3rd Birthday Party!

She doesn’t turn 3 for a couple more days, but we decided to celebrate Laney’s 3rd birthday over Labor Day weekend, when all of the family was in town!  We kept it pretty low key, with the birthday girl picking hot dogs (again) for the meal, and a chocolate princess cake!  We really had just about everyone at the party, missing just Jess & Aunt Shell… with two little girls and two babies, plus lots of grown ups, it was quite the party! 

The chocolate princess cake… bonus that it came with toys!

Cousin Kael was vibing on the hot dogs!  He’s quite an eater!

Speaking of cousins… you can always count on them to be pesty!  At least in the Price family…

Laney playing with Mally!

When it was time to light the candles and sing, I just had to crack up because my outgoing, vivacious, talkative little girl hid her face behind her hands!  Guess being the center of attention is a little scarier than she expected!

But she was definitely smiling behind those hands!

And she was happy to blow out the candles, although she had trouble getting them out… Aunt Ruthie had to help!

And who doesn’t love licking the icing off of the candles?!

Charlie, hanging on Mom… as per usual!

The girls loved eating together at Laney’s table.  And Laney was THRILLED with the bright pink, strawberry ice cream… good choice, Daddy!

Kael was excited to try some cake & ice cream, too!

After cake and ice cream, it was time for presents!  Laney was quite excited about them, obviously.  As everyone came in, she would take their present and put it on the cedar chest and pet them all.  It was pretty cute!  But she was very patient (for a 2 year old) about waiting to open them. 

Checking out a new bag!

So, for every bag that had clothes, she took the clothes and just tossed them to the side.  Guess clothes aren’t her favorite present! :)

When Josh & I asked her what she wanted a couple of weeks ago, she said (like every little girl) that she wanted a horsey.  While we didn’t think Isa would appreciate a friend in the backyard, we still found a horsey for Miss Laney!

It sure seemed like she liked it!

Another big hit in the present department: Uncle Charlie’s gift!  She was definitely a fan!  

And who says birthday presents are just for the birthday girl?  Truman had just as much fun! :)

Anyway, it was a really good time, a birthday party spent hanging out with family, eating good food and telling stories.  It’s hard to believe that my little girl is turning 3!  She seems like such a big girl!  We’ve made it through the “terrible twos.”  Although, I’ll be honest, the twos haven’t been so terrible… but the closer she’s gotten to three, the worse it’s been!  I’m thinking that 3 is going to be a lot harder than 2.  She’s totally a fit thrower… man, that girl can scream.  And, she is seriously stubborn (might have gotten that from both sides!) so when she decides she’s throwing a fit, it lasts a long time!  I just keep telling myself that if we can stay consistent and teach her right from wrong, then that stubbornness and persistence will turn out to be admirable traits!  If we all survive long enough to see it! :)

Louisville… mostly the zoo!

Because who doesn’t love the zoo?! 

We had a little Looten family adventure last weekend to Louisville, KY.  While we were there, we played around some, mostly by going to the Louisville Zoo.  This zoo was massive!  We needed about 2 days to get around to everything.  But we did our best, putting an emphasis on the “giraffes and penguins” because that’s what Laney said she wanted to see the most! 

To start, though, we found these guys, who look totally prehistoric:

Laney was amazed- they are a lot bigger than Anias! (Grandma De & Grandpa Don’s turtle)

And there was even one for her to ride on! :)

One of my favorite things about the zoo, there are always lots of pretty flowers and cool plants!

Outside the reptile house we found this very realistic looking lizard!  Laney was scared to go up to it because she wasn’t convinced it was pretend!  But she eventually hopped on…

Daddy and his girls in the sprinkler… it was REALLY HOT!This guy was taking a nap when we first got to his cage.  Then, all of a sudden, he sat up and stared at something for awhile.  So glad I happened to be standing there!  Big cats are SO cool!

Like I said, Laney wanted to see the giraffes… and they did not disappoint!  They are such cool animals, it’s amazing to me that their bodies even work with a neck that long!  God is amazing…

This rhino was right next to the giraffes, and Laney was fascinated.  They are so huge!  And it’s priceless to hear a 2 year old say “rhinoceros” ! :)

Other than the zoo, I don’t have many pictures.  We were too busy running around! :)  We did see downtown Louisville, which was very cool.  And we went to the riverfront and walked around for awhile, too.  We found a huge fountain at the intersection of a sidewalk with the street.  Laney was hot (and cranky) so we let her play in it. 

She was just at the edge, not getting too wet…

…when all of a sudden the wind or the fountain shifted or something and she was suddenly DRENCHED!

It was pretty funny, except that we were headed home after that!  Those shorts were still damp when we got home, 8 hours later!

