We had an ultrasound today to check on baby and get a more accurate date. Looks like I am 7 weeks 2 days along, with due date of September 18, 2010.

If you want to follow the process of our adoption I started  a new blog just for that!

Please visit:

http://linnymilly.blogspot.com/

It is so nice having fresh eggs!!

I had them coming out of my ears! But a good friend stopped by and she took 2 dozen home!

There are 143 million orphans and 400 million vulnerable children in the world, according to UNICEF

By population, orphans would be the 8th largest country in the world

Somewhere in the world, a child dies every 5.2 seconds due to malnutrition, disease, or neglect.

• 16,600 die every day
• Over 6 million kids will die this year alone!

Each day 38,493 children age out of orphanages or government protection programs.

• Over 14 million this year
• Most with little or no skills to survive

In Russia, of those who age out of the orphanage system

• 10-15% commit suicide by age 18
• 60% of girls become prostitutes
• 70% of boys become hardened criminals

In the United States, there are 520,000+ kids in foster care

• 120,000 are immediately adoptable

In the New York foster system, 60% of the kids who age out end up homeless.

http://retailroi.org/Facts.aspx

Piano delivery that is! Grandpa Tim bought us a piano for Christmas. We are all so excited to learn - well David and I are really excited to learn! I checked out a bunch of books from the library. I am hoping to get a piano teacher to come to the house to give lessons.

Delivering the piano

trying it out

C1 decided he was more of a guitar guy!

I just love my girls!

Little miss C3 is getting so big! She is very proud of her printing and coloring.

 C4 is talking so much these days. She is so happy that she can jump!

Little Baby C isn't really much of a baby these days! I can't believe she will be a year in less than 3 months.

May you have
the spirit of Christmas
which is Peace,
the gladness of

Christmas
which is Hope,
and the Heart of

Christmas
which is Love .

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

The Mills Fam!!

Here are some random pictures taken this last week.

C4 helping move laundry from the laundry room to the folding room, aka my bedroom!

C2 and C3 reading together

Cheesy smile from C4

Mommy and C4

We made some yummy cookies the other day. Here are some pictures.

Daddy helping with the mixing of the frosting colors

Sampling the frosting - yum

C2 and C4 decorating some cookies

C4

Can I have one for breakfast??!

Some of the cookies

Thanks Jennifer for the recipe it was loved by all!

Getting our tree was quite the adventure this year! We went to a tree farm down the road and every tree that we found that was "the one" did not have a tag on it! Ugh! We went through the whole farm and did not find one tree! We were also freezing, it has been unusually cold up here in Washington. So we left that tree farm and headed to Costco to buy a fake tree- they were out! So we headed home with some pizza instead.

We tried again the next day - we drove up to the tree farm close to our old house and we found one! Yay!

Cutting it down

Timber!

C3 freezing!

Bringing it in the house

In the stand and waiting to be decorated

The decorating crew

The baby who stayed good the whole time!

C3 being goofy! The traditional candy cane from the tree farm.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. David's dad was here for a visit, it was so nice to see him again so soon after the last visit.

We had a chinese food feast with David's dad and our friends the DeB's. My good friend Leigh was also in town (sorry the reason for the visit wasn't more pleasant). We had a wonderful time together and enjoyed wonderful food!

The spread!

Appetizers- shirmp egg rolls, potstickers, and Coconut Shrimp Cakes

White rice and fried rice

Sea Scallops in Sweet Chili Sauce and Szchewan Shrimp.

Leigh and me

Thanksgiving day was wonderful we got together with another wonderful family (didn't get any pictures of them ). We shared the cooking so it really took the stress off the day. It was nice to come together and have some nice fellowship.

David and his dad with the naked bird!

The very hunky hubby with the very yummy bird

The girls and I made some pies and a pumpkin roll.

You can have a chance at winning a beautiful quilt! Just pop over to the marie-madeline studio for your chance to win!

We had a surprise visit from Grandpa Tim. We were all so happy to see him. The children enjoyed having him around - we don't get to see our family enough! We hope to see you again soon!

Reading

With the girls

The ladies over at marie-madeline studio are having a giveaway, leave a comment and you could win a gracie pattern and the fabric to make the skirt!

How cute is that?!!

We went on our first field trip with our homeschool co-op to Bob's Amazing Corn Maze. We had a great time and we are looking forward to going again.

We got to take a hay ride over to the maize maze (he he).

We walked around the back of the maze to set our stuff down at the bonfire.

And we explored the maze

We made it out no problem. Going back through we hit a couple dead ends!

My little savenger!

The girls would pick up the ears of corn that had fallen on the ground.

Uncle John enjoying the corn, too!

We roasted hot dogs and had smores - they were so yummy!

I loved that this corn maze had no witches, goblins, or jack o lanterns!! We don't celebrate halloween so it was nice not to see that stuff!

This what we saw instead! C3 wanted a picture with the calf! Notice the corn in hand!

Me and Baby C - bonfire is behind us.

The Mills Fam - one of these days we will have a picture where everyone is looking!

The children keep finding caterpillars and bringing them into the house! The kids and Uncle John were cracking up at the caterpillar traveling the world!

The kids made a home for the caterpillar

But later in the day we realized they had escaped! One was on the floor and the other we eventually found...

We did look up what this caterpillar would become and it is a Tiger Moth.  We let the caterpillars back outside so they could hibernate for the winter.

I love fall in the Pacific Northwest! The colors are amazing.

We had a burn pile going this morning, mostly our leftovers from making the coop.

David explaining about the fire, steam, smoke, etc.

The boys intently watching

C3 not wanting to be near the fire!

The children were excited to go see if we had eggs, here is a picture before we went to look for eggs in the nesting boxes.

At the nesting boxes

Eggs!

New hens

Surprise attack!

Tonia and Baby C

Swinging on the gate

C2 lost another tooth!

Uncle John

Blowing grass

Eating grass!?

Awwww

Blowing dandelions