Farmer's Market

/

Summer is finally here and the Thursday Farmer's Market in Downtown Los Altos is back! We rode walked with Francie's bike and the chariot this week for Janie's first time in the infant sling. She loved it and the big girls didn't torture her too much :)

Smily happy Janie girl

Add one Maisie Moo

and a helmeted bike riding Francie pants

she parked her bike at the "2-wheeler racks" and hitched a ride on the bottom bunk of the stroller - who says 3 is a crowd?

After the Farmer's Market we went to Fiesta Vallarta for dinner and sat outside by the live music- Francie and Maisie danced their little legs off for the crowd

Heff and his girls

speed racer pushing Janie all the way home on the greenbelt

and Francie very proud off her new bike basket she got at the hardware store on a trip with her dad

returning home to this sight at our front door- either we forgot we actually have a garage now or I have a strange addiction to things with wheels that carry babies. I think both :)

Dora Head

/

Someone left a beheaded Dora pinata at the park today- awky!! We saw the birthday party kids hitting it awhile before and they were blindfolding little kids and spinning them before they hit it (like 3 year olds) I said "why would they blindfold those kids, it's hard enough to hit a pinata" and the dad we were with said "Because they are making them beat something that looks like a small girl!" Pinata's are pretty weird I guess- here is your favorite character kids, now go take a baseball bat to it's head.

Wedding Weekend

/

Two weeks ago (three?) we had a fun weekend full of events for Eloise and Ryan's wedding. Janie tagged along and was a pretty good baby for the parties. Everything was beautiful and despite the unusually cold weather in May we all had a great time celebrating!

Janie all dressed up on Jannie's shoulder for rehearsal dinner a Foreign CInema in SF

What a pretty place for dinner - Glynn (Ryan's sister) giving her hilarious speech

and the wedding Saturday night at Burlingame country club

cute husband at dinner- weddings make great date nights!

with a baby in my arms all night I didn't take any good pictures but got this shot of Eloise beautiful dress!! They had awesome steaks for dinner (Heff loved that there were no alternatives:) and then passed grilled cheese and fries after dancing! Ryan gave an incredible toast to his bride to be- what a fun night. Congrats R & E!

Shower for James & Em

/

My Aunt Kim, Uncle John, Aunt Mimi and Uncle Andy hosted a great BBQ Shower for James and Em last weekend at their new house in Aptos. It was a fun afternoon to get together with all of the cousins and celebrate Em and James' wedding coming up next month! It was a hot sunny day in Aptos and we soaked it up. My cousin Molly (above) was there with her husband Bryan and her adorable kids Brady and Lauren. So fun to hang out and count down the days to Em and James big one!

Congrats to the soon-to-be-wed James and Em!

Kim and John - love your new house and thanks for the fun party!

Molly and her cute kids. Brady is 3.5 and Lauren is 14 months

Brian and Bryan with a mad-mad-Janie

My Aunt Joann looking beautiful with Janie - she makes the coolest tote/beach bag out of strips of Target plastic bags, she gave one to Em I wish I had taken a picture of! (Hi Aunt Joann :)

The Godparents with Crazy Maisie!

She had a "Little LuLu" curl on the top of her head all day from a pony tail holder she took out

time for presents!

James and Em got LOTS of help- Jackson, Em's nephew was there too and wins the award for smiling at the camera

Auntie Em and Francie

Dad and Janie and I

Earl and Mr Stevens in matching shirts!

Good friends Ann, Jeanette and Katsy

Kreefts and Emmy

Aunt Marge and her first grandson Brady

YUMMY cupcakes. I might have had 2

Molly, Maisie and Emmy

Lauren was obsessed with "baby"!

The girlies

Maisie loves a good party!

MaryJane @ 3 months

/

Figured I would give Janie Girl her own little update! We went to Dr. Cisco yesterday to check in and Janie is measuring long and lean- super long and lean. At 3.5 months (15 weeks) she is 11 pounds 11 ounces and 25.5 inches putting her at 97% for height and 25% for weight. Just watching her roll around and move her body on the table Dr Cisco say's it's probably because she is so active that she burns her calories- and probably why she doesn't love to sleep ;)

She loves attention from her sisters, but kind of gets angry when Maisie's little high pitched voice comes around while she's sleeping! Francie loves to "walk around with her" (a few steps while I am close behind!) and Janie gives her big smiles.

Janie is a little demanding - I guess she has to be as a third child. She likes to be held facing out to see the world or standing up dancing on her feet. Heff figured out this is the easiest way to calm her when she's mad.

