The Giefers!

At the end of July we took a trip to Kansas to see my grandparents. For those of you who don't know, this is my Grandpa Joe and Grandma Jody. They are my mom's parents. My grandmother had brain surgery back in March for a brain tumor that is cancerous. She made it through the surgery great and has completed radiation and started her first round of chemotherapy. She is doing great considering everything she has been through. We love her so much and we cherished the time we were able to spend with her in July. She is still as fiesty as ever, I think. She may argue that, but then again she is JoAnn. You would never even know she was wearing a wig, it looks so almost identical to her hair.

Grandma and her Hayden David

Grandma, you look gorgeous! I love you!

My two girls, with pretty smiles!
After fighting me for a while of not sitting still to take a nap, grandpa came in from the barbershop, sat down in the chair and guess who crawled up on his lap? Yep, you guessed it.

About 2 minutes later she was out! I couldn't believe it.
Grandpa has the magic touch!



Abigail giving Grandma Jody her binky
I love this picture. I love her little hand inside of Grandmas. There is just something about this picture, it almost makes me cry everytime I look at it!

Look Grandma Teresa, I am taking all your hugs!!
Aunt Lisa stealing sugars!
You may wonder why Ethan was in none of these pictures! Well, by the time we took pictures he had fallen asleep on the floor between the laundry room and the hallway to the barber shop!

The Rudds in July!

Our second stop in Kansas was at my dad and stepmom's house. We had a great visit with the traditional fish fry. My grandparents were able to make it over, even though my brother and his family were unable. We missed you reerun!!! My dad is an avid marble collector and when I say avid, I mean like CRAZY!!! He has thousands upon thousands! So of course Abigail had a hay day! She wasn't that bad. There was one instance where she was pulling them out a gumball machine and papa told her, "no no!" It wasn't even in his mean voice and you would have thought he crushed her! Her little lip puckered up and the tears came rolling down those sweet little chubby cheeks! She was so pitiful, it was short lived though, she found something else to get into!

That didn't last long!

Abigail loved her Grandpa Rudd, mainly I think it was because he kept sneaking her M&M's all day!

Grandma and the boys
Two ninnies giggling!

Grandpa Rudd, me, Hayden and poodle

Abigail was growling at Ethan

Papa Joe and Ethan

Grandma Rudd and me
Grandpa, Grandma, and the younguns'

Three fish a swimming!

The Gilbert kids are naturals when it comes to swimming. Everyone has earned their water wings. Ethan and Hayden both can swim to the bottom of the 7ft. Abigail just likes to float around. We are very proud of their abilities this summer, but are always cautious and never take our eyes off of them.

Every one is full of tricks!

Girlfriend is a little fish in the water. This suit allows her to swim all over the pool. Very rarely does she topple over anymore. She has even jumped in the pool a few times. The goggles don't last very long, she normally just wears them around her neck!

Bless the creators of the Octorocker! The boys have had more fun jumping on and flipping this thing over. We even turn it on its side and John will throw the kids at. We call it bulls eye, however they hit and slide right off. It is so hilarious, they look like those Chinese people you see on the extreme game things on ESPN.
My two HANDSOME guys!

Casa de la Gilbert

Okay, as many of you know we decided not to move to San Antonio. After weighing our options and stressing about our house not selling, we thought it would be best to stay put and John would commute for a while. He is only gone about 4 more days a month than normal, so it is not too bad. Within a week of deciding to stay, we decided to put in a pool. Being that our neighbors own the pool store and they love us so much, we jumped to the top of the 6+ month waiting list. Just kidding, they were actually across the road in another subdivision from ours and it was over the July 4th holiday so it made since to just hop over here! They came in like a whirlwind and knocked the thing out in 4 days. We still have some things left to do, like get our fence up and build a small pool house/bathroom/storage/whatever building, but that will come in a few more months or so. We are putting up a 4ft black rod iron look a like fence. It is made out of aluminum. We would love to have some company go swimming, come see us!!

Day One

They cut into the hill and marked off the pool!
And the digging begins!

End of the first day!


Day Two

End of the 2nd day. They shot the pool with gunite and framed it for tile.

Day Three
By the end of the day Thursday they had the tile on the pool and began evening out the dirt and forming it so they could pour the concrete decking tomorrow!

Day Four

The finished product on Friday.

Now the marsite people have to come and then we can fill it with water!

They sprayed the marsite in the pool Monday morning!

Hayden and Madison in deep end as the water starts!

We started the water hose Monday afternoon at 3:00pm. the pool was full Wednesday morning at 10:30am.
Tuesday mid afternoon

The cool decking had been completed by now, and we have been swimming fools!

All of the sod to the right of this picture was laid by none other than myself, okay John laid a pallet and I laid a pallet. That is hard work let me tell you! It took great and looks awesome, I am very proud of myself !

John built this wall himself. He busted his bottom in the heat. Poor thing, it has been ridiculously hot here and the big 18" bricks weigh a good 70+ pounds a piece. It was nice though, when he had enough he would jump in the pool to cool off. He did a great job on the wall, I am totally impressed!!!

In the area next to the wall there, we are going to build a 14x14 building. The back half will be John's, where he can store his mowers and stuff. The front half will be mine with a bathroom and storage place for all the pool toys and equipment.

We will fill this in with dirt and give it a slight taper to direct water flow around and away from the pool when it rains.
All the bricks will have fill up against them with a slight taper, so you wont be able to see anything except the tops and grass!