Canton Texas Trip - First Monday Trade Days

We are back from an awesome trip to Canton, Texas for the July First Monday Trade Days... with a U-Haul full of flea market finds! It was the first time Heff and I left the kids for a few days (what a good sport - I asked him if he wanted to go to a flea market in the middle on nowhere and he was game :) Canton is east of Dallas and it's 23 miles of walking paths of booths. Lots of junk but some really cool gems mixed in if you dig hard enough! Alicia is Director of The Makery and Marisa is Director of The Botanist so they came along to find some cool stuff for the shops.

We preflighted Wednesday and Thursday and then Heff joined Thursday night and was on "logistics" helping us rent the U-Haul, get it packed up, make the final decision on all the "should we?" finds we had hidden and find a driver to get it all back. 4 days, 23 miles, 107 degrees... and a whole bunch of cool stuff!

Arrival in Dallas - we rented a truck and of course it's cherry red!

tractor ride from the parking lot. We were practically the first ones there

ready to dig!

#ilovetexas

made some new friends

we filled these carts every few hours and took them back to the cart rental station

Friday morning back at it!

Heff was the braun we needed :)

we made time for one dinner out in the Big D! Nothing fancy- just a burger joint to "test" burgers for The Alley ;)

and this was my favorite sign ever. #restaurantownerproblems

high class

my dinner dates!

and then when we thought we were done... we found the secret warehouse behind the warehouse! Hand carved wooden fabric stamps we had been SEARCHING for!

U-Haul with random bat facts? Thanks for the knowledge U-Haul

and that's a wrap

BBQ breakfast and Fried Pies on the way to the airport (I voted Applebees but Heff made us eat somewhere authentic ;)

Work it Maisie!

Love my little cowgirl with some sas :)

Emmy Love

What would we do without this girl!?

No one loves, cares for, teaches, disciplines, naps, feeds, swims, reads to and LOVES these four girls like Emmy does. We are so lucky... and so are the girlies!!! Love you Emmers!

Neighbors

Our neighbors that moved into our old house have FOUR girls just like we do.. and they are all stair-step ages, we've got every year covered for 8 years!! They are the most easy-going, laid back family, we love having them as our neighbors and are so lucky they moved in. In the picture above they are lined up in age order: Sierra 7, Aurora 6, Francie 5, Maisie 4, Loralei 3, Janie 2, Marin 1 and Tessa 0 (sneaking in the middle with her buddy Maisie). It's CRAZY... but just going to be crazier when they are 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12 and 11!!!

The kids were all playing in the front yards so the parents convened to drink our beers and get ready for dinner... we eventually gave up and merged dinners. I put snacks out for the kids and they devoured like little vultures :)

Dinner crew - then dance party!

Rebuilding Together Day

National Rebuilding Day... before and after:

This year we sponsored a Rebuilding Together - "National Rebuilding Day" project and helped rebuild a sweet little lady named Lily's home. Brian has been very involved with this organization for a long time and since we met each other at their big fundraiser event (the Playhouse Auction) it's a cause near to our hearts! Lily was a homerun project. She was very deserving, having lived alone for 30 years since her husband died, and her home needed some TLC. Brian worked on a lot of it beforehand (building IKEA cabinets all weekend while I was out of town, you know that's dedication!) and then the last Saturday in April we worked with our favorite builder Cody Brock and brought our H & H Company employees and friends together to help rebuild Lily's home. It was an amazing day for this lady!

A little video we made about the project that we showed live at the Playhouse auction this year... thanks to Ali of The H & H Company for all the hard work to put this together!

Rebuilding Together Peninsula, National Rebuilding Day 2013 from The H&H Company on Vimeo.

This is Lily's sweet neighbor Lisa who nominated her

team sister-sister (Alicia runs The Makery and Marissa will run The Botanist!) working hard

teamwork

my hardworking husband

Lily's house before - the morning of April 27

and after!

kitchen - before and after

backyard spruce up

and the front walk - overgrown with juniper (before)

and after the amazing work of Marisa (the Manager at The Botanist, come check it out when we open next month!)

sweet Lily - a very grateful, happy recipient

love this lady!

Sunday finish work by our big helpers

Happy Father's Day!

to all the Dads out there... and especially to our Dad, Opa, Grampa and godfathers Hulk, Rick, James, Jerry, Casey & Kevin!

