Family Alive

Brian, Kristine, Analise, and Josiah Toone

Archive for January, 2011

Picture / video catch-up from the Alabama “snowmageddon”

13th January 2011

We just survived what was being called “snowmageddon” here in Alabama. Unfortunately, the bulk of the snow was just north of Birmingham with some places getting over 6-8 inches of snow. The snowfall dropped sharply below a line about 10 miles north of us with only about an inch of snow and another inch of sleet/freezing rain falling here in our part of Hoover. But it was enough to cancel school for two days (Monday and Tuesday)! The pictures below document the story – hover over each one to see a caption.

If reading on facebook, then click here to watch the videos on our blog

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Full heart!

9th January 2011

It’s been such a good day. Typing on my iPhone, but I just had to capture the sweet simple memories.

I worked Friday/Saturday, leaving Brian and the kids Thursday evening. I came home to happy kiddos and husband, lots of hugs and Josiah saying several times, “I was missing you, Mom!”

The kids joined us in bed this morning, full of sweet snuggles, spontaneous hugs for each other and kisses all around. Ahhhh… loved it. They were both full of love today, playing well together, wrapping their little arms around me with hugs at random
times. They joined me snuggling on the couch as I watched the Packers game (Yay Packers!!!), as we settled in for winter storm. And as the sleet and flakes fell tonight, we curled up in our PJs to fall asleep on the couch watching A Bug’s Life. Perfect.

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Freezing rain fun

1st January 2011

Today, we had some really interesting weather – 21 degrees and raining! Yes, the freezing rain that started right around dinner time was treacherous. Within 15 minutes, you could barely walk to the car and drive a couple blocks down the street to the sledding hill. So imagine how fast the sledding hill was. On the first run, I started Analise halfway down the little hill and she still went straight into the woods. So I started Josiah a lot lower, and he still went into the trees, too! Fortunately, there was some deeper snow and smaller brush to slow them down before plowing into any of the big trees! We went over to the big hill and only managed one crazy run each starting from near the bottom of the hill. Analise still flew at least two feet into the air on her first run and landed hard enough to knock both of her boots right off her feet. Fortunately the landing also scrubbed most of her momentum. After watching this, I took Josiah down the hill practically to the bottom, let him go, and he still went nearly all the way down to the football field. We decided it was way too dangerous to continue. You could probably hit 30-40mph with the right sled starting from the top if you could steer it down the path to the football field!


Video of Analise and Josiah sledding into the woods (watch on our blog if you are reading this in Facebook):


Playing on the snowy playground at Salem Lutheran church a block from the Cardwell house.


Josiah swinging on the playground. The swing was looped once around the top to raise it high enough above the snow.


Visiting Mark and Meg and their kids at their cabin near Hayward, WI


Analise with her boots knocked off after flying through the air sledding


Kristine getting the kids started towards the bottom of the little hill at the top

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