Lootens Visit!

This past weekend, the Lootens had planned a visit from Springfield.  Originally, they were coming up this weekend because I was supposed to have a baby on Friday morning… but obviously, Audrey was already here, so they just came up to meet her when she was a little older than they’d expected!  Jess, Leila, and Kael came, too, so it was quite the party!  With 2 toddlers and 2 infants, there was rarely a dull moment! 

They came Friday afternoon, and we spent some time hanging out at our house, letting them unwind from the drive, letting the girls play, and trying to decide on a place to go eat!  As usual, the girls had a pretty good time playing together, and were fairly good at sharing… as good as 2 two-year-olds can be! 

Josh got to give lots of horsey rides!  And check out the princess crown- an Easter present from Uncle Tim & Mally!

The girls, sharing a “snack tray.” 

The snack tray is something new I’ve started with Laney.  She’s always asking for candy or something to eat.  Instead of having to constantly be raiding the fridge for her, or saying no to candy requests (which never goes over well), when she asks for a snack, I make her a little plate of healthy snacks- carrots, cheese, pickles, animal crackers, etc.  Then she can work on those snacks for the evening, and isn’t constantly asking for more, or asking for candy!  It works pretty well, actually…

 

Leila and Laney both LOVE books, so they climbed up in Grandma’s lap to read several Princess books!

We went out to dinner Friday night to Chevy’s.  Josh and I joked on the way there that we were a waitress’ worst nightmare- 8 adults, 2 toddlers, and 2 infants.  But, really, it went pretty well.  With that many grown ups, there were lots of people to entertain the two girls, and the babies mostly just chilled, either being held by someone or in their seats!  And the food was delicious, so it was a lot of fun.  We even got to briefly see Stevie, who was passing through town on Friday night. 

Saturday we spent most of the day at Grandma Jo’s house, just hanging out.  Jeff & Connie came to visit, too, because they were camping in Arrow Rock, and decided to come meet Miss Audrey, too.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, so we decided to get out and enjoy the weather by taking the girls to the park.  Cosmo is so close, and has such awesome equipment, that it’s hard to not go!  I wasn’t feeling up to doing a lot of sliding, so Josh did the running, and I did the photographing!

My little girl… not so little anymore!

 

Love the static hair!

Just a cute pic… it’s becoming harder and harder to capture a real smile from her. 

Sometimes I wonder who the bigger kid is… he’s pretending to be Aquaman here (riding a seahorse… get it?).

Leila was hilarious on the slides.  Absolutely no fear, she just dove headfirst down them.  Obviously having a GREAT time!

Laney was a little hesitant about the spiral slide, but went with Daddy anyway.  And, for the record, that is not joy on Daddy’s face- apparently the slide was shocking him in a serious way! :)

Mal took care of chasing after Leila… pretty cute!

Kael and Audrey were there, too… but they didn’t do a lot of sliding!  Mostly just hung out in the shade with Jess & I! :)

Saturday night, after post-park naps, Grandma made a big dinner for us- fried chicken AND ham and all the fixin's'!  It was delicious!  It was kind of a late-Easter dinner, since our KFC fried chicken from last weekend wasn’t quite the same! :)  After dinner, we headed back outside- seriously loving this weather!  Grandma & Grandpa Looten bought Disney Princess balls for the two girls, and they had to try them out!

They even shared well… although they each had their own ball, and we ended up having to write their names on them just to keep them separate!  Amazing how much fun you can have with a simple ball!

Uncle Tim had to get in on the action!

Grandma & Kael came out to supervise! :)

Sometimes it’s dangerous playing catch with a two year old- they run at you and chuck the ball from about 6 inches away!  Kept Grandpa on his toes! :)

Sunday we went to church, back to Grandma’s for leftovers, and then home for NAPS!  It was a really fun weekend, and we had a good time just hanging out, introducing all of them to Audrey, and playing with all of the kids.  It’s definitely different, having all the kids now.  It’s funny to think that 3 years ago there were zero grandkids, and now there are 4! :)  Guess that’s how families go!  I get the feeling it is only going to get more interesting in the next few years!! :)

Beautiful Weather & Easter

Well, the first few pics are old, because they are from before our whole life went crazy!  But they are pretty cute, so I thought I’d share anyway!

Before everything went down, Laney and I enjoyed some really nice weather on our Monday of Spring Break.  We were so tired from Young Christians’ Weekend that we just spent the day hanging around.  In the afternoon, we headed outside, and I decided to try to build the Cozy Coupe that Grandma & Grandpa Price got Laney for Christmas. 

