Baby muffin turns 2!!

Can you even believe our little girl is two??!  Hard for me to believe as well.  This year has flown by!  She was super cute saying two and trying to show her fingers.  We had to bend them into place for her cause she couldn't do it alone.  If she does it herself she puts up her index finger on both hands and them holds them together to show 2... it's so cute I should have gotten a pic of that! :)  We celebrated with a trip to her favorite place in the world, Chuck E. Cheese!!

She was ready to go play immediately!  I made these coin pouches for each of the kids (that we also did not photograph) and you can see Annie's in the picture.  She really loved having her little purse full of coins.

Her favorite ride by far is the racing horse... she truly screams the entire time she is on it.  I think she is halfway scared, halfway happy and doesn't know what to do other than scream at the top of her lungs. 

Our closest friends came to celebrate our little girl and we are so thankful for all of them!  Wyatt told me he was really sad Annie doesn't have any friends and I listed off all the people that are his friends that are also hers.  He did not seemed pleased with that answer.  :)  I told him as she gets older she will have more girl friends that are her age. LOL :)

After playing we had pizza and cupcakes. It took quite a few blows for her to get both the candles out, but she had some help from her bubba for that!  She hardly ate any but did use the candle as a spoon to get off the icing.  :)  Check out the adorable sprinkle 2's that I totally store from Corrie's blog! 

After this she flipped out crying and we could not figure out what was wrong, but then it came very clear.  She wanted her Richard!!  She hardly knows him, but he is for sure her first crush!  Do you see how she clings to him?  Once she realized he was there she did not want to get out of his arms.  We seriously had to pull her off of him.  She will pass up Daddy, Grandpa, Grandma, and Granny to head straight for Richard.  I have never seen anything like it!!

Then it was time to open presents and she was THRILLED with each and every one.  Of course they all had to be taken to Richard so he could see what she got.  :)   She wore those boots and pushed her cart with her baby around for the rest of the night.  She SCREAMED when we got to the car and she couldn't have the shopping cart in her lap.  She has certainly hit the terrible twos!!

But the party still wasn't over!  She had another present from us once we got home and she was tickled pink with it.  You see she immediately fed her baby and put her monkey to sleep!  :)  And there was another huge surprise before bed....

Her own kitchen!!  My parents are such troopers and came over and put the whole thing together at 10:30 at night!  I am really not sure who likes it more, Annie or the boys.  Wyatt must have cooked me a dozen meals today!!  It is in his room until we move Annie to a big girl bed and have more space in her tiny room (which we're planning on doing after Christmas).

SO, it was an excellent birthday for Annie, even though it was technically two days early.  Don't tell her!!  Can't wait to see what the next year holds!!

Not Back To School and why my kids are always sick!

We had so much fun celebrating not back to school day this year!!  Every year we got out to breakfast with a friend or two and celebrate not going to school like the rest of the kids are in our district that day.  Check out our little babies last year... can you even believe how they have grown?? And our circle of friends has grown too, and I am so thankful for that!!  The last two years have been very difficult friendship wise and I finally feel like I am surrounded by ladies that love me and my kids and will be here for the long haul.  I thank God for each of you!!  You know who you are.  ;)

And just in case you were wondering why my kids are always sick.  It's cause I photograph things like this instead of getting her to stop.  ;) 

Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria!!

This year we are studying American history with My Father's World Adventures.  I really loved spending all of first grade in Bible history, but I am excited to be learning something new (to them) this year.  Our first project was making foil ships after we learned about Christopher Columbus.  Please don't comment criticizing the shapes of my sails...  I realize they are not accurate but the kids did them and I didn't have the heart to get them to fix it.  :)  We took them outside and luckily it was a nice and windy day so they really flew all around the bucket.  Annie had just woken up but insisted on being a part of it all... I love how crazy he hair is!

The learning only lasted so long, though, before Annie threw herself into a bucket and the next thing I knew they were all in on the action!!  The best part of homeschooling for sure, these impromptu play times in the midst of learning.  :)  Annie found the headband in the garage and insisted on wearing it.... so ridiculous looking!

Wyatt ran inside and got his bag of coins and insisted I photograph him searching for a "treasure" at the bottom of his bucket AND the big reveal where he showed off what he found, LOL.  I love him!

And of course it wouldn't be a normal hour without Annie having a fit of some sort!!  She cracks me up in this picture!! 

