Sports

Matt playing indoor soccer. Although he scored a goal nearly every game, their team never one a game...but it was fun for him and good practice (not so fun for the spectators on the green team).

Scott Played in a racquetball tournament in March and got 4th place (yes, there were more than 4 people in his division). Here are some pictures of him playing the guy who eventually won the division.

well, Matt got his eagle scout award on March 28. It was a great ceremony. Zach also got his first class rank at the court of honor!

Matt...right before being carried off by a giant EAGLE!

Matt's friend girls.

A boy and his dog

Those of you who have met Frodo know that he is a very spoiled dog. We got Frodo in April for Zach's birthday--he turns one year old on the 11th of February. Zach loves Frodo. He can often be found at the computer, holding his dog. The first thing Zach does every morning is find the dog and hug him (then he finds mom and hugs her!) Frodo is a very good dog--doesn't bark, whine, beg (for the most part) obeys (more or less) and has a little personality that is really lovable. Of course, he'd be even better if we were more consistent--but hey, that we have a dog is really miraculous! Brenda has been surprised at how much she enjoys babying a dog who keeps her company daily.

Party Hearty

We've been trying to get Matt to have a party for a few months--after all, that was the point of getting a large house. A few weeks ago, Matt came to us saying he wanted to have a party! Great! He wanted to serve dinner and make it an evening. So we're thinking, "10-12 people, that'll work." The day before the party, he asks if 25 people will work. Will be tough with dinner...long story shorter, 33 people attended party! (Friends of friends ended up coming, rides ended up staying, etc.) And we did serve dinner. It was the parable of the fishes all over again! Here are some candid shots from the party.

Note: Those of you who have slept in our guest room might notice that we have it temporarily converted over to our ping pong room. Now that we have a basketball court/soccer court, we needed a place for our ping pong table. It fills our guest room nicely--don't worry, when you come we'll convert it back to a guest room, i.e. with bed.

Come Play at our House!

Well, Santa brought us a couple of basketball hoops for the basement. We have a "full court" setup. Come and play with us. We haven't broken a window, a nose or a finger yet! (although Matt came close to breaking Scott's nose the other night...hey, no blood, no foul!

Elder Gardner

Nate is now in Taiwan, but here are a couple pictures from the MTC (note, his companion, Elder Weber, is NOT standing on a chair). Nate's comments about the MTC were that 1) It was a great place 2) It was a lot of work (we heard that a lot!) 3) People, teachers, companions, branch presidents, were all awesome 4) The showers and the food were bipolar! 5) It was DEFINITELY not like a long EFY (that was our explanation of what it would be like--he didn't agree!) Stay tuned for more info on Taiwan!

Come home, Matt!

Yes, it's true! Matt just went on his first "official" date to Homecoming. [Note: his first unofficial date was taking me out to play goofy golf and eat icecream! It was great!] He asked one of his good friends who has just turned 16. Here, the tradition is to date for the whole day....so they started out doing paint-ball sling shots for 3 hours, a scavenger hunt at the store, dinner at our house (Mexican-style), ice-cream sculpting at the house next door where one of the boys is from....then finally pictures and the dance. Since that time, he's actually gone another date with the other girl from his group that just turned 16. Just one of the benefits of being the oldest in your class! P.S. Isn't it great that Matt is finally taller than the girls! : ) (and he doesn't talk like one anymore!)