10 Week Tess and Eye Surgery

Tiny Tess is ten weeks old! We are gearing up for surgery for poor little baby girl on Wednesday - her tear duct is blocked (the part that drains the tears into the nose) so she has to have it opened up surgically. It's fairly common but still no fun to have your baby go under anesthesia! Sometimes they wait until 9 months old but Tessa's is pretty bad and uncomfortable for her and risk of infection is high so we agree with the doctors it just needs to get fixed asap.

checking in to LPCH for her surgical pre-op appointment Thursday

waiting for Dr Alcorn! (we LOVE her sweet doctor - Jannie came with me to one of the appointments to talk shop since Jannie has tear duct issues and actually had to have almost the same surgery on Monday! Jannie was just doing her grandma duties and testing out how bad this surgery was before Tess has to have it)

big sis taking care of Tiny Tess

happy Tess! Smiling during an in-truck diaper change on the way to red bluff. Love those smiles Tessa!

Eagle Canyon Fishing Trip

Heff went out fishing with some Red Bluff friends last weekend to some ponds we fished a long time ago before we had kids! He caught a bunch of fish and had fun out there while the girls were hanging out with Oma and Aunt Kat.

cute spencer!

hooked one

fish number 10

beers with buddies after the fishing

Adventures with Dad

Brian has taken the girls on a few fun adventures lately while I get to snuggle Tess at home! Two weeks ago they went on a day trip (5am in the car!) to Greenfield and Paso Robles to pick up a new BBQ for our new house and a trip to the gun store. Totally normal things to do with Dad right? ;)

JJ making sure she likes the one we got

three rag-a-muffins in the gun store

taxidermy - just like the zoo. only different

Francie wants a job ;)

and I have to login to Heff's account to get these pics but they also went up to Red Bluff for a weekend while Heff fished with his buddies and the girls played at Oma's - nice catch dad!

Tessa 9 weeks!

Getting big! Tessa is doing great. She is a little Momma's girl but calms right down lying on my chest. She is doing better at night and only has her witching hour crying fits a few times a week. She hates the crib (HATES IT!) but loves the changing table - no clue what the difference is :) and she sleeps curled up right next to me. She sleeps all night maybe waking up to feed once or twice but goes right back to bed and then sleeps until 9/10am after I get up which is a nice little "get stuff done with two hands" time. She still likes the Moby but is getting a little big for the curled up chest position so we use the Ergo sometimes now too. When she is tired she is super cranky until she falls asleep but a swaddle and the binky helps put her right down! The girls love to "make her feel better" when she cries and they do a pretty good job with it :)

Weekend by Insta

We had a great weekend around the house recovering from Thanksgiving! The girls spent a lot of time in PJ's, we spent a lot of time cleaning and organizing - moving takes forever to finish completely. It was nice sunny weather Saturday and we were outside a lot then Sunday we had an action packed day with a birthday party and the Festival of Lights parade in DTLA to kick off the holiday season... early to bed Sunday night to go back to school after 10 days off!

Friday night. Leftovers for dinner, Juicy's, red wine, cozy couch and sleeping baby. perfect.

the girls worked on their Lego Vet hospital with dad in new Target Christmas jammies. Prety happy campers too

Assume the watching football position

Saturday morning hanging out by the sunny window with my baby girl watching the world go by

and organizing! This is my crazy shoe system - 1 dot, 2, dots, 3 dots for oldest to youngest (youngest shoe wearer - Tessa will add another dot next year to be 4 dot!) I figure if I continue to only buy the girls these kinds of winter shoes in odd sizes (5-7-9-11 - gotta fit one of those!) - every year I just buy the oldest kid and the hand-me-down but matching system will be intack! 

and our new fence was painted Saturday - looks much better green than the white primer all the neighbors were worried about :)

and 12-21 when the Mayan calendar ends - just come here. We've got back up power now.

