The Whitelaws

Happy First Day of Fall! Aren't those pumpkins gorgeous?! We went to a pumpkin patch and corn maze last weekend and ushered fall in a little early. After all, we had to turn the heat on and wear our coats a week ago, Thursday.
There was a really fun slide. All the cousins took a turn. And even I went a few times.

Love his crinkled nose in this one! And Jenna, the constant helper. She has grown up so much recently. In the mornings, she makes her bed and gets dressed all by herself. The other day, she picked out a dress and wanted to wear tights. I told her to do what she could by herself and if she needed any help to come downstairs and I'd help her. (I expected her to have trouble with the tights.) Well, she came down fully clothed, tights and all. I was shocked that she did it all by herself! And, I wished I had seen her do it! When I told Kevin later that day he didn't see the big deal. Clearly, he's never put on tights before. After meals, Jenna will take her plate and cup to the kitchen. She even does it without being asked!

Friday, September 2nd, Kellen and I flew to DFW to spend Labor Day weekend (the last weekend of summer) with my Girls. Sarah, Dara, Katie, Mollie, and Jenni are my Girls from ACU. We've been trying to get together once a year, but haven't been all together since November '09.

Mollie won a girlfriends photo shoot from Paige Pearson Photography, a fellow ACU alum. So, we started the day Saturday with a fun photo shoot.

Sunday, we enjoyed worshiping together at church. But, the weekend was filled with other times of worship, too. We are all so grateful that God brought us together and keeps us together.
Kellen had a great time being loved by everyone. He and I both wish we could have packed up all these girls and brought them home with us!
The rest of the weekend, we just played, talked, ate, burned some ramen noodles, etc.

It was over all too quickly, as the first ones started to leave Monday morning. But, Kellen and I soaked it all in and were the last to leave Monday night after enjoying some Japanese Hibachi, a movie, a little shopping, and a favorite Keyes dinner. I think it's safe to say that we all left refreshed, renewed, and eager for the next time!

Kellen and I spent the night with Matt and Leslie Monday night and spent a few hours with them Tuesday morning. I don't think any of us had gotten enough sleep for a picture, though.

Mid-August, we were able to meet up with my friend-since-forever, Abbie, and her two cute boys (plus her other boy due in November). We went to a really cool park that had a neat playground, plus a water area. Jenna and Abbie's oldest are just a month apart and became fast friends (again). We've been able to get together almost once a year since we were pregnant with our first babies. It seems that we all just fall into place like we were just together yesterday, I love that.

Here's Jenna on her new bike (and Kevin's thumb). We discovered earlier in the summer that she had gotten too tall for her glide bike. We got her this one with training wheels and we're hoping that the time on the glide bike will help her go to two wheels really soon.
Friday, Kellen pulled up to standing for the first time - on the stairs. I couldn't leave him and grab the camera. Yesterday, he did it again and Kevin captured it with his phone camera. I was getting his bath ready after he had made an incredible mess of himself at lunch - banana everywhere!
And, today, 9/11/11 we discovered Kellen's first tooth! The lower right central incisor. Nice to have a happy memory for this day. Ten years ago, I was in orientation for my first job as a nurse when one of the nursing supervisors came in and told us the news that none of us could believe . . .

Kellen turned nine months old on Saturday, Sept. 3rd. He is 27.5 inches and weighs 21.2 lbs - hasn't grown at all since last month. Saturday was opening day of Michigan football - Go Blue! And, Kellen and I were in TX for my Girlfriends' reunion (more on that later).
What do you do when your 9 month old is STARVING-MAD and you have to put away the groceries and make lunch? You ask your 4 year old to help feed him, of course! (See video 2714.)
Okay, so it was messy. But, they both had fun, he got fed, and I was able to unload groceries and make lunch with a happy baby!

Day 12, July 13th - Vancouver, B.C. and Travel Home. Dad, Mom, and Katie had to be ready to disembark by 6:30 am. We were glad to have a later time (8:00am, I think).
We got to the airport, found our luggage and stashed our PJs and other things we had needed for the morning back in our luggage (we hadn't seen our luggage since 10 pm the night before). We went through customs and then found our gate.
We got to our gate in time to see Dad, Mom, and Katie for just a few minutes before their plane left. Matt and Leslie were on our flight a few hours later. So, we had lunch together and then started home.

Our flight was supposed to land in Co Spgs at 10 pm, but couldn't land because of a thunderstorm. So, we circled and circled and circled. Then we started running our of fuel. So, we had to fly to Albuquerque to refuel. We finally landed at 1 am and arrived at our house at 2 am.

We had a great trip - thank you so much Dad and Mom! But, we were glad to be home, too. When Jenna crawled into bed that night (or morning I should say) she kept saying, "I love my home!"