Well, they weren't kidding. It was so cold and starting to drizzle and slick up our back porch halfway through the day. I called my office (I work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) and asked if my patients had started cancelling for Tuesday morning. She said that I didn't have anybody coming in until 10. --no problem, I'll just go in late (better that than sit there for 2 hours twiddling my thumbs).
Here's Anniston Monday evening eating her "ice pop". It was her dessert, and she was SOOOOO excited!
Here's part of our fozen pond in the back yard (it's actually starting to melt now)
The plants out front (these are spirea) looked so weird:
Here's a sprout off of our pompass grass plants (or "wheat plants" as I affectionately call them). I held my finger out there too so that you could tell the ice was about 1.5-2 inches in diameter.
So the next morning we wake up and things were going fine. Jerry and Anniston were on the couch watching Good Morning America/local weather updates and I was feeding Treyson. Then the clock struck 7:45....and POOF, no TV, no lights, no heat, no NOTHING! Fortunately Jerry had already started a fire. So we reconfigured our living room furniture to get all of our furniture facing the fire and had alot of Anniston and Treyson's toys in the front of the couch so they wouldn't have to get into their rooms to play (we were planning on shutting those doors to help maintain heat in the living room area). For the most part, we did ok. I mean, it was light outside plus we had a fire inside...so technically we had heat and lights (technically).
We spent the morning/afternoon on our cell phones with friends and family trying to decide what to do about the situation and work. The kiddos did pretty good all considering. We kept a keen eye on the thermostat. . . it was slowly dropping. So the kids took their naps in their rooms because it still wasn't too bad back on their end of the house. Jerry and I are out in the living room and here this "beep, beep, beep" and had just enough time to look at eachother and say, "Huh?" before the RAYR,RAYR,RAYR,RAYR began. Oh yeah, the house alarm was going off VERY LOUDLY. . . and guess what, the indoor siren is in the hallway that the kids sleep in--PERFECT!! So Jerry and I scramble to get out to the box to unplug it...it's locked. He asks me where the key is. Now how the *beep* am I supposed to know. So my response, "Just break it open". Calm Jerry found the strategically hidden key and opened it and unplugged the alarm. We called Alert Alarm (shout-out to Pat), and they said it was our back-up battery that was low. And that's how they let you know. You have 3 sweet beeps notice before the blaring siren blows. So I know you're wondering about our kids throughout this ordeal. . . SOUND ASLEEP! Are you kidding me? So why do I tip-toe around their hall when they're sleeping. Well, I won't anymore!! haha
Then at 3:30. . . TA-DA! We have lights, heat, and a TV! We were so excited! We let Anniston watch a cartoon (after we checked the weather) and we decided to grill brats and cook french fries for dinner. AH, life is good--we love electricity! And then the clock struck 8:57 P.M. The kids were asleep, and we still had our cozy fire. We had set a bottle of Principato Rosato (a wine from Olive Garden that I LOVE!!--and btw got for my birthday from mom and dad last year right after we had surprised them with the news we were pregnant! haha) and were just about to pop the cork! WRONG!! There was a fireworks show outside our front door, and it was the power cable that came tumbling down due to the weight of the ice. We scrambled to get our flashlight and figure out what to do. We decided that we'd bring Anniston's matress into the living room (it's a crib matress since she sleeps on a toddler bed) and let Treyson sleep on it. Jerry and I would trade off sleeping out in the living room and keep the fire going. Meanwhile, we were going to have Anniston in our room and snuggle in our bed.
Here's a pic of the cable hanging down:
So Jerry got the kiddos all arranged and I went ahead and got into bed with Anniston. She was ecstatic! She sang me several songs (which I LOVE), but by this time it was 9:30 and she really just needed to close her eyes. I kept closing mine and ignoring her whispering, "Hey Mommy"'s. She doesn't give up though. She kept leaning over me and would kiss me on the lips if I ignored her (it's apparent we've been reading too many princess stories that end with a prince WAKING UP a princess with a kiss on the lips!!). She finally did get to sleep. Around 11:30, Treyson started to get restless. By 1:30, it woke me up and I went to check on Jerry. We tagged out so that Jerry could get some sleep.
I paced the floor with Treyson until about 2:45, then tried to lay him down. . .. WAHHHHH!! Nope, that wasn't going to work. So I paced again and then about 3:00, I sat down on the recliner oh so slowly and managed to keep him asleep. I was exhausted, and I didn't sleep b/c I was freezing cold. Our thermostat was down to 61 at this point. (On a side note: for those of you who don't know about my kiddos and their sleeping patterns, let me fill you in. . . because those of you who DO know how my kids sleep are probably laughing thinking, "finally, she's experiencing having to be awake during the middle of the night". We brought Anniston home from the hospital at 2 days old sleeping 7 hours through the night. She worked her way up to 9 hours in 4 weeks, and 10-12 hours by 6 weeks old. Treyson is similar. He was sleeeping 5 solid hours when we came home from the hospital, and it took him about 4 weeks to get to 8 solids hours, and now he does anywhere from 11-13 hours solid. So this "pacing in the middle of the night" thing is new to me. . . and I'm really not that crazy about the idea of it). Back to the story: Treyson slept in my arms until 4:45, until I got so cold that I couldn't stand it anymore and decided I had to get a pair of socks on and add a sweatshirt. He never did calm back down, so I decided to cave and let him nurse and did so in bed with Jerry and Anniston.
