3,4,5

Almost two years ago Jarom and Alixa promised Jenna that she could get a kitty when they moved to Dallas. Well Jenna was not your average 2-year old, and she refused to forget. It would go away for a little while here and there, but without fail she would bring the subject back up just when you thought it had vanished. So last Sunday the family climbed into Carlotta and made the 30 minute drive to Grapevine to retrieve the last kitten of a litter of Siamese cats from the family of an old college friend. And Sonic weaseled his way into the family right from the start. He is very social and loves to follow people around the house. He is a great cuddle buddy for TV watching. He is far too aggressive (according to Lix) when it comes to pouncing on toes. And he is a little bit fearful of Bo, who is still working on being soft to the kitty. The biggest issue is that Bo likes to honk Sonic's nose and get his tail, which the cat isn’t thrilled about. But he doesn’t mean to be rough and does love the kitten. He regularly points out what he is doing and will sit down on his bum and ask to hold him and give him kisses. Alixa is learning how to be a cat owner and generally loves it. She still worries more than she needs to about silly things, but she’ll figure it out. Mario can’t seem to figure out the cat’s name or sex and doesn’t seem particularly thrilled that he has to share his space with a sometimes loud creature. But he’s moving out next month so he won’t have to share that space for much longer.

For Valentine’s Day this year Jarom decided to get Nate the present he’s been wanting for years, and then he decided to bring Alixa along as well. The present was a trip to watch the Mavericks play the Sacramento Kings. For those unfortunate souls who aren’t aware, Sacramento has a pretty mediocre team with the world’s greatest benchwarmer, Jimmer Fredette. Jimmer is the object of Nate’s most intense romantic feelings, and this game had the added bonus of a special “Meet Jimmer” thing after the game sponsored by the BYU alumni association. So Jarom found some tickets on stubhub and recruited a few other friends and made a special occasion out of the evening. Jimmer must have heard that Nate was in the audience, because he played 19 minutes, which is well over his season average. Sadly, it was not the greatest 19 minutes of his career. Nate had to suffer through several airballs and blocked shots before finally getting a layup late in the game, at which point Nate went crazy, as though he had just made a game winning 3-pointer. All the Mavs fans that were sitting near us seemed to enjoy us, and the game was fun to watch and it was good to get away from the kids and hang out with friends for the night.

Jarom has started coaching 12-year olds in lacrosse on Tuesday and Thursday nights. The practices are at a nice park with a playground, so Lix and the kids come and play most nights. As an added bonus on of the kids on the team is an Ogden, so Rob is usually there to play with Bo. The first time they went Bo had a breakdown when Jarom took his lacrosse stick away from him, so they had to go out and get some mini sticks for Jenna and Bo. They have been a huge hit. They both love them and Jenna is getting pretty good at scooping the ball and throwing it.