Children's Museum

While Linda, Dave's Mom. was here we took the kids to The Children's Museum in Memphis. The boys had so much fun. It had so much for them to do, and try. There were only 4 or 5 other kids there, so we pretty much were able to let them run wild and go from place to place without worrying about other people. This is a stage where they had dress-up and you could dance and play different instruments. They didn't have any desire to dress up but the played and danced around. I think they should start a band.

The Mississippi River was neat and SO WET!! Everyone was SOAKED after playing but they loved it. There was fishing poles and nets to catch fish and boats. They could have stayed there all day to play.

Logan's potential future......?

Sam loved the Airplane, the picture is blurry because he wouldn't
stay turned around for even a second.

Grocery shopping was made for Logan! He is my shopping helper, we do our shopping when Sam is at school. He had a blast in there. The rules are you can only get 3 things, but we were the only ones in there. I unloaded his cart so many times so he could refill it.

Sam just wanted to check everyone out. He is a good cashier, but
he gets to keep ALL the receipts.

It was just so cool! A mini Kroger!

Logan is NOT allowed to be in the car at all unless he is buckled, so he loved being
able to drive and just around in there.

This just proves that Logan IS a Marlatt! I love it! He is just so cute and SO excited about Ice Cream. The simple pleasures in life.

That's a Fro!

I am a firm believer that boys need to have boy hair cuts, but how could I cut this hair! He is so stinkin' cute. His hair is so curly, I love it!!

(Sam was trying to make him stand still so I could get a shot of the hair in all its glory, unfortunately he helped by making faces which Logan HAD to copy.)

Tennessee Snow

WARNING: PICTURE OVERLOAD!

In the almost 4 years we have lived in Tennessee, we have been lucky to get one good snow a year. It will snow during the night, then be melted by dinner the next night. So we are super excited to see it and play in it. These are the ONLY snow clothes we have for the boys. They have warm coats and mittens, but whats the point of buying them snow suits they will only wear once before they outgrow them.

Dave, being the engineer that he is thought up a brilliant plan to keep the boys dry. He cut up garbage bags and made them snow pants. What a smart man! ( That's why I married him!!)

I wasn't sure how long or if the snow would stay so I sent them out as soon as we noticed it was snowing to play. Poor Logan's hat kept covering his eyes. Sam was a great big brother and helped him adjust it several times.

Logan didn't like snow inside his mittens.

Another ingenious idea of Dave's. Homemade Sled. It worked great.

There was 1/4 inch of ice on top of the snow....snow angels didn't work.

They were to heavy to slide together, but they sure tried.

Sam got white washed! He liked it; it wasn't that mean.

Later, we went to a friends house and Dave and Chad rigged up a redneck sled made out of a piece of solar panel, zip ties, rope, and an old piece of chair. It worked great and everyone had a blast. Later that night Dave, Josh, and Chad broke out some snowboards and a four wheeler and added a little class to the redneck sled adventure. All it takes is an empty cornfield 8 inches of snow and a four wheeler and it was like Park City all over again. They ended up making a jump out of the sled and loads of snow. Needless to say, Dave is still hurting from it. Boys will ALWAYS be boys even when they get older!


IT SNOWED AGAIN!!!!!

The boys and I went out tonight to make a snowman for Family Night.

Not too shabby for a Tennessee snowman.

Who needs a resort....

when you can stay at the Hospital for 4 days!! We got home early Tuesday morning and on Friday we were at the ER. Dave woke up at 2:00AM on Thursday with really bad stomach pain. He rolled around in pain until 9, when I called my neighbor and told her I needed to drop off my kids to take Dave in. I helped him to get dressed and put him in the car and hauled him off to the Urgent Care. (we don't have a regular doctor) The Doctor said it was his appendix.... so he sent us to the ER. We then sat in the ER for several hours before they could get Dave in to do a CT scan. When he came back from the CT scan at 4 they told him to get into a lovely flowery gown, and wait for the surgeon to come back in. Within 5 minutes the surgeon was there informing us that Dave's Appendix was in fact the problem and it had already burst!! WHAT!!! He continues on to say the surgery is to complicated and dangerous to do now because they would have to take part of his small intestine and colon to get all the pieces! OK...... so what are we suppose to do? He said it seemed to have walled off (contained itself) but he wants to keep Dave in the hospital over the weekend so he can watch to make sure the infection doesn't spread. They then wheeled him up to the 6th floor and hooked him up to several Antibiotics and there we sat for 4 days! Of course, I wasn't going to leave him alone there; not because he wanted me to stay but because there is no way that I would have let him leave me alone in there. Poor guy, he hates to sit still and 4 days in bed was way to long for him. He was released Monday morning with a slew of meds to take to finish killing the infection. He is feeling reasonably better and will have surgery to take it out next month. Now to the other half of the story.....OUR KIDS!!!! You didn't think I would keep them at the hospital with me did you! Lynsee, Amanda and Josh and Teil watched the boys for us. They were LIFESAVER!! Lynsee took them Friday, Amanda took the Saturday and Josh and Teil stayed over with them at night. You all saved my life! REALLY. We are so blessed to have such good friends here that are willing to step in at take our kids so willingly. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! Dave's Mom was able to fly in late Saturday night and stay with the boys for the reminder of time. Linda is still here making sure Dave is well and done with surgery before she plans on leaving. She really is the greatest Mother-in-Law. She has been so helpful. My stress level has gone down so much with her being here. Thanks Linda, WE LOVE YOU!! Anyway we have had a busy month! I will post after his surgery!

SNOW!!

