This is Peanut.

I think she is a hamster. She is visiting us for the weekend from Josh's 3rd grade classroom.

She is gentle and chubby and brings giggles and joy to Nick & Josh.

How was school today?

"I was playing football too much and the ball kept on hitting my right arm. So now I broke it, my arm, I broke my arm! I had to go the hospital. They said it was so bad they had to cut it off." Josh said with a straight face, pointing to the empty spot where his arm used to be.

Great to be 8!

Yesterday, Josh was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


2006: Nicholas


2002: Preston


2000: Audrey

We are proud of you and know that true happiness comes through obedience to the commandments and adhering to the counsel of our living prophet.

Boys Love Love Love

Cub Scouts Day Camp

Nick & Josh came home with fancy bird houses that they made:

They attatched them with brackets and twine and loaded them with bird seed this morning. Bring in the birds. We are still waiting to see some birds.

Josh's Great Fall

Starring Josh

Filmed by Josh

Narrated by Josh

Written & Directed by Josh

Can an 8 year old boy survive a fall from THE SCARY STAIRS?  Join Josh in his latest home adventure.  This one is DANGEROUS.  (01:14)

Love Note

To: Mom
From: Joshua

Sometimes at church, primary teachers have the children write "thank you" cards to people they appreciate. This Sunday, I got one from Joshua.

Who is 8.

It started out with a BIG THANK YOU.





Then I was thanked for helping him all the time.

Then I was told that he wants me to buy him some more presents for his B-day.

Last, I was told that he is very glad that I am his MOM.

Children are sweet.
But "no" to the presents request.

The Buck's Film Studio of Seattle presents:

"Barefoot Josh" 

by Josh & Kendal Buckley

Josh dares to be barefoot while making a turkey sandwich with his feet in this hilarious episode of Barefoot Josh.

Hyrum's contest Theme:  "The Food Network"

We don't have the Food Network channel.  When we did have it, I deleted it because I really don't care about watching people cook.   Online I found that Food Network has a show called "Barefoot Clarissa" or something.  Barefoot something.   Never seen it.  Never will.  But it gave us the idea for the movie.

It is Great to be 8!

Happy Birthday to Josh!

(Not a real mustache or beard.)

We got us some boys and went to see

Journey to the Center of the Earth.

It turned out to be 3D which was so exciting.

So much better than a regular movie.

Then we went to a park and had lunch:

Then played and opened presents:

Thank you friends, for making Josh's birthday such a blast!

"My Brother and me also want to go in space...

and if everything that me and my brother didn't want to do at the job like clean the rocket we would just quit because that wouldn't be the job that we wanted." Josh, 2nd grade school journal, 5/22/08.

It's the end of the season for the White Sox!

It all started with:
$120 sign up fee
20 practices

10 Games

9 out of 10 games it rained on us.

We went through
3 Costco cartons of Gatorade.

But it's really all about the $10 trophy.

Well done, Nick.
Josh, you were fun to go to the games with.

No photoshop was used on these pictures.

White Sox vs. Yankees
What Was the Score?
Who Won?
I Don't Know.
I Never Know.

I am just a mom who wants everyone to hit, everyone to win, everyone to sachet from base to base grinning and when the shortstop drops the ball the kid from the other team leaves the safety of second base to pick it up and toss it back. (That really happened, by the way.)

We must fuel up at Pickle Time before the game.

Nick pitches and hits only one kid in the helmet but then when he is up to bat he gets hit in the shoulder. It's all good.

Embarrassing moment: A tiny sized girly girl approached Josh and I as we were watching Nick's game. With a quizzical look and pointing to Josh she asked me, "is he a girl?". I think the confusion was because of the pink coat he was wearing, which was mine. Josh did not like that question. The coat came off immediately.

Then Josh got a black blanket, which was way more masculine, and then sat on my lap and fell fast asleep. One mom walked by me and said, "Oh...cute, is that baby asleep?". And I said, "Yes, except this baby is seven."

In kid-pitch baseball, the games are very long because for each batter the pitches go full count. If you don't know what full count is, it just means that the games are very long. Josh kept me warm. Nick was a happy ball player. It was a good game.

Chaperone Experience:
2nd Graders & the Woodland Park Zoo

It took a month, but we are finally finished with viewing all 987 or so episodes of LOST. So, Thursday I trekked with the 2nd graders around Woodland Park Zoo. It was the first time we had gone there, and it was sunny.

I personally identified most with this animal in the back there:
Some days I just feel hippoish.


Highlight: We spent about an hour in this bird cage. It was funny watching boys try to attract birds to land on them. At first they were loud and rough and yelled at the birds. Soon they learned that they must be quiet and still. The birds loved Josh.



The water was really this green.


They had a sign for otters, but we couldn't find them. They had signs for lots of other animals too, that we couldn't find...


Josh's turn with the camera:



Second graders are great.
They have an appreciation for creatures and caves that adults just don't have.

My Precious... Remote Control

In September during our family counsel, we (the parents) decided to disconnect our cable for 3 reasons:

1. Brutal violence over possession of the remote control. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of TV shows were missed because of "missing" batteries and "hidden" remotes. We might never have a chance to see those shows again. Could we have just walked up to the TV and turned it on with our finger? We will never know...
   
2. There was no second reason.
   
3. Inappropriate commercials.

Absence of cable does not mean absence of TV, however. Instead of watching TV shows, we have been spending hours, hours, hours on:

• DVD's
• special features
• movies with commentary
• deleted scenes
• outtakes
• re-watching movies in other languages, like Harry Potter in Spanish is funny
• netflix like crazy
• reading actual books, when we can't decide what movie to watch

There are still fights with the remote, so nothing was really solved was it?

Note to self: keep the camera where Josh cannot reach.