a gigantic haven't-posted-forever big-update post

I know, it has been an eternity since I've posted. I'm having such a time balancing everything that needs to be done around here! If I'm caught up on housework I'm behind on everything else. But, I'm not going to whine about it. Being here on the farm and at home with my kids—I wouldn't have it any other way. Gotta love and hug this baby while I can...

Anyway, here is a roundup of highlights and lowlights since I last posted.

H I G H L I G H T S

1. After Christmas we went to the "center of Montana" (Lewistown) to visit my Grandpa and swim in the Yogo Inn pool with friends. The Yogo was a swanky hotel in its time... it's time was 1950 I think. Oh well, we had lots of fun.

 

 2. And then, for New Year's, we spent the weekend at a cabin (or "cabbage" as Sarah calls it) in West Yellowstone. "Mom, remember at the cabbage how we got to see our cousins?"

Here are a few of my favorite photos:

On the way down to Yellowstone we saw a couple of mountain goats, some elk, and a moose. That almost never happens. Pretty cool!

 

3. Abby is in Little Dribblers right now (as in basketball, not drooling as you might assume.) They each get to team up with a varsity player and get introduced on the floor at the beginning of a varsity game, and then they sit on the sideline for the first quarter. I thought that was a pretty cool way to get them excited and motivated. They get to have a scrimmage during halftime of a varsity game this week.

 

4. We've had plenty of snow so far this winter. Around here the wind usually comes along and does funny things with it.

 

The warm winds come after a few days of below zero weather, and the snow packs down to make a thick layer of ice on the roads. It rains on them and makes them really slick like a zamboni. Then it gets cold and snows and the cycle begins again. Point is, we are putting our ranch limo through its paces.

I do love the snow, though. We are getting more than we did for many years when I was growing up. The farmers around here hope its a sign that weather patterns are changing back after too many years of drought, bringing more moisture and better crops.

 

5. We love games. It's a favorite way to wind down around here, and we feel very lucky to have family around to play with often. (We do miss game night with our old neighbors, though! Hi S & A!) Speaking of games, did you know you can play scrabble on Facebook? Tom and I have a game going right now with Brad and Amy in Bozeman. Amy is kicking our hineys.

 

6. We had a little retirement/going-away party for my Uncle Bob & Aunt Marilyn. They are our closest neighbors and have been farming around here since before I was born. It will be sad to see them go for sure. This could almost go in my lowlights column except that would be selfish. it is happy occasion because we know they are excited and we are thrilled for them!

 

7. Progress has been a bit slow on the basement. This is because the guys have needed to haul grain to the elevators, mostly. You may wonder why slow progress would be in the highlights column. Well, that grain is our bread and butter, and if we don't sell it, there is no butter. No butter, no basement. I am just happy to have the guys spend their spare time on the house.

This is what has happened lately: Everything is painted, trim is going up, and doors are being hung. The bathroom is almost ready to tile. Carpet, cork, and tile have all been acquired. It is coming together! Tom has posted pictures on his page since he is really the one making the progress. He and my dad. We are so fortunate to have my dad's knowledge, skills, and efforts to get this project done as well.

 

L O W L I G H T S

(Is that even a word? It's not allowed in the scrabble dictionary. :)

1. We've had some sickies around here. Sarah had a mild fever for a couple of days. Abby had one solid day of throwing up and staying in bed, then bounced out of bed the next day ready for school. ??? I guess she hasn't learned how to milk it yet. Eva was sick for at least a week. We thought it was her ears. But then she was throwing up and not eating. I am soooo happy she is feeling better now and we are slowly gaining back lost ground with sleeping (not through the night yet) and eating. 

Speaking of eating, she hasn't been catching on to eating solid food very quickly.

This is pretty much what she thinks of it. But we are slowly making progress. We've discovered that she eats much better if she can feed herself, so we've been known to just dump a pile of mashed peas on her tray and let her go at it.

She absolutely refuses to take a bottle. She was taking one fine before she got sick, but now she won't have anything to do with it. I am still nursing her, but it would be nice to have a back-up option. It's been awhile since Tom and I have had a date.

