The funnier (and more embarrassing) portion of my past...

My dad is hilarious. Any of you that know him know just how funny he can be. Anyone who knows "Bucky" probably envies and feels sorry for me at the same time. You see, Bucky is my dad's nerdy, semi-retarded alter ego. Bucky has showed up at some pretty funny places; court, parent/teacher conferences, job interviews, business meetings, parties, weddings, BBQs, relative's homes, and a thousand other places. He has this whole character developed and he's hilarious! We all love Bucky, but only once you know that it's just my dad and that he's just playing. Before you realize who it is (sometimes not until after he takes off the teeth and glasses) it's awkward and uncomfortable. Most people have a look on their face that says, "what am I supposed to do here?" or "Is this guy for real?" I won't bother telling you the Bucky stories because I wouldn't do them justice. Worse than that, I would take the hilarity out of the situation and that would be blasphemous!
This picture is from yesterday and it doesn't really show the whole Bucky costume. Sometimes he has a janitor jumpsuit on or a really bad suit. There's a thousand different things that he could wear, but the essence of the Bucky costume is the teeth. They are really quite disgusting. My dad is about to have some oral surgery done and his Bucky teeth won't fit any more. Now, seriously, Bucky has been part of my life for a very VERY long time. Bucky met my 2nd grade teacher, he scared my boyfriends, he has made me laugh harder than I have ever laughed in my life. So, Rick, when you're done with his mouth, will you make him some new Bucky teeth? This world is a better place with Bucky. :-)


p.s. Tyler and Nicole are old enough to realize that it's still grandpa, but Tori is scared to death of him. She gets as far away from him as she can! When he takes it off she runs to him again.

First Fish

Nicole caught her first fish with my dad. She thought it was going to be so great, but when the fish actually came out of the water, she wanted nothing to do with it. I love the look on her face in this picture! I think her favorite part was finding a worm for the hook. That night in her prayers she said, "... and bless me that next time I can catch two fish, or three fish, or four fish..." It was so funny. I don't think Ben and I did a very good job concealing our laughter.
p.s. this happened in the pond in my parents back yard and yes, we put the fish back in the water after we took the picture.

Free Time

When the kids go to bed, I usually just sit down and read or watch tv. I'm too dang tired to do anything else. Well, last night I decided to do something creative instead! I know. I'm proud of me too. :-) This is what came of my creative free time:

I was going to put up a picture of how cute they look on, but those pictures were just cheesy and embarrassing so I left them out. You'll just have to use your imagination (or check them out at church next Sunday!)

Tori's Camera Face

This is what happens when Tori sees me taking her picture:

Nicole and her baby

Nicole is such a girl. She loves everything pink, anything to do with princesses, and when she plays transformers or cars with Tyler, she makes them into families and she's the Mommy. It was not a big surprise then, when she walked into the kitchen breastfeeding her baby. I asked her what she was doing and she said that her baby was hungry and the bottle was empty. She then informed me that her "booby milk" used to be orange, but now it's purple. That's a lucky baby!

Tyler and his new obsession...

I have been exercising (finally) and the kids aren't thrilled about it. I am not cool enough to wake up at dawn to exercise so when the kids get up, I make breakfast and then turn them loose so I can work out. An hour is a long time with no Mommy attention so they don't really like "exercise time". But today, Tyler saw me doing some "fighting exercising" and he wanted to try. He stayed with me for 34 minutes! It was so funny to watch him. Whenever I took a water break or toweled off, he did the same thing. It was hilarious. I would video it, but I don't really want everyone to watch a movie of me working out. I did a little video of him by himself, hopefully it will work. When we were done, he wanted to do more! He did a few minutes of arms, a few minutes of legs, and then he was done. I asked him if he was done and he said, "yeah, exercise is too hard. I want easy exercise." He wasn't thrilled about my answer that exercise is supposed to be hard. Then I noticed that the only part of the arms and legs exercise that he liked doing was the warm up! That boy is hilarious! He would use the mouse and click forward on the video until he found something he wanted to do. I wish I could exercise like that!

4th of July

I know it's really late, but here's some pictures of the kids in their cute 4th of July outfits (thanks Grandma Debbi!!). We had a pretty laid back day. We went to the ward pancake breakfast, a BBQ at Tiffanie's house, and did a few fireworks at home (sparklers and roman candles). It was a nice, easy day. When the kids went to bed, Ben and I got up on the roof and watched the madness going on around us. It was actually kind of cool to see so many fireworks all around us. It sounded like a war zone! I am surprised the kids slept through it all.








Tori was utterly unimpressed with the fireworks. She'd rather play in the fresh bark dust. Sigh. That girl was COVERED in slivers.













Tyler and Nicole were a little worried about the sparklers at first. Nicole had that look on her face the whole time! I am glad we didn't get anything too extreme!

Hey Mom!

"Hey, Mom! Look at this face! You should take a picture of it!"

(try to imagine her saying that while holding this face. let me tell you, it was hilarious)

bath time

does anyone else ever have to deal with their child climbing BACK in the tub after getting in their jammies?