Laney’s Surgery

So, when Laney was about 2, a photographer who took pics for our daycare noticed that Laney’s eyes turned in.  It wasn’t very noticeable, and we couldn’t ever pin down which eye it was, so we kind of let it ride for a bit.  Then, last spring, the Lions Eye Institute did a screening at school, and they caught some issues with her vision.  So we scheduled a follow up with an optometrist, who told us that her vision was actually fine, it was just that her eyes weren’t working together; he called it a roaming lazy eye.  At times, only one eye was working, and the other turned in.  He said she’d need surgery, but since we were getting ready to move, he said we could wait and find an optometrist in Louisville. 

We definitely noticed in the last year that her eyes have been getting worse. 

Sometimes the right eye turned in…

…sometimes the left eye turned in…

…and, well, sometimes they both turned in!!

So, obviously they didn’t look like that all of the time, we actually told her to roll her eyes.  But she did have a killer “You are the biggest idiot” look, when both of her eyes turned in!  Anyway, as much as we loved the faces, we had to get it fixed!  So we scheduled her surgery for Friday, January 13th (good thing we’re not superstitious!).  We were lucky enough (sarcasm) to get the first appointment, which meant being at the hospital at 0600… an hour drive away!  Thankfully, Mom & Dad Looten came to help out, and they stayed home with Audrey, so only Daddy & I had to get there crazily early!  And they said Laney was supposed to be in comfy pjs, so no dressing required! :)

Unfortunately, they sent us to the wrong hospital… so we wandered around for awhile, being sent from one surgical unit to another, until they finally figured out that we were supposed to be at a different Jewish Hospital across town… and now we were late!

But Laney didn’t seem to mind- she loved checking out the fish!

Once we got to the right hospital, Daddy ran to get McD’s after he dropped us off… unfortunately, Laney noticed the bag, and since she hadn’t eaten since the night before, she was NOT HAPPY about the fact that she couldn’t have any!  We just kept saying “In a little bit!”  I don’t think she was buying it…

However, once the happy juice came out, things looked up… let’s just say, I think Laney will be an extrovert when she’s tipsy!  (Gee, wonder who she gets that from…)

Unfortunately, the special juice did not make her very compliant… she still didn’t want to put on her hospital gown…

And then they wheeled her out… which was really scary!  Talk about feeling helpless!  The surgery was supposed to take about an hour, and then she’d have about an hour in recovery before they brought her back to us.  The doctor came in after the surgery was over, and told us it went fine, and that they would be bringing her back when she woke up, or coming to get us if they needed us as she was coming out of anesthesia.

Everyone told us that the coming out of anesthesia would be the worst part, and they were right.  I think Laney kind of panicked because she couldn’t see, not really because she was blind, but because her eyes hurt, and they put ointment in them, which had to feel weird.  Anyway, I guess she just started screaming, so they came and got me out of the room to come back to recovery.  That was definitely the hardest part- she wasn’t really herself.  Although, she really kind of was- she was unhappy, and very single-minded!  She decided she wanted the IV out of her foot, and she wasn’t going to calm down until it was OUT.  She screamed and cried and tried to yank it out, so I had to hold her down to keep her from hurting herself.  I tried to sing to calm her down, but she was just out of it.  They didn’t want to take the IV out until she took some pain meds orally, and they couldn’t give her those until she drank something and kept it down, and she wouldn’t drink anything until they took the IV out… it was a vicious cycle, with no end in sight!  Finally they decided to take her back to the room, and see if she’d calm down there. 

It did seem to help when she could see her Daddy, and it definitely helped when she got to open the present we brought for her!  We figured she’d need a pick me up after surgery, so we got her an Ariel doll!  (Funny side story about the Ariel- the doctor said she might have some double vision… after she opened the present, she said “TWO ARIELS?”  Clearly that double vision thing was accurate). After seeing Daddy, and opening her present, she at least calmed down enough to stop yanking at her foot, and took a little nap.

Eventually, she calmed down enough to drink some orange slushy, take some oral meds, and put her pjs back on.  She was not real happy, she kept saying “I didn’t have a very good doctor’s appointment.” 

Poor baby!

We spent the rest of the day (and the weekend, for that matter) relaxing, watching movies, and eating yummy food with Grandma & Grandpa Looten!

