Emily & Dan

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Sunday we attended wedding number two for the weekend! Emily and Dan got married in Healdsburg Sunday afternoon. It was perfect weather at a really cool estate in Windsor, the caterer owns the home/grounds and built a barn for a kitchen, a little barn for bathrooms and a great spot to celebrate a wedding. Congrats Emily & Dan!

We drove up (without kids!) over the Golden Gate with the windows down and "real" music playing enjoying the sunny day in the city

Heading over the Bay

We met Claire, Katherine and Donald at the hotel where they were all staying and then shuttle-bused it up to the wedding site. They had Arnold Palmers for us (my fav!) and parasols while we waited

Emily & Dan had a beautiful ceremony under big shade trees

Married!

Kat & Donald

brother-in-laws in almost-matching ties... we didn't give them a hard time or anything ;)

pretty bride

and such a pretty spot for a wedding




the CUTEST idea for a guest book- they had an iPhoto booth set up that printed right there for the guest book- they were hilarious!

We love Aunt Francy! Uncle Bob & Aunt Francy, Uncle John and Aunt Barbara were all there to celebrate too- we got to sit at a table with all of them and Oma- a rare treat to get time "alone" with some of our favorite people.

my hot date :) weddings are such a fun place to spend time together and remember our wedding day!

Brady & Kristen

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Saturday night we were lucky to be invited to a beautiful wedding in San Francisco to watch Brady & Kristen tie the knot. My brother Jerry has been best friends with Brady Carlson since high school- they caused a lot of trouble together! Kristen was a beautiful bride and the wedding was so much fun. The reception was on the 32nd floor of the St Francis hotel (where we all stay every year at Christmas) and my parents, James & Em, Jerry & Allison and Brian & I were all there to rock the night away! Emmy stayed with the girls at a hotel in SF for us- they get their own post on the adventures in babysitting evening they had :)

more couple pictures of Heff and I in one weekend than we've taken all year!

James and Em looking fab as usual

cute pic of Jer & Allison- love your dress Allison, really brings out the "Ted" in Jerry ;)

the toasts were hysterical- Brady is the youngest of four boys and his older brother roasted him! Made me realize I can throw a few zingers Ann's way for my Matron of Honor Speech- watch out ABA ;)

Allison and some of their cute friend's- these girls do Book Club, Supper Club, Wine Club... I wanna be friend's with them!

The "Simo" girls - I missed the animal print memo apparently

we had to take a few- I veto'ed this one that looks like I am wearing a leopard baby sling with no baby in it!

Congrats Mr. & Mrs. Carlson!! Thanks for including us

Dance Party!

John dancing! Good thing Allison got this on photographic record!!

Like Father Like Son :)

Jannie and her BFF Brady

Aww cute Johnets

what a fun night!

Baby Bellies!

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I have soo many pictures to post from a fun wedding extravaganza weekend (2 in 2 days) but I thought I would post this picture of Kat and I with our baby bellies at 18 weeks and 36 weeks! Kat kept saying, when she was newly pregnant, that she wanted a SIL as a pregnancy buddy since we all seem to usually be pregnant at the same time. She got her wish it just took me a few months! So we enjoyed being the sober ones together at a beautiful wedding in Healdsburg Sunday. 4 weeks to go for Kat and Donald- we can't wait!

and I guess I could use this an excuse to blog about this pregnancy since I forget I am pregnant half the time. Not anything to complain about but this pregnancy has been a little more rough on me than the girls were- but I am thankful my complaints aren't anything to really complain about. I got headaches in the first trimester every week or so that would last a good 48 hours and even turned into full blown migraines with blurry vision twice- no fun at all. I've still had the headaches in the second trimester (no more migraines) which is a pain but they seem to be going away... knock on wood. I get tired sometimes but luckily the girls will still nap together in the late afternoons for 3 hours or so so I can sneak a nap in if I need to (or catch up on blogging, work or Real House wives of course). Heff has been great, as usual to make sure I rest when I need to and helps out so much with the girls- that I am very thankful for too!

I am considered "VBAC" again this pregnancy (c-section w Francie, successful VBAC w Maisie but just under the wire) so I am going to the high risk doc at Stanford again- not because I am high risk exactly, just because it's hard to find a doc to take me- but I LOVE my doctor- Maurice Druzin and the whole OB clinic at Stanford. He is the Chief of Maternal Fetal Medicine and has worked a lot with my Dad. We see him walking the Dish ever so often and he even goes along with my superstitions... when I was supposed to be scheduled for a c-section if Maisie didn't come on her own on Friday the 17th- I told him I heard it was a bad luck day in Italy from my mom's Italian friend Carla- even worse than Friday the 13th :) so I wanted to push it back one more day- he thought I was crazy (rightfully so maybe) but agreed to try for the 18th, which I got in the end thanks to his awesome resident letting me try to labor despite not much happening! So this baby is due Wednesday Feb 11 and one of his residents said "maybe if you are late- Friday the 13th! I was born on a Friday the 13th!" and he looked at the resident like "DON'T tell HER that!!"

