That "Love Bug Crawling"

Francie is officially crawling! She did it first for her dad Monday morning while they were playing, showed it off for me and then when Emmy and Jannie were babysitting she zipped around like she knew what she was doing :) It's usually only a few paces before she takes a tummy-break, but she's getting further every time. I think this means it's time to baby proof the house. Here is a rough video from last night...

And while Francie was busy learning how to crawl, I was having a day at the salon getting hair and makeup done for a photoshoot. The place I always go for my hair (LaBelle) did a shoot for a new brochure or something and my hair guy (Raul, I love him :) asked me to be his model. It was fun and we had champagne and sushi all afternoon while the pampered us. I don't like my hair all curled and big like this and I'm kind of scared for where these pictures will end up (they do have some old ones in huge frames on the WALLS) but who could resist a free blow-out? My sister already made fun of me and asked me what Prom I thought I was going to...

Before and After:

Francie Off to Playgroup

Francie had a busy morning, she went to the "dirt store" at 7:30am with her Dad (not only does he get to spend quality time with his baby girl, he gets to take the carpool lane too:) She came back to fall right to sleep and didn't wake up until 11:15am... that's my girl. :) We hadn't been to the Stanford Moms Group in awhile so we headed out this morning for lunch and "group" to see the other babies and moms. Everyone is getting so big! We only have 2 more months until we graduate out of the Moms Group. Good thing we have our playdate friends to keep us entertained.

Sunday Shower for Mark & Sarah

Sunday Jan, John, Heff and I hosted a wedding shower for Uncle Mark and Aunt(yet-to-be-official!) Sarah at my parents house. Mark and Sarah are getting married next month and planning a very small wedding with just immediate family members... which means 5 people for Sarah and 19 people for the Heffernans :) We are all looking forward to it, but wanted to celebrate beforehand with family and friends. Since Mark and Sarah live across the street from my parents... it worked out well and their friends from UC Davis actually rode their bikes over the night before, a mere 130 miles! It was a great crowd and a perfect day. Congrats and Best Wishes to Mark and Sarah!

The Heffs

Jannie working on some pizzas with fresh herbs

Kat and Claire

It was a hot day... although at least 20 degrees cooler than our backyard wedding day :)

Sophie cooling off next to Francie

Lots of babies under a year old to play with Francie and Ronan!

Yummm... paper plate. Francie with Vivienne (8 months) and Ronan (11 months)

Zyler and his baby sister Zania (7 weeks) came in on the left and Baby Moya (9 months) joined the party on the right

Francie assuring Ronan "That's right buddy, this crazy girl singing songs and keeping the attention of 4 babies for over 4 minutes is OUR God-mother!"

The boys with the Doodle... Donald, John and Heff

Francie with her mom, Oma and Jannie

and Grampa too!

Dad pouring the bubbly for a champagne toast

The Johnets!

Time to feed babies... Francie with her feet first

Ronan with a funny face

Get me out of the contraption.

James and Em came to say hello

Uncle James is always worried about his god-daughter's eyesight in the sun :)

Francie didn't like those Uncle James... how many times does she have to tell you she only likes the J&J shades!

The party quieted down after about 7 hours :)

Francie in her fancy-pants PJ's ;)

We love you Uncle Mark & Aunt Sarah!

Francie's First Rebuilding Together Day

Saturday April 26 was National Rebuilding Day for the organization where Heff serves on the Board. RBT refurbished 83 houses in ONE day with the help of 4,000 volunteers between 7am-7pm. It is always amazing to see how much can get done in a day. Francie and I went along for the ride for the first half of the day... she is a product of the organization since we met at their fundraiser!

Heff used to be a Construction or Site Captain every year and help with all the heavy lifting... this year we drove to visit all of the sites to talk to volunteers and family members. He got off way too easy and didn't even get his shirt dirty :)

Brightening up a Community Center

John, the President of the Board who took over for Heff, with a RBT family

Bathtime in the Frog Pool

Saturday afternoon was so hot I pulled out Francie's little Frog Pool to let her splash around in the front yard. Emma and Owen came over to see Francie and quickly ran home to change into their bathing suits to jump in too! Francie loves the water and Emma and Owen really make her laugh. The pool was perfect, it was the first time we used it and unfortunately the last... Ollie popped it as soon as Francie got out. Oh these dogs.

They even gave her a shampoo!

