my little pud boy

So today's post is dedicated to my little baby noodle, Wy C.  I can't even believe how big he has gotten.  He is so amazingly beautiful, and will really just awe you with his sweet heart, but can also make you go mad with his gift for repetition!!!  We were sitting at the table playing a game of Zingo and we just thought he was so gorgeous we had to get the camera out to take a few pics.

We caught this great pic of his frustration when someone took the piece he needed...  

he just cracks me up.  He has also been very happy that he has been allowed to touch our old camera, now that Josh has his new one.  He is constantly begging to take pictures now.

He and Noah have been absolutely the best of friends lately.  One of my favorite things to do is watch them play when they don't know I'm looking.  They crack me up with the things they say to each other.  Their newest favorite trick is for Noah to pick Wyatt up and carry him around as far as he can.  It is pretty disturbing and I'm not quite sure how Noah even does it - Wyatt is quite a solid little bundle.  The most concerning part is that I think they are practicing for when they carry Annie around!!  Agghhh!  I love my littlest  boy!!!!

Star Wars Party!!

Can you even believe my little babies are growing up? It is hard for me to imagine that they are 3 and 5. Today is Noah's birthday, but he thought he turned 5 the day of his party, so today is just another day to him. :) Silly bug

I have not been blogging cause I have discovered that these files from our new camera are HUGE, and I really have no idea how to edit them so that they upload easier. I thought I figured it out, but it barely made the files smaller. So now I'm just sucking it up and uploading them at this crazy painstakingly slow rate!!

We had the boys party at the gym where Noah takes gymnastic classes - it was so great!! Really, it was such a relief not to have it at home. And it really wasn't that pricey, either. Noah desperately wanted a Star Wars party, and of course Wyatt went along with whatever Noah said (although he did request a Clifford cake). I was feeling a little challenged that I wouldn't be able to really make it sw themed, other than the plates, and stuff, but I came across this cool site that showed some party ideas that I new I could incorporate.

What does every Jedi need????? A robe and a light saber of course, so those were the party favors. To my surprise the gym people let the kids get all dressed up and then run about having light saber battles, which was a bit frightening, but the kids thought it was the best thing ever. They were SO adorable. I was planning on making pretend light sabers out of pool noodles, but I found these light up ones online for under 3 bucks a piece, so that was worth it! Noah loved all the special attention the coaches gave him, and Wyatt was just happy to finally get to play on all the equipment he has to watch Noah do every week during class.

It was so crazy we forgot to get good pics of everything - no cakes, or the boys together. Why do I always do that stuff?? All of their friends came, which was the cherry on top - Noah just can't stop talking about it, and of vourse, already planning next years party!! ;) I think he takes after me!!

Lodge pics....

Just found this draft sitting around and realized I never published it..... doesn't tell the whole story, but I just have to share them!!

Hotels are great!!

So we have officially had our first "Marlatt Family Vacation!" We had so much fun, and we have 700 pictures to prove it!! It kills me just to pick out a few to share, so I'll try to do it in small groups. We taught the kids to say "happy Marlatt family vacation" over and over, and it was really adorable. Whenever we did something fun they would say that and it tickled me to death!

Our whirlwind car trip consisted of Great Wolf Lodge, Grapevine to ride on Thomas, and then down to San Antonio for Sea World. We were gone just 4 days, so that was a lot to cram in!

The kids didn't know quite what to expect with the lodge, and honestly, neither did I. All I knew was from the website, and Josh hadn't even seen that! Well, when we drove up to the huge stone wolves outside, the kids freaked out, and I knew that it would be well worth the money! These pictures are from the yard that was outside the back porch of our room. Who would think that the kids would be so excited to run around in some grass? They seriously thought it was the coolest thing ever. There was this little hill and Noah was running down it backwards and thought it made him superman or something. So funny!

They were also quite pleased with the sofa in the hotel room! It's the little things, right?

More of the trip later!!

Moon: I am the light of the world!

So I'm finally getting around to week 2! :) ha!

