The Icestorm and the Blackout

OK---the first few pictures have nothing to do with the title of the post, but I didn't feel like doing 2 posts...so I am lumping everything together.
Today we got dressed up and went to see Santa. I love this Santa, he's been at our local mall for all 3 of Kaylee's Christmases and I hope he stays until my kids refuse to have their picture taken, because he's the real deal.

Kaylee told him she wanted a wagon and said "Berry Misnus! Ho Ho Ho!" Santa loved it. Rowan, as you can see, was just along for the ride.

I took these pictures over a week ago, but haven't had time to post them...again the explanation will come in a few more pictures. But aren't these 2 sisters pretty darn cute?

Kaylee really does love Rowan...she's been a great big sister.

And hey would you look at this smile I caught on camera?

Alright...now for some explanations. Last Thursday night at 9pm, we lost our power in the midst of an ice storm. No big deal...we thought we'd have it back by morning, and so we went to bed early...Daddy in our room and Mommy in Rowan's room since without a monitor, I wanted to be able to hear her quickly and easily when she got hungry. At around midnight or so, I heard a really big thump in Kaylee's room and then she started screaming. Of course, I ran to her...she had fallen out of bed. I assumed she had woken up and become disoriented without a night-light. So Daddy camped out in Kaylee's room for the rest of the night. Well, it was more than just the dark that had poor Kaylee screaming. We're not exactly sure what happened, I think she hit her night table on her way to the ground. Daddy thinks the water cup may have hit her full on in the eye. Whatever, happened...she sure has a nice shiner now.

We headed down to Grammy and Grampy's on Friday morning around 10:30 since we still had no power and no idea when it was coming back.

And I took some shots of the damage the storm caused to our property. This is our swing set, covered by ice-laden trees.

A closer shot of the same thing.

Here's some trees bent all the way to the ground.

And then one, that couldn't take the weight and snapped.

We have a lot of downed trees and now that the snow has fallen and we're going to be getting more tomorrow, I doubt we'll be able to clear much until spring.

And we finally got power back on Tuesday night! Can you believe it, 5 days without power and there are still plenty of folks in our area whose power has not yet been restored. The storm packed quite a punch and now we have to hunker down and prepare for tomorrow's onslaught!

We are all very happy to be home and thankful for a patient Grammy and Grampy who let our family stay with them until our power came back.