Christmas!...... a bit late

We spent Christmas Eve in Las Vegas, opened all our gifts, then woke up at 4am and took a flight to Montana.  We had a great time visiting the Lay side of the family and hanging out in Helena.  It was a great time with great people.  What more can I say?  ps- start at the bottom if you want the pictures to go in order.  If you start at the top they go backwards in time.  

This is Cecily in Montana with her classic excited face on.  

In front of Grammie and Papa Lay's Christmas tree.

We got her the purple vest for Christmas- so cute.

We're going backwards in order here, but oh well.  THis is CJ with her new doll on Christmas Eve when we opened gifts at our house.  Her pj's matched her new dolly.

Cecily got an apple in the toe of her stocking this year, not an orange.  Mom didn't have any oranges........ so she got an apple and Mike and I got pomegranates.  MMMM, tasty.

3 little stockings, all in a row.

Again, we're going backwards through the month here........... This is CJ all bundled up to go outside in Las Vegas the day it snowed and snowed (the 15th?).  It was so funny to see everyone here freaking out about it.   

Here's our tiny little Christmas tree.  We didn't do a ton of decorating since we're moving in a few weeks, but we HAD to atleast have a little tree.  I thought it was nice and festive.  It made me happy to plug the lights in every night and open the blinds.  

Freaking Out A Little

Calling all you Utah-ans! We're officially moving up there on the 17th of January! Naturally, I'm just a little crazy right now trying to get my house packed up and everything clean in time, but that's actually the least of it. We don't have a place in UT to live quite yet.... that's the real reason for the freak out. Here's the dilemma: We have a TON of stuff, and would like to keep a lot of it (like our furniture) 'cause we don't want to buy new if we decide to buy a house in utah. That, and we're pack-rats, I'll admit it. What we're planning on doing is signing a 6 month lease and looking/deciding if we want to buy. If anybody knows of a good deal on a rental, let us know. We're looking for either a 3 bedroom, or if it's a 2 bedroom, we kinda need a garage to put our crud in. I know, pathetic, huh?
Hope you all had a merry christmas! I'll post some pics from our trip to MT soon! Lots of love!

Lucky

So, today is Michael and I's 3rd anniversary.  I'm gonna try not to get mushy, but I feel very lucky to have him as my hubby.  Have you heard the new Jason Mraz song that he sings with Colbie Callait?  It's called Lucky, and pretty much describes how I feel about Mike.  He's my best friend and I feel lucky that we love each other so much.  I never really get sick of spending time with him, and life is more fun when he's around.  3 years and 1 super cute kid later, I don't see how life could get much better, but I'm pretty sure it will.

When God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.

It's official!  We're moving to Salt Lake City, Utah.  If you would have told me that 2 months ago I would have laughed at you and said you were crazy.  It's great news, though, and we're all really excited about it.   Wish us luck!

CJ's New Game

I know I probably shouldn't be encouraging this.......

Where to Start?

Lots has happened for our little family in the past 2 weeks since I last posted. Mike decided not to take the job in Idaho Falls, so that little dream didn't come to pass. We were very sad, since we have friends and family there and buying a house there would have been great. The Lord has different plans for us, though, and we're in the midst of trying to figure out where He wants us. Mike had an interview in Salt Lake a few weeks ago, and that firm seems very interested, so we'll see what happens. Mike really liked them and we feel really good about moving there. We'll keep you posted.

The day after we got back from SLC, our friends, the Kay's, invited us to a little Christmas charity event here in Vegas called the "Magical Forest". Businesses sponsor it and they decorate trees and put up Christmas displays throughout this little "forest" on a college campus. They had a little train that you could ride through and see everything on. They also had a carousel and Santa and other fun things. It was just the best night. It was a great little escape from Vegas. There's some pics below of our adventure. Cecily was the cutest.... of course.

Then on Wednesday we packed up and headed to LA for thanksgiving with the Vincent clan. It was great to see everyone and Cecily had a blast playing with her 2nd cousins (or is it first cousins, once removed? ..who cares..) and hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Vincent and Uncle Eric. I ate WAY too much food and had a fabulous weekend of unabashed shopping. Amazing.

