Commercial

Had to steal this from the Marshman's... Good find.

My new toy

My fabulous mother-in-law was ever so kind to purchase this new "flip video" camcorder for me last week. For no reason at all but that she loves me! Okay, so obviously she is hinting at the fact that she wants to see more of her grandkids. But how fun! If you have not seen or heard of these before (which I had not) it is about the size of a cell phone and connects directly into a computer to download videos as easy as 1-2-3. Today we shot some video of Abigail at gymnastics and so I must try it out and see how it blogs. Who knows, maybe you will be seeing more "video" of the Giddens' crew. So check out this 2 minute shot of our little gymnast. She is the blondie in the purple leotard.

When life brings you snow...

...make snow icecream.

Instructions for the perfect mix:

1. Bundle up your snow girl and send her out with her daddy to gather 1 gallon of snow.

2. Get all helpers a stool.

3. Mix with snow: 1 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp. vanilla, 2 cups milk

4. Sprinkle on your favorite topping.

5. Mmm...savor every bite.

Its Cold.

The ground is likely covered in a layer of ice followed by a layer of snow and then another layer of ice and then another layer of snow.  The weather has been flip flopping from snow to a wintery mix the last two days straight.  School is cancelled.  Work is cancelled.  The malls are closed.   The place has completely shut down.  The tree in our front yard has even given up underneath the weight of the ice/snow/ice/snow layer.  In fact, if you step out on the front porch you'll hear the loud snapping sound of trees and tree branches giving up all over the neighborhood.  It sounds like a firing range.  

Power lines have been doing the same thing.  75,000 here are without power.  Fortunately, our lights and heater are still on, but they have been flickering all morning.  We haven't heard from anybody, but I am sure we have friends throughout the city who may very well be without heat. 

On my way out into the backyard to snag some firewood, I snapped a few shots of the coldness that has enveloped us.  The pictures hardly do it justice, but know this... It's a pretty awesome sight to these Texans.  Those of you from up north, resist the urge to mock us for taking pictures of snow. 

Tagged

The Rules:

1. Go to where you store your digital photos and open the 4th folder.
2. Post the 4th picture in that folder.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people.

Check out this handsome fella!! This is actually a picture from last September at a friend's birthday party. It was action packed with a swimming pool and slide, pinata, every push toy you could think of and this slip-n-slide. Nathan's first trip down the slide was not by choice but as you can tell from his smile in the picture, his first trip was not his last. Ready for those warm days again!

Thanks for the tag, Rachel. This was fun! Now, Suzanne, Carey, Lindsey, and Megan, tag your it!

Brotherly-Sisterly Love

...or so I thought.

Tonight we had a little bit of applesauce delight to follow our meal. Abigail quickly downed hers without delay. Nathan is a little slower on the other hand. It was okay though because Abigail immediately offered to help the little man with his spoon feeding. Nathan has been using a spoon for about a month and is getting actually very good at it but I thought how nice it was for her to want to do this act of service for her brother. She has been practicing lots of "motherly" things lately in preparation for our new one to come in May (even wanting to help with Nathan's diaper changes). As I went to grab the camera for this precious little moment I came back to find this...

Her little act of kindness had an alterior motive...a bite of her own. I guess I should have seen this coming when about 30 minutes earlier she so kindly offered to put the grated cheese back in the frig for me only to take a couple of spoonfuls before its return. Gotta love these teaching moments.

Sweet Saturday (late post)

I don't know if this is legal in the blogging world but here is a post that I had intended to post before Christmas but didn't make it because I was having difficulty uploading some of the pictures. (They still aren't on there.) I have noticed over the last couple of days that it has officially been a month since our last post. Oops! I would really like to make it a more daily or at least every other day thing...but one new habit at a time. Right now I am working on 6 a.m. mornings.

We have had the joy of having Tory home all weekend. (He usually has a shift on Saturday that he works and then occasionally picks one up one Sunday if the opportunity presents itself.) Well, today and yesterday he has been ours! Though we have not gone anywhere exciting we have had such a good time here at the house just hanging out. Yesterday was non-stop College Bowl games, baking, and wrestling with Daddy...well Abigail and Nathan did the wrestling with Daddy, Luke and I are trying to refrain from any unnecessary roughness. (Yes, we found out last week IT'S A BOY, and his name is currently "Luke".) Had to show some shots of Nathan's first discovery of baking left-overs.

"Okay Big Sis, why are you just now telling me about this?"