A Heffernan Thanksgiving - Part 1

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Brian and the girls were up in Red Bluff for TEN days and I joined them Monday-Sunday from Nashville (Heff picked me up at SFO- what a husband :) We had a great time just relaxing and spending time with all of the Heffernans. The girls spent lots of time checking on the horses in the barn, feeding, riding and getting dirty with all the animals. Oma took good care of my little turkeys while I was gone and kept us all fed and happy all week- thanks Oma!

Riding off into the sunset on Sherman the new addition to the barn- he was a vaulting pony! and Francie even gets to "ride" him by herself sometimes with no one leading. Good horse!

Isabel and the Craig Heffernans arrived from LA on Wednesday - the girls went running of with IzzaBizza!

"Where's Paco?"

Maise-Snaggle

Francie is sort of transitioning out of naps. She gets quiet time for an hour or two in her room still but doesn't always fall asleep. I was hoping she'd nap until she went to college but no such luck. So sometimes this is the no nap afternoon result...

and after 7 days of therapy and "you will like this"- Maisie got over her fear of beasts and actually rode Sherman (before she had a 2 foot rule).

"Mom if you blog this, will people will think I'm one of those horse girls??"

patient Sherman in my old polo bridle

Thomas gets a turn

and nighttime "Snipe Hunting" became a ritual for the big girls with Heff. Funny- they never found a snipe and after all his tall tales about what snipe were and what they looked like, the girls came in and said, "let's google snipe" to find out they looked nothing like Uncle Brian described!

Katherine and I kept ourselves busy one afternoon doing a hallway makeover on Oma's entryway where we all tend to pile our jackets, cameras, diaper bags, purses and shoes on the chest. it gets to be a mountain with 21 people in the house! So q quick trip to the Redding Target (always a highlight) and some furniture building and hook hanging later we had organization. Each family gets a bin and shoes in the basket!

The girls on a chicken hunt (chickens are all dead- damn coyotes!)

Love for her little sis- didn't last long I'm sure

"Yeah they left me in the dust..."

A girl after her Opa's heart... fascinated by the water tower

Hide and Seek with Isabel

"Found ya!"

Lots of football on the couch. Pretty nice way to spend Thanksgiving week!

and maybe a few naps too...

The cooks were all certainly busy in the kitchen! Kat whipped up a few amazing Pioneer Woman favorites - French Onion Stuffed Mushrooms and Homemade Buttery Rolls Dipped in Butter... yummm

Francie logged some time in front of the window waiting for Kate and Ellie to arrive from Chico

Maureen brought homemade pies

Ellie made hand-drawn nametags for Thanksgiving dinner

Heff had some great hat-head going on

Oma and Opa and their brood ready for dinner

Ellie managed the younger troops at the kids end of the table

The cute Doverspikes after dinner!

Kat is such a good mom- as expected :)

and Oliver could NOT be any cuter!

Dish duty by most of the non-cooks, all thankful for such a yummy meal!

and after dinner matching Moose Pj's for all the kids! Attempts at a group photo were pretty unsuccessful- Andrea I hope you got some expert ones! Some of my favorite outtakes...

The best I could get...

the eldest and youngest- Oliver looking like a big kid at 2 months old!

Oldest sibling love

The close-to-two-year olds with Skittles Ellie was giving out for trying to sit for their picture

Peace and they're out

Nashville Weekend

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More pictures from my fun-filled weekend in Nashville visiting my baby sister! Thanks for having me Ann and Pat- here's what we did in 72 hours...

Started building her new business... we checked out the space before it got dark

It's in a GREAT location with 10 other adorable little businesses- kind of a cottage shopping center :)


Grabbed dinner to go at a little place called Zoe's

and then organized and online shopped Thursday night until 1am

Friday morning we went shopping for Smart Sprouts stuff at the Nashville hotspots like TJ Maxx Homegoods. We got a ton of great toys, games and decor stuff and then hit Home Depot for all the necessaary tools and cleaning stuff she's going to need. Even found a green ladder and drill!

We stopped and tried on bridesmaids dresses for me to get fitted and pick a style for Jen's wedding in New Orleans in March! Jen picked great styles and I love the one I choose. ABA was not happy with me when I made her try on the dresses for me since I am 7 months pregnant and THEN told her I might as well try them on too :)

and grocery/dinner shopping- they have an awesome Whole Foods right near the new Smart Sprouts.

We had Pat's whole family- The William's, White's and Galassini's and our cousin Mike who is working/living in Nashville over for dinner Friday night. It was great to see everyone after the wedding week- they all live really close by. Ann and Pat have done such a cute job decorating their house!




