DONE

In case you were wondering...

THIS IS WHAT A FINISHED TREE LOOKS LIKE!

I'm definitely celebrating because I wrapped the very last present today. We were waiting on two presents that were being shipped, and they came yesterday and today, so I wrapped them this afternoon. I love wrapping presents, and I love picking out fun paper, and bows, etc, but, MAN, it's hard to wrap with a 15-month old wandering around "helping!" But we're all done, and ready for Christmas!

May you all have a Merry Christmas!

Wow

It's a well known fact that my cat is an idiot. Examples can be found... here, here, here, here, ANY WHERE! (Can you name that movie? And yes, I know anywhere is one word, but I had six links...)

But, should you need more convincing, here is further proof! And, yes, the cup is full of water.

What makes this even funnier, is that he had already gotten this same cup stuck on his head AT LEAST 2 times, and he did it again before the night was over! Guess he doesn't learn very fast...

Enjoy!

15 Month Check-Up

Well, we headed to the doctor's on Monday for Laney's 15-month check up. It wasn't a pretty experience, all around! I didn't expect it to be, because Laney had pretty obviously been feeling yucky for a couple of days, and she had a red, bumpy rash on her thighs, so I knew that it wouldn't be pretty! Since she didn't feel good, she was not happy about anything the doctor wanted to do, from measuring her height to looking at her ears, never mind the shots!!

The results of the medical issues, weren't too surprising. She has another ear infection (boo) and a sinus infection. The rash turned out to not be anything too major- it's not contagious, at least, it's eczema. So, it's more antibiotics, and lots of aquaphor lotion for the dry skin spots. Nothing too major, but she sure hasn't been feeling good the last couple of days, so I'm glad we already had that doctor's appointment scheduled! She also had to get 4 shots, which she was NOT happy about... but by Monday evening she was playing like normal, so I guess she took them pretty well!

As for the stats... she's following her curves: little with a big head!
Height: 30 1/8 inches
Weight: 20lbs 10 oz
Head Circumference: 18 1/2 inches

The timing of the whole ear infection thing has actually been pretty good, because CPS has had two snow days in a row, Monday & Tuesday this week. So I've been able to stay home with her, and she hasn't had to go to daycare. Instead, we've gotten to do lots of playing! :) Monday it mostly iced, but today it was real snow, and it snowed most of the day. Since Laney was too little to enjoy the snow last year, I couldn't resist the chance to take her out to play in it today! So we bundled up...

...and headed outside! Laney LOVED the snow. She ran all over the yard, chasing Isabelle around. And she only did one face plant into the snow, and she recovered from that pretty quick!




Laney and Isabelle were both very interested in the football! I was actually really excited with how well they played together. Most of you know that Isabelle is a pretty high energy dog (and that's like saying that the sun is pretty bright), and she is extra excited in the cold weather and snow, so I was a little nervous. But she really kept it under control around Elena. She would race all over the yard, then screech to a slow walk as soon as she got near Elena. I was so impressed with her. She has obviously accepted Laney as a member of the "pack," and a delicate member at that! It was really fun to see them playing together! I can't wait until Laney is a little older and can really play with her. For now, Isa just looks at her like "Hey, throw the ball! See, the way it works is, you throw the ball and I bring it back! Hey, you're not throwing the ball!" Pretty cute, though!

And the downside to me and Laney being home all day... yes, that is the toy bin totally on its side and totally emptied... nice... I only picked up all the toys 43 times over the last two days! :)

I suppose tomorrow I will be wishing for toys to pick up while I'm at work! It's been a fun couple of days!

Christmas Party

Josh & I went to the bank's annual Christmas party last Saturday night. They always have it at the Expo Center, and it's usually a pretty good time. After all of the changes that have happened in his department over the past year, I was kind of afraid we (or at least I) wouldn't know anyone there. But Josh's boss had a party at his house last weekend, so I got to meet most of the people then, and we had some common ground to talk about this weekend- namely, all of us looking like idiots playing Wii tennis and getting schooled by Dave's (Josh's boss) 8 year old son. Anyway, so this weekend's party, which was a little more formal, ended up being a really good time. Every year the bank gives the employees who go to the party a gift, and this year it was a portrait. They had a little photography "studio" set up there, kind of like at proms and such, and we got our picture taken. I thought it was a neat idea because we were all dressed up, and (at least Josh and I) never have pictures taken of the two of us. So, here we are...