And snuggling with Ariel, of course!

The worst part was trying to get the ointment in her eyes!!  The first night it took all of us to hold her down, but eventually she got used to it, and as long as she knew there was a treat waiting when it was over, she was pretty good!  :)  

Anyway, she has healed pretty well, the redness is almost gone by now, and we haven’t noticed her eyes turning in lately.  So, we are praising God for a successful surgery, and so thankful that it went so well!  Although, we will definitely miss the “You’re such a big idiot” face! :)

Another Project Finished!

So, apparently I’ve been motivated lately, because I keep finishing projects (highly abnormal for me).  Since I actually started this one last year sometime, I’m not sure if I can be too proud of myself, but, hey, finishing is finishing, right?! :) 

Anyway, I’ve seen lots of cute canvases with kids’ names on them and fun designs.  But at $20 and up, I wasn’t really willing to pay for them (shocker).  After seeing posters turned into canvases here, and since I’m fairly familiar with Photoshop and some other photo editing software, I thought I’d give it a try.  After much analysis paralysis with making the designs and matching the colors, and much MUCH tweaking, I ended up with two designs I liked.  And then I just waited.  And waited.  I couldn’t really bring myself to fork over the $15 to turn them into a poster at Walmart.  I know, I’m cheap.  But this fall, I found a Groupon for $17 for $70 worth of merchandise at www.vistaprint.com.  They had several things that I thought would make good Christmas presents, so I bought the groupon, and used part of it to order a large poster (18x24 inches) with both of the pictures on them.  I had already picked up some 12x12 canvases at Michaels ($4 for a 2-pack, I think) this summer, so I was ready to go.  And… I waited. :)

But we had company this past weekend, and that was the motivation I needed to get in gear and finish the project!  So, I started out with this:

I probably should have taken the poster to work and used the giant paper cutter, but, well, I wasn’t patient enough- once I decided I wanted to get it done, I was finishing it that night!  So, after a couple minutes of cutting, I had these two prints:

Here comes the real bonus… Young House Love, where I first got the whole poster-to-canvas idea, had some trouble finding an adhesive that worked.  I lucked out- when we ordered the girls’ foam mattresses, they came a little shorter than we ordered.  So the company sent us some pieces to make up the difference, and some adhesive spray to stick the little pieces to the big mattress.  See where I’m going with this?  Yep, the next step was to break out the upholstery adhesive.  It said to spray it on then let it sit for 30 seconds or so. 

Once I had both prints attached to the canvases, I used this highly scientific drying method:

And let it sit for awhile (I think it was probably a full day, but mostly because of convenience, not because I really thought it would take that long).

Josh hung them for me, and I think they turned out really well!  Not that you can tell because the beds are NEVER made, but the colors actually match the bedding that I got for the girls this summer. 

An up-close shot…

Obviously you can tell that they are not really canvases if you get up close to them, but I think they turned out really nice!  They certainly look great considering I only spent $10-ish on them! 

I think I’m out of projects now, so this can go back to a family blog… but I’ve been having fun doing neat stuff on a budget, so you never know!! :)

Happy New Year & Bike Riding!

Our New Years was totally low-key… we spent the evening at home, and then celebrated on Sunday morning with donuts and sparkling grape juice!  Not much to write about, but it was a perfect way to start a new year for us- with family!  And Laney LOVES the sparkling grape juice, so that’s all she needed!

“CHEESE!”

Crash and her sparkling grape juice!

Happy New Year from the Lootens!

On another note… Laney got her first bike for Christmas this year from Grandma & Grandpa Price, and it’s been so beautiful lately, we found a day to take it for a spin.  So glad we live on a cul de sac, because we just got out there in the middle of the road, and only had one car drive by! 

Laney did really well; she got the pedaling backwards to break down pretty quickly, and did better pedaling forwards than I expected.  If she was just a little bit taller, she would have an easier job of it, but she did really well for her first time on a big girl bike!  She’s not always the most determined or persistent when it comes to learning new things, so I was proud of how hard she worked to get it down.  By next spring, I bet she’s all over the place.  Now we just need to get her a helmet! 

Just starting out… looking a little rough, but it was a Saturday at home, dressing & hair brushing was not a requirement for the day! :)

Calm and collected on the move!

So big!!