Italy 2013

Our last stop on our European vacation was Italy! We finally sat still in one place long enough to relax and enjoy the good food and the view. Maisie and I got a lot of time to hang out while Tess was happy playing with the three other babies there (a group of friends and their kids met us in Italy). Heff and the girls were trying to maybe meet us there but it got to be too much for a short trip - so we tried to enjoy the last of the vacation... but were sure missing them by the end! It was a fun trip to remember with Maisie and Tess - while Francie and JJ got some good Dad time in!

Leaning tower of Pisa

We hit it up like the total tourists that we were in rainy muggy weather - but Maisie was pretty happy with her hoodie liesure suit :)

love this picture of Maisie

My turn - Maisie is better at it :)

and after a three hour bus ride - we arrived to a borgo in Tuscany! (late at night - this was the next morning when we woke up to find out this was the view!)

Maise was obsessed with the helicopter and went up for a ride twice. Brave girl

pretty sights

Sightseeing in Siena

on the square

dinner time

Tess wasn't so sure about the helicopter ride

Maisie helped serve dinner with the family who ran the borgo - she's got a lot of street cred after all those hours at Bumble ;)

Tess and her buddies - adorable, local Italian girls!

and Maisie played babysitter to the owner's daughter Chloe all week - here she HAD to go find her having her lunch to say goodbye

Summer Days with Emmy!

This week Heff was on a fly fishing trip with some buddies and Emmy's other family she works for had kids at sleepaway camp so we got Emmy ALL DAY and overnight!! We are so lucky, and so spoiled. She is really the best. I love that we get to spend so much time together and she is SO good with my girls. The best! These pics are all from Emmy's iPhone Monday and Tuesday - she's amazing!

Morning reading in the sun room. That JJ :)

and a little sunshine and vitamin D in the front yard

we didn't want to have a scheduled summer of activities (Heff and I are trying to figure out how to raise kids without schedules taking over - anti-activity life! I'm sure this won't work once they are older, but we can naively dream :) SO we are doing a homegrown backyard summer camp with neighbors - it's been really fun.

activities and coloring (Mary's Summer Fun Camp flashback :)

as emmy says "everyday moments"

maternal Maisie and her baby "Tessie" ("Can I hold Tessie? Can I hold Tessie" ALL day long from this girl)

and field trip day to Hidden Villa to check out the farm (where we get our Bumble produce!)

Smart Emmy - puts them all in pink jackets (on this random chilly June day) so she can keep track of all three. good work Emmy!

Maisie Moo caught a chicky

and Francie the expert catcher 

Emmy's caption on this one: "Mary had a little Lamb, little lamb...." :)

pretty view for an excursion

love those boots. and those bums!

and later a playdate at the park with Emmie, Will and Ben! tess and emme double trouble style

and JJ always giving us a run for her money. Emmy put her in the "reset" spot and she was trying to talk to anyone who would listen

and last night I had to work late getting ready for Makery opening so Emmy had the kids fed, bathed and in PJs by 7:30pm. She is amazing.

new summer shoes. Thanks Zappos! #mykidsfeetarehuge (yes those are FRANCIE and Maisie)

pretty good summer days so far!

Happy Tess

Crazy JJ

WE LOVE YOU EMMY!!!

No More Binkies!

Just had to record the date to go down in history. May 19th, 2013 THE BINKY FAIRY CAME TO OUR HOUSE! The girls fairly willingly rounded those things up, put them in a bowl on the porch and went to bed hoping for treat :) She traded for some See's candy and a coloring book!

BYE BYE BINKIES

The first night Maisie said "Maaaayyybe I do want that binky?" but we talked her down and neither have asked since. And since Tess has no interest - we are binky free!! Oh besides that one day Maisie found a binky in the couch cushions - holds it up like a golden ticket and goes "OH YEAH. OH YEAH. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah!" and runs upstairs

Camping with Dad

While Maisie and Tess and I were in Europe - Francie got to go on her solo camping and fishing trip with her Dad! (and JJ got some Oma time... which means Oma got asked 100 questions an hour for 2 days, thanks Oma!) I got these awesome photos from Heff via text - so cute to see my big girl having SO much fun with her Dad!! They caught 30 (yes 30!) fish and kept this one for dinner.

a stop at 5 Dot Ranch to check out our meat purveyor

the first night of camping it was actually pouring rain... so they stayed at Oma and Opa's cabin at Lake Almanor. and played THREE hours of board games. Francie could play all night - and beat her dad as often as she could :)

and the next morning - a successful turkey hunt!

