Laken's Dance Recital (and Heidi too)

We hope you enjoy this little snippet of Laker's first ever dance recital. It lasted approx. 15 minutes and the kids kind of did what ever they wanted, while the moms did the moves. It was fun!

Old Time Hockey

Building a rink is as much dad's little winter hobby as it is a winter recreation spot for the kids and their friends. Through the fall Brad planned how the boards would go, what plastic would be used and how to make a 'warming house'.

After one false start-Brad inadvertently put holes in the plastic while trying to keep them stapled to the boards. We got a new piece of plastic and widened the rink to 30x40 ft.

The weather has been perfect-cold. We already have a fully functional rink. You can see the kids use it a lot and Braeden is trying his parent's old position, goalie.

Braeden as Bobby in 365 Days of Christmas

Sheperd Preston

ECFE Holiday Open House

We attended the ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) open house. As, you can see from the picture my children are not big fans of paying a visit to Santa. Preston bolted as soon as the picture was snapped. Laken whispered her wish, which has remained consistent-a dancing princess. I am not sure exactly what that means, but my guess it is an American Girl Doll that she loving looks at every time the catalog arrives. Braeden was the only brave soul to talk with Santa. He told Santa he wanted a nerf gun. Then, each child receives a gift of a book. Their favorite spot, however, is the cookie decorating station. We are so blessed to live in a state that is passionate about Early Childhood Education.

Tree Decorating

The kids had a blast decorating the tree. The have each received gifts of ornaments over the years, so the boys particularly were excited to find their "own" ornaments to place on the tree. Laken likes rearranging the ornaments. After the tree was decorated she declared, "It's christmas! Now we can open presents." And, she proceeded to try to open one of her gifts wrapped under the tree. Needless, to say I've had to put the wrapped gifts away. She doesn't get the Advent Calendar concept, either. Everyday she says, "But, it is Christmas." Oh, life through the eyes of a toddler.

Madeline Sleeps Over

We brought Madeline to our house the Wednesday before Thanksgiving for a sleepover. She didn't even cry when she left her parents to go in the Durango. I think it was due to the fact that I had cheetos and a movie in my vehicle. It was so much fun for Laken and Madeline to spend time together. And, she called me Mom which I got a total kick out of. Here the girls are participating in a Meier Family Favorite, Painting in the bath tub! Our only glitch came when Madeline decided to get up at 4:00 am on Thursday and basically stayed up. I think she was ready for Black Friday a day early.

Preston Builds a Bear

Preston had his turn to Build-a-Bear! Meet Ruffy the dog who wears Viking uniform and helmet. He was able to build this bear thanks to Gammy and Chrissy's gift certificates! Chrissy needs to forward me the family photo at Build a Bear so we can add it!

Searching for the Perfect Tree

We traveled to a farm west of Ellendale, MN where an older couple runs a Christmas Tree farm. This is our 3rd year of finding the perfect tree here. It is an awesome spot that always feels like Christmas. You see the old shack where they sell the trees. The family walked the whole tree farm, only to come back to where we started to find the right tree.

Braeden found out how to use the timer on the camera and you see the result with a great family photo (durango hood in foreground).

3rd Grade Performance

Braeden's 3rd grade class (Dr. Eichman) performed several plays in front of 60 parents/grandparents at Washington Elementary School. Above, Braeden (yellow) spinning on stage helping turn the main characters in and out of reality. The next photo is a scene change and Braeden is moving a chair.

Beautiful Barber

Laken thought it would be a great idea to cut her own hair. So she decided to clip a swath off the front of her bangs. Heidi was mortified; Brad laughed. She now has a semi-mullet, just in time for hockey season!

We carved pumpkins the Thursday before Halloween. The boys worked on their own designing and cutting. They are not big fans of scooping out the guts, so Mom and Dad were given the honors. Laken, on the other hand, loved digging in the guts. She wanted to carve the pumpkin herself, too, as she is big into doing things herself. As you can see in the picture of all the pumpkins her pumpkin has no face. She just poked a bunch of holes in it.

We, also, hosted a morning Halloween Party for some neighbors and kids. We had an oatmeal table. Our neighbor, Landon, is demonstrating that it is safe to play and eat from it, too. We had ghost footprint crafts, painting a pumpkin and decorating cookie stations for the kids. It was a fun way to pass the time until the big trick or treat.

