Merrin's news

Yes, Merrin is going to be a BIG SISTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The newest addition to our family is due to arrive on February 20, 2009! So far my pregnancy has gone pretty well aside from the occasional nausea and the constant state of exhaustion but Keith and I feel very blessed that God decided it was time for our family to grow. I am 11 weeks pregnant and starting to feel back to my old self again. We have been fortunate enough to not only see the baby's heartbeat but this past week we also got to hear the heart beat for the very first time. Below is our little peanut's very first picture...

Cousin Ethan

Merrin was lucky enough to spend some time with her cousin Ethan this past weekend as my parents were keeping him so that my sister and brother-n-law could take a quick trip to the beach to celebrate their anniversary (HAPPY 10 YEARS JILL & CHAD)! Cousin Noah was staying with his other grandparents...sort of a "divide & conquer" strategy! Keith, Merrin and I drove over to my parents Saturday morning in hopes of taking Ethan and Merrin to the park in Shelby to ride the train and merry-go-round but unfortunately we found out those rides don't open until later in the day so we played on the playground and then went to eat some lunch. Ethan is way more adventurous on the playground equipment than Merrin. I think the only thing Merrin was interested in was the swings but Ethan was climbing all over the place and sliding down the slides, etc. I think they had a good time and an even better time once we got to lunch and they had some ice cream for dessert! Here are some pics of our time with Cousin Ethan!

VBS

Last week was Merrin's very first Vacation Bible School at Sharon as well as my first time too! Growing up in my hometown church I think I attended VBS every year but this was my first year on the "other side". I assisted three other teachers in the 1st & 2nd grade combo room and after a week with first graders I have a new found respect for teachers, especially my mother who taught 1st grade for 30 years!!! Despite some behavior problems from a few little 1st graders I had a great time and I think Merrin had an even better time! I was a little worried how she would handle having to get up and rush out the door every morning as well as miss her morning nap which she still enjoys from time to time. Surprisingly she did great and I think she is actually going to miss it this week as now she is home with boring old mama. Merrin LOVED her two teachers, Ms. Rita & Ms. Barbara, who kept her in the nursery all week. The main theme for the week was "Outrigger Island" with lots of Hawaiian influences. We had some "theme" days as well which included "bring a friend day", "crazy hair day", "crazy hat day" and Merrin's favorite, "favorite sports team day"! Here is a pic of Merrin in her best sports attire along with her friend Hannah Grace, whom she adores! I truly feel that Keith and I have found the perfect church, if you can ever really have such a thing, but we feel that it is perfect for us. We are so blessed to have found Sharon and I am so happy that I agreed to help out with VBS this year. It made me feel as if we were even more a part of our church and it helped me get to know a few of the women in the church that I didn't know so well. We really do have some special women in our church and they certainly do love Merrin which makes me so happy. Throughout my days at VBS I would sometimes see Merrin in the halls with one of the women in the church who just decided to go and get her out of the nursery to walk her around or take her to music, etc. It just made me so happy to see these special people taking an interest in her. I know that Merrin will have many more happy memories at Sharon! Also during the past week, my good friend from church, Danielle, and her son, Cody, came to the house for a play date and we took Merrin and Cody to the pool. They had lots of fun. Click here to see the rest of our pics from our past week!

Happy Birthday Claire

The big ONE! Miss Claire Brittain turned one year old last week :) and was oh so cute at her birthday party on Saturday! Keith, Merrin and I went to help Claire celebrate her first birthday and my good friend Tara did a wonderful job at throwing a great party! Merrin had the best time and Keith and I thoroughly enjoyed the food (props to Tara for getting Keith to eat pickles...he didn't know they were hidden in the chicken salad!!). Claire seemed to have a great time at her party and we are so very proud of her and her big sister Alex. They are two of the sweetest little girls and couldn't have asked for better parents! Tara and Alan have done a wonderful job of raising their girls and we are fortunate to be friends with them :) We are looking forward to many more birthday parties to come! Hip Hip Hooray for Miss Claire!!










On a side note...we are also so very proud of our niece, Emory, who took her very first steps this past week. GO EMORY!! Click here to see Miss Emory walk.

