Weekend with Isabel

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We had lots of Heffernans in town all weekend to meet Baby Clara and to celebrate Craig and Katherine's 30th birthdays on the 30th. Oma and Opa were here all week, Kat and Donald drove down Friday and Craig, Andrea and Isabel got in late Friday night and slept at my parents house. Saturday we had breakfast at my parent's house, played with the girls (who are the BEST of FRIENDS!), went to the park, hung out at our house, pulled out the jumpy house and tortured chickens. We had dinner at our house Saturday night and then Sunday John and Jan made us breakfast and we sat around their backyard in the sun until we were ready for the next meal and hit up the Hacienda Burrito Bar with a huge to-go order. Poor Heff has been sick all weekend, sporting a 102 temperature but has been a trooper entertaining everyone and still managing to take good care of his pregnant wife and baby. Get better Daddy!! Andrea and Isabel are staying all week so we get lots more Isabel time!!

The girls were so happy to see each other Saturday morning at my parents house... Isabel was clapping and squealing and saying "FANCY!!" over and over

Still fitting two bellies in the tiny swing and pretty happy about it!

Breakfast outside... so glad Spring is here!

Funny faces hiding

"The Blimp" flew right over us!

Aunt Kat, Uncle Craig, Uncle Donald and the girlies on our way to the park

Daddy and the Doo... they don't look alike at all do they? ;)

Pit-stop at the corner market on get snacks for the girls... and 40's for their dads

At the park Francie has to "kiss" the doggie on the "No Dogs Allowed" sign everytime

Silly ghetto brothers and brother-in-law :)

Playing at the park

Up, up and away...

Weeeeee! Francie found courage to show off for Isabel and went down the "HUGE SLIDE!"

Francie's first try "A-self" on the big kids swing with Dad

The girls LOVE each other so much...

sometimes they give each other a little too much love ;)

Time to play outside

Star-gazing in the daylight

Izza-biz!

Wagon rides around the chicken coop

and not to forget their waters... lots of "MINE" and "YOURS" at this age!

Dinner time Saturday night

looking guilty little girls? ;)

and bathtime!

either Heff just yelled at them or someone got their feelings hurt :)

all better...

Francie's Friday

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Friday Francie was waiting and waiting for her cousin Isabel to arrive! Craig, Andrea and Isabel drove up from LA but got a late start so Francie didn't get to see Izza-bizza until Saturday morning (they are troopers for driving up and getting in at 1am!) We had lunch with Jannie and Oma in Half Moon Bay so tehy could check out the knitting store... then we had a mellow day Friday afternoon around the house and for the first time in too long did NOTHING Friday night. We didn't even make dinner, just snacked on cereal and snacks! It was a nice break :)

This is where Daddy lets Francie nap...

She needs her minutes to wake up on her own or she's a grouch

Francie and I accidentally in "matching PJ's" at home Friday night - Dad made fun of us enough to pick up the camera :)

And mom picks up the camera to take a picture of Francie stuck under her elephant (or as she says "Ops-sops") instead of helping her... at least her Dad rescued her.

Good Morning America!

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UPDATE: We're on the cutting room floor! Auntie Baby Ann reports from Nashville we have a half second shot but they cut the interview... oh well!

Here's the clip

If you watch Good Morning America look for the Heffs on the show tomorrow morning! (Tuesday March 31 between 8-9am) I was interviewed for being a part of my friend Anne's company 23andMe as a "Mom Blogger" and part of their new Pregnancy Community. 23andMe genotypes your DNA to learn all about your inherited traits, disease risks, carrier status, and quirks. The segment is supposed to be on at some point between 8:00-9:00am tomorrow. We taped it a couple of weeks ago and Heff and Francie got some air time too... we'll probably only be on for a few seconds so don't blink ;)

I am a part of the 23andMe XX Pregnancy Community they just launched to help women learn more about pregnancy and genetics. It's a great resource to talk to other moms about the old wives tales of pregnancy, share stories and learn more about the real facts of medical conditions that affect pregnant women. The test is $399 a person and really gives you a lot of information about your genes! Even if you haven't had your genome read you can still join the pregnancy community and find out lots of fun information, fill out pregnancy surveys and dispel old wives tales... or prove them true! They also just launched a Parkinson's Community my father-in-law is participating in... 23andMe is trying to test 10,000 Parkinson's patients to find out more about the genetic components of the disease. They are doing some pretty cool stuff over at 23andMe! Good work Anne & Linda :)

My 23andMe Test Kit... pretty packaging for your spit!

