i can't believe christmas is almost here! exciting! there is so much happening in the next two weeks and it is all so exciting. i have eager anticipation! max comes home saturday morning, we will be married tuesday evening, christmas festivities will then abound, followed by our reception the following sunday afternoon. then, less than a week later, we will be leaving for north carolina! crazy!

wedding news...got pretty much all of the big stuff done and planned. so now it's on to small details and exact timelines of what needs to happen when. still to do...meet with pastor, work on programs, finalize decorations, figure out guestbook, arrange times for arrivals. it's been fun working on all the details and plans. and i am so excited. in one week, i will be a married woman! i will no longer be a degraff! crazy! it's a lot to take in and sometimes i have to stop and really think about the fact that this is all actually happening! i am so incredibly excited and can't wait to marry my best friend! i know that neither of us are perfect and that things will not always be easy or fun, but i know that being married to max will be good. i am excited to figure life out with him, together, ultimately leaning on the strength of jesus. woot for weddings!!!

eliana is doing well. still working on a daily routine for her. it's been going well. pretty flexible, although she typically takes a nap in the morning, early afternoon and early evening, with good stretches of being awake in between. and she has still been sleeping really good at night. usually sleeps a 5-7 hour stretch, wakes up and eats and goes back to sleep for another 4 hours or so. i have not been lacking on sleep which is great! this week i have also started pumping, so that we can get a supply of milk accumulated for when max and i go away for a few days. that means that i will have him start giving her a bottle this weekend. we'll see how she does with that!

update on her little solitary kidney...we went in for a visit to the pediatric urologist and based on her ultrasound results, eliana currently has what is called hydronephrosis. this means that the area where the uretur connects to the kidney from the bladder is enlarged. this could mean that there is a blockage in the uretur or that urine is refluxing back to the kidney (which is not good because it could take infection into her kidney, which is dangerous seeing that it is her only kidney) or that the uretur is just all s-shaped because she is so little. so, we have another test in a two weeks, to see whether the urine is refluxing back into the kidney. this test is called a vcug and entails putting a catheter into her bladder (not very comfortable) and filling her bladder up with some form of liquid that they can see on a scan. then they'll look to see if it goes back into her kidney. kinda cool! although not very fun for her. currently, she is on antibiotics to keep infections from potentially getting to her kidney. otherwise, is completely healthy. she weighs in at almost 11 pounds and is just about 23 inches long!

we'll be taking a road trip come january...we decided that we wanted to spend as much time as possible as a family, so eliana and i are going to live in charlotte for the month of january. we will be staying with my great-aunt and great-uncle there. on the weekends, max will come visit us or we will go visit him in jacksonville. that way we'll be able to see him more often than if we stayed here. we'll stay down there until he deploys (which is looking like february timeframe). once he is off and away, we will trek back to minnesota, where we will stay until he returns. i am excited, as it means just a few more days with him before he leaves the country for quite awhile. it's hard to comprehend that he'll be gone and by gone, it means more than just a few states away. but we'll get through.

ok, i think those are most of the big updates with us!