Officially "Not Poisonous"

Jana and her girls came over today to help us make some Christmas cookies. Yay!

This:

Became this:

Kate & Ava:

Kate: "Can I eat this one? Pleeeeease?"

Zach: "Can I help with the gingerboy?"

Then Adam came home and declared the cookies "Not Poisonous"

My HERO!

Lake Arrowhead Village

During our trip we spent an afternoon in Lake Arrowhead Village. It was like a cross between Old Sacramento and the shops in Mendocino. Very cute. And it was all decorated for Christmas.
If you click on this photo you can see who's who in the ornament. The kids LOVED this picture.

And now I'd like to present the awards for the first EVER Lake Arrowhead Village awards show...

The award for the Coolest Dog EVER goes to this dog. He is a Cadaver Retriever and he owns his own sunglasses.

The award for the Cutest Kids EVER goes to Zachary and Katelyn.

(in my heavily biased opinion)

The award for the Pinkest Roof EVER goes to this house:

(See it on top of the hill? You can't miss it.)

And the award for the Best Chocolate Factory EVER goes to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Sorry Charlie...(Bucket). Small joke.

Dear RyanGenette,

I am helping Katelyn write this letter. She (sort of) says: Hello. Thank you for writing me an Email. I didn't know you were in China. My daddy was like "What! Ryan's not answering his phone. I bet he went to China without telling me. What's up with that!!" Some workers stole my mommy's watch from the mold house, so you can get her a cool knock off while you are there if you want. My Ernie car is lost...you know, the guy from Sesame Street...but my mommy doesn't like us to play with lead paint toys, so don't worry about me. My daddy wants to paint our car for Christmas. He wants to do it himself. Do you think that is a bad idea? I think it's a good idea. I am a princess.

Love, Katelyn

Carrots

I know that carrots are good for my son. That is why I feed them to him. But everytime I do, I can't help but get a little nervous.

I don't know...

Maybe it's because my dining room is carpeted.

Maybe it's because the carpet is a light color.

Maybe it's because sometimes (like today) I wear a clean white shirt.

OR...

Maybe it's because I know that the mess could be worse--MUCH WORSE--than this.

Yeah, I think that's the reason.

Lake Gregory

So, I've been on vacation since Wednesday last,

and it was so much fun I don't know where to begin.

I'm stumped.

How about for now I'll just post my favorite picture, okay?

At least I think it's my favorite...

It doesn't even have any of My People in it...

but everything seemed to center around the kitchen,

and Richard (green shirt) was the one doing all the cooking

(thank you Richard!)

and I liked having Eric's family there because they are so fun and we hardly ever see them anymore (that's Adam's brother Eric on the left and two of his boys)

And YES, that is a chocolate fountain!!

So this picture pretty much sums it all up.

More Lake Gregory posts to come...if I can organize my thoughts.