Fun in the sun, and fun in the snow.

Hey everybody! The weather here in Springfield has been CRAZY lately! A couple weeks ago we had an ice storm. Ben's car was encased in one big block of ice. We had a similar storm around this time last year but during that storm most of Springfield was out of power for a couple days. Some lost power for a week! Most of the damage was due to tree limbs that broke off from the weight of the ice and fell on power lines but this year since most of the trees that could have fallen on power lines were already gone from last years storm there wasn't as much damage or power outages. Thank goodness! There was still some tree damage though. A few trees by our apartment were split right down the middle with branches fanned out in a circle around the stump. Then this past Saturday it got up to 65 degrees! It was gorgeous outside so Ben, little Maddie, the two doggies, and I headed down to Ben's dad and step mom's house in Arkansas. We had a great time throwing rocks in the pond and chasing the dogs around the property. We grilled out steaks, and potatoes, and corn on the cob and then we had a big bonfire in the backyard and roasted marshmallows. It got me really excited for our camping trip in two weeks! Then today (just 3 days later) we woke up to 5 inches of snow! It only got up to about 22 degrees today but the sun was shining bright so we decided to take Maddie out to play in the snow. This was her first real experience playing in snow and she LOVED it! (She must have got that from her daddy because I hate snow!) She was covered from head to toe with white powder, and her pants and gloves were soaked but she insisted that she wasn't cold and wanted to stay outside and play. We made snow angels and had snow ball fights. It was Maddie and Mama against Daddy and Daddy still won. We'll get him next time though! At any rate, I've posted pictures of all of the above so enjoy! xoxo