Paris 2013

Got to Paris just in time for PJ's and snuggling

we are getting good at this. Arrive, feed kids, go out with to go cups!

The next morning we went for an early walk and saw this motorcade for the departure of the Polish President... everyone stops walking and stands at attention until they pass. Cool to see.

Parisian breakfast with my girlies

Sweet Maisie Moo

Carousel in the park

look at that side saddle in her new sparkle shoes

And a jump park in the park - I Instagrammed they would never allow this in the US. I know there are Jumpy places but this was a "$5 to jump for 20 minutes outside on half broken trampolines with no need to sign any release" kinda place!

Maisie waiting in line for the climbing structure with the big kids. Jumped right in

photographer in the park

we don't look like tourists do we?

break for a diaper change (yup that kind)

didn't even realize I had two pairs of sunglasses on (one was maisie's!)

we were home cozy for bed after a long day of sight seeing - and decided to jump up and see the Eifle Tower at night while the lights were flashing! Pulled this one out of bed in her new sleep sack to go on the adventure - she was happier 5 minutes later :)

Eifle Tower - 10pm!

nice rally Tess

and I'd say she's done

Cathedral the next day

lots of hours logged in the bjorn - we lit candles for all of our favorite people

Parisian lunch with my loves and friends - pretty good day

just kicking it

buddies throwing change

and a stop at a Children's Museum to check out the brand new "Weather Worlds" instillartion by our friends Theo and Emily who put in Night Bright at Bumble. It was SO COOL.

dinner and champs to end the day

AND meeting David Beckham in our hotel bar! we left at the same time and asked if we could take a photo to make our husbands jealous - he obliged :)

last outting in Paris!

bye bye to the hotel cat

girls in their traveling clothes!

bye bye Paris! Off to the next stop!

EUROPE TRIP 2013 - LONDON!

I took a little mom-cation in the beginning of May to check out a couple places for work and meet up with some friends in Italy. It was an awesome trip!! Only problem was Brian was too busy to go so we had to divide and conquer. He also had a solo camping trip with Francie planned so he took Francie and crazy I mean JJ. I took Maisie and Tess and we headed off on a big adventure.

First stop was London! I had never been to Europe in my life - so there was lots to check off the list! We were total tourists and hit all the hot spots in between work research.

From

EUROPE MAY

2013

Maisie and her lomo

Buckingham Palace. Maisie called it the castle with guards that change.

Gardens - all in bloom!

ice cream in the park (trying to keep them awake)

we landed in London at 9am local time (midnight at home) so we tried to power the kids through the day and get on the time zone. Maisie was fading by the early afternoon but we kept pushing through!

Me and my tiny at Big Ben!

walking and walking the streets of London

ridiculously pretty tulips (and you too Tiny :)

feeding the ducks and checking out the "eye"

can't wait to get this film developed :)

we got the kids fed and to sleep early and it was time for some shopping! (with to go cups of course)

the next morning we went back for more shopping to harvey nicols right across rom our hotel - the kids picked out their own outfits. This was Maisie's choice

breakfast on the deck

and despite our best efforts at beating jet lag... we were all up at 2:30am

and one of the best surprises of the trip - Opa Bob and Aunt Francy were in London too! They overlapped a day with us so we spent the morning walking around the park, getting hot dogs and ice cream and playing for hours in the fountain. It was so great to catch up with them - especially ina foreign country!

Fountain fun

poor tiny

Maisie warmed up to the water in the Princess Diana Memorial fountain and was all over it!

and we're off to the next stop!

traveling clothes

waiting for our train

like a train going to Paris...

2 hours 20 minutes of countryside

and sticker books!

JJ's favorite book

Day in the Life with Emmy!

These girls are sure lucky to get to spend their days with Emmy!!! And man, so are we :) Emmy comes bright and early every morning and knows how to coax the grumpy sleeper-in babes out of a daze and into ready for school mode. Brian or I take the big girls to school then head to work and Emmy takes JJ and Tess on adventures all over town or just hanging out at home. She works for another family in the afternoons but has been getting to stay late a few days lately and the girls LOVE it. They've been using our pool now that the weather is warm too!

