Picture Fest!

Seth's first visit to the Dentist. His teeth were great, but he threw a fit when we left because they have a big train set in the waiting room. He now is always asking to go back to the dentist!

What a stud!


Sam loves taking baths!

This is why you never feed a child prunes when he is in a jumper (Yes Karin, I finally broke down and bought one)

We love Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Giddy-up horsey!

I don't know what exactly Sam is upset about, but Bo doesn't look too happy either (not that you can really even see Bo).

Nick had a meeting in Heber so we decided to tag along and then we drove over to Midway to look at the leaves.

While setting up the camera for the self portrait, I got all these stickers in my hair and they were a beast to get out!

So cute!

Chillin out at the Gateway fountains

Yes, I know these are terribly attractive, but Seth loves to make funny faces and take self portraits. Isn't he just so cute????

Cedar Breaks

How much can I do?

Okay, I'm going to try and get something posted while Sam is taking one of his 20-30 min catnaps. I swear that boy does not sleep. That is how Seth was as a baby, and I thought that it was just a fluke, but I guess that is just how my babies are. AAAUUUUGGGGHHHH! But he is so darn cute when he is happy, so it all evens out.

We have been great. Our last trip to Parowan was wonderful. We had a great time with most of the family there. It was nice spending time with Valerie and Matthew out from Chicago. You know how they say that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery....well, Val must just idolize me. First, she goes and marries Nick's cousin (technically his cousin's son) and then she struggles to get pregnant. Then, she has her baby on Seth's 1st birthday and decorates the nursery the same as mine. Now, she is pregnant again and due a week or so after Sam's 1st birthday. Should I be concerned or just accept that I will always be the big sister to copy? Just kidding Val, we are so happy for you guys and really hope that we have 2 kids with the same birthday. For those of you who may not have figured it out on your own, these kids are first cousins through me and Val and second cousins through Nick and Matthew. IN BREEDERS (quoted from the movie Son-in-Law).

Besides spending time with our Chicago-ites, we had a family activity where we learned a lot about our ancestors. We went 4 generations back on both sides and each child/grandchild learned about one ancestor and told everyone about them. It was great being able to visualize them as a real person and not just a name on a piece of paper. Seth even learned about one and it was so cute as he was speaking in the microphone "Everhardus Johannes Van Limburg". It was pretty amazing, because this activity was at least 3 weeks ago and on Sunday I was saying his name to see if Seth remembered. Not only did he finish his name for me, but he remembered who he was married to, how many kids he had and that he was a sharp shooter in the army. That kid is so smart. The latest of his funnies (that I can remember) is when Seth came downstairs with a diaper and asked Nick if he was poopy and said that we needed to check his pants and change his diaper. Guess we better start being a little more careful if we have gas!

Sam is doing great. Over Labor Day weekend, he finally decided that he would start rolling over consistently. But he will only go from his back to his tummy. He still won't roll from his tummy to his back (unless it is an accident). I have nieces who had babies around the same time as Sam and they are crawling all over the place. I try and get Sam on his hands and knees and he gets excited and then does a face plant. I can't remember when Seth started crawling, but I think it will be awhile for Sam. Oh well, at least he is not getting into things yet. I should just be looking at the positive aspects of it right? But he is so fun and he laughs a lot and he always gives such big smiles.

For those of you who know our dog Bo, he is not doing so great. I'm not sure if he has arthritis, or if his hips are bad, but he is really struggling lately. He can't walk without limping really bad and last night he made it up about 3 or 4 stairs when his leg gave out and he fell down. It was so sad, he couldn't even move for awhile after that. I'm taking him to the vet next week to see what we can do for him. He is almost 12 now, so he has had a good life, but he is such a part of the family that it breaks my heart to see him in pain.

I got a new calling. I am now the compassionate service leader. Luckily, I missed the big baby boom and we don't have a lot of old people in our ward so hopefully it won't be too stressful. I do love our ward so I don't mind serving.

On Monday we went up to SLC since Nick had the day off work. We rode Trax (Seth still has a fascination with trains) and then we went to Temple Square, the Church Office Building and went to the observation deck, and then went to the Gateway and played in the water fountain display thing. Both kids did pretty well.

