Emmy is taking a photoshop class at school and "fixed up" this photo of Francie! It's my new profile pic on Facebook ;) We're going to shop til we drop with Emmy today... we miss going to her soccer games but it's kind of nice the season is over so we can have more Emmy-time!!!
Francie and Jannie had a tea party on Sunday while we were anxiously awaiting a visit from Oma and Opa! Francie collected all the Gerber baby dolls in the house (two vintage from my days and a few more that have been arriving in eBay boxes lately ;) and her teddy bears for afternoon tea!
Setting up the doll-dolls for Tea
Don't they look excited? :)
"Ohhh! I almost forgot the teddy bears!"
Jannie and Francie pour some "TEA!"
"Ummmmmm-Ummmmmm good."
Pouring more for her doll-dolls
And gotta lick the spoon!
Saturday we hung out in our PJ's while Grampa made us eggs and toast for breakfast. Francie and I went on a walk with Sophie in the Pram to Peninsula School (our old stomping grounds Beth and Jill!) to terrorize the playgrounds. I hardly had to do any stroller pushing on our walk... Sophie pulled the pram like a horse and cart the whole way! Just a little steering on the bumpy streets. Then we helped Jannie get ready for a dinner party with their "Italian Trip" friends the Accorneros, Worthings and Skidmores. For dinner my dad got fresh live crab, the first of the season! It was YUMMY and Francie even tried some crab smothered in my grampa's famous sauce. She kept everyone entertained until 11pm and the adults lost track of time talking politics and the state of the economy (how many times did my Dad say "dip-shit"? ;) until 1:00am. It's busy hanging out at the Johnets!
Emmy's Photoshop contribution :)
Sophie wishes she could play on the teeter-totter too :)
Good old wooden playgrounds taste pretty good
"Come pull the cah-cah like you pulled the Pram 'Toph!?"
All dressed up for dinner time back in the Pram to play
Hors d'oeuvres with the ladies... Francie was very interested in "dipping" her pear slices in the Stilton stinky cheese ;)
"Why is Mr. Worthing so kindly helping me clean my cheese-covered hands? Doesn't he know Sophie will just lick them for me."
The table set for a fall dinner... Francie's high chair front and center (the high chair Jannie just confessed she bought before she was even married!)
Peek-a-boo!
Francie and I made little pumpkin place cards for the guests
Jannie and Grampa busy cooking away in the kitchen!
In her PJ's indulging in a little apple crisp with LOTS of whipped cream and ice cream
"More please!"
This weekend Heff was out of town hunting geese and deer in Eastern Montana so Francie and I moved in to Jannie and Grampa's house! (Yes, we packed bags to head 6 blocks away:) It's been fun to have Jannie and Grampa to spoil us and they kept us busy all weekend. Friday afternoon Uncle Jerry was sleeping over too before he took the GMAT on Saturday in San Jose (he did great, god job Jer!) We tried not to bug him too much while he took his practice tests up in his old room. Francie got lots of attention and we had Joy, Kelly and Shannon over for dinner Friday night (I can't believe I didn't get any pictures though Kelly!) We had lots to distract us from missing Dad too much :)
"Yay! Yay! Yay!" Uncle Jerry let her watch Happy Feet trailers on YouTube for a looong time.
When we were all sick of watching penguins sing and dance she took matters into her own hands...
This little monkey can not be left to her own devices for long! (but at least her mother is taking pictures instead of immediately getting her safely down:)
THAT looks like a Heffernan baby! (maybe even a Heffernan Boy ;)
"Oops. Did I forget to brush my bed-head hair?"
If you ask Francie who her best friend is she says "Emma Emma" followed closely by "Ow-wo" and "Kriss!" She loves to talk about about our neighbors Emma, Owen, Chrissie (and Miles too although he doesn't get nearly as much air time:) Every night we sing goodnight to Mommy and Daddy, Jannie and Grampa, Oma and Opa and then of course Ollie, Emma, Ow-wo and Kriss! Emma and Owen came over Thursday night for a visit. They had to pick out a new outfit for Francie... she is a willing participant to play doll with her friends :)
Follow the big kids Francie!
