Where we've been, part 1

What happened to us, you ask? Well, first we had a baby.

Turns out she is pretty fun to have around. Even if she only naps in 30 minute increments. We forgive her because she's so cute. But it does make blogging a little more difficult. 

To get us through the end of tax season, Joel's parents came and stayed with us for three weeks. They were a huge help. Grandma Sunny perfected a method of rocking cranky Clara to sleep that we dubbed the Grandma Rock. 

But, along with the help of being extra hands to hold children and keep the house from falling apart, they also threw themselves wholeheartedly into our house renovation projects. Once we got them started they just kept going. Painting:

Installing new light fixtures:

And many more such projects. It was incredible and made a somewhat daunting list of house projects seem much less daunting. Now we have a dining room that has transformed from this:

Into this:

Along with the dining room they also painted the family room (farewell baby-poop-green walls!), the downstairs hallway, the stairway, the play room, and the guest bathroom (adios John Deere wallpaper!). I will have to get pictures at some point. But let's all pause and give them a collective round of applause.

Also, they brought with them this wonderful table that's been in the family for quite a while. It will be our dining room table at some point I imagine, but right now it looks terrific as a side table. 

So that's a quick recap of the Cohen grandparents part of our blog silence. After they left, Joel and I got the wild idea to redo our downstairs laminate. So I headed up to Moscow while he worked on that, and ended up staying for three weeks. Pictures of that trip in the next post, but meanwhile here are pictures of the new flooring. 

Isn't it beautiful? Sometimes I have to look at pictures of how the house looked when we first moved in to remind myself of how far we've gone. So here's one from last March:

And then today:

Quite the difference!