Christmas Card

Hello everyone. I would like to thank you all for the beautiful Christmas cards you have sent to me this year. I was planning on sending out cards this year and I even ordered pictures to put in them but thanks to Wal-Mart photo lab those pictures have still not arrived. So instead I am going to blog a Christmas card this year!!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas filled with love, laughter, and the spirit of giving.
Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year
Love,
The Eldredge Family

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Tag

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Paper, I love wrapping and I think it cheats you out of the present opening experience to just open a bag and pull out your present.(even though they do have some really cute bags)
2. Real tree or Artificial? I would like to have a fake one to save money but my hubby grew up with real trees his whole life and MUST have a real one. Plus I like the smell of the real ones!
3. When do you put up the tree? There haven't been many years that we haven't put the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. (And have to take it down Christmas day because we are afraid of the fire hazard!LOL)
4. When do you take the tree down? Oops I answered the this one in the above question.
5. Do you like eggnog? Less and less every year so I usually limit my intake to 1 or 2 glasses a year. I like diluting it down with milk. I have never been brave enough to try the sprite or 7-up diluting. 
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Probably our Trampoline
7. Hardest person to buy for? Russell
8. Easiest person to buy for? Kennadee. It's a little TOO easy. If I had money that girl would be so SPOILED!!
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yep, I even painted it myself.
10. Best Christmas gift you ever received? This year we are getting a house does that count?
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I can't think of one.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie (s)? Home Alone 1&2, The Santa Claus 1&3,Elf, & Christmas Shoes

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Depends on the year this year I started in September. Two years ago I started in July.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yep
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Breakfast Casserole & All of our homemade candies.
16. Lights on the tree? Yes we do tons and tons of lights
17. Favorite Christmas song? Baby it's cold outside (the Zoey Deschanel version from Elf)
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? This year we are staying here. We will go back and forth between our house & Diana's.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen, & Rudolph
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open one on Christmas Eve (usually pajamas) and the rest Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Absolutely nothing! I love everything about this time of year!!
23. Favorite for Christmas dinner? We don't really have a traditional Christmas Day dinner. We do Clam chowder on Christmas Eve
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? Stuff for the new house

Photo Shoot

My awesome brother-in-law Aaron did a fabulous photo shoot for our family pictures today. He and my sister are budding photographers and have this awesome "ghetto studio" as they call it. But when you look at the pictures he did for us today there is nothing ghetto about them!! Thank you so much Aaron for our awesome pictures!! And thanks for doing them for us on your birthday!! Happy Birthday Man!!

Christmas Sweater

This sweater was mine when I was around Kennadee's age (20+ years ago). I pulled it out of storage this morning to see if it would fit her and it totally does!! When I was little I LOVED that sweater which is why 20 some years later I still have it!! I felt so special when I wore it. It was so warm (now it's a little threadbare) and it had the M on it for Maria! I loved it!! Kennadee likes it a lot too. I told her the M was for Mommy and she said " yeah and the hearts are for Kennadee" It was so cute!! I hope she likes it and feels as special in it as I did when I was her age.

O Christmas Tree

A week or so before Thanksgiving the fancy-schmancy mall in Austin (it's called The Domain) had a Christmas Tree lighting of their Macy's Christmas Tree. They had some carolers perform and then later in the evening there were to be Fireworks and a performance by American Idol winner 2007 Jordan Sparks.  

When we got to the plaza this^ was a close as we were to the stage. But we were a couple of hours early so we didn't think that Kennadee would be able to handle sitting there in her stroller for two hours so we walked around and looked at the stores. We didn't want to feel bad about our poverty stricken selves to we didn't go into many of the stores namely Neiman Marcus,  Barney's New York, Tiffany's, J Crew, & Louis Vuitton. So we mainly hung out in the Borders book store and Macy's.

When it was time to start the show they had a lot of different people perform before it was time to see Jordan they had a little interview with her but it seemed like it would be forever until she performed Kennadee had to go to the bathroom therefore making it impossible for us to stay so we had to go before Jordan performed and before the lighting of the tree. Oh well at least we beat the traffic getting out of there. And we made it to a restaurant before they got really crowded.

Here is Russell trying to warm up Kennadee's hands because she was freezing cold.

