Halloween 2009 JibJab

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My Manly Man and Brave Girl...

Bryan has been in pursuit of a big deer for three years now. In 2007, he got a deer that was a fairly small two-point and it has been the subject of much joking ("Hey Bryan, did you have to rent a separate moving van to move your monster antlers when you moved?"... etc.) In 2008, they didn't have any luck at all. So this year he was determined to get something bigger than the "monster" of 2007. On Friday they scoped out the best spots and on Saturday they hunted all day long, with no luck. Sunday morning they packed up and were driving down the road to head home...about 1 mile from camp they spotted two big bucks! So they pulled over and dug out the rifles and luckily Bryan was able to get a good shot at one of them. He is proud to say that he now has two "monsters." This one is definitely bigger (a 3x2 point) than the other. I think he mostly just enjoys being away with the guys for a weekend. (Call it "craft night," only with testosterone, it's stinky, and it lasts for 4 days.) We debated about keeping the meat or donating it to "Hunters feeding the Hungry," like we did with the "monster." In the end, Bryan decided to donate it. So our freezer is still deer-free.

(If you look closely in this picture you'll see that Bryan is carefully removing from his foot pieces of a cactus that he stepped on Saturday afternoon. He still finds a little piece every so often at home.)

In other news, Tess had her Primary Sacrament Program last Sunday and did a great job saying her part in the microphone. She really likes to be in the spotlight and she doesn't get stagefright at all (yet...maybe that will change when she's older?) And today we decided to try riding her bike without training wheels. We loaded her up with knee pads, elbow pads, and gloves and she did a great job! We'll keep practicing, but I think she's got her dad's biking blood in her.

The Scream

Often people tell us that Miles is so good, so mild-mannered. His nursery leaders tell us that he's never any problem, never makes a fuss. And in groups, he always just minds his own business and entertains himself pretty well (unless we're camping, then he's a pill.) But in our own home, he can have quite the temper. When we tell people about the screams I sometimes think that they think we're exaggerating. Well, this morning he started in on the screaming and I quickly grabbed the camera, hoping to record it. I figured Murphy's Law would kick in and he would not do it on camera, but I was wrong...he didn't disappoint. Here, for your viewing and listening pleasure, is Miles when he has reached the end of his very short fuse.

"A guy!"

We went for a drive up Logan Canyon today to see the changing colors; unfortunately the cold, snowy weather last week did a number on the trees and the colors are not as spectacular as they usually are. Regardless (or "irregardless" if you're a true Utahn), we did have a great time and took a small hike at Third Dam. Bryan was trying to point out to the kids any fish he saw in the river and he mentioned to Miles, "Look right there! See that little guy? That's a fish!" So, after that Miles thought the fish were called "guys" and kept saying "Guy, guy, a guy? Guy!?"

(As a funny, or actually embarassing, sidenote: Before we left today I happened to notice that Bryan & I were both wearing the same shirts that we wore for our engagement pictures--in October of 2002. Either we're really out of style, way too cheap to buy new clothes, or just have a timeless look that's always in style--yeah, right. Now we just have a few more pounds and a little less hair. I'm talking, of course, about my new, shorter hairstyle...that comment had nothing to do with Bryan's hairline! :)

Not the fierce eyes!!!

Tess started doing this crazy thing about 6 months ago. She pulls her fingers into a funny shape and puts them by her eyes and calls them her "fierce eyes." I don't know where it came from, but it's really funny and she does it when she's mad at us. If we tell her to do something that she doesn't want to do, she'll pull the fierce eyes out (along with the scowling mouth); our response is always, "Noooo!!! Not the fierce eyes!" Funny kid.

And Miles.... Here he is happily coloring with markers in his high chair. I noticed, though, that he had something orange on his lip, so I asked what it was. He stuck out his tongue and I realized that he had been coloring all over his tongue! I hope the markers really are non-toxic!

Sweet innocence...

You know what's pretty sweet? How innocent children are when they try to think of something bad...Let me back up...tonight at dinner Bryan & I were talking about someone we know who is a pretty horrible person (I won't go into details but I'll just say he's terribly dishonest and charms his way into people's lives before preceding to use them and steal from them.) Anyway, Tess (who's becoming much more receptive to our conversations; we need to be more careful!) wanted more specifics about the bad things this guy does. Then she said in a whisper voice (I guess because it's so bad she couldn't say it out loud), "maybe he puts his finger in his nose and gets a booger on it, and then doesn't wash his hands!" Classic.