Nicki And Adam's Family Blog

This year can be summed up in one word: CHANGE Moving to a new house, a new community, starting preschool, all the changes that a newborn goes through, new job for Adam, new job for Nicki, new church, hopefully new friends (and some old as well!). All of it has been for the better, not necessarily easier, but for the better. Here are some of my bucket list items for 2014: --Go and visit Bob and Gene in Oregon (without the kids). --Create learning items for Charlie to improve his fine motor and speech skills (a post on this later). --Teach Charlie how to ride bike with pedals (he is great with balance on 2 wheels). --Start road biking again (maybe once a month??) --Convince husband that a 3rd child would not be a bad idea! (hehe) --Read lots and lots and even more books to my kids. --Maybe run a mile? or two? --We already eat very healthy, but growing a garden of our own is on the TOP of the list! --Create and try new recipes and plan out meals in advance so I am not scr...

Pretty much sums up our attempt at photos for Carrie! She is not a fan of the camera!

SCharlie has been working and playing insanely hard with his Colors and Shaping game which he calls his "Shaping" game. The idea of the game it to roll two dice and find the piece in the box that matches and place it on a place card. So you roll red rectangle and place it on your card. Everyone who watches Charlie has had to play this game. I play this game about 14 times a day so that my enthusiasm is lacking now. But, he is really good. He knows exactly what he needs to get to win and exactly what you need to get to win, which is good, because I am often playing while eating, cleaning, or other multi-tasking activity. This was my game as a child, however, I do not think I had nearly this obsession as it was in pristine condition still!! Here is a picture of his playing... Since he is obsessed with this game now, I decided to put the teacher in me to some use. So I created using the pieces from this game to learn patterns. He is now putting patterns together in a s...

Christmas was a nice time. We went to West Bend, helped host Christmas Eve at Barb and Cliff's house. The Ciriacks and Elaine and Rhode joined us as well. We had Lasagna and more. We also sang a stirring rendition of the "12 Cats of Christmas" for Charlie as a big family. He loved it. Charlie also set out cookies and carrots and milk by the fireplace for Santa. We then played Telestrations as a big group. That was a blast! More specifically, it was a ball to see Cliff and Rhode on a team. They were affectionately called the "dynamic duo." They reminded us of the old men from the Muppet Show. Here are a few pictures from the day (mostly Christmas Day at Barb and Cliff's)

Carrie has officially turned 1. We had my parents over for pizza and Dan and Kim and the kids came over for cake. She loved the pizza and the cake. She got 2 little presents from us and could have cared less. I hope I took pictures. Actually, I know for a fact that I did not, however, I hope that Adam did. Otherwise, well, she is the 2nd child, she should expect that her parents would forget to photograph her birthday! Ha! She also had her 1 year check up. She weighs: 18lbs 11.5 oz Height: 29.5 inches And a big ol noggin' She had to receive 4 shots (MMR, Chicken pox, Hep, and 2nd does Flu) so she was extremely pissed afterwards. I mean REALLY angry. At the whole world, me included. Physical Development: She is walking along furniture, can stand by herself, but unwilling to take those first independent steps. Speech: Says "hi" but that is about it. She waves bye bye often and claps a lot. Personality: She is feisty at times. She screams when she has been...

I am sure I am not alone when I find the Christmas season anything but enjoyable. I think I may actually have become a slightly nicer version of the Grinch. Sure, I decorate my house, put up a small fake tree, but as of yet, I do not fall into the who "Santa" idea or the whole "Elf on the Shelf" idea. Charlie does not seem to care about Santa as a whole, Carrie is deathly afraid of a big fat white guy...so where does that leave me? Isn't, after all, Jesus the reason we celebrate. I get that Santa and Elf are fairly harmless, but what about the fact that MOST of our nation has secularized and materialized this holiday so much that Jesus would be crying. I seriously think he would be ashamed to see us giving out iphones and ipads and what not. And I think Jesus is the coolest person out there. And most understanding and loving person out there. And he would shake his head at this. Lately, I have been reading the book "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" t...

I chose to be a stay at home mom because I could not stand the idea that another person or people would raise the children that I had. I also did not want my kids getting sick as much, or the worst part.....the mommy guilt.  At first, I was unsure of this decision. I missed teaching greatly, everyday. I missed a paycheck. I missed talking with other adults.  I sometimes feel that SAHM, even though we chose to do this, are punished for this. It is hard for us to get back in the work field, we end up with significantly less pay than those who chose to work, and quite possibly our retirement is pushed even farther back as we have to meet the minimum number of allotted years in a profession to retire.  I also believe that people help out working parents more than non working moms. The idea of "well, she is at home, she does not need a break or night off" is the overall feeling I receive. When, in fact, I would believe it to be the opposite. When I did work the first year of C...

I have neglected the 2nd child in regard to photography. I think I am just too busy enjoying the moments and not worrying about capturing them. We have had a few here and there....so enjoy! And this is how we play hats! Cute butt!

Halloween was a great time for the kids. Charlie had a ball running from house to house as a Rocketship....for 45 mins. And then he broke down. Literally, the rocketship ran out of fuel. Complete meltdown and in bed by 6:45pm. Ha! Here are some pics before the rocket broke down.