Francie Giggling on Video

Francie now learned to pull herself up to sitting and then right on up to standing on whatever she can... namely her crib. The other night she woke up crying in the middle of the night and we let her "cry it out" (I love that parenting style when I am exhausted and barely awake to go get her anyway!) and after awhile she quieted down. Heff went to check on her in the morning and she was in a sitting position in the corner of the crib with her head face down on the corner of the bumper. She looked like one of the little chickens when they fall asleep mid-pecking! I guess she just wore herself out and zonked out :) Here is a video when we were playing around in her crib one afternoon:

Francie... The Latest eBay Premier Seller

I have been busy the past few days helping Heff re-do our backyard and organizing the house. I am on a de-clutter mission. So I have, for the first time in my life, resorted to selling stuff on eBay. Actually it is kind of fun and a good way to get rid of stuff you know you don't need but can't face giving/throwing away. So far I have sold almost $600 worth of crap. My goal is $2,000 in a month. So yes, our office looks like a tornado swept through but Heff is okay with that sine everything is on it's way OUT of the house. Francie has been a good sport helping me organize and take pictures and list things online... her new favorite activity is pulling herself up on the plastic bins I have things organized in and pulling everything out. She keeps me entertained :)

"Hehe, I know how to make more work for my mom."

"It wasn't me."

Launching herself in any direction she can... and she loves being upside down!

"I'll bid on that."

Francie Tries a Biscuit!

Francie had her first taste of a "Biter Buscuit" the other day... she loved gnawing on it and making a big mess :)

The Blogging Box

Now that Francie is mobile (not exactly crawling but she MOVES!) and pulling herself up on everything... I had to get creative while I spent my oh-so-important time blogging this morning!

Tuesday Night in the Neighborhood

Katherine and Donald brought over steaks last night and took over our kitchen to make dinner for us. Donald is a rancher and knows how to BBQ a great steak! Kat made Iceberg wedge salads and we stayed up way too late drinking good wine (gifts from my bday... but we couldn't find the bottle from Mike George:) and planning our skits for the Heffernan Family Reunion already (can we sing that song in mixed company Kat?) Francie had some sweet potatoes and rice cereal... yum. The Ryan family stopped by for a visit and we all hung out in the backyard which is in the process of being redesigned/landscaped etc... our project for the next few weekends!

Mark Ryan with Willie and Anna

Donald hasn't learned yet you never give Willie your cell phone. Especially when he is wearing his sister's headband.

Dad keeping the girls entertained

Willie planning his trip to the "treasure box" in our pantry...

Looks like rain... we want the warm weather back!

Blog Hits

I came across this webpage that lists "Mary and Heff's blog" as an example for Squarespace baby websites (my blog host)... wow, just look at that hit counter go :)

http://baby.squarespace.com/examples

Francie-Pant's "Smartie-Pants" G-Uncle Jerry

We love our Uncle Jerry... he is 6 foot 8, lives in Orange County, has never been married (why bring in a pestering wife or annoying kids when he has us!) and has always been a prankster. He and my Uncle John (the UJ's) lived together after college until they were in their late 30's (Uncle John got married and foiled their lifelong plan) taking turns working and throwing really great parties. They would roll into town for Christmas and throw us all in the car for the infamous Dec 24 trip to Toys-R-Us for WHATEVER we wanted (under $20 of course) while all the aunts were fuming at home after spending weeks shopping for that perfect christmas present for us and the uncles look like the heros :) They would stay up with us until 4 in the morning playing with our new toys (Chemistry sets and Nintendos... more recently Poker chips and Wii) telling us stories about their crazy pranks and childhood (childhood lasting into the 30's obviously).

One of our favorite stories when Uncle Jerry wrote a letter to "Ce De Candy, inc" the makers of Smarties Candy telling the company that his little brother had eaten a whole bag of smarties that had mysterious brown dots on them and had gotten sick. If only we had that original letter! I assume he asked them for money or something....

(Here is the email Uncle Jerry sent my mom this morning... hope you don't mind I'm postin git on the world wide web UJ!)
***********************

Good morning, Sibs!

I think you will enjoy the attachments. I was going through my old "stuff"
and found the infamous letter of reply from Ce De Candy, inc. that makes
Smarties candy.

This is the venerable Milton A. Honig's letter of response.Milt was a good sport.

This envelope is proof of the importance in their reply. AIR MAIL, baby ! :

I was a Junior in High School when I initiated contact with the Ce De Candy
company seeking proper recompense and consideration for my client (Freshman
brother John). Some may say that's pretty old for such shenanigans, but
then, the "funny bone" is a life long part of the skeletal system in our
family.

