Lauren's 1st Birthday Party!

Lauren is such a cutie. She can be such a serious, studious baby sometimes but when she smiles it's just adorable. We had a barbecue for her birthday and invited some friends and family. The weather was perfect, the kids got to play outside in a little pool with a slide and Lauren was entertained by some family members.

Sharing the cake with everyone. She did not eat one bite of cake but she sure tore through it and left a hefty mess on the ground.

What girl doesn't like chocolate cake? This one apparently.

Pretty, pretty princess sitting on her throne, or more accurately, Grandma's lap in front of all her presents.

Her brothers helped her blow her candle out. She kept grabbing for it. I was afraid she was going to burn her fingers.

Saying thank you for all my presents. Now she actually has some pink, girl toys to play with.

Happy, Happy Birthday Lauren dear, Happy days will come to you all year. If I had a wish that it would be a happy, happy birthday to you from me! Love you baby!

Easter Fun!

It's fun celebrating Easter and other holidays because the older boys remember what the holiday is and what we are going to do to celebrate. So they've been totally excited all week anticipating the coming of the Easter Bunny, dyeing the eggs and having many, many egg hunts.

Paul finding all the chocolate in his basket. Love the early morning hair.

David doing a David smile. He's getting so old now he still really enjoys everything but his reactions are starting to get more subdued. I can't believe he will be getting baptized in 4 months.

David finding eggs. Last year we hid eggs that had grass, rock and pebble exteriors. We didn't repeat that again as we continued finding eggs for many months afterwards.

Paul has quite the eagle eye and has always been able to spot hidden eggs better than both his other brothers. He reminds me of my brother David Sam who could always spot things before other people with regular vision could.

Little Superman finding eggs. Josh was worried that he needed extra time before the other boys but he did just fine and needed no help finding eggs. He loves these Superman pajamas with the cape. All in all we had a wonderful Easter this year other than Lauren being sick and throwing up all day. I guess that's par for the course when you have 4 children. Thank goodness they are the sweetest, cutest, most lovable 4 kids a mom could have. I'm a lucky mom. Vomit and all. :)

San Clemente Fun Run

So last Saturday I ran my first 5K in San Clemente. I've only been running a couple months and I've lost over 20 pounds but I'm certainly not a "typical" runner. This was a really fun trail run up in the foothills of San Clemente. We were fortunate enough to have my mom watch the kids Friday night and we went down and spent the night at the beach. That was just as exciting as the run.

Saturday morning bright and early before the race wearing my lovely number.

This is what we did while waiting for the actual race to start. We could have showed up like an hour later and still totally been fine. Now we will know for next time.

Here I am finishing the race. About half way through my run I realized I had something none of the other runners had...a chest and a backside! :) The run was a little hilly but I didn't think I was that tired or sore afterward...until later that night. Fun fun. I came home and signed up to do it all again in 2 months. :)