October was Awesome!

We had so much fun this last month and took so many fun pictures that we can't possibly post all of them but here are a few of the highlights!

Nolan and Abby at the Family Farm in Grafton, WI

Last year Nolan was too small to take to the pumkin patch-but not this year!

Playing in the fall leaves

Workin on a car with Dad at the Children's Museum.

Collecting golf balls and takin them for a ride.

Getting ready for the Murder Mystery Dinner w/Mom.

Inspecting the "murder scene" for clues.

Rocco Scarfazzi (Kenny), Tara Misu (Echo), and "La Sparenza" Waiter (Nolan) at the dinner.

Bringing the appetizer to the table for the younger guests.

Dippin Oreos

Let it be known that on October 17th, 2007 sometime after dinner, Nolan Kenneth Merrell dipped his first Oreo in milk and and he ate it and declared that it was good. Which he made known to us by a satisfied "Ahh" sound that he made after each finger that still contained Oreo bits was dipped in the milk and sucked clean off...well almost clean.

1 Yr. Portraits

We had Nolan's pictures taken while we were in Utah in September just a couple days before his birthday. Just wanted to share a few of our super handsome little guy.

Happy 1st Year Nolan!

Here's a few pictures from Nolan's first birthday parties -he actually had 3 of them by the time his real birthday was over.

He really enjoyed opening his presents, mostly taking little bites out of the paper once it was removed from the gift.

He also had two cakes, a Lego one that I made for him in Utah while we were visiting, and Strawberry/Vanilla Birthday Trifle which is now a family tradition, since that is Kenny's favorite dessert and has that every year for his birthday. Nolan definitely liked the idea of having something plopped on his tray and encouraged to use both hands in.

This one's for you guys....

So as I'm looking through pictures from the last 3 months it kills me that I haven't been able to keep this blog more updated. We have some awesome pictures from parties with friends, and family that I think I'll dedicate this post to.

We had a great vacation in Washington for a week with Kenny's family, then we had some fun "farewell for a while" parties with our pals in Utah and a BBQ with my family that also doubled as a pool party. That is actually where our last pictures with Grandpa Farnworth were taken-so that will always stand out in my mind.

So on to the photos...since that is really all that anyone likes to see anyway right?? :)

Grandma Merrell gets a "kissy face" at the airport.

The "K-Train" becomes the caboose! Naomi & Nolan appreciated the push though! This was at the Merrell farm in Moses Lake, WA.

Echo, Val, Debbie & Naomi watching the swimmers, sliders, rope swingers and canoers in the pond. What a great place!

Family photo with Grandma & Grandpa Wing

Photos from our party with Nate & Tera Gibb & Mandy, Steve & Jonah Forsey:

Our friend Nate and Nolan makin faces at each other.

Jonah and Nolan 'ruff'-housing with Steve

Whittaker-Farnworth BBQ:
Marianne, Shiloh and Nolan

Swimmin with Uncle Jason

Grandma and Grandpa Farworth on Aug 5th-Our last photo with Grandpa Farnworth-we're so grateful for all of the memories. Grandpa passed away one month later on Sept.6th-We love him THIS much!

Nolan's New Experiences

Nolan has been developing at such a rapid pace it's incredible the things that he does every day. I just wanted to post a few of the fun photos that I've taken since we've moved here so that you all can see how big our little guy is getting.

He's discovered the "take it out" game so I've made sure to leave a box of old tupperware out so that he can help Mommy "unpack", however when I hear him grunting I know that he's reached for something just a little too far down in the box and needs some help getting out!

We've made some new friends with some other little kids and it's been so fun to watch how he interacts with kids close to his age.

He spends his days actively moving from one toy to the next, cruising along the couches and standing up next to my little asian end table and trunk-they are just the right size. He's playing with his shape sorters and his tent and the little corner over by the fireplace are his favorite things right now, but they might change by tomorrow.

Our little guy is doing great and we're loving every minute with him.

Hello Wisconsin!!

Hi Everyone!

I know that we've been forever in getting a post, and our friend Steve Forsey has been sending me "polite" reminder emails about an update so here's a quick one to bring us somewhat up to date!

We got here on August 9th and Kenny spent his 26th birthday (the 10th) unloading our ABF UPACK truck into a big 'ol Uhaul truck and then uloading the Uhaul truck into our 2nd floor duplex! He had some help from some great guys in our Branch here in Milwaukee, thank goodness for friends in the church! We also need to thank my family for helping us pack up and especially Dad, Lance & Jason for all of the countless hours that they spent getting us loaded from one trailer, to another and getting our cars repaired and ready for the drive out here. We love you guys and can't tell how much we appreciated it!

