Pumpkin Carving

We don't do major things with Halloween, but we always like to carve pumpkins, especially with Laney around now! Last year, she was not so interested in helping with the pumpkins (see these pictures). And in looking at that post, I realized I started it off almost exactly the same as I started this one off... guess I'm going to have to get more creative!! :)

Anyway, on to the jack o' lantern carving pics...

She didn't like it much last year, so I had the camera ready to go this year when we started taking out the pumpkin go! She looked at it funny...

And then went back in for more! She actually really liked digging around in there. Guess she's a little more open to textures now that she's a little older!

She even demanded her own spoon to help dig out one of the pumpkins!

(As a side note... she's not wearing anything but panties because halfway through the cleaning she decided she was going to "take a shower." So she stripped off all of her clothes, and went behind the curtains hanging in front of our sliding glass doors, and started yelling "I taking a shower!" Anyway, I got her underwear back on, but she wouldn't put pants on.)

After they were all cleaned out, Laney "helped" Daddy carve his pumpkin into a baby face!

And the final project! Gotta love the tripod-self-timer shots!

In the dark...

And Miss Laney... by the way, she picked out the design for the one on the left- she decided on triangle eyes and nose and two teeth.

Absolutely LOVE this picture of her with the pumpkins on the front porch. And now every time we walk in or out of the door we hear something about "Daddy's pumpkin is a baby and my pumpkin is a siley (smiley) face." She loves them!

Anyway, so there's pumpkin carving at the Looten house... and coming up this weekend, Miss Laney turns into Snow White! :)

MU Homecoming

One of the sad things about not being greek in college, is that I didn't really DO Homecoming when I was in school. So, this year Josh and I decided to get tickets to the game and really do all of the fun stuff that goes along with it- the parade, House Decs, etc. etc. And we had a blast!

Despite Laney being sick this week, she was a real trooper! We started off the festivities with House Decorations on Friday night. I'd heard lots about them, but never been (sad, I know- I graduated from MU for goodness sake!). Anyway, we had a pretty good time, despite some nasty weather (40s and rainy) and a slightly cranky daughter! We met up with Bob and Robyn, who were in town for homecoming, and wandered around with them for awhile, which is always fun! The theme this year was fairy tales/nursery rhymes, so we saw lots of fun stuff for Laney! And, of course, took the camera along...

Laney's favorite moment of the night: SHEEP! One of the houses did their's on Little Bo Peep, and had real, live sheep there. Laney had a blast petting them!

The view is always better from Daddy's shoulders!

The characters in the AgSig show... the Truman looked pretty cool, but the rest of them looked a little, well, rushed. Check out Blaine Gabbert the hunchback...

So, Laney saw a kid with a balloon, so much of our evening was spent trying to find which house was giving out the balloons (a la Roots, Blues & BBQ). We did eventually find it, and it actually turned out to be the best house decs we saw. They did the Little Engine that Could, and their pomping was AWESOME, they even pomped their characters! So it was worth the balloon hunt!

The Homecoming festivities continued bright and early the next morning, when we met Grandma & Grandpa Looten and Grandma Jo at the Rec Center for the pancake breakfast. Laney managed to con one of the workers out of a couple of balloons, and we all enjoyed the breakfast!!

Laney riding around with Grandma Jo... and the balloons, of course!

Headed out with Grandma Looten for the start of the parade! With balloons, OF COURSE! :)

After the breakfast, we just headed down the sidewalk to Rollins to watch the parade! Laney hadn't ever been to a parade before, so it was a new experience! She wasn't too sure about the candy at first, but pretty soon she was racing out into the street (oh, great) to grab smarties and suckers! It was so funny, because she ate suckers the ENTIRE time. So as soon as she would finish one, she would dig in the bag for another one. By the end of the parade she was surrounded by sucker sticks (because she didn't pick them up, of course- although we did afterwards). Laney loved the bands and the floats and the music, and the candy, of course! By the end of the parade she had a massive bag of candy, plus 3 balloons, and was one tired little girl!!

Sucker in one hand... balloon in another. Hard to imagine a happier 2 year old!

This was the float for the house we saw the night before that had the really neat Little Engine that Could house decs. Their float was also cool!

This truck just cracked us up... it's front end was practically pointing to the sky! Probably wouldn't have been so bad if there wasn't a load of people in the back...

Laney's friends the sheep from the night before. Yes, they painted one of them yellow!