Our main idea this week was about how we are just like the moon. We talked about how the moon doesn't have a light of it's own, but reflects the light of the sun. We need to do the same thing, always reflecting Jesus. Very cool.

We did a bunch of stuff, but I didn't take many pictures, and when I did take them, they didn't turn out well. I don't know what's up with our camera. The first day we took a pan full of flour, and then a bunch of different sized balls to experiment with making craters. They really loved this - Noah even got out some of his Star Wars men to pretend were walking on the moon leaving footprints. I think this was my favorite thing they did - they really understand what a crater is now. Of course, I should never have left this pan out and then leave the room for a half hour, cause when I returned the entire kitchen was COVERED in moon dust! :) Boys!!

We also went to the planetarium and watched a show about the planets and stars, which they also really liked. It's just perfect for kids their age - not too long, not too short. While we were there we bought these cool stick on the ceiling, glow in the dark moons that show the different stages. We hung those up in their room and they were SO excited. I think there is only one left hanging, cause they have all fallen, but they were good while they lasted.

And to top off the week we made a moon cake! We had a few problems there, but they didn't seem to mind. My old oil based food color turned the icing blue instead of gray, and our Necco wafer craters were all pink and yellow, cause that's what the kids wanted. But nobody complained how it tasted! :)

Let's go to the movies!!!

We would NEVER have done this with Noah at 2, but Wyatt is a different story! The kids had been begging for us to take him to see the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, and Josh and I decided that Wyatt would probably do well, so we surprised them a few weeks ago.

Noah was so happy Wyatt was there with him, and was showing him everything in the theater kind of like a tour guide. It was sweet that he wanted to share it with him! Of course they wanted to play the arcade games first, and we also had to make a Walgreens run to pick up some candy to sneak in (the kids choice? Crabby Patties of course!!)! AND, the best part of the the day for the kids - they were allowed to have Coke!! It's the little things, right? :)

They loved the movie, and Wyatt did really well - towards the end he was moving between Josh and me and lot, and then once he realized he could stand up and dance and we didn't care, he did that for the last 20 minutes. I wish we could have gotten pictures of that! :)

The only problem with this trip is that we have created a chipmunks MONSTER in Wyatt!! Seriously, the boy is obsessed! I got them these totally tacky t-shirts at Wal-Mart, and the boy wants to wear it every day. And then their Granny took them to Build-A-Bear, and instead of getting bears they both got Alvins. Wyatt carries his Alvin everywhere - to the park, to eat, to bed. Lets hope he never gets lost cause this boy would be heartbroken!!

All in all it was a great trip, and we can't wait to take the boys to see Toy Story 3 this summer - I don't know who is excited about it more, the kids or Josh! :)

Sun: Jesus is the light of the world!

Sadly, now that I have looked at all my pics, I only have 1 picture from the first week. And, sadly, I remember the reason why - I hadn't downloaded the Christmas pictures yet so the camera was full! :( Ridiculous, I know, but true. So this is the only shot we have from our first week of school!

We did a lot of painting, and the kids really loved making their badges that our curriculum has for each week. They are pretty cute - I so wish I had a picture of them wearing them. Each week we focus on a letter, a science topic, and a Bible truth. So this week was about the letter S, the sun, and our verse "Jesus is the light of the world!" So on the 3rd day they make a badge that they can wear out and about and they can tell their verse to people if they ask about it. I thought Noah would think it was pretty lame, but they LOVED it! I got them those retractable badge holders, which I think is what sold it. Their daddy has one of those for work, and they are pretty obsessed with it. Wyatt was so happy to pretend he was Daddy! And they biggest shocker was that he actually remembers the verse - he totally shocked me when he held it out and said, "Jesus da wight of da woad!" It never dawned on me that he would pick any of this up yet, but am tickled pink that he is!

We read this book called Sun Bread from the library, and it was so cute!! The whole town is cold and tired of winter and a baker bakes some sun bread to warm them all up. Such a cute story, and it has the recipe to make your own bread right on the back. Very exciting, even though they had to wait for it to rise. Of course Noah wouldn't actually eat any, but we the rest of us did and it was delish! :)

First Day of School!!

