New Floors

First off, I must give major props to Garrett for doing all of the work by himself. I helped a little bit, but mostly just tried to keep the boys out of the way. It was a lot of work and the house was a crazy mess for several weeks, but it looks great and we saved a lot of  money doing it ourselves.

BEFORE

Dining area off of the kitchen

Kitchen

Another angle of dining area

Entryway

Looking into the living room from the front door

DURING

We put in tile and hardwood everywhere except for the bedrooms and the carpet and kitchen floor had to be taken up and the slab prepped before we could start anything. I have pictures of the real work, the tile and wood being put down, but I am not sure where they are at the moment and too tired to hunt them down. The tile took the longest and it was not really a fun process. Once it was all down and grouted, we had to wipe it down numerous times with a bucket and a sponge on our hands and knees. Not my idea of a good time, but we got it done and then Garrett put the sealer on it.

Daddy's little helper. I found them like this many nights.

AFTER

We love it! It makes the house look so much bigger. It is kind of hard to keep clean, but I like being able to see what is on the floor instead of not knowing what is hiding in the carpet.

Dining area off of the kitchen

Kitchen

Living room

My office (This is actually supposed to be the formal dining room and the office is through the doors on the left. However, the office is now a playroom and who needs a formal dining room anyway?)

Entryway

View from the front door

Kitchen/Dining

Happy Hiney

Hudson has very sensitive skin and we've been battling a diaper rash for weeks. I tried every brand of sensitive, hypoallergenic wipes and diaper cream out there and it still wasn't clearing up completely.

I had been using gauze cloth from the hospital with just water and that seemed to be helping, so I decided I would make my own baby wipes. That's right folks. I don't know how to follow a lot of recipes, but this is one I could actually handle.

It has really helped and his diaper rash is finally gone. It is quite simple to make your own wipes too.

There's a lot of different "recipes" out there, but it depends on what your baby can tolerate. Here's what I did:

- 2 cups water
- 2 tbsp of your favorite baby wash (I use California Baby because it is very mild)
- 2 tbsp olive oil or baby oil (I used olive oil because I don't use Johnson's products and their baby oil is scented)
- You can add essential oils if you wish. The California Baby wash I use has tea tree and lavender in it so I didn't add anything extra.

Mix your ingredients without shaking or it will become sudsy and pour into a small plastic squirt or spray bottle.

Use Bounty or Viva brand paper towels for best results and just spray/squirt the solution on the towel before use.

You can also use a plastic wipes case, cut a roll of paper towels in half, remove the cardboard center and let them soak in the solution to have ready-made wipes, but they become musty quickly and you have to change them out often so I opted to try this other method first.

It is trial and error to get it just how you want it. I think I might use a little less soap next time, but for the most part it is working really well and we all know that a healthy hiney is a happy hiney. :)