Jill's Wedding

Our good friend Jill Carter got married this weekend! She is the youngest of the three Carter kids and grew up three doors down from us on Menlo Oaks. Her wedding was Saturday night at the Carter's house and was a beautiful evening, the Heffernan's were BBQ'ing at Mark and Sarah's house directly across the street so we had fun checking in with them during the wedding... they could even hear Beth's Maid-of-Honor speech and the band from their house! Jill looked beautiful and it was a fun weekend of events to celebrate with her.

Mare and Baby Ann at the Bridesmaid Luncheon Friday

Beth and Jill at the Luncheaon

Jan and "Aunt Jo"

Rehearsal Dinner... James and Bethy with one of the triplets

Are you old enought to be drinking that champagne Baby Ann?

James and Em

The Wedding! Jill & Jason Luker

Ann and Heff with a cousin's Baby Noah (Heff kept getting mad bc the photographer thought Ann was his wife and taking their picture:)

Mare and Bethy (She gave the best Maid-of-Honor speech for Jill!)

Mare and Heff

Checking in at The Heffernan Compound across the street

James and Em

On the Dance Floor

And with the Bride... Congrats Jill!

Weekend in the Menlo Oaks Compound

We had a great weekend with almost all of the Heffernan's in town (plus some Cahill cousins!) and all of the Simo kids at home. Craig and Andrea brought Baby Isabel up from LA to meet everyone and stayed at the "Hotel Jan and John" taking over the third floor with Aunt Cathleen, Claire and Tom stayed across the street at Mark and Sarah's house and Margaret and Baby Ronan shacked up at Aunt Kat's new place just a few blocks away. Heff and I had the longest commute home at six blocks away! My siblings were all in town too for Jill Carter's wedding and the wedding events too so we had lots of meals and enjoying the sunny weekend together.

Hanging out Sunday at Lunch at the Johnets (Cathleen, Jan and Claire)

Baby Ann home from Vandy for a few days... next time she see's me I'll hopefully be a mom!

John and Jan

The Heffernan's

Craig, Andrea and Beautiful Baby Isabel

Baby Ronan, almost 4 months old, on Mom (Cousin Margaret)

Isabel smiling!

The Mom's and their wee ones

... and with Oma and Nana

Mare and Ann

Last picture of the reigning "Baby of the Family" taken at the Simonsons!

Aunt Kat with her smiling Godson Ronan

Ronan at Sunday Night Dinner at our house trying out Cletus's gear!

36 Weeks

This week has flown by and I haven't blogged! Heff and I have both been busy at work, trying to get lots of things taken care of before the arrival of Baby Heff. I am hiring some new staff at Academic Trainers and Brilliant Babies, getting some new programs put together, our brochures and registration forms ready and getting the center all set for a new school year. Heff has had lots of new clients coming in and been really busy too, I am so proud of him for going out on his own and doing so well balancing the many facets of self-employment, it's so nice to have so much flexibility.

We had another Bradley class this week and to practice breathing through contractions the guys held big ice packs under our arms! Ouch... but I'm sure the real ones will be a lot worse than that! We really like the other four couples in the group and have fun at the classes. I gave Heff (well, both of us!) a hall pass for the remaining two hospital childbirth classes since it seems very much like what we learned in Bradley anyway. That means we only have TWO more classes to go!

We have a busy weekend coming up with the Heffernan's in town and a good friends wedding. Claire and Tom and coming down with Brian's Aunt Cathleen, Cousin Margaret and Baby Ronan and Craig and Andrea are driving up from LA with Baby Isabel! My brothers will be home (all the way from their condo in the city) and Baby Ann is coming back from Nashville after 3 whole days at college for the wedding. With Brian's brother Mark and his fiance Sarah just moved in across the street from my parents and Kat halfway bewteen their house and our house... we'll have 6 out of 7 siblings and both sets of parents here for a fun weekend! (Margaret can stand in for Maureen:) We're so lucky to both have great familes close by who get along with each other too.

35 Weeks!

Time is flying by and we are getting ready to meet Baby Heff, only 37 days until the due date! This week we got our stroller (The Bugaboo, after much debate) and a few more things for the baby's room... not to mention lots of adorable gifts from family and friends! My mom started a great collection of books for us including all of my favorites, which Heff remembered from when he was little too! My favorite "Tony's Hard Work Day" is the original copy and Heff's favorite, no surprise, is "What Do People Do All Day?" We are waiting for our rocker/glider from Pottery Barn, but other than that the nursery should be ready to welcome a baby...

Trying out the new baby tote after baby class Thursday night

Lots of books for Baby Heff!

Heff after he put together the stroller for me... it had a lot of parts we had backwards :)

Work...

Heff and I have both been busy at work getting things ready to stay home for awhile after the baby comes. His solo practice is doing great, he gets to work from home sometimes and comes home early most days... much better than big firm life! Academic Trainers is gearing up for a new school year and Brilliant Babies is doing great, I should be all set to bring Baby Heff along to work with me after awhile!

We just got a whole collection of "dress up clothes" and costumes for the kids... they look so cute! Here is a picture of "Tre the Octopus," he belongs to one of our favorite tutors at Academic Trainers and we get to see Tre almost everyday at Brilliant Babies while his mom is working.