4th of July

This 4th of July we were a bit exhausted as we had just flown back home from our awesome trip to Montreal and although we would have loved to stay in bed all day, Merrin wouldn't have let us. We started off the day by taking Merrin to our neighborhood's 4th of July parade and had the best time. Even though Keith and I have lived in the neighborhood for three years now, we have yet to attend the annual July 4th parade so we had no idea that we would in fact BE the actual parade. Usually when you think of parades, floats come to mind but in this case "we the people" were the parade. It was lots of fun though, the Charlotte Fire Department started off the parade with a very nice speech on how dangerous fireworks can be and to use caution. Then the parade was in full force with cutely dressed kids, oddly dressed parents and amusingly dressed dogs! We marched around the neighborhood and once we made our way back to the clubhouse there was FREE ice cream for all the little ones. Merrin had her very first bubble gum flavor pop cycle and ate every bite (well, dad helped a little)!

We were home from the parade by 10:30 and the rest of the day went down hill from there...around 1:30 I received a phone call from my mom saying they were on the way to the emergency room!!!!!!!!!! My heart almost stopped and I think instead of giving her an immediate reaction I didn't say anything at all so she proceeded to tell me that my dad had fallen off his ladder while trying to trim some limbs out of a tree in their yard. She said that he thought he might have broken his ribs and in fact not only did he break one of his ribs but cracked every single other rib on his right side. Needless to say they gave him some very powerful drugs and after they started to take effect they sent him home. Apparently there is not much you can do for broken ribs except pray that you don't laugh or sneeze! Daddy has been in pretty severe pain all weekend so I ask all of you to please pray for him and a quick recovery. My dad is not one to stay still for long and I know this is hard on him to be "down and out" for awhile. When we went to go visit him, poor Merrin didn't know what to think...she couldn't figure out why Papaw could not hold her and every time my dad had a muscle spasm (which apparently can hurt worse than the actual break) he would yell out in pain and give Merrin a little scare. Not to make light of broken ribs but we are all just thankful that nothing worse happened, I don't know what I would do without my parents. I LOVE YOU DADDY & MAMA!

Canada, Eh?

Merrin is officially an international traveler!! We just got back from a trip to visit Keith's older brother, Marshall, in Montreal, Canada! Not only did we go but Keith's younger brother, Eric, and his family along with Keith's mom all came and it was so nice having the whole family together. Merrin loved seeing her Uncle Marshall & cousin Emory since she had not seen either of them in quite some time. Marshall moved up to Montreal in January 2007 and it was so nice seeing his life there and how well he is doing. We are very proud of him. He has a great job, a trendy cool apartment and we are happy to report, an extremely nice girlfriend!!! Yep, that's right, we got to meet wonderful Angela and loved every minute we spent with her. She is a native of Montreal but we won't hold that against her :) Angela is getting ready to travel to Halifax, Nova Scotia which is about a 12 hour drive from Montreal, for her one year residency in psychology. We are hoping that Angela can spend Christmas with the Gunter family in NC this year. THANK YOU MARSHALL for letting us come visit, we had a great time!
Click here to view the rest of our pictures.

My new dolly

I am having to catch up on a few of my blogs as we've been out of town but Merrin and I were out shopping for some things for our upcoming trip to Montreal, Canada when Merrin picked up this doll in Babies R Us and I just couldn't resist buying it for her. It was definitely an unnecessary purchase but Merrin picked up the doll in the store and said "baby" and hugged it as if it was her own...so I'm thinking "how could I NOT buy this for her"...however as soon as we got in the car, the baby was thrown on the floor and I thought to myself..."am I a sucker or what, I can't believe I fell for that"!! Merrin redeemed herself when we got home though because she picked her dolly back up and started playing with her. She even rocked her in her rocking chair! Priceless!!! (I even think the doll looks a little like Merrin)

Merrin also had an exciting play date before we left for Canada. We went to Becky's house in Baxter Village to play with her son Michael and Kellianne & Katelyn also joined us. Baxter Village has an AWESOME swimming pool with an "ocean-front" like entrance so we never even got into the baby pool as the little ones just played in the entrance to the big pool. We had lots of fun and here are a few pics of the kids.