Going to church Sunday morning

short walk even in the rain to mass

Sunday after church we went to a really fun Superhero birthday party and wore the girls out! They all napped, even Francie in the stroller when she went on a run with Brian and stayed out to "cat nap" for awhile - haha.

bundled up for Festival of Lights parade!

crazy kids ready to roll

and there's Santa! Let the Christmas season begin!

bedtime for bonzo's - Daddy reading Madeline to his bathed, jammied up nightgown girlies.

goodnight! (JJ says "take. MY. PICTCHA!" Francie oblidges and Maisie says "No Way" - typical :)

Thanksgiving 2012

Heff and I hosted our first Thanksgiving in the new house! We had a relatively small group for our family but 20 of us gathered to cook a giant bird (thanks to the Matthews in Chico for raising it!) and hang out together. The girls

getting "Yummy" the Turkey ready

and on the spit! New BBQ Heff assembled Thanksgiving morning - still has to be faced with stone and finished off but it worked great for Thanksgiving day

Guys around the BBQ, their favorite place to be

aww JJ love for Dad

two tables set for 20

Mimi, Kate and Jannie with the girlies

cousins - lots of joking around and teasing of course :)

I don't remember what was so funny but Francie thought it was hilarious

Jannie and Grampa brought the pram over toour house while we can use it for Tess! That's JJ in there kicker her dirty little feet pretending she's the baby :)

and the champagne drinkers on the porch (I had to go raid their "good stuff" stash :)

John and Heff with the bird!

and I was cracking up my Dad was wearing a kids IKEA arts-and-crafts apron he pulled off the wall :)

Maisie and JJ are ready to eat

Instagramming Thanksgiving dinner is a must ;)

and proving that's a "Farm to fork" bird!

Dinner is served!

maybe doubling the mashed potatoes recipe was agressive?

Maisie insisted on the drumstick - even though it took her six tries to figure out how to get one bite off of it

turkey consumers

Everybody was supposed to write a leaf for the Thankful Tree - but my brother Jerry just held court and asked everyone what they were thankful for while he wrote them. My favorites are Caller ID, Costco, Picture Text Messages and "Speel check" haha

after dinner Lego building, Mimi the biggest kid of all of them was in her element ;)

and what's Thanksgiving without a reenactment of the first Thanksgiving Pageant?!

getting ready for pageant in my office before the big show

soccer ball was totally a time appropriate prop

taking a bow

and the big Turkey Trivia challenge (25 questions about family members personal information - always fun and always a fee fights over the RIGHT answer!)

Jannie the Matriarch in charge

Hank watching over the Turkey Trivia prizes -

it's a family sport

Big winners

Jannie and her girls PJ'ed up

late night hanging out letting Big Uncle Jerry entertain us :)

and Claire reading books to the girls in bed - Francie said her favorite part of Thanksgiving was "Claire... and Aunt Mimi" ;)

Dad in 'camo' with a pink baby blanketed-girl!

Uncle Jerry gave each of the girls a $20 dollar bill! (just like my grampa used to do on special occasions) and JJ looked at it, held it up and goes "Monies? Monies! ARCADE!" haha

happy kid!

and happy, tired mom and dad :) photo by Maisie

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are busy getting ready to host Thanksgiving at our new house this year! Everyone is coming over around 2pm and the 22 pound bird should be done by 5 - the girls are planning a Thanksgiving "show" and I'm sure we'll have lots of fun with the family. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Maisie this morning taking good care of Tess while I got ready (the only time Tess has been out of my arms all day - she's a momma's girl). Maisie pulls her on her chest and "shh's" her with the binky until she calms down, better than most adults can do these days!

Our Thankful Tree ready to put the leaves on before dinner

My big girl peeling potatoes while her sisters take early naps so they don't miss the party

Good workers - Dad teasing Francie the whole time they peel all 40 potatoes, she can take it and dish it back at least :)

Trying to set the table with my Ergo'ed bundle

Now that's a Big Bird! on the new BBQ Heff just got set up this morning, down to the wire!

Legoland

Tuesday morning I took the big girls and Tessa down to Legoland for a little Mom-adventure (the scales were tipping too much in Dad's favor after the turkey-killing trip) We left JJ at home to hang out with Dad (and Emmy!) since she is such a wild child at this age. Right now we say 3 = 1 in the ratio of which kid is the most work. And she's a still a little lacking in the height department for most of the rides. So off we went for some Legoland craziness with two other families for two days!

I had never been and thought this might be  abad week to pick to go with kids out of school but it wasn't too bad. We went with some friends and had a bridage of three double Bobs and 9 kids total. The girls didn't know until Monday night we were going and were super excited for a big surprise.

