierce self . Dayna and kate cheesing it

I put this up because it might be one of the worst pictures of Kate and I. I look like I am about to barf and kate is high kick gone wrong. I did get some nice air though.

Just working that mud the best way I know how.

Biggest Loser love. I actually kind of freaked out and ran up to Moses and said" Oh my gosh you're Moses." Maybe I was a little star struck.

Hottie washing off

Kate and I sucked it up and went in the cold showers. It was just a tad bit chilly.

The second love of my life at my birthday dinner. Couldn't you just eat those cheeks?

Girls and Vin

Love. Yeah we really are that cool.

2011-09-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

Little Girl Clothes Get Me Every Time

While doing my usual blog scroll through I found this website and just about died at how cute these clothes are. Everyone who has a little girl this Fall should check these outfits out.

2011-09-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

A Real Date

It was this exact day 3 years ago that Michael Udall Reid took me on our first date. I don't know how many people know the story , but here is the short version. I had just gone through a pretty rough break up and was not really looking to get serious. Mike being the sly one that he is pulled some moves on me at the ward opening social. He got my number ,there were a few texts and then next thing I know he calls me up and asks me on a real date. That may not seem like much to most people but I had just been through the whole deal of someone not taking me on dates and just wanting to hang out all the time and never really acting serious about our relationship. It was so nice to have someone actually call me and ask me to go on an official date with them. I was already feeling good about this. So the night was amazing and we talked and talked like we had known each other for years. The whole thing felt so comfortable and natural. It was a perfect first date.

So to celebrate we went to Jason's Deli , which is where we went for dinner on our first date. We talked about what the other was thinking that night and we joked around a lot about Mike's good looks and charm sweeping me off my feet. It was fun to think back about that time in our lives and the beginning of our whole dating experience. Here are a few pictures from when Mike and I had just started dating.

Mike's first BYU football game. Look at him now a true blue fan. I take full credit

You better believe we are the birds and the bees for Halloween. I think this was a pretty good sign that we were going to get married

Now is the time I throw in a few engagement pictures because if it weren't for this magical day there would have never been such a happy little couple

2011-09-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

Bow Banner

This is a project I have been wanting to do for months now. I finally had some free time while I was waiting for Mike one day and I decided to give it a go. It can take a good chunk of time to make all of them but I think they are so fun to have on hand for showers. I also thought they could be so cute as place settings for a shower or party. You could put each person's name on them and lay them on the plate. One day I will make a variety of colors to mix in or use for different things but for now I am liking the purple and green!

2011-09-02T17:39:00.000-07:00

Tissue Paper Flowers

So each year for Mother's Day I make something to wear for my mom and grandma and any other mothers who will be at Sunday dinner. This year I decided to try my hand at the tissue paper flowers. I hand painted each of them. I am super bummed because I never got a picture of my grandma's flowers or Dayna's flowers. I just found these pictures on my parent's computer and realized I never posted about them. So I thought why not throw up a super late post. I made so many more for my mom's birthday party. Next year I think I might do these again but give them a little more umph. They are a fun little project!

2011-09-02T08:14:00.000-07:00

First Day of School

I know I have been super lame with blogging lately but I am picking up 2 more jobs and still have a few more weddings coming up. So my life has been a little bit busy. Plus when I get home I like to spend some time with the hubsters. Look how cute he is on he his last first day of school at BYU. I mean we still have like 8 more years for first days but at least this one is kind of sentimental since we met here at BYU this time of year 3 years ago. Good luck with this year Mike! I know it is going to be a busy and stressful one but it will be worth it. Oh and Mike got his first interview for Dental School! Michigan! I have never been there but from what I hear everyone likes it. Also check out a few pictures my sister posted from the wedding I did a few weeks ago.

http://katemagleby.blogspot.com/2011/08/grace-and-jean-pauls-wedding.html

2011-08-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

Salt Flats

On our way home from San Fran we stopped to take some sweet pictures at the Salt Flats. We ran across the freeway to get these shots but it was totally worth it.

Double fist pump!

Dippin Dots anyone? They look soft but are surprisingly hard

too cute right? He was so excited about these pictures

This one is kind of blurry but this is the dress I made a few weeks ago. I was loving this watercolor wild flower fabric. I wanted a simple semi straight skirt dress with a simple colored band. Nothing crazy but sometimes I am just feeling simple

Yeah, I know my bun is coming out so it looks like I have some weird unicorn horn but that's a pretty impressive jump right?

You better believe I got those gold J Crew flats for $5.00 at Down East. I love them and wear them all the time.

2011-08-08T18:30:00.000-07:00

Party Inspiration for Alyssa

So another aspect of my job that I love is that I get to help plan birthday parties!! I almost love birthday parties more because they are on a smaller scale and you can do so many little fun things. So I am helping with a party this week and I thought I would put up an inspiration picture session and then show how the whole thing turned out later in the week. She wants a black and white themed tea party with accents of pink. Oh an get excited for the fascinators we are making at the party. I am working on all the fun details this week!

love all the pretty touches of black

tea cups staked with cake plates and saucers

dipped strawberries with pink/ black sprinkles

mini cupcakes in centerpieces!!