Heart-A-Beats

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Francie came to a doctor's appointment with us once and still talks about the baby's "heart-a-beat." She has an old stethoscope in her dress-up box (oh my old MCAT days) and has been trying to hear HER baby's heart-a-beat. She says my baby is a "gurl"... I'm still on the fence, some days I think boy, some days I think girl. Heff thinks it is a girl and says he wants five girls :) We'll see about that!! I am hoping for a baby in early April (I like the single digit dates 4-2-9 or 4-8-9 or something) but my birthday is April 5 so maybe not that day. I don't have much control at this point, I know :) My doctor will let me go 8 days past my due date and if I don't go into labor he scheduled a c-section on April 17 at 9am so hopefully one way or another we'll have a baby by then!

The Little Doctor

Ollie's turn!

and watching YouTubes with Dad...
it's a toss up between elk hunting videos and "The Life of Fancy Francie" :)

Clara, Family & Food

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... that's what this week has been all about! Wednesday night we took Indian food into the hospital for dinner with Mark, Sarah, Oma, Opa, Heff and I and Sarah's brother Jacob. Clara is SO cute and we are so happy for Mark and Sarah and their new little family. We've had a busy week entertaining family and have some cute pictures to post next from the weekend with all the Heffernans- Francie and Isabel are in cousin love :)

Heff and his brother Mark with Baby Clara

Mark being silly trying on the nursing shawl we gave to Sarah

Thursday night we had dinner over at Mark, Sarah and Clara's house! It was their first night home from the hospital and Oma made a yummy dinner at our house to take over to them.

Francie was kinda shy :)

and wanted to make sure Jannie remembered SHE was a tiny baby too!

and she had to wrap up her own baby doll too

It will be interesting to see how she reacts to her real new baby brother or sister!

Taking care of her baby

Sleeping Clara Marie

The Johnets came for dinner too (long walk across the street:)

Francie "helping" Dad do the dishes

Oma with the baby and Opa in the background~ their 5th baby girl grandchild... only one boy so far

This neat little cradle has been in Sarah's family for 35 years and her uncle just added the chickens in the woodwork!

Jannie and Oma helping put the booties back on

Francie's kisses for her Jannie ;)

Wishes for Heaven

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I am so proud of my cousin Emmy and how well she is handling the very difficult death of her mother. Emmy is finding beautiful ways to cope and remember her mom through photography and remembrances. I found the quote on the picture above in a book I randomly bought at the library and opened up to today... Emmy made it into something special. She took these photos today at the beach with three of the girls she babysits for and their mom, she is very close to all of them and they have helped her so much through this time as well. Alexis, the cute girls in these photo's mom, made the quilt Kaky slept under at home (the background for the "hand photos") and then was sweet enough to make one for me, my mom, Emmy and my Aunt Mimi. Today they tied notes on the balloons and sent them up to heaven. What beautiful photos Emmy...

Sweet girls

Emmy's hand with her mom's gold anniversary bracelets, a family tradition

We miss you Kaky

Still Waiting....

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Now that Cousin Clara has arrived we're just waiting for our little bundle! Francie thinks she has a baby in her belly too of course and that they both need to "come out" as soon as they get a little bigger. She seems like such a big girl lately - maybe because she knows she is going to be a big sister. She is very independent and likes to do everything "a-self." We finished a few little projects around the house last weekend and Francie pitched in to help....

Francie comes up with some interesting ensembles at home on "work days"

Francie helped Dad clean out the garage and had lunch on the "moto-cylce." She's contemplating sharing with Ollie...

Holding on the the sippy for dear life

Jannie and Grampa came over for dinner Sunday night after mass and Grampa read Francie the entire anthology of "Good Dog Carl" (thanks Aunt Mimi!)