First stop - the awesome Stegocoaster in Dino Land - we got to ride in one car (while Tessa napped in the stroller, but she has developed mom-scent and literally everytime I left her with one of our friends who stayed back to stroller-sit, she would wake up screaming as soon as I got 50 feet away! good thing I have nice friends who don't mind holding babies)

The kids all attempted many tries at the Legoland take-your-money-and-run games :) we did score a few prizes but that was mostly when a Dad stepped up to the plate

Maisie Moo enjoying the scenery on the little cars

and a swirly ice cream cone on our way out of the park (they were in cute red and blue dresses when we got there but it was HOT so they trader out for pink Legoland shirts - as long as they stand out in the crowd I wasn't complaining)

Mini-legoville - 2million legos to make cities and little street scapes. Pretty cool but maybe Legoland should have been planned for indoors?? the legos were all so faded from the sun! but still impressive what they can build 

 France and Maise in the shark mouth

I posted that picture above on Instagram and a few minutes later Bethy texted me the one of her and Jill below - SISTERS in the SHARKY! :)

and to the htoel for naps - which didn't really happen since everyone slept for 2.5 minutes on the car ride and then woke up ready to party at the hotel. Double fisting a Corona and POM Margarita was a requirement.

so we wore them down even more in the kiddie pool of course (all asleep by 8:30pm - no surprise)

we tried dinner in the hotel lounge and when their first comment was "those kids can't be here without proper attire" (aka shoes) we knew that was asking for disaster so we found refuge in the basement "Arcade" and ordered room service! I was checking out my competition - Area 151 still cooler but good idea to put this in a hotel! AND best part was Bethy and Greg stopped by to say hi and hang out for a bit!

Morning entertaining Tess while I packed up

and best rent-a-car ever when you have 9 kids and 7 adults - a mini-bus! Still not as COOL as a Sprinter (I know most of you beg to differ on that statement) but it was so easy.

Arriving for a short Day 2 at Legoland (Francie has day old french-braids after swimming and sleeping on them - I did not have enough hands to acomplish a re-braid this morning)

Sea Life exhibit - pretty cool stuff but tight quarters ESPECIALLY for a train of three double-wide BOBs!)

I love how it's an awesome aquarium with random Lego structures in the water. Gotta tie it to the themepark somehow!

We had a mellow Day 2 revisiting our favorite ride, letting the "big kids" go on the super-roller-coaster and then lounging in the sun in Duploville letting the kids play. I had to change tess on the fly in the stroller (bucket seat was also jerry-rigged on a snack bar with the snack tray attached :) and then found my uber-spare onesie in my backpack (yes I have given in to the mom-backpack!) But seriosuly, her Mom is the Bomb right? ;) thanks for the onesie ABA

love this little smile on ya Tess! (but don't love that swollen eye :(

the kids were all relatively well behaved on the trip and no one got "treats" (WHY do they have pure sugar in gross flavors dispensed in 36 inch long tubes at every kiosk there?? so gross!) so they each got to big a real big kid Lego set when we left. They have lines for girls now with horse stables and animal hospitals - make a box purple and the girls go for it.

two pretty happy campers

and this was the drive home - passed out in my rearview mirror!

Monday

The girls went off for some stomp rocket action at the park with Em while I got some work done at Bumble. The new fence went up today! Neighbors probably think we are crazy with a white fence - its just primer it will be dark green! We laid low at home all afternoon til Heff got home and we went to Bumble for the first night of new menu dinner! And DESSERT!

School Photos 2012

wow - great of Francie but not Maisie's best :) This was the day Francie insisted on a headband AND bow/hairband and Maisie came out dressed in too-short leggings and a hand-me-down "San Jose State Princess" pink and purple t-shirt with a crown on it (thanks Emmy :) I MADE her promise to put this smocked dress that was mine on for the picture. They came back and I said "wow looks like Maisie is out of a polygymist cult" and Heff goes "that's because you made her wear that dress!"

Sorry about the watermark - not springing $99 for the originals of these images!