Things coming up...I think just Halloween. For the ward party, we are going as the Wizard of Oz cast. Obviously I will be Dorothy, Nick is the Scarecrow, Seth is the Tin Man and Sam is the Lion. I've got the Lion and some of Dorothy, but I'm still working on the other 2. If you have any suggestions on how to make a Tin Man costume for Seth, please pass that on.

I think that is it for now. I'm going to post pictures in a separate posting since they are such a pain in the butt to arrange.

Finally....a new post!

Okay, so it has been awhile since I have been on my blog. Well, truthfully I check it every day to see if anyone has made a comment (and I have now changed it so ANYONE can make a comment--hint hint) but it has been hard to find a time to sit down and post.

Since my last post, I have spent a lot of my time out of town. We went home for Labor Day, which was a lot of fun. I didn't get to see as many friends as I would have liked, but I did enjoy the friends I did get to see. We also had a lot of fun hanging out with the family. My brothers Denny and Kyle and their families came down as well as Chalise and her hubby and daughter spent a lot of the weekend over there. Our friends rented the swimming pool and invited us to come up. Luckily they don't have the same restrictions down there (up here children under 5 are not allowed to get in the water) so Seth was able to get in the pool and he absolutely LOVED it!!! I wish I would have remembered my camera. Nick and Ammon had a great time competing to see who could make the biggest splash. Of course I forgot my swimming suit, so I just hung out at the edge of the kiddie pool with Sam and ended up looking like I peed my pants from all the water sloshing around.

We didn't do too much at the fair, we just let Seth go on a train ride (the boy is obsessed with trains) and go to the petting zoo (which left much to be desired). I wasn't feeling super great that night and I had had enough. Have you ever noticed that carnivals tend to bring out people that you didn't even know existed in your society?? And I'm not just talking about the carnies!!Yikes! Kyle and I did the normal routine of walking up Main Street during the parade to see who else came home for the weekend, and we only saw a few people. A little disappointing!

Seth on his train ride.

Feeding the goats.

Our favorite entry in the parade.

The next weekend I stayed here and I don't think we did too much. Then last weekend I went home again. My old ward was having a ladies retreat at a cabin up Cedar mountain. It was so much fun getting together with a bunch of my old friends as well as getting to know some new people. The place was awesome and I hope to do a family reunion there in a couple of years. I also had to go home to see my new nephew!! Chalise had a new baby boy on the 12th. They named him Kimball Vincent Mitchell. He is just perfect and so darn cute. It just amazes me how fast they grow. I can't believe that Sam was that size (actually 1 lb smaller) just 6 months ago. I realized that I really miss that newborn phase. I didn't think that I really liked that stage, but I found that I did enjoy it with Sam. Maybe I just wasn't as scared as I was with Seth....

Addie and Kimball

A bunch of hotties in the mountains.

My sister Valerie flew in from Chicago last week and so I was able to spend a bunch of time with her in Parowan and then she has spent this week up here with me as well. We took the kids to the park yesterday and let them play on the playground and feed the ducks. It was nice and relaxing and I am loving that it is finally starting to cool down.

Sam learned how to drink from a straw

We are leaving for Parowan again this weekend. My family has been doing special family activities all year and this weekend is the last one. It will be nice to get everyone together (except Darla in Chicago).

The latest funny thing to come from Seth's mouth: We had been dog-sitting for our friends and she had stayed in our kennel outside for the night and had pooped in there. When we went to go let her out the next morning, Seth found it and exclaimed "Mom, it's a poop snake!"

Yes, his name is Earl.

You are not a true Vincent if you don't have a picture of you in the hairy boots!

Sam loves standing against the couch.

My boys!!

Not much to report

Well, I got chastised today for not contributing to the blog as often as I should. I will now try and atone for past slackiness (is that even a word??) and update you with our life.

