Happy 1st Birthday, Lauren!

It's official! Our baby survived our first year of parenting! We're enjoying every minute of her. We celebrated with a birthday party in Sioux Falls with our families on May 30th. It was a gorgeous day, so Lauren tested out her new swimming suit. Lauren had an impromtu pool party with her cousin, Rayna, and her friend, Ethan. Let's just say BIG diapers! :) After the pool wore the kids out, we filled them with sugar and ate cake. Lauren's cake was "pup" cakes decorated with love by Grandma Marilyn, Grandma Bonnie, Aunt Noel, and me.

Lauren was sharing her cake. She has recently become more independent and likes to feed us!

After the yummy sugary cake, we all moved inside to open gifts. Lauren actually was very involved in opening presents. When she opened a doll, she gave it a big hug. When she opened a blanket/pillow, she snuggled on it. She kinda got the hang of opening presents too and would crawl from one to the next. She even seemed interested in taking the cards out of the envelopes. After gifts, we hung out a little bit and then Lauren crashed for a brief nap. I think she seemed to enjoy her first birthday.

On her actual birthday, we were planning to celebrate just the three of us (five of us with the dogs), but Lauren came down with a fever. Surprisingly enough, this bout was her first fever! We snuggled and it was still good. We just waited for the cake and ice cream part until the 3rd of June, when she was feeling better.