Park Pics

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A few pictures from Saturday afternoon at the park… it's still 70 degrees and sunny this week so we are soaking it up!

Big push for little sis

Three out of four boots isn't bad ;)

splish splashing in the creek

devilish little look there Maisie

touchdown!

and more funny faces

red ball

running downhill too fast to catch

and Francie taking a picture with my camera "as long as you keep it on the bench!" angle

Weekend Recap

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That might be my favorite "sisterly" picture yet! We had a great weekend doing a whole lot of nothing. No real plans all weekend so we hung out at home, downtown, at the park and more at home.

This morning we made it to 9:15 family mass at St Nicholas and then went out to breakfast (my favorite family treat:) at Village Pantry and sat outside in the sun. We worked around the house all day- Heff reinforced our deck that was actually sagging from all the planters! and I snuck out for a relaxing mani/pedi and then tonight we made it out for dinner with Mark, Sarah and Clara at our favorite Indian Restaurant in Mountain View- the girls were kind of monsters so we had a big talk with Francie on the drive home about consequences and punishment. She goes "well you guys- if you give me consequences then I'll just give Maisie consequences right back." Heff said that's not the way the game works and she goes "oh yes it is." She's got the big sister thing down pat- poor Maisie!

We got these cool building tiles (like life size MagnaTiles) and made lots of cool forts - not sure what these faces are about, the girls loved them

We made "Oliver's Cowboy Cookies" that the Doverspikes gave us all for Christmas- just mix butter, an egg and vanilla extract- throw in contents of the jar and you get DELICIOUS cookies! Thanks Oliver :)

We played with the cool new wagon Dad and Francie built- colored the inside like a rainbow and gave Natalie-Emily lots of rides

We had Mark and Baby Clara over for curry dinner Thursday night while Sarah was in Davis - the girls jumped in the bath after and filled it up TOO high but were practicing swimming moves

Oh and forgot to post pics from FINALLY finishing the girls bathroom! I could not decide on wallpaper to save my life. I'm usually quick and easy on decisions but since I knew hanging wallpaper was not a DIY project Heff would engage in or let me do- I knew once this stuff was up there was no changing it. I found this Merimekko "cars" print online, my brother James and I had the same sheets when we were little (I'll have to dig up a picture to show the girls) and since Heff suggested something not-too-girly and kid-friendly it seemed to fit the bill! I think it turned out cute and Maisie loves saying "BUSSS!!! TUCK!!!! CAH!!!!"

Friday afternoon Heff put up his cool new camping tent- it is like a really big, lightweight tipi (only 8 pounds for easy backpacking trips) but has a little wood burning stove that goes in the middle and vents at the top to keep you warm and cozy all night (if that's even possible when camping) The girls were obsessed

pretending to sleep… looks cozy to me right?!

closest I get to a close-up of my three year old

Maisie still looks and says "cheeeeeeeessssseeeee!"

Friday night we made homemade pizzas - (can't even get a pic of Maisie without that cheese face either!) nothing like Jannie's pizzas but not bad. Luckily our neighbors stopped by with bags of take out sushi from our favorite spot downtown so we had a feast and had fun playing with the kids in an impromtu dinner

THEN these two crazies decided to camp out on the deck in the tent! Bundled up (except my crazy husband in shorts) they set up sleeping pads, sleeping bags (Francie was so excited at the thought of it she pushed a stool from the kitchen into her room to try and reach her little red sleeping bad at the top of the closet) and she also insisted on using her "Pillow Pals" from Emily and Lucy for she and her dad-

It was a cold night- they gave up THIS for the freezing cold and sleeping on a deck?! I was cozied up right here with my laptop and DVR… Maisie was smart and cuddled in her crib too

heading out to camp with her Dad, her new Diego book and her milk (might be her three favorite things in life at this point)

They lasted out there reading their books by headlamp and having deep conversations for 45 minutes until Francie announced this was just practice and she was going to sleep inside

and lastly my husband built another set of amazing closet shelving for me! This time in the coat closet in the hallway. Before (just a black hole for stuff to accumulate on the floor)

After: ahh and now to fill it back up with organized art supplies, cleaning stuff and a few coats!

and too many fun pictures from a Saturday afternoon at the park… more of these later!

