2012 Christmas Card

A run-down of our crazy year, subway style.  We survived 2012, I feel like we can do anything now!

Christmas Goings On

It feels like Jon and I have been married for a lot more than four Christmases.  But true enough, this was only our fourth Christmas.  Although our first Christmas together was spent four days before our wedding and we were both puking our brains out.  Ah, good memories :)

Back to this year.  It was our first year without family, even though we've been at school/clinicals the past two years.  We've always made it back to Utah for Christmas.  So I did my best to make it special for the kids.  It was a good practice year, but there is lots I could do to improve. 

While my parents were in town, we went to the live nativity and saw Santa.  On December 8th, we went to the Springfield Christmas parade.  Sorry folks, no pics.  Even though we carried the darn camera everywhere and Jon even hid it in his shirt for awhile since some crazy was casing it out.  We failed to snap a single pic.  It was mostly due to the pure intense craziness that was happening.  In Florida, they had a Thanksgiving and Christmas parade and NO ONE went.  Literally, you could walk up to where the parade was and have a seat and there wouldn't be anyone within arm's reach of you.  Haha.  Not here.  They get crazy about their parades.  And I'm pretty sure there were more adults than kids.  And the adults were WAY crazier than the kids.  At one point, we decided to cross the street at a breaking point in the parade.  I had to push my way to the front of the mass of people and politely ask to get through.  People were just ignoring me.  Finally I bumped someone with the stroller and asked to cross the street.  The lady turned to me and said "You can't!  There is a parade going on!"  I am pretty sure I looked at this woman like she was nuts but refrained from saying the first thing that came to my mind.  It may or may not have been a phrase I hear now and then with a small cuss word and something about Sherlock :)

It ended up great though because we finally ran into the Doughertys and had lunch with them at a yummy Mexican restaurant, maybe like Maria's or something?  Their salsa was spaghetti sauce wishing it were salsa but their fish tacos were killer.  SO good.  That makes two Mexican joints worth eating at here.  Take that Cafe Rio!  (Although it still may be the best)

Next up, I splurged on an Elf.  Er, I mean, Santa sent an elf to our house to watch over the kids and report back to Santa.  Our elf wasn't into mischief because I didn't really get the point of having a mischevious elf.  He is supposed to report whether they kids are naughty or nice, isn't he?  Anyway, definitely could have done better on that one, but we had a few clever ones.  The kids really liked it when we did something cute.  And they enjoyed finding him.  They talk about him now that he's gone so I guess it was worth it.  His name was Zinc.

We also did a Christmas tree decorating activity and FINALLY took some pics.

Brig loves the bumbo.  Haha.  We don't use it much now that he is crawling.  He just tries to get out which poses too much risk for me.  Now he sits on the counter, which is way safer ;)

I had the awesome opportunity to go to a Girls Night White Elephant Gift Exchange.  It was really fun to get to meet some of the sisters from our ward.  I hardly ever get a chance to talk to anyone at church.  Between others callings and being in nursery, I never see anyone.  It was tons of fun and Jon was a trooper taking the kids.  When I got home, this is what I found.

I went to move Benson so his little arms wouldn't be achey when I kneeled on this:

Haha!
Next up, Christmas Eve.  Here are the kids in their Christmas jammies sent from Grandma and Grandpa Brady!

For Christmas Eve, we went to Old McDonalds.  Lame, I know.  Jon got off at 2 and it was early enough for a late lunch.  But by the time we got there and ate it was much later so it became our dinner.  We just had a nice big dessert later that evening.  We opened a few gifts with the kids, the things their Grandma and Grandpa Brady sent.  Then we talked about the birth of Jesus and watched videos on biblevideos.org.  I have never seen this site before, but they are seriously amazing!  I strongly recommend them to everyone!  Vanessa couldn't get enough.  I think we watched every one on there.  She just kept asking to watch more and more and more.  She loved watching all the stories about Jesus.  She is totally ready to start doing more FHE.  We did a scripture story last night and she wanted more and more.  I love her eagerness to learn about the gospel! 
After forever trying to get the kids to sleep, Jon and I got everything ready for Santa to come.  Here is the room ready for the kids to come discover their gifts.   Grandma and Grandpa Purdy got this darling kitchen for them.  They had it shipped to our house and it literally took four hours to set up.  I never would have guessed.  Toy assembly is intense.  The Ford F-150 was the kid's gift from Me and Jon.  We splurged on this, trying to find something that they could do together outside.  They love it.  Vanessa just drives Benson around, and he laughs the whole time.  I hope they get some good mileage out of this puppy.  We were careful in selecting this one because the doors don't open and they go up pretty high.  It will also drive on the grass.  Even with the doors and the lap belt, we still rigged up a harness for Benson, just to be sure we don't have any injuries.

