Eva at 4-1/2 months

Isn't she cute?

But how are you supposed to get these little stinkers TO SLEEP???? At her 4 month appointment her doctor said I could start her on cereal anytime. So last week I decided to give it a try to see if it would help her sleep longer at night. For awhile now, Eva has been falling asleep at around 9:30 PM, waking at around 2:00 and 5:00 AM to eat, and then waking up for the morning about 7:30. Not terrible, but not great. (My first two slept through the night at 6 weeks!) Anyway, I tried the cereal and got the exact opposite affect I was going for. For several nights now she is waking up just about every hour and won't go to sleep without being nursed. This little chubbers doesn't need to eat that much! She just loves to nurse and won't take a pacifier. Last night around 3 AM I gave up and went to bed and listened to her scream for a good half hour. Finally Tom got up and walked her around for awhile and put her in her swing, where she finally slept for a few precious hours.

Any suggestions? She would be happy just going to bed with me every night (latched on almost all night!) but that is not a habit I want to encourage. Help! (I stopped the cereal after the first two nights of this. And I think she is teething.)

Oh well, we still love her to peices! I'm sure there will be a day when I will get to feel what a full nights sleep feels like again.

Halloween window painting

Halloween window painting has been a tradition in our small town at least since my dad was a kid. (50 years or more?) Anyway, the highlight of our week was watching Abby paint her window. They are pre assigned a window, and hers was at the H-O Parts Store. This is significant because it drove her theme idea:

 

Get it? It reads {SALE TODAY, Jack-o-lantern parts. "H-O"ppy "H-O"lloween}

The best part of the whole thing was the "meeting" Abby called the night before to come up with her idea. She set up chairs and her new easel (Thanks, Paula!) and we all contributed ideas, and voted on them. I thought she was pretty clever.

I'm not sure when/if they will announce the winners. Maybe in next week's River Press.

family photo update

We added some new photos to our "about me" page, and we invite you to check them out. Here are a few other favorite photos from our little photo shoot, accomplished with a tripod, a couch, a grain bin, and a little help from mom.

 

closet clues

They say your closet provides many clues to what colors you might like in your home. I decided to test the theory.

 

If its true, my home should be filled with lots of neutrals and a few pops of color. It would be filled with texture and natural materials like leather, and include just a few scattered prints. Sounds about right! I decorate with a lot of greens, though, and that seems to be missing in my closet.

So, yes, I am aware I have lots of shoes and boots. I have lots of clothes too. Actually, half of them are hanging in Eva's closet right now. I've found I don't need half as many now that I'm not working in a professional office. Its hard to let them go, though! I'm going to have to pare down though if I am going to make these closets work.

This is our closet wall:

There is a nice bank of drawers between our two closets, which is handy since we don't have a dresser. I need to draw up some plans for how to accommodate a larger master bath, and I will also need to decide of those plans should include a walk-in closet. More space would certainly be nice. But then I would probably have to let go of these funky closet doors. And part of me thinks I should just simplify and meet the challenge of only keeping what fits in this closet. That might be a tall order.

One thing I know for sure, if I keep this closet I am going to need to install a proper closet rod.

We have this same contraption in our hall coat closet except the end cap on the rail is missing on one side. So when you scoot the coats over to get one out, several go sliding off the other end. Hmmm... good thing closet rods are cheap!

So, what should I do? Keep the closets and get rid of clothes, or keep the clothes and build a bigger closet?