Owen found Heff's deer antlers on the porch and asked him "Did you have to make a Moose dead to get those?"
Off with the dress...
Owen has to hold her still while Emma puts on a new dress for "Ms.Fancy-Nancy-Francie-pants"
"Mom why isn't it this much fun when you dress me?"
"Can you teach me how to do that Ow-wo?"
Thursday Dad took on the big (stinky) job of cleaning out the chicken coop. Francie tried to help and is getting a little more used to the chick-chicks being on the outside of their cage :) They did peck at my nail polish (there goes my pedicure) but tolerated "pets" from Francie pretty well and snatched up all the food she has dropped daily trying to feed them their scratch. Somewhere along the way "What does a chicken say" changed from "cheek-cheek!" to "BAAAAAAAAKKKK!" She sits at the cage and screams "BAAAAAAAAKKKK!" when no one is looking :) Her favorite place to sneak away to is the chicken coop. Heff and I watched her from her nursery windows the other day and were laughing for a full 20 minutes as she walked around having a conversation with the chickens and Ollie, usually finding a reason to yell at one of them ("Awwww-WAAA!" when he digs at the coop.) She loves her animals and didn't get that gene from her mother!
Trying to get her chickens to lie "down" like her doggie does... good luck with that one France. (Do you like the one-leg-up-one-leg-down look?)
"Get BAAACK in your coop chick-chicks!"
"Dad, don't let these things fly away."
Watch your toes Francie!
THANKS for cleaning the coop for me Heff!
"That was a close one..."
*Francie is wearing her polo-horsey dress in honor of her pet horse Bob (mom's old polo pony) up in Red Bluff who had a touch-and-go-night with a case of colic and almost didn't make it... but he pulled through! We owe Kristie Flynn and Greg Weber HUGE for taking good care of him all night and day. We're glad he didn't kick the bucket right before we move them to Oma's new barn!! Glad you pulled through old Bob and THANKS Kristie and Web :)
Auntie Baby Ann left a little remark on this picture of Francie in my Picasa album: "Maybe she just realized Cletus 2 might interfere with her being able to go to ABA's graduation Part 2. I'd be pissed too Francie!" Haha :) We will hit 20 weeks this week and are hopefully halfway to a new baby brother or sister for Francie! I am feeling great and started to feel kicks this past week, it's fun to have a little buddy reminding me it's there all the time. When I was pregnant with Francie we called her "Cletus the Fetus" (I promise there is a good story behind it) and today our friend Goody called this baby, very appropriately "Cletus Repeatus!" 20 weeks to go Francie... enjoy being an only child it while it lasts :)
It's been awhile since I've done a "Faces of Francie" post! Here she is hamming it up on Tuesday morning after her Dad took her to Pete's coffee for her very own hot chocolate while I got to sleep in, he dressed her again in all her "Juicy" glory... I love when he picks out her outfits ;) We both think the photo above is a window into what she will look like when she is a big girl!
playing "airplane" on mom's knees
and finally showing off her best "Shiloh" (or doing "What does a Llama say" lips ;)
Sunday my mom and I hosted a Baby Shower for my good friend Anne. We had a lovely, traditional ladies lunch to celebrate Anne's baby who is due to arrive in three weeks. Jan and John were a big help getting everything ready and running back to the store three times (thanks Dad) for the stuff I forgot. Michelle was a great help too, she is an expert in Jannie's kitchen. We had some famous Jannie recipe salads, homemade biscuits, Jannie's apple crisp and hot cider... it was a pretty fall day to be inside watching Anne open all the cute baby boy shower gifts. I can't wait for this little boy to arrive and see Anne and Sergey in action as parents! :)
Anne and the ladies
Francie playing outside (in the mud in her dress:) with her buddy Linda
Anne gets some help opening baby gifts
The littlest guest... how adorable is she!