And here is our little Christmas tree. We got it the day after Thanksgiving. We weren't going to get a real tree this year. But when Russell saw them at Wal-Mart and that this one was only $25

He HAD to get one!! I just hope it lasts all the way until Christmas. I guess if it doesn't it was cheap enough that we can go get a second one!!

I am so excited for this Christmas season!! Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went to my sister Diana's house this year which was the first year of our marriage that we haven't hosted Thanksgiving at our house. It was a little strange not hosting it but it was fun to have a change in tradition.

It was really fun. We had Aaron's sister Alicia and her husband and two boys and we also had our friends the Aleman family join us. 

While we were preparing Dinner Aaron's sister Alicia had some fun crafts for the kids. Kennadee made this pilgrim hat and a picture of a tree where she wrote (with help) what she was thankful for on little leaf stickers and stuck them to the tree. She had lots of fun doing it. 

Here is the gorgeous table full of food. I love all of Diana's fun serving dishes!! They definitely make the food look even better!! We had Turkey (made by Aaron the moistest turkey I have ever had!!) Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Rolls, Jell-o salad, green beans, sweet potato souffle & pies pies pies for dessert. 

Each plate has three candy corns on it to represent the 3 kernels of corn ration the pilgrims were going to have to eat. We each went around and said three things we were thankful for. It was really cool.

Here is the kiddy table. Kennadee had fun sitting with her cousins & friends at the table. They talked and laughed and had lots of fun. 

(Notice her super short hair? She and her cousin Hannah decided it would be fun to play barber shop and cut their hair. So I had to chop it all of to make it even. GRRRRRR!!)

Bold Tag

I've been seeing this tag on several blogs and I thought I would try it: You can do it too!! Just bold everything on this list you have done. As you will see by my list I haven't done much!!LOL

1. Started your own blog 

2. Slept under the stars 

3. Played in a band  

4. Visited Hawaii  

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity 

7. Been to Disneyland  

8. Climbed a mountain 

9. Held a praying mantis 

10. Sang a solo  

11. Bungee jumped  

12. Visited Paris 

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea  

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch  

15. Adopted a child 

16. Had food poisoning 

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty  

18. Grown your own vegetables 

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France  

20. Slept on an overnight train 

21. Had a pillow fight 

22. Hitch hiked (I've picked up a hitch hiker)  

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill  

24. Built a snow fort 

25. Held a lamb  

26. Gone skinny dipping 

27. Run a Marathon  

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice 

29. Seen a total eclipse 

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset  

31. Hit a home run  

32. Been on a cruise  

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person  

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors 

35. Seen an Amish community 

36. Taught yourself a new language  

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied 

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person  

39. Gone rock climbing 

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David 

41. Sung karaoke 

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt 

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant 

44. Visited Africa  

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight  

46. Been transported in an ambulance 

47. Had your portrait painted  

48. Gone deep sea fishing  

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person 

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris  

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling  

52. Kissed in the rain 

53. Played in the mud 

54. Gone to a drive-in theater  

55. Been in a movie 

56. Visited the Great Wall of China 

57. Started a business 

58. Taken a martial arts class 

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen 

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (no but I've sure purchased my fair share)   

62. Gone whale watching 

63. Got flowers for no reason 

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma (tried but the sight of the needle made me almost pass out)

 65. Gone sky diving  

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp 

67. Bounced a check 

 68. Flown in a helicopter  

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy 

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial 

71. Eaten Caviar 

72. Pieced a quilt  

73. Stood in Times Square  

74. Toured the Everglades 

 75. Been fired from a job 

 76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London  

77. Broken a bone 

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle 

 79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person  

80. Published a book  

81. Visited the Vatican  

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem 

84. Had your picture in the newspaper  

85. Read the entire Bible 

86. Visited the White House  

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating  

88. Had chickenpox 

89. Saved someone’s life  

90. Sat on a jury  

91. Met someone famous  

92. Joined a book club  

93. Lost a loved one  

94. Had a baby  

95. Seen the Alamo in person  

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake  

97. Been involved in a law suit  

98. Owned a cell phone 

99. Been stung by a bee

Can I Get A Tissue Please?