After the parade, digging through her "haul." Yes, we collected in a recycling bag, it was all Grandma Jo had and I didn't think far enough ahead to pack a bag!

After the parade, and some serious napping, we got dressed up again and headed to the game itself! We were afraid it was going to be freezing, but it actually ended up really nice. 50's and not too windy. The game itself, not so good. But we had fun at the Zimmer Radio tailgate before hand, and just hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa Looten!

Laney and Grandma, headed to the tailgate!

Totally Josh's daughter... look at her going after that hot dog!

Listening to the radio during the game...

Grandma, Grandpa, and Laney towards the end of the game (note the empty seats!)

So my first all out Homecoming was absolutely a blast! We had fun with old friends, and with Grandma & Grandpa Looten & Grandma Jo! And Laney did great through the whole thing (only a few fits, but she wasn't feeling so good).

On another note... two posts so close together, amazing, right? Well, I figured out (thanks to a tip from Jess) that I could email my pictures from Picasa to my post and not have to deal with uploading them 5 at a time and in the wrong order, etc. etc. All you do is set it up (directions here), then from Picasa "hold" the pictures you want in your tray, then email them to the address you set up. It's pretty sweet! And way faster than fighting with the uploading!

As far as Laney goes, she was sick on Thursday with a 102 temp, but Friday she was a-ok. She kind of fought a low grade temp (around 100) some of the weekend. But then today she was sick again, so we kept her home and took her to the doctor. Yep, her flu test came back faintly positive... which means she is probably just getting over it. Whoops... so I feel bad that we exposed who knows how many people to it. But, oh well... guess it was a pretty mild case, and we seem to be on the upside of it!

Fall Fun

Well, I might as well start off by apologizing for not posting in a month!! This new baby seems to really have it in for me! I am still sick all day most days, and have had some ugly puking incidents. So, when I get home from work, I don't really have the energy to post. In fact, the only reason I'm posting today is because Elena is home sick, so I'm home with her. Gives me some extra time, between checking email for work! But we have been doing fun stuff this fall, so I thought I'd post some pics and stories to kind of catch me up! And I'll try to be better... God-willing, I'll start to feel better in the next week or so, and will get to enjoy the fun part of pregnancy!!

But on to the stories and pics...

No idea where this picture came from... but I can guarantee that it will be used to torture Miss Laney around age 15! :)

This one is from a trip to SDC, riding the trams into the park. Kind of fuzzy, but too cute to pass up! I already posted about the trip itself, but must have missed this pic!

Laney did get to go to her first football game of this season (we did make one last year), and on her birthday no less! After her party and nap, we dressed up and headed to Faurot field!

Daddy and Laney, walking to the game! Check out Josh's super-cool Chase Coffman jersey!

It was a long walk... Laney got tired! Notice we had to drag along the new baby doll she got for her birthday! But aren't the tiger ears great...

Just loved this shot of them walking through the tunnel. Laney was not too sure about it because it was so loud. But once Josh picked her up she was good to go.

We got to sit with Grandma & Grandpa Looten, which was lots of fun, even if Grandpa did keep squishing Laney!! She doesn't seem to mind!

The game was really a good time. The Tigers won (it was an early game, so not a really difficult one, but that's ok), and Laney really did a good job. There were enough people around, and enough candy and popcorn being shoved her way that she stayed entertained. And she did a really good job with going to the potty, which I was a little worried about. Of course, we had to take her SEVERAL times, and it was quite the hike to the bathroom, but there were enough of us to spread the job out! And she didn't have any accidents! So, a successful trip, all around! We're headed back to Homecoming this weekend, so I'm hoping that goes as well!!

In true Looten style, the next weekend was another busy one! The weekend after Laney's birthday party was the Roots, Blues, and BBQ Festival in downtown Columbia. It was a little different this year because you had to pay to get in, but we still had a really good time. And the rain stopped just in time for us to head that way Saturday evening. We met my family, and just wandered- smelling the bbq, listening to the music, and just hanging out.

Laney's favorite food was less the bbq, and more this watermelon we found at one stand! For $1, TOTALLY worth the entertainment value!!

Our other big goal was to find the balloon guy, because Laney saw a kid with a balloon as soon as we got there, and, of course, wanted one. So we finally found him in Flatbranch Park, and he made Laney this frog with a huge tongue, which she LOVED (and carried around the whole night, and then around the house until it wilted into a very sad little frog!).

