Nicki And Adam's Family Blog

Each year the Wanta's, Ciriack's, Sayre's and some of Russ and Laurie's friends celebrate New Year's Eve together. In the past, we have done murder mystery dinners. We have always come in costume and have laughed the night away as we act out our various parts. This year was no different, although it wasn't a game that was bought, but rather Laurie and Samantha who wrote it. These two are quite creative and have a great vision on what will make a fun party. The theme this year was 1920's and we were a variety of characters. Adam was "Edward Haas" and here is a picture of him below: Edward is the son of a grocer and was really interested in "baking powder." I was "Mrs.Anna Haas"-his wife: I was a chain smoker woman from the 1920's. Eventually my husband invented the "Pez" candy which was suppose to help people stop smoking. The dispenser was in the shape of a lighter. Here are some more pictures from the evening: ...

We celebrated Christmas Day in West Bend. We start the morning off by eating eggs, homemade cinnamon rolls at Barb and Cliff's house. We do presents for the kids and then commence withe the adult "theme" gift. This year we picked letters of the alphabet. My letter was "S" and thus I gave: socks, silver earrings, soap and soap dispenser. Adam had the letter "R" and gave a variety of snacks related to the letter R. His gift was highly consumable. After that, we let Charlie nap and then headed off to the Ciriack's house for the 2nd Christmas. Above is a picture of Charlie opening up one of his gift from his cousin, Theran. We now pick names for the cousins. He got a play drill that he absolutely LOVES. He played with it for an entire hour without stopping. That is unheard of for Charlie. After the kids/cousins gifts, we opened the "Old Tyme" themed gifts. I must admit that ALL of the gifts were quite good this year. I ended up with ...

What a fantastic Christmas Holiday we had this year. It was outstanding. Charlie had so much fun and was very well-behaved for all of the days. It was awesome. We hosted Christmas Eve at our house. In attendance this year was: Elaine, Rhode, Barb, Cliff, Grandma Elizabeth, Bob, Gene, Jeanne-marie, Greg, Raelee, Emma, Maggie, Dan, Adam, Charlie and myself. It was a full house to say the least. We served Pasta Carbonara and Spaghetti Bolognese with fresh bread, a winter apple salad and cookies and grasshoppers for dessert. Of course, lots of wine and Old-Fashioned's were consumed throughout the evening as well. Here are some pictures of the evening: Some of the guests for the evening. One of my "chefs" for the evening...ala 101 Dalmations Style. Elaine and Greg Here are a few videos from the evening. The first is of our family singing "Joy to the World." We are not very good... The second video is of the "12 days of Christmas"-the dancing is the bes...

Our book club read "Room" by Emma Donoghue for our meeting in December. It turned out to be one of the highest rated books that our book club has read. I will give you a brief synopsis so that it will intrigue you enough to check out or by the book yourself. The premise: a 5 year old and his mother have been in a room for the past 5 years. The story is told from the point of a 5 year old (which can be both annoying and insightful at the same time). We talked, as a book club, about why the 5 year old had to tell it and we all agreed that it would not have been as powerful had the book from the point of view of an adult. This book seems so surreal, as if this could never happen, but if it can be imagined it can happen, and has happened. Pick this book up!!!!!!!

I never thought I would get this again. But, here he is, sleeping at 20 months old. Totally cute. Love this man!

I hate my Christmas decorations. I truly do. They are the tackiest items that people have "gifted" to us through white elephant gift exchanges. Yet, because I have nothing else, I put them up each year. I decided to take matters into my own hand this year and try to become "crafty." I must admit, I am not much of a crafter, but I gave it a valiant attempt with the help of Pinterest. (Check it out:  http://pinterest.com/ ) It is highly addictive and will take hours away from your life! Here is the first example. I simply took cheap ornaments from Menards and hung them on ribbon and used push pins behind the trim to hold them. So far, neither the cat nor Charlie have destroyed them. I think they look cute. My next attempt was a ornament wreath. Ultimately, it turned out, but not before some challenges. Here is what it looked like on the floor, just about complete: Beautiful, eh? Then I decided I should try to hang it up. Well, I made a poor choice of a piece of y...

Hard to believe that my child is now closer to 2 than he is to 1. What an amazing journey parenthood has been thus far. I have lots to learn, but am grateful everyday for the gift of being his Mommy. I love him more and more each day, and someday, when the good Lord is willing, would love to parent another. Here are his stats for 20 months: Weight: 24lbs (says my scale at home) Height: 35 1/2" (he is ALMOST 3 feet tall!) Sleeping: He is, without a doubt, a fantastic sleeper. We have worked very hard on this since he was about 5 months old and have never regretted a moment. A weekday looks like this:       Bedtime: 7:30-45pm and sleep straight through until 6:40 (when we wake him up!) Naptime from 12:30 until about 3ish (little more little less) Weekend:       Bedtime: 8:00-8:15 and sleep straight through until 7:30 or 8:00am. Naptime from 1 until 3:30ish. He has even gotten rid of the pacifier on his own. We cut the tip off about a month back ...