WELCOME SPRING!!...er...Winter....wait, this is spring??

This has been a long winter for most people we've talked to-whether you are in Utah, Idaho or Wisconsin, but when I look out the window today I am truly stumped. Spring officially began yesterday March 20th and it was quite a beautiful day in the mid 40s and very sunny. Today was just a kick in the teeth!! It is just under 30 degrees, but with windchill it's 17 degrees and since about 5am this morning we've gotten a foot of new snow and it's still coming down!! Yesterday we could see the grass..today we can't even tell where our driveway ends. Is it too late to cry "Uncle"? Cause I've had it!

Feb 6th-Snow total for this storm 18"+

Picture of today's snow out on our balcony-snow total 12" & counting...(Sidenote: We ended up with 20" of snow on our balcony!!)

Usually he likes the snow...guess he's had it too.

An 18 month old's Addiction...

So it used to be that Nolan didn't want us to be on the computer at all-he always wanted us to go do something else with him. Understandable, since the computer is not really fun until you kinda get what it is. Well, that time has come folks! He loves to webcam with family and look at pictures or movies of himself. However for the last couple of months, if we are on the computer Nolan wants to be sat up on your lap and either the YouTube or National Geographic Kids websites have got to be running, with the window taking up half of the screen while whatever you were working on is taking up the other half! I blame it all on Kenny-out of desparation one day he pulled up dog videos on YouTube to make Nolan happy since his first animal sound was "Oof roof". Now we have it up at least once a day! Wanna see what we watch the most of?? Here are some links:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Qit3ALTelOo -Mean Kittty Song
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CQzUsTFqtW0 -Skateboarding Dog
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qXVK3hTRxlY- Taco Johns Wiplash-Monkey

He has a very fine taste as you can see...we hope you enjoy them as well!

He can feed himself...mostly

Nolan has been working especially hard at the art of feeding himself lately, and has now gotten to the point where he uses his spoon to feed himself a bowl of cereal-even with the milk poured onto it and he does a really good job. But this process took some time to develop, and I wanted to share a few fun photos of the learning curve...

His discovery of ketchup-which is now a major favorite!

Who needs a napkin when you've got a full head of hair right?

Relax-this was just apple juice!

Chipmunk Basketball

So if you are family then you have probably already watched and re-watched this video several times. We know that we can't help but laugh when we watch it. But we wanted to post it for the enjoyment of the rest of our friends and family whom have not experienced the joy of chipmunk basketball.

This video was taken on Dec. 9th, 2007, Nolan was 15 months old and he and Kenny came up with a new wonderful use for a decorative can that I had in the living room. The result was cute, but when Kenny sped it up on the computer-it became quite hilarious! We hope that you enjoy.

First Haircut

So after a year of letting Nolan's hair grow to its untamed glory, I finally decided that it was time for a haircut. He was starting to look like a little hippy! So we purchase a new quieter set of clippers and let Kenny do what he'd been telling me he could do for weeks. We kept Nolan entertained with a bouncy ball and the results turned out quite nicely. Good Job Kenny!

Before the cut...

Nolan is sad to see all that hair go!

What a handsome little guy!

Lights on Festival

A couple of friends, their kids, and Nolan and I started the Christmas celebration off a little early this year with Milwaukee's downtown "Lights On" festival. It was on Nov. 15-the week before Thanksgiving-but we just couldn't resist the idea of bundling up our little ones and trekking into a downtown park full of people! It was really rather fun, even though we spent most of the time trying to keep mittens on and blankets wrapped around the kids. There was a program with local talent and then a pretend Santa Claus and his sleigh made the descent down to the stage at the culmination of the "Santa Claus is coming to Town" song. We tried to overlook the fact that the cable system that he was on hung up a few times and proved to be a rough and slow ride for Santa but when he finally arrived he set off a huge fireworks show that was quite impressive!

Kristin & Adam, Echo & Nolan

Shandra & Amy

Trick-or-Treating @ MCW

The Medical Student Spouse & Significant other Association (MSSA) and the medical school hosts a great trick-or-treat party at the school every year on Halloween and it is quite impressive! At 3:30pm the administrative offices pretty much shut down and open their doors to all of the wives, kids and friends of the medical students. They had great decorations, mock spook alleys that were kid friendly and handfuls of candy, crackers, toys, pencils, playdoh,more candy, fruit snacks and just about anything else you could think of, stashed around the four different floors of the medical school. It was so much fun to see all of the other kids and parents and the med school employees were so nice and had so much fun with the kids. Luckily the anotomy lab that Kenny and our other friends were in got finished just in time for them to join us for a few more stops and the party in the cafeteria. We will definitely look forward to this every year-sure beats walking around in the cold!

Testing out the costume in the back yard.


I dressed up as a Zookeeper-pretty accurate I thought. Notice the Tootsie Pop tightly clutched in Nolan's hand-he had his chest and hands pretty sticky by the end but he sure loved it!

Kenny showing off the little monkey to some friends.

The great candy haul-most of this was fruit snacks and goldfish which was great because then Nolan could actually enjoy most of it!

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.