We're back from our quick trip to Mankato for Grandpa's funeral. It would be so nice to spend a couple days there - at least - but right now it's just not possible between me having a paper route and Cory working weekends. As it was, the sub I had lined up for the route cancelled the night before we left. I feel awful about leaving my boss hanging like that, although I did let him know as soon as I could and had told him about a week prior to that about needing a sub. I still have a job, though, so it must have worked out okay.

We left Thursday morning, which also happened to be Ella's fourth birthday! Before we left, Ella opened her gifts. She is a huge Dora the Explorer fan and received a Dora doll as well as Dora's twin brother and sister dolls. How convenient that Cory and I had found those on clearance at Kmart not long ago. We also gave her a new bike helmet and shoulder & knee pads, which she tried out right away despite the cold, rainy weather. Last, but not least, we added to Ella's beloved Pookie book collection with the latest.

On our way out of town, we stopped for a free breakfast at HyVee. For the past several years, our local HyVee has had an annual Harvest Breakfast that is free to the public. You receive a heaping plate of scrambled eggs, sausages, a cinnamon roll, and oj or coffee. It always draws a huge crowd and was very yummy.

Ella's wish for her birthday had been to go to Chuck E Cheese, so we stopped at the one in Sioux Falls on our way to Mankato. That's also where we lunched. We ended up spending about two hours there, and all four of the kids had a blast. We hadn't been to a Chuck E Cheese for more than a year, too, so that probably added to the thrill.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and we headed straight for the funeral home in New Ulm to attend the visitation. The visitation lasted about three hours, and we spent the time visiting with many friends and relatives. It was really nice seeing so many people come to pay their respects to Grandpa. After the visitation, the majority of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren headed to my grandparent's place so everyone could have a chance to look through all of the things that had been left out and pick out things they wanted. It's really an odd feeling to go through belongings like that, but it's also necessary since everything will have to find a home eventually. There were a few things I wanted for sentimental value, including one of Grandpa's bibles. I picked one out that he received in 1969, and when I was looking through it after returning home, I found some handwritten notes, including one where he listed passages he had questions about and had even written some things in Greek. I also returned home with my grandma's sewing machine and all of her sewing supplies. I've never sewed, so this will be interesting. Accalia is very excited. I think I caved in to the peer pressure of my cousin Rachel and sisters-in-law Jessica and Kathy - all sewing machine owners - staring me down and challenging me to take it. Thanks guys!

The funeral itself was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I'm not sure if it was the finality of both grandparents being gone, but it hit me harder than it seemed to with Grandma. I also had a hard time joining in singing the hymns. I would choke up every time one would start because I would immediately hear my grandpa's distinctive voice singing it instead.

We had to leave right after the service at the cemetery and made it home without incident. Cory worked last night, so that's why we were rushing once again.

Now we're preparing for the Halloween festivities! Cory is going to take the older three trick or treating this afternoon to the downtown area. The businesses always hand out candy for a couple hours, and I'm going to take that time to set up a little Halloween party I planned for the kids. Then we'll go trick or treating again in the evening. We're just going to go on our immediate block, and then Cory wanted to drive to a few different neighborhoods in town where the kids could actually walk door to door rather than trudging along looking for lit houses. Unfortunately we live in an area that is kind of hit or miss for trick or treating. I'm not sure if I'll go with them or stay home with Tylan and hand out candy. It depends on the weather and on Tylan's mood.

Now I have some party preparations to take care of while everyone is still sleeping.

Wow, I've gone more than a month now without updating! No really, I'm not trying to set any records. If you're truly craving somewhat regular updates from me, Facebook is probably your best bet at this point.

My grandfather passed away last Saturday, less than two months after my grandmother passed away. Of course we'll miss him greatly, but at the same time we're so relieved that he's no longer in pain or having difficulty breathing and that he doesn't have to be without his wife of 62 years anymore. I'm sad thinking that I have no more living grandparents - neither does Cory - and that I'm no longer someone's grandchild.