So we finally began our homeschooling adventure this month! Noah has been begging and begging for me to start teaching him, so I figured I better get things moving! We bought our curriculum in December and spent the whole month going through it, and started the first week in January. You can see how excited the kids were!!

Noah really wants to focus on painting, and if I just so happen to teach him to read along the way, well, that's OK with him too. I got the kids some smocks from US Toys, and Wyatt wore his all day every day, for the first week. He even took a nap in it! He LOVES the thing - he is so weird! He was so obsessed I had to take a picture of him in it during snack time!

I am trying to do a pseudo "workbox" system, cause I desperately need some way to keep up with all the stuff. I really love it cause I'm able to get all the supplies for each activity together the night before, and then the morning goes much smoother, cause you know I am such a mess and can never find anything. Yes, it is all set up on top of the changing table that is still in our school room till we move it into the new nursery, but you know, its there and that's what matters, right? Here is our first day boxes:


I'm hoping to have enough pictures and links from each week to blog about each week we do, but you know how great I am keeping up with those kind of commitments! :) So far it's going well, and I feel so blessed to be able to stay home with my kiddos and have these few precious moments with them, cause I know how quickly they grow up!! I know family and friends have their worries and concerns, but seriously, once you start researching it you realize how great it really is, and it's not just for freaks! :) I read an article in a magazine a few weeks ago that perfectly articulated why I am homeschooling, maybe I can dig it up and post it here!

2 Nights, 2 Costumes!

Well, the Halloween madness has finally died down over here! It was a sad sad day yesterday when we finally removed all the Halloween decorations. Seriously, I thought the kids might cry. And they just didn't get why we couldn't put the Christmas stuff up yet! :)

This was the best Halloween yet for the boys - I think 4 is the perfect age to really enjoy it. Not scared of everything, but still believes its all just great, ya know? So Darth and Yoda were great - no tears, no whining, nothing but fun. And Noah was just NOT shy at all. He was yelling across the street at other kids "Hey, your costume looks great!!!!" And after he told the people thank you he would say "Happy Halloween". And at the end he told one guy who proved his knowledge of Star Wars to him "may the force be with you." What?!?! My shy little boy? Not when he's Darth!! We went with John and Sara, so Maddie was dressed up as Daphne from Scooby Doo. It was so funny cause Noah called her Daphne all night!

And of course Wyatt just thought it was like any other day where you get candy from complete strangers. They filled up their little Darth Vader buckets rather quickly, but they were Ok with it cause they wanted to come home and pass stuff out. So we sat on the driveway for a while passing candy out, which could have possibly been his favorite part of the night.


Our pumpkins were a bit sad this year. Because of our time schedule we had to do them on Wednesday, so they had fallen apart a bit by Saturday night. We had this Star Wars book and we knew we had to pick easy ones or else we wouldn't have time. Well, of course our kids picked out the 2 hardest ones, but Josh was a heman and got it all done! The R2D2 was supposed to have C3P0 next to him, but my genius husband decided just to do the one and the kids never noticed! :) ha!

Now the night before we went to Copperfield Church's trunk or treat thing, and the kids had a blast there too. We went with the Cooper's and the Boyd's, so the boys were thrilled they had their friends there. My parents found this Boba Fett costume on sale earlier in the week, and Noah just fell in LOVE with it. He actually wanted to wear it instead of Darth, so we came up with this idea of wearing it on Friday night, which just made his year. Why do little boys love Boba Fett so much? It's bizarre. We had lots of fun - you can see the pic of the whole gang - aren't they too cute? We even had a teeny tiny princess Leia!! Oh, and I love how Wyatt just isn't afraid of things - he was SOOOO excited to see the Chick Fil A cow. Noah wouldn't go near to him! :)

I can't even imagine what they will choose next year!!!!!!

