A "DORA" BLE Birthday

It is no secret that Claire is a huge Dora fan. It is not uncommon to hear, "I want another episode of Dora". Where she learned that I have no idea? I don't talk like that! For her birthday, she insisted on using the rest of the Dora Christmas wrapping paper because she loves it.
Her favorite gifts included a Dora jumprope from Paige (to replace the one that Santa brought her that Paige broke in a tug of war the next day) and a Dora dancing video complete with dress-up outfit, dancing mat and maracas!

Feliz Cumpleanos!

Happy Birthday Boo!

Three years ago last Friday, Linda Claire Vincent joined our family. What an amazing day! I know it was a bittersweet farewell in Heaven that day as Claire's Grandma and namesake kissed her goodbye & passed her through the veil into her daddy's arms.
Shortly after Claire turned one, we sold our home in West Jordan and moved to our current townhome in Riverton. It was here that she learned to walk, talk and most importantly to her, swim!

She is such a sweet little girl. I am so proud of what she has become and what she will be. She is a great snuggler and wants nothing more in life than to be Paige's shadow. Today at three years old, her favorite things include, milk, Cheetos, Dora and her Woobie. She is so happy to go to nursery on Sundays with her super cute teacher that she just loves!! She also can't wait until fall when she can start ballet to become more like a Paige clone!

For her birthday this year, we let her choose where she wanted to go to dinner as a family. Clairey-Boo wanted birthday pancakes so we went to JoHanna's kitchen and she was thrilled! We had a party last night at her Grandpa's with all of her cousins. She loved being the center of attention and was sad that it ended!

LC, we hope your birthday was great! We all love you! Love, Mom, Dad and Paige

A new toaster

My schedule is crazy. Anyone who knows me, knows that I keep crazy hours but it works for our family. I will admit though, since I started working graveyard shifts, my girls have some new found freedom in the late mornings. Somehow, sleeping in until eleven isn't late enough!! Paige has been really good to play little mother, she makes Toaster Streudels for breakfast in the mornings while I am still in bed. She loves being a "mom" so I allow her to do it, plus I get ten more minutes to snooze.

Yesterday, her toasting skills got put to the test. We had received an awesome letter from our cute nephew in the MTC. I had gotten online in our bedroom to write a Dear Elder letter back to him to let him know how thrilled we are that he is doing well. As I was typing, I could hear the girls playing in the kitchen, but wasn't concerned about them. Next thing I know, Paige comes running into my bedroom telling me I had to come with her. Now she does this often and it is usually something like, where is my green Polly Pocket purse, or check out this commercial, so I told her to wait. She continued to nag at me until I finally left my letter to see what the hub-bub was about. In the kitchen I see Claire sitting on the counter, next to the unplugged, smoking toaster. I also see two Kraft singles wrappers and a loaf of bread. Paige takes me by the hand and says, "You have got to see this!" I look into the toaster to see both slots full of melted cheesy goo. The burnt smell filled the kitchen. I looked back at Paige to get angry and she just looked up at me with those big, beautiful blue eyes and said, "I'm sorry, I was just trying to make some cheese toast!"

Needless to say, Paige got a big hug for being so darn cute (& clever) and we bought a new toaster.

How Embarrassing!

My little Claire is learning to go potty like a big girl. And while we are so proud of her, sometimes it becomes really inconvenient. I have learned to carry the Dora potty in the back of the car for emergencies, but the problem with that is that she thinks it's fun to pee in the car, so she will tell me she has to go, just to see us scramble to pull over, get unbuckled, and rush to sit her on the seat. Sometimes she succeeds, but mostly car pee-pees are just for fun! The best part of potty-training is the magnet found in every public bathroom that draws little girls to it!
This last week I met a girlfriend for lunch at the Training Table. (Yes, cheese fries are my total weakness!) We were there about an hour and I swear my little Boo had to go potty 5 or 6 times! In our last attempt, Claire managed to hear some of the goings-on in the stall next door and loudly, gave me the play-by-play. It went something like this:

CLAIRE: Who made that toot?

MOMMY: (whispering) SHHHH! I don't know.

CLAIRE: (with a pointing finger to the stall next door) I think it was that girl!!

MOMMY: (trying not to laugh) OK, that is what we do on the potty, SHHHH!

RANDOM WOMAN NOW STARTS TO PEE

CLAIRE: (looking between her legs, surprised) I hear that pee-pee and I didn't do it!

