Dizzy Brecken.

Hockey Weekend.

Maxim has a big tournament in Huron this weekend, and he says he wants to score another goal...because if he does he says I will buy him a new toy.  I like how he makes deals for himself, maybe he will be a sports agent someday???

Standing on Planks...

This is pretty boring video of the boys skiing on Tuesday night...all for Grandma and Grandpa to see.

Brecken Playing Goalie

I usually don't go to the Plainsman Online which is our version of the hometown newspaper, because usually the online version has less info than the info-starved regular version.

But since I am in Montana I checked it out the other day and saw my son...playing goalie...on the front page of the site...it has been bumped down a bit now, but here is the link.  CLICK HERE

My mini-mites played a fun game during the 1st intermission of Sunday's varsity game, and while they do that the crowd laughs at the little skaters as they fall over each other and try to hit the puck around.

I told Brecken to go play goalie for a little bit...but I said, "go lay down in front of the net...so he did.  He even had a save and the crowd LOVED it, and Brecken loved it that the crowd loved it.

He is sooooo much like his mom!

Dear Snow...

Dear Snow,

It seems you and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship.

I love you when you are new and you make everything look clean.

I love you when you fall straight down.

I love you when you are powdery.

I love ALOT of you under my snowboard or skis.

I love sliding through, over and under you on my snowmobile.

I love the way you make the night more bright.

I love the way you make my kids laugh.

I love the crunchy sound you make under a pair of boots.

I love the way my dogs jump through you.

I love the way Granpa's horses look when they run through you.

I love the way you give my kids a reason to go outside in the cold.

I love how you go hand in hand with Christmas.

Now the part where I give you some constructive criticism...

I hate you when you fall sideways...I know it is more of the wind's fault...but it takes two to "tango/blizzard".

I hate you when you fall on the seat of my car even after I have brushed you off my door jambs.

I hate you when you find the holes where my gloves and coat don't exactly seal up.

I hate you when you get all packed up after the plow goes by my house.

I hate you when you are slushy and hard to run through my snow blower.

I hate you when you leave behind that muddy mess sometimes known as late-March.

I hate you in April.

AND...I hate you in November for that matter...December 1...you are welcome anytime, but before that and I cuss you.

I hate you when you can't decide who you want to be, ice or flake...pick one, I prefer you flaky.

Last but not least...I hate you when you come over too often, like the last few days, when I put more miles on my snow blower than my snowmobile.  I think your work/play ratio should be 80% play 20% work...lately it has been the opposite.

Take these statements with love, and know that I really like your season of the year, just in moderation.

Love,

Tom

Alexander Christian Schneider!

By the way...Penny text messaged me that Aaron and Sheila's boy was named Alexanderia Christian...I doubted that when I posted so I called him Alex...Aaron set the record straight here!

Oh, and for others that are coming here instead of there (facebook), his name is Alexander Christian Schneider and he was born on 1/7/11 at 5:13am, 7lb 1oz, and 20 inches long - Proud Papa Aaron

Congrats.

Congratulations Aaron and Sheila....and welcome to the family little guy.  Be nice to the dogs.

Happy New Year!

So the weather threw a wrench in our New Year's Eve concert tonight, but we didn't sit around the house.

We had a fun last day of the year!  I mean really fun, listen to how many times Steph says, "WHOOOO!".

ALSO...look at KIA's FACE!  She loves the snow.

Christmas Video 2010...mostly for Gmas and Gpas!

Merry Christmas to OHIO!

Shoot The Moon.

In case you slept through the lunar eclipse last night...I stayed up for you!

Danny & Stephanie...

He dropped her on the ice, and then for one split second we thought he was falling through the ice.

BUT we got great images on a perfect winter day.

Congrats Joe and Allison!

Christmas Gift Buying.

The year was 1997 or 1998, Steph and I were celebrating one of our first Christmases together.  I don't recall what we did that year for Christmas, I probably worked over Christmas and Steph probably went to Huron to be with family...I was working in TV at the time and spent every holiday on the air.