Pumpkin Patch

I'm so relieved to say that we finally went to the pumpkin patch this weekend!! The kids have only asked me every single day since the pumpkins arrived and I was tired of hearing it! :) And considering we drive past it at least 10 times a week, that makes a lot of whining! We have been waiting for the perfect day - cool and sunny, which can be hard to come by in October but Sunday was absolutely gorgeous! Noah was so excited cause his cousin was there too, who of course is his favorite person in the whole world!

He was super pumped about the Wizard of Oz pumpkins cause we just got he movie a few weeks ago. He was obsessing over the wicked witches crumpled up legs they had sticking out from under a pumpkin. Noah asked to pick up the pumpkin so he could see her smooshed face! What??! That kid is bizarre! You can see Wyatt couldn't take his eyes off of it, and was a little unsure about the whole place, even though he had been begging for it.



I'm not kidding you, but we did not direct Noah into this pose!!!! He love love loves to pose for photos and comes up with the funniest positions. Isn't this just too cute?!!
Wyatt was super excited about this Buzz Lightyear pumpkin!

And we put all the boys on this cute little Bullseye horse they had with the Toy Story things and they were all excited at first, but Noah quickly freaked out. That boys makes me crazy! He kept saying "I'm gonna fall!!!!" Wyatt and Joseph loved it, though!


Wyatt was so proud of his little pumpkin he picked for himself. He even begged to sleep with it last night!!

I was also really excited cause they had a whole Christmas tree setup where you could take your Christmas card pics!!!! Thumbs up to Cypress United Methodist!! So I'm proud to say that in October I've already got that done!! Of course you'll have to wait to see those!

Gig 'em!!

Sooo, Josh took Noah J to his first official Aggie game this season. They had half price tickets for recent grads, so we were able to get a couple tickets for a good deal, and, well, you know how much Noah loves loves loves the Aggie band, so we knew we just had to do it.

We got out his 12th man jersey and it was a little small and Noah said it was scratching his neck, so I ran to the Academy to see what I could find. And of course it was the cuteness of all cuteness, matching father son aggie tees. Can you say adorable??!?! I'm not sure how much Josh loved it, but it made Noah's day!!

Josh said he did really well, but was starting to get antsy right about halftime. Of course that all changed as soon as the band came out, but Noah was really tuckering out so they went ahead and left the game. A 4 year old can only sit still for so long, right? Josh took him for a walk all around campus and he had fun looking at all the stuff he's see's in his Howdy Reveille book. And he was so excited to tell me how he and daddy played football on Simpson drill field. So cute!! And, in typical Josh fashion, he let the boy pee on the field!! Josh said all the buildings were closed and the field was dark, so he just let him pee right on the middle of it!! I'm sure that's breaking some rule! :)

Can't wait till Josh can take both the boys next season - I think Wyatt will love it! I just had to put that last picture up here - he's using the force if you can't tell!! :)

4th of July!

So please tell me why I was crazy enough to do this craft with the kids. I guess cause I know Noah is a sucker for anything with glue and glitter, and I'll pretty much do anything that tickles him. I saw this idea on some blog, so I picked up the stuff right away.

We invited Maddie over to join in the fun, so Noah was extra excited. They had fun, and I thought everything was fine. Cause you see, unlike my normal pattern, I actually closed up all the glue and closed the glitter, and put the dirty dishes in the sink. I was so proud of myself for "cleaning up." Now, I did leave it all on the table, but at least I closed it - more than I normally do, right?

Well later that afternoon I was in Noah's room putting up laundry when I see him run past into the bathroom, and then run out with a box of kleenex. Huh?? I knew something was up. So I go into the kitchen and well, you can see what I found. ALL of the glitter dumped out, and Noah trying to clean it up with Kleenex. And the part I didn't get on film, was that Wyatt was sitting on the table, and Noah had squeezed glue all over his legs and glittered him. Yup. Glittered him!!! I didn't know what to do - so I threw him in the bathtub, which then got glitter all over the bathroom, and all down the hall. CHAOS I tell you!! I wanted to be mad, but it was just so funny. They both had to go to bed with no stories or snuggles, but that was all I had the heart to do.

While they were asleep I finished assembling them and hung them from their fans - aren't they so cute? I don't think Noah will ever let me take them down!