I love the stripped cloth and the fun drinks

possibility for place cards

contemplating making cupcakes to put in the tea cups

K how could I not put this picture up. It is too precious!

2011-08-06T16:09:00.000-07:00

San Fran Continued

I almost forgot to post a picture from the night we went out to dinner with Greg and Laura. We hit up Sushi and I actually ate a big piece of eel. Ughhhh the texture of the whole thing made me want to gag. For those of you who don't know weird textures are not my thing. Mike gave me a good pat on the back and told me I never had to do it again. After we went to Mitchell's for some seriously yummy ice cream. I got coconut of course.

The next day we hit up the exploritorium. The buildings on the outside where we took pictures are from the world's fair back in the day. It was really beautiful. So we had our little photo session before we began the drive to Lake Tahoe .

Sydney you better believe I took this picture for you. Evelyn in 15 years right? Guys I seriously couldn't help myself. Too great!

Gorgeous Lake Tahoe. We stopped here for dinner and a scenic drive around the Lake. We went to the Char pit upon Brad Masters suggestion. We had ourselves some seriously good Burgers. This was a super fast trip and it was really just for us to get a look at the school and meet some people. It was an awesome get away though and we had such a blast. Who knows maybe next year this is where we will be?

2011-08-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

Tangled Cake

So for Jayne's birthday I asked if I could make her a cake. I wanted to do a Tangled one since she has been going through a serious Tangled phase. So we got to work the night before and thanks to many a Cake Boss and Ace of Cakes episodes I was able to construct a pretty legit tower. Special guest appearances made by Mike and Steve. Now I know the proportions are a little wack but I am no pro and I don't know all the tricks to getting this stuff right. There is a little more detailing that I wish we would have had time for... the windows! Overall it was so fun and it made my heart melt to see her look at it and say oooo Tangles cake! So here are a few pictures and I know they are long over due but I am in crazy wedding mode right now and there hasn't been as much time as I would like.

2011-08-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

Anthro My Love

Seriously everywhere lately I have been seeing the most darling assortment of colored latte bowels. So you better believe I jumped on these sale babies. They will go perfectly with our mini wheat obsession we have been going through and they were only $14.95 hello!

San Fran Part 2

2011-08-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

San Fran

Day 2 in San Fran we started with a Bike ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. Excuse my appearance. I honestly didn't realize how grungy I looked. It was so fun and we beat the crowd of tourists that hit right after we finished. I don't really have any more pictures from this day because we spent the rest of the time on campus at Pacific Dental School. We got to meet with lots of really great people and we took a little tour of the whole place. It was so crazy for me to get to see the types of things Mike will be doing one day. I think we are both ready to be at that point and just know where we are going. We loved the school and all the people. This one is probably still number one on our list of places to go. I promise more fun pictures will be coming!

San Fran

2011-07-25T21:27:00.000-07:00

First Round of San Fran Pictures

So this past weekend Mike and I make the very long drive to San Fran. We had to leave Wed after I got off work and then we drove to Reno and spent the night. I always like doing the long road trips with Mike. We get a lot of good talking and quality time together. This is especially nice since we are preparing ourselves for the next few years of not a lot of time together. Then the next morning we woke up and made the rest of the drive. We stopped in Sacramento at Squeeze Inn. It was a restaurant featured on dinners drive ins and dives. We got the squeeze burger with the famous cheese skirt. I took a picture on my phone and then didn't save it b/c it was in instagram. Lame.... but anyway it was really good and very cheesy.

As we were driving mike spotted this incredible sunflower field. Side not- I have always wanted to see one of these fields in full bloom. So Mike being the stud of a husband that he is flipped the car around and searched for side roads until we found it. It was amazing. Brownie points right?

Sorry the picture of me turned out looking like I have some super weird skin condition. Yikes.

There he is in all his glory. What a little star!

Delicious right? This was a small taste of the amazing bug collection our car got on the way there. Seriously disgusting.

Oh San Fran and your gorgeous hydrangeas. I was drooling over the deep colors.

It was like a sea of fuchsia clouds.

Beautiful Lombard street. I think I got a cramp in my calf hiking up the hill that led to this street.

This cute chocolate shop we stopped in down in fisherman's wharf.

love it!

Oh you know we had to stop here.

This shake was seriously heavenly. Mike and I decided we were going to share since we had the squeeze burger earlier in the day. This ended up being a bad idea b/c both of us were not wanting to give this thing up. Oh it was so good!

I have loads more pictures but I am a little swamped right now with weddings and work. So more pictures to come throughout the week. I'm just trying to get back onto my Monday blogging goal.

2011-06-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

There is this field across from our house and I decided that we should take some pictures there. So Mike and I took turns taking pictures. We couldn't get any together but it was still fun to actually take some pictures of us.

Mike and I went to Cheesecake Factory for our anniversary and then went to Mama Mia at the Capitol Theater. It was great and we only got a few pictures but at least we documented right.

