The day history was made with snow

Last night before we went to bed, there was talk about getting between 4-6 inches of snow.  Our meteorologist (my favorite weather guy, by the way) said that some of the computer models were showing up to 12 inches of snow, but he wasn’t buying that.

Matthew’s phone went off at 5:15am this morning, letting him know that school had been canceled.  He got up and looked outside our window and said, “Oh wow, it’s really coming down.  I bet there is 4 or 5 inches already.”

And then we went back to sleep.

By the time we came downstairs for breakfast our back porch looked like this:

A smidge more than 4-6 inches!

The ONLY thing that was on TV all day today was the local news.  Because this was HISTORIC!  There has never been this much snow in this little time in Northwest Arkansas before!

And, this is a lot of snow for anywhere!  The final (official) reports that came in tonight were saying that parts received 24 inches of snow in 12 hours!  I’m impressed!

Matthew and the girls went out for a little while today.  It was not as much fun for Elyn (she’s not a huge fan of the cold), so she came in a lot sooner than Nora.  I did not go out at all but chose to enjoy the warm house…I will head out tomorrow though and enjoy the snow with my family.

Here are some pictures from the time outside:

After spending 2 hours bundling up inside, they finally headed out.

Elyn attempting to walk in the snow…it went downhill pretty much after this for Elyn.

Nora, however, loved it!  Here she is diving into the snow piles.

And here she is walking in a path Matthew had cleared already.

This is the measurement from the middle of our driveway, almost 15 inches.  (The red numbers on the side mean 1 ft. 3 inches…there was some confusion on that earlier.)  We received about two more inches after this picture was taken.

This is a picture of the girls and our snowman, Frosty, last week.

Here is Nora and Frosty today.  It’s difficult to tell, but his entire bottom layer is covered with snow.

Just hanging out in the snow…

Matthew’s car.  Thankfully, my van was parked safely in the garage!

By the time they made it to the backyard, Elyn was done and came inside with me to warm up and watch from the windows.

Our back deck:

The reading on the table is 18 inches!

What is Nora looking at?

Her sister, inside!

I love the next two pictures!  Her cheeks are so rosy and, despite the snow covered eyebrows and eyelashes, she is having a blast!

One last picture before heading in…

It was a beautiful day watching the snow fall and pile up.  School has already been canceled for tomorrow and I am sure will be canceled on Friday as well.  This weekend is supposed to warm up tremendously and by Valentine’s Day is going to be 60 degrees!

We are looking forward to some great sledding tomorrow!