A Happy Birthday

Lauren just turned 4 and for years now she has dreamed of have a big girl bike.  She would watch kids in Indiana and sigh and say "Oh they have a bike! I wish I could have a big girl bike." So we decided to make her hopes and dreams come true.

She didn't seem quite as excited about it as I thought she would be. I think that is just her personality though.    She told us that as she was going to bed she was thinking about what she might get for her birthday. I don't think she was expecting a bike. 

We also found Rachel a cheap little trike at a thrift store so that the could ride bikes together.

Right after breakfast we took the bikes to the park for a test run.  She's never been on a bike so the pedaling and steering are a bit of a challenge.  But Ryan has been taking her to practice and she is starting to get it.

This will sound cheesy, but the moment I took this picture
Lauren's short life passed before my eyes and I remembered her
when she was a little baby, then crawling, then walking and in
this moment she seemed so big and determined.

Rachel doesn't like the pedals so she just waddles along

Showing me their BIG ears

Note to Self: never let your child parooze pinterest with you while you look for ideas for her birthday cake.  She will get unrealistic ideas of what her mother is actually capable of.

Lauren decided about 5 months ago that she wanted a carousel cake for her birthday.  I found a very nice simple one online where you just stick animal cookies to the side of a round cake and TA-DA carousel.  Easy-peasy.  Then Lauren saw the ones on pinterest and decided that was not good enough.

This is what she wanted

This is what she got

Obviously my cake decorating skills leave something to be desired.  Her "cake" was actually only 35% cake and the rest was animal cookies, colored marshmallows, straws, bamboo skewers, an empty toilet paper roll, the lid to an ice cream bucket and scrapbook paper, and tape. :)  Lauren thought is was great anyway. And I was pleased with my ingenuity of using random things around the house.

Happy Birthday Lauren!

The Big 5

On May 3rd was our 5th anniversary. Sometimes it amazes me that it has been 5 years and then I look around me and remember what we've been doing:
        3 degrees
        4 moves
        3 states
        3 kids, one in every state
 So to celebrate we decided to go on our first overnight road trip with Emily and have all 5 of us sleep in the same hotel room. Ha. It could have been really bad (we're a little uptight about kids sleeping) but it actually turned out ok, we all went to bed around 8pm.
We of course went to the beach, this time down in Monterey which is about 3 hours from us. It was a pretty good time.

For some reason she is a little tough to get to
smile for pictures these days

Rock climbing, Lauren and Rachel style

These little purple flowers lined the coastal trail
where we stopped for lunch

The girls loved them

Big Cheese

Medium Cheese

Little Cheese

We stopped by a mission in Carmel and it was beautiful.

 Next stop just for the girls was:

Perfect.
It is basically the most amazing park I've ever seen.  The pictures don't do it justice.

Obviously with our kids being the age they are Ryan and I actually didn't spend a lot of time together on our anniversary, except for in the car.  I was usually nursing Emily while Ryan chased Lauren and Rachel.  So we have decided that the next time we want to take a trip for our anniversary (maybe in another 5 years?) we will drop the kiddies off in Utah and go somewhere by ourselves. Take note grandparents :)