Anyway, it actually was a fun trip, even though it was a little short.  It was fun to explore a new place just the four of us, somewhere none of us had ever been.  We definitely hope to go back someday… :) 

YAY! :)

We finally got our new appliances today!  We always save money all year to do a project during the summer.  This year, our project was new carpet (not here yet) and a couple new appliances for the kitchen.  Our fridge was fine, but I’m pretty sure our dishwasher was original to the house, as was the stove!  The spring on the dishwasher door had broken, so it weighed about 40 pounds, it made a lovely grinding noise every time we started it up, and, best of all, it didn’t actually clean the dishes.  Last week it stopped draining water out of the bottom, so that was definitely the last straw!  Our stove worked alright, it was just pretty old, and the oven light didn’t work anymore.  And, I really, really, REALLY wanted a glass top.  So, once the dishwasher finally bit the dust, we headed to Downtown Appliance and picked out a new dishwasher and range.  And, they came to deliver today!

So, just so you know… here’s what we started with:

Truman was QUITE interested in the whole process, although he was not thrilled with the strange guys going in and out of the house! 

P.S. I was HORRIFIED at what the floors looked like underneath the old appliances.  While they were getting the new ones out of the truck I was frantically scrubbing the floors!  Gross!

And, here we are halfway done.  When they brought the range through the door, the oven door just shattered in our entryway.  Not sure if he hit the door with it, or if there was already a crack in the door and when it went over the threshold it was just too much for it, or if it was just a random thing, but it was quite the noise!   Thankfully, they had a spare door at the store, so they ran back, grabbed it, and put it on…

And here we are, all finished! 

I am way past excited about them, as most girls can imagine! :)  We haven’t used the dishwasher yet, but we cooked dinner on the stove, and I cannot explain how awesome it was to just wipe off the top when I was done!  Can’t wait to hear how quiet the dishwasher is!

Happy Birthday, Dad L.!

A couple of weeks late, but better late than never! :)  A few weeks ago we headed to Springfield to celebrate Dad L.’s birthday.  We had birthday dinner and cake & ice cream Friday night, headed to SDC on Saturday, and everyone went to church together on Sunday.  It was a nice long, relaxing weekend for us! 

We did a lot of this (sitting around the table, telling stories and laughing):

Mallorye and Tim came, too, obviously, and Laney was fascinated by Mallorye’s make up.  Obviously she has a lot cooler brushes and such than I do! :)

On Saturday, Josh, Laney, Audrey & I headed to SDC earlier then the rest of the crew, so we could let Laney do some playing before everyone else got there.  She really loves it at “Silver Sollar Dity.”  Unfortunately, for breakfast Saturday morning, she had cinnamon sugar biscuits, a krispy kreme donut, a banana, and some orange juice.  Put that in a 2 year old stomach and then shake it up in a car going up and down on a road through the Ozarks... recipe for disaster!  So, poor Laney ended up getting sick in the car, right before we got to SDC.  We pulled over at a gas station and cleaned up the car seat (thank you, Josh), and changed her clothes.  So she actually spent the day in her emergency clothes from her diaper bag, including some shorts that were a little too big and required a shoe string “belt” purchased at the gas station!  She didn’t have any more trouble with her stomach, though, so I guess it was definitely better than it could have been! :)  We made it to the City eventually!

We had to start off the day at Geyser Gulch, where there are lots of balls to play with, and the water mats!  Lucky Daddy always gets to be the one who runs through the water with her! :)

Love the expression on this one… talk about timing! :)

And, lest you think otherwise, Mommy got plenty wet, too! We went to this part of Geyser Gulch that let’s you shoot water cannons at targets.  What we learned (after we hit the first target) is that hitting the target causes another cannon to shoot at you!  Laney was short enough to hide behind the fence.  I was not!  Oh well, it was 80s and sunny, so being wet felt pretty good!

My big girl, riding rides all by herself!

Lunch at the BBQ place!  This is how Grandma likes it- surrounded by as many of her grandkids as she can manage! :)

The Lost River wound around the BBQ place and the girls loved watching the boats go by with the people screaming and getting wet in them!  They cracked up every time one went by.

Entertainment was not lacking at lunch… this squirrel was very interested in our leftovers!  Dad L. almost got it to come right up to him, but it just wouldn’t do it.  Got pretty close, though!

Kael, trying on Laney’s sunglasses… looks pretty cool! :)

Like father like daughter… sword fighting with Daddy!

Just thought this was cute…

Love that my little girl can sleep anytime, anywhere… gets that from the Banwarts! :)

Our annual picture by the Lost River measuring stick… big enough to ride now!

Hard to believe this was just a year ago!  Amazing how fast she changes!!

And, well, since she was tall enough to ride the Lost River, and she loved watching the boats so much at lunch, we made it our last ride of the day!  I was a little worried, because even though she likes the American Plunge, on the Lost River she isn’t sitting on someone’s lap- she’s strapped into a seat all by herself.  But, she loved it!  Grinned like a maniac the whole time!  Guess we got a little dare devil! :) 

Anyway, it really was a fun trip to SDC, and it was so nice not to have to pack up and leave Saturday night.  We all went to church together on Sunday, then had burgers for lunch.  It’s always fun to get to just hang around and tell stories!

Happy birthday, Dad L.!  

Jess Visits & Fourth Fun!

