Happy Flag Day, Brad!

After my Grandpa's party, my parents were gracious enough to offer an overnight of babysitting. Brad and I headed to LaCrosse, WI to take a dinner cruise on the LaCrosse Queen. The evening was perfect and the scenery along the Mississippi was beautiful. We enjoyed cocktails and feasted on prime rib and baked chicken. We celebrated Brad's birthday amongst other birthdays and anniversaries aboard the boat. That evening we enjoyed staying at my parent's 5th wheel along the river in Homer, MN. And, we were even able to go out for breakfast the next morning in Winona, MN. It was an awesome birthday celebration!

Happy 85th Birthday Grandpa Feine!

We had a surprise party for Grandpa to celebrate his 85th birthday. It was held at Grandpa and Grandma's home in St. Charles and we had the potluck party in their garage. His birthday is June 16th, but we had the party on Flag Day (June 14th). The weather was awesome and the kids enjoyed playing at the park. Laken enjoyed the strawberries as you can see from the photo. Legend (my uncle Larry) and Brad enjoyed celebrating and shooting the breeze, as it was Brad's actual birthday. Happy Birthday Grandpa and may we celebrate many more with you!

VBS-Power Lab

The boys attended Vacation Bible School the second week in June. The theme was Power Lab-Discovering Jesus' miraculous power! They learned Power Verses such as: God gives us the power to be Brave-ahha, God gives us the power to be Kind-ahha, God gives us the power to thankful-ahha. They made suncatchers and decorative plates. They watched miraculous science labs. They raised money for tornado victims in Hugo, MN. They, also had a contest to see which classroom could bring in the most food for the local food shelf. Preston's class won the contest! He was delighted to receive a certificate for a free ice cream cone at the "Blast". Thursday night was family night and the kids treated us to a concert, we watched some of the science labs and had rootbeer floats.

Landscaping Efforts-Rock Hauling

The weeds are covered with new rock-finally!

Church Solo

40 Weeks of Vision

A 40 week vision therapy program came to a close for Braeden in May. (top left) Braeden in front of the Vision Therapy office in Mankato (top center) Braeden works with Nancy on some vision exercises, retraining his eyes to view things properly (top right) Braeden works on focusing his eyes (lower left) walking through the ball gauntlet using his peripherial vision.

Each night for the 40 week program there was homework where Braeden worked to continue to retrain his brain to see things properly, expanding his reading capabilities, hand eye coordination, reflexes and much more.

Since this was a full family effort, we all went to his last day and celebrated at McDonalds.

Mother/Daughter Brunch

Last Saturday was the Mother/Daughter Brunch at church. There was a Brunch served along with some entertainment from the Looney Lutherans from the play at the Plymouth Playhouse entitled the "Church Basement Ladies". They were hilarious. Mom, Bean, Grandma Feine, my two aunts-Nancy & Peggy, Laken and I attended. The first picture shows us waiting for brunch. In the bottom picture, Nancy got picked to participate in a Trivia Contest. She is in the red jacket (we told her that is why she got picked). Her team "Jello" beat team "Jello with Bananas" to win the game. Each of the winning team members won a can of corn and danced through the church. Earlier Laken won a potato in the hot potato game. It was a entertaining day together.

Los Margaritas! Happy Birthday Gammy!

To celebrate Gammy Meier's birthday and mothers day, we joined mom, dad, mike and chrissy in Hastings, MN at Los Margaritas for some margartitas! As you can see, it got pretty crazy. Mom's cheeks were bright red from the margaritas and they did a little happy birthday thing with a big sombrero and whip cream. I think they were making a beard??

Happy BDay Gammy!

Spring Concert-Braeden Washington Elem

This is a clip from Braeden's 2nd grade class spring concert held at Owatonna High School. Braeden is in the top row in a aqua green shirt wearing a tie.

Bend it Like Braeden

Soccer '08 is finally in swing after several rain outs (which we didn't mind because we were out of town for the first two games-and he didn't miss anything). In this picture, Braeden is in the maroon shirt looking back towards the camera (blue socks). He tripped on a kid in this game and softened the blow to the ground with his nose. Blood was everywhere-the kids were shocked and Braeden was too.

We got him off the field and then he didn't want to go back in the game. One of his coaches coaxed him back and he finished.

