4th of July!

Like I said before, we already celebrated the fourth earlier in the week, but we got to celebrate twice this year!  We went over to my parents house for my dad's delicious BBQ after Josh woke up.  The kids were quite excited to put on their flag tees, and I even wore my squeezed on non-maternity flag shirt the kids insisted I buy to match theirs!

 
My dad got the coolest pink, super long smoke bombs, and the kids had a blast using their light sabers to whoosh the smoke all around.  Where on earth do they come up with this stuff?

Please excuse my swollen, non-make-upped face!!!  But I love the boys in that pic - so cute posing with their sabers!  And once again, the face we are starting to all get to know so well....

To finish off the night the boys got cupcakes AND jello with special sparklers in it - you can see what a hit it was!! 

We then rushed home and popped a few more fireworks with G&G, and then crashed into bed exhausted!!!!  The boys were super happy cause I let them go to sleep in our bed cause the fireworks were so loud, although it was difficult for me to doze off with them in there!!

Our early 4th celebration!

  

So Joshua had to work this 4th, since it did not fall on his weekend, and he has scheduled all his vacation for when Annie arrives.  And my children are OBSESSED with fireworks, so we decided to do an early celebration that Josh could be present for.  So we went and bought way too many fireworks, invited the grandparents over, and planned a special ice cream sundae dessert.  You can see how they enjoyed the smoke bombs and poppers before dark....

 

I don't really remember what Wyatt was upset about, but you know I just love this face!

And they were both quite tickled with the sundaes we made - I think they have only ever had ice cream at home maybe three or four times before, so this was quite a treat.  Anything with whipped cream and cherries is perfect for Wyatt - I think he actually had more cherries than ice cream!

 

And lest you think Wyatt is the only one with sad faces, here is Noah J quite upset about his ice cream.  He was so super excited about  the sprinkles and teeny tiny chocolate chips, only to discover that he didn't like it on the ice cream!!!  We told him he had to eat it and he was quite heartbroken.  Of course I gave in and scooped him a plain bowl, and he was a happy boy.  I think he takes after me!!  I can't stand pieces of stuff in my ice cream!  

The nice thing about celebrating this way is that we still got to have a nice dinner and do a few more fireworks on the actual fourth, so we got to celebrate twice!  Of course we are still dealing with Wyatt being heartbroken over the fireworks stands being closed - to this day he still points out every single one we drive by and then gives some sad sad speech about not being able to go there anymore.  So pitiful!!

Pancakes for Padawans!!

Can you tell what these are????????

They are quite possibly the world's cutest pancakes!!!  My sweet friend who told me about these and my great mom who bought the molds, made this moment possible!

I kept them a secret and made a big deal about our "special" dinner we were having.  I made Josh and the boys stay out the kitchen the whole time I cooked, and all three of them were anxious to find out what it was.  Noah kept saying it smelled like pancakes, and Josh said putting the syrup on the table gave it away, but in the end all were surprised!

They were actually so surprised you can see I forgot to take a nice picture of them - we're just lucky that Josh hadn't already chowed down like the boys had!  Wyatt was cracking me up cause he picked up the Darth Vader pancake and held it to his face and made the darth  breathing noise - so cute!  Of course, then his face was covered in syrup, but oh well, right?!

You can see they came out pretty dark - I kind of had a hard time making them!  In order to get them cooked enough to flip they had to cook for forever!!  It seriously took me 45 minutes just to make 9 of them!!  I happily ate plain round cakes that only took a couple of minutes!

And yes, my kids are in their undies eating dinner!!

My Little Bankers

How adorable are these little guys??  They were a bright ray of sunshine on an otherwise sad day.  Last week we decided to bring them along to attend their Great Granny's funeral, and I'm so glad they came.  They were SO amazingly good - even Wyatt was quiet during the service.  They were also just such great little believers - Noah just wasn't upset cause he knew she is with Jesus now.  I love these guys!!

They looked like the most adorable little bankers you've ever seen!  They were so excited about the clothes they ran around the house pretending to go to work.  Noah was making calls, doing paperwork, and even came home and said "honey, boy work was super hard today."  So cute!!  After the funeral we got together with some of Josh's family and ate, and the boys changed shirts and went outside to play.  Josh snapped a few more shots....

I love this shot cause you can see Noah's socks he wore - he picked them out special for the day - pirate socks!  Even though it was a million degrees he insisted on wearing them with his crocks so he could impress other people with them! ;) 

And they got to play some hide and seek - you can see how seriously Wyatt takes hiding his eyes!!!

Bowling!!

I cannot believe how long it has been since we first took the boys bowling!  I looked it up on the blog and it was all the way back in 2007.  That makes me feel a little sad since I know how much the kids liked it!  We have been so busy working on the house that we have not had a lot of time to run around doing stuff the kids like.  Add to that my ever growing belly and the out of control heat, and there are just not that many things I want to do.

Luckily, it has been storming  a lot recently, so we have had lots of opportunity to talk about the angels bowling up in heaven.  And because of that the kids have been asking non stop to go bowl!  So we had a few hours yesterday so we loaded up and headed over to Copperfield.

The boys LOVED it!!  You know how Noah has the ability to find something wrong with every single fun event we do?  Well, he had nearly no complaints the entire time!  I thought for sure the fact that his shoes were not red would set him off, but it didn't even phase him.  We were also super impressed with their ability to actually carry the ball around themselves and to roll it!  We took tons of pics - but just has them in RAW format and I have no idea how to process them so I can post them.  So you'll have to settle for the first few jpgs!!

I just loved how excited they got for each other and for us.  If you knocked down a single pin Wyatt would jump up and down and scream, "you won, you won!!!"  There were a million high fives all the way around.  I will definitely have to post the other pictures after Josh processes them, because they are absolutely priceless.  You have not lived until you have seen Noah bowl!!  It is quite a sight!!  ;)  And you will have to see the final scores- it is truly really sad, especially since we had the bumpers up!!

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!