Here are some of our snow play photos during Snowmageddon 2008. I had a great time with Emma and Gabe tromping through the snow, collecting ice chunks, building two snowmen and trying not to fall on my rear. I think the kids mostly looked forward to our get-warm snuggle time and drinking hot chocolate after being outside.

Starting about last Sunday, December 13, 2008, we've seen an unprecendented amount of snow here in the Portland area. I've lived here for about 10 years, and have never seen this much. It usually snows at least once a year here, but it never sticks around for more than a day or so. Since snowstorms are so infrequent here, there aren't enough snowplows, sanders, and other road equipment, and people aren't used to driving safely in the snow (go slow, easy on the brakes, etc.), so the roads get WAY more hazardous than a few inches of snow should make them. That means everything shuts down - school was cancelled all week. I worked from home (though I could have gone in if I want to - Intel never closes for weather). Church was cancelled. It's kind of crazy. :-) I finally got out today and snapped some pictures with my "big boy" camera (Nikon D40), instead of the lousy iPhone shots I've been posting to Flickr all week. You can see all of the photos in this set. Here are a few, to give you an idea of what's been keeping up cooped up inside for a week. :-) The beginning of the Snowpocalypse:

Meltpocalypse on Thursday 12/18 (my birthday!)

Our backyard on Sunday 12/21:

View from the front porch:

8 inches on the Garbage Can:

Our car was clear yesterday - we ventured out. This is 1 day's snow and ice accumulation:

We're safe and warm in our house, got lots of supplies, and enjoying the Christmas tree, etc. Our biggest problem is a little cabin fever, so we're pretty grateful. It's looking like we'll get a White Christmas this year. We're planning on traveling to southern Oregon after Christmas, so I hope this stuff melts eventually! :-)

Here are photos from Josh's birthday lunch (from Tuesday) at Red Robin and the unboxing of his birthday/Christmas present: Guitar Hero World Tour for the Wii. We are loving playing that as a family and we've even named our family band The Band-crofts. Maybe we'll make a video of us rockin' out!

Sometimes this kid is just so dang cute!!

My 3-ponytail Glamour Shot (shout out to Emma the Stylist), originally uploaded by Rachel Bancroft.

My beautiful daughter insists upon fastening the hood on her coat especially when her coat is unbuttoned. How do I kindly tell her she looks like a dork?

Here are a few photos from our Halloween this year. We decorated pumpkins the day of Halloween. Emma was the carving designer and I was the official carver. Emma insists that pumpkins need to be painted, so she and Gabe created some very colorful jack-o-lanterns. We also had a fun time at the Fall Festival at Emma's school on November 1st. Here are some of the pumpkins from the pumpkin contest, including Emma and Gabe's. There also was a fun magic show at the festival, and Emma was excited to be a volunteer.

My kids love these books. They are the "Cautionary Tales" set from Usborne books, which includes: Say Please, Louise; Don't Be a Bully, Billy; Don't Tell Lies, Lucy; Don't Be Greedy, Graham; and Give That Back Jack. They have a hilarious way of teaching values and each main character faces some funny consequences at the end of each story. I don't want to giveaway the endings, but Billy does have an encounter with a spaceship. :)

We got this "Cautionary Tales" book set from my Usborne home book show last month. We enjoy the Usborne books we already have, and now this set is definitely one of our favorites. The kids love them, the illustrations are great, they teach values in a silly way and they are just hilarious. I don't want to give away what silly things happen to the main characters, but it just cracks me up. The set includes: Don't Be a Bully, Billy; Say Please, Louise!; Give That back, Jack!; Don't Be Greedy, Graham; and Don't Tell Lies, Lucy!

I love the fall weather - the crisp, cool mornings, the colorful leaves, Halloween, etc... I raked up a big pile of leaves yesterday in the front yard and the kids had a great time playing in them. I was expecting some silly poses from Emma, then she got all America's Next Top Model on me. And Gabe didn't want to jump in the leaves, he just walked up to the pile, sat down, and caressed the leaves.