I wish I could say that all is happy and joyful on the home front, but that's far from the truth. I'm feeling so incapable as a parent right now. It seems that all four children are going through huge transitions, and I can't do anything to make things okay. Accalia's really having a difficult time with losing her close friends a couple months back. It's finally hit her that her BFF isn't next door and isn't coming over to visit like she thought would happen. She's lonely and wants her friends, and I wish I could make friends instantly appear. I talk with her about how all transitions are hard and that if she can make it through this, it will be so much better on the other side. She's joined 4-H and will have her first meeting next month, and I said that's the perfect place for her to make new friends. Keeping my fingers crossed... The good news is that she absolutely loves her ballet class and is extremely excited about the recital piece she's started to learn.

Cole is also having a hard time, and I think it's partly due to friends moving away, too. He's also been so intensely involved with legos and Indiana Jones and is now starting to lose interest and ideas for these things. That's been hard on him as he seems to be at a loss of what to do - of a new, intense interest to grab him.

Ella continues to challenge me daily as a parent. She's developed this screech when she's upset, and lately she seems upset a lot. She likes to use it in stores, too, when she wants something and doesn't have it and immediately goes into the screech mode that causes everyone around to stop and stare. Yes, you're welcome other parents. I'm the parent you're all relieved not to be at that moment. Someone has to take the job, right? At the same time, I can see little ways that she's learning more patience and more understanding. It's just taking a while. She turns four tomorrow, so maybe that will be a magical turning point!

Tylan is practically running everywhere now. Leaps and bounds with everything. Teeth are coming in. Hair is growing. Height is increasing. Verbal and physical skills improve every day. That means there's a lot of restlessness at night and a lot of frustration during the day when things don't go as planned.

And yes, I know that when the parents are stressed, that leaks to the children and can cause less than desirable behavior. I'm trying to work on that. Just feeling stressed and incapable and ick. Wishing I had a more positive blog update since I do that so rarely lately.

I've started posts in the recent past but have always been interrupted by waking children or children who want my help, etc., so I'm just deleting everything and starting over. I remember those days when I would blog nearly every day, and now it's been nearly one month. Yikes!

Since late August, Cole has had his seventh birthday, which was celebrated mainly with a very rainy camp out that featured a surprise appearance by Grandpa Greve. It was so great driving to our site and seeing my dad sitting there by the campfire. Cole was like a puppy, his entire body shaking with excitement.

Now my birthday will be coming this Tuesday, and I'll be welcoming the big 3-3. I think Cory may try to take that day off from work, but I don't think we have anything else really planned. Originally, Cory was going to be gone nearly this entire week for training in Chamberlain, but that training will now be in November.

The kids are doing great, and so far we've all been healthy for quite a stretch. The only medical issue for the kids has been Accalia's ankle. Last Monday at soccer practice, a teammate accidentally kicked Accalia in the ankle, and I ended up taking her to the doctor the next day because she was barely able to walk on it and it was so swollen. The next day the bruises showed up. No breaks or sprains, but she really got quite the bruise. She's pretty much walking without a limp now, and I think she'll probably go to practice tomorrow. She missed out on a game yesterday, so we just had Cole's game in the morning. Go Panthers!

Tylan, now 13 months, has started taking more and more steps in just the past day or two and is making it 5 or 6 in a row. I'm kind of dreading the improvement in physically abilities since I know how much more work comes for the parent when there's walking and climbing involved, but it's still so much fun to see those leaps and bounds in development. More and more words are trying to be spoken, too. It's always neat to hear what your baby's voice sounds like after waiting so many months.

Still no toilet use from Ella, but her cognitive abilities are going full steam ahead. So, maybe she's just focusing on that development right now and will get to the physical stuff soon after. Let's hope! While both Accalia and Cole tend to go along with groups of kids more than being the instigator, Ella seems to be a natural at taking the lead. At soccer games, for instance, we'll suddenly find Ella with a band of kids, leading them around in play.

