Can't Silence These Lambs: DAY 1 - Thursday

A few weeks ago, Thursday December 5th, NWA experiencde our first Winter storm, and boy it was a doozie! It was the most snow, ice, and sleet NWA has ever recorded in the month of December. I actually did not dream we would have gotten as much as we got. It was a fun experience. I absolutely love snow. I love how it only comes every now and than, I love how you never really know when or if it is coming. I love that you could get a dusting or you could get a foot. In NWA, you just never know. I love to go sledding, I love to have it snow on my face, I love to build snowmans and forts. I love how it makes people spend time as a family. I don't mind being snowed in because I know it won't last forever. I love taking a break from my daily routine and doing something new. Call me crazy, but I don't even mind if we lose power, I mean, couldn't we all benefit at least a little from no cell phones, tvs, video games, and computers? Below is the story mostly in pictures, of our winter storm. I can honestly say, I had so much fun, the boys had a blast, and I can't wait until the next one crosses our paths.

Day 1

They saw this coming. When I say "they" I mean the weather forecasters and the news. The little snow icon appeared on our phones in the 10 day forecast. They warned us that it was coming. Still......in NWA you never know what is going to happen. They say 3 inches, we wake up to dry grass, they say ice, we wake up to water, they say cloudy, we wake up to snow, they say big storm, we get 24 inches (true story). So....needless to say everyone thought....oh, a chance of snow...

Well as the time got closer, a few days out, the forecast looked more and more likely that a big winter storm was coming. How big? They first forecasted .25 inches of ice and 3-5 inches of snow. The news was eating this up. Story after story, comparisons to storm of 2009, and of 2011. I went to the store to stock up...as you can see a few people beat me there!

It's Thursday morning - I wake up at 6:20am to get Max to get ready to go to speech that starts at 7:30. I get an alert on my phone...the schools are out. What? The ground is dry, there is nothing falling from the sky, I am confused. Still I take this as an opportunity to let the boys sleep in, and me to.

A few hours pass. 10 am, and here comes the precipitation!!! It starts as ice and sleet. a little snow was mixed in. See below a few photos and video of the first few hours of the winter storm moving its way in.

As the weather got worse and worse outside, Alex was asleep, and me and Max decided to bake some cut out sugar cookies. I had some fun one on one time with Max. I LOVE to make cut out sugar cookies. (I'm not always saying that hours later when I'm still frosting them, but I promise, I love to make them).

Everything was starting to turn white

Alex woke up. AFter Max showed him the snow, I decided to bring some in and let the boys play with it.

Max decided he HAD to get dressed up and go outside and check out the storm.

While Max played in the backyard, I baked with Alex. We baked a new recipe of sugar cookies that is dairy free. It was delicious. Alex loved helping and licking the beaters of course.

Here is Max outside with his umbrella in the snow

By the time it started to get dark around 5pm, the snow was falling hard. The forecast originally said it was suppose to stop and start again at 2am on Friday, but Benton county got hit hard. I never saw the snow stop. It was snowing when I went to bed and snowing Friday morning when I woke up.

When Mike got home we got the boys dressed to go outside for a few minutes and enjoy the snow. At this time we still didn't really know what we were getting. Was this it, was there more coming?, so we let the kids outside to play in the snow. They were so excited, its not like we had a choice :)