Turned out to be an ok picture... I do look taller than Josh because I was wearing 4 inch heels (yes, me... aren't you impressed?). Mostly I was only wearing those because I couldn't find my traditional 1 1/2 inch black heels, so I was wearing the 4 inch gold heels I wore at Jessie's wedding. We did decline the invitation to join in with the professional dancers and learn the hustle during the party. Somehow I thought the hustle & 4 inch heels would be a bad combination... at least with my gazelle-like grace! But we sure had fun watching the people who were brave enough to learn! Anyway, we had a good time, and it was a good chance for Josh and I to have some grown up time, and just a chance to get all dolled up and go out for an evening, even if it was just a work party!

And, for the record, I'm posting this at 11:45 on a Monday morning in my PJs because IT'S A SNOW DAY! I love being a teacher... :)

BUSTED!

Well, it appears Miss Laney is turning to a life of crime at an early age! It's a long story, so bear with me...

Last Friday, I took the afternoon off because it had been a very stressful week at work, and I had a bunch of errands to run. Mostly, I needed to go shopping for the Voluntary Action Center families that the church adopted. They were due on Sunday, and I was picking up a few last things. So I left work around noon, grabbed Laney, and we headed to Target. First on my list was a "true meaning of Christmas" book for each of the families (hey, we are a church, we're all about spreading the true meaning of Christmas), so I looked at Target, didn't see any, and headed to Barnes and Noble. Now, one thing I love, love, love about our mall is the family restroom area. As I was headed that way, I look down, and Miss Laney (who is riding happily in the stroller), ONLY HAS ON ONE SHOE! Are you kidding me? What did you do with your shoe?? You know how you always see those random shoes on the side of the road and you think "Seriously, who loses a shoe?!" Now I know...

Anyway, as it has been time for a new pair of shoes anyway, I wasn't too worried about it. Laney just went shoeless until we got back to Target (though I kept a lookout for the missing shoe... never saw it). I wandered around Target getting everything I needed, which included several big things. So I had to switch from the stroller to a cart, which was kind of a pain because I had the big stroller, and those don't exactly fit in the cart, so I had to fold it up and stick it on the rack at the bottom, but it stuck off about six inches on each side, and CONSTANTLY caught on everything. So, you can imagine my mood after wrestling the baby into the cart and the stroller onto the bottom of the cart after a long week at work and one trip around the mall already! But I was sticking with it...

So, I picked up the two comforters, box of glasses, and toys that I needed for the VAC families, and headed to the shoe department. Yeah, NO BABY TENNIS SHOES! Lots of dress shoes, NO TENNIS SHOES. Soooo not happy, because it's not like I can unload all the stuff I've already put in my cart. And who doesn't have tennis shoes, seriously?! But, not much I could do besides head out to the parking lot with my stuff, unload the cart, and head BACK inside with the baby in the stroller.

We headed to Payless, and found several cute pairs of tennis shoes, so I put them on her and let her walk in them a little, found a cute pair, and bought a pair of black dress shoes, too (hey, buy one, get one half off). Not a bad deal... however, after 2 trips around the mall and through Target, wrestling a one year old the whole time, and now getting a one year old to try on shoes (harder than you'd think, and it's not like she could tell me how the shoes felt), I was more than a little ready to go home and enjoy what was left of my afternoon off!

So back to the van we went! I unloaded the payless shoes, tossed my purse in the van, and reached for the diaper bag. As I pulled the diaper bag out of the bottom of the stroller, something caught my eye... A hot pink, glittery, Disney Princess ballet flat THAT I DID NOT BUY! Yes, my dear, sweet, Elena found a shoe she wanted and just decided to take it with her! So, BACK into the stroller she went, and BACK into the mall we went, BACK to Payless to return the shoe, then BACK to the van to unload everything again.

Definitely NOT my favorite shopping trip ever!! Ahh, the joys of a one year old! I told Josh I was never taking her shopping again... but I'm planning to take her tomorrow, so I guess I'll never learn! At least Laney and I have already covered that buy one get one half off does NOT mean a half of a pair of shoes!! :)

Thanksgiving 2008

So, here's the Thanksgiving post, finally! It's been a busy couple of weeks around here, as I'm sure it has been for everyone else, too!

