A Day at The Beach

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We went down to Aptos today to spend the day with Kaky. We picked up Emmy at San Jose State from soccer practices (6-8:30am and 11am-1pm... how does she do it!?) and Heff drove his girls over the hill to the beach. Our good friend Anne Coogan packed our car with homemade meals and treats to feed an army. Thank you so much Anne, everything is delicious! We took Francie down to the beach with Emmy and Drew to enjoy the sunny beach day (where is this storm they are talking about?) and Emmy worked her magic with a camera and got some great shots of Francie on the beach.

 

Francie did not like the sand on her hands at first and kept saying "Uh-oh all dirty!"

but it didn't take her long to love everything about the beach!

Emmy's good friend Alexis made a very special quilt for Kaky with an embroidered heart that says "Covered in Love" and then made them for all of the girls (Me, Em, Jan and Mimi) that say "Covered in Kaky's Love." They are gorgeous and so nice to cuddle under... then today she dropped off this cute little skirt she made for Francie with all the extra pieces of fabric!! Francie's has a little mini version of the heart with a "K" on it for Kaky. THANK YOU so much Alexis, they are all so special and you were so sweet to put so much time and  thoughtfulness into this project :)

Francie got attacked by a monster wave and had to get naked ;)

should I photoshop a bikini on her? ;)

weeeee!

My sweet girl

The Heff's on the beach (thanks for being our sherpa Daddy:)

can't resist pinchin' the bum

Thanks for taking these pictures Em! We love you.

Happy Birthday Mardi Gras

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Francie and I re-organized her toy bins last night and put all her pretty necklaces in one place, how did she accumulate so many!? This morning she put them all on at once with her bracelets and fancy sunglasses and said "Ooooooo." I told her to say "Happy Mardi Gras" and she said "Hat-to-birt-day Mardi Gaa!" After her Auntie Baby Ann left her new favorite words are "Eww, goss (gross)" and "Too tacky!" ABA babysat on Saturday night so Heff and I could go out to dinner for a belated double-birthday celebration with our friends Chad and Lindsey (It was Chad's real birthday and Heff's one week late:) ABA took Francie to Safeway to get some groceries to make dinner for my parents and let Francie ride in the giant blue car/cart that plays movies and has "buttons." Somewhere along the way Francie lost her giant bow/headband and when we picked up Francie at the end of the night and told her to say thanks to ABA for watching her she looked at Ann and said "Bow-bow. Woose." She was very disappointed in her auntie! But she told her dad she can get a new one at "Wa Cirque!" She is entertaining lately, that's for sure.
Happy Fat Tuesday from Little Miss Francie!

Fancy Francie

"Oooooooo!"

All done with the pretties

A big smooch for bath doll, "wrap up" in a blanket to "hod tight" She loves her dollies.

sitting in her favorite big girl chair from Jannie (and sitting ON her poor doll)

Here is a video of Francie wishing you a Happy Birthday Mardi Gras. (It should be edited after about 6 seconds... sorry about the fake cry/whine and time-out battle that ensues afterwards, it was almost nap time :) and she's kneeling on her favorite Aunt Marge stool so it kind of looks like she is shaking.

Family Memories

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Kaky came home Saturday. My sister Ann was home from school for a visit and we went down to Aptos with Francie. Emmy took these beautiful pictures of all of us sharing a special time with Kaky holding tight to her beautiful hands. We love you Kaky.

I found this picture of Kaky and me when I was almost 2 years old :) I remember when I was really little and she would come on her lunch breaks to play dolls with me or take me out for special treats on the weekends (my first mani/pedi's) and I got to have lots of sleepovers at her house when those brothers came along. She and I shared a lot of special memories and have always been so close.

and a more recent picture at Christmas two years ago when I won the $100 prize in Kaky's famous "Christmas Crackers!"

