We LOVE Spring!!!

I love this time of year!! All of the trees are blooming, the sun is out more frequently, it's grilling season and I know that we are heading into SUMMER!!! It just makes me feel good to know that hot sunny days are just around the corner. To take advantage of the sun we had this weekend we took Skyler to the park again. We've decided to try and go to a different one every time since there are so many cool parks around us. So this time we went to the new ball fields in Hawks Prairie. There is a really cool new playground there too. Skyler hasn't been feeling too good this week. He's teething like crazy (3 new molars have popped through in the last month) and has had a bit of a cough so he didn't have quite as much fun as normal but he did get pretty excited when he found some steps to walk up and down. What can I say, he's a funny kid!!! Here are a few pictures of our latest park adventure...

Trying to decide how to go down the slide... he actually did go down on his stomach but I didn't manage to get a picture of that.

Walking across the suspension bridge

After he went down the slide he decided to try and climb back up the slide so he could go again. He needed a little help from dad 'cuz his pants were too slippery :)

I love how his whole face lights up when he smiles!!!

He loves to pretend like he's driving!! He's growing so fast that before I know it he'll be 16 and driving for real, but for now thankfully it's all just pretend!!

These steps were his favorite part of the park because he could WALK up and down them which is way more fun than having to crawl up and down the ones we have in our house.

He seriously went up and down these steps for like 5 or 10 minutes

He tried so hard to reach the hand rails on both sides of the stairs at the same time but his arms were not quite long enough

Here he is climbing through the tunnel. I love how he learns how to do something new every time we take him to the park.

After the park we went and had some yummy ice cream from Cold Stone. Skyler is still trying to master eating with a spoon so he had ice cream all over him and me but he enjoyed it so I guess that's all that matters.

Today we decided to do some grilling. We got some bacon wrapped steaks from Costco yesterday and couldn't wait to eat them :) Skyler got to try steak for the first time too and he LOVED it!!! He was also diggin' the grilled orange and yellow peppers tonight. Some days I can't get that crazy kid to eat anything and other days (like today) he eats everything in sight.

A couple of new things with Skyler lately:

• He's obsessed with shoes, both his and ours. He loves to drag our shoes all around the house and he's is trying so hard to figure out how to put his shoes on by himself. He'll sit on the floor and try and try and try to put his shoes on. It's really cute and keeps him entertained for quite a while.
• My little sister sent him the "My Baby Can Read" Dvd's and he loves watching them. I think he picks up something new every time he watches them. His most recent thing is when they sing the "If you're happy and you know it..." song he now claps his hands and stomps his feet when they sing those parts. It's so stinkin' cute!!!
• He likes to sit at the dining room table in his own chair (not his high chair) when Rich and I are eating dinner. I think it makes him feel more included.
  
• He's learned how to put his mega blocks together finally. So he doesn't just tear apart the things we build for him, now he can build his own things to tear apart :)
• He's also obsessed with balls. He LOVES them!!! "Ball" is one of the only words he says that is so clear everybody can understand him. He says it all day long "ball......ball....ball". He's actually quite good at kicking his balls already. He can usually kick it and run and kick it again quite a few times before he gets bored and moves onto something else. I think we might have a future soccer player on our hands :)
• He understands A LOT of what we say. It's actually a little frightening how much he understands!!! If we need to change his diaper and tell him to go get a diaper he runs over to the closet where we keep them and tries to open the door. If we say lets go upstairs he runs over to the stairs and starts climbing them. If we say we're going somewhere like to Grandma's house or the store he runs to the front door and opens it. Somehow he knows when I have to leave for work and always gets very cuddly around that time making it VERY difficult to leave him. And when we ask him for a kiss or hug he leans over and gives us one.
• When he's thirsty he goes over to the fridge and tries to open it up unfortunately he can't reach the handle yet so he just ends up whining at the fridge until we open it up and get him his milk.
• He LOVES chicken....grilled chicken, chicken nuggets it doesn't matter how it's cooked as long as it's chicken!!! Which I still find funny since that was one of the major things that I could not handle eating when I was pregnant with him.
• He also still loves yogurt. He would live off of chicken and yogurt if we would let him.
• He loves strangers, which is a little frightening but true. Whenever we go anywhere he can be being a little brat for us but as soon as he sees a stranger he starts smiling and waving and saying "Hi" basically doing whatever it takes to get their attention. He turns into quite the performer as soon as he has their attention too. Usually this ends up in him getting photographed by these random strangers because he poses so cute for them. However when I go to take his picture instead of him putting on an adorable show for me he just tries to grab the camera from me.
  
