Lauren Is Growing Up!

This is my little girl, Lauren.

OK, she's not so little anymore.
OK, so she's big! Practically a teenager!
Could someone PLEASE tell me where my little girl went?
I remember this day so vividly...January 1999.

She wasn't supposed to come for another week and a half. Ryan was in the middle of writing two huge papers for law school, so I was pretty much husbandless. His papers were due right before I was scheduled to be induced, so it should have worked out great...but Lauren had other plans (little did I know then, that this was going to be her MO for the rest of her life!). I woke up that morning having contractions about 5 minutes apart. We hurried to the hospital and she was very anxious to join us. What a beautiful little thing she was (well, not that little: she was 8 pounds and 2 1/2 weeks early!) and, of course, I fell in love instantly. Ryan completed his papers that following week and we brought her home to join our family. Lauren has always been full of life. She is spunky, passionate, emotional, and a little spit fire. I knew she was going to give us a run for our money when, at eight months, she would crawl under our table and would hang from the cross bars underneath! But she is such a joy and I don't know what I would do without her in my life!

Like I did for Braiden, I would like to include a little snapshot of what Lauren is like, right now, at age eleven. I don't ever want to forget these things about her.

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  Lauren is very musical and creative. I've said this before, but she continues to amaze me with her creativity. She is always wanting to make something, cook something, or improve something. She is doing very well on her piano, and now she just sits down all of the time and plays and sings (it's wonderful to not have to harp on her to get her to practice!). She is also an amazing dancer. I hope she will continue to study ballet for many more years. It is such a joy to watch her (I'm a little jealous because I am not graceful at all). Here she is after performing in the Nutcracker again. She was a candy cane and was wonderful.

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  Lauren is a good friend. She is so social! She is always wanting her friends to come over and hang out, and they all want to come. She is always thinking out others. Her two best buds right now are Kimberly and Sammie.

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  Lauren is a domestic goddess. She loves to play little Holly Homemaker. She is constantly begging to let her make goodies in the kitchen. From cookies, to brownies, to made-from-scratch cream cheese chocolate cake. She even decided to have a little "Food Network Challenge" where her and Kimberly each made a recipe and had the other kids taste each one and decide who had the best dish! Too funny! Now, if we could just get her to clean up the kitchen "Mom's way" everything would be perfect!

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  Lauren is very budget savvy. She is very good with her money, and even does extra chores to earn extra dough. She puts most of it in savings, but usually spends the rest on other people. She loves giving gifts. A lot are homemade, but some are purchases with her own funds. She is very giving and generous that way.

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  Lauren is very fashionable. She loves clothes and scarfs and jewelry. She is also really into fixing her hair these days. She is so excited that it is as long as Katie's hair. She received a curling iron for her birthday and now spends quite a bit of time in the bathroom practicing her curls. She is so beautiful!

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  She is one brilliant girl. I can't believe how smart she is. At her last parent teacher conference, she was testing on almost an eighth grade math level! She is also a great reader. Sometimes I have to tell her to STOP reading. She also loves science and history. She gets all As in all of these subjects and her teacher loves her. But even though all of this seems to come easy for her, I'm amazed at how hard of a worker she is. She rarely stops at "good enough" but instead tries to improve even more. I'm so proud of the person she is becoming!

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  One last thing, Lauren is a little jokester. She is constantly saying witty and funny things. This is her at Disneyland..."Mom, take a picture of me by this height sign...Look, wittle Wauren is too wittle for the wide!" We all giggled for a while after that one. What a silly girl!

So, here's how the festivities went down on Lauren's big day this year. We went to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner that night. It is one of our favorite birthday dinner spots. We had a great time, as usual.

On the Sunday after, we had a big family get together at our house. We love getting the whole family together for yummy food and great company. Grandma Janis made her this darling cupcake cake. (whew! One less thing for me to do...Thanks, Mom!)

I will post about her friends party on another post, but for now, Happy Eleventh Birthday! We love you so much and have loved every minute of these last 11 years! Thanks for being a wonderful part of our family!