The newlyweds

and we celebrated Mikey's 25th birthday that was Sunday- Happy Birthday Mike!


After everyone left we unloaded all the loot from our day of shopping

We made sure to have some diversity in our baby doll buying :)

Then Saturday morning we set out bright and early for the closest IKEA- in Atlanta 300 miles away!

We rented a U-Haul trailer in Nashville - it was way cheaper than a one way trailer or a truck so we pretended we knew what we were doing and set out with a 12 foot trailer behind us.

Ready for the 4.5 hour drive

One stop to switch drivers and gas up- arrived at Ikea at 12:30pm ready to hit the store

and that we did:


We got home at 1am Saturday night... slept. Woke up early (feeling like I had run a marathon) to unload the trailer and get it back by 9am. Isn't their house cute!?

Then we got to work...

Before:

and After:

and Sunday night when it got too dark to work (no electricity in the space yet) we went to Ann and Pat's friends house for a Thanksgiving dinner party- it was delicious! The girls went all out cooking every main, side and dessert you could think of.

Girl's cooked and chatted. Boys watched football

amazing spread!

and back up at 5:45am to take me to the airport Monday morning- but had to stop at Smart Sprouts one last time... good luck ABA, can't wait to see it all come together, you are going to do great!!

Atlanta IKEA Trip

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I had SO much fun with my sister for my 72-hour "build a business" vacation. She is doing a great job getting things set up for Smart Sprouts and I know it is going to be super successful in Nashville. She already had moms stopping by wanting to sign up! I have a whole bunch of photos to post and I'm really wondering how we did everything in all my pictures in 3.5 days- I think I wore her out :) Here are some pics from our Atlanta IKEA trip Saturday that I had on my phone... the rest of the trip when I get off this plane (and maybe after I snuggle up my girls and Heff- I'm so excited to see them!)

and we're off- 8am Saturday

Stopped to hitch up a 6×12 u-Haul trailer

4+ hours later. IKEA ATLANTA parking garage in a double space

First load (our strategy - small stuff in the kids section first, wherehouse second, showroom third trip in)

Our new friend everyone kept trying to steal

poster looks like a random girl in the background

2 carts down. Out to the trailer

Next load = heavy boxes (and boxes and boxes) this was one of three flats

small stuff in the Suburban

Big stuff in the trailer (how was our loading practice Heff?)

Such fun sisterly love :)

Hour 4...

My FAVORITE - self checkout!

left right before they closed at 9pm Atlanta time (yes we changed time zones for the love of Ikea) and headed home. Pit stop at a gas station after a freeway driver flagged us down to say the chain was sparking (oops- heavy trailer weighed it down)

Back on track with road trip snacks. Only to see a "75N CLOSED ALL LANES" sign. Use ALT route 4 miles ahead. We didn't believe the sign. 5 miles ahead dead stop traffic for an hour. BELIEVE the sign :) Home by 1am

I Love These Girls

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I am getting ready to go visit my sister in Nashvegas for FIVE days! I am so excited to hang out with her and Pat, see their new home and call her Mrs. Williams officially :) I am going to help her set up her own new business- a Brilliant Babies business model she is calling Smart Sprouts! We are going to have a lot of fun but I am going to miss my girls. They will be in very capable hands with their dad, I know, so I can enjoy myself but this is the first time I've left since Maisie was born other than an overnight to be there for Kat to have her baby. It will be strange not to feed anyone, break up fights, struggle with nap/bed time and to have a long cross-country flight to sit on my laptop in peace! But I sure will miss these two...

and their Dad! Thanks Heff- I owe you (wait... I'm counting hunting trips....)

Popsicles

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The warm weather returned and yesterday we had popsicles in the front yard- On a cardboard box of course. They have been filling up our entry way lately for my new business venture and I told Heff all I wanted for Christmas was a husband who continued to take my cardboard boxes to the recycling bin at work without complaining. This morning he loaded up the back of his truck- and as he was leaving UPS pulled up with four more giant boxes. Sorry Heff!

Off the shoulder look is working France- and Maisie. I'm not sure why they were in rag-a-muffin outfits yesterday- just one of those days!

Wedding Date

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Last night Heff and I went to a wedding in San Francisco to see one of my good friends from high school get married. Dawn was a beautiful bride and married another Brian :) Heff and I agreed it was one of the nicest, most fun weddings we've been to. It was at The Bohemian Club in SF and down to every detail a really special night to celebrate Dawn and Brian!