• He's such a BOY, he loves wrestling around with us and bonking heads!!! Tonight he was pulling out some WWF moves which is funny since we NEVER watch wrestling. I have no idea where he would have learned how to do some of the things he was doing tonight. So, I'm guessing that it must just be ingrained in him. One thing is for sure, little boys play much differently than little girls. Because I'm sure that I didn't play like that when I was little :)
  

I'm sure there are more adorable things that he's doing but this is all I can think of right now.

Weekend in Canada

Last weekend we decided to go to Canada so that we could go to the new Vancouver temple open house. We thought since we were going all the way up there we should make a fun weekend out of it and see the sights around Vancouver. Joe and Corinne went with us and we all had a great time. We decided to have a leisurely trip and not make any set plans. So we kinda just stopped wherever we thought looked cool and it turned out to be very fun. We got to go shopping at the Seattle Premium Outlets on the way up to Canada. I've always wanted to stop there and have never gotten to before. Corinne and I had fun hitting up the clearance table at the Coach outlet and both came out of there with some fun goodies. While in Vancouver some of the highlights were seeing the new temple, the Olympic cauldron and Stanley Park. And on the way home we stopped at the tulip festival. We had a busy but fun trip!!! There are quite a few pictures of our fun weekend below....

Even in another country I can't get away from work :) Red Robin was about a block away from our hotel so we decided to eat there on Friday night because we were all tired of driving and wanted to walk to get food.

Vancouver B.C. temple

I thought the flowers around the temple were so pretty.

Doesn't Skyler look so cute all dressed up!!!

Skyler didn't want to do a family picture so here he is trying to run away from us :)

Stanley Park

Walking along the beach

This was a super fun playground we found in Stanley Park. I not sure who had more fun, Skyler or the grown-ups. :)

time to swing

Joe & Corinne on the swing

Joe on the top of the playground

At first we thought Skyler was too young to play on this but he proved us wrong!!! He loved it!!!

Skyler & Joe

Skyler and Daddy on the cargo net. He held on really well and was doing pull-ups on it.

Skyler really loved these wobbly disc things. He kept climbing on and off of them and posing for pictures that random strangers were taking of him.

Here he is in the car trying to drink my Sobe from the wrong end of the bottle.

Joe really like the crosswalk signs in Canada. He thought the crosswalk guy looked really happy and wanted his picture taken by one of them.

This was the view from our hotel.

Here we are in front of the Olympic cauldron

Tulip Festival

I think Skyler looks like he's being our tour guide in this picture. "And behind me here you will see the purple and white tulips"

Skyler and I (and my awesome new Coach bag) at the tulip festival

He has the funniest facial expressions

This is a little girl Skyler met while walking through the tulip fields. As you can see they really hit it off!!!

Such a cute face!!!

He rolled around in the dirt and got filthy dirty but he had so much fun!!

As you can see we had a really fun trip!!! We can't wait for our next adventure but as of now we don't have anything planned so we're not sure when that will be.....

4 Generations of Marlatt Men

We recently realized that out of the great grand kids in the Marlatt family Skyler is the first boy that will carry on the Marlatt family name. So, while Rich's grandparents were still in town we decided we needed a "4 Generations" picture.

Fun times at the park

With all of this nice weather we've been having we couldn't resist taking Skyler to the park to get some fresh air. He finally discovered how much fun it is to go down the slide. At first he wasn't very stable but he quickly learned how to stay upright while sliding down.

Here are a couple of cute videos of Skyler on the slides

Look at that smile. He was having so much fun!!!

Time for some fun on the swing

How cute is this picture!!!

Ok, so I'm totally lame and was a month late at getting Skyler's 1 year pictures done. So here are his 13 month pictures. Close enough, right?!

I love his eyes in this picture!!!

George and Skyler are best friends right now so we figured it was fitting to have George in his 1 year pictures.

Rich didn't get to come with us this time because Skyler is too much of a daddy's boy right now. If Rich is around and isn't holding him he throws a big tantrum. So in hopes of getting cute pictures of Skyler on his own we went and got pictures done while Rich was at work.

Skyler was showing off his newly learned clapping skills

My little monkey loves being upside down

My goofy little boy...

So, Skyler loves to cram as much food as possible in his mouth. This is him this morning with his cereal and peanut butter sandwich crackers.....

He looks like a little hamster with his cheeks stuffed full of food

He thinks he's so funny

I love this crazy kid!!!