Francie tries to "help" too... modeling a little hat :)
Being silly in the pram
"Oh the tiny baby is going naa-nee!" (night-night for Francie when she pretends to be a "little tiny baby" :)
Francie hurt herself on the chair and Jannie says "No No bad chair!"
Francie LOVES sticky lollipops...
...almost as much as she loves the big kids!
And her bangle jewelry from her Jannie
Francie's dad pulled off an impressive feat and dressed her to come to the shower after her nap (I was helping get ready over at the Johnets) He picked a blue party dress for the baby boy shower :)
I know Francie, I was shocked too... Good work Heff!
"Aren't you gonna kiss me Sophie?"
"Come on over I've got apple all over me you can slurp!"
"You don't need me to clean up mom... I'm going up to my nursery to play with the toys."
Saturday on the way to dinner we stopped at Kathy's to check out the beautiful, brand new house she just moved into! It is in a small new development in Menlo Park called "Morgan Lane" in walking distance between the Heffs and the Johnets so she'll still be seeing a lot of all of us even though she has checked out of the Case de Jannie and John :) The house is so well done and she and Michelle have done a great job decorating... she even had Heff convinced the Apple TV thing is pretty cool! Thanks for the pizza and cocktails K-Bac and Michelle!
"We get to go see K-Bac!? YAY!"
Getting slowed down by the hems of her dresses again ;)
Kathy, Jannie, Francie and Michelle in the new kitchen
"There's even a seat for me here K-Bac!"
Francie hanging out with her "Ja-Ja" and "Bam-pa"
My Dad and my husband catching up on football
We'll be back to visit often Kathy! :)
Friday night we went over to Chad and Lindsey's for dinner and to watch Isaac and Francie play. They were having a great time tearing up their living room and even sharing toys sometimes. Lindsey is also pregnant and due exactly a month before I am so we got to share pregnancy stories while Hutch and Heff helped themselves to our share of the beers. :) Francie calls her friend "EYE-saa" and while he was playing on Francie's fake cell phone Isaac blurted out in one mouthful "I love you!" (or "I-wuv-ew!") They were hilarious... what did we do before we had kids for entertainment?
Francie trying to "ride" the Firetruck and Isaac carrying his lunch bag, they think they are so grown up!
They were very cute together sharing binkys and ba-bas
Time to climb on Isaac's Daddy
This is BY FAR the WORST picture of Francie ever taken. She looks drunk... or worse! ;) Sorry France!
"I can't believe you put that picture of my friend Francie on the internet."
Last Friday (I am a little behind on my posting, took all weekend to download the pictures on my camera from last week!) we took Estelle, Francie, Leo and Wesley up to SF for a day of play. We wanted to check out a relatively new kids club called "Peekadoodle" which is basically an indoor playground... kind of like a children's museum. The babies had a lot of fun running around the foam play pit, crashing the ride-on cars and firetrucks, playing with the doggies in the "animal hospital," crawling on the slide, rocking on the little cable car, cooking in the play kitchen and digging in the fake dirt. After playing for awhile we found a cute new Tea Room in Ghiradelli Square called "Crown & Crumpet" and indulged in pots of hot tea and tea sandwiches (my FAVORITE!) while the kids got their own little butter and jam sandwich squares to enjoy with their sippy cups. They played by a fake fire (on a flat screen TV mounted in a mantle!) so we could sit back and relax on the couches before piling in the suburban to head home right smack in the middle of the SF traffic. It was worth the trip :)
We lined the kids up for a pictures by the Ghiradelli Square fountain... Francie continues her "I-don't-do-group-photos" attitude
"WHAT? You're leaving your camera out here Mom? Are you sure you're feeling ok?"
