Laney's News

Laney has some news to share! :)

So, for those of you who don't understand 2-year-old, that's "I'm going to be a big sister!"

Josh and I are expecting "Number 2," as Josh has started calling him/her. We are due April 14th or so, and we're really excited! I'm about 7 weeks along, so we're telling earlier this time, but, well, we told everyone in the family this weekend because we had to (we were going to SDC, so it was going to be pretty obvious when I didn't ride any rides!), and we don't want anyone to feel left out! So, we figured if we were going to be busted anyway, we might as well do it on our own terms!

We had Laney wear a shirt that says "I'm going to be a big sister" on Saturday, and sent her out to see Grandma, and she yelled "I be a big sister!" So that's how they found out! Then she did the same thing to everyone else at the park on Saturday, and the same thing again to my family on Sunday when we went out to lunch. It was a fun way to tell everyone.

Anyway... as for the details, due mid-April. I've been feeling pretty yucky the last week or so, but it hasn't been awful- as long as I keep my cheerios handy! And I did start another blog- www.babylootwo.blogspot.com. It doesn't have as many posts as Laney's did when we told, because, well, it didn't take us 6 months this time, and we're telling earlier! But enjoy!

Video Fun

Couldn't resist these two videos, because they're just too much fun!

So, that's obviously Laney's version of "Jesus Loves Me." She loves to sing, and sings constantly. That song is one of her favorites. It is pretty hilarious that she is sitting on the toilet in our bathroom, flipping through Josh's Bible as she sings! She likes to sit there and "help" me get ready in the morning- "Do your hake-up" is what she calls it. Actually, this video is from a couple of weeks ago, and she's already better at that song now- she almost has the second verse down! :)

Second, we have undisputable evidence (as if we needed more) that Laney is a Looten... she already does voices!!

For translation purposes, she's saying "Cookie Monster likes cookies." She started doing this all on her own, I guess she learned it at daycare. Thought it was absolutely hilarious, and obviously something she got from Daddy, because Mommy is no good at doing voices! :)

Anyway, hope you enjoyed!!

80th Birthday

Well, I looked back at the blog and realized that I skipped a trip to Springfield, and a very important one at that!! :) The weekend BEFORE we went to Springfield to visit the Looten's and go to Silver Dollar City, we went down again to visit my grandparents for Grandpa Don's 80th birthday! We really spent the whole weekend just hanging out, and had a very low-key celebration. It is always nice to hang out with that side of the family, as we usually only see the whole group at Christmas!

As usual, Elena spent a lot of time "playing" with Anias, the turtle that lives in Grandma & Grandpa's backyard! We all hunted all over the yard for him, then we hunted all over to find clover flowers that she could feed him! It was kind of cool to see him actually eat a flower from her hand, though!

Grandpa & Laney, off to hunt for Anias!

Poor Anias, no hiding spot was safe!!

But at least he got lots of clover flowers!

This was hilarious- Elena literally walked out into the yard, patted her leg, and said "C'mere, turtle!" (Or teetle, which is what it sounds like when she says it). Clearly, she's not quite up to speed on the whole turtle personality!!

All that turtle chasing can wear a girl out! I love that she is sleeping in a "chicken nest," just like Yaya used to make for us. And, boy, did she sleep! She slept for several hours in there, and didn't even flinch when we took several pictures, USING a flash! She's a sleeper!

Of course, Laney helped Grandpa blow out the candles, which made for some really cute pictures! Ruth got this one, where they're both actually looking at the camera...

... but I almost like this one better!

The whole family at the party, jammed in behind Grandpa's chair! It actually doesn't look so bad, but it was a little claustrophobic! Only a few people missing- Dad, Jess & Mike, and Jeff. Not bad!

And, of course, Laney learned the joys of playing "ride a horsey" with Aunt Kim! They were really buds this trip... and Elena even managed to talk to Uncle Drew, who she is usually scared of!

