Pre-Christmas Festivities

So, I started to do a Christmas post, but I have too many pictures from pre-Christmas stuff… so we’re starting with those!

Laney was absolutely a blast this year; Christmas (and the build up to it) really gets better every year with her, because she just gets so much more excited.  Her big thing this year were the Christmas lights- she pointed out every house with lights, and, as far as she’s concerned, the more lights the better!  So, of course, we had to take her to see the Magic Tree.  She sure loved it!

Another fun addition to Christmas this year was Christmas programs for Laney!  First, there was the one at church:

 

Laney was so funny during the program, she was so excited to look for us in the crowd, and just grinned like crazy whenever we made eye contact.  That was about the only thing she paid attention to, though… she spent a lot of time spinning and dancing, and a little bit of time holding her skirt up in the air (it was a princess dress, after all).  At least we only saw underwear once… or maybe twice! 

She sure looked cute, though! :)  Such a big girl!

The next program was at her school, Cannery Row Preschool.  She did manage to keep her dress down during that performance, but I’m not sure this was an improvement!

Much better!

Another cool thing about this Christmas was that we got a White Christmas!  It snowed a good 3 or 4 inches on Christmas Eve, so we couldn’t miss the chance to go out and play in it.  It was good wet snow, so perfect for making a snowman!

Daddy, his girls, and “Frosty,” as Laney called him…

And what would be playing in the snow time without a good, old-fashioned snowball fight?! :)

And, of course, an important part of our family, Mr. Truman, also enjoyed Christmas- mostly for the superb hiding place that the tree provides!  He definitely needs the escape with Miss A on the prowl! :)

Stay tuned for Christmas morning (and all day, really) pictures and stories! :)

Merry Christmas!

Visited Santa at Bass Pro on Saturday. That is totally the way to do it! The Santa was really nice, we waited no more than 15 minutes, they gave us a free picture, and then I could order the digital print (so I could put it online, of course!) for only $10, much better than the $20+ I always end up spending at the mall. Anyway, definitely a positive experience! :) And this year, for the first time, Laney was totally excited about meeting Santa. Clearly, check out the giddy smile:

Before she's always been scared, or not old enough to care. This year, she was ALL ABOUT meeting Santa, and telling him that she wanted dolls for Christmas. So cute! :)

P.S. Too bad Audrey totally looks like Rudolph... a few too many carrots and sweet potatoes!

Big News

Well, I have been absent from blogging on this site for awhile (obviously, since my last post was about Halloween, and it’s now almost Christmas!).  I try not to take month-long breaks, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.  Like one of the last really long breaks I took, something big is happening in our lives that hasn’t been public knowledge, so it’s hard to blog when I can’t blog about what’s really going on.  I’m kind of an open book that way!

Anyway, so our big news this time is NOT that we’re having another baby, but that, instead, we’re moving away from Columbia.  We are moving to Elizabethtown, KY, so that Josh can finish his Masters of Divinity at SBTS in Louisville (about 45 min north of E-town) and serve as the part time youth pastor at Tunnel Hill Baptist Church.  Josh has really felt called to youth ministry for a very long time, and he could only sit on the fence between youth ministry and the bank for so long before he had to commit one way or another.  With full-time ministry at the goal, it became necessary to get his education, and SBTS is the best place to do that.  We have told the church, the schools, the bank, and listed our house.  Seeing that Century 21 sign out front was pretty bittersweet…

Anyway, we are an interesting mix of excited and nervous and happy and sad and scared.  I am incredibly sad to be leaving the church home I grew up in, and the people who I have known since I was in 1st grade.  I am also sad to be leaving a job I absolutely love, and people I really enjoy working with.  But it will be a fun new adventure for our family, and change is a good thing, even if it isn’t much fun at the time.  So, at this point, I mostly just want the house to sell so we don’t have the mortgage payment hanging over our heads!

