Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Just figured I'd throw the Holiday greets out early as in a couple hours, we're heading to Mississippi to spend the holidays with our youngest son, his wife, our new grandson, our oldest son and his fiance are going with as well! I can't ask for a better Christmas than to spend it with my family! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and an even better 2012!!

The family grows..

On December 9th, 2011, at 6:02pm Colton Troy Fickbohm came into this world. Weighing in at a solid 8lbs, 1oz and measuring 20.5", he was tired of waiting around for the due date (Dec. 19th) and came to us early.

Our Grandson, Colton-

Chillin' with his momma, our daughter-in-law Julie-

Already practicing his "WTF dad!" look on our son, Jayson-

I never gave a whole lot of thought to the idea of me being a grandpa and I don't know if it's really sunk in yet. I really wish we could have been there when he was born, but with them being just over 1000 miles away and with our work schedule it just didn't work out. Jayson and Julie are both SeaBees in the U.S. Navy and stationed in Gulfport, Ms. I am very proud of both of them for choosing to serve America, but even more-so now considering the challenges they'll face and the sacrifices they'll make in raising a family while serving our country. I know from experience how tough that can be. Our oldest son Jimmy was born in Song-Nam, South Korea while I was stationed there with the Army back in the late 80's and our youngest, Jayson, was born on Ft. Riley, Kansas while I was stationed there in the early 90's. It's a tough road they have ahead of them, especially with both of them being in the Navy. They both tough, strong willed people, they'll do just fine.

As for my wife and I, we are both counting the days till we head to Ms to spend time with Jayson, Julie, and Colton. On Dec. 22nd we're taking off for a Christmas vacation and spending both Christmas and New Years with them. To make this an even more special holiday our oldest son, Jimmy, and his fiance, Paige, were both able to get time off and we're all going together. I don't think I could ask for a better Christmas!!

'76 Ironhead

Well, here's a couple pics of it. It was a rainy crappy day so I didn't get to ride it and the battery was pretty dead so I didn't get to hear it run either. It looks to be in very clean shape with lots of parts that'll either get taken off or sold. We agreed to wait for a nicer day so we could get it out, get it running, and ride it. If that all works out, I'll do the trade and start gathering parts for next years build!