(they wouldn't let us take pictures in Peekadoodle!)
Paige and Wesley warming up in the tea room... it was a fairly cold day in the city
Icie choosing her poison while we naively thought the kids would happily sit in their strollers through our tea time
"DAD! Get over here! They won't let us out of our strollers!!!"
"Seriously. We've been good... just unbuckle this thing."
Francie about to kiss the ground she's so happy about her stroller freedom.
"Please don't make me get back in that stroller anytime soon."
Estelle is still a happy girl in her stroller
Toddlers and Hot Tea... hummm. We made it work anyway.
"Auntie Baby Ann warned me about these so-called tea sandwiches she despises and I don't see the allure either. I'm on ABA's side."
Icie and Estelle
Leo and Wes wondering why Francie's mom didn't teach her any manners... you don't play your harmonica in a Tea Room Francie!
Me and my Doodle... we had a fun afternoon in the city!
Saturday night we had dinner at Icie and Bert's house. They cooked up a gourmet four-course meal and brought out the china for a fun "formal" dinner! Francie was the only baby there... oops :) Jannie and Grampa had dinner plans and I figured at least someone would bring their baby but Estelle was asleep, Leo with his aunt and uncle and Wes was sleeping in a pack-n-play next door. Our little night owl was pleased as punch to have all of Estelle's fun toys to herself and to torture their little dog Cali. She had her own place set at dinner and loved Bert's homemade roasted red pepper soup and Icie's souffle. She got a little cranky during dinner so after we let her throw a few fits we threw a pillow on the floor next to the table and she laid down for some back scratchies and fell sound asleep :) Ahhh.... we got to enjoy the yummy dessert and after dinner drinks in peace and quiet. Thanks Legrands! (for the pictures too Icie:)
"Where's my wine? Just because Mom can't drink doesn't mean I can't partake."
Our hosts Icie and Bert
Chris and Paige
Josh and Erika
"PJ's... pillow.... ohhhhh."
And she's out.
Tired mom and dad too, but having fun!
Are we bad parents? ;)
Last night we had dinner with our friends Kevin, Heather and Baby Ryan at their house in Willow Glen (and I didn't take any pictures!) Baby Ryan was fast asleep the whole time and Francie kept saying "Raaaarrrrr Bye-Bye?" She still calls Baby Ryan a Lion! She was fascinated with putting her baby in Ryan's swing and saying "rocka-rocka-rocka." Hopefully she is as sweet to the new baby and doesn't prefer to drop in on it's head and laugh. Ryan already has a great collection of toys she took out of his room and played with all over their house, almost like being at Jannie's house! Thanks for dinner Heather and Kevin!
Francie on her flute yesterday...No musical ability in this family, but she tries :)
Wednesday was Paige's birthday and we celebrated with lunch at The Cafe at Neiman Marcus, shopping and mani-pedis :) Francie and Leo joined us for lunch and were very well behaved in their high chairs for MOST of the two hour lunch ;) then Francie fell fast asleep in the car on the way to the nail place where Jannie picked her up so I could enjoy my mani-pedi in peace (the days of Francie watching the water from my lap are long gone!)
Francie waiting for Jannie asleep in the nail salon chair
We had to bring some bubbly for the mani-pedis!
Happy Birthday Paige!
Here is Francie having a little "talk" with her Mom and Dad (while trying to sneak Halloween candy) last night:
Francie voted THREE TIMES on election day! Or at least she went to the polling booths three times and got three stickers :) First with Dad at 7:30am at the Firehouse (it took 90 minutes with all the before-work-voters), at 11:00am with Mom at the Firehouse (it took 6 minutes with a few stay-at-home-moms and retirees:) and again at 2:00pm with Jannie at "Emma's School" (they had a nice leisurely walk over and voted with the Menlo Oaks crowd).
"I'm sure tired after all that voting. Better just sit here and enjoy my first lollipop."
