happy birthday to me (early)

look what lana can do now!

drew picked lana up from daycare today. when i got home, they had this surprise for me! i guess she took about 2 steps at daycare today (something she's done with us, but not on a regular basis, and definitely only when she feels like it!). next thing we knew, she was pulling up on everything so she could walk! without holding on to anything! YAY! our little lana is getting so BIG!

oh gosh

i just found all these snow pictures i hadn't uploaded yet. it shows a LOT more snow. i haven't rechecked the forecast since friday, so i'm not sure if we're still planned for winter precip on tuesday. we'll keep you posted!

this was our front yard...notice how you can't see the street

neither drew nor i went to work thursday or friday. too stressful to drive in.

the tree in our front yard at night. so beautiful. i wouldn't mind framing this one

same tree, but daytime. clearly i couldn't get over the amount of snow on each branch. it was so beautiful. i can't come up with another word besides beautiful. where's my thesaurus??

backyard

catching up

so a week ago today we were starting the thaw out process of nearly a foot of snow in flower mound. i'm just now getting around to posting pictures. i figured our family in oregon and elsewhere would LOVE to see how crazy texas has been this winter.

here's a pic of lana holding snow...not sure what to make of it

mom and lana enjoying the wonderland

diving in

beautiful!

a view from the front of our house. we still got about 6 more inches of snow on top of this picture.

it was all so beautiful. i wish it'd come back! oh wait. it will. tuesday night. more snow in the forecast. amazing.

pictures

so here's a quick update on altus.

we got up sunday morning and drove up there to take my grandparents a generator. we drove through freezing fog, and it really only took until decatur for us to hit ice/snow on the ground. not a lot, but i could see it!

the closer we got to altus, the crazier the scene became. it was nothing i'd ever seen before in my life. the trees looked like they had white branches--there was so much ice on them! and as we drove out to my grandparent's house from town, it felt like we were driving into a desolate area. something out of a war movie....there was no one on the road, no one leaving their homes. it was so weird.

we got there and pulled up to see this:

notice the large pole that is leaning on the tree:

these are the trees in between the house and the barn.

the house was a cool 60 degrees inside, but manageable. they had a fire going and that's how they were keeping warm.

after we got the generator hooked up, we got the space heaters going to warm up the house. i was the only one in the living room and i was working to keep the fire going as well. within 2 minutes one of the space heaters caught on fire. it was pretty stinkin scary. it ruined a good chunk of the carpet and there was ash and smoke all over the house. luckily, my grandma got it out of the house before anything else happened. of course all i could do was scream. clearly i'm not so great in emergency situations. :(

UPDATE:

right now my grandparents are staying at a friends house further in town. they got the power restored there, so they have heat and warm showers. what a blessing! now if only they could get the power back on at their own house!

keep praying for them. its tough having your life disrupted...especially when you're 80+ years old.

article

when you get a chance, read this article. it's matt's story thus far.

i'll keep pictures and an update on my gparents hopefully tomorrow. that's another amazing story.

thanks for the prayers.

prayer request

hey guys.

just a quick prayer request. we had a major ice storm go thru the area over the past two days...didn't really affect the metroplex but the texas panhandle and southern oklahoma and north got hit pretty hard. my grandparents live in southern oklahoma in a little town, altus. they live in the country and this storm hit them hard. they've been without power since thursday. all of the surrounding cities are without power too. the hospital has shut down and is only taking people with life threatening emergencies. the only places in town with generators are the hospital and the nursing home. they don't even have generators to allow people to pump gas. the roads have been closed due to ice--the power lines had about 3" of ice on them--no wonder they came down! a few of the trees on my grandparents property fell down. one of them fell and is keeping them from being able to get my grandpa's truck out of the garage--this poses a problem if they were able to get ahold of a generator...they wouldn't have a way to go get it. and at some point, this tree is going to have to be cut up and the wood moved--hard work for my grandpa, who is 83. so, currently they're huddled up next to the fire. they sleep in their recliners and take turns keeping the fire going. their fire wood is very limited. they have some family further down the road that's bringing them fire wood, but they're almost out too. they have candles for light, and batteries to get updates from their radio. all of these things are going to run out at some point--hopefully not before the stores open back up!

luckily, the phone line still works...the blessings of keeping a land line phone with cords! :) currently my grandpa has driven into town to see if anything is open. they've got minimal food in the pantry because it wasn't grocery day yet. they've been reheating things to eat over the fire. last night they had cottage cheese and fruit for dinner...this morning they had peanut butter and jelly for breakfast, and for lunch today they reheated some soup. normally, i'd say, "well, good. sounds like they just might be ok". but being in their 80s, i'm VERY concerned. some of the reports are saying it could take up to two weeks to get power back on--in the city. who knows how long it'll take all the way out at their place.

they're very resistant to leave because they're worried about water pipes bursting...not like they could do anything to prevent it though! my mom has been calling around trying to get pricing on generators and fuel to take up to them. and we've also thought about just going up there and forcing them to come back down here with us until power is restored. our only concern is the roads...they're still pretty icy. they had shut the highway down leading to my grandparents house because of the power lines and trees all over the road.

so please just say a prayer for them! pray that my mom and i will figure out what to do to help them and that they'll be willing to accept the help and our suggestions. and pray that the power comes back on SOON because they aren't the only ones in this situation. pray for safety, health, and a heat wave! :)

thanks guys, i'll keep you updated!

giggles

i have so much to write about, but i'll just give you this for now.

please excuse my pjs--i hadn't showered yet, but you can probably tell that. thank you, drew, for BARELY getting me in this video. otherwise it could've been REALLY embarrassing! :) haha.

here's just a blip of how much fun we have with our little girl. we're so happy to be able to share her joy, the joy she brings us, with you!