Since the last posting, there hasn't been too much adventure, but we did make it to the Brian Regan "concert" and it was HILARIOUS!!! We were laughing so hard most of the night, there were times that Nick was in pain and couldn't breathe. It is so funny to listen to Nick when he really gets going. He has laughed more since we've moved up here than in the rest of our married life. I think having a job that he loves so much sure helps out his disposition. Of course, the sleep deprivation that we have both been experiencing since Sam was born could also be contributing to it.

Here we are at the Brian Regan concert with our friends Shane and Allyson. It was held outside and it was packed! But it was so nice and peaceful by the waterfalls and just beautiful!

I don't think that we have done too much since then. But here are a few funny things that Seth has said in the last couple of weeks....

He was trying to get dressed and he couldn't quite get the shirt over his head. He panicked and said "Mommy, I lost my head"

I had him in the shower with me and when I was rinsing my hair, some of my shampoo got in his eyes and started burning. He started crying and told me that his eyes were broken. I got quite a kick out of those two comments.

He is being extremely affectionate lately and loves to come give us hugs and kisses. I know he has said some more cute things recently, but I haven't been very good at writing them down.

Sam has been a lot of fun. For awhile, it seemed like he was having some teeth start to move around, because he was so freakin ornery and waking up a lot during the night. But the last few days, he has just been a pretty happy baby. He is LOVING his cereal, squash, sweet potatoes and carrots, but he does not care for peas, not that I blame him. The Gerber peas are disgusting, so I have to sneak in a bite in between bites of the good stuff.

Well, we are headed to Parowan for the Labor Day weekend!! Seth is so excited to go see Grandma and Grandpa and I am excited to see all my friends that I miss. I'm sure I will have much to write about after that trip since Parowan is one happening place!

Here are a few recent pictures.....

This is the only place that Sam can be in the bouncer on our main floor. It can be quite hazardous when he starts pulling things down!

"Nope, I don't care for the peas!!"

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we tried to give Seth a haircut and really screwed it up. Luckily, Nick's stepsister was working that day and able to squeeze him in and fix our mistakes.


I have to really keep an eye on Seth lately. He has figured out how to unlock the child-proof lock on the fridge and he loves to pull out the eggs, get the pan out and crack the egg open. He does amazingly well at getting all of the egg in the pan, and no shells. Better than me actually!



Seth loves helping Daddy clean the motorcycle. But if you ask him if he wants to go for a ride on the motorcycle or in the van, he will chose the van every time!

Nick and Seth flying a kite in our "back yard". I love having this field right behind our house!

Sam showing how well he can sit up and how much he enjoys it. Of course, he still won't roll over for me (the little stinker) but I have gone in to get him after his nap and he is on his belly, so he can do it, he just chooses not to!

Sailing, squash and smiles

It is amazing how quickly time flies. I realized it has been more than a week since I posted. When I started doing this blog, I thought I would update it more often. But either not much is going on to write about, or too much is going on to have time to sit down and write. Or sometimes a little bit of both. Here are a few pictures of the latest in the our home. By the way, I seem to have serious issues with getting pictures to work out very well. Am I an idiot (probably) or is there some way of uploading pictures and having them post somewhere other than the top of the message? It is too much effort to try and get the pictures where you want them and delete all the empty space that seems to show up when you move pictures around. If any of my few readers have any insights, I would sure appreciate it. Now for the latest adventures in our lives....

Not too much has been going on this week. I did go to lunch with my friends for my birthday on Monday (my friend Sarah just had a baby last week so we decided to postpone the lunch until she could make it). It has been nice because we stretched out my b-day celebration for about a week with all the different things that went on. That night my mom, Darla and her two boys stopped by to say goodbye before they flew back to Chicago. Paige, Kyle and their families came over as well, so it was a fun little get together. We did some yard work last night--my stupid flower beds and lawn are so full of morning glory. It is ridiculous trying to keep it under control. I really need to figure out what to do with the flower beds. They are getting really crowded and overgrown, but I just haven't had the energy to do much with them this summer.

We are going to see Brian Regan tomorrow night out at Thanksgiving Point. If you have not ever listened to him or see him perform, you are missing out. He is quite funny and clean which is such a nice combination.