2011-06-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

For my mom's 50th birthday we pulled off the ultimate surprise party for her. We had to do everything in secret and a lot of the time we were trying to make up reasons for her to leave so we could work on stuff. Mike made a fake invitation and my aunt supplied an old engagement picture that she had received. My dad told her he was taking her out to dinner but they needed to stop by a reception at the Salt Lake Hardware building for a couple in his ward. We got together as many of my mom's closest friends and family and gave her a pretty rockin party. Sorry it took me so long to post about this. Life has been crazy as I have said many times before.

We invited anyone who wanted to make party hats. So maybe I was on a royal wedding kick and thought it would be so fun to make fascinators. Everyone did their own interpretation but it was a blast!

2011-06-14T22:50:00.000-07:00

oh blogging world sometimes it is too hard to keep up with you. Until I decide to make my huge reappearance with a million updates I will do just one.

To The Love Of My Life

I can't believe Mike and I have been married a whole year. Honestly it feels like the time just flew by. On Sunday was the official mark but with how crazy everything has been we decided we will celebrate this weekend. I know a lot of my posts get dedicated to the man in my life , but it's only because he is so fabulous. I hardly express it enough to him. Everyone kept telling us how marriage is an adjustment and how the first year is always the hardest. Mike and I always kind of joke about it because honestly our first year was so great and we never felt like we had to adjust. It was really natural for us

We made it through hard school semesters and the DAT. We made it through my wedding and babysitting schedule. We made it through our post wedding chub stage. We even made it through all the decorating and painting and building that went into our house this year. To be honest I loved it all. Mike is the best at making me relax and have fun. This year has really been so amazing. I happen to think that we go pretty well together. I still miss him when he is at work and he is always the first I call to tell exciting things. I can vent to him anytime. He always gets me a glass of water whenever I ask and he even drives me when I am craving frozen yogurt( this happens a lot). I love my husband and I am so excited for our years to come.

2011-04-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

Poppies and a Lack of Blogging

Oh yes the long awaited blog post. I have been MIA this past week because I have been trying to figure out my job situation. Is it stressing me out ... yes! So many decisions to make. I will let you know what I decide to do soon. Here is a little recap of our weekend and the projects I have been working on. After that Martha Stewart issue came out with the poppies all over the cover I knew I needed to make me some flowers. I have been wanting to for a few weeks now. I have been loving them and wearing them a lot. I decided I wanted to sell some after I got a lot of comments on them. So if you are interested just let me know and all the prices are below the flowers. I can also do custom ones if you are looking for a certain color. I think they look cute on baby onesies and sweaters too. Then you can just unpin them and wash the onesie without wrecking the flower This is a necklace I made forever ago but had yet to document it. I have been making lots of these out of my vintage jewelry collection and I will probably start trying to sell them too. I just need to see if people are even interested in something like this. So I hope you enjoy lots of pictures!!

$10.00

( this is the one I am wearing in our easter picture)

$12.00 red silk

$12.00 pink silk

$12.00 Peach and ivory silk

$8.00 blue and white cotton

$12.00 pale blue and pink silk

(below)

Happy Easter

What's a good blog post without these two beauties. Are they not the most precious children ever?

2011-04-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

Another Week

So I know this is super lame but it took me a whole week to blog again. I guess it's a good thing we decided to do this FHE weekly recap or our blog would suffer. So last week I didn't have a day off and Mike was busy studying for school and the DAT. We didn't have that much time together... typical. I started going through I'm stressed about paying for dental school syndrome again and now I have convinced myself that I need another part time job. I don't know how many people that read my blog actually have husbands that are or went through medical or dental school but how did you make it work financially? I know everyone says to take out loans and I know we will have to but how much should we be trying to save ahead of time? How much of our own money should we invest into it first? I have been doing a lot of reading in the past week about typical expenses and average cost of everything. It's so depressing. I go through these moments were I just try to come up with some sort of plan so that we won't be swimming in debt. Those have been the majority of my thoughts this week. So yes I am on the lookout for another part time job. I really love working with kids, but I don't know what my chances are of finding something else like that. If anyone hears of anything let me know.

On a happier note our Friday night was the first time in seriously 2 months that we have been able to have a date night and just hang out with friends. We went to the temple with some of my favorite people the Heaps and then we went to this mexican place on University Avenue called El Giro Girro. It was really good. They had this pineapple drink that was heavenly. Then we went back to Jane and Brady's apartment and played some games. It was honestly such a fun night for us. We don't get to do things like that very often these days. Saturday was Mike's final DAT prep class. Dayna and I also went running everyday last week! We went and exchanged out TV for one that worked and then Mike's friend Devin got us totally sucked into the show Prison Break. As a result I have had a hard time sleeping at night and I am afraid to be in the back part of the house by myself.

Sunday was sweet baby Vinny's baby blessing. He is seriously so precious. I love it. I will post pictures of these things once I get them from my mom.

