Happenings

I took advantage of a warm afternoon and took the kids outside.  Hallee and Wyatt never want to do the same thing, so I did short one-on-one outings with them instead.  Hallee and I went to the parkway and fed the ducks and went for a walk.

Wyatt wanted to go to the skatepark and do parkour. He had fun showing me tricks and jumps.

He also loves to climb the trees at the park.

Caitlyn likes to carry Jackson around like a baby.  If you look close you can see Jackson's wide eyes, I don't think he is a fan!

One night during scriptures we noticed that Jackson had his elbow up on the armrest, we all thought that was pretty funny.

After the movie on Saturday we went over to the Beck's house.  We haven't seen them for so long.  The kids stayed home and ate pizza and hung out while the adults went to dinner.  While we were waiting for our food Brandon and Stacie Kidd walked into JCW so they sat with us too.  It was really fun to visit and catch up.

The kids had so much fun together and begged for a sleepover.  We went back and forth and finally decided that we would take the girls home with us.  Hallee was thrilled to be having a sleepover!

It's been years since we took a picture of these four together.  The girls were headed downstairs to watch a movie so they had snacks in their hands, Jonah felt left out, so he grabbed some applesauce to hold for the picture. Ha!

I couldn't believe how late Kenzie and Hallee stayed up talking.  I kept checking on them and finally after 11 PM they were asleep.  

Wyatt stayed at the Beck's.  I was a little nervous because he hasn't really done sleepovers and we haven't been to their house in so long, but he did great.  He said he had a little bit of a hard time falling asleep, but he didn't get nervous at all.

Beck's had home church that day so Wyatt watched it with them.  We went to church that week so the girls came with us.  The twins wanted Jonah to spend the night too, but he felt like he needed to be at church because he knew a lot of boys wouldn't be there because it was Thanksgiving weekend. I was proud of him for being so thoughtful about his priesthood duties.  He ended up being the only boy there to prepare the sacrament and he had to help pass it, so he was glad he went. 

After church Keith and I took Hallee and Kenzie to the parkway.  They had fun feeding the ducks.

They both found big sticks and fished for leaves.  It was fun to watch them get so excited every time they caught one.

Jonah has started basketball again after a two-week governor mandated break.  Only one of us can go watch him and we have to wear masks.  It's such a weird world right now.  Jonah has been playing great.  Here he is making a reverse lay up.

Caitlyn's anxiety has been very high over the past few months. I think online school and tennis being over have been very hard.  These poor kids, they need social interactions so bad and they are almost nonexistent right now. Even when she does go to school, they space the kids and they have to wear masks, so there still isn't any socializing going on.  Anyway, I'm not one to get big spiritual impressions very often, but when I was praying for Caitlyn I had the thought that we needed to do service together.  The thought came back a couple of times so I started looking for a service opportunity.  I got on just.serve.org and sent messages, but didn't hear back from people.  I finally heard back from the Food and Care Coalition and they said that they could use us for their dinner service on Dec. 1st.  Caitlyn and I were excited, but also a little anxious because we didn't know what to expect.

I was so impressed with this organization.  They feed the homeless three meals a day, there is a shelter upstairs, they offer medical and dental services and haircuts.  They also passed out warm clothes and blankets during dinner.  We served them their dinner.  We would take them the tray and water and fill up their water cups if they wanted more.  When they left we would wipe down the table and chair for the next person.  It was heart breaking and heart warming at the same time.  It was so sad to see so many people in need, but so great to see their needs being met.  I saw people bowing their head in prayer before they ate, that really touched me.  It was hard when a family came in with two little girls, hopefully they were staying in the shelter.  They also had some people who were staying in the shelter helping with the meals.  You could tell that they were grateful to be working and helping.  We helped mop and sweep when dinner was over.  You can see pictures of Christ on the wall.  They had beautiful pictures of Christ ministering to people all over the room.  We both felt really good after.  I talked to the volunteer coordinator and he said they can use our help every Friday morning for breakfast, so we are going to start doing that this Friday.

Keith and I went and saw a Christmas Carol that night at the Hale theater in Orem.

We both loved it.  It was a great way to get into the holiday spirit!