We didn't take any pictures opening gifts on Christmas morning.  I know, we're slackers again.  We took lots of video though.  And we did get some pics of them trying out the truck in the freezing cold.

Don't mind my crazy expression.  But this was the cuter pic of Brig.  It had to have been like 20 degrees with an icing wind.  So cold.

Later that evening, Jon's cousin Quinn and Jamie and their 5 kids came over to our place for dinner.  It was fun to have them all over.  And that was our Christmas.  We are definitely very blessed this year, as we have been every year.  We have a job, health insurance, a house, clinicals trials are starting in Jan for SMA, we were all healthy for Christmas, and we were all together.  We are so blessed by the birth of our Savior, His life, and His sacrifice for us.  What a joy and a blessing.

Merry Christmas!

Cracks Me Up

Kids are hilarious.  I sometimes feel like I should keep a pen and paper with me at all times so I can write down all the funny things they do because I will inevitably forget some of them.  Here are a few recent ones.

Vanessa has started giving Jon all kind of instructions when he leaves.  "Drive safe.  Don't get hit by a car.  Watch out for things.  Bring me back a treat, etc."

Benson was outside playing with Vanessa.  Vanessa told Benson she would be right back.  Benson started hollering to her, "Be safe.  Don't get hit by a car.  Don't get hit by a tree.  Don't get hit by a door." 
Vanessa, "A door?!"

Benson is into comparisons lately.  "That's a house, like ours!"  If it's a house, it's like ours.  Whether it's ten times bigger or five times smaller, it's a house.  They're alike.  "That's a boy, like me!"  "That's a car, like ours!" 
One day, we saw a car that really was like ours.  A white Mercury Mountaineer. 
Benson: "That's our car!"
Me: "Ya, it's just like it huh."
Benson: "No.  That's our car."
Me: "We're in our car.  But that one is just like ours."
Benson: "No.  That's our car."

Vanessa said to Benson the other day.  "Benson, do you still have SMA?" 
Benson: "Uh-huh." 
Vanessa: "So, can you walk?" 
Benson: "No." 
It was so matter-of-fact and just casual chat, I was kind of happy to hear that it didn't seem like a big deal to either one of them.

Both kids are into monsters.  There are monsters everywhere!  And they are SCARY!

Jon was taking a turn carrying Benson through McDonalds play place.  We tag team it because it is HARD WORK!  The kids LOVE it though, so it's worth it.  Vanessa is always really hesitant to play on the toys unless she has a friend or one of us with her.  To encourage her, while going up the tunnels, Jon said, "Vanessa, you're really good at this."  Without missing a beat Vanessa said, "And you're not!"

Looking at one of our family photobooks, we were looking at pictures of us at the beach.  Vanessa said, "Mommy, that's you trying to be beautiful like me at the beach."

Jon and I usually sleep in our garments.  Anytime one of us is in just our garments, Benson will tell us to go get a shirt on.  One night at 4am, Benson was in our bed and out of the blue, half-asleep says, "Daddy, get a shirt on!"

Another night at 4am, Benson said, "Daddy, wake up!  I want you to play with me!"

I was getting ready for a date night with Jon and curled my hair (obviously a rare thing and kind of a big deal.) Vanessa said she wanted her hair curled too.  As we are curling her hair, she said, "Why are we getting our hair all pretty?"
Me:  "I want my hair to be pretty for daddy.  We're going to dinner together."
Vanessa: "I want my hair pretty for Benson."

While taking down the Christmas tree, it started snowing.  Vanessa looked outside and exclaimed, "Mom it's snowing!"
"I know, isn't it pretty?"
Vanessa, "What do we do when it's snowing?"
Me, "We stay inside where it's warm because it's cold outside."
Vanessa, "But Mom!  It's Christmas."
Me, "Oh.  No, we already had Christmas.  It's winter though.  We have spring, summer, winter and fall.  Spring is full of flowers.  Summer is hot.  Fall is when the leaves turn colors and fall to the ground.  And winter is when it snows and is cold."
Vanessa, " Mom.  I'm suppposed to be in summer."
Me, "Oh?  Why?"
Vanessa, "Because I'm pretty and summer is warm and it turns my hair pink and purple and blue."