 

But, fortunately, there have been no more lowlights besides the sickies. We try to make a practice of not complaining—it's a much happier life that way. And we just plain don't have much to complain about.

I hope I haven't bored you through this long haven't-posted-forever big-update post. I will probably have to sacrifice sleep to keep up with my posting going forward, but do I have some things to blog about. You know how everything in January has to do with either weight-loss or organizing? I have some things planned in both vents, so check back soon.

Christmas 2010 highlights—Christmas cards

Happy New Year!

Here was our Christmas card for this year:

It came together quickly this time, and I had someone (Snapfish) print it instead of printing it on my home printer like I usually do. Not the greatest quality, I suppose, but it was easy.

Just for fun, I will show you how we displayed our Christmas cards this year. I bought this card rack at an antique store our first year in Utah, and when I brought it home, Tom thought I was nuts. But we have put it to work holding our game console games and various things and I've never regretted the purchase. And Tom came around after awhile. :)

Christmas 2010 highlights—Santa in a small town

Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

He's everywhere! He's everywhere!

I'm going to dedicate this week to posting our highlights of the Christmas break. Hope you don't mind. This photos are from a few weeks ago when our little town had a cute little Country Christmas celebration. Most of the businesses joined in the festivities and there was a sweet little craft show in town as well.

Eva slept through the whole thing. Doesn't she look cozy?

(photos courtesy of my mom.)

Sarah's Christmas Program

Sarah had her little Christmas program on Sunday morning and it was so sweet. WARNING: This video is about 5 minutes long (the entire program!), and was shot for the sake of Grandmas & Grandpas & other relatives. If you don't fall under that category, you may just want to skip it. It won't hurt my feelings. :) But it's cute. I promise.

I'm glad to see Sarah isn't the only who picks her nose.

 

This is Sarah with her cute little buddy, Addison. They are so sweet dressed up in their Sunday best.

And here is the rest of my family, also dressed up in their Sunday best!

my babies

Just for fun, I found pictures of all my babies at Eva's current age, just to see how they compared.

Abby was long and lean then, too. And she was my early mover.

Sarah has always been more petite. Here she is wearing an outfit that Eva has already outgrown. I wish I could go back and visit that time with my first two. Life just goes by in a blur and its hard to remember the details.

At least we have little Eva to hug every day. We are just trying to soak it all in while it lasts. I can't believe she is 6 months old already!

Eva—6 month update

Eva reached the 6 month milestone on Saturday so we had to have a little photo shoot. I've chuckled at various Photographer friends of mine that post about 20 photos of their kids that look virtually the same because they can't narrow it down any more than that. I love it. Well, this momma can't bear to leave out any adorable chubby faces either. I started out with the intent of picking one good photo. You're really lucky there are only 8 posted here. I took about a million.

At her checkup today she weighed in at:
19.2 pounds (94th percentile)
27 inches long (86th percentile)

She is almost sitting completely on her own. She still topples over sometimes.

We think it won't be long before she is crawling, too. She does very well with her tummy time and rolls all over the floor.

In the food department, she doesn't seem too interested in eating from a spoon. We have tried a few things (mostly fruit and sweet potatoes) to test the waters and usually we are met with a grimace and a turned up nose. But hey—she has no lack for nourishment and I guess she will eat when she is ready. I was excited when yesterday she had her first bottle of formula and she drank the whole thing without complaint, even holding her own bottle. I was surprised because she has actually had very few bottles. I'm not planning to wean her any time soon, but it is nice to know she will take formula in a pinch.

In the sleep department—oh, the sleep department. Well, lets just say we have some work to do. She has a very very strong attachment to nursing and doesn't want to fall asleep without it. This presents a problem with night wakings because she always needs me to nurse her back to sleep. (For like an hour.) She wakes at least 3 times a night, sometimes a lot more. Most of the time I give up and bring her to bed with me because its the only way I can get some sleep. I'm really hoping bottle feeding her once in awhile will help.

And I am reading this book, thanks to a friend's recommendation:

Because I'm soft, I guess. Actually, I let her cry sometimes. I just refuse to let her cry for hours, and I'm afraid that is what it will take to get her sleeping through the night.

