Wednesday, April 2, 2008


Our Lauren is NINE!
I really can't believe that our firstborn has been in this world for nine years now. Every cliche' regarding time certainly birthed itself in the truth.
We cut our time short at the Midwest Homeschool Convention in order to come home and celebrate Lauren's birthday on Saturday. (see our other blog for Derek's report of the convention.)
There are so many things that I could share about Lauren. She has been the greatest joy and beauty since the day she arrived. How vividly I remember holding her for the first time and drinking in her sweet newborn smell. And staring at her in amazement that this infinitely beautiful creation was my flesh and bone. Lauren is smart, creative, compassionate, sensitive, and ever so imaginitive. Her Daddy's pet name for her is "Brains." Everyone who meets her loves her.
The deepest longing of my heart is that her spirit will always remain tender towards the things of God, and that she will grasp early on the value of living a life of purity and godliness.
Here are a few pics from her family birthday celebration. She really gets into it, as you can tell! BTW, special SPECIAL thanks to my sis, Keri, for baking Lauren's birthday cake with her on Saturday. This was our first non-bakery birthday cake. (we have a bakery that does an AMAZING job with character cakes, so we've always used them.) Since Lauren is SO grown-up now, she didn't want a character cake. She saw a picture of this rainbow/sky cake in an American Girl magazine months ago, and saved it. I think Keri did a fantastic job of pulling it off. Thanks!














UPDATE: I'm very bitter because I wanted to post a picture of the cake when you cut it open. Apparently it's on another memory card. So I will have to look for it and get it posted later. The idea is that the outside looks like a blue sky with clouds; when you cut out a piece, you see four layers of "rainbow" colors. It's very cute. I'll post it as soon as I can!



13 comments:

Kimberly said...

Happy Bday to Lauren...beautiful! Love to All!

lauralavon said...

Happy Birthday, Lauren...from folks you don't remember, I'm sure! You were only a little over a year old when we were with you at Mode Camp!
Glad the materials are going to be helpful, Tara.
Now, I'm going to go enjoy reading Derek's take on the convention.

Leah said...

Happy Birthday, Lauren!! She's such a beauty! And what a cute cake!
I had forgotten she's so close in age to Clayton. He'll turn nine this Sunday.

Allana Martian said...

Happy Birthday to Lauren! It looks like she is into the same things as my Rebecca: American girl, horses, etc. Rebecca painted that exact same paint by number of the horses. It turned out great! Lauren is a cutie for sure, and I tell you, just by looking at her, she has the looks of a smart kid. :-)

Crystal said...

Happy Birthday,Lauren! Sounds like she had a very nice Bday! The cake looks really good too!!!!
Love, Crystal

Kim M. said...

Happy birthday to Lauren who is an adorable mini version of her Mom. :-)
Your sister did a great job on the cake. Cute idea!
I don't have any girls, but I can definitely understand the attraction to the American Girls. Here I am a mom of 31 with all boys and I have actually read a couple of the little chapter books for my own reading pleasure. I also have seen 2 of the DVDs that they had at the library. I know, I must be weird but I love to read about different time periods/history. (I have also have read several of the "Dear America" series).
Thanks for sharing the pictures! I look forward to seeing that cake picture!

Charity said...

Happy b-day to Lauren. What a lovely young lady she is!

Kelly S said...

Happy Birthday Lauren! Love the cake!

Tara, I'm so sorry I didn't get to say goodbye before you left. I'll email you and explain. Was so nice seeing you though!

Kelly S said...

Did you get my email? I think I got some kind of virus. I keep getting quirky comments on my blog from unknown people. I always get email messages that let me know when I have new comments with a link to the commenter's blog. The very first one I got, I clicked on the link and then real quick exited out, but I think it was just long enough to download some kind of virus on my email. I keep sending out emails and no one is getting them. Did you get mine last week?

Jody J said...

Wow! Time flies! Wasn't it just yesterday when our babies crawled on the floor together? She's a beautiful young lady just like her Mama!

jenny said...

Happy belated Bday to Lauren...I echo all the sentiments above...she certainly is a very beautiful little girl! The cake is indeed a very neat idea...I'm definitely tucking that one away to remember.

Anonymous said...

Happy, happy belated birthday to one of my favorite young ladies!!! I hope you had such a very happy day!

Tara, it was fantastic to see you (even though it was too short). It's just right somehow when we get together. Love you!

Julia said...

Happy Birthday Lauren. I'm so glad you are my friend.

Tara,

It is not possible that she is already 9! Heaven help us old women. Speaking of heaven, I think the cloud cake with a 9 on it was too cute. Cloud 9 anyone? I really do want to see the inside, post soon please.

So fun to be with you again, friend. Wish it could be more often.