This Thanksgiving, Mike & Jess were able to make it to MO & IL to hang out with us... unfortunately, Josh & I were headed to Springfield this year, not Illinois! But we still got to hang out with them on Wednesday, and managed to squeeze a pretty good time into just a couple of hours!

We started with lunch on Wednesday, at a restaurant downtown called Bleu. We had a really good time just hanging out and telling stories.

The fam, or at least most of it, hanging around outside Bleu.

We spent the afternoon checking out the Black Friday ads, and playing some Wii. Mike tried out our new Lynks Crossbow game that came with our Wii Gun. He was pretty serious about it!

Check out the really cute outfit Aunt Jess bought Elena... FOREVER AGO! This is actually a 9 month size outfit, and by the time it fit it was too cold to wear it! But it ended up being warm enough on Wednesday to wear it with a sweater. It was awful cute!

After Josh got home from work, we went to Flat Branch for dinner, then grabbed some dessert, rented Mario Party 8, and just spent the evening goofing off. We had a really good time and stayed up entirely too late considering how early we all had to leave Thanksgiving morning!

At Flat Branch, Laney decided that she LOOVED onion rings! And, french fries dipped in salsa ranch dressing! She would suck the ranch off of the fries, but not eat the fry! Those poor fries would just be totally limp and mushy, and she'd keep dipping them and licking the dressing off. It was pretty funny! :)

Thursday morning, Laney & Aunt Jess put on their Old Navy Thanksgiving shirts, entirely too early in the morning! We were all up and out of the house around 7:00am!!



On the way down to Springfield, we drove through some pretty major fog at the Lake. It was pretty cool looking, and I couldn't resist taking some from-the-car pictures!


Thanksgiving dinner was great, the table was so full the food wouldn't all fit on it! But Laney found a new favorite food... black olives! And, with a little of Mommy's help, she figured out how much fun it is to eat them off of her fingers! She seriously ate GOBS of black olives that day, which showed up the NEXT day in her diaper, which was absolutely disgusting... but she sure had fun eating them! :)

Friday morning I hit the Black Friday sales, and really scored. I left at about 4:45, and opened up one store, where I got Josh's big gift! :) So excited about that! I also went to Penney's, Staples, Kohls, Walmart, Target, Bass Pro, and Walmart (yes, I went to two different Walmarts). I was pretty successful, and got most of the stuff I went after. My best advice for next year: plan to buy a pair of earrings at Kohls! The line was at least 45 minutes to an hour, and all I had were a few little toys for Elena. So I bought a pair of $8 earrings, and checked out at the jewelry counter, where there was no line!! Totally worth every penny!

After a nap on Friday, the whole family headed to Silver Dollar City. Tim hadn't ever been to the Christmas festival, and we wanted to show Elena the lights, too. She absolutely LOVED the Christmas tree, with the lights and the music, she was totally captivated by it.

Hanging out in the stroller... check out the cute hat and mittens Grandma Looten bought Laney!

Hanging out with Great-Grandma Looten, getting ready to watch the light parade...

...which was a pretty cool parade!

After which, she totally passed out.

Although I missed my family in Illinois, especially since Jess & Mike made it this year, it was a good time hanging out with the Lootens, and I loved taking Elena to see all of the lights at Silver Dollar City.

Other than that, I've taken a few other pictures that are just too cute over the last couple of weeks... so, here goes!

Look how much hair she's getting! She sure loves her bath...

Just like her Mommy... she sure does love to read... anytime, anywhere! :)

We got our first snow, which didn't hang around long enough to really enjoy and take pictures of, but I did get this cute one of Laney & her daddy looking outside. It's funny, she really liked to watch the snow falling in the porch light (it was snowing when we got home from Springfield Saturday night), and she liked to run her fingers through the snow on the hoods of the cars. But she did NOT like snowballs. Kind of a funny thing!

Springfield Shopping Weekend!

Well, every year Josh and I kick off our Christmas shopping by taking a long weekend and going to Springfield and Branson! We started the tradition before we had Laney, and in the last two years it's been a nice chance for some Mommy & Daddy time, because we leave Laney with Grandma & Grandpa Looten while we head to Branson & SDC for shop-o-rama!



