The Results of Many Days Together Inside

Is that really the sun??? it was so nice to finally wake up this morning to the sun (well that's not really true - it was still dark when I was awakened by the beckoning upstairs, but the sun is what appeared an hour later) These gray days were fun, adventurous and sweet, but I am ready to see the ground again.

The floor is coming along amazingly - we LOVE it!!!! So much so we are trying to decide when we can rip up the floors in the den and kitchen so we can move the stained look out past our bedroom. We have cleaned, etched, and put 2 1/2 coats of stain on...now we just have to put the sealer on, finish the baseboards and move back in. When we got started I was so nervous - I said to Jerod -"if this is doable why don't more people do it themselves?" So the fact that I hadn't ever read about how to do it on blogs or anything I was doubting our skills, but it was unfounded - we rocked it out! The cleaning and etching are the biggest job, and if you had tile or a flooring with glue previously it would have been even harder. Once you get to the actual staining well that's easy. After the first coat we got a pattern and application method down that we liked. So more pictures and tips on how to do it yourself to come when we finish but for now here are pictures of stage 2.


Now I want to have a mushy mommy moment...look at this face.

This beautiful one - I don't even know what to say about her - she leaves me speechless because she either is being so sweet or so funny. This week she had my favorite "first" so far...she was sitting next to me on the couch drinking her morning milk and watching a nick jr. show when all of a sudden she stood up put her arm around my neck and said, "ahh mama" and gave me a hug and kiss unsolicited. She chose to express love and oh. my. gosh. nothing better. I love this little girl.