(in the latest JanKnit wool pants... so cute Jannie!)
We had Landry and her parents Mike and Kelli over to watch the election results roll in and enjoy Kelli's homemade lasagna. We knew they were a safe bet and on the same team to watch election results with without offending anyone (not to talk politics on Francie's blog and mention WHICH team but... they are from Texas so you can make a good guess :) We had fun playing with the babies and counting electoral votes. Francie gets a little "competitive" playing with some of her friends but she LOVES Landry. She was trying to share her milk and giving her toys and when Kelli ran out to pick up Landry's Dad at the train station Francie decided Landry needed a bow and some socks so off they went to Francie's room to play. It was so cute!
Francie giving Landry a kiss!
Landry just had her Cochlear Impants activated after her surgery last month and is doing great! We are so proud of her. As soon as Kelli put her "magic ears" on she started babbling away repeating sounds and talking to her friend Francie! She is one of the cutest babies around... Heff couldn't stop saying that all night :)
"You're funny Francie."
"So are you Landry!"
Thanks for coming over and bringing dinner Kelli, Landry and Big Mike!
"Y'all" wore Francie out! :)
Saturday and Sunday we lounged around, organized the house and cleaned up the remnants of the party... in the rain! It was great weather for Juicy's and catching up on Tivo... not so great for raking up wet straw :) But we had fun and Francie was introduced to playing in the rain for the first time. We pulled out a cute rain jacket (after she soaked her PJ's) that the Davey's gave her when she was a baby and I thought... this won't fit her until she is a big girl! Well I think she is a big girl already :) She couldn't get enough of the rain and "wa-wa" all over the ground.
Following Dad around to clean up in her pajamas
"How did these pumpkins get full of wa-wa?"
"Mom I'm getting a little worried about getting all this straw out of my yard."
"See ya." Off to splash in the puddles.
Saturday night was Em's 26th birthday! We celebrated with her friends and family at her parents house in Menlo Park and had a yummy dinner with the whole crowd. Francie got to play with Em's nephew Jackson who is three months old now and so cute. Heff and I were pretty mellow all weekend (a rare weekend at home) and were happy to have a great reason to celebrate and a really nice party actually in Menlo Park to keep us busy Saturday night! Francie was honored to be included :)
Party girl in her party dress!
Jerry and Allison came down from the city (I had to ask who this kid was and what they did with my brother when Jerry told me he didn't dress up or go out on Halloween because he was studying for the GMAT)
Cute Em and James... even cuter in their Sarah Palin and "The Maverick" John McCain costumes last night!
The Heffs partying it up
"Hey whatcha doing in there Baby Jackson?" (In Marla's new "Gram Pram")
Francie was very interested in the baby...
"Do you want this? I brought some dinner for you!"
And helpful...
"Here, I'll put your binky in Jackson."
The birthday girl and her sweet nephew
Jackson was happy in James arms for most of the party after dinner!
And he didn't even complain when Francie made us put her "bo-bow" in Jackson's hair.
"Where's Francie?... Peekaboo!" (I love that little side-grin-smirk she has, just like her dad!)
Marla, the host, with 26 Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcakes!
"Did you say CUPCAKES?"
Singing Happy Birthday To Em
Make a Wish!
Happy Happy Birthday Em and thanks for hosting a great party Joe and Marla!
Em shared half of her birthday cupcake with lucky girl Francie!
She wanted "more more!" so Uncle Jerry shared his too :)
Em's good friend Shannon snuggling with Jackson
The only babies allowed at the party... both still awake at 11pm
Heff with Francie and James with Jackson
Marla let Francie "hold" her pretty bracelet and Francie signed "Thank You!" back to her like "Thanks, I'm keeping this one!" She did NOT want to give it back.
Marla was very sweet and traded Francie "up" for some sparkly Halloween bangles... she LOVES them!
Life with our Four Marys! Raising Free Range Kids in Northern CA.