A Special Visit with Kaky

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We were at the hospital most of the day on Wednesday with our Kaky and had such a nice day with her. She was feeling pretty good and spent lots of time visiting with all of us. Kaky was so cute with Francie... they played with their little doggies "baby ow-wa" and "new ow-wa" (Francie gave her the mini version of her doggie and makes sure to tell her that little one is "YOURS" and every time Francie comes to visit Kaky has her Ow-wa hiding somewhere on her bed :) Francie showed off her walking on tip-toes and twirling skills, showed Kaky the latest of her favorite books (they went through every page of her "Family and Favorite People" shutterfly book!) and Kaky asked her over and over to say Kaky's favorite Francie-sayings: "I miss you TOO!" and singing her version of "Hat-To-Birt-Day-J-J!" Emmy, Kaky, Mimi, Jannie, Francie and I watched some really cute old family videos (thanks for DVD'ing them Uncle John) and told lots of funny stories together. We read all the beautiful notes and comments friends have left on the "Prayers for Kaky" website. It was a big day in the hospital room with family and visitors. In the afternoon Father Patrick came for an impromptu confirmation for the twins and their good friends the Hingas... Kaky and Crockett Hinga have been saying forever they HAD to get their kids confirmed but their busy sports schedules had gotten in the way so they made it happen today. Emmy was joking "Who knew you could get confirmed at Kaiser Permanente!" I had to run back to Stanford for an ultrasound appointment but Francie stayed with Jannie for the big confirmation and I heard she lightened the mood with a "Hat-to-birt-day!!" when Father Patrick lit the candle and kept repeating him, "Mercy! Mercy!" and "Amen." Francie runs around that hospital like she owns the place since we've been there so much! She asks Emmy or Johners to take her for rides on the "Ellagator" and knows which bathroom is for boys and which is for "gulls." She asks to go back and see Kaky most mornings and loves her GREAT-Aunt just as much as we all do. We all shared a lot of laughs and a special day together yesterday... Francie's 17 month birthday. We love you Kaky.

Reading her favorite book "No Biting!" (the little sheriff) to Kaky with Uncle Rich and Emmy

Taking a little "nap" with Em... and Francie 'picked' a dress Emmy and Baby Ann both wore and my old white "high tops" since they were Kaky's favorite when SHE was a little girl! Kaky wore the same kind until she was 5 years old... she has always loved all things about being a "baby" :)

and being silly too :)

We Love Aunt Kaky

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Aunt Kaky has been battling Ovarian Cancer for 8 years and has sure put up a fight. She's had a rough turn of events since Christmas Eve this year and we are very sad to have received news from the doctor that there is nothing more they can do to help her fight the disease :( We've been at the hospital a lot to visit our Kaky. We love her so much.

Kaky's big sister Jannie, her daughter Emmy and her grand-niece Francie got to visit with Kaky the other day. (I feel prviledged to call Kaky my Godmother too, she is the best godmother anyone could ask for) Francie and Emmy and I got a little doggie for Francie and a "baby" doggie to give to Aunt Kaky... Francie had so much fun playing with Kaky and the doggies- they were telling "secrets," hiding under the covers and Francie was telling Kaky all about her playgroup friends and saying "I wuv you-I miss you TOO Kaky!" We had a really nice visit and Kaky's spirits were great.

Francie's pink dress was Emmy's 20 years ago! We though Kaky would get a kick out of seeing Francie in it today.

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Kaky is famous for her witty rhymes and poems... she comes up with creative little rhymes for almost every occasion! We all love her famous Turkey Trivia at Thanksgiving and Christmas Cracker tradition on Christmas Eve. She wrote this little poem for Francie right after she was born, for the "Francie Bash" family party to pass her around to all of her aunts, uncles and cousins.

October 6, 2007

A POEM FOR FRANCIE

Today we gather for a family “bash” and celebration

To honor Mary Frances who begins our new generation.

Born into the role just as her mother had done

She’s the first of what we pray will be more cousins to come.

We welcomed the news of her arrival with joy,

As we had wondered for months was it a girl or a boy?

Then on September 18th our phones started “ buzzin”

That Mary and Brian had delivered the new cousin.

Off quickly to the hospital so anxious to see

This long awaited, beautiful, most precious baby.