It snowed in Moses Lake just a few days before we had to leave so the boys headed out to play. We don't have super warm winter clothes because there is no reason to in TN so they were really cold, but the had fun. We only played outside for maybe 20 minutes before we were all to cold to move, but we played hard for the few minutes. The only other time Logan had seen snow was 1 night last year. It was 10pm but we bundled them up and took them out to see the wonder that is snow. He liked it a lot more this year. I think they enjoyed eating it more than playing in it.

Sam was trying to teach Logan how to make a snow angel.....in reverse. I'm not sure why the had to make them face down, but they laughed and enjoyed themselves.

Random Pictures

One morning the guys took all the kids out to the sand dunes to ride motorcycles. They had such a good time riding and playing in the sand. I think the water was iced over but I'm not sure. Dave loves to play at the dunes so I think they had a good day.

Mayme, Logan, Sam, and Jade

Sam, Jade, Edyn, and Avry

Logan and the babies! This is Rory, and Logan LOVES her. Rory (Tom and Alisha's) was 7 weeks old over Christmas. Casey and Sylvia's Emma was 2 weeks old. They are so cute I still can't get over it. I loved those babies up, so did Logan. We had to keep a watchful eye on the babies cause Logan always wanted to touch them and love them. He was very soft and gentle with them, but he would not leave them alone. Thanks to Alisha and Sylvia for letting Logan look and play and touch your brand new babies. He is so big, but he has such a big kind heart. He wanted to make sure they always had their pacifiers and were always cozy warm. He couldn't walk past without checking on them and giving them a kiss. It was so sweet to watch although it was also nerve racking. I'm so glad I got to watch him around other children besides Sam. I have really good nice boys.

Ride Along with Grandpa Bob

Grandpa Bob drives a garbage truck. The boys know that, so every time we see one (it doesn't matter where we are) they think its Grandpa Bob. Dave and I thought it might be fun to let Sam go for a drive with Bob in the truck. He has a route on Tuesday that goes near the house and out to Mardon. We decided that this would be the perfect time to let Sam go for just about an hour. Sam was SO excited! He talked about for 2 days until it was time. Dave loaded up his car seat, and got Sam situated and took a few pictures, Sam was on cloud 9. In a little over an hour the door opened to a different Sam. He was very mad. We asked if he had fun. NO! was his answer. That doesn't shock us because he always says no even if he loved it. Then he started in on this LONG story... His legs hurt because it was to bumpy, and it smelled bad, and Grandpa Bob couldn't hear him because it was SO LOUD!!! And the only part he liked was the arms going up and throwing the garbage back. It was really funny to hear him tell us. He kept giving Grandpa Bob dirty looks while he was telling us, like Grandpa had deceived him in some way.

Sam now talks about how much fun he had on his ride along but still does not want to talk about the bumps. He says next year Grandpa Bob can take him again and try to not make it so bumpy, because we all know that Grandpa was making it bumpy on purpose. I'm thankful for the memories that my boys get to make with their grandparents.

Kitties!!

Nothing makes Logan happier than animals! At Grandma Linda's there were 2 kittens, and they were cute! Logan may have been a little ruff, but the kitties didn't seem to mind. He held on to them so tight and kept saying "hug". It was really cute to see him loving them. It almost makes me want one.

He wanted a picture with the kitty on his lap; but the kitty wouldn't stay still, so he held it down so I could take a picture. So cute.

At the end of his 'photo shot' the kitty turned on Logan and scratched his neck. It was sad but, really funny. He cried for a few minutes and I throw the cat outside. When he got over it he wanted the kitty back so we brought it back in and he proceeded to tell the kitty all about his ouchy. He kept telling him to 'yook, yook, ouch! No kitty!' Then he made the kitty go back outside for a time out. Later in the day we took the boys out to play in the old snow, and when the kitty wandered up to say hi, Logan white washed him! I laughed so hard! Where did that come from? My 2 year old revenge! That will teach the kitty to scratch him again!!

Heslop Christmas

The day after Christmas, we had Christmas at Dave's parents house. His brother and sister came over from Seattle for the day. The boys had a great time getting to visit with there aunts and uncles.

Is there anything better than a piggy back ride?

Play-Doh (as weird as it may sound) is still one of their most favorite things. When we got home I counted over 40 containers and 4 different play sets for them. I love play-Doh, We spend a lot of time with that stuff around here.

Dave was taking to long to open his present and it was stressing Sam out. He kept telling Dave to hurry and we didn't plan on saving the wrapping paper. So this shot is when he finally tore into it. Sam was pleased!

Logan got Ruff-Ruffs!! He was so excited to open them. He lines them up and kisses all of them, then makes them kiss each other. I love it.

Marlatt Christmas 09

We got to spent 3 weeks in Washington over Christmas and let me tell you... we had a BLAST. All of my brothers were there, except Ryan. We stayed at my parents with Tom, Alisha and the girls. The boys had so much fun, they absolutely LOVE their cousins. It was so nice to be able to see my family and spent time with them. We would put the kids to bed every night and play games all night. We don't play quiet card games either, we play loud, funny games. I'm shocked the kids stayed asleep trough it. We had so much fun together! My family is SO funny! All the Marlatt grand kids.
Sam, Arvy, Edyn, Logan, Jade, Rory, and Emma.
They got all matching PJ's from Aunt Brittany. The boys love them, It's been a month and Logan refuses to were anything else to bed.

Logan, Sam, Edyn, and Alisha

Logan was very excited about his Skittles, but mad that he couldn't open them.

Sam got Binoculars. He has been pretending for so long with empty TP rolls that we decided it was time!

The kids got along so well with each other. They shared and there really wasn't much fighting. Sam wants me to drive them to Avry and Edyn's everyday and every time Logan sees a baby or hears a cry he is looking for his babies!

Dave got coal in his stocking! I'm so funny!