Things have slowed on the house quite a bit now that is just us working on it, but things are happening. Ryan has been hanging wallboard, cement fiberboard.

The landscaping has been cleaned up a bit, which has made a HUGE difference. It is really hard to get a picture of the whole place due to the hill the house sits on, and the size, but I tried to take some pics of the trees on our properties, so many trees.

So I put on a bit of Irish music the other day and apparently Riverdance is instinctual! Enjoy!

Last Saturday I decided to get us out of Ryan's way so he could work uninterrupted on the house. We found this great little family farm and apple orchard in Penrose, CO. My parents were up for the idea so we all went on a drive and had a really good time picking apples. The kids were both helpers and really got into it. It just feels good be outside working. Salome didn't mind the added bonus of getting to eat them too.. I think she ate about two and half apples by the time we were done.

Party number one: On Ephraim's actual birthday we celebrated with my family at Cheyenne Canyon, a bit chilly but still fun.

Party number two: A week later Ephraim had a Lego party with old and new friends. I was a little nervous about having fifteen kids under one slightly unfinished roof. It went beautifully and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves.

(the lego game room in our family room and the reaction to "PRESENT TIME!!")

It is October and I am going to attempt to summarize the blur that has been our life, the last two months have been months of transition and settling for us. With much wonderful help from friends and family we were able to move in to our slightly finished house at the end of September.

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Grandpa and Grandma Lloyd were amazing and drove out in their brand new spankin' RV to help with the big move. The kids LOVED getting to spend the night in the RV.

Moving was hard, as all moves are, but extra slow as lots of things had to be done at the new place to even manage living there. We actually moved our stuff two weeks in before, we were able to live there. Thankfully my parents let us stay with them, which was really nice to have the help. It was tempting to want to stay, with my mom their helping with meals, sending the kids to school, and babysitting, I felt a bit spoiled.

We were excited to move in to the new place and moved in once a toilet and most of the kitchen was installed (by Ryan L). We even got to entertain guests that first week for a night (the wonderful Baggs family stopped by on their vacation... so fun to see them.) That first week had a few challenges, no heat and no hot water on a few days. Our weather changed to winter temps which made for a grumpy me, but I got over it, we got heat, hot water, and even a working stove!

Ryan Miller did an amazing job of detailing all of the carpentry work, too bad we can't keep him around for longer. What's left is lots of finish work, a pretty long list, so we are chipping away at it, and happy to have a slightly slower paced life.

Echo Architecture is going well, Ryan is finishing up some of his original contracting projects, making us wonder okay, what next? Amazingly, after a bit of worrying followed by some praying, he has already picked up some new projects. Our Abba is good to us... and I am so thankful.

Ephraim is now a big kindergartner. It has taken a while, but he seems to really like it now. The full day was a lot for him to handle, there were a few days when I had a very tired boy on my hands in the afternoon. I have been able to volunteer in class and am really proud of how well he is doing. He is working hard and already reading so much more, amazing.

Salome is going to preschool two days a week now and LOVING it. We are so happy with her adjustment, and so thankful she loves it so much. When she tells me about her day she will say something like, "I played." She will tell me what happened but so far she doesn't remember most of the other children's names, she will just say something like, "oh, you know one of my friends". So cute!!! She is so much fun right now, super sweet and imaginative.