The Whitelaws

Jenna is 12.5 today! She is 59 1/4 inches tall and weighs 88.6 lbs. That's 1 1/8 inches and 3.6 lbs growth since turning 12. This is her 7th grade picture.
She still loves to read and loves dogs. This picture shows her in a happy place - holding two dogs and reading a good magazine! Her favorite color is still green. Her favorite subject in school is history and her favorite book is still The One and Only Ivan. She is a great daughter, big sister, and cousin.
She still enjoys adding to her rubber duck collection and looks forward to the Duck Shop in Winter Park each year.
This year she LOVED running cross country and misses it now that the season is over. We are really proud of how she managed good grades at school, piano practice, trumpet practice, and cross country practice!
She loves Odin the hamster and has started a hamster club at school that meets at lunch on Tuesdays.
She enjoyed giving Odin a special hamster cupcake and celebrating his birthday on November 19th.
Jenna's art class was tasked with creating art related to the Titan Creed and her group created this. I just love it and so did their teacher who chose it to display in her room. Jenna's portion is the winter scene, trunk, and some of the lettering.
This is her art work for her quilt block this year - puppy paw prints! She loves all animals and wants to be a vet. She loves God, family, friends. She is funny and delightful! We'll be spending the day watching the Frozen 2 movie, watching the Michigan/Ohio State game and driving home from Wichita. Happy half-birthday, Jenna!

Friday, November 22nd - Thanksgiving break started early for Kevin, Jenna, and Kellen with a Snow Day! It was quite a surprise as we were only supposed to get a few inches! I was sad to have to go to work, but Kevin and the kids drove me and then brought me dinner when they picked me up at the end of my 12 hour shift. I had to work Saturday as well. Our Bible class had a potluck after church Sunday, then we came home to do laundry and pack up for our trip.

Monday morning, November 25th - We loaded up our crazy and we were off to Wichita. We arrived at dinner time, met Dad, Mom, David, Katie, & Owen at Chili's for dinner, and enjoyed some visiting/playing time.
Tuesday, November 26th - We awoke to the news that we made it out of Colorado just in time! This is a picture from Kevin's parents' back yard - about 13 inches there and reports of 18 plus inches in our neighborhood!

After lunch, we enjoyed a visit with Uncle Jim and cousin Brooklyn. More fun playtime. After dinner, I enjoyed a dessert visit with my longtime friend Abbie.
Wednesday, November 27th - More fun playtime with Owen!

Kellen and I helped make pies. This was such a special pecan pie lesson with Grandma!
Thursday, November 28th - Matt, Leslie, Kevin, & Jenna ran a 5K while Kellen and I had fun with Owen, Lincoln, & Carter.
We played some, helped some with dinner, and watched some of the parade.






Jenna and Kellen received "boogieboard" type writing tablets - write, erase, repeat.



After lunch, Leslie, Lincoln, Jenna, Kellen, & I went to the Exploration Place. The feature exhibit this time was weather. Jenna had fun participating in a weather forecast/interview. And, this fun hurricane photo op!


And my favorite - Kansas in miniature. It's decorated for Christmas during this time of year - complete with "It's a Wonderful Life" playing at the drive in movie.


Back at home, we were disappointed that our normal tradition of going to see the Christmas lights at the Botanical Garden was rained out. But, the kids had fun painting the turkey cookies that Aunt Leslie brought.

And then, a little more tree decorating with new ornaments from Grandma.




Saturday, November 30th - Frozen 2 with Mom, Katie, Owen, Leslie, Lincoln, Jenna, Kellen, Aunt Janet, Rachel, and Brooklyn.



Then a half-birthday party for Jenna and birthday party for Grandma and Kellen.


Grandma didn't know that he'd been wanting that exact stuffed animal and that he'd been wanting a horse journal.
Great gifts from Uncle David, Aunt Katie, Uncle Matt, and Aunt Leslie, too!
Such a fun time and so many nice gifts. We stayed and watched as much of the Michigan/Ohio State game as we could stomach, but packed up and left before it was over. Then made the drive all the way home, arriving about 10:15pm! As we were listening to Adventures in Odyssey on the way home, Jenna decided she wanted to do her own commercials during the breaks. The most hilarious one was for "Pro Duct" (get it? product?). We got to laughing so much about it and then Kellen said, "I can't hold myself together!" So fun! Another great Thanksmas with lots of fun memories!