Name Calling

Hi!, all three people that have visited the blog! Probably all of them are from us. We have been very busy the last couple weeks. We have been relatively healthy with the exception of Tyler having a virus and only (hopefully) passing it onto me. It's weird...I was only sick for a couple days but have this cough that has lasted for a couple weeks. It has made my throat very sore thus limiting my ability to yell at deacon/teacher basketball games, futsal games and ballroom competitions.

Recently we got to go to the Manti temple to witness a marriage (Brian's cousin). The Manti temple is special to us because that is where we met(Manti Pageant). We wish that we would have gotten sealed there but we felt that the Provo temple would be so much more convenient for our family to attend. We take advantage of going to that temple often. While there the temple sealer asked the mothers of the bride and groom to sum up their children with one word. How hard would that be?! I began to think of words that would describe our boys.

Christian: When we lived in our apartment in Provo behind Albertson's I had a wonderful friend who shared with me a story of Christian. He was about 5-6 years old. I'm not sure if I'll get it completely correct but I'll try. He was playing with some friends (my friend's children) and had an option to go play with another child in the neighborhood and Jens was lured away and played with him but Christian stayed and said, "No I'm playing with my friends here", whom he had originally made plans with. My word for Christian would be LOYAL for he is a great friend and has never had any difficulty making friends. Brian's word for him was "driven". He is motivated by money (who isn't?)and likes to find oppotunities to make money. He is also the best saver for what he wants to purchase. Christian wanted to make some money from a regular job. The next day he went to Jay's Jungle (a pet store)and asked for an application. The worker there suggested that he just bring in a resume' and study up on fish. That night he made his resume and looked up fish on the internet. The next day he had Jens drop him off to turn in his resume'. The day after that he got called in for an interview and got the job. He worked pretty regular hours right before Christmas and works when needed now. Christian is an excellent student and motivates himself to get his homework done on time. Christian has been playing futsal as the keeper and at every game he tries to get a goal for himself. Futsal is an indoor soccer game but differs that there are no walls and only 4 field players on the court at one time and a keeper. Playing this game increases foot skills when playing regular soccer outdoors. At the last game he was able to score 3 goals, dribbling all the way down the court and nailing the ball in the back of the net. Christian has had to suffer through a bout of hives for the last couple of days.

Tyler: One summer we bought passes to 7Peaks the first year they had a great deal and everyone and their bird was there. (I'm a bird person and didn't want to use the word dog.) During one excursion to the park, towards the end of the day we were gearing up to go and I think that I had some extra boys with us making for a long day and I wanted to go home badly. I sternly told everyone to stay by me so I wouldn't loose anyone. As I was making sure we had everyone I noticed that Tyler wasn't around us I began to get extremely irritated. I didn't want to leave everyone else to go look for him so I tried to just yell for him. But to no avail. We waited, very impatiently until I could see him way down by the tube rental. He had 4 tubes, 2 tubes on each arm helping the workers gather up tubes. Not only just 1 time but he went and gathered several times. My irritation melted as I began to feel remorseful for having thought badly of Tyler just wanting to get in more fun. My word for Tyler is SERVANT. Brian's word for him was "hard working". Interesting we thought of the same wordage for him. He is the one to go chop wood down, help with a roof, mow lawns, shovel sidewalks, clear debris, all for the sake of helping others. Tyler is trying his luck at a team starting up ballroom. They will hopefully be able to do a medley in the junior latin division at nationals at BYU this spring. He just finished up a science fair experiment trying to find out which paper airplane flew the best. That was very fun making them and flying them across the living room. He said he got several comments on how good that idea was but didn't get to go on to the district level. He is looking forward for the spring soccer season to start. He is a great defender in several sports.

Jens: Jens has always with a minor flit every once in a while been very loving and not embarrassed of me around his friends. He's always been very respectful to me and not tried to ignore me. My word for Jens would be GENTLE. He is very demonstrative and not embarrassed to hug me or tell me he loves me in front of his friends. (which makes me happy!) Brians' word was "kind" which also leans toward my word too. This is the "ballroom season" now which means we (Brian and I) are at a competition every weekend. Each high school that has a ballroom program, UVSC and BYU hosts a competition. Nationals are held at BYU. Starting the last weekend in Jan. and going until the middle of March. The last weekend in Feb. the JV and Varsity teams will go to Idaho and compete at BYU Idaho Gem state Classic. This is the highlight of my year cause I go and chaperone. Jens just had his most sucessful competition this last weekend at UVSC. Jens has worked really hard with his partner Michelle and his newly aquired partner Katie. He dances international latin and standard with Michelle and has started American Smooth with Katie. He just won youth american smooth (all four dances in waltz, tango, foxtrot, and vienesse waltz) Having only practiced with new choreography for a month that was a great accomplishment. Although recieving a 1st place medal was nice, he has not had as much success with Michelle. It is a much more difficult avenue to enter into with the international dances. Having danced much of the evening with his individuals and also having all of the medleys (team events...standard, latin and a show piece) the latin event is always held at the end of the night, saving the best for last. For the first time ever he got called back for the final (only 6 couples and each places). These dances are cha cha, samba, rumba, paso doble, and jive. All very high paced except rumba. Usually they don't get to be called back so they only dance all five dances once. This time they got called back and had to dance all five dances AGAIN! He and Michelle were dancing against very very good couples. I honestly thought that this would be another event that would end with dancing it one time. Even though they only placed 6th in youth latin championship that is the biggest feat he's had thus far. He is also looking forward very much to the high school soccer season. In the fall he plays on a club team and when the high school teams start, the club teams disban and it is fun to play against your former team mates school against school. Makes for a more amiable game. I love the soccer season! Go BULLDOGS!!