As far as logistics… Josh will leave sometime mid-January/early-February (he is having shoulder surgery on Dec. 21st, so it really depends on how long his rehab/pt takes… but that’s a whole other story).  I will stay and finish out my contract with the schools (I feel pretty strongly like that’s the right thing to do, plus I wouldn’t want to try to get a job there in February), so the girls and I will move in early June.  We are wanting to sell our house, and whenever it sells the girls and I will move in with Mom & Dad, and we will look at buying a house in E-town.  We originally planned to rent there (hello, part time job, full time student), but due to some economic factors from being so close to Ft. Knox, rent there is extremely high, but we can find a house to fit our needs for a reasonable price.  We are kind of excited to have the motivation and opportunity to downsize, and see what we really NEED, and get rid of some materialistic things that are nice, but not necessities.  Simplifying our lives is going to be one major bonus of this move.

So, there’s the news… and now, to improve the mood a bit, a few pictures from the past few weeks, when I haven’t been blogging… these are mostly of Laney, since Audrey pics are on Baby Loo Two.

SDC Christmas… always a great time!  This picture is a little grainy, but love the genuine smile on her face!  Laney LOVED the lights!

Grandma was the lucky favorite that got to jam herself into all of the kiddie rides with Laney! :)  I think they both loved every minute of it!

Daddy put Audrey in a gift bag while we were cleaning out the garage.  Not to be outdone, Laney had to get in one, too…

Thanksgiving in IL… always love having a nice, long weekend to relax and hang out with this side of the family…

Laney and my cousin, Beau

We spent a lot of time perusing the Black Friday ads prior to our Black Friday Shopping Adventure.  Laney decided she wanted in on the action… love how serious she is!

It doesn’t get much better than reading books with Aunt Jane…

… and snuggling with Grandma Judy!

Right after we got the house listed, we put up our Christmas tree.

Truman supervised, complete with festive collar.  He really is a good-lookin’ kitty! :)

White lights, red bows, gold garland, and tons of ornaments… I love our tree!

One of my favorite ornaments… sweet and simple.

I tried a photo shoot with the girls… it wasn’t the most successful (maybe I’ll do an outtakes post), but I got a few cute ones…

So, there’s our news, and a quick picture update of the past few weeks.  I am definitely going to have to be better at posting on this blog after we move, since we will be so much farther away from our families!  But, it’s just another Looten Family Adventure… and we’re trusting God to make ends meet and keep us sane! 

Halloween & My Big Girl

Just a few quick pics from Halloween this year, and my adorable pumpkin and Cinderella! 

Audrey, in the same pumpkin costume Laney wore, it was just too adorable not to use again! 

Laney in her VERY FANCY Cinderella costume!  Funniest thing about her costume, she absolutely refused to wear her princess shoes with it.  All she wanted to wear were her white sandals, so that’s what we went with…

Laney, Daddy, and Audrey, on the way to Grandma Jo’s house!  (FYI, Josh is dressed as The Blur from Smallville)

“Trick or Treat!”

Grandma Jo was nice enough to get a doll for Audrey, since she couldn’t have any candy!

We really only went trick or treating at Grandma Jo’s house, because we had a youth party that night.  It was a good time, with a fun game called Gorgon, and several fun costumes!  Everyone was really pretty creative!

Two of my favorites: James & Corey as Mario and The Incredible Hulk

The whole group… Loved Sam’s 70’s bball player, and Jack Sparrow’s girlfriend on the left…  I’m in the back, dressed as Clark Kent…

Since Halloween, I’ve taken a couple of fun pictures of Laney that I just had to share.  Every once in awhile I take a picture and think “Oh my gosh, she’s a big girl all of a sudden!”  It’s hard to believe how fast she grows! 

She loves her bathtime… even if she smiles like she’s in pain!

Snuggle bunny, all ready for bed!

My big girl, with her hair in a braid!  This just made her seem so much bigger!  And she felt so pretty and grown up, you could tell by the way she walked and carried herself.  Very sweet!

Hope everyone else had a fun Halloween!  We sure did!

Pumpkin Fun!

Just a quick post with some pre-Halloween fun! 