Vanessa's Prayers

Vanessa is obsessed with blessing her food.  As soon as she sees that we eating, she asks if we are ready to say the prayer.  She wants to bless snacks, even seconds.  So much so that she is currently the only person in our family that gets the opportunity to bless the food.  Benson doesn't want to do it and we are happy letting her practice.  Learning to pray has gone in phases for her.  When she first started to feel comfortable praying on her own (ie without prompts from us), it went like this.
Vanessa:  "What do we say first?'
Me or Jon:  "Who are we praying to?"
Vanessa would answer with various things.  I can understand the confusion.  Her little three year old mind is trying to wrap itself around the two names that we use to start a prayer after the many various names she hears for Deity.  She would answer with things like, "Jesus."  "Jesus God."  "Heavenly Jesus."  Right on all accounts, just trying to get the wording right.  After awhile it just became habit for her to ask this and she would practically answer her own question.  Then we moved on.
After she had the opening down, she was in a phase where she repeated herself.  A lot.
"Heavenly Father, thank you for this food.  Please bless it.  It will help us grow healthy and strong.  And healthy.  And strong.  And healthy.  Thank you for mommy and daddy and Brigham and Benson and daddy and mommy and Benson and Brigham.  And daddy."
She says really cute things every once in a while.  Such as "it will help Benson to walk."  "it will help us be polite."
The "it will" I think originated because when we were giving her cues we would say thank you for the food, pause, please bless it, pause, it will help us grow healthy and strong.  Now everything is "it will."
Right now she is in a phase where she is to the point and done.  Thanks for the food, bless it and be done. 
It is so fun teaching our kids about the gospel and how to pray.  It has been fun to answer Vanessa's questions as she starts to understand something and then ask a more complex question.  She's figuring out families, how everyone has a mommy and daddy.  People die and live with Jesus.  People are born and live with Jesus before they are born.  I love watching her as she processes an answer, seeing the wheels turning inside her head as she tries to formulate the words to express herself.  How amazing it is to be apart of such growth and learning!

Built-in Mudroom

I've been coveting built-in mudroom shelving like these examples for many months, since Jon got his job offer to be exact.  There are a million examples all over Houzz and pinterest.

Traditional Entry design by Dc Metro Design-build Case Design/Remodeling, Inc.

Traditional Entry design by Minneapolis Kitchen And Bath Crystal Kitchen Center
 

So naturally, putting one of these in somewhere, was at the top of my DIY list.  I was super excited about the project once I figured out where and how to move the storage that this provided to somewhere else in the house.  We had to switch the washer and dryer so the dryer is on the left.  They're backwards now, which is only slightly annoying.  But that allowed us to put all the wire shelves back in that were taken out before.  Bad design.  Anyway, then we busted out these shelves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we built a bench and added bead board.

Then we had the fun task of building the cubbys into the space.  We built them out in the garage first then took them apart and re-built them into place.  I can see why this type of thing is easier before your trim work is up :)

Jon added a design in back


Next we threw on a few coats of nice white paint.

That is as far as we are right now.  Next is accessorizing this beauty.  That'll take some time so I'm posting this now anyway.  We have a fabric picked out for the cusion.  And I did see some baskets I like but I might wait on them, just to be sure I don't change my mind.  Plus, it's nice to space out the purchases :)  We're also adding hooks and a picture.  I'm super excited about this.  I love the way it turned out.  And it just looks SO much better than before!

I should also add that Jon came off like he had no handy-man skills prior to buying this house.  Um, what?!  He's amazing.  He at least appears like he knows how to do everything!  I'm so impressed with my man.  He's basically amazing :)

