Cousin Camp 2011

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We have a full house here at the Heff's for Cousin Camp 2011! 10 out of 11 grandkids (we miss you Oliver!!!) are with Oma for a few days of cousin fun. Craig had to come up for work so Andrea and Isabel and Thomas came to stay with us - sounded like a good excuse to Oma and Maureen to bring Ellie, Kate and Thomas to come join in too! Everyone is staying with us at our house except Clara and Caroline who live a mile away :) It's pretty crazy! Every bed and floor space for something resembling a bed is occupied and we've been pretty much just hanging out around the house, playing in the creek, doing art projects, playing dress up, cooking up good food and watching the kids run around with their cousins.

Water fairies

Maisie barking orders "Thomas SSSSIT HEE-RE!" until he realizes he better not set a precedent and let her boss him around!

Cousins



Maisie wouldn't take her tinkerbell costume from Aunt Francy off all day

Super Supervisors with babies. Maureen holding Caroline and Sarah with Janie - Heff on his way to get someone a beer probably :)

Cheese!

Andrea, Thomas and Ellie (I am hoping Andrea got better group shots than I did - I'll leave the real photos to her!)

Silly kids

But good job stepping up to the plate as a baby holder Francie - especially over a moving body of water ;)

Lots of dam building and animal rescuer playing

What do you do with 7 wet, dirty kids? Hose them off in the drained out hot tub of course

Crazy Two-Year Olds all clean

Kate and Francie love (Shigo hand me down pile outfitted almost all 7 of these kids after the post creek wash down since the TRIPLE matching outfits are all in the next few years sizes- thanks Kerri!)

The playroom looked like a bomb went off. I'm dealing :) Andrea relaxing on the couch for a short moment of peace, she is 8.5 months pregnant with number 3!

Uncle Mark dipping Ellie into the hot tub/bushes abyss for a lost toy- brave girl ;)

Maureen busy in the kitchen with Patrick and Janie to assist (thanks for all the cooking Oma and Maureen!)

Sippy cup extravaganza for dinner

KIDS table! All but Caroline and Janie old enough to hold their own

and after dinner s'mores by headlamp (have you seen the flat/stackable new square marshmallows?! I stood in Target dumbfounded at the pure genius of them today- why did no one think of this sooner?!)

Want one?! More Cousin Camp fun to come!

Bye Bye Baabees

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Little stinker is TWO so we finally decided she needs to give up her bottle. The first night I made her a sippy cup like her sister's for her milk before bed and she looked at me like I had two heads, threw it at the floor and said "No! My OWWWWN Baabee!" and then went to the drawer and got out all five pieces of her bottle.

Not giving up that easily.

Doing the hold it on your mouth by suction trick...

and it fell

If you know how to put together a Born Free bottle you are too old for it!

yes YOU maisie!

Monday Madness

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Catching up with all my random uploaded photos today! We had a great Father's Day weekend - mostly working on the house outside.

Last Sunday morning I work up at 5am - and since Janie had actually slept for 5 hours straight I was wide awake and ready to party :) So I dragged Christian to the Alameda Antiques Fair with me. We were at Peet's coffee a few minutes before they opened- I felt like Heff! Janie came with us and was a good girl while we shopped

I found this cute trike for Maisie to follow her sister around on

Sunday night last week we had dinner at my parents house with our good friend Mary Swanson- visiting on a crazy birthday/wedding tour of the US from Seoul Korea where she lives with her husband. Always great to catch up!

We had to take a picture of all the Marys!!

Poor Maisie had a bad rash that came out of nowhere. We emailed the pediatrician's office with this picture and the dr diagnosed "Slap Cheek" - a virus where this lacey rash shows up on the arms, legs and cheeks after the virus goes away. We didn't even realize she'd been sick but the rash stuck around all week.

Maisie also practiced her photography skills

We had a creek burial for the last two fish. Francie was sad. Maisie pretended to be (takes after her mom ;)

We moved the girl's rooms around to officially share. They are both in Maisie's room now and we've had 5 nights of successful sleeping together. Francie actually goes down easier than she used to (books and then we say goodnight, she used to have to have someone "lie with me" most nights. This pic was in transition...

We walked to Shoup one afternoon and Francie wanted me to take her picture on the zip line thing. By the time I got my phone out she was jumping off :)

Torturing a brave gopher - kept them busy for half an hour sticking snacks down the hole. Gophers don't like turkey.

