Before!

Well, for anyone who doesn't know (although I'm not sure how you could not know, if you have talked to me within the last month, I've been rather obsessed) we are repainting the inside of our house this week! Finally, finally, FINALLY I get to tear down the wallpaper that has been torturing me for the last two years (and, really, for the 3 years I lived here in college, because I hated it then, too). Anyway, so just for the sake of comparison, here are some before shots of the kitchen and living room (we're starting with those rooms, and then seeing about painting the spare room and our bedroom, too- I'm ambitious... or nuts, you pick).

Seriously? The wallpaper? Not so much me...

And that border is supposed to go all the way around the top... I got a little over eager and ripped off a big chunk last week before I took before picks! But, actually, isn't it amazing how much taller the kitchen looks on the side without the border?!
The living room... try to ignore the general baby clutter... but really, not that bad. A little boring, and it's just connected to the kitchen, so if we're painting one, we may as well paint the other!
Another shot of the living room... note the samples we painted on the wall... found two colors we liked on the swatches, then got them on the wall, and not so much...


So we went back for two more samples! Ended up going with the second from the left, which is Brown Teepee from Behr. Not quite what I thought we'd pick, but I ended up liking it best (and by the time we got through 4 samples Josh just wanted me to shut up about it, so he'd go along with anything)


So, Jess & Mike are here this week, and are WONDERFUL, and are helping us paint (seeing as how Josh and I have exactly 2 free weekends between now and October, we will definitely need some help). Jess got to go with me on the great shopping spree to Home Depot & Walmart to get the supplies... after lunch at the mall...

...and a ride on the carousel- it can't be all work and no play! This is Laney saying "Cheese," and proving that you do NOT actually have to smile when you say cheese...

Hello, onery... wow...

And, because I have been on a video kick lately (she's just so cute, and what she says is so much funnier than the still pictures)!

Anyway, so there are some "before" shots of our kitchen/living room redo... will post "after" pics as soon as it's done... or at least mostly done... And Looten family reunion pics coming up soon, too!

Fun New Game

Well, this is Laney's fun new game! She's started doing it wherever she is- in the nursery at church, around the tables, etc. etc. So here she is Saturday after the lock-in, while we were hanging out in the living room eating lunch and watching Winnie the Pooh.

For translation purposes... when we ask what she's doing, she says "I don't know. Running in circles." Every time we ask a question she answers it with "I don't know" first, then give the answer, if she knows it. What color is your cup? "I no no, GREEN." What color are your shoes? "I no no, PINK." It's pretty cute!

Anyway... just thought you'd enjoy a fun video! Gotta love toddler energy!

Swimming & Sickness

Well, Laney and I have had an interesting couple of days... yesterday morning she woke up with a temp of 102.5. Touching her, it felt like somone who is sunburned, her skin was that hot! So, of course, I stayed home with her. She was miserable, of course, but there didn't seem to be anything else wrong with her- just the fever. I called the doctor, and since there weren't any other symptoms, they thought it was probably something called roseola- a high fever for a couple of days, followed by a rash. Not the worst thing in the world, and by the time the fever shows up they aren't contagious anymore... and not many adults get it, so that was good. She slept a lot through the morning, and eventually I took her temp again- IT WAS 104.7! I got a little scared then, because that's just really high. So I gave her a cool bath, which she hated. Poor thing was shivering and covered in goosebumps BEFORE I put her in the tub! That brought it down pretty well, and Ruth came over to bring us some ibuprofen (we only had Tylenol, and that clearly wasn't working) and apple juice... and some chocolate for me, 'cause it'd been a rough morning!! Anyway, the ibuprofen really helped, and within an hour her temp was back to normal (seriously, it dropped 5 degrees in an hour). It was back up to 102 by bedtime, but it was all gone this morning. I kept her home from daycare anyway, just because I didn't really know if it would stay down. It has for the most part, although it did go up to about 101 this evening, so Laney and I stayed home from church. She could probably use an early bedtime!

Anyway, since she was feeling so much better, and it was 90+ degrees out today, we decided to get out the pool and let it warm up until the afternoon. She had a really good time playing in it, once she got passed the cold! Although, she was never really big on sitting down in it! She does love the slide, though... I'm so glad that we got this pool last year... and it being free was even BETTER! I'm sure we'll get LOTS of use out of it!