It Still Hurts

It has been almost a full year since we first heard the words Spinal Muscular Atrophy.  I thought by this time I could think it all over without tears coming to my eyes.  I could hold my son's frail body without squeezing him slightly tighter.  I thought by this time I could answer my daughter's questions easily about why Benson can't walk, stand, crawl, lift things, and why he tips over all the time.  I thought it would be a dull pain, somewhere deep in my heart that could only surface when I allowed.  I feel like it comes to my mind with  sharp pain almost every day.  It still hurts.  It hurts every darn day.  It hurts even more when Benson yells out things to Vanessa like, "I want to come with you Nessa!"  "I can't mommy, I can't."  "I'm stuck Mommy."  "I tipped over."  "Get it mommy, get it." 
I have been so blessed throughout all of this.  I know that I have.  The Lord has had His hand in our lives, I can see it in so many ways.  I can't imagine going through all this without Him.  I sometimes find when it gets unbearable, and I feel like I am losing my mind, it is because I am trying to do it myself and not relying on His help, strength, and support.
Human clinical trials are one step closer to becoming reality.  We are one step closer to a cure.  While this is hopeful for any future children we may have, it most likely won't reverse the damage that has already been done for Benson.  It hurts my hurt to know that he most likely won't experience walking, running and jumping in this life.  But it makes me so happy knowing that he doesn't need those experiences to be happy.  He IS happy.  He is such a happy boy.  He has an amazing light inside of him.  I have never seen a two year old with the ability to share like him.  I feel so proud to be his mommy.  Why the Lord trusted me with such a sweet spirit, I will never understand. 

Wear Pants to Church Day

I want to write and complain about my long, rough, day.  But I can't.  I read something on facebook today that I can't get off my mind.  "Wear pants to church day."  In case you haven't heard, though if you are in Utah, I supposed it's all over the place, it's a public event created by a couple of LDS women who are encouraging other LDS women to wear pants to church on Sunday.  That's all it is.  Or is it?  It's keeping me up, turning from side to side.  A million thoughts have been rushing around in my head and I'm just bothered.  I read through some of the comments.  Some good arguments, some contentious, some down right rude.  There are currently around 1400 planning to "attend" this event.  What has happened to us?!  These are members of this church planning a movement against their own church!  I can understand having a personal struggle with something within the church.  But to create a movement?  To cause other people to question and possibly be led astray and not to mention people who are not members not are most definitely reading the threads.  And all the people who are not members who are reading those threads, will probably not ever want to be a member.  This is just disheartening. 
Without even discussing the doctrinal issues, let's talk about the fact that a movement of any kind taking place during a worship service is completely inappropriate.  I have a hard time believing that anyone who participates in this movement is doing it to feel the Spirit or to become closer to God.  All this will do is distract from the Spirit and cause contention in the meeting. 
The facisous nature of this movement is that it is not doctrinally expected that women wear a dress to church.  It is culturally expected that "Sunday best" include a dress for women.  But no one has said that women HAVE to wear a dress.  So really, there is no point to this movement, right?  One would think so.  However, there was rumored among the comments that the problem is some women are upset they can't hold the preisthood.  That seems to make more sense to me as the real issue here.  Sara Ally Long, one of the creators of the event, doesn't come out and say as much in her text about the event; however, she does allude to the "inequalities" between men and women within the church. 
I personally have never had a problem with women not holding the preisthood.  I am now realizing this is probably a spiritual gift from Heavenly Father.  I may have had a two month stint with my feministic ideals but really, I feel equal.  I've always felt equal.  Why does equal have to be the same? The roles of men and women make complete sense to me.  I think the roles of men and women form to make the perfect institution.  I believe in the traditional roles of men working to make a living and women staying home to care for the home and kids.  I'm a SAHM, by choice (as crazy as that choice sometimes feels).  I didn't choose this role out of ignorance.  I didn't choose it because I had "nothing better" to do.  It's what God gave me time to do!  I don't personally understand struggling with THIS gospel principle.  But, I have had my bout with others (cough cough polygamy).  The only conclusion I have come to on such issues is some things have to be accepted on faith, NOT ignorance.  These are very different, though satan would try to convince people that they are the same.
As far as this having an ounce of influence on any matters within the Church, it will not.  We all know it will not.  We have clear evidence of that by reading the Bible.  There are no accounts, ever, or women holding the preisthood.  I doubt this is something the Lord ever plans to change.  The divine roles of men and women were created before man.  Why would the Lord change this because some angry women feel they aren't being treated fairly?  To them I am sure he would simply say, "I love you more than you know and your worth is as great as theirs."  Different but equal.

Brigham

Brigham is just ten days shy of 9 months.  And what a 9 months it has been!

 

He is an absolutely beautiful baby.  I seriously can't take this kid shopping without three or four people stopping me to talk to him.  The largest reason for that is he grins at everyone that walks by.  He loves attention.  Adores it. 