The past 2 days since we've been back have been completely consumed with getting things set up for my ward enrichment activity, and I'm thankful that it's done. I can now take a breath, and clean up my house, which has been sorely neglected for the past 2 weeks. It turned out well, and ended up being a yummy, fun, spiritual time for all the women..... well, at least for me :o). Wow, time FLIES when you're having fun, huh? Happy Holidays to everyone! Leave me your address as a comment and I'll send you a Christmas card.

If you look behind Cecily and I you'll see one of the Christmas displays from the Magical Forest. My dad is a land surveyor and this one was done by a surveying company. One snowman is the rodman, one is working with the surveying instruments, and the one in the back has a book that says "field notes". I thought it was cute. Made me miss my daddy. This is Mike on the huge slide they had. More evidence of my theory that he is an 8 year old trapped in a 27 year old's body. Xander and Josh Kay are behind him, but I accidentally cut Josh's head off in the picture.... Cecily does not like to hold our hands and wiggles every chance she gets.

Cecily and Grandma Vincent had a great Thanksgiving together. CJ looks a little funny in this pic. I think she was saying "cheese" which comes out "Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese"Cecily also had a grand old time with Grandpa Scott. Yay! Tupperware!

Count your Blessings, Name them One by One.

Today was a really hard day for me. But, I do have many things that I am grateful for, and I'm finding myself needing to name them one by one today. Here's just a very few of the ways that the Lord has blessed our family:
1- Cecily. She's just the cutest and best baby in the world. When we put her to bed she doesn't cry or fuss, she just says "na naaaht" and curls up in her crib. She's also been saying "thank you" when I give her anything lately, and it melts my heart. She kind-of says "tan too".
2- Mike. He tells me how much he loves me and how beautiful I am much more than I deserve. He works so hard to provide for our family, and he's been put through the ringer lately applying and interviewing for jobs. He hugs me when I need it, and lets me be independent when I want to. He's also very cute, which is just a bonus on top of the other great things.
3- We always have food to eat, a roof over our head, and nice clothing. We have much more than sufficient for our needs.
4- I know that God loves us and will take care of us. I know that He can solve my silly problems, and comfort any pain.
5- To quote Scarlett O'Hara: "Tomorrow is another day." I read once that researchers can't figure out exactly why our body NEEDS sleep because our organs don't really rest (the heart keeps beating, the brain keeps thinking, the lungs keep breathing, etc). I think God allows us to sleep so that we can wake up every morning and begin again. I'm very grateful for that.

Spaghetti- also known as "Gaa gwee gwee!!"

We shot this video because she kept parroting us when we said "spaghetti", she probably has no idea what it means, but it was really cute anyway. You may not even be able to understand her- maybe I'm just reading into what she's saying. Who knows. I love it anyway!



Here's some funny pics from dinner tonight. I can't resist snapping her picture every chance I get. This was Cecily's first encounter with Spaghetti. We don't eat it very often, but she LOVED it, so it may become a new family fave. She was filthy afterward, so we threw her in the tub. She loves that too.

Election Day!

I am so relieved that election day is almost over! I've been strangely nervous about it for some reason. Stuff like this stresses me out. Anyway, here's the highlights of the day:

1- a trip to the doctors office. (Look at my cute daughter, and ignore my grossness). I got some test results back, so I took Cecily in with me. We waited 3 HOURS (yes, you read that right) in the office, and by the end of it I was looking for any way to entertain Cecily I could find. So, the camera came out and the "cheese" started. 2-After Mike got home we got to go vote! Hooray for us! It doesn't look like the presidential election will go our way, but oh well. It is what it is at this point. Again, not the best pic, but oh well. I'm trying to show you my "I voted" sticker in the bottom pic.

3- We ate dinner at In-n-Out burger! This is one thing we will be so sad to leave in a few months! I'm not sure why I decided to take pics of all of this, not to mention blog about it, but oh well. It's like a journal entry, right?

Random Fun!

So, I found this while I was blog stalking! It looked like fun, so I tried it. Here's what you do: Type your answers to the following questions into google images, then post the first image that comes up! Try it if you have time- it's kinda funny!

