Scott's Bull Elk Hunt

Scott here. I shot my bull elk on Friday right before sundown, near Sedona, AZ. Five by five. Tons of fun. Big thanks to Ali and the kids for letting me go.

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

In the Spirit of Thanksgiving

This is a link to a very uplifting Thanksgiving message from Mormon Messages. Happy Thanksgiving!

A little, cute memory

This is Jake when he was a little over two. What a funny personality! It makes me grateful for him. I sure love my little destructive, wild stinker! Just listen to what he's saying. The boy's got a vocabulary for a two year old. Ah, there's something special about your first...

Fieldtrip

Jake's class took a field trip to the emergency dept. at the hospital. He had to wear the "fly hat" aka the envy of all 4-year-old boys. He loved climbing in the helicopter. Alisa went, too and had a ball climbing up a hospital bed, getting monitors hooked up to her, climbing in the ambulance and helicopter.

Miss Jana's preschool class

Our little dolly. She seems to be getting happier... slowly!

Alisa is our sweet two year old. Mostly. As we approached home from Flagstaff, she was crying and saying she wanted "lellow." We couldn't figure it out. We were all guessing what she meant (Jake too) and finally figured out she wanted to go to Show Low! When we told her we were already there and our house was in Show Low, she was pretty disappointed.

Another time we were pulling into our driveway when I announced that we were home (why? it was pretty obvious we were home, but I always feel that I should state the obvious). Anyways, Alisa said, "This not our home!" When I said it was, she insisted it wasn't our house. Whose house is it, then? "Steve's." Yes, we are renting from Steve. Anytime they start to get destructive, we tell them it's Steve's house and not to ruin it. Guess that message is sinking in.

Prayers

Jake's prayers are a crack-up. He prays for the food every time, whether or not we are eating. Some other things recently said:

Please help us to drive safely when we go to Utah... for Thanksgiving... right, mom?

Please help my friends to be safe and happy with their families.

Please help Alisa to be reverent and to stop drinking and fold her arms when I am praying...

Please help dad not to sleep during my prayer.

Speaking of prayers, please keep Brookie in yours. She is going to be sedated and have an MRI in the next couple of weeks. She won't lift her left armpit/shoulder more than halfway. She screams in pain when we try. She stretches her right arm all the way up, but her left one remains at her side. She has the use of her hand and her arm, for that matter, but doesn't lift it. She saw a pediatric orthopedic surgeon the other day, and a normal x-ray showed nothing. I'll keep you posted. The MRI should tell us what damage, if any, is in there. Then we can plan what to do (sugery--oh, I hope not!--or physical therapy).

Other than that, I am still off of milk products and she is normally a pretty happy (although touchy) baby. She has been sleeping between 10 and 11 hours at night (thank heavens!). This may be due to the fact that I load her up with ibuprofen before bed. She is teething. Oh, joy. She is a joy, though I can safely say that she is our hardest baby yet. And we thought we had it all figured out...

Halloween

We went to Flag for Halloween and so Scott could meet with a dentist and go shooting in preparation for the big hunt this month. It was a fun, whirlwind weekend. We're glad to live closer than we ever have to our families.

We had a little too much fun with the Seaman's Halloween box, trying to figure out what we could dress up as the next night. Here's Kels the angel bunny.

Inspired by the pajamas, we thought a leopard would be just perfect for Grandma (who was VERY hesitant about getting dressed up in the first place... as in, she wasn't going to).

Um... the black haired angel? I've always wanted to wear wings. And a wig. The wig was just hot. And hairy. And itchy.

He was a pretty hot jester. I don't know how he ended up as the scary rocker he was.

Grandma Seaman as a witch? Those p.j.'s were too inspiring. We had to go with the leopard theme.

I kinda like that black, nappy, voluminous hair!

Grandpa Seaman was so hard core. He pulled this beauty out of nowhere. We were all pretty shocked. When he said biker, I thought he meant spandex, a race shirt, gloves, etc. Think Loma Linda, peeps...

Kels with TL-aka Trevor the bathrobe bum

Elfeba and Galinda. Look at that girl's tiny waist! Those Seaman girls waists never cease to amaze me! Lucky. What a gorgeous girl! And a greenish witch.

Grandma was such a good sport about dressing up and even sported the face paint! We were all impressed. And Grandpa was rockin' the biker attire. Jake told a lady at the park today that his grandpa had lots and lots of tatoos.

Jake loved the face paint and thought his dad was pretty cool. Like his bucket? Thanks, Grandma. Slacker mom forgot the trick-or-treat buckets.

Me as Elfeba and Brookie as... Brookie. Slacker mom forgot the babies costume. Oh, well. Brooke didn't know the difference.

She may look sweet here (and she was) but getting her to dress up was a beast! We held her down and pulled the Belle dress on (which she loves). She immediately declared it "too tight" (i.e. it touches her skin) and took it off. I offered a bear costume. She decided it was too big. After 20 minutes or so, we just gave up and were going to take her in normal clothes when Grandma offered her pink candy if she would be a princess. Way to bribe! It worked. She loves all things pink.

Scary skeleton rocker with the princess. She almost started crying when she first saw him, even with the glasses off. She was in a delicate state. I had to pull the wig into a ponytail for chili eating purposes.

Before I forget.

Jake: Please help us to go see the temple someday. And Alisa and I can get married in the temple (pause, looking up) right, Mom?

Mom, will you go on the slide with us?

Sure, Jake.

Yeah, (sizing me up) you're not too fat. You can go with us.

Thanks.

Alisa (same park, same day): Mom, get off! You too heavy. Get down, mom. Too heavy! You too heavy!

Alisa is really into puzzles lately. We have three of them (25 pieces) and she pulls them out and puts them together all by herself. She also holds her pencil the correct way and has been drawing circles for probably six months. Maybe she'll have the artistic gene that eluded me. Just some things I want to remember.

Jake asks questions by saying "is" followed by a statement. Is I am going to a friend's house today? Every time. It's pretty cute. He had a solo for the primary program, singing a line of a song all by himself into a microphone. He did great. It was right on pitch, right with the piano. His speaking part, previously memorized (Psalms 82:6) was done only after the teacher whispered every word to him. Oh, well. He was as wild as ever. He sat in the row in front of his class (5 boys age 4), and constantly turned around to see what they were doing, to laugh and poke them, etc. I was out in the hall, but it ended in Jake and two other boys wrestling during the last song. Nice. He is my wild thing. Maybe next year he will be more reverent...