I am really lucky to have a great staff on board who make my life very easy... Janelle runs Academic Trainers better than anyone, she's always so positive and friendly, covers all the bases and is constantly doing things to improve our business. She really goes over and above to make sure we are running a professional business and the parents, kids and other staff all love her. Thanks Janelle! (Here with Tre in the "I Ain't Lion" costume":)

Rashelle is the Director of Brilliant Babies and does such a fantastic job juggling the business side of things while playing with the kids and making sure everyone is safe, happy and having fun. She always has a smile on her face and is constantly coming up with new activities for the kids, this week she coordinated with the Menlo Park Police Department to have an officer come in and fingerprint the kids in honor of "Superhero Week"! Thanks Rashelle!

Corinne helped us get Brilliant Babies started as Co-Director and today was her last day! She is pursuing a Master's degree in Speech Pathology and classes will keep her from working this semester. Corinne was great with the kids and parents at BB and we'll all miss her!

Lucky Baby Heff

This is going to be a very lucky baby! I had two baby showers this weekend while Heff worked hard cleaning and organizing the garage and backyard to make room for Baby and Baby Stuff. My good friends Nancy, Molly and Janna (the "Mariani Sisters") threw a baby shower Saturday in Los Gatos... it was a great group of girls and a beautiful day, I am so lucky to have such great friends! Especially since Nancy, Molly and Janna all have two kids already so are helping me figure out how to get ready for the baby, and I hope will teach me how to be awesome mom's like they are. We had fun playing a "Baby Concentration" game, enjoying lots of yummy food and talking babies with good friends. Thanks girls!!

The Mariani Girls and Mare!
Janna (with Joe), Nancy (with Whitney), Mary, Molly and Tracy

Ann, Mare and Jan

Nancy and Mary with babies in the bellies!

Then Sunday we had a family and friends get together in Aptos at my Aunt Kathy's house hosted by Aunt Kathy, Aunt Mimi and Aunt Kim! It was a beautiful day at the beach and great to see lots of relatives, cousins, aunts, great aunts and friends. My Great Aunt Marge was there and she just became a Great-Grandmother last week as my cousin Molly and her husband Bryan had a baby boy, Brady Wolfe. Molly and I were the first grandchildren for our grandmothers (sisters Mary and Marjorie) and we were two months apart, and it looks like Molly's baby and my baby will be two months apart as well! We got lots of beautiful gifts, including handmade baby blankets from Aunt JoAnn, Carmen Rilovich and our friend Jean who was my grandmothers caretaker before she passed away. Everyone was so generous and thoughtful, Baby Heff (and his/her parents) are very lucky!!

The Aunts... Mimi, Mare, Kathy and Kim

Hanging out with the cousins after the shower

Emmy and Claire fighting over "Ann-me-downs" (Ann cleaned out her closet before she heads back to Vandy!)

Emmy's cute room (the belly is getting big!)

Would You Rather....

Watch Barry Bonds make history hitting his 756 Homerun on a nice, warm Tueday night in San Francisco

OR

Learn about dialation, effacement and the natural birth process at a Bradley Class on green shag carpet in "Denise the Bradley Teacher's" living room with four other couples and old VHS footage of childbirth?

Heff is a saint :) Not only does he have to (get to?!) attend our 9-week Bradley or "Husband Coached Childbirth" Classes with me every Tuesday night... I was worried maybe the Bradley would be a little to hippie-ish for us so I ALSO signed us up for the 3-week Lucile Packard Hospital Childbirth Course on Wednesday nights. So this week we had two evenings of classes, which wouldn't have been so bad except that the "class material" this week was exactly the same for both classes and I was getting evil looks from Heff who said afterwards he could have taught the class (Identical poster diagrams and the same exact flip charts about stages of labor Pamper's must hand out like candy to childbirth teachers) Next week we're packing THREE nights of classes in when you add our Thursday Night Breastfeeding class (don't worry only a 1 time class) at Day One. Umm, is there such thing as over-prepared?! My mom fessed up to Heff that she made my dad go to two sets of classes too, Lamaze and the hospital class that my dad refered to as "Childbirth GRAD School" so I guess it's in the blood!

All in a year...

We forgot to mention it was our One Year Anniversary!
Looking back, it reminds us that a lot can happen in a year...

Babies get bigger!
Baby Kate 2006
Baby Kate 2007

And...
2006
2007

BELLIES get bigger
34 weeks pregnant ~ August 8, 2007
10 days married ~ Early August 2006 (Demolishing our old kitchen)

But road trip pit stop's DON'T change much!
2006
2007 (Tule Lake, CA for corn dogs and burgers on the way from OR to Tahoe... sorry Cletus!)

I love you Heff! Thanks for a "couldn't-have-been-be-better" first year of marriage.

Honeymoon Fly-Fishing July 2006

Lake Tahoe with the Simos

Heff and I drove from Black Butte to Lake Tahoe last Tuesday to join my parents, brothers and their girlfriends and my Uncle Jerry at Brockway Springs in North Shore Lake Tahoe. Heff and I like to take the "backroads" so it was a good 9 hour drive, but we took our time and enjoyed it, remembering doing the same drive on our honeymoon one year ago! Tahoe was great, lots of relaxing by the pool/lake, poker games and just hanging out with the family. We came home Sunday and it felt great to be home after 10 days away...

Hanging out by the pool...

James and Em jumping off the Brockway Pier in the distance

The Johnets heading to a friend's weddings up at the Lake