The importance of a good role model...

We purchased a potty for Nolan's 2nd birthday as well in anticipation that we will begin the big step to potty training someday soon. I placed the potty in the bathroom and have tried to make Nolan familiar with it's functions and encourage him to sit on it whenever he'd like. Well, for now it's just been a fun chair and and interesting toy to take apart and drag all over the house. Thanks goodness Kenny has stepped in and directed him in the correct usage of the potty chair....

Such a good role model.

Official Announcement

To all of you who haven't heard the news about our new baby coming along next spring, I apologize! We were trying to be somewhat strategic about spreading the word, but I'm afraid in doing so we've made things a little more difficult. Instead of just telling everyone that we see, we've started with our parents first, then siblings and grandparents, and then it just sort of took off from there and now I can't remember who we've told and who we still need to. So here goes the major announcement...
WE'RE EXPECTING OUR 2ND BABY ON MAY 9TH! WAHOO! Nolan's going to become a big brother, and Kenny and I will be parents of two adorable children...crazy huh? We are very excited and looking forward to adding to our little clan. This pregnancy has been great so far, no morning sickness just kinda tired. But I have gone from eating about 3 meals a day to being hungary every 2 hours! Now I have to pack snacks for both Nolan and I whenever we run errands! I'll take that though-it's a good time of year to want to eat all the time right??
So we'll keep you posted on any new gender news, beacause yes-we are definitely finding out that I am right about having a girl this time...Kenny's just going to have to have a co-ed soccer team.
We are also open to name suggestions for both genders, as of right now we have absolutely none!

Happy 2nd Birthday Nolan!!

We did it! We made it to 2 yrs, and what a wonderful couple of years it has been. Nolan has grown and learned so many things, that we are so proud of. For his birthday he went to "preschool" with his friends, Thanks Kristin for making that day his first "birthday at school" experience!

Adam, Nolan & Amy


He was totally into the birthday candles thing this year!!

He has developed a love for the Disney movie CARs since last December, so of course we had a CARS themed party for him.
I made him a race track cake...and it turned out very well I must say. Thanks to Karisa McAllister for lending me her cake decorating kit!



More candles!!

A new "bike-bike" as Nolan calls it.

We had the McAllisters, Pitts, Burnetts, and Leavitt's over to celebrate with us and are so glad they could make this day even more special for Nolan! Thanks Guys!

We closed the night with webcam visits to each set of Grandparents, and one tired and sugared-out little boy!

Guilty....

So after big vacations to Utah or Seattle I always feel like I have to blog a big post for each and put up lots of pictures. So when I get home I have that in the back of my mind while I am trying to get back into the swing of normal life. So it gets put off and put off, and now it's October and I haven't blogged anything because I haven't done the August vacations and now I'm months behind and I feel so guilty I don't even want to look at our blog and it is actually causing me a lot of unnecessary stress!!
So I have decided that this time I guess I'm going to have to just move on-our families have all of the pictures that we took (all like 400 of them I think). So I will now be moving onto our fall activities....sigh..I already feel better now that's off of my chest. Whew-I should have done that weeks ago.

Summer Recap

We all know what a crazy winter it had been, and after waiting for so long to have summer finally come around we were determined to make the most of it before the humidity set in and killed the desire to be outside. I must say that when people told us that Milwaukee's summers are really nice, I really didn't believe them. When we moved in last year it was like 100 degrees and 100% humidity!! We had no air conditioning at the time, and it was a very long few months before it switched from extreme heat to cold. We were prepared this year though!! We bought window A/C units back in March/April and were just waiting for the heat to bring it on! Thankfully it really never did-well not too badly. A few days were pretty warm and sticky-but for the most part summer was very kind to us. We've done a lot of biking, splash pad swimming, outdoor BBQ's, visiting nearby lakes, and exploring a bit of the areas around us. It was the first 4th of July that I can remember that wasn't scorching hot-it was kinda nice!
Here are a few of the summer's highlight photos-We kept ourselves busy enough that I was really bad at keeping up our blog...sorry everyone!


Balcony sandbox for one...

or two as the case may be...

A new found love of bike helmets...

and the American flag. He also liked the 4th of July parade too!

We also learned how sad it is to loose our first balloon-that was a heart breaker!


We spent a day at the beach at with our playgroup friends.


We went to Madison and experienced the farmer's market...mmm fresh peas!


Played volleyball weekly

And even caught a few fireflies!

AND THAT WAS ONLY JUNE AND JULY!! BRING ON THE REST OF SUMMER HORRAY!

Vrooom!!....Sleep is good again!

When we got back from our vacation time in early June the first item that we wanted to attend to was to get Nolan a new bed. We'd been looking at race car beds, but couldn't bring ourselves to swallow their usually high price tag. Thank heavens for Craigslist...and some serious sale stalking on our part-we found one for $40! Had I known how much Nolan would love it, and that it would finally be the solution to him sleeping through the night-we would have bought him one back in December! Oh well, live and learn...and now we get some pretty decent sleep!


Here is the assembly team...

The completed project...

And the wonderful results!!! Yay!

Our Tucson Visit

We were able to spend some time down in Tucson also with Matt, Val, Naomi and our new nephew Gabriel. We had lots of fun in the sun and enjoyed the heat and sunshine. We went on lots of walks, played in a nearby fountain, had mexican food and were able to attend Gabriel's blessing. Kenny was able to fly out for a couple of days before starting his summer research, and it was so nice to have everyone together. We had a great time watching the cousins interact and catching up. Can't wait until next time. Thanks Tucson Merrell's!

Memorial Day

We spent Memorial day with the Farnworth (my Mom's) side of my family. We decorated and shared Pepsi and Maple bars at my Grandpa Farnworth's gravesite in Orem. Those were two of his favorite things-and may have actually sustained his life on some occasions when he wouldn't eat much else. Grandpa was always willing to share a Pepsi-he would always crack it open and let you have the first sip. We may have attracted some weird glances and I'm sure people thought we were quite strange pouring Pepsi on his grave-but if you knew our Grandpa you would have understood. Afterwards, we all visited an aquarium in Sandy and enjoyed a great dinner together at Grandma's house. It was a great way to bring the trip to a close.

Utah Pictures Slideshow

While we were in Utah we spent a couple days in Springville, and the rest at the cabin in Mount Pleasant. The weather was all over the place from the low 90s to snow and rain at the cabin-but that didn't make the fun stop! We even had a chance to take a day trip up to Pocatello, Idaho to visit our dear friends the Forsey's whom I grew up with. They had just added Lydia to their family and we got to meet her for the first time. What a great trip!! We made lots of memories and took lots of pictures, I wish that I could share them all, but I hope you enjoy the first installment!

Ahh...Utah...We missed you.

I can't believe that our trip to Utah and Tucson has already come and gone since it seemed like we were looking forward to it forever!

But we are so glad that we were able to go, and we made some wonderful memories and took some fun pictures!

Here are a couple to get things started...I'll be loading a slide show later.