Hardwood vs. Vinyl Flooring

Building a house? Renovating?

Considering Hardwood floors? Considering DARK hardwood floors??

Well then READ on my friend!!

I thought I LOVED hardwood floors. I mean they look amazing! We didn't build our home, this is how it came, and to me it was one of my favorite features of the home...how I would have done it if we had BUILT it ourselves! The AMAZING cappuccino hardwood floors! I loved the contrast of them against our light maple cabinets, and almost white carpets. I fell in LOVE with these floors.

...Well let me tell you, that lasted about a week!!!

We had a puppy when we first moved into our home COOKIE...

here she is all cute... on the hardwood floors

She would go outside to do her business and come back in with mud caked onto her little paws, and get it all over my floors. 

I learned very quickly 2 things. 1. The floors SUCK and are terribly hard to clean. 2. It was time to say goodbye to our puppy - who I miss to this day! (there were other reasons for her departure besides her messy paws)

I find the only way to clean them is to first remove any dirt, spills etc with a damp cloth or mop. Second use the BONA spray and mop... third get down on your hands and knees with a microfiber cloth and dry the floors, leaving them streak free and beautifully clean!! HA!!

Not even kidding, it takes me about 45 minutes to clean my floors - and I only make it to the second step before I am completely tired.

And really - 45 minutes. I have a 3 YEAR OLD! It takes 2 seconds after those 45 minutes to dirty them right back up again!!!!!

SO...once these floors have had it VINYL is going in. YES you read right!! VINYL!

WHY???

Easy to clean 

They make "hardwood" looking vinyl (my neighbor has them & they look awesome) 

They can handle spills 

Are waterproof

Will not shrink and expand with the weather... and let's face it we are in Winnipeg. 

THAT HAPPENS A LOT!!

So if you are still on the fence... C'mon over and take a look at my floors yourself. And then check out my neighbors...tell her I sent ya!!!

May Long Weekend

a little late...but better than never!!

We usually don't get away for May long weekend, because of bad weather, or having a gallbladder removed, or whatever. But we didn't want to let this weekend go to waste. With the gorgeous weather we were able to make last minute plans and head to Minaki Ontario to a beautiful little cabin resort right on the lake.

Ava ready to go on the boat

Shawn with his line in the water

Ava pretending to fish with her princess fishing rod

cheese

first and only catch - a pike

hanging out on the porch

a beautiful Minaki night

Huskie the Muskie in Kenora

Oh Ava

My sweet Ava. I love her so. She is 3 years old going onto 18. She loves to play with all my makeup. In fact while I was out one day she thought she would color her face with lipstick...daddy cleaned it up before I got home LUCKILY. But I imagine it looked something like this...

Maybe a little less SCARY!!

Either way she ruined a perfectly good compact of my very expensive Sephora lipstick...not too happy with that. But Sweet Ava told me "Ok Mom. I will listen. I will not do makeup without you." So funny! She can put on Mascara too...yowsers!!

I have decided that it is a good idea to put my makeup AWAY from now on. Although I am sure she will get into again. And then Maisa will get to be old enough to get into it too...soon enough :) 

Ava also paints nails...rather well, so if anyone is interested in Makeup Application or Manicures or Pedicures just call for an appointment. She is booking fast!!

Hello Hello BABY you CaLleD I can't HeAr a THING!!!

Oh how I LOVE LADY GAGA!!! And guess what..this tuesday GLEE is going GAGA. Check out the preview here LADY GAGA GLEE !!!

Set your PVRS!!!

Product Review

I just bought the BABY TREND Sit N Stand Stroller and wanted to give my review of it!!

Pros

-Awesome light weight
-Car seat snaps perfectly
-Great for kids who want to stand up and move around a lot
-Easy to steer
-Easy to fold
-Fits in my car!!

Cons

-Storage basket is hard to access. It is large, but the openings are small.


All in all I love it though - was a good purchase and was only $130 at Target compared to $200 here at Toys R Us.
So on my books it is a 4 out of 5!!

Our Lil Trip to Grand Forks

Wednesday was shopping in Grand Forks Day.

Highlites:

Baby Trend Sit N Stand Stroller $130 Target!!!
Buying a lot of cool jewelry
Having well behaved Kiddies
Eating at Golden Corral
Buying Ava her Toy Story Friends
Trying to help Maisa Poop - cuz that is always a good time ;)
Trying to make the new stroller look USED so I didn't have to claim it
Getting through the border crossing in less that 5 minutes, and without having to declare ANYTHING!!!

("Giddy up giddy up ridin' cowboy") as said by Ava in her best Andy voice!)

Oh POOP

Poor lil Maisa



She is having a hard time POOPING!!
I just want to cry for her, her stools are
so hard.

Bought some prune juice, and I hope it will
work for her...until then I will be
assisting in the pooping process!