The Whitelaws

Today was a beautiful, sunny day, with temps in the mid 50s. So, we decided to take advantage of it and hike in the Garden of the Gods. (Also, the kids drove us a little crazy yesterday and we needed to get out of the house!)
Jenna proved to be a good climber. She climbed up here all by herself and then Daddy followed her up! They had a sweet little conversation up there.
In the end, the boy got tired and needed a shoulder ride. We had a great lunch at the Trading Post and then came back home for naps and a quiet afternoon. Now, it's 28 degrees and snowing like crazy. So glad we took advantage of the beautiful day!

At lunch time, we had a delicious turkey meal with all the fixings. Then, Kellen had a good nap. (No pacifier - he's been doing so great and still hasn't asked for it once. An answered prayer, for sure!) The rest of us had a nice time being together, playing Apples to Apples, kids crafting, and general cousin silliness. Somehow, we never got a whole family picture.

In the evening we all went to our own Christmas eve services. Jenna and Kellen really liked the "real fire" part at the end. Jenna was able to hold her own candle this year with Mama's constant watching. A highlight for me was listening to Jenna sing O Holy Night along with all of us. After church, we came home, got in our PJs and watched "The Very First Noel." An old show, but a new favorite for us. I looked into purchasing it, but the amazon sellers love it a little more than we do! We'll stick to getting it from the library.
Earlier in the fall, Jenna started making beds, chairs, cars, and such out of paper for her princess dolls. Then, I remembered that Katie and I used to have a bedroom/office for our Barbies. I searched for a picture that I could send Mom so she could look for it and one search came up with "vintage" barbie home and office. Vintage or not, it's a pretty cool toy. One side is a bedroom with murphy bed, vanity, and closet. The other side is an office.
She's been thrilled with it and loves that it used to be mine. She even said, "This is so much better than the paper things I made!" I have to give her lots of credit for using her imagination for making those paper things, though!
She asked Santa for a history book. We asked her, "What kind of history?" She said, "Oh, any kind. Just not mummies." Santa found a neat book with lots of history about all of the 50 states and an activity book that she can fill out about our state.
At some point this fall, I came across a recipe for Pioneer Woman's Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls. I wanted to try them so much, but was a little afraid of making them - the yeast and all. I decided to just go for it, and worked on them all afternoon, Sunday, the 23rd. The recipe makes three pans, so I decided to try to make half the batch gluten free to give to our local gluten free family. The biggest hurdle was that gluten free batch - didn't turn out so well. But, the regular batch turned out perfectly. We enjoyed them very much after we opened our presents Christmas morning. So yummy!
We spent a leisurely morning here. A highlight was catching Kellen singing "Joy to the World" and "Go Tell it on The Mountain" (he loves that song)! (See video 1295 in "Christmas '13" pictures folder.) (He would only let me record him if Jenna sang with him.) Then, we went over to Papa and Mima's for lunch (yummy turkey leftovers) and spent the afternoon there. We played Apples to Apples during Kellen's nap. Jenna won a round - so fun to play more grown up games with her! A very Merry Christmas, indeed.

Saturday, Dec. 21st, Jenna had her first "concert" since starting piano lessons in November. Her fellow students and her teacher went to a local assisted living and played Christmas songs. She was so excited about it and did a great job! (See video 1236 in "Christmas '13" pictures folder.)

Today, we went to the North Pole for the last time this season (Christmas eve is the last day they're open until May). It was COLD! (25 degrees or so). But, really pretty it was snowing a little and it looked like glitter in the sunshine. Kellen gave his pacifier to Santa, so he could "pass it on to a child that really needs it." We were so proud of him, he just walked right up and handed it over.
Santa knew just what to do. Here's Santa telling him how proud he is of Kellen - such a grown up 3 year old, now.
Kellen got in one last rudolph ride. Jenna was there, too, but spent a lot of time on other rides with Daddy while Mama had the camera. So far, he did pretty good with his non-pacifier nap and his having a little more trouble getting to sleep tonight. But, has not asked for it and is pretty proud of himself!

We've been doing lots of things around here to get ready for Christmas. Dec. 10th was the Christmas concert at LP. The kids always like to go up on stage afterward and try things out.
After school one day, I found them like this - pretty cute! They've both been enjoying reading about Jesus' birth (almost) every day with the Truth in the Tinsel devotionals.
We got our tree on Dec. 7th, from the LP Christmas tree fundraiser. First, the tree had to thaw from the sub-freezing weather, and then we didn't have a free night to decorate until Friday, the 13th.
Kellen wants a "vilalin" for Christmas, so he was excited to put the violin ornament on the tree. We've always used an angel tree topper in the past. But, the boy was insistent that we have a "tree star" this year.  So, he and I had a special date to pick out a tree star.
Sunday, Dec. 15th, we had a fun ornament and cookie decorating party with our band director friends.
Tuesday, Dec. 17th, was Kevin's 6th graders' band concert and also a roller skating party for Jenna's school. So, Kevin and Kellen went to the concert and Jenna and I went to the skating party. She had a great time with her best buddy! And, she got a disco ball tree ornament to commemorate the occasion.
Thursday, Dec. 19th - Jenna's last day of school before Christmas and her class Christmas party. They had fun snacking and decorating cookies.
The party happened to be during a time when Kevin didn't have any finals, so he got to come and surprise Jenna. Kellen was there, too, but too busy enjoying the party to pause for a picture.

We are all definitely ready for school to be out, so we can have some more (hopefully less structured and busy) Christmas fun!

P.S. Mima, the cousins, and I had fun decorating ginger bread men tonight!