Who Us!?

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We had a CRAZY night with these two stinkers! After a busy day Maisie was ready for bed at 8pm and went right down. Francie went into her room soon after to read books before we came in to lie down with her and when Heff went in at 9pm she was asleep! Christian was over hanging out and was so impressed with our bedtime skills- HA this never happens in our house :)

Then at 10:30pm Francie wakes up (did you think that was a nap France?!) but was in a state of half-wakedness so I laid down with her in OUR bed which we also never let her do anymore and I should have known better but was feeling lazy. We were all asleep by 11pm- a record for me… THEN Maisie woke up screaming in a bad dream at midnight and Heff brought her in our bed. Maisie was sitting up in the middle of the bed poking Francie and trying to hug her. By 1:30am both girls were wide awake!

We tried to bribe Francie with M&M's for breakfast if she'd babysit Maisie in her room. They played together for awhile and when that ended I plopped them both on the couch under a blanket with a thing of Ritz crackers and put Toy Story on. I went back to bed- checked on them an hour later and they were both still sitting there cozied up together watching Buzz and Woody. It was pretty cute even if it was 2am! Francie came in 15 minutes later losing it because Maisie turned off the TV "at the very end- my favorite part!" so Heff got up and put them both back in bed- they fell right to sleep after their 3 hour middle of the night escapade! Lesson learned- our kids aren't wired to go to bed before 9pm :)

so yes, Maisie is making her own breakfast this morning :) We'll be in PJ's for awhile!

Closet Makeover

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That's a happy wife in her new closet even with a big belly (and feeling way bigger and slowing me down more this time around than ever before. We had our full term appointment today- baby is head down and looks good, technically full term on Friday- but I'm dragging!)

Did you guess the "bunk beds" were our new closet shelves?! When Heff was hunting I reorganized the closet and took the liberty of taking down "part" of the ugly wire shelves- well turns out they were all kind of connected and all my nicely folded clothes came crashing down and the hanging ones stayed that way until my nice husband built me a whole new closet this weekend!

It started like this: (I should have taken ugly wire shelf pics but you know the ones :)

Got my stud-finder mom…

There he is! (hehe ;) the stud in the Mickey Mouse t-shirt he wears because it makes Maisie sooo happy

pretty, good smelling maple wood hand cut and routed by the man in the Mickey shirt

look at that routing for the shelves! I'm impressed :)

I got in trouble for "taking their bunks" when I put my clothes away

and with clothes filling up the space… thanks Heff!!!

custom built around my old dresser I had when I was growing up

dad's side- always gets the smaller side of the closet :)

Sunny Day at Stanford

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Heff and I both had to be fingerprinted for work so we spent part of the afternoon Thursday at Stanford LiveScan. AT least there were trees to climb and bike lockers to stomp on! Francie decided she'd wake up with dad at 5am this morning and insisted on going with him to Peet's Coffee and then to work (he made the girls an art supply cabinet in his office- in a hidden door on the back side of his desk- how can Francie resist that?!) so as you can see she dressed herself this morning and refused any hair clips. Little ragamuffins...

Maisie's "chhheeeeeese" face

5 Years Ago Today...

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Heff asked me to marry him on January 14, 2006! Wow- was it only five years ago?! Almost 3 kids and lots of memories later… it's fun to think back about what a day that was shared with all of our family and friends. And to look back thanks to all the pictures and blogging ;) Here is part of the post from our wedding website about our proposal and the big party that followed...

Proposed to in camo….

January 14, 2006

Brian and I went up to his friend Greg Weber's ranch to go hunting early Saturday morning... I thought we were going out on the ranch with a bunch of friends, Greg, Tyler and Mary and the Flynn family but as we drove up one by one each friend called to say they weren't going to be able to make it and all of the sudden it was down to just Brian and me (and I was still clueless). We took the 4-wheeler out on the ranch but there has been so much rain we couldn't get across the river to make it up to the hills. Brian had to carry me on his shoulders through waist high rushing water in his jeans (he gave me the dry waders!) and then we hiked up into the cliffs with rifles and shotguns in tow. Looking out on the ranch he got down on his knee, pulled out a ring and asked me to marry him... of course I said yes. :) (The picture above is from a hunting expedition two weeks ago, we didn't have a camera with us Saturday! But you get the idea:)

Then… a Surprise Engagement Party!