Today I plan on doing crafts since I spent all day yesterday cleaning our house. I have the whole week off for spring break. It has been great so far. Sorry this is such a lengthy post. I won't blog about our FHE last night until next week because we have some goals to reach first. Lets hope I can get some more quality posts out there before next Tuesday.

2011-04-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

Family Goals

I know this is going to sound pretty pathetic but for the first time since we have been married Mike and I had our first serious official FHE. It's not that we didn't have FHE, it was just always something like playing cards with friends or watching a movie together or just some good bonding time with family. We decided we were going to sit down and talk about how we wanted our Monday nights to go.

1. First we will always sing the family night song. I grew up singing it with my family every Monday night and I want it to be a tradition we do with our own kids.

2. We will come up with some sort of spiritual thing to do. This week we read a talk about families.

3. We will blog. This will be our family journal every Monday night. My mom always had a big binder where we wrote down the things we had done the past week and the important events going on in our lives. Since I need to be better about blogging we decided to blog instead of a journal for now.

Our first official FHE went really well and we came up with family goals/ motto. Our blog for the week was our trip down South. So here I am to do a recap of the last week. My mom and I planned a shower for my darling friend Hillary that we threw Tuesday night( pictures are coming). Mike studied that night and took a test. He also took a test on Thursday and kicked it in the butt! He has been having a really great semester. I caught up on biggest loser and cleaned a lot. Thursday Dayna and I did cycling and we both were feeling it big time. Friday Dayna and I did a Bob biggest loser work out and were so sore all weekend. I worked all day Friday until 10:00. Dayna and I went running twice( if you hadn't caught on yet Dayna and I are on a mission) We spent the rest of the weekend with the fam eating yummy food and watching conference. While the boys were at conference the girls had a night out at Dear Lizzie. It was a great week.

I left my camera in Alpine so I decided to put some great inspiration pictures up until I get some of us!

I love little details like this.

Kate and I will be making these this week

Shoes

Where we spent our girl's night out

I want a grey tufted couch like this one

2011-04-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

Behold the I-Pad

For Max's blue and gold banquet each year they have to make a cake for the event. Last year we made a Calle soccer ball that was pretty good, but after the Angry Birds cake for Max's birthday we had to come up with something "cooler". So we thought about it and it turned into this beauty of a cake. It was a big group effort with my mom Susie and I. Not to mention some special guest appearances from Maximus with the calculator app and even Big E with the twitter app (impressed... I was). So our cake making skills are getting pretty good if I do say so myself. Lets see what Jo comes up with for her birthday.

The Big Easy

2011-03-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

My mom provided the awesome BYU flag for the rental car

Yea Baby

My mom would make matching outfits for us to wear on the plane out to Utah when we were little. The tradition lives on in our coordinating outfits that we worse on the plane.

Mike loving the view

We headed out to Destin Florida on Friday to get a little beach action

We ate at the Back Porch on Destin beach. This was a wonderful recommendation from the amazing Amanda Egan.

Oh the fried food of the South. This was not a week of good eating habits

The sand looked and felt like sugar

I was the official mom of the trip so I had to carry around the bag of all our things

Lovin

She loves the camera

Mr. B's barboque shrip. This was by far the best meal of the trip

Shrimp just might be one of my favorite foods

French Quarter

This lady was workin in

I love houses and we spent a good chunk of the day walking

around looking at the amazing architecture

St. Charles Street

Oak Valley Plantation

This was one of my favorite things that we did. It was honestly breath taking

Kate got just a little sunburned

Our trip was so much fun. Even though BYU lost we were happy to be there for the team's final game together. It was bitter sweet but this BYU basketball season was such a thrill to watch. Thursday was spent traveling pretty much all day. We woke up at 4:30 a.m. and went to the airport. We met plenty of people asking us to cheer on BYU. We had random people at our lay over in Atlanta telling us about how amazing Jimmer is. We finally made it to Mobile Alabama where we hoped in the rental car and drove 2 hours to New Orleans. We got flicked off by some Florida flans. Classy right? We got in with just enough time to grab some food and get to the game. We stayed for the whole BYU game and half of the Butler game. Then we drove 2 hours back to Mobile so that we would be closer to Florida for Friday. We pretty much took showers and collapsed into bed.

Friday we woke up and made the drive to Destin. As soon as we got there the sunscreen came out and we were beaching it pretty much all day. We did stop for some fried sea food. It was a must on this trip. Then we met up with the beautiful Amanda Egan and listened to her doll of a grandpa tell us stories. I could not get over his southern accent... or his cardigan. Then we headed back to mobile. At this point we were all pretty hungry so we headed out for a late night bite. Checkers it was. This was our first mistake. The girl working the counter could not have been more bothered that we pulled into that drive through. Apparently she had a lot more important things to be doing. She asked us 3 times to order while we were trying to decide what we wanted and then totally messed up my order.

