34th Birthday (December 29, 2010)

It is hard to image I am 34 years old! Time goes by fast. With each passing year, it makes me reflect on my life. I hope I can be the best person I can be, so I can have my family with me on the other side. I love my family, I love the gospel, I love the peace I have from my knowledge of where I came from, where I am now and where I am going in the next life. I am so grateful the Lord sent me to a loving, active family. My parents have been amazing examples for me. I only hope I can be just as good of examples to my boys.

I love my husband. I couldn't ask for a better partner to share my life and eternity with. He truly is my better half. There is not a day that goes by where I am not eternally grateful for my husband. I am grateful that he not only puts up with me and my strong personality, but that he actually loves me for the way I am.

Will and Tyler are the light of my life. I love my boys! There are my world! I can't wait to meet their sister Natalie again and have her be part of our family again.Only three years to go and counting!

Christmas Day (Dec 25, 2010)

 

Will tried waking us up at 5:00 in the morning. Dave and I had gotten to bed extremely late, so I made Will wait one more hour until 6:00 am. Will got a big stuff animal to use as a pillow on his bed. He has so much crap on his bed, I'm surprised he fits in it! One of these times I'll take a picture to prove it! He got the lego airport set, lego garage set, he got a silver rip-stick and Star Craft II.

 

Tyler's gift pile might look smaller, but that is because he got a 36GB I-Pod touch  for Christmas. He has been waiting for months to get his own, ever since Will got one for his birthday. The beauty about being last and having to wait, it that you get a newer model. So Tyler's model has a camera on both the front and back, a video camera and a better screen than Will's. Tyler also got a lego firetruck, lego utility truck, rocks in clay that he gets to dig out and Star Craft II.

Dad wasn't that awake for opening presents! This is the hat and scarf the boys got him. When he finally woke up, we changed spots. I fell asleep on the chair while he cooked breakfast.

Tasha wound her away around the mess so she could hide under the tree. She is so dark, she almost blends in. 

 

Will building his airplane.

Cousin's. . . Tyler, Bella and Will and my parents house Christmas Day.

Tyler getting a hair cut and Tyler with Tasha (Dec 24, 2010)

 

Tyler (well both my boys actually) absolutely loves his sister Kiersten! She has always been so good to them! They get so happy when she comes over to see them!

The boys also love our cat. . .  It has been a year since the accident where she lost her leg. She finally has gotten brave enough to attempt jumping up on our couches. Now she will jump to the couch and from the couch to the bed. Which is a very nice change, for a year now, she has just been crying for us to tell us if she wants up or down.

Buck Christmas Eve Party (Dec 24, 2010)

Kiersten with Santa. . . Dave said when she was a little girl she would always say she wanted to marry Santa Clause. Well here's your chance Santa to have a beautiful, young wife!!!

Kiersten's boyfriend Keenan was good enough to pose for a picture with Santa. We really like Keenan. He is a good sport.

Tyler looks absolutely thrilled to be having his picture with Santa. I'm curious to know what it is that Tyler would ask for. . .

Will sitting on Santa's lap. He's probably worried about trying to still look cool while sitting on his lap.

My Grandson is such a cute boy. He is always happy to see us! I am so grateful he is in our lives. 

Kaylyn, Jon and Mariana. Mariana is so much fun! She looks like she has had a long day!

 

Marcie, Jason and Coby. Don't they look so happy! They have recently moved to Wyoming. We miss being able to see them as often. We are looking forward to their wedding this summer!

 

Our two Grand-kids together for Christmas at our house.

We always have fun at Dave's parents house for Christmas Eve. Every year they have a family talent show. At first we never had anything to do, so I am glad the boys are in piano, so they can do it for us. The games are fun, but most of all, it is really nice to be together with all the family.

This year my family got together on Christmas Day. It was nice to have that time with my family and celebrate together!

December piano recital (Dec 18, 2010)

The boys did really well at their piano recital. I am always proud of how they will get up in front of people and play for them. They both have a lot of talent in piano and I can't wait to see how even better they will be in a couple of years. Their cousin Bella goes to the same teacher. She did a great job as well!

Gingerbread house fun (Dec 5, 2010)

 

The boys had fun making a mess building a gingerbread house. I enjoy our family activities!

Festival of Trees (Dec 2, 2010)

  

The 6th graders went on a field trip to the festival of trees. I am so grateful Will is still okay with having his Mom go on his field trips with him. Some ladies in my ward told me when their boys were in 6th grade, they didn't want their Mom's to go with them on the field trips. I love taking this small time out of my day to be with my boys. The two of us had a lot of fun! These pictures were some of our favorite items there.