Sansie got a new potty from her Jannie ~ She thinks she is a big girl but only likes to sit on it fully clothed

She's been spending lots of time in the mornings playing in the front yard with her "Dog Ollie"... and a little time in "time out" too ;)

And finally these economic times call for extreme measures! ;) We took Francie's "First Birthday" coins that her grampa gave her (a big pink piggy bank that unfortunately broke on the way to the birthday bash) to the CoinStar machine... Francie made out alright with $600 in cold hard cash!! Hummmm, do Mom & Dad really have to take this cash to the bank? Francie won't notice ;)

Oh I forgot, she counted it.

Francie's New Cousin CLARA!

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We have a new Heffernan as of early this morning... and it's a girl!! Mark & Sarah had their baby girl at 1:19am ~ her name is Clara Marie and she is a beautiful baby with long eyelashes and perfect little features. Mom did a great job and they are a happy family of three (or 8 if you count Mark's chickens:) Oma and Opa drove down once they got the news Sarah was in labor and we camped out at the hospital very excited for the newest addition....

Waiting in Labor & Delivery for baby news

Silly dad

Where is that BABY!?! Threatening to push the "do not enter" door

Waiting with Oma and Opa

We sent the boys and Francie home and Oma and I waited anxiously to hear... every time we thought "maybe we should head home?" we got some news Sarah was a little closer to a baby- finally at 1:20am I bugged a nurse who said "She delivered!" We waited for the new dad....

PROUD NEW DAD coming out with the news!! IT'S A GIRL!!

CLARA MARIE

8 pounds 2 ounces ~ born at 1:19am Wednesday March 25, 2009

Passing her APGAR with flying colors

That's a fresh little baby! Only 30 minutes old

Can you see her LONG eyelashes?

She is beautiful!

New daddy with his little girl

Mom's turn to hold her baby girl

New parents

Doesn't get much better than this

Good job Sarah!

Congratulations Uncle Mark & Aunt Sarah and welcome Cousin Clara!

PS... still waiting for the official word from Uncle Mark but I think I WON the BABY POOL!! He promised a picture of Clara emailed to the winners email address. I'll save you the trouble Mark :)

Friends and Francie

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Saturday the Stonebargers and the Wallace kids came over to hang out at our house for a visit. Francie was so excited to hang out with all the big kids and made dad pull out the Jumpy House. We got a few jumps in before the rain started in but luckily it didn't last long. Then Francie insisted on locking Ollie inside so she could let her chickens out of their coop to play. She showed off chasing them around and trying to give them kisses (gross) and herding them with her "chick stick" (a broken arrow from Dad's bow, safe huh?) It was great to see our good friends and fun to watch all the kiddies play together!

Knock-knock... bounce house time!

My cute godson James

Adorable little Stella!

Francie in the slide pit

Whitney not sure about these weird chickens

Francie and James herding animals

Joe, James and Wil trying to catch the chicks

Little Maddie!

The moms

and the kids!

Holding chickens and babies

James wasn;t letting go once he got ahold of Daisy!

Francie had soo much fun with her friends...

Francie's First Diploma

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Today Francie participated in a research study at Stanford in their "Infant Studies" department on efficiency and spoken language processing. We played together in a room with a video camera and microphone on us for 15 minutes and then she sat on my lap in a dark room with a projector while a "movie" showed different photos and marked her response to the words they said, throwing in a few non-sense words for random objects to see if she would learn them. I had to wear dark glasses with blinders so I wouldn't influence where she looked! We go back in a week, record her normal life at home on a little recorder they gave us for her to wear in a pocket and then go back again in 6 months to finish the study. It was fun and she was very proud of her "diploma" :)

Baby Number Two Who?

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"WHAT are you talking about? Another baby coming to my house? I don't think so...."

"I like my world just the way it is." :)

Less than three weeks to go and feeling like it could be any day... hospital bags packed? No. Carseat for coming home? No. Newborn diapers or ANY supplies? NO! It's a whole lot different with the second baby :) But we are taking this weekend to get ready for Baby Heff Number Two so give us your best guess on the birth date, time, sex, weight and all the stats in the BABY POOL!