My gift buying for Christmas has never really been a strong suit...it is something that is handed down from a father to a son, I think.  I also think Penny would agree with me that Bob isn't the world's greatest at this annual challenge for a man.  So back to the late 90's...Steph was playing a lot of volleyball at the time and I always noticed that she was the only one on the floor that didn't wear those really big knee pads...sooo that is something every woman wants for Christmas, right?  She also used to steal my baseball hats all the time and when a girl wears you hat, they change the size and get make up on the brow.  It's kind of pain, right?

So I walked out of Scheel's with a pair of insulated Russel sweatpants, a set of volleyball knee pads and a Minnesota Gophers hat.  I ROCKED, RIGHT?

Let's just say, she was a bit disappointed...not that I didn't put some thought into it, but she has never worn knee pads while playing volleyball, and a hat?  The sweats got worn, a lot.  1 out of 3 isn't bad, but I have never lived down the volleyball knee pads.

Right now as I sit in my hotel in Montana, I have all of her shopping done, the gifts are lying on the bed...and my goal this year was to make her forget about that first Christmas.  I bought everything except one thing at totally "Montana" stores, stuff you won't find anywhere else.  Some of it handcrafted...that is the end of my hints, so after Christmas ask Steph how I did this year, I think I have erased the "Ghost's of Christmas Past"!

By the way those volleyball knee pads came in handy when she was doing all the tile work in our house...I knew they would come in handy.

Post surgery

Hi Grandma...

Ready For Christmas.

Ice Time.

Sometimes I Don't Photograph People.

Many of you know I have a side business off our photography business called "HIS Signature".  It is an outlet for my artwork photography.  For most of my life I took pictures just for my own enjoyment, until the day someone told me they would pay good money for some of the work I had done.

That started with the famous Snow Barn picture and now had taken a life of it's own.  Today I am home with the 2 younglings as Steph and one of her girlfriends took off for MLPS.  I caught a glimpse of a blue jay outside and I grabbed my camera to get a shot and the bird never really gave me the opportunity to get a great shot, so I just started snapping off photos.

I was once told you are drawn to photograph things you love...that's why we all have pictures kids, family, vacations, our motorcycles, etc. pasted all over our homes, offices and computer desktops.

Well, I love my drums and today I photographed them...artistically.  If you want to look at the pictures they are HERE...just click on this text...I know of about 2 loyal readers that are also drummers that will follow this link.  For the rest of you I owe you the 45 seconds of life you took to read this post.

Loader Tricks!

Auction Blessings...

My Alma Matter the great James Valley Christian High School held their annual benefit auction on Saturday and Monday night.  Monday night is traditionally a pretty late night as they don't stop selling until the last item is gone...which is usually early Tuesday morning.

Steph and I donated a few things from LakeHaus Productions and we really enjoy seeing them sell so we hung around until the last item was sold...which meant the kids had a long night.  Grandma Penny took Maxim home around so he could hit his bed time as he had school today.  But Kolby and Brecken were there and awake for the whole night.  When we were getting ready to pay our bill and leave for the night the line at the check out was pretty long, and we had a little wait time.  So we kind of let the kids do what they wanted within reason.

Earlier in the night Steph was bidding on the cutest pink Radio Flyer trike...but it was one of those items that gets expensive in a hurry.  So she dropped out and it went to Keith and Tanya, who are our relatives so it was a good thing.  But while waiting to check out Keith came up to Stephanie and gave us the trike.  He actually bought it for his granddaughter, but then he made up an excuse to give it to Kolby.

What do you say to that kind of generosity?  It was one of those blessings that kind of defines this community.  Keith said it was payment for the handful of times I mowed his lake house lot...I guess that means I have to mow it next year too...to help pay off the trike!

So to finish the story, Brecken hopped on the trike and started to pedal around the gymnasium, and then Kolby jumped on the back, they must have made about 5 laps around the building...getting laughs and a few, "who's naughty kids are those?" along the way.

They were alseep before Steph got a mile away from school.