For the first 6 weeks of preschool, Charlie went joyfully to school. Was practically out of the house before my pajamas were off. I was so glad and thrilled that this was how school was going to be. Then about 2 weeks ago, I got a phone call that Charlie was very sad and seemed under the weather. He had a little diarrhea the day before, but seemed fine. So I picked him up, but he was fine at home. Ever since, he has been sad at school. Not tantrum when I leave, but on the virge of crying the whole time. He whimpers and tries so hard to be brave. This normally goes on for the whole 2.5 hours he is there.  Has anyone else delt with this? Fine for awhile and then sad at preschool? I do not want to take him out, he definitely needs this socialization and learning from others. Maybe just in time he will adjust? It makes me sad.... We try to talk, very excitedly and positively about preschool, but obviously to no difference so far. We a try to ask him why he is sad, he cannot seem to tel...

Hello all! We are entering our 4th month in our new home. We have settled well into our new house, have made some minor changes but overall we are quite set. Charlie is loving preschool. He seems to be learning a lot and often sings us a song learned, or at least tells us the snack he had. Ha! Today apparently he ate the orange rind And all. Nice. I guess I never taught him you are not suppose to eat the rind. Carrie is as sweet and darling as ever. She mostly sleeps through the nights. Normally it is 2 nights where she sleeps 11-12 hrs and then 2 nights where she wakes up once around 3am. At least it is a predictable pattern. She crawls like crazy and pulls up and likes to chase anyone around the room. She eats finger foods extremely well. She is an absolute delight. Love her and I love putting cute outfits on her. Adam is doing well. Work is super busy, so that is good. I have joined the church band at Good Sheppherd Lutheran. I love this church and the band members are great. Really...

Parenting is the hardest job in the world. Seriously. Being a stay at home mom has tested my limits more often than being a teacher. And here is why. If you do it wrong, you screw up a life. No pressure, right? I am not talking about the little stuff, I am talking about the big stuff. The stuff that keeps you up at night just hoping and praying that you are doing the right thing. Cause, you truthfully have no clue. At school, I had a curriculum and a 5 year degree and masters to reassure me that I was doing my job well. I had parents who complimented me or called or emailed and principals that reassured, even though some days were tough, that I was making a difference. At home, I have a 3 year year old who tests every limit, who gets sent to his room when whining (mom feels guilty), who tends to not know what to play with...ever (mom feels guilty), who goes to gymnastics and I see him daydreaming around not paying attention (mom feels guilty), and the list goes on. And all this is ...

Height: 28" Weight: 17lbs 2 oz Personality: A delight. Very very happy girl. Always smiling and laughing. A hard worker. She is constantly trying and trying to do new things. She never gives up. Sleeping: Good! From 7:30pm until 6:30 or 7am. Sometimes she has one random wakeup in the night, but not too often. She takes 2 naps, one in the morning and one in afternoon. I have to limit the morning one to about 1 hour or else the 2nd nap is a fight. Development: Crawling, pulling up on furniture, feeding herself finger foods. She currently has 2 bottom teeth. Overall, she is an absolute delight, but always busy when awake. She no longer likes to be held much, prefers to be out and about in life!

We spent a little time and a little money painting our bathroom, putting new hardware on cabinets and a new light fixture. A few more things i want to add, but here is the jist. The color was a little limey at first, but now I really like it!!!

We love you so much little peanut!!!

You can be amazing You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug You can be the outcast Or be the backlash of somebody’s lack of love Or you can start speaking up Nothing’s gonna hurt you the way that words do And they settle ‘neath your skin Kept on the inside and no sunlight Sometimes a shadow wins But I wonder what would happen if you Say what you wanna say And let the words fall out Honestly I wanna see you be brave With what you want to say And let the words fall out Honestly I wanna see you be brave I just wanna see you I just wanna see you I just wanna see you I wanna see you be brave I just wanna see you I just wanna see you I just wanna see you I wanna see you be brave Everybody’s been there, everybody’s been stared down By the enemy Fallen for the fear and done some disappearing Bow down to the mighty Don’t run, stop holding your tongue Maybe there’s a way out of the cage where you live Maybe one of these...

Charlie went to Vacation Bible School at a Lutheran Church (Good Shepherd) and he had a great time. I wish I would have taken pictures, but alas, I did not. He went for 4 days for 2.5 hours each day. I was so proud of him for being so brave and listening and I even caught a few glimpses of him singing the songs and doing the actions. He was definitely on the younger side of the kids there, but this was a great "small" introduction for him to preschool which he will be start in about 4 weeks. I think that he is ready. He is becoming confident in who he is and seems to have minimal problems with me leaving (we now talk about it a day or two in advance). I am sure he learned a lot about God and Jesus, but that is not what I can tell from what he tells me about VBS. Here is what he tells me: Mommy: What did you do today? -"I didn't eat all my bagel" (yup....) -"I did 1, 2, shhhhhhh" (that was the way they got the kids quiet) -"There was a bask...

The best thing about our new house? Seeing Daddy more! Yeah! We love seeing Daddy everyday (sometimes even for lunch). It is wonderful in more ways than I can tell you!

My daughter has been misnamed, she should be called "Joy" because she is so full of joyful, happiness, all the time! She truly is a happy baby! And when she does scream, I know something is incredibly off. I am so lucky and blessed to have such a happy and joyful girl...may she continue to shine throughout her entire life and bring happiness to everyone she meets.