JJ watching her crazy sisters

Maisie is so proud of J when she rolls over

and for pretty much anything she does. Janie is a good sport

We stopped at a friend's after the park and they fed the girls dinner with salmon- Maisie ate it hand over fist! Francie took some convincing (still thinking about those goldfish? ;)

This weekend we went down to Morgan Hill for a baby shower for my cousin Lori. Here are Francie and Maisie with my cousin (technically my Mom's cousin) Kris and her daughter Mandy who hosted - they gave the girls mini ice cream cones they were pretty happy about

More cousins Marty and Kristi who is due with her second in September- so many baby's this year!

Saturday night we went to a Cars 2 Premier fundraiser in Woodside - Jannie and Grampa took the girls for baths and dinner after a full day so Heff and I could enjoy the cocktail hour and dinner, then brought the girls up at 9pm to bundle up in a field under the stars and watch the movie on a big screen- it was such a fun night!

love the mason jars :)
movie time!

and Maisie Moo started vaulting now that she is TWO! She loved the "wide the hosey" part and would only participate in the rest of class if she was right next to her sister, holding her hand half the time. Made it hard for Francie to do sommersaults but she was a good sister about it!

Love the fake serious face. Go Maisie Go :)

Father's Day was a family WORK day around the house. Jannie and Grampa met us at Summerwinds to buy plants and then stuck around our house for lunch and planting, pruning, moving furniture, decorating and helping ALL day! Jannie was a huge help of course- and Grampa was a good sport to spend his Father's Day watching babies and golf. We didn't stop moving all day until we BBQ'ed dinner for everyone (James, Jer and Em came over too!) THANKS JANNIE AND GRAMPA! and to my husband for working away his Father's Day :)

Nativity Carnival

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The annual kicking-off-summer-vacation Nativity Carnival was last weekend. We always sponsor and work the Tri-Tip BBQ dinner and my dad was awesome this year to do all of the prep and shopping to cook 2 cases of tri-tip. We packed up the girls and did our best to help cook up and serve up some meat but I think most of what we did was cut it up in bite size pieces to feed kids. The girls LOVED the rides, games and carnival atmosphere. I don't think I've missed more than 1-2 carnivals since I was 12- always a great time!







This was "Goldie." Friday night she came home with us and became a part of our family. Francie showed her around the house and told her all about the members of her new family. We got her fish food Saturday morning. She died Saturday night at 6pm. Carnival round 2 we came home with a new Goldie and two more friends. There are 4 dead goldfish floating downstream in our creek as of last night. Damn fish!

Life Lately by iPhone

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I finally uploaded and deleted all 2,000 pictures on my iPhone. 200 of which were screen shots of some Umizoomi game Francie plays where she moves this car around the screen- so my photo roll looked like a flip book. Other than that we FINALLY got some summer weather and have been enjoying it as much as we can!

We met our friends for lunch the other day and Francie and Maisie got to play with their buddies Isaac, Wyatt, Jasmine and Kayley.

One of them found a snail, Francie and Maisie always call the gross little slugs they find "Lola" so Lola turned into the hit of the lunch.

Uncle Jerry turned 29 on June 6! Dinner at Sundance to celebrate

Happy Birthday Jer!

We've been taking some late afternoon walks downtown when Heff has to work late- he's been super busy at work! Francie has her warm chocolate ;)

Nothing better than a sleeping baby - Janie has been better at night! ONE night she slept from 11pm-5am but of course I had been up until 2am :) She sleeps well in her bassinet now from 9/10ish until 1am or sometimes later and then

After Maisie and Janie's check up they both got shots- Maisie was tough - anything for a lolly pop! and there is a new study that a little sugar rush right before and after the shot helps mask the pain so Nurse Kathy suggested even JJ have one - she loved it!

Farmer's Market

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Summer is finally here and the Thursday Farmer's Market in Downtown Los Altos is back! We rode walked with Francie's bike and the chariot this week for Janie's first time in the infant sling. She loved it and the big girls didn't torture her too much :)

Smily happy Janie girl

Add one Maisie Moo

and a helmeted bike riding Francie pants

she parked her bike at the "2-wheeler racks" and hitched a ride on the bottom bunk of the stroller - who says 3 is a crowd?

