Pool Day 1

The pool company started working on the pool on Thursday, January 5th.

Sleet and freezing rain was in the forecast for Friday (and the weekend) so the pool company wouldn't return until the following Tuesday.

Cora and Nate enjoyed watching the progress. :)

Preparing for the Pool

Darren and I started discussing putting in a pool last spring.  We decided to think on it a few months and work on saving some money.  Pool companies also offer great discounts during the winter months, which really appealed to Darren.  After Thanksgiving, we started discussing details with the pool company and making decisions about shape, size, and location.  We have lots of trees around our house and after going back and forth about where to put the pool, we decided to spend the extra money and have trees cut to make room for the pool right behind the house. 

We had three trees cut.  This is the only one I was sad to see go.  Nate played under this tree since he was a baby.  It wasn't in the way of the pool, but it was dying.  Occasionally we would find pretty large limbs on the ground.  We felt like it was getting dangerous.  We didn't want a limb to fall on Nate or Cora or the whole tree fall down.

The guys came to cut the trees the week before Christmas.  It was so interesting to watch!  It took two days to cut the three trees and clean up everything.

Step one is complete!  :)

Ice Ice Baby

I'm fairly certain I've used that title before at some point. Ha! That winter storm warning turned out to a dusting of sleet for us.  Zero snow.  I don't know who was more disappointed, me or Nate! Oh well, it did make for some pretty pictures.

I had an extreme fascination with the way icicles were forming on this metal gate.  The pictures don't do it justice. 

We've recently had a few trees cut to make room for a pool (that will be another post, I'm sure).  This tree was not in the way of the pool, but it was dying and close to where the kids play so we had it cut also. It was a beautiful, old oak tree. It took the Lord many years to grow this tree.  Nate has played under this tree his entire life.  It made me sad to see it go.

This red snow suit has been in our family for around 20 years. My mom found it at a yard sale when Ashlyn (now 22) was a baby.  We have pictures of her wearing it in the snow and pictures of Nate wearing it.  Even though this wasn't a true snow event, it was definitely cold enough for a snow suit.  And who knows if we'll have another day like this this year. 

Sweet Nate wrote this for Cora. :)

Again, the photo doesn't do it justice.  If you enlarge the photo you can see the individual sleet pellets.  Beautiful.

This was the most excitement Nate had, jumping on the frozen trampoline.

Nate loved sliding around on this ice.

Still holding out for a decent snow this winter...

Hello 2017

Well it's been just about a year since I posted here and I was behind then. We are in a very busy season of life and I don't know how practical blogging is for me right now. As I type this, we are under a winter weather warning...even though nothing is happening. ;) I referenced my blog to find pictures of the last time it snowed.  Seeing all of those great memories made me realize why I starting blogging in the first place - to remember.  I even had three years worth of blog posts printed. Yesterday, I gave them to Nate to read and he spent several hours reading all three books and then wanted to finish reading the entire blog.  He loved reading about his younger years - things he doesn't remember.  Things I didn't remember.  So, here I go again.  I'm going to give it a shot and try to take a few minutes a week to update what's going on with us.  I'm not going to try to do any back posts because that's too overwhelming to think about.  I'm just going to start here on January, 6th 2017. 

No blog post would be complete without a great photo.  Here's my sweet kiddos on Christmas Eve.

Pulling Up

This was the first time (9/9/15) we found Cora standing in her crib. Nate and I had to cheer for her and of course I had to get a picture.  You can't tell from the picture, but she's crying.  I know she was wondering when I was going to get her out of there and give her some lunch!

Lego Road Show

The Lego Road show came to Birmingham last August.  We had a great time seeing Lego replicas of historic government buildings.  Seeing it with good friends made it even more fun!    

Nan's Flowers