Easy Bake Oven

Well, I always wanted an Easy Bake Oven when I was a child, but never got one. Isabelle got one from my parents for Christmas, so here she is trying it out for the first time. She loved it! She made cake and brownies and took both over to my parents as a 35th anniversary gift.

Pictures from Christmas

Thankfully we all got over the stomach flu right before Christmas Day. Here are a few pictures from Christmas Day and the day after (see more at our DropShots site):

Finally!! Leaves to play in!

Isabelle has been waiting for 3 years to play in the leaves in our front yard, but each year a big wind comes up and blows the leaves off the tree. She always reminisces about pictures of her playing in the leaves when she was 2--she just couldn't wait to do it again! Well, she finally got her chance when it finally got cold enough for the leaves to start falling. Here she is having a great time. Unfortunately, Melina had the stomach flu (we just didn't know it at the time), and we would all be sick with it the next evening.

Pictures of me and Jeff

We went to Jeff's annual work Christmas party, reassured that our favorite babysitter, Morgann, was taking fantastic care of our girls.

Pictures from the day I called Poison Control

On such a beautiful fall afternoon, we admired the tree in our front yard, showing some fall colors that are rare in Ridgecrest because of our frequent winds. We had had some extraordinary weather though in that we hadn't had much wind, and therefore, the leaves stayed on the trees.

Here is what I was helping Isabelle with when Melina was innocently behind me eating honeysuckle berries...

No berries on her face or shirt--she hadn't made her way over there quite yet!
After the drama was over, Isabelle painted the snowmen (notice it is already dark outside!).

Poison Control

This afternoon I had to call Poison Control for the very first time in my almost 5-1/2 years of mothering. I made it through unscathed all this time with Miss Isabelle, but lo and behold, here comes Miss Melina who decided to taste the tiny, soft, brown berries on the honeysuckle bush. Isabelle and I were outside doing a painting project, enjoying the last of the day's sunshine
when I turned around ( it was too quiet), and discovered Melina putting a berry in her mouth and had already squished some berries on her shirt and pants. I immediately said, "no, get that out of your mouth!" She obeyed but had her typical devilish grin...She was drawn to these berries and was taking them and making a little pile in the planter we were standing next to. She was near hysterical when I took her inside and cleaned her up, and still sobbing while on the phone to Poison Control. The woman who answered the phone said, "honeysuckle? Wow, must be a plant day--just got a call about jasmine!" Thankfully honeysuckle in the U.S. according to her is nontoxic (the berries can be toxic in other countries apparently), and if Melina developed stomach cramps or vomiting then I needed to call back, but she said she should be okay (and as of this writing, she is fine).

What's funny about this is that a couple of weeks or so Jeff stood looking at the honeysuckle, noticed the brown berries, and asked if I knew whether they were poisonous or not. He suggested that we should find out, but we never got around to it. He certainly knows his little girl!

New Family Pictures

We had some family shots taken the other day by our favorite photographer, Rochel; here are some of my favorites: