Ice Storm 2013 - Revisited

Can you tell that I have my laptop AND nice camera back?! :)  Just trying to get caught up on blogging b/c I really do want to remember these days that are flying by and this is my favorite space to do so....

Now that the ice is a distant memory, I can really appreciate how beautiful it all was. If it just wasn't so dang dangerous. Here are some pictures from the good camera....

We woke up that first morning to this crepe myrtle completely weighted down by ice. It usually stands so tall.

I love all these hundreds of little icicles. 

Branches facing downward from the weight of it all. 

This icicle was so fun to watch! It started out much shorter than this but as the days would warm ever so slightly and it would sort of begin to melt, the nights would re-freeze it. Pretty cool to see over those 4 days.  

My Dad put out bird seed since there was nothing else for them to eat.

And more of what we did while indoors together. Lots of PJ time and fun together....

Lots of wrestling. Walker gets the biggest kick out of Grayson throwing him around ;)

"Tickle, tickle, tickle!" - Grayson

Walker loves to jump! Just like Grayson used to :) 

Well, he still loves to ;) We were so bored, Mimi and Pop even let them jump on the bed! Mimi would say, "No more monkeys jumping on the bed!"

Family Pictures & Soccer Season Wrap-up

We had a good friend of mine shoot our family pics back in October. Shannon D. is in my MOPS group and does these shoots as a fundraiser for our chapter. So how cool is that - we have wonderful family photos and a portion of our cost was donated to my MOPS group! 

Walker at 9 months

Grayson at 3 years 4months

Shannon's monkey sounds are about the only thing that can capture 4 smiles at once!

As luck would have it, Grayson also had his soccer team pictures (and last game) taken that day. 3 year olds hardly like one photo session, but two?! :) Regardless, he did great at both! 

This year of soccer was such a fun, frustrating, rewarding new journey for us! Coach Casey took a bunch of 3 year olds who had NO IDEA what was going on and assembled a team who, by the very last game, was running in the same direction, toward the correct goal, shooting goals and even playing some okay defense! Boy, did we not see any of that happening at the first game! :) We look forward to next year as Grayson has been saying that he wants to play again. Woo hoo!

ICEmaggedon 2013

Here is the post on this crazy ice storm! Earlier this week, my favorite local weather guy started getting really giddy about the unavoidable ice storm we were certain to get and that the DFW area would be "entombed in ice." He was not kidding! This storm has been everything they promised with 1-4 inches of ice covering every surface of the metroplex. Many trees have lost limbs b/c they can't stand the weight of the ice, EVERY school district, church, city building has been closed and Christmas events canceled. Usually you'll get spots of cities who have delayed starts and don't cancel anything but not this time. The entire city has been shut down since Friday and because our temps haven't gotten above freezing, things will melt slightly during the day and then re-freeze at night making things more dangerous than the day before and putting cities in difficult situations not being able to keep up with the sanding/de-icing demands. Almost 200,000 homes have been without power - I can't even imagine! Oh, and we have learned about things like "freezing fog", "angel ice" and "thunder sleet." Amazing, really. 

I'm going to focus mostly on how fun this has been for us and what we've been up to but my heart is very heavy this morning with the images of hundreds of stranded 18-wheelers, some who have been there for days and one who called into the news b/c he is desperate. He has his 2 year old son with him, is running out of supplies and can't get a response from police or emergency systems. They just can't get to him when 35 is a parking lot of big rigs. We all joke about being stir crazy in our warm, roomy homes with young kids but I can't imagine being out of food and diapers and possibly gas and trying to keep a toddler happy in the tiny cab of a truck. Prayers go out to everyone!

So now that I've covered the severity of it all, I'll tell you what's going on in this house. Since we've known since about Wednesday, we knew we probably wouldn't close on our house and had time to go to the store and stock up with groceries for my parents' house! I also got some Christmas crafts from the Target $1 shelf! They have AWESOME crafts for a 3 y.o. and I don't care what happens to them since they're so cheap :)

Heavy sleet fell all night Thursday - the creation of inches of ice on the ground. It was loud
and kept us up through the night. Grayson was fascinated. :)

We awoke to this! This crape myrtle used to stand straight and tall. While it's beautiful, I'm not sure what it will look like after
days of weighted ice!

We've been keeping busy with crafts, playing soldiers, building things, iPad time and relaxing. Also….

Mere seconds in the ice ;)

bath time. It works!

Mimi made us hot cocoa from scratch.

Lots of cooking. This was turkey chili... 

Plenty of dressing up as Batman. And then taking off the costume. And then putting it back on. Repeat...

TV watching in PJs. Just happy that the cable stayed on!

Wrestling and horse play. Hey, they slept like babies. No complaints here!

A lot of baby brother getting in the way of Grayson's new duck hunt game. (Mimi and Pop brought out a Christmas present we were so desperate!)

Lots of play time with Pop.

And baking snickerdoodles with Mimi.

We have been out of the house twice. Once to see the new house and Friday night for Annie's 32nd birthday. Both times were pretty scary but manageable since we stayed on some well-traveled roads. We saw may broken trees, cars that had slid into each other or things and a lot of dumb drivers. I am so,  so lucky to be married to a man who just seems to be so GOOD in these situations. He stays calm and knows how to manage his 4-wheel drive! I didn't stress a bit with him at the wheel!

Our pretty church lit up in the distance.

The car is indeed entombed in ice! 

My parents' neighbor. Trees were completely snapped in half.

You'd never know there was an ICEpocolypse outside!

Enough with the noise! Cabin fever felt by all!

Praying for relief tonight and tomorrow although it doesn't look like it's warming up/melting any time soon!

iPhone Photo Dump - March

A little bit of this; A little bit of that....but mainly, a photo dump from my phone. :)

My friend Shelby surprised me with this! It's in Walker's nursery colors and it's perfect. Thank you so much Shelby!

This adorable baby madras is no more. A casualty of Beau being in charge when I was at a girls' night. He was so sweet to not bother me about how exactly to get it off the baby. So he just cut it. Ha! I'm not kidding.

Those eyes! That drink! We have had plenty of dates thanks to our parents watching the kids.

Speaking of amazing drinks - this martini glass showed up with a ball of cotton candy sitting on top. Then some sort of vodka mixture was poured over it as it dissolved. Pretty cool! Totally recommend Pepper Smash in Shops at Legacy to anyone! We met our friends Nick and Annie there for some adult time. Fun as always!

My boy deep in thought as he was drawing outside one day. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he has some artistic talent there. 

St. Patrick's Day down in Dallas with our friends! Beau's sweet Mama drove in for the day to keep the boys! 

There is never a shortage of "good ideas" in this group and for that I love them. Who knew this was legal?! I drove these crazy kids to Greenville as Beau and I were off to party #2 at the Parmerlees' house.

Another recommendation: 3 Stacks! Our new favorite BBQ joint. The country music will make you want to go dancing!

We love spending time with Nick, Annie, Cole and Finley! We're all big buds and there's always something going on! 

When Finley isn't following our dogs around, she's taking care of the baby (in her old nap nanny!)

After dinner, we always enjoy some rough housing in the living room! Beau and Nick took turns flipping the 3 older kids.

Our little cowboy at Lowe's after church. He is STILL very interested in hoses :)

He has discovered WORMS! Loves watching them slither and is so disappointed when they're dead (as I sigh with relief). :)

I love how Miss Jenny loves our boy.