And baby makes 4!!!!

Yes, that's right we're having another baby!!! Skyler is going to be a big brother and we are very excited!!! I'm due on Feb. 4th so our kids will be almost exactly 2 years apart. I'm hoping that is a good age difference, I guess we will see.

We had our first real Dr. appt today and the Dr. had a hard time finding the baby's heartbeat. So, of course that made me worry a bit until he brought in the ultrasound machine to find out where the baby was hiding. Turns out the baby has a very strong heartbeat and everything looked good :) YAY!!!

Here's a picture of our little one at almost 12 weeks...

Such a BOY!!!

I know I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, Skyler is such a BOY!!! He loves all things boy related. Here are a few examples.....

1) Football-

Rich got Skyler a little football last week and they love playing backyard football together!!!

Set, HIKE!!!

Run, run, run

He had to stop and pick a flower :)

Back to the game with the flower and football in hand

A little relaxing on the porch swing after the game

so silly

2) Kayaking-

Last weekend Skyler got to go kayaking for the first time. Here he is practicing before getting in the water.

Out in the water at Summit Lake. He loved it!!!

He was totally mellow and just laid back on Rich the whole time.

His kayaking adventure lasted about 20 minutes and then he decided he wanted to stand up so he had to get out.

Sitting on the beach watching daddy out in the water

3) Tractors-

While we were waiting to meet grandpa at Cabela's, Skyler got to play on this cool tractor.

He's concentrating very hard on driving

4) Helping Dad outside-

Rich went outside to change the oil in his car tonight and of course Skyler had to help. He loves being outside!!!

He tries to be so helpful!!

He's very curious!!!

He has to know exactly what daddy is doing at all times

And of course he loves to get dirty. What could be more fun then playing with a dirty tire?

Needless to say his hands got a good scrubbing when he came inside. We love our curious, adventurous, mischievous, dirty little boy!!

5k Run For Rett

Last weekend we participated in our first 5k!! We are trying to be more active these days and decided a 5k would help us with our goal. Originally we were going to train for it so that we would actually be able to run it (neither one of us are runners) but life gets in the way and we never managed to train as much as we would have liked. So, we ended up walking most of it and jogging a little bit. Either way I'm just proud of the fact that we did it at all. We actually had a wonderful time too!! It was really fun being able to see so many of our friends on the course supporting this great cause. We are already looking forward to next year! Maybe we'll recruit more friends and actually train for the next one :) Here's a few pictures of our fun day...

Skyler and Rich before the race. Look at how perfect the weather was for us!!!

Here's the link to the pictures of us finishing the race:
http://www.backprint.com/view_user_event.asp?PID=bp%1EsFq&EVENTID=69144&PWD=&BIB=61

We survived!!! This is after the race. Clearly it was all too exciting for Skyler, he fell asleep on the last third of the course.

Here's our official times. We came in 93rd and 94th out of 143 runners. Definitely not in first place but not in last place either :)

93  62 Rich Marlatt    M Olympia, WA 47:06.42
94  61 Allisha Marlatt W Olympia, WA 47:06.73

So sleepy!!

Since the weather was so perfect and I had taken the whole day off of work, we decided to head to the beach after the race. Skyler had never been to the beach before and he thought it was pretty fun picking up rocks and sticks all along the beach :)

He was pretty mesmerized but the water.

I think this picture is cute. He's having fun picking up rocks.

Little Daredevil

So, Rich was out at his parents house working on a project and Skyler was outside with him playing and "helping out" like he always does. While Rich was busy and not paying attention for a second this little daredevil decided to climb the ladder. We gotta watch out for this kid, he has no fear. I foresee many broken bones in our future. :(


And this is how I found him a couple of days ago, apparently he wanted the remote which was on the tray of his high chair. Being the clever kid that he is, he managed to push the glider ottoman all the way across the room, climb up onto it and stand up. Clearly he was quite proud of himself!!

4 Years Already!!

Yesterday Rich and I celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary!! I know, I can't believe it's been 4 years already either. Time sure flies when you're having fun. And it seems like ever since Skyler was born time is flying by even faster.

Tonight we got to go have a fun date night at our favorite restaurant, El Gaucho. We only go there for either birthdays or our anniversary 'cuz it's a little pricey.... but oh so delicious!!! Tonight we splurged more than normal and had the Chateaubriand and Lobster for 2, which is a fancy way of saying center-cut filet, steamed asparagus, parmesan crusted tomato, crimini mushrooms, loaded baked potato and oh yeah, LOBSTER!! I freakin' love lobster!! How amazing does this dinner look!!!

Pretty amazing right?! Well I guarantee it tasted even better!!!

After we stuffed ourselves on that amazing dinner we decided to stuff ourselves a little more with some creme brulee for dessert. Yummmm!!

Tonight was the first time we left Skyler with a babysitter who wasn't family. Apparently he did very well. He had bigger kiddos paying lots of attention to him so he was in heaven. He LOVES to be the center of attention!! I'm just glad he behaved for them since he was being a little brat all day for me.


On a side note, Skyler is trying to be so helpful these days. When we got home tonight Rich got him some milk and when he was done with it this is where he put it....
Isn't that cute!! He can't open the fridge yet but he knows where it goes. We were looking all over for it and were so happy to find it right there. He is such a cute kid, if I do say so myself!!!

1st bike ride with Skyler

With all of the nice weather we've been having we've been dying to go on a bike ride. We haven't really gotten to go bike riding for the last 2 years because 2 years ago I was pregnant and not feeling up to bike riding too much and last year Skyler was too small to be able to ride with us. But this year Skyler is just the right age to go with us. So on Friday Rich went and got a seat for his bike for Skyler to ride in and a spiffy helmet for him too. And since it was so sunny on Saturday we decided to go for a ride. We managed to go 10 miles. Yay us!!! I thought that was pretty darn good considering it's been so long since we've been on a bike. Skyler totally loved it too!! Actually first thing when he got up Saturday morning he wanted his helmet on, then he went and found his shoes and made Rich put them on him and as soon as his shoes were on he ran for the door and wanted up on the bike. Rich had taken Skyler for a quick ride around the neighborhood Friday night and apparently he couldn't wait to go again. Unfortunately for him he had to wait until I got off of work but that didn't keep him from wearing his helmet all morning. He is obsessed with his helmet and wants to have it on all the time. It is pretty cute on him!!!

He doesn't look too excited to go for a bike ride in this picture but I promise you he was

On the Chehalis Western Trail

Skyler was so relaxed in his comfy bike seat that he fell asleep

See, he really does like the bike. This is back at home after our 10 mile ride.

Even on the bike he has to play with his belly button :) What a silly boy!!

Let's hope we have nice weather next weekend so we can go again!!!

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.