Shane and Leah

Oliver doesn’t like silent e’s in words.  He thinks it’s a waste of time to write something you don’t hear and therefore spell it WRONG.  I let him slide on leaving out the e in his name, after all it is his name.  When it came to his new vocabulary words I explained he was learning the English language not the Oliver language.  He laughed, then copied his new vocabulary correctly.  Afterwards he put big x’s through all of the silent e’s  he had just written.  The next day when signing his name he put in the e…as small as he could write it and proudly showed me. Compromise is such a great thing, it helps all of us get through those rough “I know everything” spots in life without tearing our hair out.

I have thought twice about using that title, but I didn’t come up with it and it fits so well.  For a few weeks now I have noticed Marie’s clothes scattered all over the floor and grumbled to myself about her sloppiness as I stuffed them back in and closed the drawer.  Then Marie started complaining about not having clean underwear, which annoyed me because I do laundry ALL OF THE TIME.  Then I found Walter carrying underwear all over the house.  He LOVES playing with underwear…of all things.  To top it off one day while I was in Marie’s room in came Walter.  He opened the drawer that Marie normally puts her underwear in, finding none he threw everything on the floor. A little while later while I was helping the boys get dressed Walter noticed and came steaming in as fast as he could grabbing for just one thing out of their drawers….their clean underwear.  That night as the kids got dressed in their PJ’s I could hear Marie squeal, “Oh no the panty stealer is here!”  What a nickname to have Walter.  Enjoy it while you can get away with it! Meanwhile I have to be extra vigilant that the dirty laundry is safely tucked out of reach.

Since Shane’s parents were visiting during our anniversary we took advantage of their being here to spend a night in Seattle just the two of us to celebrate our anniversary.  I was very spoiled.  We ate dinner at a restaurant in downtown Seattle called Tulio’s.  The food and service were excellent and we had a nice cozy table.  I would go there again in a heartbeat.  We stayed at the Hotel Alexis by the waterfront and again we were spoiled by a huge jetted tub and room service breakfast.  We also perused Pike’s Place market and caught some really nice after Christmas sales in which we bought Shane a suit (among other things). Most importantly we came home refreshed and ready for the New Year and many more years of striving to be the right person for each other.  Thank you so much Mom and Dad!  Click here to see some more pics.

When we discussed our gingerbread house this year Oliver really wanted to do a temple. We modeled ours a little bit after the Seattle temple. As usual I spent a few hours rolling and baking gingerbread. In the mean time Shane made the coolest space ship for the kids out of an old cardboard box. That evening we slowy erected the walls, entryway roof and spire….mostly while the children were in bed. It is always best to give yourself two days to make a gingerbread house. After a night of drying our temple was all ready for our many pounds of candy to be added. Each of the kids got their own wall to do their own way. Marie was even old enough to pipe her own icing on. All the adults took turns helping the kids and doing the front of the temple. Walter found out that squealing would produce candies and cookies placed in his hands so he added volume to the process. He needed a bath afterwards.

That night Grandpa treated us to dinner and we visited the Seattle temple in real life to see it at night. The kids loved walking the grounds and seeing the temple they had made in gingerbread. It was a good day. Click here to see more pictures of our fun.