The boys are doing well. Seth is pushing his limits every day and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to parent him. But he gives the best hugs and kisses right now and comes up with new things all the time that make me laugh. He has been having night terrors lately which are so weird. It takes him awhile to calm down even when we are in there with him. We can't even touch him until he has woken up enough to realize what is going on.

Sam has a new nickname now which is "Screech". He loves to hear himself talk or scream or whatever. He has a very loud voice. Very resonant. He still won't roll over, but he can scoot himself pretty well (too well at times, but I'm not getting into that). He can sit up for quite a while now, unfortunately today he did a face plant in the bath tub which freaked him out a bit. He is not the best sleeper, but we keep working on it.

I guess the biggest news is Nick decided to not go back to school this year. There were a lot of determining factors in that decision, but we know that it is the right thing for us right now. He can defer up to 2 years, so who know what the future will hold. He was also released as the Sunday School President and put in as the High Priest Group Leader. Crazy huh! It's like he turned 80 over night.

Nick and I went on a sunset cruise around Utah Lake on a sailboat last week. It was a lot of fun. I was concerned it was going to be uncomfortable with a bunch of people, but it was just us and the older couple who run a school teaching people how to sail. It was actually really nice visiting with them. They made a delicious dessert for us and we just sailed around for about an hour and a half. It was extremely peaceful and relaxing. Of course, not having 2 very active boys along would make driving at a monster truck rally nice and relaxing. Thanks to Kyle and Lena for babysitting so we could get out and enjoy my birthday. And to Paige for babysitting the night before so we could go to dinner. I LOVE my boys, but I also love getting a break from them once in a while.

Seth found his snow boots the other day and decided to wear them. He has gotten very attached to the Toy Story movies lately and he was checking his boots to see if they said "Andy" on the bottom. I don't know if he thought they belonged to Woody or Buzz. I'm thinking probably Buzz since he wrapped himself up in his blanket the other day and informed me he was a space ranger. He is so weird sometimes. Today after I pulled the garbage bag out of the can, he put the can on his head and said it was his happy birthday hat.

I was trying to get Seth to help me feed a bottle to Sam while I finished making some strawberry jam (my moment of domestic goddess) but he wasn't so good at the concept of holding the bottle UP! That boy is sure full of spunk lately (more so than usual).

What a happy boy. We love it when he is all smiles like this!


We gave Sam squash for the first time today. He seemed to like it at first, and then he started to lean his head forward every time I tried to give it to him (trying to get away from the spoon from what I can tell). Thus, he ended up with more of it on his face than in his mouth.

The easiest way to get Sam to smile and laugh is when we nibble on his feet. Look at that grin!

Our Bear Lake Adventure!

I will start by saying that I'm lucky to even be alive to do this post. Okay, so maybe that is a little dramatic, but we sure had our share of problems up there. The drive up was pretty uneventful. We went up through Evanston, Wyoming and we were sorely tempted to stay for the night to do pig wrestling at the county fair. But alas, we continued on to Bear Lake. We were staying in our friends sisters condo which was really nice and had a beautiful view of the lake. The weather wasn't great--quite overcast and a bit windy, but we went out on the water anyway. We pulled everyone (except me) around on the tube and they had a great time. I have only been pulled around once before and it was a very disturbing experience and I wasn't anxious to repeat it. Nick and Shane had a great time and we gave them quite the ride!

Look at the color of the lake. Isn't it beautiful?

So Thursday morning we go out to head down to the lake and the battery on the boat is dead. After messing with it for awhile, Shane finally figures out that a cable is loose and he gets it fixed up and we are on our way (after being yelled at by some ornery old man for letting the kids climb on some rocks "Get those kids down, they are going to kill themselves. We don't allow that here"). We get out on the lake and it is beautiful! They finally convince me that they won't kill me on the tube so I get in, but make sure I have Seth with me so they will keep it mild. I have serious issues with things not being in my control!!! So it is me, Nick and Seth going for a ride.