She couldn’t have done it without the loving support of her kangaroo, who had to have a front row seat to everything before she’d even get started!

Not to leave Audrey out, I brought her little riding toy out, too!

My beautiful girls, getting so big!

Etching Project

So, in the spirit of being frugal this year, we decided to try some new things and make some presents.  Ruthie graduated this year, and I decided to try out etching.  I’d seen it done here on Young House Love, so I thought I’d give it a try.  I wanted to get her something cool and Mizzou, so I went with Mizzou glasses…

I basically did exactly what they did on Young House Love, except I used duct tape instead of painters tape (b/c that’s what I had around).  It was a lot harder than I expected…

First, I went to Michaels and found this:

Then, because I have no confidence in being able to follow directions, or in things working out quite right, I did a lot of testing…

First, on this poor candle holder… now it says “Liz,” “M,” and “W” all over it.

After I figured out how the etching cream worked, I wandered around Michaels some more, trying to figure out what to use as the stencil.  I was afraid tape wouldn’t hold up well enough, and I was hoping to find something I could reuse.  I started with this adhesive foam.  I also wasn’t sure what I wanted to put on the glasses, I thought the giant M would be good, so I printed one off, traced around it, and then cut it out with my craft knife (which I actually already had).

And then I started testing with one of our glasses. 

On went the stencil,

on went the etching cream, and I waited 5 minutes.

Yeah, not such a success.  The M was wonky because the glass wasn’t straight up, so it was impossible to get the stencil straight.  And the foam totally didn’t work.  So, yeah, I decided to give the duct tape a try.  And I decided the M wasn’t going to be the best, so I decided to do MIZZOU up the side of the glass. 

I printed the Mizzou on cardstock and cut it out.  Then I stuck duct tape to the cutting board, and used masking tape to keep the stencil on top.  Then it was back to the craft knife. 

The Mizzou up the side was a much better design, and worked way better.  So I decided I was ready to try it on some actual glasses.  I wanted some that were straight up and down, and that looked cool on their own.  I totally scored when I found these glasses at TJ Maxx.  I thought they looked really cool, and they were straight, which was AWESOME… makes getting the stencil on much easier!

So, I started cutting out the real stencils.  Which took forever, because I was kind of anal about imperfections, and it’s really hard to do that much cutting and not make one mistake, never mind getting it off the cutting board without stretching or tearing any of the little pieces.

But, slowly, I got the stencils made, and on the glasses they went…

…and on went the etching cream.

I ended up only waiting 3 minutes on the last 3, because the edges on the first one got a little fuzzy, and I think it was because the cream was starting to ooze under the tape.  The 3 minute ones looked better. 

Anyway, the final project looked like this:

Not perfect, but still pretty cool looking.  I wouldn’t be embarrassed to have them in my cabinet!  And I think Ruthie likes them alright… they were on her shelf the next time I visited her house, anyway! :)

Anyway, it was a lot of effort, but it was totally worth it… and congrats to Ruthie!!  Hopefully I’ll have some good graduation pictures soon!

Just Call Me…

…Mrs. Crafty!

So, yeah, most of you know that I am the OPPOSITE of crafty.  But under the influence of Pinterest, I decided that I was going to make a wreath…

Yeah, crazy, I know.  But my front door doesn’t have a window or anything.  So it looks so plain, I feel like it needs to have something on it.  I’ve been making do with a red bow this Christmas, but once the ornaments went on sale, I decided to give it a try.

I used the tutorial on this blog as my guide, and then off I went…

First, I gathered my supplies: ornaments, a glue gun (I had to buy one!), pliers, and, of course, Season 3 of Castle to keep me entertained!

I had way too many ornaments, but that’s mostly because there weren’t any green ones… so I had to buy the giant tub to get any green ones. 

Anyway, so I undid the hanger, and straightened it.  Which I actually shouldn’t have done… apparently I should have left the hanging part curved… Then I just started stringing ornaments on.  The tutorial said to glue the tops on, but I actually had trouble getting some of the ornaments OFF of the tops, so I thought I’d just do that as needed, which ended up working well.  Couple minutes in, I had this:

And, a couple of episodes later, I had this!