 Brigham has been our hardest baby.  People kept telling me your third is easiest.  In part, because you figure things out and in part because they have to be.  Something happened in those two factors and it just isn't that way for us.  Brigham was colicky for a LONG time.  And, I was by myself most of the time.  He is a very opinionated baby.  He wants a schedule.  He wants breakfast by 8, lunch by noon and dinner by 5.  Speaking of eating, he is loving table foods.  So much so, that I can hardly get him to eat baby food anymore. 

 While Brigham has been a hard baby, he is also onke of the happiest babies.  Slightly ironic.  This little guy has a strong personality, in both extremes.  And a strong grip. 

 He isn't quite crawling yet.  Though I have seen him do it on a few occassions.  If there is something motivating enough, he can get it.  I am not motivation however.  If I try to get him to crawl to me, he'll jusut cry.

 He likes to suck on your face and rip your hair out.  We sometimes call him our vampire.

He gives the biggest hugs when cuddling.  Literally wraps his arms around your neck and squeezes with his whole body, legs and all.  I get one of these hugs almost every time I pick him up, but always after a nap.  We sure love this little chubs.  Our family wouldn't be the same without him.

Three Completed Projects

Here is Jon's workbench in the garage.  My personal favorite part of the pic is his gallon jug of Hawaiian Punch.  You'll also notice the headboard and footboard leaning against the wall, it was a $10 thrift store find.  There will be more pictures to come on that later.

 Here is our custom design and custom made table.  I saw a pin on pinterest showing a board simply nailed to the wall for a behind-the-couch table.  Jon turned the idea into a small behind-the-couch actual table, to save the mall.  Loving how it turned out.  I put one little picture on there for now, but I am still deciding how to decorate it.  The main purpose is standard coffee table uses.  A drink here, a snack there.  We have an ottoman and that is dangerous ground with kids around.  But, there must also be decor, right?!

 A couple shots from above.

And here is another pinterest inspired project.  I saw these and thought, hey, cheap way to make way cute storage boxes.  Cheap?  Haha.  They are custom and match exactly with what I want to do in the room.  But it wasn't cheap.  The box was an old wipes box from Costco.  We already had it and definitely use the wipes in this house, so we won't factor in that $25.  But the fabric alone cost $16.  And that is with coupons!  (a 50% off from Joann's and 40% from Hobby Lobby).  It was a lot of work and doesn't honestly look that great.  So despite that inner voice in me that says if I make it, it will be cheaper, I think I'll stick to shopping that Hobby Lobby 50% off baskets sale.

Ok, total side note.  Jon is not a fan of the colors.  The brown is obviously staying.  Our couch is brown.  The previous owners left all the curtains in the living areas and so I just kind of went with what they had going.  There was a green curtain in the pantry area and I thought, well that sure makes my decision easier.  Let's just use that green as our accent.  The other colors are cream, tan and brown.  We desperately needed color and I felt a bold one was good.  Jon is not a fan of the bold.  Oops.  He's adjusting though.  At least he doesn't hate the pillows I bought for the couch anymore. :)

Visitors and more pictures

 My parents came into town.  It's like Christmas when they come.  Quite literally because they LOVE to spoil everyone but also because I get as excited as a kid on Christmas.  I was absolutely awful about taking pictures.  And then I forgot to download my mom's SD card before she left.  This is the only picture I have of my mom.  But my dad was also here.  We had a pretty chill week.  We went down to Branson and hit the outlet mall.  Here is the results of that trip.  The men loved it. ;)

 It wasn't all bad though because after shopping we went to an amazing Mexican restaurant.  Seriously so good.  We ate well this entire week, lets be honest.  I think this was also the night the women dominated in hand and foot.  As I am typing this I realized we didn't teach them the new game we had learned, Oh Heck.  Next trip I guess.  We also ate at Lamberts.  A great place where they literally throw rolls to you.  My dad was actually talking to Jon at one point and they thought he was raising his hands for rolls and got a roll tossed at his head.  We did a bit more shopping, lots of card playing, and tons of eating.  We also tried out a great Chinese restaurant called Mr Yens.  Some of the best chinese.  And of course, we had to get Panera.  One of these days, Utah will have that place.

 Isn't he a cutie?  Love his crazy hair.  Though I do wish he would hold still so I could try to trim and tame a bit.  Just a bit.