Saturday was our day in New Orleans. We packed up and made the drive again. We headed to Mr. B's for lunch which was incredible. We found some lucky Florida fans to buy our tickets and we walked the city. We did all the tourist things like ride the street car and go through the french quarter to the markets and street vendors. We tried all the local grub and even made a short appearance on Bourbon Street. We spent all day there and it was a blast. We staid in New Orleans that night so it was a short drive.

Sunday we drove out to the Oak Valley Plantation and spent an hour there walking around. It was an incredible location. Then we drove back to Mobile where our flight was delayed a few hours. We finally got to Atlanta where our flight was delayed a few hours there too. We got home at a horrible hour and yesterday I felt like the living dead but it was all worth it. I would love to make my way back down to the South again. I loved the atmosphere and landscape. It was a wonderful trip

2011-03-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

Fresh Flowers and Pretty Containers

Our home is totally full of beautiful flowers left over from the wedding last week. I love it!! Seriously fresh flowers in the house makes such a difference. It helps that they are some of my favorites. Then these sleek beauties are our new shampoo and conditioner dispensers. Do I love them? Yes. I hate having bulky Costco size containers in the shower that never fit well next to each other. So I load these bad boys up and put the big container in the closet until I need to reload. They sit all nice and pretty in the shower taking up hardly any room. They are at Target!

2011-03-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

Silva &Walton

Wedding

This is my first official blog picture with the short hair. Some of you may not have known that I chopped my hair. It has been an adjustment since I haven't had short hair since 4th grade. This is not the best styling job on my part but hopefully I can figure out how to work this look and get more pictures up.

This is what I have to deal with when Mike

doesn't get enough sleep. Seriously you guys.

Future dentist Greg. We will be visiting this handsome fellow, along with his beautiful wife and chubby cuteness of a son Henry, this summer to check out Pacific Dental School where he is the number 1 guy on campus.

Reids having a bonding moment

Dave decided to shout out possible scenarios and get our reactions. Obviously this is BYU beating Gonzaga. In real life I was about 10 times more excited than in this picture

Look at these dashing young men. Dave was our house guest for the weekend and it was a blast. We always love it when there is a good excuse for Mike's family to come into town!

Gotta love the boys all together

For the first time Mr. and Mrs. Chris Silva. Don't they look fantastic!

For real are they not so cute?

Love this one!

The hubby working the profile

Greg and Mike have lots of "special" moments.

The gorgeous Walton girls.

I had to

The groom and the best man.

Seriously these little girls were so darling. Look at those faces.

Love him

These photos are just proof that I am a very awesome wife. I was pretty much a personal photographer to some of the goofiest grooms men I have ever seen. This would be why there are hardly any pictures of Mike and I. I was honestly following these crazies everywhere. I didn't get a chance to take pictures at the reception, which I am so bummed about. I will try to find a link soon so that everyone can see how amazing it all looked. We currently have tons of flowers at our house so I will probably get a few shots of them for everyone. Amy and Chris we are so so happy for you. Chris is honestly like a brother to Mike and we feel like he is truly part of the family. Amy will be the perfect addition to it all. They are 2 amazing, loving, kind, funny, and easy going people. We wish you all the happiness in the world and hopefully a game of Bang when you get home!

2011-03-16T12:04:00.000-07:00

Things I want but I don't NEED

How darling is this dress? I love love love it. Add a little cap sleeve and it's the perfect summer church dress. I know this will not be easy to make but isn't it gorgeous.

This lamp shade from Anthro is a serious want of mine. I think it is so beautiful and it would look amazing in my craft room agreed?

Kate Spade gets me every time. Not only do I love their spring line but I want this poppy picture by my desk. It just gets me excited for the poppy field in June!

Emerson Made anything has been on my list for awhile. Her clothing line is amazing! I know I could never rock the over sized flower but I think they are the perfect little accessory.

I want to throw a shoe themed bridal shower for someone and you have to wear your favorite pair of shoes. How cool are these paper shoes. Can you just picture how cute this would be?

So that's the end of the list of things I want but don't need. It's a hard post to deal with because I seriously go ga ga over some of these things. One day when we aren't in super saver mode I will post about how I make some of these things a reality.

2011-03-15T12:44:00.000-07:00

Curb Appeal

So to be perfectly honest the front of our house is really ugly. Lots of times when people are coming over for the first time they call and ask if this is the house because it looks like no one lives there. It's pretty bad. I think it was built in the 60's or 70's and not a lot of thought went into the outside. We do have this really cool front entry way that has a glass door and windows on both sides. It has been beat up quit a bit over the years and so I have been thinking about painting it a fun color. I love the shops in London and how they have the fun bright colors for the storefronts. At first I was thinking blue but it seems like it might not blend in so well with the house so I am thinking RED. I think it could be such a fun pop of color. It probably won't be until next week that it happens but I was hoping to get opinions of what people thought.

So I made some little curtain type things to cover the shelves on either side of the sink. I thought I would post it so you could see our bathroom slowly coming together. They are wrinkly in this picture which bugs me but not enough for me to go fix it and take more pictures. So I'm sorry they aren't nice a crisp. This is my new pot that I am totally obsessed with. I got it at TJ Max for 6 dollars. I love the color and the finish on it. I seriously held it the whole way home because I was so happy to put it in the kitchen! More fun things to come. I am working on a dessert table for a wedding this week so we should have another fun post coming up!

