Say hello to videos!

Take a look above at the menu bar and you'll notice a brand new section for videos! (This post was imported from my wordpress blog, so disregard this post for the most part.) I am still working out a work flow for editing our adventures together, and in the meantime I am uploading raw videos for all to see. I really enjoyed how Vimeo works, and I like that they have HD playback capability. If you have a slow connection, it might be hard to load up the videos in HD, but there is also a standard definition version that you can watch as well. At the moment I only have a few up there, but I hope to have a bunch more soon.

For those who edit video: My work flow problem hinges upon the fact that our camera encodes video in h.264, and all my Apple software is just old enough to not support that format at all. My option at the moment is to convert each and every video to a format that I can edit, edit them together, and then export yet another file to complete a fully edited product. But I think that just sounds so ridiculously over-complicated for something that should be so simple. So if you have any brilliant suggestions you would like to toss my way, feel free. But that is where I currently stand on this.

Videos of our family online

So we've been talking about posting videos of the kids online, and my wife tossed me a question that made me think. Do we want to have videos of the kids accessible to just anybody? It might be one thing to simply put them on my own server, and serve them directly to my blog. But I don't have that capability now. I would resort to a community video site like YouTube, Google, or (my preference) Vimeo. I'm not sure there is any problem with posting them, granted I'm not advertising my home address or personal information.

So I have a question for you. Would you be able to let me know what you think about this? I have a poll added to this entry for your input, and I would love for you to add a comment to this entry giving a little explanation for your vote. If you don't see an option to add a comment to this entry, you probably just need to log in. If you don't have a log in, take a minute to register. You'll find both of those options at the bottom of the right column. If you don't feel like doing either, at least vote. All it takes is two clicks. Thanks!

(This was a feature of the previous blog, sorry, bye bye poll.)

Christmas with the Gioves

Our Christmas started on the Sunday before Christmas when Nana Giove and Aunt Sarah came to celebrate with us through Monday night. We hung out, baked cookies, played games, gave presents and ate a family Christmas Eve dinner.

On Christmas day we ate Jesus' Birthday cake for breakfast, read the nativity story and opened our stockings and presents together. After getting somethings together and getting dressed "to start our day" as Noah says, we headed out to St. Mary's and Riverside Hospital to visit some kids and their families in the hospital. Noah gave them a bag with a gift and some candy in it and then let them pick out a stuffed animal from a bag he carried with him. It was something I think we might start doing as a tradition on Christmas and maybe other holidays throughout the year.

Then we headed to Nana Myrtle and Papa C-Ray's house out on the farm for our Sparenburg extended family Christmas dinner. A family at our church adopted David and I the 1st or 2nd year after we moved here and they always have invited us to all holiday meals and family gatherings. We ate lunch and visited with them until after the kids bed time. There was a gift exchange and lots of game time. David and I played Veggie Tales Dance, Dance, Dance for the first time!

We thank God for the many blessing He has given us. We have been overwhelmed by His goodness again and again, but especially in the last 6 months or so. God is so good!

For anyone who's wondering... we made out pretty well this year!

Noah got an electric train, an electric race car track, and six mini construction vehicles from Santa. Nana Byrne got him a Thomas the Train circus set with Thomas and Percy. Nana Giove got him a Hermie movie called, A Fruitcake Christmas and a little Bible (his first real bible! KJV!) We got him a truck with lots of buttons and noises, and our adopted parents got him a teddy bear backpack.

Frencesca got a leap frog drum and little ponies from us, and a baby doll from Santa. A glow worm, outfit, and dolly from Nana Byrne. A dolly from Nana Giove, and another dolly from the Sparenburgs. Michaela gave Noah and Frencesca an oinking/walking/snorting pig.

Amie Mamma got a night in a hotel with me from my mom (babysitting) and I ($$$). She also got a steak dinner at Tuesdays, and some clothes from me. My mom got her some nice perfume and a NKJV study bible to be our family bible. Her mom got her a professional cake decorating stand. Our adopted parents got us a silver ornament and glass coasters that you can inlay photos in.

Our present to ourselves was a new camcorder to take video of the kids (an Aiptek A-HD.) I got a gift card from a gift exchange at work (thanks Brian) with which I bought The Pillars Of The Earth, which is an amazing board game. I also got a harmonica in the key of c, and what could be described as a whittling starter set from Nana Byrne. My mom got me The Children of Húrin by J.R.R.Tolkein, which I can't wait to read!

A day or two after our festivities we received an overwhelming blessing in the mail. It was a letter addressed to us, and with a return address of... us. We thought this was weird, but we opened it anyway. Inside was a note explaining that someone (the writer of the note) had been blessed and wanted to bless us with some extra cash. Further instructions mentioned that we should use the money however we want. What a blessing! God is so good! To whomever sent us such a gift (if you happen to be reading this), many thanks. May God richly bless you and yours.

We have a bunch of video and photos to get up on here, so stay tuned! We hope your Christmas and New Year was full of cheer and good memories!