Dawn and her Dad walking down the isle

The ceremony was so nice- the priest did a great job making it really personal (Jewish traditions for Brian but Catholic rites for Dawn) and reading letters they had written to each other during marriage preparation.

Then the musician performed a GREAT song at the end and they hugged their family members while everyone clapped along before they headed back down the isle (CLICK to hear it)

back down the isle- I love her dress!

The reception- first cocktails, hors d'vours and sushi upstairs



Dawn and Brian were both basketball stars in High School- just at different schools and Brian was a year older. But Dawn found an old article in the paper from 1995 that, in the same paragraph, listed Dawn Desautels and Brian Miller as the rising stars to watch on the court! They had a few references to their old pastime in the wedding

Then upstairs again for a beautiful sit down dinner

Dawn changed her sash to hot pink for dancing- it looked so cute! (the colors were navy and pink- i don't think i got a good picture of bridesmaid dresses but they were really pretty navy blue with a ruffly collar)
(CLICK to play this one too:)

Dawn and her mom listening to Brian give his really sweet groom's toast

Dawn and her Dad dancing to a special song the guitarist wrote and performed - he flew out from Colorado for the wedding and he was SO good

Chairs in the air for Hava Nagila!
(another video)

Dessert

Dawn's mom made just about everything down to the table linens and centerpieces

Their favorite things... butterflies (a wedding theme), Dawn's family dog Tess and basketball!

Congrats Dawn and Miller!! Happy Honeymoon!

Oregon BIL Hunt

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Heff went up on an Elk Hunt for a tag he drew last weekend (Thursday to Monday night) and invited his Brother-in-Law (my brother) Jerry to go with him. Jerry has been hunting with his friend Gary lately and has been collecting all the necessary gear. He only had to borrow my camo hunting pants- maybe the reason he's not wearing them in the picture above is that Heff told him they were mine BEFORE they left :) The tag was for land two hours north of Burns Oregon where Donald (also Brian's brother-in-law) is from and since he and Kat were up there Donald met them out on Saturday night and camped in the "guest room" of the tent- a 3 foot by 6 foot little covered area to take your shoes off in. Good thing Heff likes his BIL's enough to get cozy and get huntin!

My very own Huntin' Fool- and no I'm not calling him a real fool- it's the name of his favorite magazine :)

The first day they hiked 15 miles in 40 degree pouring down RAIN

Setting up camp

How cute matching sleeping bags :) Heff got Jerry one like his own for Christmas last year

Uncle Donald joined them out at their camp

Mapping the terrain

Deer sausage on a big fire- they built such a huge fire Heff fell asleep in his camp chair and Jerry had to wake him up to tell him calmly that his shoe was on fire. Melting New Balances don't look good the next day!

Drinking beers around the fire- not a bad way to spend a Saturday night (if it weren't FREEZING I would have agreed :)

They claim this was an "epic" meal of camping beans and rice, leftover lamb from ABA's wedding, tortillas and ranch dressing. And probably a whole lot of Tabasco.

After a full day and night of rain- welcome snow!

It was 26 degrees- in the middle of the day. Brrr...

Fresh snow in the middle of nowhere

My favorite truck :)

There is a lot going on here- I'm just happy my husband and my brother can spend 4 days together and live to talk about how much fun it was! Heff said Jerry was great and never once complained about the rain, cold or miles and miles of trekking after him. I'm sure this won't be their last trip together!

Highchair Conquest

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I was pretty proud of myself last week. I was headed home with both girls for naps when I decided to make a quick stop at Ikea to look for some stuff for work. I found the amazing $25 high chair we LOVE at Brilliant Babies (easy in/out, all one surface to clean, looks decent!) that has been out of stock for almost a year- we've been watching and even found some on eBay for twice the price!

So I had to stock up for the new business I'm working on (haven't blogged about this yet- I will!) and we needed a couple extra at BB so I bought TEN high chairs by myself with both girls and my belly in tow and even stopped for a messy, dripping, Ikea ice cream cone at the registers. I seriously must have looked like I was running an orphanage. We made it to the car with only one tip of the stack of chairs :)

phew- that wore me out too France. Just meant longer nap times though!

More Fun at Art Class

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We've been having fun at our art class- the girls love it although Maisie insists on washing her hands everytime she gets even a little paint/glitter/glue on them :) They make LOTS of creations to bring home for our bulletin board!