Cole's world lately has consisted of legos and Indiana Jones. He also likes staying up a bit later than the rest of us so he can build with legos in peace. He'll also sit at the computer and watch YouTube videos involving legos and Indiana Jones.

Accalia seems to have a million different things she divides up her time with and lately has spent a lot of time with her magazines and puzzle books. The two of us are very excited that the new season of Bones has started again. We had a lot of fun watching Seasons 1-3 over the summer so she could see everything from the beginning.

Once Tylan wakes up from her nap, the kids and I are heading to the library. They want books similar to "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" and "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat."

My maternal grandmother passed away early this morning at her home with all of her children and my grandmother with her. She was 83 years old and lost her final battle with cancer. She was very prepared to die, though, and was looking forward to leaving this world and seeing what Heaven has in store for her.

So, even though she lived a long, full life and was ready to die, it doesn't make a difference in how much you miss that person. I discovered that with Mary. I think one of the biggest blessings of being able to prepare for a death like my grandma and her loved ones did is that you have this opportunity to just be together, laughing, crying, talking, sharing memories. You can say things that you may not have thought to say when a death is more sudden. That doesn't mean there aren't things you'll forget to say or do, but it definitely lessens the chance of regrets in that way. Just yesterday I was thinking about how nice it would be if Grandma were still alive to see the new pictures of Tylan and Cole that will probably be ready tomorrow. In one picture, Tylan is holding a flower and has a slightly devious smile on her face. I can just picture Grandma exclaiming, "Oh!" and telling me how pretty the picture is and how sweet Tylan looks holding that flower.

Grandma was one of the sweetest, calmest people I've ever known. I'm not sure if I ever heard her raise her voice. My mom takes after her so much in personality. Grandma always had something nice to say about you and was always so interested (or at least acted interested!) in what was going on with you. She always seemed to have a little treat for you, too. On our last trip to Mankato - at the beginning of the month - she had a bag of cheese doodles for the kids to take home. One of my favorite things she gave me when I was little was a little tin box with a handle. It had a strawberry design, and I think note paper was inside of it at one point. I may even still have that somewhere in the house. I know I kept it for many, many years.

Going to Grandma and Grandpa's house when they lived at the parsonage in Sanborn has so many happy memories associated with it. I loved that house. I imagine if I walked through it today it may not seem so large and magical, but as a child it was my dream house. I loved the sliding pocket doors that separated Grandpa's study from the living room. I thought it was so neat that their main floor bathroom had two (two!) doors - one opening to the study and one to the kitchen. I remember sitting at the long dining room table and coloring from a book or on paper from a drawer that always was full of something fun to do. Upstairs there was a playroom that opened up from their bedroom. The toys included dolls, games and other odds and ends that my mom and her siblings played with as children. Even the basement was exciting because we were able to go down to the refrigerator there and pick out a pop. I think I usually chose grape.

Even though it's been more than a dozen years since I lived near my grandparents, I will dearly miss her presence in my life both far and near. I can't tell you how happy I am that she was able to be close to so many family members during the latter part of her life, too.

Wow, one month since I last updated! I don't think I've ever done this poor of a job staying up to date. Life is just busy, busy, busy. Tylan, now one year old (!), is also at an age where the ability of Mommy to sit down and focus on something like the computer happens rather infrequently, especially with just one computer in a house where five people like to use it. Oh well. Just a stage of life...

So, let's see what's been happening.

I've had a paper route for about a month now and it doesn't completely suck. I get up at 3:15 a.m. Monday through Saturday to do the route, and I'm back home in two hours or less. If all works out, I can go back to bed for a couple hours before kids start waking up, which really helps. If I don't get to go back to bed, I average about four hours of sleep for the night, which isn't enough for me. The biggest drawback, other than the early mornings, is having to be here six out of seven days of the week. That means that overnight trips aren't happening unless I can locate a sub. I'm getting ready to pursue a work at home position that would be about 20 hours per week and would certainly pay more than the paper route. I hope it will be something that works out, especially since we need to update some computer software in order to move forward.