This same day Wyatt Cade begged me to let him finish the Go For The Code workbook and then go out to Menchies to celebrate.  He had over 20 pages left and that kid did them all in one sitting!! He is certainly ready to start reading, and now I know what he is capable of, so he can't complain this year when he has to do more than two pages!!

Cha cha changes!

So we decided we had to make some changes around the Marlatt house!  We seem to have this cyclical cycle of digital entertainment.  There are times where we hardly watch TV or play the Wii, and then there are periods where it seems like it is all we do.  Well, we just finished a heavy screen time cycle and have been ready for a change.  When Noah was little all we had was TV.  Free tv at that.  Then we got cable.  Then we got a Wii.  Then we got Kindle Fires.  Then Noah got a 3DS and Wyatt a Leap Pad.  And now they know how to use the computer themselves.  Even if they are just doing a tiny bit of a couple of those it really adds up!!  Of course we made the kiddos go cold turkey and they don't know what to do with themselves.  They cracked me up all week coming up with the most random stuff to do.  I had to take pics of some of it cause they were so funny.

Isn't this what your kids do in the bathroom?  Put on robes and masks and use toothbrushes to brush their stuffed animals?  If you can't tell they are playing vet.  Next....

They all climbed into our bed and pretended to be babies sucking their thumbs.  This game went on for a good half hour!  Next....

This is when I knew the boredom was getting serious.  They pulled out old Language Arts Light Units and sat and read them.  And they ENJOYED it.  :)  Finally Annie couldn't take it anymore....

We loosened up a bit this week and allowed Kindle/3DS/Leap Pad games in the morning before they come out of their room at seven.  It has been really nice!!  Momma needs her sleep in the morning!!

Markers!!

This child loves markers!!  I never had this problem with the boys.  But I guess if I think about it that could be because we didn't have markers around when they were little.  Yeah, that would make sense.  Well, no matter how hard I try to keep them put up, hardly  a day goes by where she doesn't find some.  And then she goes to town. This picture what a day where I caught her early.  She is usually covered head to toe, starting with her mouth first.  Doesn't she look like she knows she did something wrong?!  And I also must announce that we finally dropped the bottle!!  All of these.....

...went right into the trashcan.  I started to throw them out and then ran and took a picture.  So silly, right?  I just started to get all emotional that she is our last baby and I just won't have bottles on the counter anymore.  Ridiculous, I know.  Getting over no more babies is hard work!!  Although I do have to say I enjoy having all that space back in the top of my dishwasher!  :)

A Menchies Celebration!

The big news this past week was that Wyatt finished his Get Ready for the Code book!!  Folks, I thought this day would never come.  And the crazy part is that he FLEW through it.  It makes me wonder if something just clicked or if he finally decided he wants to learn to read.  I'm really excited cause I know he will fly through the next two books and be good and ready for kinder come August.  Yay!!  He requested that he be treated just the same as Noah and get to do something special when he finishes his "splode" the code books.  After we said no to Itz he decided on a trip to Menchies, and of course we took a few pics!

He even brought Orangey along for some yogurt!

Little momma loves her some yogurt and made quite a mess of herself!

And Noah J had fun taking pics of his daddy with his favorite Menchies character - the marshmallow man!

While we were waiting on Wyatt to finish his mountain of ice cream Josh took a ton of pics of us.  I just love these shots of Noah J's gorgeous little face.

He's giving you the smolder in that last shot... can you tell?!  :) 

I attempted the smolder as well but was rather unsuccessful! 

Trouble maker!!

 So Josh and I were in our bedroom and when he came around the corner this is what he saw out of the window.  For real!  The boy is HUGE and our wobbly patio cover was rocking back and forth.  And that swing is 7 years old and quite brittle.  I'm quite shocked it all held him!  Of course Josh got mad, but it was also so funny he took a few pics.  Evidently this is the sort of stuff they come up with when we aren't looking!

Great moment!

It is moments like this that make me remember why we chose to homeschool!  We downloaded Annie a new app that makes animal sounds and the boys immediately ran off with the kindle to show it to her.  They got all the couch pillows and made a little bed in the middle of the living room and laid down for some fun.  I was so tickled by them and it just touched my heart.  I cannot even imagine sending off one/some of them to school each day!  I just know we have to soak up every minute together that we possibly can.   So many reasons to homeschool, but the friendships they are forming is one of the most important in my book.  So thankful!