Aunt Sarah and Uncle Mark are in serious countdown mode with just days to their due date... Aunt Kat made matching bunny ears hats for the Menlo Oaks crew (Francie gets one too:) Can't wait to meet Baby Heff # 2's buddy!

Keep a lookout for that stork Francie...

A Special Day for Kaky

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The memorial mass and reception for Kaky were on Tuesday... St. Patrick's Day- at St. Patrick's church- and the mass was said by her cousin Father Patrick (the Irish girl's Trifecta!) My grandmother's funeral mass was also on St. Patrick's Day 4 years ago- at St. Patrick's church in Watsonville- and the mass was supposed to be said by Father Patrick but he was ill and she missed the triple :) It was a very special day for Kathy. Jannie and Mimi, Rich, John and Emmy did a great job to make sure every detail was just how Kaky would have wanted it. The church was packed with friends and family, it was a sunny "Mary Sheehy" kind of day in Watsonville and the mass was a beautiful tribute to Katherine Belding. We will miss her so much.

We stayed at Pajaro Dunes the night before (where my grandparents used to live) and Heff took Francie for a walk on the beach before mass Tuesday morning...

While they were waving to us up at the house a wave came in and "Got Sansie" She was not very happy and screamed "Be Tare-ful!!" It was

We were at St. Patrick's church by 10am and waited together as a family until the mass began at 11:00. We had big photos of Kathy through-out her life (as a cute little baby girl, newly married to Rich, smiling proudly with her twins, a few years ago with the whole family, etc) as you walked in- it was a sad day of missing her but a wonderful celebration of her life and the beautiful person she was.

I was honored to do Kaky's eulogy. There was so much to say it is way too long to share all of it, but my favorite story that is just so "Kaky" I wanted to post...

"One day in the hospital about a week after she was told there was nothing more the doctors could do, Kathy said she was a little worried about what it would be like to go to heaven and my mom said "But Kathy- we believe you're going on to the beautiful place and we're the ones who will suffer here without you..." and Kathy said "Oh I know. And I'll get to see Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa...." She was quiet for a moment. Then she said "And famous people too." ... and with all the energy and conviction we know Kathy to posses she said "I'm going right up to Nicole Brown Simpson and asking her EXACTLY what happened!"

Emmy's beautiful "Hands That Hold" photos

The reception was held at Pajaro Dunes and we shared our favorite Kaky stories and listened to "Kaky's Song" together over and over outside in the sunshine.

Claire, Father Patrick and Mimi

Francie in a special dress just for Kaky's Day

Em and Marla with Jackson (he is such a big guy now!)

Heff with Uncle Bill and Jerry Carter

Jen (flew all the way out from New York) with Me and Francie-doo

The Forsts and Emmy

Jannie and her friends who all loved Kaky

Francie and A-woo at the cupcake table

Francie and Mom with Jackson and Marla

John and Heff after the BBQ duties

Ummm... Watsonville strawberries

Jerry and A-woo

Janet and her "Watsonville boyfriends"

With my husband and my BFF Emmy :)

Listening to Kaky's Song

Drew entertains Francie

John, Emmy and Rich

The Dance Team put on quite a show

The Kreefts kids and the Belding kids

Heff throwing the football around with the kiddies

The siblings... we'll ALL miss you so much Kaky. Thanks for giving us so many laughs, good times and love.

"I have no doubt anyone will forget Katherine Anne Belding. Remember her spirit and charm, her laugh, and her contagious smile. Be a good friend and make others feel welcome and loved- especially those who need it the most. Remember that life is a gift. Hold your family close to your heart and most of all make sure you don't miss any of the fun."

We Hold You in Our Hearts...

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Katherine Anne Belding
March 9, 1951 ~ March 11, 2009

Kaky went to heaven Wednesday night, March 11, 2009, at 10:30pm. She went peacefully with her faithful and loving husband at her side. She gave her adoring children and family time to say goodbye and went on to her next adventure with grace. We know she will always be at our sides to laugh with us and to protect us. She is our shooting star and our angel.

Memorial Mass for Kathy
Tuesday March 17th 11:00 am
St Patricks Church
Watsonville, CA
Reception to Follow @ Pajaro Dunes