So about 10 minutes into being in bed (and somewhat warm) a beeping started to sound. It was a low battery on our smoke alarm. Are you kidding me? And it was annoying. So Jerry gets up on a ladder while I hold a flashlight, and he manages to rip it off the ceiling--for real, I think we have to get a new one. We get back into bed and sleep until 7:45. Then we hung out in our frigid home that morning (lowest point was 57). We left the house around 1 to just get out and eat lunch, then returned at 3:30 to electricity! YAY!!
Here are our 3 trees out front. The middle and right tree are goners. . . .I'm hoping today's sun will melt enough of the ice on the tree to the left so that the weight of the ice doesn't ruin it too.
Here's Anniston's playground area. The first pic is her little climber set, picnic table, and sand table. The second pic is of her "winterized" trampoline. I'm so glad Jerry decided to winterize it. Otherwise, I would have been very hesitant of Anniston jumping on a trampoline that had been left out in these conditions.
Here's the kiddos hanging out inside in their snow outfits/hat: (and it's hard to tell, but Anniston's lips were starting to turn purple...Jerry decided at that point to take both kids out to the car to thaw out!)
We celebrated by watching TV and cranking up the heat! We put the kids to bed at 7 P.M., yes 7. We watched an episode of House Hunters, then were in bed by 8:30. We were all cozy and getting tired eyes, then all of a sudden "Whoo, whoo". We kept hearing this, about every 14 seconds. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Oh yes, it was an owl, and it sounded like it was sitting on the deck attached to our room. Jerry asked me if he could throw our flashlight at it. Seeing as that was our only source of light if the electricity blows, I encouraged him not to (plus I don't know if it would scare it enough to leave)--sorry owl lovers!
Here's the back of our yard. There are lots of old, tall trees behind our fence. So far, our fence is still intact.
We did manage to fall asleep. We woke up the next morning and Jerry made us a big breakfast. He headed off to work around 9. The kids and I played all day. I went to Target last night to get a few things, and as I was standing in line to check out, the electricity went off. . . only for about 10 seconds--but I was so upset because one of my items was Orange Sunkist soda that I was craving. Oh yeah, there was also some milk for Anniston and food for Treyson, but did I mention Orange Soda for me? So anyway, all of the computers were re-booting at Target, so 1 lane was checking everybody out. Fortunately I was 7th in line (out of probably 20).
So I get in the car to tell Jerry about my traumatic 10 seconds in Target, and he answers the phone in a very somber voice. I asked him what was wrong. . . were the Hogs doing that bad? No, we lost electricity again. Oh, my goodness. I called my mom and told her I was heading home, had about 10 minutes worth of packing, and then I was driving with the kids to Ft. Smith. There was no way I was going to do another 57 degree night. I get home, get my stuff packed, Anniston packed, and was finishing up Treyson's bag when the electricity came back on. . . just in time to finish watching the Razorbacks beat Alabama!!!
I LOVE ELECTRICITY!!
By the way, we're buying a generator when they're back in stock to keep at home if this ever happens again.
It's definitely time for Treyson to slow down growing! He loved his bath being in the "big boy seat". He splashed the entire time, and was quite entertained by his big sister (who's always singing or laughing about something--she tells us that she cracks herself up!).
Then we worked on puzzles, played dress-up, made pretend snacks in her kitchen, played "Hungry,hungry hippos", and then she saw THE BOX. We had tucked it up on the top of her closet for a rainy day. . . but she recognized the princesses, so I had to get it down. It was a pop-up tent that our VERY SWEET UNCLE TODD picked out for us!!! We did some re-arranging in her room, and she loves the new addition. She has played in there, pretended to take a nap, made her dolls nap in there. . . she LOVES IT!! 
Note from the Mommy: This outfit was not picked out by me. This was Anniston's choice for the afternoon. I would have definitely steered her another direction. But this was a day that our Fancy Nanny (jerry's mom) drove up to watch the kids so that we could go to a Razorback game. Long story short, Fancy Nanny didn't have the heart to tell Anniston she didn't match, and we didn't care because we were just grateful that she came up to babysit!!ha
With Jerry's parents, brother, and grandmother:
With my parents and grandmother:
Another amazing detail I wanted to throw in is that the gown Treyson is wearing has been in the family for 3 generations. Jerry's mother was baptised in this as a baby. Her grandmother had bought it in Chicago after she was born. I'm sure it was very expensive then. It is the finest material, and shows its age in places....but isn't that amazing? We figured out that Treyson is the 18th child to be baptised in this gown. It has been through Nanny, Don, Diane, Laura, Susan, Leah, Jerry, Meredith, Matt, Spencer, Trent, Shelby, Jake, Sheradon, Lexi, Kinley, Anniston, and now Treyson!! So cool! After church, several members of our congregation came up to congratulate Treyson and to also get a closer look at the gown. It really is beautiful.
Great Grandma (jerry's grandmother)
MeMaMa (my grandmother)
MaMa and PaPa
Nanny and PawPaw 
Nice roots there, Amy....and I'm pretty sure Jerry's sporting the exact same tie as he did for Treyson's baptism!.....Maybe he planned that one!