God LOVE you all- Brother Jerry.
**********************

Okay Uncle Jerry... now we want proof of the guy who delivered gallons of Rocky Road Ice Cream to the door when you were in junior high after you wrote to tell them there were NOT as many marshmallows per bite as they had advertised!

Rodeo Makes Headlines

I mentioned the Rodeo was "eventful" this year... Sunday "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" Day was CRAZY! Francie and I went to the Rodeo with Katherine and Donald (after Gin Fizzes at the Forsbergs) while Heff was sighting in his new hunting rifle. It was a much nicer day, no wind, but there was a lot going on at the Fairgrounds! First, Francie witnessed her first "bar fight" when a guy poured his beer down the front of another guy walking by (they were both in there 60's or 70's) and then they of course tried to punch each other's lights out. The security guards jumped in and saved the day, happy to have something to do, and it turns out the guys were brothers waging a twenty + year battle... Kat was jostled in the crossfire and worked the guy for a few free beers, which we realized was NOT worth it when he talked our ear off for 30 minutes.

Francie says "How many times do we watch these guys eat dirt mom?" with her god-mom who narrowly escaped a left hook :)

Future cowboys in "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" t-shirts (NFR raises $ for breast cancer research)

Francie, that is not a very All-American face

Then... A BULL JUMPED A 7 FOOT FENCE INTO THE STANDS! It was Chaos! Right after the "Wild Ride Race" where cowboys dress-up in costumes to ride the bucking broncs, they were getting the bulls lined up in the pens for the last bull riding event of the Rodeo when this bull cleared the fence and barreled through the box seats in front of the stands. People were rushing to the top of the stands, climbing over each other, hanging from the scaffolding and screaming. We had a view of it all but were luckily out of harms way. Two kids were carried out in stretchers with missing shoes and a woman got stuck between the bull and the end of the stands until the bull finally launched her over the rail with a horn under her butt! They had to stop the rodeo because all of the ambulances had to take people to the hospital. We heard 6 people were injured, but everyone seemed to be ok after some bandages. Who knew rodeo spectating could be so dangerous!?

THE BULL "Blue Steel" in the stands!!! (to the left of the telephone pole)
The local paper reported: "The bull jumped a seven-foot wall without a running start," said Levi Rosser, 28, of Marysville, one of the five pickup men on the scene. "I'm 28 years old and I have been around the Red Bluff rodeo all my life and I've never seen anything like it before. It was chaos for a while."

It made national news and was on the FoxNews.com homepage today as a top story!
FOXNEWS.COM HOME > U.S.
Bull Jumps Over Wall at Northern California Rodeo, Injuring 6

Finally got the bull out of the seats and into the arena

Looks like everyone was ok thank goodness... we were sitting in those seats on Saturday!

Francie at The Rodeo Day 2

Saturday was an action-packed Rodeo Day! We had breakfast at Claire and Tom's house (with Bloody Mary's Aunt Kat style of course!)then headed over to the Fairgrounds to check out the vendors (aka Rodeo Shopping) and get to our seats. They have a guy skydive in with a huge American flag to land in the arena to start the day. We were sitting in the bleachers next to the chutes and it was nice and sunny out but really windy so it was a little chilly. Heff went back to the car to load up on camo jackets to keep us all warm. We stayed until the end to catch the "Wild Horse Race" where teams of three guys try to saddle and ride a wild horse that has never been saddled/bridled around the track, it is completely nuts and usually a few end up in the ER! We saw Bull Riding, Bronc Riding, Steer Wrestling, Team Roping and all the usual Rodeo events.

Francie before the Rodeo getting psyched up

Ride um Cowgirl

You know what they say about "Wrangle Butts"...

That's right Francie, they "Drive Cowboys Nuts!"

Rodeo Time... All American ALL the time :)

Jane and Claire with the Cowboy Beverage of Choice

Mare and The Doodle with our cowgirl hats

Tipping her hat for the Pledge of Allegiance

In the stands with Dad and the crew... Francie says "These cowboys are crazy!"

I see you Francie-pants!

YUMMMM... corn dogs. I ate three of them on Saturday.

