The best Christmas gift!!!

It took us a little while to get enough time to put together the last christmas gift and Dallin thinks it is the best, but a couple of weeks ago, Jeff and I took a saturday afternoon and put it together. We gave the boys a basketball hoop that can be set at heights from 8 to 10 feet. While we were setting it up Dallin kept coming in and seeing if it was done yet. It was cold in the garage and so he didn't stay long. When we got it all set up we called him out with Isaac to come and see their present. Both of the boys loved it and they started playing with it right away.

Currently the hoop is in our garage and their has actually been a couple of semi-warm days so that Dallin could go out in the garage and play. Dallin loves basketball and is doing really well this year on his team. A lot of the other teams are really aggresive when it comes to how they defend so Jeff taught Dallin how to do a screen for his teammates. Dallin goes and makes sure that his hands are straight down by his legs and stands in the way of the defender so his teammate can go around him. Some of the time his teammate doesn't really know what he is doing, but Dallin is doing well and that is what counts.

Here are a couple of pictures of the boys playing with the new hoop. Yes, it barely fits in our garage at 8 feet.

Basketball

This year Dallin participated in Jr. Jazz again. It took a little motivation but he finally agreed. I am so happy that he did. This year he had a blast. Dallin was put on a team that was made up mostly of people from our ward so he knew a lot of the people on the team. Dallin has always been a little on the short side and being on a 1st/2nd grade team it was no exception. So Jeff and I decided that we would focus most of our training at home on how he handles the ball.

At the first of the year Dallin would use two hands most of the time that he dribbled the ball. We kept telling Dallin that you are suppose to only use one hand at a time and he practised a lot in our basement and he got better. He will still use two hands every once in awhile, but he is still doing wonderful. The next thing that we worked on is that when you are moving you need to dribble that ball. In 1st/2nd grade they don't call travels or double dribbles, but they will tell someone that they have to dribble the ball. That concept was really easy for Dallin to pick up on. We started noticing in his games that Dallin was one of the best dribblers of the ball. He doesn't run when he dribbles, but he is doing it correctly for the most part and we could not be more proud. Jeff and I are thinking about saving up and buying an adjustable basketball hoop for outside for either the summer or next fall to help Dallin with his shooting.

I kept forgeting to take my camera when we would go to his games, so I just have the picture that we paid for from the program so here they are:

Also, this year I helped out with scorkeeping a couple of games. That is also one of the reasons that I forgot to bring the camera is because I would either have games right before or after the games. It was hard to try and get the games that I wanted to scorekeep and go to Dallin's games at the same time. But I had a lot of fun and did 22 games over 9 weeks. Another bad thing is that it got me thinking about the times that I would help out at Utah State with their basketball and I miss it. But at least I get to do a little bit of what I love to do.

Jr. Jazz Basketball

This year Dallin decided he wanted to play basketball. So one day I took my camera and took some pictures of him playing with the other kids in kindergarten.


This is when Dallin got the ball. All the kids when they get the ball forget to dribble.

Here is Dallin trying to get the ball.

Dallin thought that running up and down was a little borring so he started to do some twirling towards the person who had the ball.

At the start of the game. I am not sure what Dallin was doing but he is playing.

At the end of each practise they run laps across the gym. Dallin had fun anyway. At first Dallin did what he always did and pout on the sideline. But after a couple of weeks he finally started to participate for the whole time.