I'm sure you have all heard the song Christmas Shoes by Bob Carlisle. The first time I heard that song I was driving in Utah and it made me cry so hard that I had to pull over because I couldn't see through my tears!!

Anyway Russell and I were looking for movies in the Redbox and saw they had a movie called Christmas Shoes with Rob Lowe and Kimberly Williams Paisley so being in the Christmas mood we have been in we decided to rent it.

Now I am not the type who cries in general let alone at movies. I may occasionally tear up but I never cry. Well my friends this movie put me over the top. I was not only crying I was sobbing, bawling, sniffling, tears streaming down my cheeks crying at this movie!! My loving caring sensitive husband was laughing at me with every sob!! It is such a great movie!! Parts of it were a little cheesy I must admit but all in all it is a great tear jerking movie!! So run down to your nearest Redbox (or any movie rental place) and pick it up and make sure you have plenty of tissues!!!

Here's a sample of the Christmas Shoes song for those who haven't heard it.

Might Over Mouse

Over the last week and a half I have been fighting a losing battle trying to catch this really clever mouse. Sunday before last Russell said that while I was at church he saw a mouse run across our bedroom floor and under my sewing table. So I of course tore everything out from under there and cleaned my entire bedroom and couldn't find it. That night I slept in the recliner because I didn't want to find a mouse my bed in the middle of the night. The next day I cleaned my house top to bottom in search of this pesky mouse to no avail. So then I remembered we had some glue traps that the pest control people had given us to try to catch lizards so I set those in places that I had found mouse droppings and the next day I looked and the stinkin thing had been caught and somehow clawed it's way off of the glue trap. So my sister Diana gave us some Di-Con to try and get it that way, still no luck. Then our pest guys came for their routine spraying of the house and I asked what they recommended and they gave me some snap traps and said to put peanut butter on them so I did that and still no catch. Then I decided the peanut butter wasn't tempting enough so I put some cheese on it and the next day the cheese was gone and still no mouse. So Sunday I was cooking and saw the little monster run between the dishwasher and the sink so I set a trap outside the opening and put a piece of popcorn on it thinking for sure I would catch the dang thing, but of course the next morning the popcorn was gone and still no mouse. So tonight I thought hmm.. what if I put two traps down by the crack and put crackers on them I wonder if that would work? And guess what? Success!!! I was laying in bed about to go to sleep and I heard the joyful sound of BOTH traps snapping!! Hallelujah!!! I caught the stinking thing!! It actually got it's arm caught in one and it's head in another!! I am so happy!! So now I am off to a peaceful mouse free sleep!! Goodnight!!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas...

Inside our house at least. Over the weekend we set up our Christmas village. We started collecting for our village a few years ago. It has been a really fun tradition. And of course being in Texas this is the closest we are going to get to snow so we decided to put it up early so we can get in the spirit!! 

Our Village even includes a Wal-Mart

A Home Depot (New this year) 

                 and a Train (also new this year)

                                            

OUCH!!!

As you can see by the time-stamp below it is 3:15 a.m. and I have been up for an hour. What am I doing up you ask? Well the last few days I have had an awful earache and haven't been sleeping well. So I went to the doctor yesterday and found out that I have a massive ear infection with a perforated eardrum. OUCH!! I am in so much pain!! I have been taking ibuprofen to help ease the pain but for some reason tonight it is not helping!!! So I am trying to keep myself distracted since I can't sleep because of the pain!! How embarrassing I'm an adult who has an ear infection!!

P.S. The doctor prescribed an ear drop($101.00) and an antibiotic ($6.50) and since I don't have insurance I had to pay in full plus $59.00 for the doctor visit! But if I would have just let it go and not gone to the doctor my eardrum would have burst and it would have cost me a lot more than that!!

Halloween 2008

Well as you all saw in this post. Kennadee decide to be a Butterfly Princess for Halloween this year. She had a blast getting dressed up and she especially loves getting make up on. We went to our ward Trunk or Treat. They had it on Halloween so that was the only Trick or Treating she got to do. She had a blast though. Here are some pictures:

 Kennadee & Ajia  

Kennadee, Reba, Aunt Leena, Hannah, & Ajia

I Did It!!