2011-03-09T10:22:00.000-08:00

Today is a Hard Day

I have been doing a lot of babysitting over the past few months. I love it and I honestly couldn't be more grateful for my job. I have learned so much about being a mother and the things I want to do with my own children. That doesn't mean I don't have days that are just straight up hard! So far this round has been so easy. Everyday has had plenty of things to do and the kids have been great. I woke up this morning with a head ache and I was so tired. I wasn't able to be my same bubbly self with the kids and I felt my patients getting shorter and shorter. This is not usually like me. We are on day 6 of the 9 day babysitting session. I have gone from no kids to 5 kids. Every day my respect and admiration for mothers goes up. Plus I am pretty much a single parent right now because mike is so busy. I just keep telling myself this is what dental school will be like. I know tomorrow will be better and I know by this afternoon I will feel better. I miss my husband and I miss getting to see him every day. This whole texting and talking on the phone instead of hanging out is not okay with me. Excuse my vent session. It's just one of those days.

2011-03-03T15:11:00.000-08:00

House Update

I did a small picture wall on one of the walls in our living room. For now it is just a random assortment of things. The purple floral paper was given to me by my mom. She got it at the most darling paper store in Denmark. The dress form I made a few summers ago when I was thinking of craft room ideas. There are two vintage little girl dress patterns I got when I was in Paris. The tile is one I picked up in a small shop in the Old City in Jerusalem and the ABC page was just for fun. At some point it will become something more meaningful.

Before the paint

I repainted all the cupboards and counter top and shelves. I put polyurethane on them to seal it from the water. We put new hardware on and I deep cleaned the whole thing!

So here are a few late pictures of the living room and the bathroom. I painted them awhile ago but it has taken be some time to finally sit down and do this post. I love the new color in the living room. It makes our whole house feel so much cozier. The living room takes up the majority of the first floor so it was a lot of wall space to paint. I also painted the windows and mantle white because the wood had been so beat up and chipped. As you can see I went through with the stripes on the floor. I tried two different colors and although I don't really love the black there was no way I was painting it a third time. It is starting to grow on me in its Tim Burton kind of way. I think it's fun but I will probably never do it again. This house has been all about experiments. I love having white counter tops now and the floor feels so much cleaner to me. I am still trying to find a shower curtain that I like and I am also trying to come up with a good way to cover the shelves of stuff on either side of the mirror. I haven't even thought about what little decorating touches I will add in there but it is a huge step up from what we were dealing with when we moved in. Sorry for being so lame and not blogging. I'm afraid you may not hear from me for awhile because I am babysitting for 9 days. Have a happy weekend. I am going to a devotional given my Nie Nie tonight!

2011-03-01T08:36:00.000-08:00

Angry Birds Cake

My baby brother turns 10 today. I can't believe he is already 10. I remember so well the day he was born and to me he still seems like a baby! My sister Kate sent all of us a link about a week ago of an angry birds cake a father had made for his son's birthday. She said it would be sweet if we did it for Max's birthday since he loves the game. I brought it up to max on Thursday of last week. At first he was like oh that's okay I just want one with Twix and Butterfinger. Then when he got home from school he came up to and said well, what if I did want an angry birds cake. He continued to ask me about it over the next two days. So Friday night he went for a sleep over at his cousin's house and my mom and I made a run to the store to get all the supplies we would need. Steve was spending the night out in Alpine too so we began the project of making cake and laying it all out. Saturday before and after the BYU game I made all the little characters out of fondant. I was lucky to have Susie step in the next day to finish off 2 of the pigs and another yellow bird! Steve was our head engineer and I was the creative director. In the end Max loved it and it was a really fun project! Happy Birthday Max!!!

2011-02-24T18:47:00.000-08:00

Can I please have these plates?

2011-02-22T13:47:00.000-08:00

Organized

How did I spend my holiday? Well the morning was full of sitting eating and spending time with my family. The afternoon was all cleaning and organizing. It has been consumin my life the past few weeks. I can't stand haveing things not organized and put together. I also want things to be beautiful.. even if it's a closet. So I have been going through each room working on making it better. I still have a lot of painting to do in the craft room and touch up in the guest room but our house is finally starting to feel put together. I promise one day pictures will come of our home but I am determined to finish it before I post things. So here is to another week of getting our house sorted through. Soon we will have to move on to the basement and that might actually kill me. There have been so many things going on with our family as I am sure everyone has already seen on Dayna's blog. I promise to post about that sweet addition soon. The spring cleaning bug hit us early this year so happy organizing!!

Check out the blog deliciously organized for some other awesome organizing tips!

2011-02-14T09:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day

2011-02-08T09:22:00.000-08:00

For Mr. Reid

Mike with his nieces and nephews. Like I've said before he will be a great dad.