I'm also about a month into writing for examiner.com as the Sioux Falls Breastfeeding Examiner. I need to start working on another article for that right now. It's definitely not high paying since I get basically a penny for each page view, but I can see how that may add up to a little something as I build my archives and my articles show up in searches.

My LLL work has been getting rather neglected lately, and that has to change. I have to actually get on a bit more of a schedule. That is going to be very tough for me since I happily threw out schedules a decade ago when I became a full time mother, but I will need to figure something out for myself, especially if I start part time work from home.

There have been big changes in our extended family. Cory's dad remarried August 1, and he now lives in Okabena, MN, with his wife, Joan. Myron was just here on Saturday for part of the day to enjoy the Riverboat Days festivities (in particular a turkey leg) and to watch Accalia and Cole's dance performances.

On a somber note, my Grandma Eibs is nearing the end. She was sent home from the hospital last week after being admitted for a bowel obstruction, and is now under hospice care. My mom doesn't think it will be more than a week or so at this point, but you never know how things will turn out. We thought the same with Cory's mom, and she hung on for a month or so even though she desperately wanted to go.

Accalia and Cole have had a summer of big changes, too. Unfortunately, part of that is losing their four closest friends due to moves. The next door neighbors moved across town because the mom and her boyfriend moved in together. I think Accalia is keeping in touch a bit through email. The hope had been that they'd be able to get together to play every once in a while, but I have a sinking feeling that their mom isn't going to help out with that at all. Their other friends are moving back to Louisiana and may actually be on their way or will be this week. The kids are handling this fairly well actually, but now we're on the search for regular playmates once again. They're hoping that whoever moves in next door will have kids around their ages.

Ella continues to be my most challenging, and I don't necessarily mean that in a negative way. I've just never dealt with some of the things that she's bringing to the table, and I need to continue to see this as a way to expand my parenting rather than just as a source of frustration. The biggest thing right now is that she refuses to use the toilet. She'll be four at the end of October and absolutely refuses to use the toilet. She'll willingly go to sit on the toilet and go through all of the motions of wiping, flushing, washing, etc. but won't actually pee or poop. I know in the back of my mind that she'll be out of diapers before I know it, but it's really frustrating to me because I just can't figure out what's going on. Both Accalia and Cole were past three when they were out of diapers for good, but it was never like this. Any gentle, respectful tips for handing this would be welcome!

Tylan is on the verge of full on toddlerhood. She's walking around furniture or wherever she can hang on and will stand on her own, but she hasn't taken her first step yet. I think she'll probably do this in the next week or two. She also hasn't had any teeth pop through yet, but I see them just below the surface on the bottom, and her top gums are so swollen. She'll have a mouth full of teeth in an instant, and I know I'll miss this year plus of gummy grins. She's such a ham, too. She loves nothing more than to do things to make her siblings laugh and to have them make her laugh.

We're cooling off in the air conditioning today since it's around 90 and humid. We took a walk earlier and hung out by the creek that runs through our part of town. We saw a bunch of tiny fish - minnows, mosquitofish, who knows? - a dead crayfish, and a furry little animal that darted in and out of a tunnel so quickly that we didn't get to see whether it was a muskrat or a beaver. We also got to check out some elderberry and wild grape vines.

The van is at the auto body shop for a day or two in order to repair the damage from the car accident I had a few weeks ago. An elderly man driving a minivan went through an intersection as I was going through, and that means a new hood for the van. Thankfully for us he was completely at fault, so his insurance is handling everything.

Okay, that's about it for now. I need to get to a few things, but Tylan is nursing and napping right now, so my abilities are a little limited.

