We may invest in a snow blower...

There have been requests to see the front of the house, and now, I finally have a picture of it... along with all the snow I shovelled during Austin's nap.

 This is what we woke up to this morning!

 Heavy, wet snow!  Great for building a snowman, not for shovelling...

 The blade on that shovel is at least 8 or 9 inches.

 Poor Jeff walked to the bus stop in this before anything was shovelled - he probably has some wet socks today at work!

 Finally a picture of the front of the house!  We are planning on painting the outside of the house sometime next year.  The pink is.... okay.

We call this 'home' and we love it!

"I a the monster the Halloween!"

 My brother, Cameron, gave us this hand-me-down monster costume for Austin to wear this year.  It was size 18M and was a bit small, but he happily wore it and told us frequently he was going to be a monster for Halloween.

 I love the over-stuffed belly.  Goes with his cheeks!

 We went with a couple other friends.  Harrison, the skeleton, was in our ward in Denver.  We moved into their neighborhood and live just a block apart now.  James, the surprised horse (he wouldn't wear the hood), was a special guest at our house that night.  His mom was in labor so he went trick-or-treating with us and spent the night.  The boys had way too much fun!

Austin is satisfied with a Dum-Dum after a tiring walk around the block.

Happy 2nd Bday Austin!

 We had an early birthday celebration at my parents house.

 Austin had a great time with his cousins

 He got this cool little motorcycle! 

 Austin found our stash of gifts the day before his birthday and helped himself to one.  Inside was his first pillowcase from California Grandma!  He loves it and points out the owls and pumpkins.

 I got a little ambitious this year with his birthday cake.  I made a firetruck cake with surrounding fire cupcakes.  I used two boxes of cake mix!  We definitely should've scaled it down because we barely made it through half of this cake over a 1 week period!

 I think it turned out really cute.  Austin thought it was pretty cool too - even though he didn't eat any of it.

 "I see two fires!" 

Austin successfully blew out his candles and asked to blow out more "fires" for the few days following his birthday.

We had 5 other kid-O's there along with their parents.  It was a great time!

What would Fall be without jumping in some leaves?

 Austin's first time in a pile of leaves...

It was a hit! Now he can't get resist when he approaches a crunchy leaf.

Basement

 The basement was essentially finished with two storage areas, family room, 5th bedroom and a 3/4 bathroom.  All it needed was some paint, trim and carpet!

 Bedroom

 Painting the doors

 My brother, Kelsey, working meticulously on all the trim/finish work.  He did a great job!

 My mom and I painted the walls this 'River Rock' blue - Jeff's choice.

 New carpet!  I love how classy the basement looks with the blue walls, white trim and fresh carpet.

 Garden level windows - love having all the natural light in the basement.

 Bedroom

 Kelsey had to get creative with the window sills as they were each a different size and shape. They turned out beautiful!

Family Room

 Seeing the house for the first time with our realtor, Greg.

We patched a small hole in the wall (not shown) and added new carpet to this room.  (We did not paint, even though the coloring looks totally different between the two pictures.)  Now we need to get rid of the ugly window valance.

Fire Engine Red to Red Red Wine

 Our work station - the kitchen quickly became one large workbench

 Austin keeping himself entertained

 Mom professionally re-texturing a hole using a plastic fork :)

The previous post of the front room truly showed how red this kitchen really was.  In dim light it wasn't bad, but in direct sunlight it was WAY too red.  Rather than spend more time and money priming and repainting a completely different color we chose to tone down the red with a darker, warmer red. You can compare the two colors above the microwave.

Just a taste of what Austin dealt with while we worked. At this point there were exposed carpet tac boards and loose nails on all levels of the house.  He was secluded to the dining room and required to wear shoes at all times...

3 days of putting in the new floor

 Tada! All moved in - cleared countertops and new appliances