Finally

Well, I know I've been absent from the blogging world, but I have been pretty obsessed with finishing Laney's baby book. If you don't already know, I found a software (at http://www.blurb.com/) that will take my blog and kind of suck in the pictures and the writing. So I hooked the baby blog up with that software, and let it do its thing! What it doesn't do is format the text, or put any variety in the layout (all of the pages have six pictures down the side, whether there were zero pictures or 32 on the post) of the pages. So I've been going back through and doing the formatting and editing part. Since it started at around 200 pages, and is still about 185 almost done, it's been quite the project! So, that's my excuse... and I've given up on finding time to do a post about our 4th of July trip/visit with Jess. So, you'll just have to check out her blog to see pics and read stories!

I did decide that I needed to post a few pictures from the last few weeks, mostly from the Boone County Fair! Laney and Josh and I went one evening just to check it out. Elena loved all of the lights and noises and action, and, of course, the ANIMALS! They had a free petting zoo with all kind of exotic animals (like camels and a buffalo) along with some not-so-exotic (like goats and pigs). We bought a little cup of food at the gate, and let Elena feed them. She was beyond excited! And, really, the pictures speak for themselves, so here they are...

We started with the camel, and she was pretty unsure of the whole thing...

But she pretty quickly got the hang of the whole feeding thing, and progressed to all out, full body screams and shrieks!

Like I said, total joy!

And, well, if a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a video worth? :)

We were going to ride the merry-go-round at the fair, but the line for tickets was forever long, and we didn't really want to wait in it. Plus, we figured we could ride the merry-go-round at the mall for $1 anytime! So we decided to let Laney ride the ponies instead. Definitely a good choice, she was in HEAVEN! She is still talking about it, a week later (which is impressive attention span from a toddler)!





Anyway, the fair was definitely worth the trip and the time.

We've been outside enjoying the nice weather lately, and Laney has discovered Isabelle's doghouse! At least she brought her dog in there with her!


I also finally broke down and cut Laney's hair... kind of. I actually just took little scissors and trimmed her bangs so they weren't hanging in her eyes. Anyway, I didn't think I cut very much off, but something about having the bangs go straight across instead of being all ragged really made a difference. And, I realized this afternoon, TOTALLY made her look like a little girl! So I had to take a picture to share... she just looks so big to me now!


Anyway, so there's a short update... and we're headed to Springfield this weekend, and plans include Silver Dollar City AND the Zoo... so I KNOW there will be lots of cool pics from those activities! I promise to post them quickly (ish)! :)

Word Changers

So, just FYI, Josh (and Ruth & Charlie, for the Price side of the family) and the youth are gone to Evansville, IN for a missions trip with World Changers. World Changers let's you send them e-couragrams, which are just little messages that they pass out to the participants.

Since so many people that are family read this blog, I thought you might like the link to send them an e-couragram. I know from their stories from last year that getting e-couragrams is one of the highlights of their days, so send early and send often! :)

Here's the link: World Changers e-Couragrams for Evansville, IN

For church name & city, put our church information (Midway Heights Baptist, Columbia, MO)

Like I said, getting these is a major highlight of their day, so send lots!

Not Quite Done!

So, it's not done yet... but it will be a few weeks still before it's actually finished, so I thought I'd post some mostly-done pictures.

First, a few work-in-progress pics...

Mike taping behind the fridge. We definitely decided that prepping for painting is waaaay worse than the actual painting!

Another wonderful part of prepping- spackling! With lots of different people living in our house before we bought it (including me!), there were LOTS of holes to patch! Now we don't even want to rehang stuff and put new holes in it!

In case you were wondering, you can actually fit a 20 ft extension ladder into a minivan... though I don't recommend going very far! Turns out, the ladder was actually TOO long to use!

Truman was quite disturbed during the whole process- moving lots of furniture, new people, yucky paint smells... not so much a cat's favorite thing!
The bedroom, ready to paint!

Jess & I, mid-bedroom painting! Actually, we ended up having to do two coats in the bedroom, which was a little annoying. Turns out Behr paint really is the best! :)

The great rearranging... what's the fun of painting if you don't rearrange your furniture at the same time?! Jess was a huge help, because I have no flair for decorating or arranging furniture. It was actually fun, though... picture the scene from Because I Said So when the mom and the daughter rearrange her living room 46 times!

And the final arrangement... I love that it is more open, it makes the room feel so much bigger!