The Buzz on Biz

We've been making lots of changes at Bumble (and Area 151 and PLAY!) for the winter. We switched to a new seasonal menu at Bumble today - very exciting after about a month of ideas, trying recipes, creating a new menu format and executing. I keep saying it but this restaurant business is nuts. We really do enjoy it but it's about 20x more work than any of the other businesses. But the "fruits" of our labor are delicious so it's worth it :)

(a photographer came to take some pictures of 'how I work' and sent me a few of them - JJ and Tess look way cuter than me in these but that's ok)

yup that's right - I just play on the floor all day - NEVER ignoring my kids on my laptop at work ;)

The new menu is ALL locally sourced and mostly organic. It makes it a little tricky since we took off tomatoes, avocado, strawberries and wild salmon (all California cuisine ingredients) but most people don't realize these items all come from out of the country and some are gassed to ripen by the time they get to grocery store shelves. So we have switched out avocado for artichoke hearts and have some fresh takes on winter veggies on the menu. We've also upped the ante a little with braised short ribs and cioppino for dinner - come try it's all good! Here is Breakfast

we also got some good press last week with an article in the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal - always helpful to get some free PR :) Brian's law firm was on the cover of the Journal a year ago - he has been teasing me he beat me with better billing as I was only on page 3 ;)

and Area 151 promoting our awesome event space! Host your next kids party or corporate event, it's like Dave and Busters only no security guard at the front door

Party Room!

As you can see business is just buzzing along!

Weekend Insta-review

Our weekend in review! As you passworders know, the blog is private now. Kinda sad but now I feel like I can post more of our daily life since only friends and family are reading! So I promise more frequent updates with even more mindless info or TMI on the Heffs :) Thanks for following babyheff even with the annoying password! Here are a few pics from the weekend...

Smiles from Tess - 8 weeks and her personality is coming through! 

new washer-dryer (super exciting ;) means big cardboard slide time. I started it by dangling JJ by her feet and sliding her down. She stood up and looked at me like "what the heck Mom?!" and then realizes "Woah that was fun." and did it over and over again with France

all my chicks snuggled in for movie night Thursday night - no school Friday! (only got through half of Brave - too scary apparently)

late night ice cream snack - Dad setting the eatin' out of the carton example (I caught Francie chugging Odwalla out of the gallon container last week!) 

morning sun playtime Friday morning while we went for teacher conferences. All good things to report :) We thought Maisie would have a hard time adjusting but she is thriving. She's still chooses carefully who she claims to be friends with although her teacher says she plays with everyone and likes to be the teacher's helper. Maisie told us she only likes the kids who "don't talk super much."

double braids! like the old vaulting days

reading to JJ before they head to Red Bluff

Tess and I cooking dinner for the troops

Francie makes the ba-bees before bed now (I know - all 3 are too old for bottles!)

binky baby!! ahhhhhh - 8 weeks of fussy nights and not taking the kinds of binkies I had - Jannie pulled out the old classic NUK and she went right for it! Quieted down at 11pm and SLEPT TIL 8am.  Thank you NUK :)

First time with the bink

crazy kids! they came home from Red Bluff Sunday night dirty little monsters... bathtime and then red sauce pasta, oops :)

Poor Tess has a little cold/cough too - so sad to hear baby congestion :(

our shower at the new house has a steam thing - worked perfect for clearing her up a bit

2 months is a little young for the Bumbo but she was smiling for a minute :) we had it out from cousin Lauren visiting, Tessa will be in soon

Sunday morning in Chico - the girls helped pick out one of the turkeys Ellie, Kate and Patrick raised for our Thanksgiving feast! Last year we got one of them too - a 27 pounder. They plucked it up and got it all ready for the brine. Thanks for all the hard work raising out bird Matthews!

Ellie showing JJ the bird

Saturday night at Oma's house - Maisie earned $0.25 babysitting Lauren while Kat cooked dinner. Lauren is 5 months old and looks as big as Maisie in the head department :) Love that smile Lauren!

Oma made them Hot Chocolate at the kdis table - lucky girls

meanwhile Tess and I were home since she was sick and stayed at Jannie's Saturday night. Cozy by the fire, yummy lamb shank dinner with Jannie, Backawa, Em and I and being taken care of by Jannie (warm hot fudge sundaes by the fire) LOVED IT!

8 weeks!

First Pizza Oven Party!

Friday night we had a bunch of family over to break in the pizza oven! Aunt Francy and Opa Bob were in town, Kat and Donald were here to stay with us for the weekend, Oma was here for a night and it was Uncle Mark's birthday - lots of fun, family and craziness!