In his next game Braeden scored a goal-good thing, the game ended in a 1-1 tie. Way to go Beckham, way to go.

Last weekend my wednesday night hockey league participated in the Stick it to Cancer Tournament that is a fundraiser for Breast Cancer. We skated on pink ice, which proved a little hard to see the crease, but was festive. Our team raised over $2000 to go toward Breast Cancer Research. We lost our first game 4-3 (the other team clearly had a ringer) and our second game we lost 2-0, but our finally game we took it up a notch and posted a 5-0 win. This is a fun group of ladies with the majority of ages being 40-55. Our team name is Stickin With It, but Braeden decided we needed a mascot of the Eagles. The kids were troopers for the weekend. Laken took a nap almost every game, Braeden enjoyed giving me advice afterward and Preston's highlight was winning two items out of the crane game at the rink. Thanks for allowing me time for hockey fam!

Preston's Special Tea

Each year the preschool does a 'Special Tea' where the kids get to invite one special person to come hear them sing and eat some treat. Today Preston had his event and this year dad got to go (mom went last year). This video is a little snippet of the brilliant event.

Wisconsin Dells Baby!

We hooked up with the Shimek's at the RainTree Hotel in Wisconsin Dells, WI on April 12th. It is about half way for both families and is a great way to see each other. Here the boys hang out in the hotel room. (l to r: Braeden, Preston, Issac & Simon .Shimek). The girls were shy-May & Laken not shown

Nothing Says Happy Anniversary like a Goalie Mask

For their 9th anniversary, Brad surprised Heidi with the most romantic of gifts-a new goalie mask.

Birthday Party with Braeden's Friends

Braeden's friends met us at the bowling alley to celebrate his 8th birthday. Tim, Petey, Jacob, Mikela, and Nolan bowled a great game, eat cake, played video games, and opened presents. Happy Birthday Braeden!

Easter Sunday at Meier's in St Paul

We spent Easter Sunday at Gammy & Grandpa Meier's in St. Paul. The kids made it through church, only one head squish-Brad was leaving the pew with Laken and accidentally hip checked Preston's head into the pew.

Later that day they had fun re-hiding the eggs and finding them again. Braeden especially liked playing uncle Mike's PS3-NHL '08. Good times.

God Daughter's Birthday Bash

Madeline Paige Kleven's first birthday was recently celebrated in the greater Eleva/Eau Claire area, specifically at the Kleven ranch. You see young Madeline holding a stuffed animal from her aunt Linda-it was one of her favorites.

Heidi and Brad are thrilled to be

Madeline's godparents.

Easter Egg Coloring

Happy Easter. Since things always seem to be busy around holidays, we didn't get around to coloring Easter eggs until Good Friday evening. You see Laken and Preston already in their PJ's. We had fun, but Dad didn't make enough eggs--apparently a dozen is not enough.

Huskies Girls Basketball to State

The Owatonna Huskies girls basketball team went to the state basketball tournament this year (08) and we went to the game. Thanks to Eric Caulfield we got tickets to the Target Center. The kids each brought a Husky stuffed animal to help cheer the team. Unfortunately Minneapolis South was too much for the Huskies and they went home after the first round. We had fun!

Our Little Princess (and Pudge as Abby Cadabby)

Laken received this outfit from the neighbors (Jacobson's) and she loved it. You can see her twirling in these photos. Pudge is sporting a look alike Abby Cadabby costume. Since, we recently attended Sesame Street Live this new costume was all the rage.

Can It Be Another Year Older?

We celebrated Laken's 2nd Birthday (Mar 1st) and Braeden's 8th Birthday (Mar 31st) with family on March 1st.

Braeden's hockey cake featured mini hockey guys with a goalie and puck. Laken got scared because she tried touching one of the candles-she didn't burn herself, but everyone saying 'no Laken' scared her. We sang 'Happy Birthday' to that face pictured!

Braeden's 2nd Year of Hockey Comes to Close

March 1st, 2008 was Braeden's last day of hockey for the season, the jamboree.

They announced the kids names, sang the national anthem and played a game. Braeden is in the white jersey number 5.

Gammy & Grampa Meier, Grampa Hinckley, Mike Meier, Chrissy Meier, Sarah & Eric & Madeline Kleven, mom, dad, Preston and Laken all made it to the game.