Summer Storms~

It's not uncommon for crazy storms to come through in the middle of the night here. Rarely do they wake the kids. We had one the morning of Mikayla's birthday that definitely woke us all. It was about 3:15ish and the wind is what woke me. Ususal I am the only one bothered by the storms. I listened for crying kids or the tornado siren, heard nothing and tried to go back to sleep. A few minutes later there was a huge clash of thunder that shook our whole house and set off the smoke alarm. Jeff jumped out of bed to turn it off and grab Landen who was crying. Mikayla ran into our room while Zachary calmly called for daddy from his bed. He actually said that he didn't want to run out of his room in case there was actually a fire(smart boy!). Everyone snuggled in our bed for awhile until the storm was mostly passed and then we all went back to sleep, thankfully. The next morning Jeff checked the backyard for fallen limbs and saw this!

I don't think these pictures do justice to how big that branch really was. It covered half our backyard. Our neighbor just happened to be out on his porch bringing in some glass decorations and actually witnessed the lightning that hit that tree! Why it fell the way it did is truly only God's protective hand. It really should have fallen right into Zach and Landen's rooms. We are so thankful it didn't do more damage. And just fyi, the whole tree had to be cut down.