December Update

WARNING!!: LONG POST AHEAD!!

        December was such a crazy month with the holidays and trying to close on our new house so I haven't been able to do many posts so here is one big December post:

Early in December Diana's homeschool group was having a get together to do Gingerbread houses and since I had never done one before I tagged along. It was really fun. I had to leave early because I had to pick Russell up from work but I had fun while it lasted. Apparently after I left our Gingerbread collapsed but the kids had fun decorating it anyway. Kennadee made Gingerbread ornaments with Andrea while we did our house. We had a blast!!

    My parents flew in on the 16th and we had lots of fun shopping, going out to eat, playing games, wrapping presents, baking, and just visiting. If was fun to prepare for Christmas as a family!!

    Christmas Eve was really fun I forgot to get my camera out until the very end so the only pictures I got were of Kennadee opening her Christmas Eve jammies. We had the Aleman's & the Brown's and our dear friend Nancy Stimach over and we ate tons of food and read Christmas stories and we watched the Mildenstein's family DVD which is a tradition it was really fun to see how the kids have grown and changed!! Then we opened Christmas Jammies and put the kids to bed.

Christmas morning came at 5:00 a.m. the children were so excited that they woke everyone up Aaron & Diana weren't pleased so they got sent back to their rooms to wait until it was a decent hour most of them fell back to sleep (not Kennadee of course!!) so while they slept we ate breakfast and got things ready  

See what waking up at 5 a.m. does to me!!

Then we they felt they had waited long enough Aaron went up to wake them up:

See the bugle in his hand? That was how they got woken back up!! It was hilarious!!

When it was finally time to open stockings Kennadee was so excited to see what Santa had brought for her!!

Santa brought Russell and Reindeer that poops! He was so thrilled he even let me take his picture!!!

Diana got Kennadee a pair of her very own scissors and a package of her own paper "Kennadee we only cut paper not hair!!) She was so excited for this gift she went straight to the table to get to work.

(I love that she sticks her little tongue out while she concentrates!!)

Mom & Dad had fun watching the kids open presents and we really enjoyed having them here for Christmas!!

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas!!! And we wish you all a Happy New Year!!!

Help!

Hi Everyone,
Diana's brother & sister-in-law Jared & Rebeccah Mildenstein are trying to adopt a little girl and they need help coming up with the legal fees and such. They have had such struggles over the last few years and could really use the help. Every little bit counts. Here is a letter from Jared to explain what is going on:

I am Jared Mildenstein. I am in the U. S. Coast Guard. My wife, Rebeccah, and I are proud parents of four boys— that’s right— four. We have gotten pretty familiar with the ways of boys and all the energy that comes with them. For some reason or another the girls name we had picked out since our first pregnancy seemed destined not to be used. Also, with each successive pregnancy my wife’s medical troubles with Ulcerative Colitis, Endometriosis, and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome increased, and with the last pregnancy our ability to have children naturally went with it. We decided that we couldn’t risk any more major medical issues or hospitalizations and called it quits at boy #4.
We had always dreamed of having a little girl…to balance things out a little and make the family complete. We have had dreams about her and looked forward to meeting her since our first pregnancy. We knew, based on our situation, that adoption was going to be the solution. We started planning things out and looking into adoption and foster-to-adoption programs before boy #4 came along. We planned on the possibility of adoption when our youngest was around 3 or 4 years old, which would give us time to save money (military members aren’t exactly swimming in cash!) and meet all of the legal requirements on our time frame until we felt we were adequately prepared. God often has other ideas!
Rebeccah’s cousin is pregnant and expecting a little one soon. We hadn’t been in frequent contact with her for a couple of years, and we had assumed everything was well and the situation would be OK for mother and baby. We found out, however, just before Christmas that she was placing the baby for adoption, and that it was a little girl! We sent emails to her saying we were interested, but also that we would support her in any way we could, regardless of the outcome. It turns out that right around the time we expressed interest in adopting, the family she had picked to adopt her baby withdrew from consideration because it didn’t feel right to them. Rebeccah’s cousin was very panicked because her baby is due February 16th! She was very concerned that another family couldn’t be chosen in that short of a time frame. When she saw our email she was ecstatic and immediately called and asked us to be the adoptive parents. Of course we said yes!
The problem that we face is all of the legal requirements, home studies, and fees we had been anticipating a few years down the road are necessary NOW. We are facing deadlines quickly, and we would like to keep this little one in the family, but there are so many things to pay for to make it happen that we are asking for your help. We would like to introduce a fundraiser to help adopt Avonlea Violet Mildenstein. We will be selling candy bars through family and friends and also accepting PayPal donations through their fabulous blogs. Please help support adoption… every step helps! And remember, Families are Forever, however they are formed.

You can go to their website: adopting-avonlea.blogspot.com

You can donate here:

First Born Tag

1. Were you married at the time? YES!
2. What were your reactions when you found out you were pregnant? We were so excited and really surprised because with my Endometreosis we didn't think we could get pregnant and especially not 3 weeks after we were married!
3. How old were you? 24 years old
4. How did you find out you were pregnant? Dollar Store pregnancy test!!
5. Who did you tell first? My husband I woke up early and took the test and ran in and woke him up to tell him.
6. Did you want to find out the sex? Yes I am the type of person that needs to be prepared so the night before the ultrasound I rubbed my belly and told the baby to co-operate so we could find out and when it came time for the ultrasound she was not shy so we knew without a doubt that she was a girl!!
7. What was your due date? February 27th
8. Did you deliver early or late? I was 3 excruciating days late!!
9. Did you have morning sickness? Morning sickness? I wish. I had morning noon and night sickness. I had to take medication so that I would only throw up once or twice a day instead of all day my whole pregnancy!!
10. What did you crave? I didn't really crave anything it was more of choosing things that wouldn't be horrible to throw up!!LOL!!
11. Who irritated you the most? I didn't get really irritated. I was too busy puking my guts out!!
12. What was your first child's sex? GIRL
13. How many pounds did you gain throughout your pregnancy? about 15-20 I can't remember exactly. But as for after my pregnancy how many pounds I have gained that's a whole other story!!
14. Did you have any complications during your pregnancy? Just the pukingness
15. Where did you give birth? Magic Valley Regional Medical Center
16. How many hours were you in labor? 12
17. Who drove you to the hospital? Russell
18. Who was in the delivery room? Russell, my Mom, the doctor and the nurse from you know where...
19. natural or c-section? Natural
20. Did you take medicine to ease the pain? Yes first I tried to go natural but they put me on Pitocin and then I HAD to have an epidural because I couldn't breathe when I was having a contraction!!
21. How much did your child weigh? 6 lbs. 15 oz.
22. What did you name him/her?Kennadee Paige Eldredge
23. How old is your first born today? She is 3 years old.

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!!