It took only one glance and we each fell in love

As we welcomed Mary Frances Borchard Heffernan our gift from above!

So let us all raise our glasses for a simple toast… nothing fancy

Here Here, Hip Hooray, God Bless you Miss Francie!


Great Aunt Kaky

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WE LOVE YOU AUNT KAKY

Jannie's Birthday

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Friday, February 6, was Jannie's big 60th Birthday and we started the celebrations early... It was a fun day filled with lots of love for our Jannie. The Carter's came all the way down for the weekend and Kathy and Michelle Bacolini too. Jannie's brothers John and Jerry made it out and we were all happy to be together to celebrate. Our thoughts were with Aunt Kathy who is in the hospital fighting hard and staying strong so we sent lots of thoughts and prayers her way. We kept the party going all day and night for Jannie's big 6-0... we love you Mom!!

Francie had a 'birthday suit' she thought Jannie would like for the occasion

She helped Jannie open a few cards and presents by the hottub

Francie took this picture of Uncle "Jambes" and shortly after my camera gave me a Fatal Error... notw to self don't let the baby play with the buttons! (luckily Grampa brought his camera)

Happy Birthday Jannie!

Jannie hates the color orange so of course we threw her a big ORANGE themed party! We decorated before breakfast while she was outside... Allison went way over the top with all these great Orange decorations and party favors, THANKS Allison!

All the girls dressed in ORANGE "Juciy's" (or Old Navy's:)

but at some point (I think it was when we broke out the gymnastics and yoga moves on the lawn) we realized we looked like a bunch of Hare Krishnas!

Francie with streamers on her head went to tell Ja-Ja we were ready for her

Surprise!

Of course we made Jannie cry ;)

Francie thinks we're all crazy

Allison might have turned her suitcase orange hauling all this down

Ann and Pat rocking their orange with the palm tree sunglasses

James and Em (James rocks his real Juicy's of course;)

Daddy took Francie for a dip in her 'dry clean only' Crew Cuts halter top... I know, I know!

Grampa and Jannie celebrating 33 birthdays together... thanks for treating us all to a FUN week!

My favorite pictures of the night... her brothers and sons holding Jannie up!

So cute! Francie's turn with her Dad, Great-Uncle John, Uncle James, Uncle Jerry and Great Uncle or "BIG" Jerry... we'll have to make this shot a tradition!

The Heff's carried the "orange theme" through the evening festivities :)

Jannie and Francie look like little shrimps next to the G-uncles

Mare, Ann and Em

Turns out it's not that easy to get a good picture of Jannie with her four kids and baby grand :) She's too busy telling Francie to "Say Cheese!"

The whole fam

K-Bac, Michelle and Ann busy in the kitchen

Playing with my Francie-girl

One shoe on, one shoe off

BIG hugs for Aw-woo! When did Francie's chubby legs turn not-so-chubby?

The Carters came to the party too! Bethy sneaking some frosting for Francie

We didn't let Jannie step foot in the kitchen all day

Passed out after all that partying

Jerry and Allison

Me and my cute husband (not so cute bangs... ABA tried to help me but sometimes it's a lost cause)

Orange carrot cake the Carters brought with "60" sparklers and plates from Allison that say "the party continues..."

Happy Birthday to Jannie!

A little Left-Right-Center after dessert

Em won not once...

but TWICE in a row!! Good work Em :)

More Palm Springs

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It was so much fun to have all of my siblings and their "plus ones" and my parents in one place for almost the whole week! We made the most of the sunny days and took advantage of reading, games and knitting on the cooler days when a little Palm Springs storm rolled in. The house we stayed in was pretty cool... an old style house with a lot of quirks. We found out it was owned by a "world-renowned" famous plastic surgeon who was featured in the PS Magazine Jannie dug up. He lived there with his family until just recently and showed up to "check on things" a few times... he sure looks like a plastic surgeon! One morning at 7:45am when Heff was up for a morning swim with Francie and Jannie joined them (when she overcame her sleeping-in habit hearing her favorite grand-daughter running around) when suddenly this plastic surgeon guy shows up to drop off a rug or something... he told Jannie she had a beautiful baby and when she said "Oh this is my grand-daughter, we're here for my 60th birthday" he creepily stroked her neck and chin and said "well THIS doesn't happen naturally for women your age." Jannie considered it a birthday compliment ;)

Dad got talking "inside" the playhouse too...

and then "breaked it!" to come out and Francie was NOT happy!