First, Friday the girls’ school, Cannery Row Preschool, had a Halloween party (of course), so they headed off that morning dressed up.  Here’s the first look at Cinderella, and her little sister, the jack o’ lantern!  Pretty cute!

Audrey fills that jack o’ lantern costume out a little better than Laney did when she wore it!

Friday evening, we finally had a chance to carve our pumpkin!  Like everything else, Laney had to do it in a princess dress.  She was a little reluctant to touch the guts of the pumpkin, but did eventually stick her hand in there.

Finally getting the courage to stick her hand in after the seeds!

Showing me her yucky fingers!  Love the outfit!

I will fully admit that Josh did most of the work.  He asked Laney what kind of pumpkin she wanted, and she said she wanted a “scary dinosaur pumpkin.”  So, that’s what he gave her…

He did some serious carving, especially on those teeth!  But it turned out great!!

And, of course, we had to set it out on the front porch and light it, and have a little photo shoot…

Pretty cute girls we have!

Funny part of the photo shoot was when Laney said “Now can you get her off of my legs?” and started pushing Audrey off of the front step!  Guess big sister tolerance only goes so far!

One more shot of the cool pumpkin!  Pretty scary dinosaur pumpkin, if you ask me!  Laney has shown it to everyone that has come to our house since we put it out.  Guess she’s proud of it, too!

Peach Tree Farms

On the 18th I had the pleasure of going with Laney on a field trip with her daycare, Cannery Row Preschool.  2, 3, and 4-year olds on a field trip, well, that was a treat too tempting to pass up! :)

So, bright and early Monday morning, we loaded up and headed a couple miles west of Columbia to the Peach Tree Farm Pumpkin Patch.  This place had everything!  There were animals of all kids (goats, cats, donkeys, pigs, ducks, turkeys, chickens, even 2 giant catfish), a pumpkin patch (duh!), a hayride, a straw maze, a giant cornstalk horse… seriously, everything you could ask for at a pumpkin patch!  We couldn’t have asked for better weather for an October day- sunny and 70!

And, as expected, getting 20-some 2-4 year olds around all that stuff without losing anyone was, well, kinda like herding cats!  Personally, I think the pictures speak for themselves…

We started off with a group picture… (notice the kid making a break for it in the bottom right)

Laney was clearly not happy about the whole picture-taking thing.  She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t stand by me.

Everyone’s attitudes improved when it was time to pet the first goats!  Love the nametags on the back of their shirts!  Best trick ever for keeping stickers on little kids!

Pretty soon it was time for the hayride, which was lots of fun (despite many warnings about sitting on bottoms and not throwing hay)!

The hayride dropped us off at the actual pumpkin patch, and the kids got to wander around and pick out a pumpkin to take home with them!

Laney showed off her pumpkin with a decidedly fake “CHEESE!” smile… in her defense, it was very bright!

Her new obsession is picking flowers, so, of course, she couldn’t resist the big yellow ones on the pumpkin vines.  She couldn’t quite comprehend why picking all the flowers would mean no more pumpkins.  Guess that science lesson will have to wait until later…

The real tragedy happened about 5 minutes later, when she stuck the hand holding the flower too close to the goat pen and a goat ate her flower!  Talk about melt down!  Luckily, one of the other moms picked her another one… which she promptly made me hold, and which wilted to death in my pocket, goobering up everything else in there!.  Oh well… she enjoyed it while she had it! :)

Laney and her friend, Ali!  Cute little sunflowers…

Petting a goat (clearly she forgave them for the flower incident)

Showing her true colors while riding the cornstalk horse!

Looking pitiful… although not as pitiful as the kid next to her.  That kid’s gonna be an actor! :)

And, when it was time to leave, after some serious Purel action, it was time for one more attempt at a group shot…

Which Laney was still not happy about…

Despite the unhappiness during the group pictures, this really was a great time!  Totally worth the $4 (and we got to take our pumpkins home with us), and highly recommended to my Columbia mommy friends!