Amma's blankets

My mom (Amma to the girls) has crocheted each one of my babies these sweet blankets when they were babies. The first two fit their personalities rather well- Abby's an elegant lacy design, and Sarah's ruffly and girlie. It looks like Eva is going to develop into a colorful and sweet little thing. :)

plum tree

This is the lone tree in our backyard. It needs a little pruning and TLC, and you can see where the bugs have eaten the leaves. But I'm told its a plum tree, and the plums are prolific. I wonder if they're any good? I've been kind of afraid to try them, and now it is freezing at night so I'm afraid I might have missed my chance.

a new bed

A good mattress is crucial for a good nights sleep (so is a sleeping baby, but that's beside the point), and we decided it was time for a new one. We first opted for a Simmons Ouderrkirk (when we were told it was the very same mattress as the Westin Heavenly bed), but what they failed to tell us was that it was a "comfort swap", meaning someone had slept on it for 30 days and decided they didn't like it. We could tell right away it had been slept on and immediately did our own comfort swap. This time we choose this non-pillow top variety that wouldn't compress as much and leave dents, but would still provide plenty of cush.

Tom wanted to go with a King-sized bed this time, which means buying a new bed frame also. For now, the mattress sits on the floor. One bed I have always liked is this Farmhouse bed from Pottery Barn:

It's much like our old Queen-size bed we bought from Ethan Allen. I've seen it before at Down East Home in Salt Lake for half price, but not quite sure we can haul it home (if we are even lucky enough to find it on one of our trips to visit). I have seen plans for it on Ana-White, so maybe we could built it?

Or we could go with a more sleek style like this:

or this:

But both of these options are more than I would like to spend. We also need to buy new bedding eventually. I have no idea what I want so I'll probably just wait for something to jump out at me. For now we are getting by with our old queen bedding (except for the sheets). If you don't make your bed, it doesn't matter what it looks like anyway, right? :)

So can you help me out? What do you like? Have you seen any beds or bedding out there that you just love?

 

new roof—before and after

Our roof is finished! Here are a few before and after photos:

The roof a light greenish color and was definitely showing some wear, as you can see.

The new roof is darker and looks great.

 

It's going to look so much better when we get the trim painted! (Not blue.) And some landscaping done. And a new deck/rail. Small things.

What do you think? Do you like the new look? Is it an improvement?

Another year older

Today Abby turns 8 (eight!) and Sarah just had her 5th birthday. We opted for another combined small family party, but this might be the last time we do that. It complicates things more than it simplifies. (I still made 2 cakes!)

Here are some pictures from their celebration. It was special to have Nana and their cousins come to help them celebrate.

 

^ What does this do?^ Whoa!^ Sweeet! Cofetti!^ Now you try it! ^ We can't forget about Farmer Dad's birthday.Read about Tom's birthday present adventures here. Another October birthday month come and gone!

 

new roof

We're getting a new roof! It is much needed, as evidenced by a few spots inside the house:

They've been making a racket up there for the past week, but of course we don't mind since it represents progress. Eva has even learned to sleep through the hammering. Stay tuned for some before and after pics very soon!

Eva is 4 months old today!

Eva at four months is a whopping 16 lbs. 14 oz. (96%)! She is about 83% for height. The doctor said she is doing great. But we already knew that. :) I told my mom today its a good thing she is so cute or we would send her back and get a better sleeper. No, we would never do that. But we might have her "reprogrammed" to sleep better. Ha. If only.

Nevertheless, we are enjoying her so much. Her newest pasttime is rolling over onto her belly. Or doing the half twist as shown below. She doesn't know what to do with herself once she gets there, however.

We braved taking all 3 girls in at once for their well-child visits. Eva and Sarah both had 3 shots each (poor things!) but now Sarah is all ready for Kindergarten. Sarah weighed and measured in the 40% range, while Abby was her typcial 96% for height and low 70s for weight. Tall and slim.

After the doctor visits we did a little scouting for things for our home—a preliminary look at lighting, tile, carpet, etc. It was very overwhelming. I'm actually quite glad I'm not planning the entire house at the same time. I have a feeling I would make alot of rash decisions and compromises if I had to do the entire thing at once. Hopefully, though, I'll be able to show some progress before too long!

jam session

Today I'm loving this video from here. I sat here holding my baby and we watched it together about 5 times. I love the spontaneity of it all. Beautiful. It makes me want to get my cousins together and have a little jam session.

