The Moll's at Sweet Sky Farm

Everyone had a lovely day today. In preparation for Santa (yes, Addison knows who he is now... see below for the picture) Addison and I baked cookies, Addison and Emme helped Daddy (un)wrap presents and the girls had fun in their new matching pajamas. Baking cookies... Un-wrapping presents... and frustrating Daddy just a *little* bit. Dreaming of Santa Claus...

Emme always somehow manages to have a bucket on her head. Seriously. Always. Addison doesn't walk around with a bucket on her head, but she finds herself in precarious positions more often than not. That's our end table right there, in case you were wondering.

Emme IS the dog whisperer!!!

Three days later and Addison is still weirdly fascinated with flamingos. Interesting girl, that one.

Mommy (Driving): Addison, what do you want to get Daddy for Christmas? Addison (kindly picking her nose in the backseat): I don't know. Mommy: Take your finger out of your nose please. Addison: Okay. Mommy: So what do you want to get Daddy for Christmas. I think it would be nice if you gave him a present. Addison: Ummm... Okay. He needs a. a. a. um. a. SUITCASE! Daddy needs a suitcase. Mommy (realizing this isn't going well): Are you sure a suitcase? What would he do with a suitcase. Addison: Mommy, he needs it to keep the flamingo that we're going to get him. A flamingo and a suitcase for Daddy!

Yeesh, finally able to get caught up for a few minutes; long enough to give you an update on my trip to Cabo!  So, this was a guys trip to get away celebrate Matt's ??th b-day (21st?), and we booked the Riu Palace all-inclusive resort in Cabo San Lucas on the tip of the Baja Peninsula.  Here is the view from the bar that we took over, where someone would bring drinks nonstop all day and night... The coastline here is at the intersection of the Sea of Cortez and the Pacific Ocean. Here is a shot of the Dorado (Mahi-Mahi) that I caught ...and making up fish stories at dinner that night... And here is the sunset from the hotel. All in all, it was a great trip.  Highly recommended for a vacation destination.

Did I really need to be thrown up on this morning... really? Emme is fine, but my jeans are ruined ;-)

This week was meant to be a "vacation" of sorts for me. I took the entire week off in order to finish writing chapter 5 of my dissertation. I guess I didn't set explicit expectations with the girls about how important this week was, since Emme ended up getting sick first thing on Monday. Yep, she had her first ear infection and was sent home with a fever of 102.0 degrees. She's doing better, but still congested, even on antibiotics, and isn't sleeping through the night. At least Andy is back from his vacation in Cabo. Stay tuned for more updates about the paper and hopefully some pictures from Andy's vacay!

I thought this was just great and asked Erin (cousin Peggy) if I could include it here. She's just that great a person and let me post it. I was reading your blog and thought your postings about the princesses and the Dove campaign and all that was just great! So I just wanted to let you know that Thomas and Christopher made a donation to the Girl Scouts/Dove program Uniquely Me Self Esteem Program in honor of the girls for Christmas! I thought they might send you a notification about it but they don't. So they wanted me to let you know!! Oh yeah and I am so glad that I don't have girls! HAHA So Merry Christmas and lots of love to Addison and Emerson! ~Erin Burke~ Isn't that cool! Thanks, Erin. By the way, Thomas and Christopher are her two cutey boys that are a bit younger than Addison and Emme.

I love what Dove is doing with their Real Beauty. Real Women. campaign. Just another reason why we don't need more "princesses" in the world, just Real Girls. Check out their website for more information. If their website doesn't get you, check this video out. Consider all of the ways that young boys and girls are bombarded with information on a daily basis. Even if we don't have it on our television, they can't help but see it when we check out at the grocery store! From the Real Girls, Real Pressure report just released: 7 in 10 girls between the ages of 8 and 17 believe they are not good enough or do not measure up in some way, including looks and performance in school.

We had such a nice evening tonight. We took the girls to see the annual lighting of one of the largest and oldest oak trees in our town. Addison loved spinning under the lights and also saw some beautiful horse drawn carriages. Perhaps next year we'll take a ride. Addison and Emme also saw Santa for the first time riding in a fire truck, a definite favorite, and now Addison wants to know when she can go meet Santa in person. I think this discussion started with some prodding from Nana, but nevertheless, we'll go to visit Santa. Andy and I just haven't talked about Santa very much. We also don't talk about princesses and fairy tales either, not that we are against make-believe, we just like a different type of make-believe, with puzzles and dancing and singing and silly stories and non-mainstream marketing bias... you know, the easy stuff. I bring this up because today was "Prince and Princess Day" at school and Addison firmly told me that she didn't...