And, at this point is when I realized that I should NOT have straightened the hook part of the hanger.  Because now I had two stiff metal ends, and no way to stick them together… bummer.  I ended up making do with some duct tape (maybe I’m not quite Mrs. Crafty), which doesn’t show because I put the ribbon around it. 

And the final product turned out something like this:

And my living room looked like this!

And here it is on the front door!

It’s not hanging there anymore, because I’m not really confidant in the ribbon and the way I used it to make a hook.  Sooo, I’ll have to figure that out next year!  Not bad for my first wreath… and I have enough leftovers to make another one (albeit a little smaller).  But, maybe next year…

Christmas 2011: Kentucky Edition!

Phew, we were worn out by the time we got home on Christmas Eve!  We had a pretty good drive home, we left in the afternoon and made it home around 12:30.  We pretty much put the girls straight to bed, although Laney insisted on leaving cookies for Santa and Mrs. Claus… and cookies for the reindeer, of course! 

Josh and I were up until about 2 doing, well, Santa things! :)  It was funny, because usually we can’t sleep on Christmas Eve (yes, we’re that big of kids!), but man, we were out as soon as our heads hit the pillow this year!  And we overslept, and didn’t even get out of bed until 8!  Which was extra bad this year, since we had to be at church by 9:45… so, yeah, Christmas presents, breakfast, and getting ready, all in an hour and a half! 

Stockings for Mommy & Daddy…

…and stockings for the girls!

Laney’s first present…

And Audrey’s… who is clearly in the “Why are we awake” stage…

Unloading stockings!

And, the mass chaos after the combination of unloading tons of presents from family, and speed-unwrapping our own presents!  Gotta love Christmas morning!

And, the annual Looten Christmas morning picture!  (See more here, here, here, and here!)

Audrey may not have been happy about being up early, but, well, any time is a good time to maul the cat!

After presents and breakfast, we headed to church, and then took some serious NAPS!  We spent the evening hanging out with the Veirs, which was a really good time.  We played with their new Kinect, which was a blast, and as entertaining to watch as it was to play!

So, that was our first Christmas in Kentucky.  It was definitely an interesting one, and a whirlwind, with all of the traveling.  But we are so thankful that we got to spend time with both of our families, and still got to be home on Christmas morning.  I hope everyone else had a Christmas as wonderful as our’s!

Christmas 2011: Springfield Edition!

After a fun filled Price family Christmas, we headed south to Springfield for Christmas with the Lootens! 

Since we didn’t get to make our normal Christmas shopping trip to Silver Dollar City in November, we headed there on Thursday to enjoy the Christmas lights!  Nobody does Christmas like Silver Dollar City!  It was pretty chilly, but we bundled up and enjoyed some hot chocolate, hot wassail, and just enjoyed the lights!

Waiting for the first lighting of the Christmas tree!

Once the tree started, though, A was enthralled…

And, who can blame her, because this is pretty amazing!

After the tree lighting, we headed to the World’s Fair part, where the kid rides are, to watch the light parade and ride some rides! 

Audrey and Grandpa Looten, hanging out!

My beautiful girls on the merry-go-round!

Audrey made an important discovery while she was at Grandma & Grandpa’s house… smoked trout is delicious!  Dad was making a smoked trout cheeseball and gave her a piece.  After that, she just stuck her hand out and ate pieces as fast as he could give them to her.  Pretty funny!

Friday, the rest of the crowd started arriving!  The Columbia Lootens came in that morning, and the Wilsons got there that night… with 9 adults and 5 kids 4 and under, it was a full (and loud!) house… but we sure had fun!!

Leila and Audrey

Grandpa and the newest Wilson, Kerrigan!

The kids were really at the perfect age for Grandma & Grandpa’s new kids table!  It was cute to see them all sitting there…

Laney and Leila

Kael and Audrey… very sweet!  Audrey actually did a much better job of being NOT in a high chair than I expected she would!

Wrestle time with Uncle Tim!

Since we had everyone together, we had to had to get a family picture… I forgot my tripod, but it turned out not horrible.  9 adults and 5 small children… I’m just glad we can see everyone’s face (mostly)! 

So, that was the Looten Christmas… We headed back to Kentucky on Saturday, Christmas Eve.  We were sad to go, but loved getting to see everyone!  It was fun to hang out with the family, especially since it was Kerri’s first Christmas, and Mal & Tim are engaged… lots to celebrate!