The kitchen, rearranged just a little, but MUCH nicer color-wise! We're not quite done here, we are still going to replace the fixture that is hanging above the table. As much as I love the shiny gold chandelier, I think it needs to go the way of the fruit wallpaper!

More shiny gold gone- we replaced the outdated kitchen knobs with some darker ones. It's amazing what a difference it actually makes in the kitchen. Can't wait to get the light fixture replaced, too!

The bedroom, painted and rearranged, but obviously nothing up on the walls yet.
New knobs in the bathroom, too (again with the shiny gold), but we still have to replace the bath mats, etc- we're going with a dark brown set.

And the final project was the blue room, which Ruthie came and helped me paint last week. It's not quite as blue as this picture looks, but it's pretty blue! I really like the color, too. It's a mess still, obviously, because I haven't had a chance to put everything back away. But the painting is done!

Anyway, so there are some mostly done pics. True "After" pics will have to wait until we get things hung back up on the wall (a little delayed now, since Josh is gone on World Changers), and we are waiting for a new towel rack for the bathroom, and the light fixture to come in. Then I will post real after pics, but thought these would hold you over for now!

Looten Family Reunion

This past weekend Josh, Laney & I loaded up and headed to Camdenton for the annual Looten family reunion. I guess it's not actually the Looten family reunion, but that's the branch we go with! It actually is one of our favorite things to do, because the whole family gets together, we rent out a building at Windermere for the weekend, and just hang out. We split up the meals and try to out-do each other on yummy goodness Friday & Saturday nights, we swim in the pool, we play games, we eat lots of junk food, we stay up too late, we tell stories... just lots of fun things!

This year a few of us (Josh & I included, though Laney stayed with Grandma & hit the pool) headed to Weaver's, and Amish (or Mennonite, I'm not actually sure) store near Versailles. That was a lot of fun, it was just something different to do, and we got some really good cheese, and yummy snacks like chocolate covered banana chips and milk chocoate peanut butter (WOW good). We hit the pool in the afternoon, but it was almost too hot to enjoy it because even the pool water felt like bath water! We still managed to stay for awhile, and Laney absolutely LOVED the pool. Her Grandpa Looten got her a swim sweater, and she was happy as a clam. She floated around and rolled over and splashed, a total water baby.

I didn't take many pictures through the weekend because it was too hot at the pool, and I just didn't want to stop having fun to take pictures. So, here are a few...

The weekend really started Thursday night, when I had to make 10 dozen cookies for dessert for Friday's dinner! I made sugar cookies, and Laney "helped." She kept trying to "stir" (i.e. fling across the counter) the flour that I was actually trying to use. So I finally let her have her own bowl so she could just go at it! She LOVED it!

After baking, Laney decided we needed to go shopping. Which is like her favorite thing to do... not a good thing! :)

Going shopping! She even said "Bye, Mommy, see you tomorrow!" as she left. Of course, once she shut the door and was stuck in the dark utility room, she immediately started crying for me to let her out! It's nice to still be needed!

Friday night we celebrated Jeff & Connie's 25th anniversary with cards and cupcakes. Laney thought the icing was so delicious that when I told her she couldn't lick the icing off a second cupcake, she threw herself down on the floor and screamed. Gotta love 2 year olds!

At the pool, modeling the swim sweater Grandma & Grandpa bought her. If you have a little kid in the pool, this is totally the way to go. It like jams over their head, and then there's no getting out of it in the pool. She floated around and never once slipped out. She went under a couple times because she kept "rolling over" (and yelling it at the same time), but she always rolled back above water. I think it's a great way to learn to swim!
The picture of cool... drinking Grandma's lemonade wearing the shades.

Actually sharing with her cousin, Leila. This might have been the only time sharing happened. Leila was very interested in Laney's toys, and Laney was very NOT interested in sharing them with Leila. Commence fits once again... but I guess it's part of learning to share!

Laney was much more interested in sharing with her older cousins from Texas, who were not so interested in taking the toys away, as they were playing with her (Leila doesn't quite have that down yet). Thought these two pictures were especially cute...

Anyway, we had a really good time. Like I said, I didn't take many pictures because I didn't want to stop whatever I was doing to take them. I love getting to see those relatives from Texas, who we only get to see once or twice a year. Anyway, it is going to be a family-filled week with the family reunion this past weekend, then we're painting with Mike & Jess, then headed to Springfield to spend a day with Grandma De & Grandpa Don, then Friday we're headed to Illinois to spend the weekend with Grandma & Grandpa Price, et. al. So, basically, Laney will see all her great-grandparents within a week... pretty busy! So, look forward to lots more pictures!!