My first name: Wendy (big surprise on this image!!)

My last name (big shocker for this one too!): Vincent

My full name: Wendy Vincent...(random)

The age I'll be on my next birthday: 27

A place I would like to travel: Fiji!!!!

Wendy's favorite food: Mexican! (ok, I admit this wasn't the first image to come up, but it was the most appropriate. the first one had a 1/2 naked man....... not g rated)
Wendy's favorite place: With my Family! (again, random!)
Favorite song: Glory of Love (I'm kindof a geek)

Favorite Color: Green

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Happy trick or treating to all! I wish I had a few more pics to show you, but I didn't buy enough fabric for Mike's "Fred" costume. Uugh. There's always next year. Pebbles and Wilma looked great, though! Hope you all had fun! Lots of love to all!!!! XOXO!

A Toddler??????

Is Cecily really a toddler? I'm in denial! I feel like she should still be my little 8 pound tiny blob of joy! Instead she's my running, talking, giggling, playing little girl. She's getting bigger every day, so I thought I'd give you her 1 year stats from the Doc! She's healthy and growing as she should, and we are very blessed.

Here's Cecily as of right now:

Height: 31 inches- 90th percentile

Weight: 20 pounds - 40th percentile

Head Size: 18 inches- 90th percentile (she's got a big noggin', but it's SUPER cute!)

Here's some of the words she knows:

"Byebye"

"Hi"

"Uh-oh"

"All done"

"NO!"

"baby"

and she's learning more all the time. I'm pretty much amazed by her. She has 8 teeth in front and more coming in right now (we were up last night with a very sad little CJ because of it). Here's some pictures I took as her "official" one year pics. I also took some of she and her cousin Brielle. They are two of the best lookin' gals in the history of the universe!

Stake Conference: Not for the Weak!

So, it was stake conference today........ I knew I should go, and I knew I should try to get some good uplifting feelings from it, but OH MY GOSH, has anyone ever taken a 1 year old to stake conference? 2 hours? It is nigh unto impossible to wrangle a small child for that long without sedation (for you or the child, or both). Mike and I were in the back of the gym for about 10 minutes today until Cecily started screaming. We've been trying not to take her out of the chapel because we don't want her to get the idea that she can scream and get taken out to play all the time. But this morning the people behind us started huffing and puffing and looking at us like "if you don't take that kid out of here we're gonna reach over and smack you". I was embarrased and so we took her out and sat in the foyer with her. 2 hours is too long. I felt so bad after an hour of trying to keep her sitting with me that we just let her go and didn't care. How do you mothers with 4 or 5 kids do it???? I'm pretty much in awe of you. I think if I ever have toddlers at stake conference again I'll bring more food. Food is a good distraction. Any other ideas for next time? I got nothin'.

Happy Birthday Cecily!!!!

Cecily JeNae Vincent turned 1 on October 9, 2008!! We had so much fun (almost TOO much fun) partying and celebrating her fabulous day. In my family (Wendy's) birthdays are a big deal and you get to be princess for a day. ....except in this case, it was more like princess for a week.... I may have went a little overboard with the celebrations......... but it all turned out great and we had tons cake and craziness. We got to go to Montana, so we started the party there at Grammie and Papa Lay's house on the 4th. Then, we celebrated with our friends Lizzy, Josh, Xander, and Julia Kay at our house on CJ's actual birthday. To top it off we opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa Vincent and had ladybug cake with Rachel and Bren on the 11th.

Cecily is such a happy, cute, sweet little girl and we feel very very VERY blessed to have her in our family. She is almost always smiley, loves to chatter, loves to "talk" on the phone, gives great snuggles, and giggles when you give her high 5. She gives a smile to everyone she meets and we think she's stinkin' awesome!

Party #1: Montana!

Before the cake......

......After the cake

Party #2: The Kay's at our house for dinner on CJ's actual b-day

Party #3: Aunt Rachel and cousin Brielle with CJ on the weekend

CJ with her ladybug cake. (not as cute as I had hoped, but oh well, it's my first try- next year will be better)