That's not a volley ball

This past week, I took Rocky out in the early morning hours to go potty. While outside, I thought I saw a bird nest in the magnolia tree. I was thinking it would probably be some sort of finch nest since it was on the branches and not secured at the trunk of the tree. I didn't have my contacts in so I had to get pretty close to the tree before I was fully aware of what it was. It turned out to be a very large hornet nest. (I believe it to be a baldfaced hornet) It's about the size of a volley ball. We'll actually have to cut some of the branches off the tree to remove it. I didn't stick around to look at it for very long but I did get some pictures, which I will post later on. I was doing some research online and it turns out that they typically will not reuse a nest and once winter sets in, they all die. I'm thinking of cutting it open to get a look at the inside structure. I think it would be neat to see it from a different view but I want to be sure I won't be harming anything inside. I can't believe this massive thing went un-noticed all summer and fall. It's not far from our backdoor so you would think one of us would've been observant enough to see it. I do remember Shawn saying he was mowing over in that area one day and had rubbed up against the trees. He said the sky turned black and he didn't stick around to see where they were coming from. It concerns me because I have a moderate allergic reaction from one sting (at least the last time I checked, which has been since I was 10 or so). I don't doubt that several at once would kill me. My main reason for concern is the kids. They have never been stung so I don't yet know what their reaction would be and I don't want to find out from a hive of them attacking us. If I thought something was still living in there, I was going to take it out to a field but I've also read that sometimes these hornets take to killing honey bees, which we all know are not expendable right now. Looks like this nest is going to be used to my science brain food. ;) I'll be sure to include pictures of that as well.