Auntie Em gave the little Diva a fancy pink headband she wore all week

Cooling off with Em in the pool

Auntie Em and Francie-pants

Cheesey-face!

cute bum running around sans diaper :)

Cousin Mike came over for an afternoon to beat Jannie in LadderGolf

My little sister Auntie Baby Ann just off the plane from Nashville

Sleepy naked baby girl ready for Jannie to rock her to sleep (boy was she spoiled this week!)

Game time for the girls while the Doo sleeps!

My Mom and Dad taking good care of all of us even on their vacation :)

Jannie got Francie these "Palm Springs PJ's" awhile ago she's been saving

Reading books with Mom and Em in the family room

The next day the whole fam was hanging out in the hot tub (it's so convenient I HAVE to take the pictures and can't put my belly in a bathing suit in any pictures isn't it? ;)

and poolside... Heff is glued to his "Huntin' Fool" magazines!

We played Jannie's favorite Quirkle and I am posting this picture just to make my sister MAD :)

Francie and her Daddy

Allison (aka "Aw-wooo!") and Uncle Jerry (aka "Je-eee") won Francie's heart this week

Francie got lots of "auntie love" all week... ABA did things like feed and even change her clothes! No diapers changes yet for Auntie Baby Ann.

Aw-woo was a great sport playing lots of doll-dolls with Francie-pants

Francie got to model the cute hat Auntie Em whipped out in a day!

A Visit to El Centro

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On Tuesday we drove to the valley to see where Heff grew up! Tom left his banking job in Southern California to become a farmer when Heff was 1 year old and moved with Claire to El Centro in the middle of Imperial Valley. There they had Mark, Maureeen and the twins Katherine and Craig and lived until Heff was 16 years old when they moved to Red Bluff. Tom farmed row crops and produce in the HOT desert sun and Claire taught at the school down the street. It was so cool to see all the places I've heard the Heffernan's talk about and see Heff relive great memories spending time with his Dad running around checking on the fields, Little League games, church and getting into trouble. Of course most people we happened to run into on our "tour" just happened to know Tom Heffernan too :) We spent most of the day touring around showing Francie where her Daddy grew up before heading to the Wells' for a big Carne Asada dinner!

Only in Imperial Valley does the town themometer go up to 150 degrees! It was a cool 80 today for us :)

"HOW much longer til we get there Dad?" (She was a good sport for the two hour treck to the valley two days after our seven hour trip :)

views of the desert, just past the lovely Salton Sea. If anyone is looking for a vacation spot... "Barbarby Beach" had some really nice trailer hook-ups with tons of above ground utilities. Just don't go near the slightly toxic water.

Taking pictures of the fields Tom Heffernan used to farm!

Calipatria. (I love the names down here... Calexico, Mexicali ;)

Heff fondly remembered the "Peach 35" field Tom farmed and running around this corner by the canal when he was little while his Dad checked on the operations

Dad telling Francie she is NEVER allowed to "surf" in canals like these (being pulled by a teenager in an old truck driving along the canal... EVER.

Francie's thickening baby-hair did not agree with the dry desert heat... or I forgot to brush her hair after her bath ;)

We stopped off at the Schaffner Dairy in the middle of the farms and Francie just about lost it she was SO excited to see so many cows up close and personal. Heff told me I couldn't take any pictures of her by the cows in case the Dairy saw us and freaked out we were PETA spies or something.

Luckily we ran into Tom's old friend Emil Schaffner who told us we could have the run of the place and take as many pictures of cows as we wanted too :) He said to say a big hello to his good friend Tom so "Hi Opa!"

COWS! They pulled their heads out of the feeders at first when we got too close... but Francie made some fast friends.

Pretty cows...