She HATES the carseat. We've learned to live with it and turn the music up :) But she loves stroller rides and has graduated to the big girl seat.

Janie has a sweet disposition when she is happy though and already has lots of personality shining through. I love the baby stage but it will be fun to see what she grows into! Love you Janie girl!

Dolphins!

/

We went to Atlantis for an afternoon when we were in the Bahamas to swim with the dolphins. Francie is obsessed with whales and dolphins so she was asking me 20 times that morning "HOW many hours until we meet the dolphins?!" She loved this experience (Maisie was just as happy to have special adventures flying home with Dad but she'll get to ride the dolphins "next time" :)

These were our buddies for the afternoon- Icis and Michele. The first dolphins at Atlantis were rescued from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina so they built this awesome facility and have 32 dolphins now

Francie is ready with her snorkel gear

First dolphin kisses with Icis - she could hardly contain herself when it first swam up right near us

The guides told Francie to pinch the dolphin's nose to make "tooting" noises

A hug after we swam out in the water

Belly up for belly rubs

We had snorkels and held on to this water fan thing to go under water and hear the dolphin clicks and noises- turns out it's kind of hard with a three year old on your back so we gave up the fan thing to tread water

Francie was so brave!! I was really proud of her. They kind of expected she would just want to pet/kiss the dolphins and after we did that she goes "Ok- now can I SWIM with them!?"

All smiles. She held the dorsal fin and went for a ride

Holding tight to hang out after our swim

and our favorite part! I held on tight to a boogie board and Francie climbed on my back- then the dolphin came up behind us and put his nose on my foot to push us fast-as-lightening across the whole dolphin pool. It was awesome!

Treats after that trick for sure

and so cool we had to do it again

The dolphin kicked up above the water when she let us go

We did it!

Thanks Dolphins :)

after the swim we changed out of our wetsuits and got a tour of the breeding and training facilities

This one just learned a new trick to practice on Francie :)

Happy Day-We-Met-Aversary!

/

That's what Aunt Kat texted to remind me today :) I can't believe 6 years ago I woke up on June 4 and didn't even know my husband. We met at Dreams Happen that night and the rest is history! (the pic above is from our honeymoon- wish I had one from that night!) We get to celebrate tonight at the every-other-year playhouse auction event - always a great time and hard to believe how much our life changes every time the playhouse auction rolls around. From meeting, to married and expecting a baby, to life with two girls and now this year life with three! We are very blessed and excited to raise some money for Rebuilding Together tonight- we owe this event an awful lot!

2 years ago @ Dreams Happen

Girly Girls

/

Last Sunday Heff went to get his haircut early in the morning (remember the Barber who doesn't take appointments and is in such high demand guys wait for hours?!) so he took the girls and texted me on his way home "FYI you may not recognize Maisie. She wanted a haircut too."

and speaking of haircuts- Francie can wear her hair in a ponytail like a big girl now but she still goes to Nancy for her bob! I love this picture of my big girl on the beach- when did she grow up!? She is lobbying for bunk beds and a shared room with Maisie so we set up the trundle to try it. Maisie lasts an hour and then cries for "Own Cib" and Francie sighs "Ugghhhh. I guess this means we're not ready for Bunk Beds.":)

and Janie's turn! She has been refusing to sleep unless she is curled up RIGHT next to me and holding my hand with her little hands wrapped around my finger and thumb. ALL NIGHT LONG. She is so cute but it makes it a little difficult to sleep comfortably :) So I tried this new Yoomi bottle with a little formula to try a sleep-longer trick but she didn't like it very much. Maisie took a sip and scraped the formula off her tongue and said " YUCKY that Baabee BROKEN!" Oh well I'll sleep someday :)

Fishing the Bahamas

/

Heff could have gone out on a pretty awesome bone fishing or salt water fishing trip but opted instead to take his girls out on the waters. He said it was much more exciting for him to see them catch fish - even in such an amazing place where he could have fished his heart out- remember the things your Dad does for you when you are teenagers girls!! :) They had a great morning out on a boat and came home happy, sun-kissed little fishergirls. I think they'll be back for more next time Dad says "let's go fishing!"

Getting their little sea legs ready

Heff told the captain and the guide (who both had kids) "Just pretend you are taking your own daughters out- keep them safe and catch them some fish!"

First fish. They really did most of the work themselves- or so their proud father reports ;)

Maisie had been saying "I 'anna go HOME" for the first 30 minutes until she caught a fish then it was nothing but "I 'annna see fishies! Mo fishies!! I touch fishy!?"

