Halloween

We successfully conducted our second Halloween party. Even though it rained all day long the skies cleared long enough for this little dragon and lady bug to get their grove on. Sky played with the puppies all night and bobbed for apples. Cole tried to get his first taste of hand dipped corn dog (a'la Blane Sannar) but had to settle for a nibble of grandma's donuts. All in all a very fun night. We'll see if we forget how much work throwing this party was and be ambitious again next year. At the very least it beats sitting at home slaving to trick-or-treaters.

Moore on Cole

Cole is five months old an has really packed on the pounds. He continues to be an easy kid except when he is not getting his food fast enough. He just cut his first tooth and he thinks he's ready to sink it into anything he can get his hands on. Tonight at farmers market he tried to eat Sky's dinner while she wasn't looking.

Cole is quite the charmer. He can't help but smile when anyone looks at him. And he loves when people try to make him laugh. With those gorgeous blue eyes and adorable dimple he is simply irresistible.

Blessing on June 1, 2008

We finally finished!

Though finished is a term we use loosely, we are living at 545 Ohio Street. We love being here even though unfinished projects are everywhere. Needless to say we have a lot of finish work ahead of us but we already feel very comfortable in our new home.

-2,350 Square Feet
-4 Bedrooms/ 2.5 Bathrooms

Kitchen

Upstairs Common Area

Upstairs Bathroom Original Tongue-in-Groove Ceiling
Sky's Bedroom
Staircase featuring Architect/Engineer/Carpenter Albert W. Nielsen

Dining Room

Master Bedroom/Bathroom


Early Days at 545 Ohio.

The New Addition to Our Family!

Here is the newest edition to the Moore family. His name is Cole Albert Moore (he has his Grandpa Nielsen's first name and his Grandpa Moore's last name). He weighed in at 8 pounds 7 ounces and measures 21". He was born on March 17th (Saint Patrick's Day) at 11:53 A.M. Skylar likes to talk about her new baby brother and she loves to hold him too. She is going to be a wonderful big sister. Cole is an incredible baby. He very rarely cries, and when we does it is not for very long. He didn't even cry when he was given his PKU. He spends most of his time sleeping, eating and just looking around at the world. He is the most mellow baby we have ever seen. We are very glad to have such an amazing baby. (He even has little sideburns already.) Now that we have him, it feels like we were missing him before. We thoroughly enjoy his presence and cannot wait for everyone to meet him. Jayda is taking a year off from flying to be with the kids (It still sounds kind of weird to say that we have kids (plural)). We are planning on making a trip to Salt Lake around June 20th and would like to visit the family and friends we have in Utah.

Our Remodel Extravaganza

This is our little remodel project. We are currently converting a 100-year-old church into a 2,300 square foot live/work space. Included are some before and after pictures. Please note that this is still a work in progress (lately lots of work and not so much progress).

Working with the city has been the most difficult part of this project thus far. I did my own architecture and that cost us two and a half plan reviews to get the building permit. They treated it like new construction, we had to structurally upgrade it to handle earthquakes and high winds as well as engineer it to run off of very little energy. After already paying $8,500 in fees and permits, we are finally resolving the additional $17,000 of impact fees the city wanted to charge us. I won't get into that here.

I'm still working as a project engineer (intern) for Westfield, the largest retail investment group in the world. We are currently doing a $150 million mall expansion on the Galleria Mall in Roseville, CA. I have one year left to graduate and am one of two students in my construction management program who is enrolled in the honors in the major program. Life is plenty busy, however, it is manageable.