By the way, I found this on one of my favorite blogs, cjane enjoy it. If you've never read it, you should. This girl really knows how to feel life. She's funny, too.

Atomic Ranch magazine review

As I mentioned before, I received my first issue of Atomic Ranch this weekend. (If you missed it, its a magazine about midcentury ranch houses.) I was anxious to devour it, and I did just that on our 5 hour car ride to Red Lodge last weekend. (How luxurious to have time to sit and peruse a magazine front to back in one sitting!) Anyway, the first thing I noticed was the lighting on the front cover:

They looked pretty familiar. Remember this?

Most of the homes featured in the magazine take a purist approach to preserving midcentury architecture and design. I don't have a problem with that, per say, but most of these homes were also designed by famous architects like Eichler and Cliff May and have beautiful details like post and beam ceilings and hardwood floors. The house on the cover was very well preserved (original double ovens even!) and so they were able to keep the original cabinets and many other features.

I suppose it makes me feel a little guilty about all the things I want to change rather than preserve in my house. But our house was built a bit later (early 70's, whereas this magazine usually features homes built in the 50's and 60's) and really, would they be as game to preserve popcorn ceilings and shag carpets?

Another great home in this issue did show a kitchen that was was almost all new (aside from the original cabinetry which was refinished.) I had to laugh when I saw the original photo though. Bowling-ball blue laminate counter tops! Would you keep them?

The reason they sited for changing them was that they were "falling apart at the seams". I wonder if they would have kept them if they were in perfect condition.

I did really enjoy the magazine and even though I won't be keeping every original detail in my house, the magazine still provides plenty of inspiration for how to preserve the character of our home. I plan to get some of the available back issues to soak up even more ideas.

Eva's announcements

Another project on my list that I finally completed a couple of weeks ago was Eva's announcements and thank you notes. You don't mind if I show them off a little, do you?

 

For the background of both I used the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions die for Big Shot by Stampin' Up!, and this ribbon. The rest I designed myself and printed on my inkjet. It was a lot of work, but I couldn't not do it! The other girls each have one, and its a great memento.

Speaking of Stampin' Up!, I signed up to be a demonstrator when I left the company in June. I haven't started doing any workshops yet really— I'm been too busy getting settled—but if you are in need of any product, I would be happy to help you out. Note: I don't plan on using this website to promote my Stampin' Up! business, so please forgive this one little plug.

Eva is quickly approaching 4 months old now, and I can't beleive how fast time flies. She was only 3 days old in these photos! She is getting so sweet and smiley, and we even catch a little giggle now and then. We have her 4 month appointment on Monday, so I'll have an update soon on her growing progress. Chow for now!

Welcome to Montana Prairie Tales!

Welcome to the blog formerly known as tomandjoandco. I hope you like the new digs! The scenery is new, inspired by the colors of our landscape here on the farm (big blue sky, green fields, and golden wheat). But the biggest change is the addition of the "His Tales" page where Tom will chronicle his own adventures here on the farm. (There are links for the feeds to both pages in the right column.) I will forward the old blog here, but please remember to update your readers and bookmarks! Please be patient while we work out any bugs and move all of our content over. We have added an "About Me" page that tells a little about our story (photos coming soon!). We hope you visit often and leave your comments!

Under Construction

Happy Hump Day, everyone! I hope you are having a good week. I just thought I would pop in and tell you I'll be taking another short break from posting while I work on some changes to our blog.
When we made the big move to Montana, I made plans to do a lot more posting. I also decided then that it was time for our blog design to grow up a little, and I am finally getting around to making those changes. I will be back on Monday with the new scenery!

Tom and I are heading out for the weekend to a Young Farmers conference. We are hoping to make some new farmer friends and network a little. Today, my first issue of Atomic Ranch arrived in the mail, and I am so excited to bring it along on the trip for something to read! I'll let you know if I find some good inspiration.

See you next week!