Filling up the pool before we headed to lunch with Daddy. And, for the record, I did NOT put that hat on her or make her wear it. When I asked if she wanted to wear a barrette, she said no and put on this hat instead. It was pretty adorable...

One of the only pictures of her face! It was so bright outside she had trouble looking up for pictures. And, she was entirely too busy to cheese for Mommy!

Playing with the diving rings, which she LOVED! She spent the whole time counting them (there were 3 of them) and throwing them into the water to make it splash. Here she is putting them on her feet because I picked them up with my feet once.

Counting the rings... and she knows all 3 of these colors, so she kept telling me what color they were, too!

And last but not least, a video! I have no idea what the lines are, they just showed up. I'm guessing it's because my camera is broken, so the batteries aren't held in very well, and I didn't have the duct tape on it (yes, I usually duct tape my camera closed). So the connection with the batteries may not have been very good. Anyway, the video is still cute. And, in the interest of translations, when she's climbing she says "Another stair and another stair" because I had to show her that there were 2 steps- she kept trying to start at the top step and falling because it was slick. And at the end she wants to get out (of course) because I was out of the pool.

Anyway, we had a really good time hanging out in the pool today, and actually just had fun in general. We went to lunch with Josh, shopped a (very) little, watched Charlotte's Web (classic) and just hung out. We won't get many of those days this summer, so I enjoyed this one, even if it was because she was sick.

Sometime I watch her and wonder when she got so big...

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Well, it's totally obvious that Laney is a Looten, since she looks just like her Daddy! But just in case anyone wondered whether or not she was mine, too, check out this video!

Yeah, so if you haven't already heard the stories, I totally did that when I was little. And Laney will do that EVERYWHERE- the video is on the bed, but she'll "Jump up & sit down" anywhere! It's pretty cute... By the way, in the middle, Truman walked in the room and she was "encouraging" him to get on the bed. Poor Truman, the older Laney gets, the more she tortures him. Definitely putting a kitty door on the to-do list during the painting/redecorating extravaganza in a couple of weeks (Mike? Josh? Anyone?)

In other news, Laney and her daddy survived 3 whole days without Mommy last week! I had a conference in St. Charles, so I was gone Wednesday night, and didn't get back home until Saturday afternoon! But they really enjoyed themselves, I think, and everyone was still alive and the house still standing when I got home! :)

So, the not so good news, Miss Lena has apparently turned into quite the boss at daycare. She's been hitting and yelling at the other kids... Tamra said she was the bully of the house! So, Mommy & Laney went to Barnes & Noble today, and bought some books about being a good friend and not hitting. We're going to try reading those, and just being really consistent with discipline when she does hit. But we'd love any ideas other moms have! As I told Tamra, I can't believe she's the only 2ish year old with a hitting problem! It will pass...

And now just a few cute pictures...

Trying out the stroller we bought her on our garage sale adventure a couple of weeks ago.

And the Elmo she got on the same trip.

And Laney finally has enough hair for a pony tail!! It's really tiny... but it's kinda cute! Not that we're headed out like this anytime soon!

Anyway, random update, but I just had to share that video! Enjoy!!

Flower Bed Makeover

So, since we've moved into our house, our front flower bed has been driving us crazy. It was not so cute to begin with, just 3 spirea bushes, an ugly old evergreen bush, and a magnolia tree (which I love). Not exactly well taken care of before we moved in, after 2 years of us totally neglecting it, the spirea bushes looked bad, the evergreen bush was half dead, there were 2 walnut trees growing in the middle, and even the magnolia was starting to look a little ragged.

Some pictures, just to illustrate:

Overgrown spirea...

...half-dead evergreen with walnut tree...

...overgrown magnolia...

...the total package. Not so cute!

So, Memorial Day weekend (after getting back from our relaxing trip to Hannibal) Josh and I decided to tackle the front eyesore... I mean, flower bed. Josh went after the evergreen tree with a pitchfork and a tiller, while I gave the bushes a good hacking...er, trim. After one trip to Westlake's for loppers (that walnut tree just wasn't coming down with pruners), we had a pretty good start. Unfortunately, it started pouring down rain Memorial Day evening, so we couldn't get finished. But, in all honesty, it already looked way better, with just the evergreen gone, the bushes trimmed, and the magnolia cut back a little.