When we are driving anywhere remotely "rural" Francie yells "COWS!?" and checks both windows until she sees some or at least some thing resembling cows (sometimes we pretend big rocks might be cows to give her a break from searching:)

Mooooooooo

We saw Heff's first school where he went to Kindergarten-5th grade and where Claire (Oma) taught 6th grade

AND we were so excited to see the infamous "House That Tom Built!" Heff lived here from 7 years to 15 years when they moved to Red Bluff

The house was on...

Not only cows, we saw lots of SHEEP too!

Heff remembered lots of trips to this little market for cold sodas when he got to drive around with his dad. It's closed now but Heff said it looked exactly the same back then.

You don't have to drive very far in El Centro to hit the Mexican border

And we found "Heffernan Ave!"

We ended our Tour de El Centro with dinner with the Wells Family! The Wells' grew up a few blocks (farm blocks;) from the Heffernans and had 9 kids running around. They were really close family friends and have lots of crazy memories together. They were so gracious to get a big dinner together with 6 of the 9 Wells kids and their parents Vicki and Dave. It's pretty amazing ALL 9 of the kids have settled back in El Centro! Here are the boys...

One of the grandkids, Emerson, was very nice to let Francie play with all of her fun toys. Francie was entrawled and called her "Em-ma-son" all night. Emerson didn't like when Francie didn't "follow her" when she was supposed to but she sure was a good sport to play with Francie-pants :)

Francie got to jump on the trampoline in the dark!

A group shot (minus a few who had gone home) It was a fun night!

The Palm Springs Life

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Monday we hung out by the pool, swam, snacked, read and did a whole lot of nothing... it was great :) We did venture to downtown Palm Springs on a walk to see all the places Jannie stayed/ate when she was a little girl and got some old-school ice cream scoops at the "Thrifty's" ice cream counter (remember the cylinder-shaped scoops?!) We had lots of sun Monday and Francie kept her Jannie and Grampa on their toes running around the yard and splashing on the stairs in the pool.

Not a bad place to spend the day!

Ready to jump on in

Swimming with Grampa... the first day she stepped right off the steps and went under so she was a little timid to go much further but had fun on the steps

Naked baby drinking Mom's 'mocktail' OJ. Heff got me some O'Douls to enjoy poolside too :)

Francie loved playing on the slide Grampa turned into a water slide with the hose

and talked Jannie into playing INSIDE the "house!"

Playing in Palm Springs with Landry!

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We are down in sunny Palm Springs for a week to celebrate Jannie's 60th birthday extravaganza! We left home early (5:20AM) Sunday morning and got to the desert in time to enjoy a sunny afternoon and a little SuperBowl Sunday party. Kelli, Mike and Landry had been down here for a long weekend too so they came over to our house to watch the game and play. Francie and Landry had lots of fun with the outdoor toys we pulled out at the house Jan and John rented, they must have kids! Landry is soo cute and easy going, just like her parents :) We had just arrived to open up and settle in the house and they didn't even mind the half-done chips and snacks we pulled together. It was a fun way to spend SuperBowl Sunday and to kick off a week of relaxing in the sun and toasting Jannie's 60 years!

"Come on in to my house Landry..."

Big Mike and Big Brian watching football on the couch

Kelli and cute Landry

Francie found the sprinklers!

and wasn't going anywhere

they went on at 5pm... not god timing for cocktail hour :)

"What was that?"

"BIG Je-eee" with Kelli, Landry, Jannie and a wet Francie!

Francie is freezing at this point... Landry is the wise one.

Jannie with the girls

Landry is off and running now!

Grandpa popping the champagne... still watching the game.

Sunset in the desert

Landry and Francie going for the dip

We let them finish it off ;)

Cozy in their PJ's rockin out to the tunes

Uncle Jerry LOVES the babies!

They kept busy playing with the Shape Sorter

Francie calls it "ALMOST!" since I guess we always say "Almost in there Francie!"

Thanks for coming over to play long-legs-Landry! (your giraffe PJ's are very fitting for more than just the "Daddy's Girl" ;)