After a 3 week break due to malaria and some type of infection, Dylan went back in for another week. This time, two of our coworkers helped him work on things and they got so much done!

Front porch

 Front door

 kitchen sink

 

a pantry 

(we will be bringing in about 3 months worth of food and supplies at a time)

 

A sewage tank

 

 Dylan was able to get all the plumbing done for the house.  We get the water from a spring about 300 meters up the mountain.  It's collected in a big tank up there and then runs through a pipe to our house.

 

 and the bathroom!  We are so thankful that we were able to get a bathtub.  It will be so nice, especially for the kids.  This is the nicest bathroom we have had since moving to this country!

 

another thing that they were able to do was seal a lot of the gaps and cracks in the house.  Hopefully there will be less of these friends when the kids and I move in next week!

 

 After a week in town, he went back and installed the solar electric system.  

Under the tarp are the solar panels

 

 And a closet by the kitchen has all the controls for the solar stuff and the batteries.

 

 See the lightbulb?

and then he just whipped up a staircase up to the loft:)

So in 7 days we won't have internet for a little while because we'll be moving to the middle of NOWHERE!  I wan't to get caught up on pictures of our house for people not on facebook.

At the end of July we were incredibly blessed to have a team of four guys- Derek Stock, Evan Spor, Dakota Witte and Rich Sereg come 1/2 way across the world to help Dylan with building our house for a week.  The following are pictures of their time here.  We are so thankful for the sacrifices they made to come and be such an encouragement to us.

Here they are.  The kids loved playing with them and getting to know their uncles (everyone except Rich is a brother-in-law.  My sisters married well:)

The rest of the pictures are in no particular order.  When they went in, there were just posts and floor joists and a few framed walls.  By the end they had all the walls framed and almost the entire roof up.  They got a lot done it was so fun for Dylan to work with these guys. 

A few weeks ago, while Dylan was gone, a little girl from Raquel's ballet class had a birthday party at KFC and her class was invited to perform ('perform' sounds rather grandiose.  They look cute, but they're not winning any awards for their skillz:).  Raquel really wanted to go so I decided I'd bite the bullet and take all the kids.  These parties are generally loud, long and over the top and that's before you add Gideon and Roman to the mix.

Her teacher put pretty bows in her hair.

 As I mentioned, Dylan was gone.  This party was held on a Friday night 45 minutes away from where we live on the second story of an un-airconditioned building in a very busy and crowded KFC.  There were about 50 kids at the party and then the rest of the restaurant was very busy.  There is a play place that I was counting on to keep the boys occupied while I helped Raquel get ready.  

We had been there 5 minutes when I turned around to see these two hooligans.  That is a piece of chicken in Gideon's hand.  He was happily gnawing the meat down to the bone while I asked in horror where on earth he had acquired it.  I looked across the room and spotted a happy couple waving at me.  They assured me that they had given it to him and added that he was welcome to eat their french fries as well.  The lady told me that she was pregnant and she hopes her child will now look like Gideon.  For their sake I hope the child looks, rather than acts like Gideon.

 Gideon hanging out with some people.  These are not the ones who gave him the chicken.

 At the end of the party each child received a meal.  They gave one to all three of my kids along with a treat bag.  This party wasn't cheap!

 The party was supposed to start at 6pm so we arrived at 5:45 to give Raquel time to change.  Silly me, of course nothing started until about 6:30, giving me plenty of quality time with Roman and Gideon in crazed and sweltering environment.

 Finally the festivities began!  There is always an MC who entertains the kids.  They sang songs and played games.  Here they had an ice cream eating contest.

 Some of the spectators

 The Birthday girl

 The crazies

 Chaki the chicken made an appearance and everyone had their picture taken with "the turkey" (as Gideon called it:)

 Roman loved the slide.

 This picture cracks me up!

 Gideon is quite accustomed to having his picture taken with random people.

 And, finally, at around 7:30 they did their ballet.

 I chose the pictures where they appear to be the most in sync with each other:)  Raquel did a very nice job.  I was proud of her for doing it, I think I would have been too nervous when I was her age.  (well, and I definitely wouldn't do it at my age now either!  haha! Don't worry, the next post will not be of me in a tutu:)

 Our beautiful ballerina:)