After the Farmer's Market we went to Fiesta Vallarta for dinner and sat outside by the live music- Francie and Maisie danced their little legs off for the crowd

Heff and his girls

speed racer pushing Janie all the way home on the greenbelt

and Francie very proud off her new bike basket she got at the hardware store on a trip with her dad

returning home to this sight at our front door- either we forgot we actually have a garage now or I have a strange addiction to things with wheels that carry babies. I think both :)

Dora Head

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Someone left a beheaded Dora pinata at the park today- awky!! We saw the birthday party kids hitting it awhile before and they were blindfolding little kids and spinning them before they hit it (like 3 year olds) I said "why would they blindfold those kids, it's hard enough to hit a pinata" and the dad we were with said "Because they are making them beat something that looks like a small girl!" Pinata's are pretty weird I guess- here is your favorite character kids, now go take a baseball bat to it's head.

Wedding Weekend

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Two weeks ago (three?) we had a fun weekend full of events for Eloise and Ryan's wedding. Janie tagged along and was a pretty good baby for the parties. Everything was beautiful and despite the unusually cold weather in May we all had a great time celebrating!

Janie all dressed up on Jannie's shoulder for rehearsal dinner a Foreign CInema in SF

What a pretty place for dinner - Glynn (Ryan's sister) giving her hilarious speech

and the wedding Saturday night at Burlingame country club

cute husband at dinner- weddings make great date nights!

with a baby in my arms all night I didn't take any good pictures but got this shot of Eloise beautiful dress!! They had awesome steaks for dinner (Heff loved that there were no alternatives:) and then passed grilled cheese and fries after dancing! Ryan gave an incredible toast to his bride to be- what a fun night. Congrats R & E!

Shower for James & Em

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My Aunt Kim, Uncle John, Aunt Mimi and Uncle Andy hosted a great BBQ Shower for James and Em last weekend at their new house in Aptos. It was a fun afternoon to get together with all of the cousins and celebrate Em and James' wedding coming up next month! It was a hot sunny day in Aptos and we soaked it up. My cousin Molly (above) was there with her husband Bryan and her adorable kids Brady and Lauren. So fun to hang out and count down the days to Em and James big one!

Congrats to the soon-to-be-wed James and Em!

Kim and John - love your new house and thanks for the fun party!

Molly and her cute kids. Brady is 3.5 and Lauren is 14 months

Brian and Bryan with a mad-mad-Janie

My Aunt Joann looking beautiful with Janie - she makes the coolest tote/beach bag out of strips of Target plastic bags, she gave one to Em I wish I had taken a picture of! (Hi Aunt Joann :)

The Godparents with Crazy Maisie!

She had a "Little LuLu" curl on the top of her head all day from a pony tail holder she took out

time for presents!

James and Em got LOTS of help- Jackson, Em's nephew was there too and wins the award for smiling at the camera

Auntie Em and Francie

Dad and Janie and I

Earl and Mr Stevens in matching shirts!

Good friends Ann, Jeanette and Katsy

Kreefts and Emmy

Aunt Marge and her first grandson Brady

YUMMY cupcakes. I might have had 2

Molly, Maisie and Emmy

Lauren was obsessed with "baby"!

The girlies

Maisie loves a good party!

MaryJane @ 3 months

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Figured I would give Janie Girl her own little update! We went to Dr. Cisco yesterday to check in and Janie is measuring long and lean- super long and lean. At 3.5 months (15 weeks) she is 11 pounds 11 ounces and 25.5 inches putting her at 97% for height and 25% for weight. Just watching her roll around and move her body on the table Dr Cisco say's it's probably because she is so active that she burns her calories- and probably why she doesn't love to sleep ;)

She loves attention from her sisters, but kind of gets angry when Maisie's little high pitched voice comes around while she's sleeping! Francie loves to "walk around with her" (a few steps while I am close behind!) and Janie gives her big smiles.

Janie is a little demanding - I guess she has to be as a third child. She likes to be held facing out to see the world or standing up dancing on her feet. Heff figured out this is the easiest way to calm her when she's mad.

She HATES the carseat. We've learned to live with it and turn the music up :) But she loves stroller rides and has graduated to the big girl seat.

Janie has a sweet disposition when she is happy though and already has lots of personality shining through. I love the baby stage but it will be fun to see what she grows into! Love you Janie girl!