Later, that night Brad took the kids treat or treating along with our neighbors the Jacobson's. He said the boys just sprinted from door to door. They made out like bandits as usual. It was my turn to hand out candy. We didn't have as many trick or treaters as previous years, but as soon as the boys arrived home the took over my duties and loved it! (You'll find all the pictures below due to technical difficulty.)

Halloween Photos

Halloween Party

The young jedi's were making sure the galaxy was protected from the evil empire and a young dancing princess named sleeping beauty/Laker Baker was bouncing around making the world a better place.

Seen here at a halloween party at Nick Lewis' house in Owatonna. One of the featured events was the search for the Boo Log. Boo is Nick's dog's name, so we were a little worried about what this log was made of. In the end it was a wood log and the kids had fun finding it.

The bouncing castle was a huge hit for our Jedi's and princess as well as the other kids in attendance. Heidi thinks the bouncing castle would be a great gift for the grandparents to buy!

Baby Constance Elizabeth!

On the way home from Ohio we were able to stop by the Kleven's house in Eleva, to meet our new niece and cousin, Constance Elizabeth. She was born on October 17th, weighed in at 7lbs 6oz and 20 inches long. Laken was able to hold the baby. Big Sister Madeline was very excited to have cousins visit.

Ohio Trip

Heidi's godson Tyler Feine and his family lives in Amelia, OH. We drove out there on Oct. 16th in the Meier family van. The kids took the 12 hour drive very well! While in Ohio we walked across the Ohio River on an amazing blue bridge...Braeden was a little freaked out by how high up we were. We went from the Kentucky side of the river to Ohio side, once in Ohio we went to a playground located under the bridge.

We also went to the children's museum located in an old train station. One of the photo's in the slideshow shows Heidi and the kids in front of the huge building. Besides spending a lot of time playing in the museum, we also took the kids to a omni theatre movie about the grand canyon and the shrinking of the Colorado River.

Of course the big reason we drove out to Ohio-Tyler Feine's football game on Friday night. Tyler is the quarterback for Amelia High School. It was a beautiful fall evening for the game and despite a loss, we had fun watching the game. Afterwards we joined Steve & Rochelle Feine and some other football parents at Buffalo Wild Wings for a post game treat.

The Cincinatti Zoo on Saturday was a big hit. We should've brought Halloween outfits, because there were like a million kids there all dressed up. However there were treats given to the kids at stops through out the zoo, which kept their nurishment up. This was a big zoo and had some awesome stuff...but the funniest part was when the rhino (pictured) shot his pee on some unexpecting spectators.

On the ride home we stopped at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway-it is a huge race track and next time we're out there we are going to do the full tour.

Airport Field Trip

Preston's Preschool class took a field trip to the Owatonna Airport and I was able to chaperone. His class is seven boys and they all get along great! We watched an airplane take off and land. We saw the airport fire truck and the boys were each able to climb in a Cessna and pretend to fly.

October Firsts

This month Preston learned to make his "S" the correct way. The "old" way resembled more of a lightning bolt. Braeden ran his 1st cross country race. He was surprised how much faster everyone ran in comparison to PE class. He placed 63rd overall with at least 200 kids running and 27th for his grade. Pretty good for a 1st timer. He seemed to really enjoy himself. I even saw my old DESC High School Coach, Mr Arnold at the meet and our flower girl Nikayla is a 7th grader and runs varsity. Where does the time go?

Apple Pickin' 08

The fall trip to Apple Ridge Orchard in Mazeppa, MN (near Rochester) featured picking some great tasting apples, a wagon ride, corn maze, llamas, rabbits, and good times. This is the second year we've visited this orchard with Gammy & Grandpa Meier and Chrissy.

The Dancing Princess, Laken

Laken had her 1st day of "Dancing School", as she affectionately calls it. It is called U and Me dance and I participate with her. She loves it! She, of course, had to wear the most fanciest dance outfit she owns to the first class (a hand me down dance costume from Leone). I can see that good ole leotards and tights won't do for this dancing princess. She even thinks she needs a dancing crown. We had our second day of class, yesterday. She cries everytime class is over. She, also, thinks she needs dancing princess dvds, so we had to borrow 12 Dancing Princesses from Sophie and Isabella, yesterday. Can I just say that every male in the house was glued to the TV, too. I just love having a little girl in the house!