While they were sleeping

It has been over a month since we got a new water heater. When Riley saw the box that it came in he was elated. For about a month the box stood on his bed upright. It was a fort. He had written all over it warnings. My favorite was right by the rubber band, that held the door shut, hanging on a pencil protruding out of the box a stuffed monkey and the caption next to it that read, "If you open this he will 'atak' you!!!"

A couple of weeks ago the fort took a horizontal turn and became a sleeping cabin. That night as we headed up to bed we checked on the boys. This is what we saw when we looked in. I couldn't stop laughing. I loved how Jeremy was sleeping and that is a pretty routine way of sleeping for him.

In the pictures below the flash made it look like day but it was dark.

Gingerbread Houses

Decorating Gingerbread houses was a fun tradition I did on the christmases we spent with my Grandma and Grandpa Boyle. It was quite an experience. My Grandma made a smaller gingerbread house for everyone. I don't think I appreciated her efforts enough then. Don't get me wrong I LOVED it. I just never put any thought into all the baking and gluing she did. This was not graham cracker houses it was the real deal and she made at least 10 or more. At any rate it was a tradition I loved.

The first year we were married we did it. We drew plans and cut it all out and made a very awesome and unique house. A couple of years past when we didn't do it but from about the time Riley was 3 we have been doing it every year and we love it. I'm not as ambitious as my Grandma making a house for each person, nor am I as ambitious as our first year making it from the dough. We started buying the kits along with more candy and VOILA!

A couple of years we made two and gave one away. This year we invited my baby brother and his girlfriend Jennifer over. We had TONS of fun!!

A Belated Birthday Post

Lane's Birthday is on November 18th so this post is quite overdue. I wish I had taken pictures of the cards that the boys made. Riley's card directed the activities for the party. Fencing! The thing that I loved most is how important it was to the boys that we did things in a certain order. (following the order of events at one of their parties). Lane likes cake but it's not usually his desert of choice. He had been wanting root beer floats a lot the month before his birthday but they were always vetoed. Instead of birthday cakehe got a root beer float. Or if we're saying it the way the boys say it, "root beard float."