The first weeks here were fun-however very hot and humid-we were not expecting that!Kenny started Med school orientation, and David, Debbie and Brittany made the 1460 mile treck across the country to visit us for about a week. The white coat ceremony that the school held to honor the first year med students was awesome and really made us feel great about finally getting to this point in our lives!

We were so grateful to have David, Debbie and Brittany here-it made the adjustment quite a bit easier for all of us!

We really like our new house and are making friends quickly. There are about 10 LDS guys plus families in Kenny's M-1 class alone, and a lot more in the M-2, M-3, M-4 classes as well. We go to the City Branch and are really liking it a lot-we expect to be getting some new callings soon and look forward to getting to know the church members and missionaries in the area.

We're settling in really well to the area and look forward to the new friends and experiences that will be coming up for us. We do however miss all of our family and friends back at home, we think of everyone often.

But for now we've got a lot to keep us busy, Kenny has got lots to study at school, and I've got a crawling, climing, curious little boy to keep me on my toes. Life is pretty great right now.

May 2007-Part 2

The Debut of the "Wiggle Worm"! We recorded a great video of Nolan "wiggling" on command and we've posted it on our YouTube account. Here's the link and login information: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xZKHJAelWHk

Username: nolankm Password: sept16

*You have to log in and go to My Account/My Videos to view-we didn't want the whole world to see them-just you guys.

Noan was sick for the first time from May 20th-25th he had a high fever of about 101-102 degrees and was just a miserable little boy until his fever finally broke on the 23rd and then the next day he broke out in a rash. A visit to the Dr. had diagnosed it has a "Viral tummy bug", but both Grandma's Whittaker and Merrell said that it sounded like Roseola once they heard his symptoms and I'll have to say-the grandmas made the better diagnosis this time because that was exactly what it was!

Memorial Day Weekend 2007

Nolan started feeling better just in time for the much anticipated Memorial Day trip to the cabin. We headed up early on Thursday with my parents and then Kenny came up Saturday after he'd finished up work on his master's research. Nolan had started to do more "Revving" as we called it in preparation to start crawling. On one particular "Rev" he reached out for Beagsly's tail, and as you can see from the look on his face he was quite shocked that he got it, as well as not sure what to do with it after he did!

He had his first bath in the cabin tub and thought that it was really fun.

Nolan learned how to run on the deck in his walker.

Played in his pack-n-play outside with his bandanna on to protect from the bugs.

He discovered pine needles:

and chipmunks....

and watched the big boys hard at work....

But the most exciting event of all was when he learned how to kick a ball! Sunday afternoon Kenny was helping Nolan play catch with Jason & Heidi and he surprised everyone when he lifted up his left leg and kicked the ball back to them several times in a row. That was also followed by giggles and lots of adult cheers! He has since then learned how to kick a ball all the way down our hallway, and also uses the kick mechanism to approach Beaglsy or the cats Boris and Natasha...oh well, all good soccer players like to kick things right??

May 2007

Nolan is 8 Months old!


May was such a fun month for our family-we did a lot of fun things and made some great memories. It started with taking Nolan to a couple of local parks and letting him swing and walk around the bark dust on the playground....and digging out the chunks that made it into his mouth in the nanosecond that I looked away. He started wearing shorts and sandals and we found out how hard it was going to be to keep shoes on his skinny little feet!


First time in a swing!!


Wresting with Daddy


Lunch Break with Grandma Whitt


Saturday May 12th, 2007
We had a Bomfire/BBQ up in Hobble Creek canyon with some friends, the Forsey's, Gibb's, & Timpson's. That was the first campfire Nolan had seen, and his first time wearing bug spray-they were pretty thick until we got the blaze a-goin. It was the rescheduled annual Cinco-de-Mayo bomfire that the Forsey's always sponser, but the large furniture was replaced with a truck full of firewood instead. It was a great time and probably the last Cinco-de-mayo bomfire that we'll all get together to celebrate for a while. The Forsey's are moving to Pocatello, ID in Aug. for Steve's Audiology degree so we'll all be apart for the first time....we're so glad to have made so many special memories with such great friends over the years. We're really going to miss each other.

Kenny, Nolan, Jonah, Steve, Nate, & Jason


Anita, Tera, Echo & Mandy



May 14th- Happy Birthday Grandma Whitt!
For my mom's birthday they always decorate their cubicles at her work, usually themed from something that the employee likes, or a hobby that they have mentioned. Well this year Mom had said something about liking Johnny Depp as a Pirate in the Disney movies and so the theme for her cubicle was pirates. Needless to say when I found this out I thought that it would be fitting for a pirate that is far cuter than Johnny Depp to pay her a visit. I was pretty impressed how easily my little pirate costume came together for Nolan, a head wrap from me, a necktie from Kenny and a little eyeliner mustache and "shiver me timbers" you've got an awesome little pirate. Mom was suprised and once again Nolan made the rounds to every person in the office so that he could effectively be shown off.