We are just happy to be expecting another baby Heff and hope for a healthy baby in 5 months!

Waking Up

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Is hard to do... especially after a slumber party with cousin Ellie! Francie is in seventh heaven around her older cousins and loved having Ellie sleep in her trundle bed. They were up late of course and a little sleepy the next morning- still in their PJ's (matching Ellie by chance!) at 10am when Maisie woke up too. I love slow sleepy mornings :)

Thanks for coming to visit and your help with all those balloons Ellie- come back and stay with us again soon!!

Summer Showers

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Saturday we hosted a Baby Shower for Aunt Kat at 11am and another one for my friend Emily at 4pm! It was a great day to celebrate the moms-to-be and the babies on the way... A surprise for Kat due Oct 3 and a girl for Emily due Sept 22. Can't wait to meet the new babies!!

getting ready... Ellie came down with Oma for the weekend so Francie got to stay and "help" while Heff took Maisie and his Dad to run some errands and stay out of the house all day :)

Onesie decorating, getting ready and Kat's fun friends showering her with love :)






brunching

presents

onesies for Baby D

special thanks to "showers are my thing" Em for making the pretty flower arrangements herself, getting the "organic" onesies and pens for our activity AND making an amazing diaper cake!

The whole crowd at Kat's shower- thanks for coming ladies!

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and then a little break for some clean-up, a trip to Peet's for iced teas and getting ready for round two for Emily and her baby girl due in 3 weeks! Le Cirque bags representing on the window seat (Christian was late since everyone was shopping at her store all afternoon for Em!)

it was a little crazy and maybe I was a little tired so I didn't take as many pictures... but we were rocking until 7 with the ladies and had a great time!

we played the "Cute Game" where you can't say the word cute during presents- if you get called out saying it that person takes your little felt diaper with a pin. We didn't have enough diapers for Emily's so we used Francie's bow collection!

Anne, Maisie and Jannie after Maisie returned home :)

still my baby for awhile longer!

Date Nights!

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Heff and I have had fun date nights two weeks in a row! We really need to get out more often :) Our friend Dave invited us to the Stanford Summer Symphony to see Chicago perform in the outdoor amphitheater last Thursday night. It was a great concert soaking up some outdoor evening time before summer ends and rocking out at the after party (too bad I couldn't indulge in those Apple-tinis!) Thanks for including us Dave!

Then last night we went with a bunch of friends to the SF Giants game - in a skybox- so much more civilized than the last two bleacher seats games! It was a beautiful warm night in SF and the Giants actually won :) The game ended way too quickly after 2 hours though- we all stayed another hour and finally got kicked out as the last ones in the stadium! Thanks for the fun nights out Heff and for watching the girls Emmy/Jannie/Grampa!

Quick Trip to Red Bluff

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Tuesday night we had a mellow dinner at home on the deck and then started packing up a few things for the girls and Heff to go to Red Bluff for a meeting he had up there the next morning (I was going to stay and get ready for baby showers/work) but I realized I'd miss them too much if they went without me and a trip to Red Bluff sounded like fun. So we threw together our bags and jumped in the car to all head up together that night. We were packed and ready in 15 minutes - record for sure and on the road by 9pm. It was a fun 2 day trip and well worth it! We joked we escaped the bay area 96 degree heat wave by heading to Red Bluff where it was 113 degrees that day!

Wednesday morning Brendon came over with the big forklift to help move our playhouse to it's FINAL resting place at Oma and Opa's! She had a great pad built for it to sit near the red barn and the red chicken coop on Oma's ever growing farm. She is going to put a climbing tree house structure on one side and a little deck around it. We're glad it found a prefect home at Oma's!




The girls delivered some hay bales with Dad on the four-wheeler and played around in the barn

then lots of fun with cousins and the Flynn's who came for dinner too!





Funny France

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Francie put on her second show for us after another week of nature camp in August- more funny pictures of her so into performing for a crowd! And she was so excited that Jannie and Grampa (who drove all the way from work for the 20 minute performance and had to get right back to a meeting!) were there to watch too.

She has been entertaining us round the clock lately... tonight I asked her about which characters she is excited to see at Disneyland (we are finally taking her this Fall!) and she said:

"Welllll, Minnie texted me that she is bringing her kitten Figaro and I texted her back that I am going to bring Ollie so we both have our pets."