Jannie gave Heff lots of MIL-ly advice on how to make pizzas :) just kidding it was all much needed and well received nagging Jannie!

LaLa Francy brought books for all the kids - she picked a special one out for each of them knowing their personalities - she's amazing!

Happy Birthday to Uncle Mark had to restart a few times when Maisie kept discreetly blowing the candle out ;)

HBD Uncle Mark!

Kids table

Jannie and her buddy

Opa Bob, Lala and Oma

Did you notice this beauty in the first picture? Heff and the guys in the kitchen at Bumble had a Mo-vember thing going - I'm not even sure what was happening here but her grew a beard, let Francie pick a mustache from google images and shaved it for 24 hours.

NOT A FAN

Baby Ann Sleepover!

ABA came back from Nashville for Em's shower this weekend and we got to pick her up at the airport Thursday night and bring her back to sleep HERE (couldn't believe Jannie was going to let her not stay there - until I realized Jannie was coming to sleepover too!) The girls were so excited Francie was standing by the door at 6pm with a backpack on to go to the airport even though her flight didn't get in til 8:30pm. ABA read tons of books to the girls and as requested slept in Francie's twin bed with her!

JJ wouldn't look at my camera so I told her there was spider inside. She looks terrified and confused ;)

so I tried the "show me your teeth!" tactic - neither are good choices for JJ apparently (but look at those teeth! coming back down after they were shoved half way up the gums after the chair fall!)

Tess did not like my attempt at a self-taken picture of us. I know Tess it was a lame idea.

one of my favorite books... but

ABA wondering why they torture Aunts with the longest, hardest to read books ever

Maisie tried to make her feel better

and then Grampa dropped Jannie off for a double sleepover after they had dinner with friends. Jannie heard Tessa still crying at 1am and came and got her from me - I laid down for 5 minutes that turned into 2 hours and came down to find Jannie on the couch with a sleeping baby on her knees. She said she didn't want to risk moving after she got her down - and Jannie didn't even have her iPhone with her to play Words with Friends!! What a good mom :) THANK YOU JANNIE!

Three beds for the three babes!

lots of fun for the girls to have a PJ party with some of their favorite people :)

Insta-Addict

I saw a blog awhile ago that had a post titled "Instagram Killed the DSLR-star" totally true! I am taking so many fewer real photos but so many more iphone pictures lately - bad resolution but still good documentation of day by day life I guess.

Catching up on some pics from the past few weeks in the new house... I still can't believe it when we come home we get to live in this cool house :) It has so much character and unique details but feel so cozy and home-like. The girls made an easy transition (not bad when it's just next door!) and I'm looking forward to the rainy weather to get a fire going and cozy up inside. We're still working on a few little things on our to do list to get settled but not much is needed in this house!

first real unpacked, home-cooked dinner in the new house

first night to put the garbage cans out. JJ required a headlamp of course

Pumpkin head saying cheeeeeese

France and the kitty

JJ got a black eye running away from dad and into an iron bed. ouch

Tiny Tess and the Sheehy chin (her nickname has turned into "TINY" - fitting :)

The 20 month old babysitter JJ (first kid to love a swing... thanks for the hand-me-down Donovan!)

and the awesome 3 year old babysitter. Maisie LOVES a baby!

5 year old check up. Favorite part was the eye chart which she remembered from a year ago. (this doctor visit was another time I felt a little nuts with four kids - the nurse and I were getting confused on who needed to go to which room for height/weight, shots, lollipop recovery - good thing we got the shots in the right legs!)

4 kids in a cart and a very nice husband who agreed to go to Traget at 8pm one night :) Francie and my favorite activity

post nap curls

Tessa at the eye doc. She still has a blocked tear duct that might need surgery ;/

Maisie got the cutest pixie haircut from Nancy B ever, it's already been so long since this pic she needs a cut again!

It totally suits her little pixie personality

Maisie Farrow? Christian and LindaBobbi think she looks like Mia Farrow - haircut does!

no love for Dad JJ?!

something about a toddler on the staircase - Heff says he loves the sound of their little stomping feet on the hardwood floors at this house, me too.