WE LOVE YOU EMMY!

Happenings

Bike to school Fridays in full effect! Takes a little nudge getting up the hills but they rock it with Heff

Tess has two bottom teeth and one top tooth and loves to eat anything she can get her hands on!

we had our new neighbors over for dinner one night before I went out of town - EIGHT girls under 7 is crazy but so much fun! We love this family!!

we got fancy for dessert - ice cream containers and spoons while the kids sat on the counter

this Double BOB serves us well - it's always doubled up!

Emmy rocks it with these four! (and Francie's class doll who we had to photograph on his adventures all day)

six dirty kids in the tub - creek play makes for some mud!

TESS started sleeping through the night! We finally took the crib apart and moved it into her own room. MAGIC. Why I didn't do it sooner I have no idea. We went from 5-8 times up a night to allll nightttttt longgggg. Love that sleeping baby in a onesie :)

the last iPhone pic before I went on a trip to Europe with only half my babies! It was a looong 12 days and I missed my team all together but had some fun travels. That post next!

Animated Tiny

*sorry can't turn the GIF sideways!

Catch Up!

Where oh where do I start! I have been delinquent in blogging - we've just been so busy (that and Instagram takes over my good camera) but things are good at the Heff Household!

I will catch up a bit on the last few weeks of preschool festivities, swim lessons, business happenings, National Rebuilding Day, work photo shoots, a Dadventure trip and travels in Europe... once I get over my jet lag and get back into the swing of things!

Red Bluff Round Up

One of my favorite weekends in Red Bluff! We brought a whole house full of guests up to invade Oma's house - she was a very good sport about it and feed us all weekend :) It was like a revolving door - we had friends come up with us, a whole bunch come up the next day (some we didn't even know were en route!) and our Bumble server Tracy Hinson who is this years Miss California Rodeo Queen! She and her mom and her horse stayed with us too. SO MUCH FUN!!!

We drove up in the RV with the Edwards - it always sounds so much more glamorous than it actually is :)

and on the way there we couldn't get the back AC working (just needed to turn on the generator :)

Heff at the wheel - he can handle any size rig ;)

The guys were nice and cool up front in those captains chairs while Susan and I had kids crawling all over us!

cowboys and girls arrival in RB

and then off to RODEO Friday night at the fairgrounds!

opening ceremonies -

gotta love the USA

Let's do this

Initiating the Edwards - they were naturals

got the most important stuff

my cowgirl (hair is not straw francie - trying to break this habit!)

much better

Maisie fits right in

Dads and babes

the plaid gang family shot

cowboy up!

our chaperones Oma and Lala!

Tessa's first Rodeo

Maisie kept hiding her eyes when the Buckin Broncs came out. I told her "it's ok Maisie - see the cowboys stand up and are fine when they get bucked off." and she goes "Mommmm - I'm not worried about the HUMANS I'm worried about the HORSES!"

it didn't stop all night..

Kat and Lauren

sun set selfies - couldn't resist

Look at those happy campers :)

there goes the sun - time for the Crown Royal girls to come out!

someone stop torturing this child

and someone pelase get this kid a wet wipe

big THANKS to Oma for putting up with us all weekend!!!! More pictures from Saturday Ranch Day to come

More Red Bluff

More photos from our fun trip to Red Bluff with lots of friends! It was way such a blast - 9 kids and 6 adults and lots of miles, dirt, cocktails and fun!

Green Hills

Susan and kiddies

going fishing in the pond

big girls

new fishing spot!

canoe ride

the best part - model rocket testing for Red Racer. Check out this awesome picture Susan took - rocket in air

"horsey" rides - with the giant RV in the background ;)

kids on the hillside

and Saturday morning Heff and Susan put us to shame by getting up and going for a 10K on the river!

sidecars in the afternoon (might not have been 5pm yet)

quad fisting with the ergo baby

heading home! The RV trip - even with no AC on the way there, crazy kids, having to drive 55 so it took 6 hours was AWESOME.

sleepy D

we took turns in the captain's chair

lady pose JJ after a day on the ranch

until next time Red Bluff!