 Here are two pics of the upstairs bath.  It's the guest bath and Vanessa's bath.  Small and cute.  I love the blue they chose.  It worked out perfectly with the shower curtain we had from our wedding and a brown rug, that you can't see in the pictures.

 We also moved the hutch.  I like it a lot better here.  It isn't as convenient to get around the table but it just looks so much better.  Now just to refinish that furniture.  That'll be a project.....

 Jon went a little crazy on black friday and loaded up on the power tools.  I love it just as much as him since now he can make me all sorts of things.  Like this awesome table that is custom height and size for Benson in his wheelchair.

 We finally opened our last boxes.  Our home decor.  Here is our massive pile of frames and other randomness.  Most of them are black.  And of course, our living area is browns now.  I'm going to have to paint some and the rest will go in the bedroom, I guess.

 We were working on Vanessa's closet and she found these.  They are vinyl that my mom ordered for her a while back.  She was pretty insistent that she needed them on her walls that very moment.  So insistent that I told her later, but she just went ahead and started anyway.  Oh well.  They turned out cuter than I expected, even if they did make me pull my hair out a few times.  Mostly just the long purple one.  It ripped in about 10 places and clung to itself all over.  It probably took me fifteen minutes to get that one on the wall.  The rest weren't so bad though :)

We are seriously over our heads in projects.  Not gonna lie though, I kind of love it.  I didn't get a pic of the other table Jon made, or his work bench.  I'll get those up asap.

Pictures

This is all I have so far.  But there will be more as we get each room fully unpacked and situated.  Here is the room we painted.  It is our guest/craft room.  It was going to be the office but we are leaning to having the office in the master.  I think that's the current plan.  

The first night we just prepped for painting.  I read about a technique for getting straight lines from pinterest and we decided to try that.

 The idea is that you paint the color that will bleed first.  So we taped off the white trim and then used the trim paint to run a line of paint over the tape.  That dried for 24 hours and then we went back and did the first coat of the paint we were putting in, Sand Dune.

 This is actually a picture of the second coat going on.  I didn't take a pic of the first coat.  And here are two pics of the furniture in.  We put our furniture in there.  It's from our wedding.  It's kind of sad actually.  I love this furniture.  But I am super excited to have a bigger bed :)

 Here is our kitchen.  Ignore the random messes throughout, it was day 1 of unpacking.  The tall cupboards next to the fridge are super deep.  They are the pantry.  But I'm still trying to figure out how to organize so it isn't a deep abyss that everything is lost in.  The green curtain through the doorway is hiding some wire shelving that can also be a pantry.  But I kind of want to turn that into a mudroom area.  Vanessa is totally a come in and dump girl so I want to have somewhere for her to dump.  I'd like a built-in shelf with rolling bins underneath and some hooks for jackets.  But I also need that shelving space for awkward/bulky items.  So I'm kind of torn at the moment.  I haven't decided what to do. 

 Here is the dining part of the kitchen.  Jon likes the hutch on this wall but I like it better on the other wall, behind the table I think.  He feels like this arrangment the hutch is less in the way of the table.  But I think it looks better on the other wall, though I do agree it is less in the way in this spot.  I'm more about making things look good though, ya know?  Haha.  So I am thinking of doing this table and hutch a dark stain.  Possibly the espresso gel stains I keep seeing on pinterest but then painting it a creamy white and distressing it.  Any thoughts?  I want to get rid of the mirrors in the hutch and either put a cute pattern fabric along the back or put a bold color.

 And we are thinking of switching out the carpet in the family room and toy room for wood.  The wood that is already in the house is about 2 1/4" strips.  There aren't many choices in that width since the style now is the really wide, 5" strips.  So we are thinking we'll just use the 5" strips anway.  And we can't decide what color to do.  The one on the right is definitely the most similar to the existing wood.  But it is obviously not exact so maybe it would be more fun to just do something completely different but that still coordinates?  I like the middle one.  But it's pretty dark and might possibly be a pain to keep clean.  These samples were actually more expensive than we had expected so we might have to start over anyway.  And we might only end up doing the play room for now.  Just so Benson can get around easier in there.  And we still have to consider the engineered wood.  The lady at the store actually recommended the engineered for this climate, because of the humidity.  But I was sort of convinced the real stuff is the way to go.  This is obviously going to be a long-drawn out decision.