Francie with her Honey in her very own Ergo :)

Maisie playing with cornmeal- not too sure if she likes it

"Wah!" (wash my hands again now please mom)

Trying to get the hang of cutting with scissors

Teacher Jo gave the girls flowers to take home after they used some like this as paint brushes

Halloween Night

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Sunday night we had a rocking Halloween - Pat's family all came back with my parents for dinner, to watch the World Series and take the kids trick-or-treating. We didn't know our street is apparently the place to be on Halloween Night- It was INSANE!! I thought we'd have enough candy to give out, but asked Margy and John to pick some extra up since they were going to the drug store- then my dad heard we might need candy and offered to run by Costco (any excuse- my dad loves costco!) so we had tons. And it was wiped out by 7pm. Donald ran to Safeway and cleared them out and we still went through it all. Our front lawn looks like a marathon path went right through it- but it was a whole lot of fun. Now I'm thinking out 12 large plastic bins of "Halloween Decorations" storage isn't enough, I'll have to keep adding to the collection for next year, sorry Heff!

Setting up for the big night

Donald and Baby Doverspike in his festive blanket Jannie made

Mia and Francie "ready for customers!" they manned the door for most of the night with Pat's Cousin Beth- thanks guys!

Fog machine was a hit

Best buds- both Minnie's

AnneMarie in a great costume

We thought this would be enough candy (this and 4 more jumbo bags inside). HA!

They just started streaming in

The Dad's and the babies

Love Emma's handmade iPhone costume!

Waiting for the "surprise" guest

It's FRANKENSTEIN!

Heading out for some trick-or-treating of our own

Proud parents with their first trick-or-treater

The first house Maisie went up to by herself...

The lady put a "Dot's" chewy/gummy candy in her basket (yes she is trick-or-treating with an easter basket- oops) and Francie goes "No! She can't have that! It's a choking hazard!" The lady thought Francie was nuts but switched it out per Francie's demands :)

Little Triceratops making her way up the stairs on her own. And these moms have the right idea- wine on the porch.

Jannie HAD to go to up to this neighbor's house since I told her the daughter who lives there want's to go to Vandy :)

Scary scenes from our street






Game Four of the World Series was on Halloween Night- thanks to this friendly neighbor the dad's didn't have to keep checking their phones for the score... :)

Kinda like this New Yorker cover from last year :) poor kids- damn smart phones!

It was also kind of comical this was the only house that wasn't totally decorated- and the girls were the most scared to go up to this front door! Real people scarier than target decorations I guess.

But Maisie was thrilled with the Organic Annie's Cheddar Bunnies :)

Jannie and AnneMarie being SCARY :)

at least Triceratops still has her easter basket and her binky

We got home to find the candy on the second round! And this was after they cleared out our freezer, the kids earlier collections AND my jars of It's A Boy/Girl Bubble Gum cigars!

Oliver the little Pumpkin! (and thanks for saving the day with the Safeway run for candy Donald)

Francie changed out of costume #2 into her sister's pants and set down for her favorite part- "organizing her candy" (hummmm, wonder where she learned this behavior?:)

Maisie was more interested in sticking glow sticks in her ear

Bedtime for the little goblins! (Francie held Oliver here for 2.5 seconds then looks at Kat and says "I'm good. You can have him back now."

Happy Halloweeeeeen!

Sunday Post-Wedding Brunch

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Sunday morning Heff and I hosted Brunch at our house to recap all the wedding day festivities! (We hosted our own wedding day Sunday brunch. I remember being at Starbuck's together at 8:am getting coffee to-go's for everyone :) Ann asked me if we'd host it... THEN a few weeks later told me she and Pat wouldn't even be there! They left at 8:50am for their honeymoon, the little stinkers :) But we enjoyed the morning even without the new Mr. and Mrs. and felt lucky to spend some more one-on-one time with Pat's great family. It was my FAVORITE kind of day- never leave the house and people come over to party all day and night. The kids all raided the dress up chest- after all, it's HALLOWEEN!!


relatives piling in to recharge and recap



Love the matching t-shirts Joe and Mary! So festive!


Ann and Jan


Everybody piled in the living room watching slideshows of the wedding pictures


Aunt Nettie, Cousin Evan (my first cousin on Dad's side) with new baby cousins Juliet and Ryland



Laughing at the funny photo booth pics- check out the last picture on the fourth one from the left :) Mooned Ya!


The kids took over the playroom and dress up chest




Evan's wife Nikki with Moo-Moo Juliet


Margy, Mary Eva, Jan and Maisie


Love "The Hangover" costume!


Uncle Dad (my dad's brother) with cute little Cow Jules and her sister Lucia playing in the bassinet



Parents invade the playroom!


This look is kind of how I felt too Francie "Did we really just have SIX parties for ABA in FOUR days?!" but loved every minute of it!

Then a few hours for naps and decorating the front yard for a big Halloween Night Party!