No pain, no gain

One of my favorite memories from my childhood was the special occasions when my mom would let me sit on the bathroom counter while she got me ready. Poor Claire did NOT love wearing curlers, especially since we had to do it 3 TIMES for this last dance recital. But wearing mommy's makeup seemed to alleviate the situation.

Paige lucked out in not having to do the curlers, but for her buns were equally as bad. She started pulling them out the second we would get in the car. Although, she is smart enough to recognize how gorgeous she looks with makeup on. Look at those eyes!

Heather...this one's for you!

Eight Months

My little guy is just growing too fast! I can't believe he has been in our family for eight months already! He continues to be the happiest baby ever, loving every minute of life. He is easily entertained by his sisters, particularly by pulling on their hair or listening to Paige's burps. He is loving eating solid foods (and by that I mean Gerber jars) and he finally sleeps all night! (On his stomach...like mother, like son!) He is not crawling yet, but rolls pretty darn fast. He is starting to babble, mostly da..da..da. Steve likes to think he is talking about him, but I beg to differ. And the most grown-up thing he is doing lately...growing a tooth! I can see the little nubbin trying to poke through on the bottom. Still lovin' you, son!!

Bode's first real experience on the grass...loved it!

STRUCK!!!

poor Moroni, standing tall in the rain and struck by lightning

This has been such an amazing year for the LDS church to have 2 brand new temples here in the Utah Valley. We are so blessed to be able to see both the Draper Temple and the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple from our backyard. These are both such beautiful buildings, so imagine our surprise to hear in church yesterday that the Angel Moroni had been STRUCK BY LIGHTNING! It happened Saturday afternoon, during another one of our crazy June rainstorms. Luckily no one was hurt, except Moroni.

We rushed right over after church to verify for ourselves, and it was true!! You can see his burnt arm, trumpet and face. I guess we need to pay a little bit more tithing to cover the damage! :)

Dancin' In The Rain...AGAIN!

I truly LOVE dance recitals. There is just something about the girls' smiles...so excited to see themselves all dressed up with makeup and curls. And to see them dance on stage brings tears to my eyes everytime...I am just so proud of their accomplishments. Steve and I would do almost anything to see it. That became apparent this last week. Our recital was scheduled at the Sandy Amphitheater last Monday. Less than halfway through, it began to POUR, and I mean POUR!! They tried to go on, and sadly called the show just as Paige was walking on stage. So there we sat, drenched and cold for 30 minutes waiting for it to stop, which it didn't. Steve took Bode and his dripping carseat up to the car to try and dry out while I went backstage to look for our girls. Both had smeared mascara down their cheeks from crying, shredded tights and soaked ballet shoes. Paige's first response was, "Do I still get my roses from Daddy?" Claire before the show
Paige before the show
(I swear she posed this way herself!)

Our dancers before the monsoon!

See the waterfall? NOTHING compared to the rain that came later!!

And so the recital was rescheduled for last night. Steve went straight from work to save seats and I brought the girls a little bit later. It started to rain as I pulled out of the driveway, but Steve assured me the sun was shining at the theater. As I got off the freeway, the rain turned into HAIL!! The pounding lulled Claire to sleep, but Paige was terrified that it would tear through our roof, it was that loud! We waited in the parking lot until the last possible second and then hustled the girls backstage so they could stay dry. Steve, Bode and I spent the next 2 hours sitting through the drizzle to see our "Cuban Pete" and "Beautiful Doll" perform. And despite our wet clothes and shriveled wet fingers, they made it all worth it!!

Smile...dangit!!

This week at school, Paige was named Star Student of the Week. This involved preparing a poster about yourself, complete with family picture. Sadly, this brought to the realization that we have not had a single full family shot since Bode was born. So after church yesterday, while we were still looking somewhat nice, we sat on the couch together and experimented with the self-timer on our camera. By the end of about two minutes we started getting, " I will not sit by her" and "She touched me!" This, combined with the fact that we were all cranky after 3 hours of church and all wondering what was for dinner, made for a LOVELY family photo. After several tries...this is the best we can come up with. The super happy Vincent family

The Bees!

Last weekend we went to the Bees game with our friends, the Andersens. The girls see the airplane flying around town advertising every game night and beg to go. Once we found out there were fireworks, we were on it!! The girls had a great time riding the train and rolling down the hill. Kade and Bode enjoyed bottles together. At one point in the game, Kade started screeching at the electronic scoreboard, which scared Bode to death, so Kade patted Bode's back until he calmed down. Then it became a fun game for Kade to do over and over...they are going to become such good friends! The game was long and kind of boring, but the fireworks at the end were AMAZING!! By far the best we've seen all year!

Soccer Star

This Spring we got a phone call from a neighbor putting together a 4 year old soccer team, looking for girls. Claire said she wanted to try it out, but really Steve and I wanted a chance to meet more people from the ward. So we signed her up! It has turned out to be really fun. There are 13 neighborhood kids on the team, coached by two men in our ward. Claire is quite the kicker and can outrun most of the team, but can't quite grasp the concept of taking the ball from the opposing team. She has yet to score a goal, and our team has yet to win a game, but they are having a ball!