Okay so as most of you know I can't make pie crust to save my life. Well the other day Russell was craving pumpkin pie (as he usually does at this time of the year) so I decided that I would attempt to make it. So I tried the food processor method and it worked beautifully!! In one crust I added a tsp of Cinnamon which made it even more delicious!! The only trouble I had is that I thought you had to poke holes in the crust before you put the filling in and it leaked out and stuck to the bottom of the pan so it made it a little difficult to get out of the pan but it didn't burn and it was still delicious!! I can't wait until Thanksgiving!!!

Fun Weekend

Last weekend Russell's younger sister Becky and his younger brother Joe drove all the way here from Idaho. They brought Becky's daughter Katelynn and his other brother John's daughter Kaylee. It was so fun to see them!! Kennadee was so surprised and excited to have her cousins come to visit! We went shopping and the found Rock Band at the electronics store and they had to play, Aunt Becky bought them all matching outfits and then the last night they were here we made chocolates. It was such a fun weekend!! Thanks for coming guys!! 

Husband Tag

Husband Tag. I was tagged by my little sister on this one. It is really fun and I tag all my friends with husbands to do this one!!

(Nice pic huh? This was my surprise at the end of the roll of pictures from our engagement photo shoot. This pretty much sums up his sense of Humor)

1. Where did you meet? In the Twin Falls Singles Ward. He was my home teacher ; )

2. How long did you date before you got married? We were friends for almost a year before we started dating and then we dated for 2 months before we got engaged!

3. How long have you been married? 4 and a half

4. What is your favorite feature of his? His jaw line, His Eyes, His Luscious lips, His cute butt, His legs, and His hair when it's freshly cut 

5. What is your favorite quality of his? He is so stinkin smart, His love of children, His love of teaching, His sense of humor, His dedication to providing for his family, His stubbornness, His work ethic, His Loyalty, His kind and giving heart, and love of the gospel.

6. Does he have a nick name for you? Baby, it's always been baby since we started dating. I rarely hear him call me by my name and when I do it is usually because he's not happy with me.

7. What is his favorite color? Green

8. What is his favorite food? Anything I cook, Hamburgers, Pizza, & Spaghetti, and anything Spicy

9. What is his favorite sport? Football, Football, Football, oh and did I mention Football?

10. When was your first kiss? Sometime in December of 2003 We were at our friend Crystal's house watching Pirates of the Caribbean.

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Play cards or games, Watch movies (thank heavens for Redbox), Go out to eat, Shopping for things we like but will never be able to afford, and we just finished the whole Harry Potter series together.
12. Do you have children? One adorable, wonderful, beautiful, smart, feisty little girl!!
13. Does he have a hidden talent? He is great at tying quilts, canning, gardening, and many more
14. How old is he? He just turned 28

15. Who said I love you first? He did!!

16. What is his favorite type of music? Country, & Christmas

17. What do you admire most about him? Everything that I put in the favorite qualities section plus, he's a great dad, leader, teacher, he has such a strong testimony of the gospel, he is so driven, he'll do anything for anyone, he is an awesome provider, he's just great!!

18. Do you think he will read this? Probably 

Baby Nathanael

Thursday of last week was Russell's 28th Birthday!! Happy Birthday honey!! We spent the day at Diana's while she was in labor. So he got to have his cake there. It was so much fun!

Then at 7:00p.m. he got the best present an Uncle could have: A baby nephew named Nathanael Jared Mildenstein. 8lbs. 9oz. 19 in. long!!

This is Kennadee holding him at the hospital the day after he was born! She loves him so much and talks about holding him all the time!

Welcome to the world Nathanael!! We love you so much!! 

 

Yearbook Yourself

So I found this on one of my favorite blogs and I had to try it. You go to yearbookyourself.com and upload a photo of yourself looking straight forward and then it puts your face in the picture and you can adjust it so it looks right. Try it it's so fun!! This is me through the ages. In several of them I look like a lot of my relatives see if you can tell me which ones!

1950                                                   

 

1952

1960                                                

1964

 

1966                                               

1968

 

 1974                                                 

 

1980

1984                                        

1990

 

1994                                               

1998

 
2000