Happy Birthday to our Girl!

Lauren recently turned 8 years old. It seems like she has all of a sudden really grown up. The way she acts, it seems like the teenage years are just around the corner. (Oh, help me!)The things she wanted for her birthday: make-up and a real digital camera. She did get both, but she was told the make-up is only for play, not for wearing outside the house.

Lauren's birthday was on a Sunday, so we celebrated it on Saturday. We went to Jump On It---a big warehouse full of trampolines, as a family, and then we made her favorite dinner.....cheese fondue and jello. (Then last weekend we have 5 of her best friends over for a "Fashion" latenight. I'll put those pics in a different post)

Lauren is so special to our family. She is a great big sister. It was almost 7 years of marriage before she joined our family. She helped us to learn patience, faith, and a deeper respect and appreciation for parenthood. She was a beautiful little baby. Lots of curly dark red hair in the front, and long dark brown hair in the back. I was horrifed when it all fell out at a month. But she quickly grew back lots of curly brown hair, and long dark brown eyelashes. She got lots of attention everywhere we went. She always had matching shoes, bracelet, bow, burpcloth and blanket. And she always had a quick smile. Her Dad said she screamed until she was 2 yrs old. I don't know if that's quite right, but she was very colicy from 2 months until about 5 months. I didn't know any better, so we got through it just fine! I was so in love with her, it didn't matter.

Lauren has grown into a beautiful, fun, happy and very obedient little girl. She is an excellent student, and very conscientious at making sure she is on task and completes all of her assignments and homework. She wakes up at 6:30 AM, gets all of her "jobs" done before school. All of this with no proding. She wakes up by herself with an alarm clock.

Each time a child celebrates a birthday in her school class, every child in the class makes the birthday kid a card. So recently she brought home a collection of cards from her classmates that they had made for her for her birthday. I read each of them. One comment that was consistent in each card was, "you are very nice". This is really true of Lauren. She is a very kind, thoughtful child, and would never purposely hurt anyone's feelings. Because of this she has many friends. She also has a very strong personality, and is a leader among her peers.

Lauren LOVES to play with friends. It's something she wants to do everyday. She loves to be outside, to be spontaneous, to have fun! She likes to be creative and make crafts. Lauren would never come home from school and just veg in front of the TV. She's always going, and always involved in something.

She does 4 hours of dance a week, and will begin competition season next month. She's done "Company" dance for 3 years. She loves to perform and be on stage.....and get dressed up in the dance costumes and make-up.

She recently started piano and has picked it up easily. I think piano will be one of her talents. She also likes to sing, and make up stories, poems, and songs.

Here's a few pics of Lauren.......................

(Newborn Lauren with a little squishy face)

(4 months old) (Lauren's school picture from last year)

Happy Birthday Lauren! We love you, and are so glad we get to be your parents! Lauren is so excited that she is 8 and gets to be baptized and go to Activity Days. She has worked hard, and has had a desire to truly understand about the baptismal coventant. We've been having FHE about Baptism for about a year. We love our girl! She is precious to us!!!