Hey there model behavior

Oh the dating days. Always have to give a throw back to the early stage of our relationship

I love him for his goofy side too

Look at this guy with the babies. Is that not precious?

This is mike cleaning the nasty fridge in the gross kitchen. That's love for ya

Mike will do anything I ask.. like climbing a magnolia tree in church clothes because I thought they were so pretty

the fruits of his labor

I'm hoping at least one of our children gets those beautiful eyes

This is just a reminder for how good looking he is.

My mom has a very similar picture on the same beach in Israel with my Dad's name in it. I thought I would keep the tradition many years later for my future husband

As I have gone through my usual blogs over the past week I can't help but notice that everyone is doing posts about their significant others. I feel like my posts have been lacking a lot in the Lauren and Mike area and have mostly been focused on the projects and ideas I have been up to. So I thought this would be the perfect time to do a tribute post to my most wonderful husband. I don't think he hears it enough from me how much I appreciate him. In all honesty I don't get to see Mike very much at all these days. He is so dedicated to school, work, studying for the DAT and shadowing dentists that we usually only see each other in the morning for an hour and then for dinner and right before bed. I miss the days of down time and doing whatever we wanted. Sad to say those days may be over for the next ten years until mike is done with school, but I'm okay with that... at least I say I am.

There are so many things I admire about Mike. We have been doing a lot of babysitting over the past few months , and every time Mike impresses me with how he can win the kids over and keep them under control so I can have some much needed down time and get things done that I couldn't do with the kids. He will be a great father because he is so patient and fun. He is constantly helping me with the house projects even though he knows it's not necessary to fix our house anymore. He does it because he knows it means a lot to me. He is always leaving me sticky notes on the mirror for when I wake up and many times I have come home from work to a totally clean house. He always offers to help at family functions and steps in lots of times when others won't. He works and goes to school and studies all at once in efforts to provide for our family. He is loving and good looking. I love my husband so much and every day I am so grateful for how good he is to me. I promise to keep this blog focused on us some more so that this is a better recap of our married life together. I love you Mike and I miss you when you're gone and love the time we do have together.

Love Laur

2011-02-04T08:53:00.000-08:00

Inspiration and Things I Love

The next big room I have to work on at our house is my craft room. There is something about this kitchen that just makes me want to go make something.

I love it. I love the variation of widths with the stripes and I love the feminine

feel. I think it is darling.

As many of you may have known I grew up with a rather large assortment of oversized bows in my hair. The majority took up a good 2/3 of my head.

This picture makes me laugh because in a way I find it to be

symbolic of my childhood.

This picture makes me think of my grandma Magleby. She has

an amazing collection of vintage dresses that

we used for dress ups growing up.

I don't know what it is but cute potted trees and bushes in pairs are consuming my life. I want them everywhere. I got two small ones for our living room but is it bad

to want them in my kitchen and in the entrance to the house. There

is something about having live plants in the house that actually

makes it feel more like a home. These two are

just perfect in their little terra cotta pots.

I love little details. You know those big bags of truffles you can get at costco? How cute would this be for a fun spring time shower. It's such a great pop of color.

2011-02-02T14:12:00.001-08:00

I want Roman Shades... enough said

2011-02-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

Inspired By Stripes

I have been doing some painting in our bathroom these past two weeks. I decided to go a little bolder than I normally do. So stripes it was. I don't think I would ever do it in our future home, but for now it has been fun and a much needed change from the old bathroom. Pictures of the final product are coming soon.

2011-01-31T12:37:00.000-08:00

Cool Article on Mormon Blogs

Also it looks like we might have 2 more weddings this spring. I am so excited to start blogging our ideas and inspiration

2011-01-26T13:46:00.000-08:00

New Pillows and a New Look

So I have been working on making our room look a little more put together. I made some pillows and decided to bring green into the room and then we found this bench at Costco on sale. I also decided to re do my jewelry board with some of my left over fabric from the pillows. It has been fun to add a few new touches here and there to make our room feel more cozy. We also picked up a new rug and put our ld one in the kitchen to help protect our floor a little better. I have been organizing and painting things like crazy at our house. I am determined to finally finish all these projects I have wanted to do. That is why I have not been blogging at all. I just want everything to be done and it takes a really long time. More pictures of our newly painted bathroom and living room will be happening soon. I promise to be a better blogger. There might be another wedding in the future so I will give updates on that soon too. For now enjoy our bright happy room.

2011-01-21T14:54:00.000-08:00

Great Finds

My new towels that are also anthro knock off from TJ Max.

My knock off anthro bowls from TJ Max

My trinket dish from Micheals that I got for a dollar. I put my ring on it at night. I kind of love it

My new journal for 2011 from TJ Max.

Fabric from the discount fabric store in Orem

Okay I know I know. I am a horrible blogger. But life has been busy. I have been going full force getting our house organized and clean and put together. I have been painting the bathroom , sewing pillows, painting the living room, cleaning out clutter and getting our rooms accessorized. It has been fun but it is kind of tiring. So here are a few great finds i have gotten over the past few weeks. They have all been so affordable and have made wonderful touches in our rooms. I am going to post our bedroom tomorrow. I am loving how it all is turning out.

