Christmas Tea with the Babies

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the littlest one above, Emerie only 9 days old! Monday afternoon we had the Mariani girls and some friends over for a Christmas Grandmother-Mother-Daughter (baby/aunt/brother) Tea :) It's a tradition we've been doing for three years now (although the first year had a much bigger crowd and we've kinda whimped out and gotten smaller- the Mariani family fills the house!)

Tracy and I with the littlest baby girls

Maisie and Stella (who didn't feel like wearing her shirt :)

Sofia busy on her cell riding King Harry

Whitney pretty in her red dress and red shoes

Kids at the train

and who's at the door?! SANTA!!

Moms and aunties watching

Cute Wil- the first one on Santa's lap

Joe Joe and Santa

Francie was a "wittle scared" and stayed safe on Jannie's lap NEXT to Santa

My godson James

Stella (the big girl Stella :)

Emilia

Sofia

Jannie, Grampa and Francie

Happy Kids (and THANKS for coming to visit Santa! Funny, our friend Dr. Durando had to close up shop early Monday afternoon and Jannie has been purchasing a lot of "velvet Santa suit" items on eBay lately...)

Nancy and Jannie

Heff and not-so-happy Maisie Moo

Tracy and Stella

Janna (looking great 9 days after having her fourth baby), Stella, Molly (looking great with Baby #3 Due in January!) and Heff with still-not-so-happy Maisie

Kids getting ready to do a "show" for everybody

8 kids hiding quietly under a blanket while the guests take their seats for the show

Merry Christmas! Jingle Bells and Rudolph to follow...

their audience

Nancy and her nine day old neice Emerie

Whitney's turn

Emerie Arlene

Mary and the Mariani girls (minus Julie!)

Night Out

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Emmy was here to babysit for us Saturday night so Heff and I could go to two Christmas birthday parties... it was a rare night out on the town for us :)

the first was Rory's surprise party... a German theme with "dickey" aprons!

then we picked up Christian, made a pit stop at home and rode up to the city for Dawn's birthday party. Black and red seemed to be the theme (kinda funny they were both birthday parties and not really Christmas parties on the Saturday night before Christmas!)

Emmy- the master babysitter that she is- had both girls fed, bathed, pj-ed up and happy!

She made mickey shaped cookies to decorate with Francie

and tuckered them both out

THANKS EMMY!

Baby Grads

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Last week was the Graduation Day for the babies in our Stanford Moms Group. We had dinner at Mark and Sarah's house the night before and Sarah said she had to work up in Davis the next morning so I asked her if I could take Clara with us to the big graduation party :) Mark walked Clara Marie over in the morning and we packed up all three girls for some fun. We stopped by Francie's playgroup at Isaac's house before the baby party and then Francie had a date with her Dad. The Stanford Moms directors did such a cute job hosting us with cupcakes and cider and pictures of each of us with our little grads!

Playgroup kids festive before Christmas at Isaac's house

Baby Clara held her own with the troops

Jazzy didn't want any group photos- just wants to look cute next to her mom

babies lined up

Maisie steals Clara's binky

raspberries

Clara Marie

MaryMarjorie

We're so proud of you Maisie Moo :)

Little Nutcase

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This morning I woke up to Francie standing there LICKING the metal pole on the lamp next to my bed. I asked her what she was doing, and with her tongue still pressed to the lamp pole said...
"I -eed to -ind ah sagpole."
(translation = I need to find a flagpole)
Maybe a little TOO MUCH Christmas Story Daddy!

Then we were driving to go to lunch with Emmy and she told us this story in one giant breath...

"Poor mommy and daddy are going to be so sad after we go to Disneyland because they aren't going to have a big girl anymore because I'm staying with Mickey. He's picking me up at 6 o'clock and we're goin' on an airplane to Professor Von Drake's house and I'm going by MYSELF."

Subliminal messages in the Clubhouse theme song??

Visit to Santa

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Saturday morning we met Chad, Lindsey, Isaac and Wyatt at the shopping center on a mission to see Santa. Francie has been asking for three things for Christmas (but she was totally terrified to sit on his lap and asked Isaac if he would tell Santa for her :) She wants:
1) the REAL Mickey Mouse (her most frequently requested Santa suggestion)
2) More Elves (isn't that like asking for more wishes when you get the lamp?)
3) A Bike
Not sure how Santa is going to come through on the first two France...

Francie and Isaac quizzed each other on the Redwood Forest Trivia while we waited

Francie took a little coaxing

Finally decided she would maybe sit "nearby him"

Doesn't she look thrilled? (Maisie was a happy camper!) Of course right after Francie got up and was 10+ feet away her courage came back and THE REAL SANTA was all she talked about

Afterwards we all piled in CPK for lunch... the babies :)

Heff on double duty

Teddy Bear Tea

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Last week we went to the Teddy Bear Tea in SF... Francie was hilarious :) I left Maisie on The Cruz with Christian for a morning coffee date at Peet's while Francie and I met Rose and Lena up in the city for a little Tea and Teddy Bear time. And some weird elf named Binky who sang Taylor Swift, Hannah Montana and musical renditions of Christmas songs!

Heading out early in the morning...

The girls "only touch with one finger" but probably not listening by the tree

"What mom?"

Warm Chocolate!

and perfect manners slurping off her finger

Rose happy with her sweets

Surprisingly, big hugs for teddy and Binky the Elf (who was "entertaining"...)

She dropped Teddy flat when Binky's show started

Following the big kids lead she was a dancing queen

Who knew kids did whatever a lederhosen elf told them to do on command

Waiting to sit with Teddy for a picture

At least she sat on his lap!

Santa Comes To Town on The Train

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Santa comes to Menlo Park on the train every year... this is the first year we've been in town and knew Francie was going to love it. Santa AND a choo-choo train?! Doesn't get much cooler than that. But Heff wasn't feeling great (what a wimp ;) just kidding- he never complains) so we thought maybe we should lay low and stay home. I had both girls in the bath at 7:05 after we decided we'd skip it when Heff came in and said "Let's do it." So PJ's on, bundled up and we drove over to catch the 7:25 train.

Dad and Francie waiting for the train

Mom and Maisie staying warm

Here it comes!!

She can't believe her eyes...

There he is! (pretty cool open air train... but they must be freeeeezing!)

"HI SANTA!!"

California snow

They stopped for Christmas Carols

Emily and Christian were having dinner next door and pretended this train thing was so lame... until they saw it and left the bar to come see it too :)

"Where are they dragging me next?"

My sweet girl

"Edebody loves Baby Maisie" (ABA's coined phrase from 1988)

we saw lots of friends there- Kelli, Mike Landry and NEW Baby Emily too!

THERE HE IS!!

Thanks for rallying Heff :) It's fun to start these traditions now that Francie gets sooo excited about all the excitement of the holidays. (Her favorite phrase looking at Christmas lights is "Hoo-wee Smokes! Look at all those Cwistmas Wights!")