MOMMY QUICKLY WIPES CLAIRE'S BUM AND PROMPTLY LEAVES THE BATHROOM.

I quickly told my friend about it, laughing and blushing at the same time. At the end of the recount, Claire seemed quite proud of herself and simply laughed and said, "Yea, I did that!"


So, if you were embarrassed by a two year old in the Training Table bathroom last week, I apologize. Hopefully we will not ever meet under those circumstances again and you can do your business in peace!

So Smart!

Ok, so I just have to brag for a proud mommy moment. To keep my sanity at the grocery store, I often split up my list and give each girl one assignment to remember, find and put in the cart. (A little trick I picked up from Supernanny) Last night I sent Steve and Paige to get some things from the store. I assigned Paige a spice cake mix so that we could make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to send to Brady at the MTC. (His favorite!) It was freezing, and the windows had fogged up in the back of the car where Paige was sitting. As they approached the store, Steve asked her if she remembered her assignment. She simply told him, "I wrote it back here on the window in the sog". She then told him exactly what she had written...S P I S K A K E.

A Very Merry Christmas!!

We must have been very good this year because we all got everything we wanted for Christmas. Santa must have turned a blind eye!! The only thing we didn't get was an offer on our house for sale, but I am sure that will come with time too! When we put our house on the market in July, I never thought we would be here another Christmas, but everything happens for a reason, and it turned out great that we were still here. The girls got a lot spoiled, which may change in future years, but it was so fun to do it just once!!
We started Christmas Eve by riding Trax downtown to eat at Little America like Steve did when he was little. It turned out to be quite pricey and not great food. The girls were jsut too excited to sit still and be quiet so it was quite an adventure. We made treats for Santa and opened Christmas "nivies". (Claire for nighties, so cute!) Paige was a little upset since hers was a little big and she didn't get matching slippers like Claire. Her tantrum really made me want to make her sleep naked!! We had a hard time going to sleep, Paige was too excited and Claire was scared of Santa coming in our house!
Paige woke us up at 8:30 (very early for the Vincents!) by telling us we would never believe it! Santa came and he ate a lot of bread we left out for him. (Santa gets bored of cookies, and mom wanted cherry chocolate bread!) It is amazing how fast it is all over! The girls were thrilled!! We heard a lot of "Oh my word, this is just what I wanted" and "I can't believe it!" Steve did quite well shopping for me on his own and I think he was pleased with his new alarm clock and wallet (even though he would have liked it better with a Chick-fil-A gift card in it!! (More on that later, I am quite behind on blogging!!) We were able to spend the afternoon with my family and the evening with Steve's sister and brother-in-law who were a little lonely this Christmas. Their son Brady just left on his mission last Wednesday! After all our fun, we were eager to get some sleep. Despite their claims that they weren't tired, the girls were out before I could walk down the hall and Steve and I weren't far behind!

Vincent Family Christmas

Last night we had our family party for all the Vincents. We met at JoHanna's Kitchen for dinner. Not a very fancy place, but something for everyone and never very crowded so we could stay for a while to open presents and visit. The cousins were so excited to see each other, they always play so well together. We took our annual cousins picture for Grandma's Christmas card. In this years card we have (from left to right): Victoria, Tavia, Ashley, Brady, (second row): Christopher, Rhett, (bottom): Claire, Katherine, Paige, Tessa, Walker. This was a bittersweet picture since Brady (the oldest cousin who everyone adores) is leaving on his mission to France next week!

I was quite impressed with my girls eating (they are terrible eaters!) But apparently teddy bear pancakes were the trick! The cousins had all drawn names and exchanged gifts. Paige got a Princess GameIt, a handheld video game with several Disney Princess games on it, and Claire got a FisherPrice camping set complete with camper, fire and sleeping bags! Both girls were so thrilled we didn't see them for the rest of the night. In fact this morning, we had to pack them with us to take in the car to preschool to help with the separation anxiety. Since Steve's parents can't get out very well, they give the grandkids money to pick out what they want. Paige was so thrilled with her cash that she wanted to pay for our dinner! In fact, she pouted under the table when I took it away and told her we would buy something else with it. So sweet!

I also just had to post this picture. Katherine and Paige were born four hours apart on their Grandma Great's 93rd birthday. Even though the girls don't see each other very often, they are so quick to pick up where they left off the last time. They are such cute girls!