The bushes still look a little ragged... when they're done blooming this fall I'm going to cut them way back because they get new growth from old branches. So, after I cut the old branches off, they don't really have such a good shape!

Josh's arch-nemesis, the evergreen bush, is gone... though, it didn't go easily! The magnolia looked sooo much better afterwards, too.

Not done, but much improved whole-package!

Most of you know our schedules, so we definitely didn't have another weekend to dedicate to our flower bed, so the rest had to get done in bits and pieces, as we had time.

One day I speed planted the flowers we bought because I had a spare hour...

...and eventually we found time to mulch them and put in a (fake) brick border. And that's the finished product! At least, as finished as it's going to be!

Eye-sore no more!

Anyway, it was quite the project, and more work than either of us expected, really. We still want to do a little more (like mulch around the bushes). We ran out of mulch after covering the tree & flowers, so we had to buy more. Those bags are still sitting in the garage, waiting for Josh to have a free hour. But I think it looks spectacular, and I so appreciate Josh's help with the mulch, border, and evergreen bush! He was out pounding in the border at like 9:00 one night because it was the only free time he/we had!

And what would a post be without a picture of Elena? Here she is "helping" us mulch... or, running over our new lights that line our walkway...

Anniversary Trip!

So, obviously this post is a little late, and out of order, but oh well! :) Over Memorial Day weekend (May 22nd, to be exact) Josh and I celebrated our 5th anniversary. To celebrate, we decided to take a weekend trip to Hannibal, MO, just to get away for awhile.

We stayed at a bed & breakfast called LulaBelle's. Actually, the people that own LulaBelles own 3 B&Bs- LulaBelles, Main Street, and the Painted Lady. LulaBelle's is the main one, and that's where the restaraunt is. Main Street and the Painted Lady are both within a block or two of the main building (LulaBelle's) but are just rooms that they give you keys to. We stayed at Main Street, and it was in an old bank building, and was really neat. The people that ran the B&Bs were really nice, too, so we highly recommend this place! It doesn't have all of the antique beds, etc. that a lot of B&Bs have, but it was still a neat place.

A shot of the outside of the building. We actually got to our rooms through a door on the side- just passed the awning that you can see.

Cool architecture on the outside...

Inside we went up this winding staircase. Seriously, just a neat old building. You could definitely tell that it was an old bank building, which just kind of added to the charm.

We got there late afternoon, so we headed out to dinner right after we got checked in. We'd looked for some restaurants online, and liked the look of the menu at this place, The Brick Oven. We get there, and figure out that it is directly across the street from our room! It was really neat restaurant, with a great atmosphere and decorations inside, and some pretty great food!

After dinner, we were so stuffed, that we figured we should take a walk and work off some of our dinner! We just window shopped in some of the cool stores, walked along the river bank, and just explored where we were. It was getting dark and cloudy, but I managed to get this cool picture of the Mark Twain riverboat, just returning from its dinner cruise.

The sign outside the restaurant on our way to breakfast Saturday morning. Loved the saying- "Good Food, Cold Beer, and Hard Beds." We didn't try the beer (obviously), and our bed certainly wasn't hard... but the food was pretty darn good! It's always chef's choice, so we were a little worried that we'd hate the choice (not so wild about garden omelets and stuff like that), but it ended up being biscuits & gravy (suh-weet), and it was really good!

After breakfast we headed up the hill (and I mean UP THE HILL) to this lighthouse that is above downtown. It was quite the hike, but it was a neat old lighthouse, and the view was totally worth it!

Gotta love a self-portrait!

Next we decided to explore the Mark Twain landmarks around downtown Hannibal. Josh just had to get his picture taken by "THE" whitewashing fence (from Tom Sawyer).

Funny story about the day... the shirt Josh is wearing says "Jesus died for MY SPACE in Heaven." It's one of his favorites, but at breakfast there was another group of guests from the B&B who made some snide comments about it when he went to the bathroom (not actually to him, but I was close enough to hear them- you know me and eavesdropping). Anyway, after that start to the day, there were probably no less than 8 people who told him that they really liked his shirt, hadn't ever seen one before, and/or wanted to know where he got it. It was just kind of a really cool thing after the first comments of the morning.

