Celebrating Gracie's 5th Birthday!!!

On Thursday we celbrated Gracie's 5th birthday!! Mama, Daddy & Gwynie surprised here my waking here cut by singing happy birthday. Then she came down stairs and opened up her birthday presents from us. I let her pick whatever she wanted for lunch...she chose Sonic, then for dinner we went to absolutely FAVORITE place...Gatti Town. Here are a few pictures from Thursday...

Then on Saturday Gracie had her Gymnastics Party. Here are some pictures from the party...

Happy 5th Birthday Gracie!!!

We love you Gracie and hope that you have a wonderful 5th Birthday!!! Here are a few pictures that were taken on your birthday for the last five years...Precious!

Your first 5 years at a glance!!!

5 years old TODAY!!!! 4 years old 3 years old 2 years old 1 year old Birth Day

Pool Update #6

Day 16 ~ They finished up the stone work on the pool today. This was the slowest process on the pool so far. They started last Wednesday I believe and finished up today. It didn't seem like there was a lot of stone work to be done, but I guess trying to fit all those pieces together like a puzzle times time.

The spa has a lower shelf that will be a waterfall feature.

These are the two additional waterfalls on the back beam of the pool.

A close up of one of the water features.

This is what the pool looks like today. I believe that the next step is installing the gas line. After that we should see them starting to form up for the decking!!!

Gwyneth's First Swim Lesson

We just got back from Gwynie's first swim lesson and she did so good! It's a "parent & me" class so I don't have any pictures since I was in the pool with her. She was so excited to put her swimsuit on this morning. We got to the pool and she was a bit hesitant at first, but after a few minutes she was doing great. She even put her face in the water!!! She kept telling Gracie when it was over, "Sissy, I swam in da pool". She said she had fun and we are looking forward to our next class on Thursday.

Weekend in Amarillo

This weekend I went to our church's women's retreat. Kathy went too! We had a great time! Kathy went with me for the first time 2 years ago because I was super pregnant with Gwyneth and thought it best to have someone there in case something happened. Nothing did happen, but now I really look forward to the weekend away to learn more about Christ and spend time with Kathy.

Since I was away, Lance decided to take the girls to Amarillo. It was just a weekend trip so he decided that he and the girls would fly. Gracie was SO excited when she found out she was flying. She always wants to fly there and this time she got to. This was a special plane trip for Gwynie because is was her first one!!! Lance said that the trip up there went pretty smooth. However, the trip back was a different story. Gwynie was not a happy camper for the first half of the plane ride. She stop crying about half way through but REALLY didn't want to stay seated. They made it back safely and that's what counts. They had a great time visiting Grams & Grumps and everyone. They threw the Brylie & Gracie a birthday party since both of their birthdays are this week. Gracie came back with so many neat birthday gifts (Thank you everyone!!).

I missed seeing everyone, but I will get to see y'all in just a few weeks. Here are a few pictures from Lance and the girls' trip...

Pool Update #5

Day 9~ I didn't plan to blog another update on the pool for a few days, but there seems to be something changing everyday!!

They came out this morning with the fill dirt for the project. Our yard officially looks less like a bomb testing site and more like a backyard again!!
The orange line sprayed in the dirt marks where the two steps will be that get you down to pool level.
The orange circled sprayed back by the fence is a raised seating area. This is a picture from the raised seating area looking back towards the house.
This is a picture from the spa side of the pool. Until today it was very difficult to get over where I could take a picture so I thought I would go ahead and post one.This is just a close up of the tile. The ones from the other day didn't show the variation very well, so I thought I would show a close up.

Lance and I were talking during lunch and figured that they wouldn't have brought in all the fill dirt and sprayed everything out unless they were planning to put the form work up soon assuming they wouldn't want it to rain and mess everything up. Maybe they will put in the flagstone coping and decking in a little earlier than we thought. Guess we will have to wait and see!!

Pool Update #4

Day 8~ Today is the one week mark since we started construction on the pool and everything is still on schedule so far. Today they came out and installed the tile border on the pool.

They started by putting up the backer board. Then covered all the backer board with a smooth layer of grout. They then put on the tile and finally, grouted it.
Just checking to make sure everything is level.
This is what the pool looks like today after the tile was installed. It's hard to see in the picture, but the tiles have a pretty high variation in colors that range from brown to purple to blue. When the tile is cleaned up and wet it has almost an iridescent quality.

The next steps to the pool will be less obvious. They will be finishing up all the plumbing and electrical site work and tying into the city's utilities. The next big physical transformation to the pool will be the installation of the flagstone coping. I haven't heard an exact date for this yet, but if I had to guess it will be later this week.

Pool Update #3

This has been such a busy week at the house. Besides starting on the pool we have been having some repair work done on a inside leak we had. It has been crazy, but we can see a light at the end of the tunnel. It looks like everything should be back to normal by the end of this week.

Day 7~ Just like I thought Wednesday and Thursday of last week were pretty quiet. However, there were still workers here both of the days getting things done. On Wednesday they came and cut a two foot channel out of our drive way that will be used for the pool's plumbing lines. It rained Wednesday and Thursday, but was sunny and clear on Friday which worked out perfectly for the Gunite to be installed.

The Gunite crew showed up first thing Friday morning. It was quite a big crew with 2-3 concrete trucks.
After I snapped the first picture I came back and all I saw were tarps that they had put up to protect the house, so I had to take the rest of the pictures from the game room upstairs.
Just getting started spraying the Gunite.
This after only 10 minutes or so.
This was pretty amazing to watch. These men take this big blob of concrete that has been sprayed all over and start to sculpt it into our swimming pool. I have to admit that I spent quite a bit of time Friday watching them work.

Gwynie really enjoyed watching them too!

This is where we were on Friday. YEAH...It looks like a Pool!!!!

Saturday they came and dug all the trench lines and installed all (there were a ton) of plumbing lines.

And here is where we are today. All it needs is water right? Well not yet. I believe the next step is to put in the tile border that will be along the water line of the finished pool. They are scheduled to start pouring the deck around the pool in a couple of weeks.

Pool Update #2

Day 2~ Another busy day on the pool...

This morning the crew was back bright & early to get started with the rebar for the pool. They were done by about lunch time when the plumbers showed up.I thought this was pretty neat. This is one of the crew members heating up the PVC so that they can form the curves for the spa. In my construction experience we never had a need to do more that a 45 degree connection so it was cool too see.
This is the spa all finished, you can she how much they had to curve the PVC.

So this is where we are today. All the rebar and plumbing is in that needs to be for the Gunite. I think the next couple of days will be pretty quiet waiting on City inspections.

Let the fun begin...

Day 1 ~ This morning construction started on our swimming pool! I can't believe how much they were able to get done in just a few hours today.

This was the scene at about 8:30this morning. They were scraping the yard to get down to the correct grade for the pool.
By 9:00 they had everything scrapped and were starting the layout the pool design
By 10:00 they had everything laid out, we approved it and they started the "big dig".

By the time I left to go get Gracie about 2:00, it was starting to look less like a hole and more like a pool.

So this is where we are today about 3:30 or so. I was really surprised by how quickly it went from a lawn to a pool form. Tomorrow they plan to do all of the plumbing and rebar framing, weather permitting (they are forecasting storms). If they don't get too delayed by the weather we could have Gunite (sprayed concrete) as early as Friday. Don't worry, I don't plan to continue with the hour by hour commentary of the pool's construction...I guess I was just excited today!

Speaking of excited...Gracie & Gwynie thought today was pretty cool! We will see how they are hanging in a few weeks from now.