Hanging out with Uncle Charlie, listening to a band play!

After A LOT of standing and walking, we all needed a little sit down break before the next show. So we walked up to Kaldi's and got coffee and smoothies (and a chocolate milk for Laney). It was nice for us to sit, and for Laney to get to play a little (and lay on Uncle Charlie). Not to mention how wonderful to get to use a real bathroom instead of a portapotty!

Next big event was Uncle Tim's 30th birthday!! Mallorye planned a surprise birthday party for him, and pulled it off wonderfully! We just hung out at Tim's house, ate good food, and caught up with all of the Lootens! It was a really good time, and Uncle Tim was actually very surprised!

Loved this little cake Mallorye got for Tim... complete with black icing and candles!

Blowing out the candles! Laney was helping from the other side...

One day recently the Youzeum in Columbia had a CPS Teacher Appreciation night, so CPS employees got in free (with their families). We couldn't miss this opportunity, so we headed that way. We wandered around the main part of the museum for awhile, and found some cool stuff, but not much for kids Laney's size. Then we headed upstairs to the 7 and under room and hit pay dirt! She could have stayed there for hours!!

She loved going through this tunnel over and over...

And especially loved loading up this basket with the food from the "grocery store" and "cooking" it in the fully stocked kitchen! It was funny to watch her! And, of course, she screamed like a banshee when it was time to leave!

The Youzeum was fun, but really didn't have too much for a kid Laney's size, except for the room upstairs. Pretty neat for elementary age kids, though!

So, the last big event I have to post I don't have many pics for, but hopefully I can get some more from Ruth and add them later! But, at least I have a few!

Last weekend Josh and I got to head to Southern Illinois for the Galatia Stride and Ride MDA Walk. This is a MASSIVE fundraiser that my family in IL helps put on every year to benefit MDA because of my two cousins with MD. Josh and I hadn't ever been, because we are usually in Springfield. But this year it was a week later, so we got to go!! It was absolutely amazing, with tons of Silent Auction baskets, two bounce houses, a beautiful quilt raffle, several Live Auction items, big crowds, good food, and, of course, lots of people walking!! I think we raised almost $50,000, which is just awesome! Having never been to one before, I was astounded both by the size, and by the amount of work that it took to put it on. But with such a big family, everyone seemed to pitch in to do what they could, and pulled it off! I was busy much of the day (bidding on my silent auction baskets!!) but I did manage to get a few pics...

Laney was nice enough to let Grandpa Charlie use her blankie... it was definitely cold that day, 40's and windy. We had to make a Dollar General run for gloves and hats so we didn't freeze!

It was hard to keep Laney OUT of the bounce house, every time we turned around she wanted to go jump in it. Aunt Jane was more than happy to oblige a few times!!

Lunch: yummy "hog gogs" as Laney calls them!

We were cracking up at Elena because she was totally unaware that there were people watching her, and that she was walking into the middle of the Live Auction! All she knew was that her aunts were standing around up there, so she must need to be there, too! Pretty funny...

And even funnier when she wouldn't get off this pedal tractor (which was being sold!). This little boy wanted to ride it so bad. He won in the end, though, his parents bought it for him!!

And after the walk: totally passed out! I think everyone could have fallen asleep in the car on the way home!

We really had a great weekend in IL, we stayed until Sunday afternoon so we got to hang out with everyone, go to church, get pedicures, and, of course, get the farm animal tour on the mule! I don't have any pictures from those activities, though, so I will post some (hopefully) when I get them from Ellen and Ruthie!

So there's a catch up on our fall!! We are headed to all of the Homecoming festivities this weekend (house decs, parade, game) so I'm sure there will be pics from that, and hopefully it won't take me a month to post them! As far as non-event things, Laney is doing REALLY WELL with potty training. Really, she's potty trained. Until yesterday she was having very few accidents. She did have a couple yesterday, but I'm guessing that's because she was feeling so yucky. So our next big challenge is the binky. We're down to only using it at bedtime, which sometimes is fine, and sometimes she REALLY wants it during the day. But we're hoping to get her broken of it before the new baby. One step at a time!! I look at her in amazement sometimes because she is just so big. She really doesn't look anything like a baby anymore, she is really a little girl now. She loves Disney princesses (we're being Snow White for Halloween), she loves watching cartoons (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, anyone?), and she is VERY opinionated!! Oh well, what else could we expect from our daughter? We love her very much... and are very interested to see how our family changes with this next one!!