Hannibal was hosting a "Twain on Main" festival for the first time while we were there, so Main Street (where our B&B was) had vendors and tents and such set up all along both sides. So we spent awhile wandering through all of the stores and tents after we finished with the Mark Twain touristy stuff. There were some really neat booths set up, so we had a lot of fun shopping and goofing off.

After lunch, we headed back to the riverfront to take a ride on the Mark Twain Riverboat. It was a really good time, just heading up and down the river, listening to someone point out all of the cool sites and give us some history.

A shot of the boat...

Another self-portrait... notice the hair- it was a LITTLE breezy!

This spot is called "Lover's Leap" because of an old Indian legend about a couple who jumped off rather than be separated.

One non-self-portrait... we "traded" with two girls who were taking pictures of each other.

After the boat and a little more shopping, we headed South of Hannibal to visit Mark Twain Cave. We went on a tour which was pretty cool, although definitely a little rushed! I guess they send people through the cave like every 15 minutes, so there's no dallying- you have to stay on schedule. This is the cave that Tom & Becky Thatcher get lost in during Tom Sawyer, and the kids around Hannibal spent a lot of time in it when Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain was a kid, so it was neat to hear some of the stories. They actually had a place where they would sign in and out, and an old farmer would check at the end of the day and make sure everyone got out. We could totally understand why, there were zillions of tunnels and side paths in that cave, it would be so easy to get lost! I can't imagine what it would have been like with only one or two candles to light the way! I love caves, though, and would love a chance to explore that one without having to stay on the main path!

After the cave tour, we stopped by Lover's Leap (it's on the way back to Hannibal from the cave) to check out the view... pretty awesome!

For dinner we went with a Looten family classic: Cassano's. This is a pizza place that is in Hannibal and Quincy, IL, and is a favorite of their's. I'd never had it, but it was pretty amazing pizza! Highly recommended!

Anyway, after Cassano's we headed back to Columbia. And, the coolest part was, even AFTER our trip to Hannibal, we still had two days left in our weekend (Sunday & Monday). We had a great time just hanging out and celebrating 5 awesome years! Can't imagine where we'll be in 5 more!

Family Pics

I finally did it.


If you know Josh at all, you know he HATES having his picture taken. Don't know why, but he's always been like that (seriously, since we dated in high school. I have ONE picture of him from high school, and I took that after we broke up). But as an anniversary present to me, he agreed to get family pictures done. So we looked around... and realized we couldn't afford it. But, since we have a bonafide photographer in the family, and she was willing to do it for us, I got my present anyway! :)


We were blessed with an absolutely beautiful day on Sunday, so we headed to Shelter Gardens and just wandered around. Here are some of my favorites (I know there are a lot, but I've whittled them waaaayy down for the blog... seriously!).

One of my favorites, although we hadn't even started yet. This is just so my life: keys, sunglasses, diaper bag, holding Laney's hand.

The first round of pics sitting in the grass was the best. This will probably be one that gets framed.

This was just so sweet... little tiny hands!

I thought this one in front of the sundial was cute...


...and I liked it even more after I took the people out!

Laney had an absolute BALL watching the fish... so much fun, that she thought for a minute that her "goggie" wanted to go swimming, too... and nearly threw herself off the bridge in the process. Good thing Mommy has fast hands!

Ruth was the "photographer's assistant," which mostly means she got to shriek, yell, scream, and laugh like a maniac while bouncing Elmo up and down on Jessie's head in order to get Laney to laugh... and she got to carry the stuff! Lucky her... but she did a great job!

Laney & Ruthie... LOVE this picture!

Mischievous, anyone?

And just adorable...

Laney got tired of taking pictures pretty quickly, as you can tell from the thrilled expression on her face in this picture... "Meanest parents in the world, they make me sit here in the middle and never let me have any fun."

So we had to do some more casual, active shots... which turned out pretty cute, actually. This is Laney's favorite game- "Get" Mommy!


And the "candy" (leftover mints) in Jessie's bag was a welcome addition- we got several more good shots after that!

In case you were wondering... this face says "I WANT IT."

And, of course, what would a photography session be without a major meltdown?!

We finished off the afternoon with some serious squirrel-watching. There were 4 or 5 squirrels in a big, old tree chasing each other around and being crazy. We figured they were twitterpated, and Laney LOVED watching them.

So, despite Josh's opinion of picture-taking, we actually had a great time. And we got some really nice pictures as a bonus! Thanks so much, Jess!