Wow, we had a busy first week of July! (And we continue to be busy, which is why this post about the 4th is being posted on the 14th!)  When we got back from the family reunion at the end of June, Jess was here to visit!  We always have such a good time, and I love when she visits in the summer, because I’m usually off to get to hang out with her.  And hang out we did!  We spent a lot of time at my house, just hanging out with the girls.  We took Laney to see Toy Story 3 (at the “movie feater,” as she says it), did a little shopping, went to the park with April, Ella & Noah, drank coffee, surfed the web, talked and, of course, took lots of pictures!  A great visit… and it was hard to narrow down just a few pics…

We tried a little photo shoot with Audrey, and got some really cute pictures of her.  But, one of my favorites was this one.  This is my life, and I love it…

Another day, another photo shoot… couldn’t resist getting a pic of these two in their matching polka dots!  Looks pretty cute, but as soon as the camera clicked Laney said “Now can you take her?”  Ahh, sisterly love…

Ella and Laney after the park… love the sweaty red faces!  And it was great to catch up with April, and meet her new little man, Noah!

After the park we had about an hour and a half to squeeze in a nap before we all went to get pedicures.  Laney fought going to sleep (who wants to sleep when Aunt Jessie is here?!).  I went in to wake her up, and she wasn’t in her bed, and I couldn’t see her anywhere.  Talk about panic, my heart dropped to my stomach.  But then I turned around the dresser, and saw this:

She was totally passed out, IN THE CLOSET!  No idea what made her go in the closet to sleep, but she was definitely out- I took her old toenail polish off and she never even moved. 

Despite the tired little girl, pedicures were fun.  Laney actually got her own toes done, she picked out the color (highlighter green) herself and everything.  She was very interested in the process.  Unfortunately, with her affinity for chewing on her toes (GROSS), the polish didn’t last very long!

The color choice… not my fave, but kind of cute on little girl toes!

 

And, just to prove that the girls aren’t the only subjects for photo shoots, here’s poor, abused Truman:

Pretty good lookin’ kitty!

Most of the weekend was spent hanging out at Mom & Dad’s house.  There was lots of good food, lots of family, fireworks, gardens, bbqing, pets… everything that is so wonderful about their house!  I can’t really tell what happened on what day, so I’m just lumping all of the pictures together! 

Aunt Ruthie bought a blow-up pool and put it in the backyard.  Despite the fact that the water was about 50 degrees, Laney was in!  She is definitely a water baby…

Wrapped up nice & toasty with Aunt Jess!

Daddy, grillin’ brats & burgers… YUM! :)

Laney is fascinated with Grandpa’s garden.  Anytime she was outside (when she wasn’t in the pool) she would head for the garden.  Unfortunately, she doesn’t really know what to pick when… but Grandpa is very patient about losing a few flowers and some squash due to premature picking! :)

On Saturday Mike drove in from KC to hang with us, too.  Josh, Charlie, Mike, & James hit the Perche Creek golf course Saturday afternoon, and then we all headed back out to the Price Ponderosa for more fun!

Mike and Josh… no, they didn’t call to coordinate! :)

Laney sure loves her Uncle Mike!  And is clearly still learning how to smile for the camera! :)

Mike brought a bunch of fireworks to shoot off.  We shot some off on Friday night, and Laney got her first burn- the glowing red end of a sparkler is just hard to resist!  So, she was a little gun-shy on Saturday, but ended up having fun with them again!

Bottle rockets with Uncle Mike!

And trying out a sparkler again!

We set off some bigger fireworks after it got a little darker.  They were really cool, but the funniest part was Elena’s running commentary.  See, she was watching Jungle Book, and we turned it off to go watch the fireworks.  So every time one went off she’d say “Oh, that was my favorite one in the whole world!” with a lot of feeling.  We would have believed her, except she immediately followed it with “Now can I go watch Jungle Book?”  To try to distract her, Jess talked about the movie we’d gone to see- Toy Story 3.  So she asked Laney “What does Woody say?” Well, then for the next 30 minutes, Laney kept saying “What does Woody say?” “There’s a SNAKE in my boots!” at varying decibels.  Ahh, the joys of having a two year old…

Sunday morning Jess & Mike headed back to KC, but Sunday afternoon Grandma Judy, Sarah, & Fred came in!  They were going on a road trip with Mom & Dad, so they came in a day early and celebrated the 4th with us.  We grilled ribs Sunday afternoon, and then we all headed to the church block party.  This was the first year we’d done a big block party as a church, and it was a pretty huge success.  We had somewhere around 130-150 people come for desserts & ice cream.  Definitely a repeat for next year!

Grandma Jo & Grandma Judy, hanging with Miss Audrey!

Laney sampling one of many popsicles!

Ruth, Laney, & Heather, ready for the fireworks!

And, what would the 4th be without some pictures of fireworks?  Thought this one turned out pretty cool…

And, just a random picture that I thought came out cool…

 

So, a crazy week for the family, but a really fun one!  Hope your 4th was as fun & as safe! :)