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...