Hi everyone, my name is Lauren. I am a stay at home mom. My husband and I have been married nearly ten years and we have 4 kids. I have three sons, ages 8, 4, and 2, and a daughter who just turned one. So, needless to say it is pretty busy in our house. Oh, and I can't leave out our two dogs, Rose and Sonny. My kids and my husband are the loves of my life and I am grateful for them every minute of everyday. We live in New Jersey just about 10 minutes from the beach. My husband and I both grew up here and both sets of our parents live just a few streets away which is great because I see my parents nearly everyday. Anyway, enough about me. I would like to thank everyone on here for all of your beautiful pictures and helpful advice. It has truly been invaluable to me and the first thing I do in the morning while I drink my tea is check out all of the new recipes. Basically I am more of a baker. I love making the basics, cookies, cupcakes and brownies, but I am trying to learn how to bake breads, and to become better at decorating my desserts. My biggest challenge however is cooking. I am trying to expand my recipes beyond my standard lasagna, macaroni and cheese,and chili that I always make. I am definitely getting better. My husband says all of this cooking is not helping his diet at all. I can't say at this point I have any cooking traditions. My father is an excellent cook and he pretty much makes all of our holiday meals. Eating at my parent's house is like eating at a restaurant. Everything my Dad makes is delicious and even if it is just my Mom and I having dinner on a Tuesday night he always serves a perfectly garnished dish. Usually I make all of the desserts for holidays and birthdays. I don't have a lot of spare time but I try and bake at least one thing each day, sometimes more depending on how long the little guys nap. Most of the time we are overflowing with desserts so I send lots of stuff to work with my husband. My biggest cooking triumph is when my kids like what I make. My oldest son is a very picky eater, so when he asks me to put extra cookies or brownies in his lunch box so he can share with his friends I feel very successful. My basic goal is for my kids to grow up and remember that when they were young their mom always had treats waiting for them after school, Christmas cookies and special birthday cakes. I always want them to remember how much I love them. Recently I destroyed an entire batch of fudge. Totally my fault because I was rushing and trying to squeeze it in between doing ten other things. Once I made my dad a blueberry pie and it was totally bitter. He didn't even have the heart to tell me, lucky for me my sister had no problem telling me. I am sure there have been and will be many more but I guess that is all part of the process.