Lately Texas weather has been very moody it’s like playing chicken but with rain or shine and In this case snow was the wild card. Every time the media tells us to prepare I have prepared with the necessary essentials my family needs.

This time around was different, I didn’t prepare for a disaster because frankly I didn’t keep up to date with the news and the media has cried wolf so many times that I personally never saw what was to come next. The night before Texas was flip upside down we had a small family get together for Peyton and Jonas birthday.

We had half a case of water left, a gallon of milk a few eggs and a few packs of meat along with a pantry full of food. We really needed to go to the grocery store but we wanted to wait till the day after the party since the food for the party was being catered. The next night came and a miracle had happened because Texas was snowing!

Click the button above to go straight to our video on YouTube where the girls see snow for the first time!

When we noticed that it was snowing outside we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go see it because we do live in Texas and this never happens so even a few sprinkles of snow was worth the excitement. Little did we know the next 3 days our life as we knew it was about to change dramatically and without warning. On February 14,2021 Peyton and I were watching a tv show around 2 am in the morning. Our alone time got cut short when the power went out in the middle of watching our show. We didn’t think anything about it so we went to bed hoping it would be on when we woke up.

WE WERE WRONG!

For the next few days our power was out, which means no heat during the coldest days of our winter.

Click the link up above to watch our whole journey on our YouTube channel!

We woke up to our whole apartment complex outside covered in snow! Not like it was the night before, this time the snow was blinding! I’ve never seen so much snow in Texas EVER! It was so much fun to play in but after a few moments of our hands in the snow, Paighton started crying in pain from how cold her hands were. The water In our apartment was slowly losing water pressure and hot water was no longer existing for us to use. I had to think fast because she was in pain so my first thought was to put her hands under my armpits because that’s the warmest part I could think of. I must say her hands were so cold it nearly froze my armpits or at least that’s what it felt like! After that adventure Paighton didn’t ask to go outside for the rest of the day and to say the least I can’t blame her! Our journey got even more crazier and I’m so glad I had put my horses up Saturday night because no way would we have been able to drive to my barn and put my boys in the stalls. On that note trying to find feed and hay was like trying to find toilet paper and water but by the grace of God and steinhausers we accomplished our check list!

I tried to make breakfast for everyone but realized my skills and the tools I had to cook with wasn’t gonna make it work. I tried to make eggs in a pan over a few candles and of course it didn’t work out. We were starting to get cold as our apartment had dropped to 60 degrees and outside was 20. Our girls were hungry and snacks would not fill them up or be the ideal meal for them. Peyton decided that it was our best interest if he took a trip to Walmart to pick up a grill and some food so that we could eat. I was very against Peyton leaving because he’s not use to driving on snow and that’s scary. Peyton had to stand in line for nearly a hour outside just to wait to get into Walmart and while he was standing outside he still had no idea if the items we needed were even available.

While Peyton was out waiting to get into Walmart I bundled the girls and tried to clean up the house as much as possible. The first night without heat was completely awful! It was so much colder than we thought it would be and the temperatures in our apartment just started to drop. Our girls didn’t notice a change in anything because I tried to keep everything fun! We played a lot of hide and seek to keep their body temperatures up instead of just laying down all day.

Nearly three hours later Peyton finally got home with everything that we needed! Everything was a new experience for us, Peyton wasn’t use to cooking chicken on a grill and his first attempt wasn’t a 5 star meal but my husband tried and that’s what really mattered! Till it came to actually eat it that’s when I had to step in and cook some chicken myself. Peytons amazing when it comes to steaks and other items so he has some talents on the grill don’t get my wrong. Eating a candle lit dinner wasn’t all that bad and surprisingly the girls went to bed earlier during the power outage then they do normally.

Day 2 hit and I was exhausted to the max. I hadn’t slept since the first night the power went out because just I kept waking up to check on the girls to see if they were warm enough. Just the feeling that my babies could possibly be too cold at night scared me tremendously. I was over the candle lit dinners, the snow, the extremely cold weather. The anxiety that came with wondering if my horses were okay and being so blessed to have someone willing to help me with them. I wanted to do desperately take a shower at this point in the day I had the chance but I didn’t take it because our apartment was freezing and the water would of been freezing as well. We went outside to play in the snow and this time Paighton had gloves on so she was a lot happier for longer! My mom and little brother came over since we just live 8 minutes away and brought over some food she had cooked on her grill. Fried rice, with steak and fish we were eating GOOD!

Being off our phones for this whole time just allowed us to connect as a family and actually communicate without having a phone glued to my hands. My phone is my work, I write my blogs, keep up with others, connect with friends and family on Instagram. Post Family vlogs to our YouTube channel. I’m always doing something if I’m not being a mom at the moment. Even right now writing this blog I’m sitting in my girls room on their bed watching them play together so I can get this blog I’ve been working on two days now out for you to read. It was a good mental break for my health and to just focus on my family. However I did vlog but I see my YouTube channel as just documenting memories for my kids to watch when they get older. Some people find them interesting and subscribe to keep up to day with my life just as people do my blogs.

Day 3 hit and at 6:20 am I was awoken with a manly shake as Peyton was excited that the ELECTRIC WAS FINALLY ON! I was so extremely excited because we now had heat after we had just spent a few nights with 17 degree temperatures and no heater. I wasn’t able to cook on the stove, and to make matters more interesting our water was shut off which means we had to haul water in a cooler from the hoses the apartments provided for us to use to be able to flush our toilets when we needed to use the bathroom. I found my mind starting to go crazy when I came to the point I needed to take a shower just for my sanity but couldn’t cause our water was off. It was day I don’t know by now and I couldn’t take it any more. My girls needed baths, my husband was returning to work and he needed on as well.

The time was now around 11:30 pm and I have had enough. I felt gross, my hair wasn’t washed, I needed to simple just wash my face. My parents who were my first choice didn’t have water either and it was way to late to contact our friends who had offered multiple times (they are such sweet souls). Gratefully Peytons parents house had running water, with my personal reasons I had to put my children first and know that they needed a bath as well and it wasn’t just me I had to think about.

I will never take running hot water for granted for as long as I live. Electricity will forever be a blessing as it was before and a heater will always be a privilege after this experience. My life may not be glamorous but I’m privileged to have the basic things in my life such as the ones I lost during this experience.

Still please pray for the families that have lost everything from the busted pipes that this freeze over caused. The families who lost love ones due to the act of trying to create heat and for our front line workers who left their families just to provide for ours. Just when you think your life could be worst God said Hold my beer Texas I’m about to partner up with Elsa and y’all are about to be apart of Frozen 3.