All in all, it was a really fun and relaxing trip... and always awesome to hang out with that side of the family when we get the chance! Love you all, and happy birthday, Grandpa!!

SDC

Well, this is way old... and I know it. But, oh well!! :)

A couple of weekends ago we went to Springfield to SDC. We took Friday off, so we headed down Thursday evening. We spent Friday at the City, and Saturday the boys went fishing while the girls hung out, shopped, and just bummed around. It was a really great relaxing weekend!!

The girls, with matching pigtails, waiting to head to SDC! We got lots of questions about whether or not they were twins!

Last year Laney was not too sure she liked the kiddie rides. This year, she LOVED them! She rode the froggies twice, and rode the catepillars twice... and has not stopped talking about it to this day!
Last summer we stood Laney up to see how many more inches she had to grow to ride the Lost River. So, of course, we had to do it again! She certainly has grown since last time! Only 4 more inches or so until she can ride some of the bigger rides with a grown up! What fun that will be!

We went to play in Geyser Gulch, a kids/water area. She had a really good time playing in this little area that had a vaccuum tube that could suck up these foam balls- she spent forever there! She was not as sure about the little area where the water shot randomly out of the ground. She looked at it... though this technique mostly just got her sprayed in the face!

And eventually just decided that she'd rather stand on the edge and stay dry!

Both girls headed home- we took their ponytails out, and there was some seriously bad hair going on! They also both got little stuffed whales. There are some carnival games by the kids' area, and one of them had a bunch of whales laid out on the counter. Laney went through and named all the colors, so the really nice man running the game gave her one!! Then Grandpa Looten played the game and won one for Leila.

And at dinner on Saturday night, before we left... my daughter is SO talented!! ;)

Anyway, it was a great weekend of just relaxing! And it was our first trip to SDC this year... hard to believe! So we can't wait to go again and get our money's worth out of those season passes!!

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!!

Before!

Well, for anyone who doesn't know (although I'm not sure how you could not know, if you have talked to me within the last month, I've been rather obsessed) we are repainting the inside of our house this week! Finally, finally, FINALLY I get to tear down the wallpaper that has been torturing me for the last two years (and, really, for the 3 years I lived here in college, because I hated it then, too). Anyway, so just for the sake of comparison, here are some before shots of the kitchen and living room (we're starting with those rooms, and then seeing about painting the spare room and our bedroom, too- I'm ambitious... or nuts, you pick).

Seriously? The wallpaper? Not so much me...

And that border is supposed to go all the way around the top... I got a little over eager and ripped off a big chunk last week before I took before picks! But, actually, isn't it amazing how much taller the kitchen looks on the side without the border?!
The living room... try to ignore the general baby clutter... but really, not that bad. A little boring, and it's just connected to the kitchen, so if we're painting one, we may as well paint the other!
Another shot of the living room... note the samples we painted on the wall... found two colors we liked on the swatches, then got them on the wall, and not so much...


So we went back for two more samples! Ended up going with the second from the left, which is Brown Teepee from Behr. Not quite what I thought we'd pick, but I ended up liking it best (and by the time we got through 4 samples Josh just wanted me to shut up about it, so he'd go along with anything)


So, Jess & Mike are here this week, and are WONDERFUL, and are helping us paint (seeing as how Josh and I have exactly 2 free weekends between now and October, we will definitely need some help). Jess got to go with me on the great shopping spree to Home Depot & Walmart to get the supplies... after lunch at the mall...

...and a ride on the carousel- it can't be all work and no play! This is Laney saying "Cheese," and proving that you do NOT actually have to smile when you say cheese...

Hello, onery... wow...

And, because I have been on a video kick lately (she's just so cute, and what she says is so much funnier than the still pictures)!

Anyway, so there are some "before" shots of our kitchen/living room redo... will post "after" pics as soon as it's done... or at least mostly done... And Looten family reunion pics coming up soon, too!