The photo was taken on Valentine's Day in 1991, nineteen years ago. It was Mary and I's first Valentine's Day together and I took her to the Fountains restaurant in Tulsa. They had a photographer who came around to the tables. I don't remember what the options were but we both left with keychain photos about 1 1/2 inches wide. I just scanned the photo and with a little photoshopping to fix fading and scratches, it's clear I found me a purdy one!

After church and lunch today, Will, Drew and I bundled up for some fun time enjoying Tulsa's latest 6 inches of snow. Unfortunately, it was too cold to make a snowman, the snow just wouldn't clump together well enough. But, we were still able to make some snowballs, have a snowball fight, and run around doing all kinds of silly stuff. In the end, we were all cold and tired and had a great time!

With Drew's napping days long gone and Will moving into an every-other-day habit, Landon has become my newest napping buddy.

Tonight, I cooked steaks out on the grill. They looked so good I had to snap a picture. They tasted even better! My mouth is watering as I write this just remembering how good they were. I've explained before how much a good stake means to me...here's to you Spiv.

Drew had his very first piano lesson today. We think we found a really good teacher. Drew is excited about playing and very serious about practicing. It is so wonderful to hear him playing and since I'm writing about this after-the-fact, I can say how surprising it is that he is progressing so fast. Hopefully he'll have fond memories of learning to play.

The musical notes in the photograph are not photoshoped. They are the result of some Christmas lights hanging in the background and a note shaped filter which creates the bokeh effect of the same shape. I used the same technique with a star shaped filter in my New Year's Eve photos of the boys.

Tonight Mary made the most incredible potato soup...I had three bowls! It looked so good I grabbed the camera and Mary said that if she knew I was going to take a picture she would have garnished it nicer. How about that! The photo, which looks pretty appetizing to me, is just her plain old, put together an ordinary meal, style. It's good being married to someone who can cook! I hope the boys...when they grow out of their macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets and cheese pizza phase...will appreciate what a great cook they have for a mother.

I turned the corner to see 8 month old Landon looking at a cloth book, properly oriented, propped up against a stuffed toy...apparently reading. I exclaimed, "Ha! Caught you, you can read can't you?!" Of course, Landon resumed his ruse of being a typical infant with no plans for world domination by babbling, rolling over and drooling. Nice try Stewie, I'm on to you!

On December 31st I was sitting in a day long CLE (continuing legal education)...bored and trying to kill time, I surfed the iPhone application store and came across the free Lego iPhone App.

Will made of Lego studs.

Drew made of Lego studs. After the jump, a self-portrait I took during the CLE.

We celebrated New Year's Day by going sledding...in our front yard. When i shoveled the snow on our driveway after our Christmas Eve snow storm, I put all the snow in one place building up a nice pile several feet high.

Since it has been so cold lately the pile of snow remained and today we made great use of it as the boys sled down our man-made hill (with a little help from Daddy getting them started at the top).

As you can see, Will and Drew had a great time sledding!

Afterward, Mama made hot chocolate for a perfect start to the new year.

Our own little Baby New Year, Landon (8 months), on New Year's Eve 2009.

Landon looking toward the new year.

Will (3) and Drew (6) on New Year's Eve 2009.

Note: the photos are not photoshopped, rather they were taken with a star shaped filter I made. More information can be found here.

A blue moon isn't really blue. Rather, it is the second full moon to occur in a single calendar month. Tonight, the last day of the year, there was a blue moon. A full moon occurs every 29.5 days. Blue moons occur on average about every 2.7 years which works out to about 3% of all full moons. The last time there was a blue moon on New Year's Eve was on December 31, 1990. The next blue moon will be on August 31, 2012, while the next New Year's Eve blue moon won't happen until December 31, 2028. Finally, the last time a decade ended on a full moon (if you believe the decade ended tonight) was on December 31, 1819.

Taken with Canon EOS Rebel T1i (500D), Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L IS USM Lens, 1/400 sec, F5.0, ISO 100, exposure bias 0/1, 200.00mm, no flash, auto exposure, spot metering.

Previously, Half Moon.

Tulsa was blessed with a white Christmas this year as a winter storm delivered about 6 inches of snow Christmas Eve with some parts of the state receiving as much as 14 inches. The roads were so bad we put off going to Ma and Pa's for Christmas until today. We got everyone dressed and all of our gifts packed up and we were all ready to go and I opened the garage door only to be greeted by this.

A half-hour of shoveling later, we were ready to go. Growing up in Chicago I learned to loathe shoveling snow. Today was a fun reminder that my feelings haven't changed.