I asked her how she got Minnie's number and she said she just borrowed my phone and sent her a text message. It's going to be a loooong wait for your first real cell phone kid so keep dreaming!

and tonight putting her to bed I said goodnight/see you tomorrow and she said in front of Heff "I'd like Dad to come say goodnight to me because I just really like him." (aka she knows he is a sucker for lying down with her until she falls asleep!)

Morning Friends

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Monday we had our friends Noah, Eliza and Gideon over to play for a morning of fun. Their mom Melanie and I met in Bradley Childbirth class :) Great memories on green shag carpet in a lady's living room in RWC. And pretty crazy to think three years ago to date we were still waiting for our first babies to arrive and now there are 5.5 of them. We had a great morning in the playroom and feeding them all a big lunch. Thanks for coming to play Noah, Eliza and Gideon!

Dinner with Friends

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We had some friends over for a fun dinner- Francie loves to hang out with Tate, Talan, Tristan, EK and CC and could hardly believe it when we told her they were coming over for dinner at HER HOUSE. The kids were great and fended for themselves most of the night while the adults relaxed, ate, drank and tended to the occasional crying child. We love having friends who bring great food & champagne, help with ALL the dishes and stay until after 10pm to keep the party going!

Francie, Maisie and CC

Lookin like a big girl

Table for 6

They were running around so fast I couldn't even get a picture :)

Francie and her BFF E.K.

Dinner on the deck

Best Buds!

Week in review

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We had a busy week and I haven't even blogged! About to finally upload a week's worth of pictures from my camera but here are my random iPhone pics from our week. I know, sooo exciting :)

MONDAY: Sushi date with Maisie and Heff Monday night while Francie had a SLEEPOVER at Jannie and Grampa's! She was soo excited and Maisie was really cute to get some one on one time with :)

TUESDAY: Curious George story time at PBK at the mall- brave mall workers gave out stickers, tattoos and PENS for kids to color

WEDNESDAY: Jannie called me about to faint after she cut her pinky finger badly on a knife (trying to get a melted candle out of a glass jar- glass broke and knife went through her finger, ouch!) I was meeting my friend Emily for lunch who lives in Menlo and was 20 minutes away when Jannie called about to pass out so Emily went over there to help her and we all took her to Urgent Care, dropped her off, had lunch and picked her up and hour and four stitches later! Francie said "WHOAH." when she saw the stitches

THURSDAY: Back to the new sushi place (twice in one week!) with Jannie on Thursday night while Grampa had a partner's meeting.

and then Baskin Robbins for dessert! (scene of the crime for the banana split :)

FRIDAY: Side Pony with the Mickey scrunchy Allison gave Francie - she thinks shes looking pretty good with sparkly Mickey's on her head!

and heading home from a busy day at Brilliant Babies with all of their favorite friends

8-9-10 Ranch Party

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Our friends got married on 5-6-7 and have a party every year to celebrate the 13 months later on the next consecutive date. So this year we went over to the coast for a Ranch Party on 8-9-10! (or 8-8-10, it was the closest weekend day :) The girls ran around getting facepaint, doing art projects, playing arcade games, watching trapeze artists and chasing baby animals in the petting zoo. The family picture above would have been cute for a christmas card without the hello kitty white face on Francie!

does this hat go with my binky?

they had a really fun family style dinner set up with cornbread, ribs, hanger steaks and authentic ranch-esq food

Francie fell asleep literally 7 minutes before we got to the party... Heff laid her down on a couch and threw some horse blankets on her. Just like she used to do at a party when she was a baby and we had to put a "don't sit on me!" sign on her!

we had to wake her up to play after awhile- she had a serious "where the heck am I!?" look on her face

crafting

Facepaint! Francie's favorite thing. She picked a full faced Hello Kitty of course. We were cracking up watching her trying to keep her eyes closed without squinting. She takes it very seriously :)


pretty happy with it

Maisie wanted a turn of course- she got some flowers on her face since I still get to pick hers :) (actually Heff did this time, good choice dad)

trapeze artist (not a chance she was going on the high rise although there were some 2/3 year olds who did it!)

Maisie not into photos

but willing to show off her new sommersault skills whenever she finds soft ground (walk your feet Maise! Jannie taught her how to do it!)

Chris and Emily!

petting the newest black baby cow orphaned on the ranch (Francie still talks about the first one she met named Rocky, then next time we visited it was Revlon... this one needs a good name!)

won't leave the baby animals... but the fog and mist rolled in so we rolled out!