Denver Soup Kitchen

Today the kiddos didn't have school, so Tanner went to play with McKenna Blatter and Dallin, Ashlynn,  Peyton, Kennedi & I drove up to down town Denver and helped with the Soup Kitchen. We got there about 10:30, threw aprons on and went around the front room of the church, where there were a ton of homeless people sitting on chairs around long tables. The kids were given a bunch of candy to hand out to the people. They loved that! They all wanted chocolate. We also handed out frozen chicken and frozen cherries. Then we laid out a bunch of clothes on tables so that people could come in and "shop" for what they need. We were able to go down to the basement to find coats and backpacks for people that were in great need.

During the lunch hour, Dallin went around and helped people with their trays, and then scraped food off of dirty plates.

Peyton and Kennedi stacked up dirty cups and mugs to get ready to be washed. I pulled out the clean cups and mugs from the dishwasher, stacked them and ran them outside.

 I think Ashlynn had the hardest job! She had to wear a rubber apron and gloves to keep her dry as she sprayed all of the food off of the trays. We finally left around 2:40, against Ashlynn's wishes. I was so proud of her, she worked hard and kept saying, "I don't want to go home yet." - I think she would have stayed all night!

And Kennedi kept saying, "This is fun!" I think the kids definitely saw a different way of life, and some hard things. Apparently there are about 800 homeless people in Denver. There is a lot of good to be done!

Talie is Leaving Us!

    So, at the beginning of Talie's first semester of her senior year, the school messed up her math class and couldn't seem to fix it for two weeks! Finally Benson went into the counseling office, with Talie, and after asking some questions, they actually came out with - not the correct math class, but the realization that Talie could graduate one semester early! But, she had to decide and let them know by the next morning!! Benson and I went to the temple to ponder it more deeply, and Talie had the entire day to think about it. When we met together, Talie decided that yes! She was gonna do it! Then we discovered that the application deadline for the BYUs was still open for two more weeks, so Suddenly our barely 17 year old that we only had one year left with was leaving in 4 very short months!!
And now it is here, for real=(.

So we have been busy going through T's room and deciding what she should take and leave behind.

We've been doing lots of snuggle and together time!

Talie and I had a day all to ourselves, to shop for snow boots, of course (and glasses? why not=), lunch at Panda Express, cheesecake at Cheesecake factory,  makeovers at Sephora, and the movie Point Break, complete with a big bag of greasy, buttery popcorn, to end it all off with! It was so nice to not have to worry about being home at a certain time! It truly felt like a vacation! And we had so much fun! I'm gonna miss my friend!!

            

It's such a small world! As we were walking into the movies, Benson and the kiddos were coming out from watching Star Wars! And, they had to try on the new glasses of course!

The First Day of 2016!!

Happy New Year!

Because of our super late night, we all sleep in on New Years day, but some not enough! Kennedi decided that she wanted to pull an all nighter! So, about 5:30am, I heard a movie playing on the computer in the kitchen, I went out there, and I find Madagascar playing with Kennedi passed out on two kitchen chairs. Apparently the last time she looked at the clock, it said 4:33!

   Talie worked some more on packing up her room =(. Benson and I went on a walk around the loop - one of my favorite past times! And then we decided to use a gift card we got and went to Outback Stake house for dinner. Afterwards, Benson came up with a fun game, and we all went to Walmart and had a scavenger hunt!!

Tanner found a bike that he really wanted and rode it around the empty Walmart for about a half hour until  Talie and Ashy - very lovingly - peeled him away from it, and we convinced him to ask for it for his birthday.

Kennedi was the big winner, and for her prize, she selected her very first set of Shopkins!

On the way home, only the winner decided she liked the game =), and Tanner said, "Mom, can we play that game again on my birthday, and I can win a bike?" They are always thinking ahead!!