grace's first time sledding

They predicted we would get between 4 and 8 inches of snow Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.  And they were right, we got 6 inches.  Of beautiful, puffy snow!  The kids were all on a 2 hour delay from their schools, so we all slept in.  Then the boys went out to play in the snow and help daddy shovel the driveway.  Grace started fussing when she got left inside, so I bundled her up and she went out too.

 This is such a change from last year.  She spent about 30 minutes outside following Mark around while he shoveled.  The boys played until it was time for John to go to school.

Grace enjoyed being outside so much.  Here she is telling Mark how to shovel :)

When John got home from school we went to the neighbor's backyard to sled with the other kids.  This was the first time our kids had sledded and they all loved it.  John was his usual cautious self at first but once he tried it he was unstoppable.  Luke jumped right in with abandon and loved it.  Grace was so excited to see all the kids flying down the little hill that we let her try it and she loved it.

Well, her first time anyway!  Grace's second run down the hill may have been her last

The sled she was on, ran right into the fence.  Oh yes she did!  My poor sweet, doesn't use her hands, special needs baby girl sled right into a fence with the neighbor girl. 

And the blood.  Oh the blood.  It was EVERYWHERE.  Grace narrowly missed the wooden part of the fence and slid right under it into the wire part of the fence.  We believe she hit her face on that, which caused her nose to bleed (a lot) and gave her a busted lip.  She also, somehow, has a major cut on her thumb.  She is missing skin from one side and the other side is a flap of skin, it bled a lot too.

I am praising God that 1) she did not hit the fence with her face, because that would have caused major damage and 2) that the neighbors we were with are all nurses.  Seriously, we have a pediatric nurse, an ER nurse and a trauma floor nurse all on our cul-de-sac.

I will say that it was scary seeing the accident and not being able to get to her to stop it.  When I got her off the sled she was screaming crying and bleeding everywhere.  Thankfully the nurses stepped in and helped us get the blood flow from her nose to stop.  Once it stopped, Grace stopped crying and started to calm down. 

Mark came home and we were able to bandage her thumb.  She ate her dinner, fat lip and all.  So, thankfully (and I do not say that lightly) it was a minor accident.  I could have been much, much worse.

Grace is doing SO much better today.  Her face is still really swollen but she is eating normally and her hand is starting to heal.  I was able to have 2 friends who are doctors look at her thumb and they both agreed it looked good.