When we came down from the hills to head back to his parents house he was trying to convince me to change out of my soaking wet jeans and boots (not to mention the waders and full camo jacket!) but I kept telling him I wasn't that cold and would change after a shower at his parents house. I thought his mom was having a dinner for the "trustees" of their high school over for dinner and was just going to sneak in the side door so I didn't even recognize all the cars in the driveway... he pulled right in front of the house where I was totally shocked to find both of our families and so many of our friends there for a surprise engagement party!

How did he pull this off! Couldn't be much happier :)

It was so special to have so many people who loved us drive up to Red Bluff for the surprise proposal party. My sister flew out from Nashville, my Aunt Marge made the trip from Hollisater with my parents, both my brothers came up for the weekend, Maureen and her girls flew out from Utah, my good friend Janna and her husband and baby James drove up from Brentwood, our friends and neighbors the Ryans were there, Uncle John flew up from SoCal for a few hours, all of my aunts and uncles and their families made the trip… we felt pretty lucky to celebrate such a special occasion with all of them and I was pretty impressed they pulled off this surprise!



Kaky- my god-mother and fell in love with Red Bluff on this trip :)

Baby Ann out from Vandy to join in- I was so shocked she was there!

Our Scrabble Cake Maureen made- when we used to have time to play Scrabble ;)

Newly engaged- and we look so much younger!

with our parents- John, Janet, Claire and Tom

The "Arnerich Girls" Singing an old family song to Mary and Brian (you sure you're ready for this family Brian?!)

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I love you Heff! Even more today than five years ago. I'm so lucky I found you to share the camo-hunting, crazy-family, how-many-LLCs-can-we-start, working-together, playing-together, raising-our-girls-together, long-but-full days with. Happy FIVE years since we decided to start our life together!

1-11-11

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… means 1 month to go to our due date! Hard to believe it has flown by since we found out we were expecting another little Baby Heff back in June. I am 36 weeks now- considered full term next week. This pregnancy has been easy and to me seems very similar to Francie and Maisie so I feel like it's going to be a girl but I have always been wrong so maybe that means it's a boy! Heff thinks girl though (he says he wants a whole slew of girls :) and he is 2 for 2 being right on- one of us will break our streak. I also feel like I will be late again like 9-days-overdue-Maisie… but would be fun to have another birthday on the 18th of the month (both F and M) so a week over would be ok- at least I can say that now :) But 211 is oddly my lucky number so a 2-11-11 baby would be pretty cool too! Nothing matters but a healthy baby so we'll just see what happens and be very lucky to be holding another tiny newborn in our arms soon enough.

It's getting harder to cart the girls around, in and out of the car and I'm getting a little worn out but very excited to meet our newest addition. Jannie has been reminding me for about two months now "you are WAY bigger than you were at delivery with the other two!" so maybe it's a big baby boy or maybe that's just how it is by the third baby :)

I'm not a big belly shot person- my sister yells at me if I take them :) but Francie took this blurry (thank god) picture the other day when Maisie was pulling up my shirt to kiss the baby belly...

Last week at my Tuesday appointment with Dr, Druzin we thought the baby was head up- in my ribs. It felt like a breech baby the way it was kicking and making me have good posture :) He didn't do an ultrasound but the heartbeat was WAY up high so he thought it was breech- but at 34+ weeks could still turn. I can't have the ECV (version) since I had a c-section once so I would be pretty much out of options to flip the baby set aside the old wives tales/hippie home remedies! that I tried with Francie to no avail! SO I was pretty bummed but thought flipping thoughts all night and the next day I had an ultrasound scheduled- Heff and the girls came with me and we found a head down baby!! Now I just hope it stays that way.