This might be my favorite picture of the whole trip- Francie pointing to the "Strawberry Grouper I caught!" (she also talks about some "One-eyed Johnny" she caught but the captain said it didn't taste very good so she threw it back.)

Showing off the fresh catch of the day

Pretty happy dad

Bahamas!

/

It's kinda hard to look at these pictures as it's rainy AFTER Memorial Day weekend here... We had the most amazing time in the Bahamas last week. We stayed on Paradise Island next to Atlantis at the One & Only Ocean Club. The weather was great and we swam in the pools, rode bikes, jet skied, built sand castles, had dinner on the beach, swam with dolphins, ate great food and had a blast as a family and with our good friends. When can we go back?!?!

a trend on arrival this trip...

The view- we jumped right in before even unpacking (a big deal for me :)

Traveling with kids- sure can't travel light!

Me and Janie girl hit the beach

Vacation with my favorite person! (he's not easy to convince to take a last minute vacation either... but I'm soooo glad you came Heff)

Coppertone baby bum :) I swear I put sunscreen on them!

Yup I even got my hair wet swimming with the girls :)

SunBathing!

Janie and Maisie relaxing after swimming all day

Happy big-eyed girl

Someday I'll get a family picture I can frame (I love how Francie is acting shy, Maisie is singing or something and Janie is looking like "Seriously I got this family??" :)

Aquarium at Atlantis (a really cool place! - kinda like Vegas at the beach but tons of fun stuff to do. Next time we're sending the girls down the waterslide that goes through a shark tank)

Doo-rags at dinner

Fishing trip with Dad. Heff claims it was his highlight of 2011 as both girls caught tons of fish (hey wait- Janie was born in 2011 Heff- you better change that statement to Q2-2011 or something!!) but this trip get's it's own post, not only did they have a blast Heff took great pictures!

I'm not making these pictures any larger ;) but had to remember how I spent half the day... even the baby-proofed pool was still beautiful!

Jet skis were a big hit- Heff took both girls at once and they went "100 miles fast" as Francie says

Maisie could play all day in the sand entertaining herself

Checking out the main pools

landed at the kids pool (sorry couldn't help the matching outfit with Janie :)

Doting on baby sister

"Mom, you think they know how to make a Shirley Temple here?"

"I don't know France but they make a mean Bahama-Mama!"

Where's Janie? Naptime on the beach is the best

My Little Mermaid

"Is that my Strawberry Grouper?!" They cooked up the fish the girls caught and it was DEElish!

READY to swim with the dolphins

They asked if Janie needed a wetsuit to swim! Um, probably not since she's 3 months old :)


Let's do this! (sorry- the real dolphin pictures still have to wait!!!)

But I can show you the SeaLion we met

Kinda gross.

Girls and a sealion

Last night Dinner on the beach

Heff and Maisie had to leave Monday so France and I had an extra two days to live it up with Janie

little attitude for a three-and-a-half-year old :)

Handstand competition.

Whatcha thinking about France?

The Golden Hour- a few minutes of golden sun for pretty pictures!

Baby feet in the sand

My sweet sandy little traveler

Wild-child takes her dress off after dinner- got some great pictures where she looks like she was raised by wolves but as my husband says "privates aren't for pictures" so this is all I can show :)

When can we go back Heff?!

Bye-Bye Bahamas

Florida Favorites

/

Some of our favorite pictures from our trip to Key Biscayne Island last week!

Getting to the hotel- girls sleeping in carseats on the luggage cart

checking out the view

WAAAAAY up in the air for Francie

Girls getting ready for the pool

Francie doing handstands

Janie girl

all done swimming!

slumber party in the pullout bed - love Janie's expression!

ever seen a stroller so loaded up with pool crap!?

Big girls

Love to know what they were talking about

Snaggle tooth, crocked glasses, crazy hair…

that's Crazy Maisie!

Three bathing beauties

Big girl J

Relaxing

TIRED out - the girls swam ALLL day every day… and then NAPPED TG

all pinked up - I love a sleeping baby next to a pool with fruity drinks :)

Francie ready to kayak with dad and pretty happy about it

Ocean bound

Florida was FUN!!!

Family Swim

/

I swear they were all happy until asked to smile for a camera ;)

I have so many pictures to go through and blog! It's nice to be back home but we are all back to work/life full force. Heff had to go to LA today for a few hours, I've had Bumble meetings back to back and the girls are rolling with it as usual-

We were all glad to see Emmy this morning for a trip to Shoup on the trike!

More pics later, including Francie's adventure swimming with dolphins... but here is one blurry camera phone picture of the Triple Threat in heart PJ's :)