Buck Family Thanksgiving Dinner (Nov 28th, 2010)

These are pictures from our own little family Thanksgiving dinner. We always enjoy it when we can have our family over for "Daddy dinner."

Tabernacle Choir with David Archuleta (Dec 19, 2010)

My parents won tickets to the Tabernacle Choir with David Archuleta and invited Dave and me along. It was held at the church conference center. They gave away more tickets than they had seats for. Apparently it is normal on most events, for everybody not to show up. To compensate, they hand out more tickets than they have seats for. For this show everybody turned up, all 21,000 of us and then some.With everybody showing up, that left several hundred people (that had tickets), that couldn't get in to the show. I am glad we showed up early enough to get a seat (thanks Dad). I'm also glad my Dave found us a semi close parking spot. I wore my adorable 5" heel boots, so my feet were killing me by time the night was over! The price we pay for cute shoes.

The concert was great! David can really sing, it was very enjoyable to see him in person and hear his voice. He was nervous and had trouble reading the prompt they had for him on a huge monitor! This is my first Mormon Tabernacle concert to attend and I enjoyed it a lot! The choir was wonderful, the stage looked amazing! I would show pictures, but they don't allow you to take any. It was a great remembrance of why we really celebrate Christmas, for our Savior.

My favorite part of the entire event was when the Prophet, President Monson showed up with his wife. The room of 21,000 people immediate got silent and stood out of respect for our beloved prophet. He brings the spirit with him where ever he goes. We stayed long enough after the program to watch him leave with his wife. He stopped just inside the door and waved to all us who remained. It makes me wish I lived in the time of the Prophet Joseph Smith, where he lived among the saints and they got to see him and interact with him on a personal basis.

I love my Savior, I love our church. Thank you Mom and Dad for a great night and a memory that I will always have.

Goodbye Oscar - We Love You (Nov 18, 2010)

It is always hard to say goodbye to those we love. Those of you who love animals can understand that they are very much a part of your family and you know how hard it is to let them go when it is time.

It all started about three weeks ago with Oscar not really wanting to eat. Oscar had always loved people food, especially milk and tuna, so it was very obvious when he would not give those items a second glance, that something was wrong. When his breathing started to get strained, we decided to take him into the vet.

Dr Moss is an amazing vet that absolutely loves animals, including Oscar. The first time he saw Oscar, he couldn't get over how big he was. He had fun walking around his office showing all the nurses the size of Oscar!

He looked Oscar over, took some blood and it was decided to try some medicine to clear up oscar's breathing problems. This was on a Thursday, by Monday it was much worse and even though we had an appointment to take Oscar back in on wed, Dr Moss said to bring him back in that day.

This time we decided to flush out Oscars nose and take an x-ray of his head. The flush got out bits of a bug that Oscar apparently snorted while trying to eat it. We all thought this was great news and hoped Oscar would improve. Three days later, Dave was in his office when Oscar came wobbling in to see him. Oscar cried to get his attention to let him know something was wrong. One look at Oscar and we immediately got concerned. He couldn't walk in a straight line, his eyes were not responding and he wouldn't purr. This is a cat that Dave can get to purr just by talking to him, so it is very out of the norm for him to not respond to David. It was so bad we didn't think he would make it through the night.

It was a horrible night, not knowing when he would breath his last breath. For awhile there, he went off to hide. We assumed he was finding a place to die. But to our surprise, when I got up the next day to go to work, there was Oscar waiting for me. He looked horrible and far from normal. I ended up leaving work early that day to take him back to the vet.

It was heart wrenching to hear the vet say that he thought Oscar had brain cancer and that it was pushing up against his brain, making him act brain dead. That would explain Oscar almost walking off the bed (he would have it we had not caught him), as if he didn't know where it ended or Oscar going to stand with his head pressed up against the wall or the very fast decent Oscar's health had had. But the truly hard part was hearing the vet say that it would be more humane to put Oscar to sleep.

Dave and I knew Oscar would not last long, but having it end that much sooner, was very difficult to face. Dave was due back home that night, so we decided to wait until the next morning; Once again, we didn't think Oscar would make it through the night. He was so miserable and would hardly move at all. When he would move, he would just randomly stand up and stay that way until we helped him back down.

Will insisted on getting a picture of both the cats before I took him to school, bawling. Dave and I were with Oscar until the end. It's surprising how fast it goes once they put the needle in him. It was very sad to watch David have to say goodbye to his companion and friend. Our vet is a convert to the church and we had a really good talk with him about what we think will happen to Oscar. We believe we will see him again and that makes this passing a little easier to bear.

We love you Oscar. You are very much missed and longed for.