Jannie, Tess and I went to the Hillsborough Antique Show and found a few awesome things for the house- Tessa in the Ergo shopping all morning

Craftsman style antiques in good shape and we negotiated prices way down and stuffed them all somehow into a car full of four carseats. Mission accomplished. (stained glass we had - Aunt Nettie made it a long time ago!)

Tessa came with me to our FOURTH annual Witches Night Out! We did it at Christian's new store this year...

Now that Francie has outgrown her nap (80% of the time) she gets to do something fun with me or Jannie sometimes. This day we went to "check on the businesses" as she suggests. Hot choc at Bumble!

Tess gearing up for her 1-3 hour scream fest every night. Just letting off the steam :) Hoping she outgrows her witching hour soon but once she falls asleep she sleeps all night (usually 1am-7am, with maybe eating once and falling right back to sleep and then eats again at 7/8ish and sleeps until 10am - so no complaints!)

we spend a lot of time together - she likes to be right on my chest 90% of the time. not complaining! and just holding her (on my chest right now while I blog :)

daytime version - I love the Moby, and you Tiny Tess!

Baby Shower for Em

Sunday the Carter girls hosted an adorable baby shower for my sister-in-law Emily at their house (conveniently across the street from James and Em's cottage too!) Georgia, Beth and Jill did such a cute job with the decorations, games, food and favors. It was a fun afternoon to celebrate Baby S due at the end of January!

and lots of pictures of the ladies!...

Bethy and the baby - can't wait for Legoland Bethy :)

Crazy JJ spent the afternoon with Grampa/Backwa and Uncle Bill, Jimmy and Mick. Emmy went and got her at the end of shower (3 doors from home!) and she came to hang out. I asked her what she had for lunch with Backwa and she said "Um. EmmyEms and Candy Corn." I asked my dad - did you feed her lunch? and he said "yeah we went to the Oasis and she had two hot dogs and 14 french fries." good counting dad :) And he said "I put $4 in the crane machine but we didn't win a thing." 151 claw = way better!

the girls

Can't wait to meet the new cousin...

Congrats Em!

Halloween Night

Halloween Day we went to an "Enchanted Forest" the girs' school puts on. The teachers decorated every room with a different theme from children's books - it was so cute! They gave out a little toy in each room or my favorite was Teacher Jamie's gypsy room where she gave them each a fortune - Maisie's said "I see lots of playdates in your future." :) Then we hosted Halloween at our house with friends and gave out Area 151 lollipops and "10 free tokens" to almost 1,000 trick-or-treaters.. shameless promotion :) It was a great Halloween for the Heffs!

my attempt at a bride-of-frankenstein costume...

my favorite costume ever on Maisie (and leftover facepaint from the night before)

Pleeeeease stand here with mom for a picture? Not happening.

Super Maisie!

The founder of the school, Teacher Ella - sprinkles them with magic dust as they go in the door - impressive she knows every kids name too!

The first room was Goodnight Moon - the kids played eye spy for a treat

JJ in the fishing room

High Jumping France!

and Maise

Sleeping Tess the Pumpkin

Skeleton PJs after nap

still sleepy rag-a-muffin Maisie and Mom

Emmy came back as Batgirl to complete the superhero gang
''

and the Skidmores and Neelys came over to celebrate - we always went to their house for Halloween growing up so we are back to keeping that tradition alive I hope!

Big kids trick-or-treating at the first house

JJ did her best to keep up the whole time

And sometimes Em gave her a ride :) She loves her Emmy!

Some houses go ALL OUT! Next year we are all over it :)

not sure about that baby...

Ann, Lola, Jen, Jannie and Janie - HOW CUTE is that Ladybg Lola?!

The Neelys!!

John and Earl - the Patriarchs on the porch

Tessa talking to her grandpa

thanks Cousin Kate Heff!!

time to count the loot

I mean - Lola you are TOO cute

spooky cupcakes

Heff chefing up some Cioppino - another round of taste testing for Bumble's new Wednesday Night Cioppino Night (every wednesday 5-8pm - COME! it's SOO GOOD!)

Love Jen's expression trying to get Lola to be "gentle" :) haha she was!

Hopefully the first of many Halloween's back together with the next generation!

Halloween Family Photos

a few more photos of The Heffs in Halloween festivities!

do this....

to watch your 1.5 year old do this

haha - mean mom!

she forgave me

Spider-France

so proud of her costume