We went for a little while and then Seth says "I don't want to play anymore" so in to the boat he goes. By this time, I have concluded that I can stay in the tube even as it is skimming across the wake and so I tell them to go for it. I have to admit, it was so much fun. Once we were done, Shane and his son were going to take a turn. At this point, the boat started having serious issues. Shane and Nick worked on it for quite a while, but there is only so much you can do in 100+ feet of water. After working on it for over an hour and drifting quite a bit, we decided it was time to call for reinforcements. Let me give you this advice now--when going boating, get the number of help BEFORE you leave! We called information--no help. We tried to call the place we were staying--no answer. We finally had to call 911 and tell them we were stuck out in the middle of the lake. At this point it was starting to rain. Luckily they had a canopy and so we were all crowded under that trying to stay dry and keep the kids (mostly Seth) entertained and occupied. After being stuck for about 2 hours, the park ranger finally found us and towed us back to shore.

Our little sailor Sam

It was quite the trial getting the boat loaded up on the trailer. We had to hand pull it in chest deep water (I say we, but it was really just Shane). At this point, Seth is trying to climb in the back of their Expedition and he falls and comes crying to us. We then notice that the wires that hook up the lights on the trailer to the expedition have been ripped out--Seth must have stepped on them or something. We weren't able to fix that either, despite much effort, so no brake lights for the rest of the trip. After getting back to the condo much earlier than expected, we just hung out. Chase was climbing around on the rocks again and soon we hear a blood curdling scream and we look out to find him face down hanging on to the rocks. He cut up his nose, lip and knee. And that silly old man thought the kids would kill themselves!

Friday was spent at the beach which was quite fun. We just hung out and the kids played in the water. I think they actually preferred the beach over the boat. There weren't any problems except when Seth's tube went rolling away in the wind. This is our own little Baywatch moment, except it was not the same body parts that were bouncing up and down while running down the beach. I love this picture of Nick chasing the tube while Seth is crying thinking that he had lost it forever. The fun on Friday was when we were trying to leave for home. We accidentally took a different road out of the beach than we took in and by the time we realized it, we were up to our front axles in sand. The van was totally stuck but luckily Shane made it through and came back around. He had taken his tow rope out before he left and all we had was a boating rope (a brand new rope that we had borrowed from some other friends). Nick was able to find something to hook it on under the van and luckily it held and Shane was able to pull us out with very minor damage to the rope. Unfortunately, damage is damage and it wasn't ours and I'm pretty sure it isn't going to be cheap to replace. There were a few other problems that we had, so it just seemed like it was one big drama up there. But it was still a lot of fun and it made for some great memories. Here are a couple of more pictures.

In other news, our friends Becky and Paul and their kids were visiting from Texas and we were able to spend some time with them. It is always fun to catch up with friends you don't get to see very often. It is hard to believe it has been probably 15 years since we were roommates. Wow, time goes so fast.

Sam is growing up so fast. He is eating cereal now on occasion and I don't think he is a huge fan of it. I'm not pushing it on him, just a couple of times a week to see if he starts to take more of an interest in it. He is doing really well at sitting up. Especially if he is in my lap, he can go for quite a while. He still doesn't seem to interested in rolling over, he would rather scoot forward when he is on his belly and he loves to stand up. His favorite thing is to be stripped down. He is always happiest when he is naked--silly boy. Seth is as busy as ever. He is starting to get a real attitude and the last couple of weeks in church have been torture. We have really got to start learning some better parenting tricks for that one--he is a handful. But he can be so sweet and cute and he is so smart. I just need to channel that intelligence away from the dark side :)

Tomorrow our ward is having a Girls Night Out at Bajio. We do it every couple of months at a different restaurant and it is always a great time. Then on Thursday, Nick and I are going to Tucanos for dinner. Our cholesterol levels will be much higher after that trip. I guess we haven't had enough of the water as Nick and I are going on a sunset cruise on a sailboat around Utah Lake this Friday. It will be a shock going from the beautiful blue waters of Bear Lake to the brownish green murky water at Utah Lake, but hey--hopefully it will be a great sunset.

Well, I think that is all for now. Sorry about the long posts, but if I am only doing it once in awhile and when I actually have some fun things going on in my lfe, I'm going to write about them. Don't worry, the exciting things are pretty much done.