All I can say is, while I would really really really love to know what it feels like to my first full night of sleep in at least 6 months, I wouldn't give up the cuddle time I have with this sweetie for anything. Even at 3 in the morning.

Christmas program

Last Thursday Abby had her Christmas program at the school. It was called "The Reindeer Games". Being back in this auditorium brought back a flood of memories.

Sorry about the quality of the photo. It was taken on my phone because of course my camera battery died before Abby ever came on stage. As if you can see, she is on the back row (a familiar place—I was always on the back row too!) 4th from the left.

By the way, how lucky are they to have an auditorium like this? Most schools nowadays just have a stage in their gym/cafeteria.

Mia and Bailey

Our dog Mia and Annie's (my brother's fiancé) dog Bailey made fast friends over Thanksgiving weekend. They were so cute together. Here they were both looking longingly in the kitchen patio door window while we enjoyed our, like, fifteenth Thanksgiving dinner. (You have those too, right? Where you feel like you couldn't possibly eat another bite the rest of the weekend and yet you find yourself sitting down to yet another tasty meal?)

I just realized this is my second pet post in a row. Uh oh. I didn't even blog about my kids. I better move on before I become the crazy pet lady. I am NOT that person.

I promise next week to be back with something good. It has to do with Craig's List. Again. (I know. I have a problem!)

Zoe the cat

I almost forgot to introduce the newest resident on the farm. This is Zoe, our new cat. Like Mia, she was adopted from someone who no longer wanted her. I'm not sure why, because she is a sweet and well-behaved cat.

We needed a mouser, and she is supposed to be a good one. Although she has yet to catch any here. She also is supposed to be an outdoor cat, but as you can see from these photos, I am losing that battle. Everyone takes pity on her in the below zero weather, even though we tried to set up a cozy place for her in the garage. Oh well, with all the Mia hair around the house, I hardly notice the cat hair. Hmph.

Thanksgiving recap

How was your weekend? We had a lovely one. We were able to spend half of it with Tom's family and half of it with mine. Here is my father-in-law, spicing up the rotisserie beef that we had along with the turkey. Good food, good times.

We braved the snowy roads and COLD days. The kids loved playing outside. They are so resilient, aren't they?

We attempted to get a photo of Nanna and Papa with grandkids. Ha ha. Impossible, really, and we were even missing three! Really missing... Love you Hannah, Ilona, and Maddy!

I wish I had taken more photos, but I was too busy relaxing and playing games. We tried a few new ones: Ticket to Ride Days of Wonder Europe 1912 expansion (wow, that's a mouthful), Five Crowns, Settlers of America, and Scrabble Slam. Have you played them? I love games!

It's great to have a quiet day at home again to begin catching up. Oh, and do a little cyber Monday shopping. Christmas will be here so soon!

the difference between #1 and #3

I was contemplating whether or not to dress Eva for a trip to town or let her spend the day in her pajamas, and it struck me as a bit funny. Because this: I would have never missed an opportunity to dress up Abby when she was a baby. With Eva, the pajamas won, no contest. That isn't the only thing that has changed.

First baby: Her clothes must be adorable.
Third baby: Her clothes must be comfy and cheap. (Knits rule!)

First baby: You want every gizmo and toy available to entertain your baby.
Third baby: Teething? A spoon will do.

First baby: You carry around a bottle of hand sanitizer for everyone to use while holding your baby.
Third baby: You let your 5-year old stick her finger in the baby's mouth to sooth her.

First baby: You are careful to introduce only one new food every few days to avoid food allergies.
Third baby: You don't even blink when Grandpa tries to feed her ice cream.

First baby: Her first year is chronicled in a beautiful scrapbook.
Third baby: Not one photo has been printed.

First baby: Every milestone is carefully recorded in her baby book.
Third baby: Every milestone is blogged about!

There is nothing like a first baby. Everything is new and exciting and you are ripe with the desire to be the best mom you can be. But there is a lot of sweetness in just relaxing and enjoying what comes your way the third time around too. I love being a mom!