But the trip started off on Friday, with a trip to Bass Pro. Josh and I love to eat at Hemingways occasionally, because they have a really good buffet- with all you can eat crab legs! Grandma & Grandpa Looten, and Jess & Luke & Leila decided to join us, which just made it more fun! After dinner we took the girls down to look at the fish, turtles, and ducks inside Bass Pro. Laney LOVED them, like she loves all animals. I think she would have stood there forever if we'd let her!

Some of the fish were bigger than she was!

Leila & Laney looking at the ducks.


Couldn't resist taking a picture with the bear!

Another attraction of Bass Pro is the glass elevator... and she loved it, too!

On Saturday, Josh and I went to The Landing in Branson to start our shopping. It was actually a beautiful day, so we really enjoyed the outdoor mall. We actually didn't get a whole lot of shopping done there, but we got a few presents, and mostly just enjoyed spending time with each other. We walked around enjoying good lattes and just window shopping and looking through stores.

When we'd finished at The Landing, we headed to Silver Dollar City. If you've never been to SDC during their Christmas festival, I highly, HIGHLY recommend it! You won't find a place with such a clear message that we're celebrating Christmas (no "Happy Holidays" here!) and of what Christmas is really about. One of my favorite things (you'll see by the end, I have many, many favorite things) is the huge tree that you see as soon as you get through the gates and into the park. It's impressive even in the daytime:

A close up... the ornaments are huge, but look at all of the lights!

A self portrait, of course...

As impressive as the tree is during the day, that's nothing compared to it at night! At 5:30 they do a tree lighting ceremony, and it's a MUST. It's all choreographed and timed, and it's 2 or 3 songs, and just amazing! Pictures never do it justice, so this year I videoed it with my digital camera. The picture still isn't as bright as it is in real life, but it'll give you an idea...

The whole rest of the park is covered in lights, too. One of my favorites is the "Rejoice" that is up over the lake, so you can see a cool reflection, too...

Not a great picture, but this is an overview of the whole park. You can kind of tell how many lights there really are.

Again with the "We are celebrating Christmas, and Christmas is celebrated because of Christ." theme... this is part of the train ride. During the year it's a comedy routine as the train gets "robbed." But, during Christmas, you stop in to see Grandpa, and he tells the true story of Christmas. Seriously, where else can you do that?!

Well, besides the city and the shopping, we hung out at Grandma & Grandpa Looten's house, and read LOTS of books. Several books managed to find themselves underneath couch cushions at various points during the weekend!!

This picture doesn't look very interesting, as it's not very focused and the balls kind of take over the picture... but I put it up here because Elena took that picture, all (well, mostly) by herself! :)

Thought this was such a cute picture of Josh & Elena on our way to church Sunday morning. The dress she is wearing is the dress Grandma Looten got her for this Christmas last December. Unfortunately, when I took it out of the closet, it became quite clear that it was barely going to fit her now, much less at Christmas time! So, it became her Thanksgiving dress!

After going to church with Grandma & Grandpa Looten, we met Great-Grandma & Grandpa D. for lunch, then spent the afternoon at their house. We sure had fun catching up with G'De & G'Don, and Laney LOVED the elephant piano!

Well, it's sad but true... on Monday night after we got back, Josh & I became "those people" and put up our Christmas tree. Yes, we put it up the Monday BEFORE Thanksgiving. But we were hanging out with Jess on Wednesday, and we wanted to take our pictures for our Christmas cards then, so we had to have the tree up. I know, I know, twist my arm... ;)

No matter how many times we put it up, I still love how our tree looks...

And, apparently, so does Laney! :) Couldn't resist this shot, and there aren't even presents to dig in yet! But she loves the tree skirt with the bells, and (in this case) she was actually going after Truman, who spends a lot of his time hiding under the tree now. I think he feels like he's really in the jungle!

Anyway... I've got a backlog of several more posts, so check back often (if I ever get time to get them done!) This time of year I get so behind because there's something different every weekend!! But, next up, is Thanksgiving and hanging out with Mike & Jess... and you know if Jess was around there are lots of good pictures!! :)