Tea Party Time

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For Oma and Nans's birthday (Dec 28) we planned to do a little dress-up tea party at the house with all the girls (boys were invited but they decided to watch football at the Cahill's house next door of course). The non-hikers stayed home and slaved away on tea sandwiches and treats. We brought out Grandma Heffernan's china and tea sets for a lovely table :) Oma bought new beautiful princess dresses, crowns, gloves and jewelry- pretty nice grandmother to make HER birthday party so much fun for everyone else! The girls were really cute with their fancy nancy manners and conversation :) Happy Birthday Claire and Cathleen!

pretty petit fours by Aunt Kat

Francie-as-Snow-White making faces

Maisie cut her nap short to sit in front of the tower of tea sandwiches

Time for tea

Kate- pushing the envelope of prim and proper :)

Maisie in a princess get up too- not going anywhere without her blankie-pillow and BaBe. Maybe she should have dressed up as Linus?!

Impressive tea sipping Clara Marie!

Maggie looking beautiful as a princess

Mary Frances found her name tag!

Ellie and Isabel all accessorized

Girl talk at the kids end of the fancy table

perfect sandwiches from the ladies in the kitchen!

Kat, Oma and Andrea cheers-ing their tea

Clara Marie with no nap after a full day if hiking… tired?

YUP. Asleep at the table two minutes later!

Ellie - the leader of the ladies showing the girls the right way to sip their tea

Francie gave Opa her Christmas present too… we asked her what she thought Opa would like for Christmas and after a while she said "ummmm…. a penguin." why a penguin Francie? "Because that is his favorite show on TV." (The Apple TV screen saver is set to Antarctica photos of penguins) So she went on Amazon and found this "penguin for adults" she was sure Opa would love. He was so cute when she gave it to him and picked her right up and sat her on his lap. We love you Opa!

Family Dinner

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We had a great weekend doing lots of nothing at home! Fires and catching up on house projects and just hanging out. I think I left the house twice all weekend :) Jannie and Grampa invited us for a family dinner at Il Fornaio for my Dad's favorite special "region tasting." The girls were great and got to pick a book at Border's afterwards. It was a fun night!

Maisie trying on Jannie's glasses

and Uncle James' glasses too

Me and Heff dressed up! (or at least compared to the juicy's I'd been in allll weekend)

Francie couldn't wait for the famous dessert cart

"Pick this one Maisie!"

Red Bluff Hike

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We set out on a family hike once the rain stopped- the kids got dirty and wet and loved it. We explored all over the ranch, hiked up and down the trails, saw some cool live and dead animals and stomped in the ponds. It was cold but not so bad- worth it for all the fun!

We parked the cars by the road and piled 19 people in Heff's truck to drive in for the hike

"Let's Go Mom!"

Cute, Sweet Maggie!

and smiling with her brother Aly

How to keep warm in the windy pickup- huddle with your cousins!

Uncle Mark closing the gate behind us (the cowboy way!) and looking very fashionable in the glitter scarf

Ready to explore the hills and ponds

My silly girls

Heading out

Clara didn't like it when she couldn't walk all the way in the pond :)

Maisie trying her best not to wear a hat

Bill was trying to impress the 3-7 year olds shooting cans with Francie's bow

Kids everywhere… we only lost three of them for a short while ;)

Buddies Clara and Maisie

Cute and much happier Clara Marie

Hiking with three attachments

best seat in the house

taking a little quiet time

Maisie too

What a view

Roll down the hill Francie!

"I try! I try!"

Francie convinced her Dad to teach her how to roll

Happy Kid

and of course the happy moments pass quickly with a fit... "But my shirt is coming up and it's windy and EVERYONE can see my belly!" Chill France :)

Dad to the rescue tucking in her shirt

running down the rest of the way

Maisie and Mom self portrait in the wind

or letting Heff take one of us

Pit stop to build a dam

The Heff's at the top of the hill

everybody spreading out as we head back

loading back in the truck- 19 deep!

Uncle Bill bringing home some bones for the kids

Maureen, Andrea and I holding on tight

Contemplating how many people are not wearing seatbelts. Safety first and second!