Covid-19 Sundays

All dressed up to stay home!

Today we had our own little church meeting at home. It wasn't a Sacrament Meeting because we haven't been authorized to administer the Sacrament in our homes yet. Instead, we had an opening song and prayer. Mark conducted the meeting, and we each chose a talk to give. Seth spoke first on service and the Good Samaritan. Then Dax spoke on missionary work. Mom spoke about following the prophet, and we sang an intermediate hymn. Next, Mark spoke on goal setting and achieving goals. Dad was the final speaker, and he talked about Joseph Smith and the doctrines of the First Vision. It was so different to be all dressed up giving talks in our own living room. Seth summed it up best when he said, "That was so fun! Can we do it again next Sunday?"

Our first week of church without the sacrament, so pictures were okay.

Dax gave a great talk.

Seth also gave a wonderful talk.

The following Sunday we were authorized to administer the Sacrament in our homes, and we had one guest who we thought was coming, but we didn't hear back from her. We let her know that our meeting was at 10:30, so we had planned to be all ready just in case she arrived. Just as we were cleaning up breakfast about 9:25, there was a knock on the door. It was Sister Engman. She thought we were starting at 9:30. Mom answered the door and talked with Sister Engman while everyone else ran around like crazy people getting dressed in their church clothes. Mark prepared the sacrament and passed it after Dad blessed it. Seth and Dax both gave talks again, and Dad shared a short message at the end. It was a nice meeting, and it was neat to talk with Sister Engman about when she lived in Germany and they had sacrament in homes every week.

The final week of March was Fast Sunday. No one was coming to join us for the Sacrament, so we had a small quiet meeting. Everyone bore their testimonies and it was neat to hear all of the boys share their testimony. Mark and Dad administered the Sacrament to us, and we took a little more time to ponder. Having church at home has been wonderful, but we miss seeing our friends eacn week.

Mom shared about following the prophet.

Seth led the music for Choose the Right.

Mark gave a talk and he conducted the meeting, too!

Dad got to sit by us!

Dax also took a turn conducting the music.

Mark is a great pianist for our home Sunday meetings.

February Fun

February had an extra day this year, and we tried to fill all the days with fun. We tried out 3 new restaurants this month. Stirs Cereal was fun. We were able to try tons of new types of cereal, and Mark even learned to eat cereal with milk. It was a miracle. We also visited Ruth's diner in Emigration Canyon. The biscuits and breakfast were amazing! And finally we tried Seven Brothers on the snow day. Mom and Dad liked it, but the boys did not.

We checked out this fun cereal restaurant!

The burgers at Seven Brothers were amazing. 

We loved the huge biscuits at Ruth's Diner. 

We had our first ever snow day in Utah, well first for the boys and Mom. We didn't get much snow, but we got to stay home from school with Dad.

Snow Day!

When Dad was at Parent Teacher Conferences, we played at FatCats. We mini-golfed and did  half price arcade games.

We mini-golfed one round in the dark.

Seth is really good at the motorcycle races, so he challenges everyone!

Dax set a high record on the basketball shooting.

These next pictures are a bunch of fun ones!

Mark and Dad love playing guitar together.

Dax made this cool bubble rainbow at this Valentine Day Party.

This was on Valentines' Day! We love each other!

The boys have fun with my phone sometimes. Seth was a knight with a light saber.

This picture is hilarious!

We had an All Star party to watch Donavon Mitchell and Rudy Gobert represent the Jazz!

We had free tickets AGAIN to the Natural History Museum. We had fun visiting and checking out one of the exhibits we didn't have time for last time. 

Seth dressed up as a hummingbird.

Dax saved the ozone layer by riding his bike!

Seth is the only one who still likes these hands on spots!

Dax competed in the Highland Spelling Bee. He was amazing and finished about 15th out of 80 kids. 

The boys got Jazz tickets in their stockings for Christmas and it was finally time for the game. The Jazz lost, but it was fun to be in the arena to watch the game.

Mark and Dad love talking basketball together.

Dax and Seth mostly come for the treats.

Mom loves being with Dad!

Go Jazz Go!

More phone selfies by the children!

Mark got in a couple of practice games before quarantine happened!

Mom and Dad took Seth on a date to Wendy's! His favorite place in the whole world.

We didn't make it to the Snow goose festival this year, so they came to us.
This group of snow geese hung out in our field for about a week!

Mark's Basketball Season

Mark loves playing with all of his friends.

Mark played competitive basketball in the Bantam League for the first time. He really wanted to do this because he could put together his own team. He took all his friends from school, and even though they weren't all top-notch players, they were good kids who worked hard.

We paid for a little nicer uniforms, and we had to buy our own practice time for Dad to coach the boys each Friday night. Luckily, we shared the gym with a friend's team, so we split up for the first half and practiced, and then we scrimmaged during the second half. Our practices were fun, but it was the games we really enjoyed.

There were 31 teams in our league. Mark's team was actually really competitive, thanks in large part to Mark, who led the team in scoring, rebounds, and assists. We had a few close games. We lost one in sudden-death overtime. Another time, with the score tied, Mark dribbled down to three seconds and then launched a game winning three. At the end of the season, we finished in fifth place at 7-2, which was good enough to qualify for the eight team tournament. Unfortunately, all four teams above us had perfect records, and the number one seed, who we'd meet in the second round had hammered us in the regular season.

Mark was the point guard of the team.

Mark was really good at help defense, too.

Mark led in scoring every game.

We showed up the night of the tournament and had a terrible first half. We couldn't get a shot to fall, and their guys would give us a jab step and then go right by us. They had 8 layups in a row, and we were down 29-7 at halftime. Our boys were nearly in tears. We made a few adjustments at halftime and used a zone and a full court trap. Though we got down by 26, we started to make a run. With 12 minutes left, we'd cut it to 18. With six minutes left, it was down to ten. The boys were so excited as they scored and scored and the other team kept using timeouts. Even the girls running the scoreboard were excited when we cut the lead all the way down to two points with around 30 seconds left. After the other team made two foul shots, we came down and started shooting three pointers. We missed four before the time expired. The final score was 44-40, and we'd finished the game on a 33-11 run. Everyone was smiling and happy and congratulating each other, despite the fact that we'd lost. We'd done something better. We'd proved that we could play with the best.

The other boys looked to Mark to lead the team.

Mark hit some big foul shots in the final game.

Mark loved blocking kids.

We are proud of Mark and Mom wishes she'd taken more pictures, but she was the official score keeper.

Dax's Basketball Season

Dax is a tough basketball player.

Dax was an all-star in his basketball league again. This year he had some good players on his team to help him, and like usual, they didn't lose a game. Dax played point guard, and Dad made sure to let him play with all 9 other players by rotating him in the only first and fourth quarters, so that everyone could benefit from his skills.

Dax loves being on the basketball court. 

Dax chose Karl Malone's number this year. 

Dax was great at cheering his teammates.

Dax enjoyed having some people to pass to that could actually make a hoop, but he was really proud when he got the underdogs to score. Dax had a lot of assists, but he really excelled at rebounding. Though we never kept official statistics, it's likely Dax had a few triple doubles, because he went hard after every rebound. Even when he had his stitches, we had to keep his knee bandaged because we knew he'd be on the floor after loose balls and rebounds.

Dax was a great rebounder.

One of Dax's best skills is his speed. He can beat everyone down the court. 

Dax runs faster with the ball than anyone on the court without the ball.
He had a lot of open layups this year. 

We love watching Dax play because he gives his all and is a great teammate. And we are so glad that Dad gets to coach all the boys in basketball.

Dax's team 2020.

Dax was so lucky that Dad got to be his coach again!