Rachel and Ken's Wedding

2010-12-26T13:16:00.000-08:00

Rachel and Ken's Wedding

Jonathan Canlas has put up pictures from Rachel and Ken's wedding. This was such a wonderful experience and I am so glad that we were able to be a part of it. Everyone should go and check out all the pictures on his Blog

2010-12-21T12:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Steve

Happy Birthday to my big brother Steve who is 27 today. Steve is a great big brother and a wonderful father. We are excited for him to be back in Utah for awhile. Hope you have a wonderful day Steve!

2010-12-17T17:06:00.000-08:00

Christmas Decorating for my Mom

So our dear friends Nick and Sydney invited us to David archuletta in concert with the Mormon tabernacle Choir last night. It was a crazy night and we almost didn't get it, but thanks to the sweetest little ladies who were ushers we got in. Was it worth it? Yes! I love him. It was such a fun way to spend our last date night with them before they head up to Washington for the next 6 months.

Then up above you can see a few pictures of the decorating I did for my mom this year. It was so fun to get to use all her amazing decorations. She just has endless boxes full of the most amazing things. It was really fun and it already has me thinking of ideas for next year!

2010-12-16T12:43:00.000-08:00

1 Year

I can't believe it has been a whole year since I was in Jerusalem. So much has happened and it still feels like I was just there. Some days I miss it so badly and all I want to do is look through my pictures. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. It was really hard of course to be away from Mike and my family but the experiences I had there changed my life. It was so amazing to be there during Christmas. We would have been in Bethlehem this last week. I have such a love for that place and I want to go back with my family some day I hope. So here is to one whole year of being home. I miss it a lot but I am really excited to be able to have those memories and the friendships I made there.

2010-12-15T12:14:00.000-08:00

I love kate spade. I get sucked into their website all the time. I love the polka dots and i love the skirts. I just wish it wasn't so expensive.

2010-12-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

Gingerbread Time

This year was the year that my mom and I decided to go all out with the gingerbread house. We changed the pattern added a potting shed and outdoor fireplace. We incorporated stone work with chocolate rocks and we even busted out the fondant. It was so much fun but it was about a 3 to 4 day process to get the whole thing put together. It even has a light inside that you can turn on at night to shine through the hardtack candy windows. Merry Christmas!

2010-12-12T13:27:00.000-08:00

Denmark Round 2

Cute mother daughter photo

I wish this picture had turned out not blurry. My mom got jayne the most adorable black skinny jeans from Gap. She rocked the cutest black flats with it. She look so darling.

How much do you love this fur coat we got Jayne. She fit right in with all the Danish women.

We did initiatories at the temple in Denmark our last day there. It was a really amazing experience.

Here are just a few more of the pictures from our Denmark trip. We hadn't loaded my mom's camera yet and I thought there were a few that were must see photos of Jayner. Hope you enjoy!

2010-12-06T05:48:00.000-08:00

Home Again

I made it back from Denmark on Saturday. I was so tired after all the traveling and then going to the BYU basketball game that I have been pretty low energy these past 2 days. I am home now and wanted to give an update on our amazing trip. Dayna took most of the pictures while we were there so I had to steal some from her blog post.

Couldn't you just eat her up. One of the best parts of this trip was getting to play with Jayne and see how much she has changed over the past few months. She is so chatty and funny. I can't wait for them to be back in the states.

Oh yes for the fur hats. These things were seriously amazing. I can't explain how cold we were and not once was my head cold when I was wearing that sweet beehive of a hat. Don't judge me and my fur ball ties. That hat will be making a reappearance very soon I think.

Tivoli was incredible. They had such fun shops and christmas decorations. It was by far the most festive market we went to. I think we would have stayed longer if we all hadn't been freezing to death that night. My mom found some awesome ornaments and a really cute Santa there.

In Denmark they like to decorate with hearts. It was so fun to see this tree all decked out in big heart lights.

We made our way to a castle our second day. Hmm that's weird you would think it was the same day because I'm wearing pretty much the same outfit. I'm afraid the only way you will be able to tell the difference in which day it is would be by looking at the color of my scarf. Once again please don't judge me.

The ballroom was breath taking.

How fun are these lights over the shopping streets. My mom and I were saying it would look amazing at a wedding!

We went and saw the statue of the little mermaid while we were there. The story was written by a Danish man named Hans Christian Anderson.

Oh my gosh she is so cute in that snow suit. Jayne was such a trooper through all the long days of traveling.

I had an amazing trip. I always love going on vacation with my mom because she is up for anything and is such a great travel buddy. It was a really neat experience to get to go to the country of my ancestors and learn about their culture. I love how active the people are there and I love the architecture. I have more pictures from my mom's camera coming soon but for now i hope you all enjoy a little taste of our trip abroad.

2010-12-02T07:57:00.000-08:00

I'm in Denmark for the week visiting this sweet face. Jealous...?