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!

Nothing better than a day at the Lake!

What better way to spend a Saturday than with your family on the lake. We took the boat and the kids out for a great time. As the evening drew near, we grilled hot dogs and watched the sunset on the dock. John wake boarded and skied a few times. I even got back up on my slalom ski. It was nice to know that I still have it, however I barely made it back into the boat, because my legs were shaking so bad. Miss Poodle is everywhere on the boat and enjoyed tubing with her daddy, the boys had a ball too!

The kids had a ball tubing. Poor little Ethan can barely see above the tube, but he still had a ball!

A very loose cannon ball!

All she wanted to do was drive the boat. She even pulled Ethan out of the seat by his hair, because he was in her way! Talk about attitude...Miss thang has one!

Trying to get three people into two tubes in the water is not as easy as it looks He almost has it

Okay, he doesn't have it, over he goes!!! They finally got it together

A torpedo full of Gilbert's. They did bite the dust once on the torpedo. John was trying to get over the wake and I turned the boat at the same time, so guess what happened. All three hit the water. The boys were not real sure about it, because it is the first time they had ever fallen into the water while being pulled behind the boat. With a bit of reassurance, we were able to convince them to get back on.

Yes, I can drive the boat, take pictures, and watch Abigail all at the same time. I am MOM, would you expect anything less!!

The view is always better looking up
Ethan's boat blown hair do

A beautiful sunset to end a FABULOUS day!

Hayden's first tooth is gone!

Toothless Wonder!!!

Hayden lost his first tooth last Thursday on the 29th. He was biting into an apple and there it was!! He was so excited and the tooth fairy, who Ethan says he scarred when she visited that night, left him two dollars in quarters. He thinks he is rich now! He has 3 more that are really loose, so we might be broke soon.

Birthday Party #1

We celebrated Ethans birthday first at Papa's and Grandmas's in Louisiana. We went to Chuck E. Cheeses, ate pizza and blew over 200 tokens! My favorite part was when we sitting at the table and the mechanical Chuck E. was on stage doing his thing when Ethan starts yelling, "Chuckers, hey Chuckers!". Then he looks at me says, "Mom, Chuckers isn't talking to me." I lost it!!! After the fun we went back to the house and had cake and Ethan opened up his present from Papa and Grandma, you will see it below!

Oh yeah baby!!!

Having fun at Chuckers!

The boy in the plastic bubble

Birthday Party #2

Ethan celebrated his 4th birthday on June 3rd at the base swimming pool. We rented out the pool, so we had it all to ourselves. He had a blast going down the slide and playing with his friends.

He blew out all the candles on the first try!!!

One of the MANY presents Ethan recieved