I thought I might be in trouble when the directions looked like this:

Luckily, I had Laney & Truman to help!

Laney is not so patient!  She wanted in before the wheels were even on!

Isa wasn’t a whole lot of help, either! :)

Unfortunately for Laney, I didn’t actually get the whole thing put together.  I got to a part where you had to snap the roof supports in, and I just didn’t have the flexibility (hello, 38 weeks pregnant) and/or strength to get them in.  So we had to wait for Daddy to get home to finish it!

First, a hug for Daddy:

Then a test drive- she was “going to Wal-Mart then grocery shopping.”  Guess they play what they know! :)

Truman spent most of the day outside with us. He love to roll on the concrete and scratch is back… funny part was, he rolled in Laney’s sidewalk chalk art and colored himself!

  Check out the purple, pink, and blue shoulder… very manly! :)

 

Well, obviously the rest of our Spring Break didn’t go QUITE as planned… but we made it back home in time for Easter Sunday, though it wasn’t exactly the same as normal!  We decided to skip sunrise service altogether, and only Laney and Daddy went to Sunday School.  Audrey and I came to regular church, which was about all I could handle anyway- I was pretty uncomfortable by the end.  It was kind of nice not to have to get myself plus TWO little girls ready in time for a 7:00 service!  I just had to get Laney ready, and then I had time to get me and Audrey ready on our own!

Laney, ready to go! 

While Laney & Daddy were in Sunday School, the Easter Bunny came!  He even knew to leave something for Audrey!

Laney was QUITE excited when she got home!

The Easter Bunny brought Laney new nail polish!  She was so excited!!

Since we were all dressed up, we decided to take a Looten family photo… after about 50 tries, we got a pretty cute one!

After taking a picture, and having some lunch, we headed out back where Uncle Charlie the Easter Bunny had been nice enough to hide some eggs for Laney!  I took about a zillion pictures while we were out there, because the light was just so good, and she looked so adorable running around in the backyard.  Definitely more excited about it this year than she was last year!  So, here are just a few pics…

 

Miss Audrey wasn’t up for hunting for eggs this year… so she took a nap on Grandma Jo instead!  I don’t think either of them minded! :)

 

Of course, we had to get ALL of the candy out (and dumped into bowls from her little kitchen).  We let her enjoy herself for awhile, though…

 

Anyway, it’s been a crazy week, and we are VERY glad to be home hanging out with each other this week, not doing much besides playing outside, relaxing, and getting to know Miss Audrey! 

Goodbye and Hello

Well, it’s been an interesting week for our family. 

Most of you probably know that my Grandpa Price, who lives in IL, has been sick.  He’s been sick for a long time with cancer, and really fought it.  Recently, however, he decided that he was through fighting, and ready to go home.  Which he did, this past Tuesday. 

There will never be another man like him.  He worked hard his whole life, loved God and his family more than anything else in the world, and was never short on funny stories or teasing comments.  He loved to laugh.  The stories and memories I could tell from my summers spent in IL are countless, but it is enough to say that he was a wonderful Grandpa, and we never doubted that he loved us and would do anything for us! 

When we heard on Tuesday that he had passed away, we packed up and headed for IL the next morning for the visitation and funeral on Thursday and Friday.  Wednesday evening, as we were sitting around eating (there was enough food there to feed a small army) and telling stories, I went into labor!  So we loaded up and headed for the hospital, where we welcomed Audrey Lou Looten at 10:50 pm (for the full story, check out the Baby Loo Two blog).  So, I didn’t make it to the funeral, instead I spent the next several days in the hospital, getting to know my new little girl. 

It was such an interesting experience, having a goodbye and a hello so close together in the same family.  I can’t help but think it was God’s timing (since it certainly wasn’t mine!), because having Miss Audrey around brought so much joy at a time when our family was so very sad.  Not that we are not still sad about losing Grandpa, because we all will (and do) miss him very much.  But to have so much joy at the same time, to welcome a new member to the family as we are saying good bye to an old is such a perfect picture of God’s plan for life that it couldn’t have been anything besides God’s timing. 

So with sadness we say good bye to Grandpa, and with joy we welcome Audrey.

 

 

¹³ But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.

¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

¹⁵For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

¹⁶For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

¹⁷Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

¹⁸Therefore comfort one another with these words.

I Thessalonians 4:13-18