And the wind picks up... bundled up with Aunt Kat in a John Deere blankie and Camo jacket

Saturday after the Rodeo we went out to "Cow Pie Field" on Edward's Ranch for a party/camp-out with a bunch of the Red Bluff families. They know how to party! Tyler and Mary hosted everyone and made Cowboy Stew in big cast iron pots they buried underground on hot coals before Rodeo. Tyler brought a pop up camper for us to sleep in and everyone bundled when the sun went down. It was a COLD night but Heff came prepared (he knows the first time his wife is TOO cold on a camping expedition might be the last time we camp:) so we had big down sleeping bags and kept the Doodle bundled up. She slept pretty well and we had fun in the morning with everyone out in their PJs!

Cow Pie Field

Tyler bringing out one of the three pots

Mary and Tyler check the stew... looks good!

Madeline ATV'ed over from her house

Everyone eating dinner... notice Francie has her cowboy boots still on, just over her footy-pajamas!

GOOD MORNING! Francie looking around thinking "Did I really sleep in this camper!"

You did Doodle! Your first camping trip went off without a "hitch" :)

Haley and Francie in their pajamas hanging out in the morning sunshine

Hank keeping the bad guys away on his super-tricycle and pop gun

Francie's First Red Bluff Round-Up Rodeo!

We had an eventful and jam-packed Rodeo Weekend! Heff, Francie and I drove up Friday afternoon with Aunt Kat and arrived just in time to throw on our boots and head over to the Fairgrounds.

Francie in the sky box sporting her favorite "Rodeo PJs" and boots of course. She thinks they taste as good as they look.

Watching the rodeo groupies from above

Wouldn't be a Rodeo without the Budwesier Clydesdales (or are they "paint" horses Kat?:)

Francie staying up late not to miss a minute of this!

Rodeo Cowboys

View from the chutes

Sorry Francie, your Dad ain't gonna let you watch from that close EVER! (I remember this girl from the Rodeo last year riding her horse all over with a baby in a front carrier Baby Bjorn... looks like she has graduated to the backpack this year!)

OUCH

Francie getting lots of love from Jamie "You-better-feed-that-baby" George and Katherine G.

Buffalo side show (they came with the famous "One-Armed Bandit")

Mary and Jamie watching the bulls

Francie with Aunt Kat and Donald post Rodeo (when the party really begins!)

Francie is jealous... she wants my ghetto-fabulous camo hat bedazzled with a princess crown. (Kat and I got matching ones at Bull Sale last month... people keep asking us if they are Juicy or from Neimans:)

Hanging out in the "Crown Royal tent" with Kat and some friends from college

"Dad's not sharing his cocktails Mom." (Classic Francie Face! The string lights from the tent look a little like antlers Doodle :)

The Heff's with a random cowboy passing by... haha :)

MORE Rodeo pics from Day Two and Day Three to come!

Francie Hanging Out with Dad

Francie loves to hang out with her Dad on the couch. He reads her stories, plays with her toys and makes silly noises and songs (mostly making fun of Mom). Just a few pictures while I was playing with the settings on my camera... LOTS of Rodeo pictures to post as soon as we get home from Red Bluff tonight!

"Dad, come on... tip the beer just a little bit for me."

"Haha, PLEASE... if I laugh for you?!"

Playing with Tickle-Me-Cookie-Monster... "Me so funny!"

Dad loves to snuggle in that neck and soak in her baby smell :)

7 Months... a little early

Tonight Heff and I were putting Francie's PJ's on her and couldn't help but let her play around on our bed naked to take some pictures! I think I took 5 month pictures on the bed with just a onesie on so we'll call these her "7 month pictures" even though she still has two more days to be six months old! (I always tell Heff not to round up her age so he doesn't cheat her of the last days to be a little girl!) She was a barrel of laughs and launching herself all over the bed. Gone are the days of just running into the other room with a baby on the bed. She is SO close to crawling and moves herself where she wants to go by lurching forward from a sitting position to her hands and knees and then reaching for things (no knee movement yet) or rolling over and over. She's a busy about-to-be-7-month-old!

Me trying to take her picture lying on my lap :)

Didn't go so well...

Gotta check a naked baby's weight! Is that the "Willows Neighborhood" gang sign she's flashing? Francie what have they been teaching you at playdates?!

Francie Gets Some Ice Cream

Daddy giving Francie a few spoons of ice cream when Jannie was over... she liked this a little more than the bananas.

Francie Banging on the "Drum"

A QUICK concert from the Doodle keeping herself entertained while Dad cut veggies for dinner:)