Tylan is apparently helping me prepare for my new early morning gig. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to have a paper route. Yep, that'll take me back to my tween years. It's not a huge amount of money, obviously, but will help us out financially. I've been searching for work I could do at home or without having to leave the kids with a babysitter, and that's been pretty unsuccessful so far. My plan - as often as the weather cooperates - is to just put Tylan in the sling and let her snooze while I do the route. I won't be able to do that tomorrow, though, because I'll be riding along in the paper's van to be trained in by the manager. I'm rather nervous that Tylan won't stay asleep and will be inconsolable during this early morning time, but hopefully it won't take longer than an hour or so.

Yesterday Cory's dad drove down here to drop off some furniture that he doesn't need/want as he prepares to leave the house in Lake Wilson and move in with his soon-to-be wife. He brought us three dressers, one full size bed, one roll away bed, a couple small side tables, and a few misc. things. Now the challenge will be finding a place for everything! Cory is replacing his dresser with one that was actually his mom's, and Cole is also replacing his dresser. We'll now have enough dressers for each member of the family, but we'll have to store the extras away for now.

After lunch I'm taking Accalia and Cole to the library so they can take part in a lego building contest. Their plan as of last night was to construct a park scene. I think I'll probably take Ella and Tylan somewhere else. Going to the library with Ella can be very challenging at times depending on her mood and whether other young children are present. Sometimes we can go and Ella will quietly do the puzzles or play with the puppet theater and look at books. Other times, though, she'll see a new playmate and want to play more loudly and actively than is appropriate for a library. What drives me crazy about many of these times is that the parents of the other kids just sit there (or aren't even in the same area of the library) and watch their kids getting louder and more wild as I try to remove Ella from the situation. Ah, how I long for those days when she was much lighter and distraction worked well. Now Ella will look at me and say, "Go look at books, Mommy!" and point to the other side of the library.

Next weekend will be a busy and interesting time. Myron is getting married next Saturday, August 1, and we'll be driving to Minnesota that morning for the wedding. Afterwards, we'll keep going for a quick trip to Mankato since we haven't been there for a while.

I can't believe how quickly time has been passing lately. We're already entering mid July! Tylan is a little over a month away from her first birthday, and in just a few weeks Cory's dad will be getting married. We're having another summer of just sticking around Yankton, and we aren't even getting trips to Mankato in like we usually do. We did go up to Mitchell to the drive in to see Up last Tuesday, and that was pretty fun except for the hail storm!

There's usually something going on every day. Monday's are ballet, Tuesdays are gymnastics and tumbling. Tuesdays and Thursdays are swimming lessons. Wednesdays and Fridays are library programs. The kids are really enjoying everything, and since it's only an hour or so at a time for each thing, no one is feeling burnt out or wanting more down time. Accalia and Cole would probably like more time with the neighbors, but it's been hit or miss over the past couple weeks. When their mom isn't working, they're spending more time hanging out with their mom's boyfriend. Accalia and Cole were pretty upset a month or so ago when the neighbors told them they were probably going to move to the boyfriend's house at the end of summer, but I don't know if that will actually happen. Their mom seems to have a new boyfriend each summer, so I'm not going to hold my breath that she'll disrupt their lives that much for a man.

While usually I just wish time would slow down so that I can actually accomplish something, sometimes it just hits me how much the kids are growing and changing.

Accalia, at 10, is at an in between stage where she still gets excited about Spongebob and Tinkerbell, but is also just as happy about emailing a friend or trying out new hair accessories. She's such a sweet, sweet girl. She's a thinker, too, and rarely lets me know what she's thinking or doing until she suddenly demonstrates it. She showed me her choreographed dance routine to the song Kryptonite the other day, and it was easily something I see the senior girls do for their individual routine at the dance recital. Her latest interest has been with math - multiplication in particular. I don't even remember what spurred that, but she spent part of her allowance the other week on flash cards of all things.

Cole, creeping up on 7, seems to be going through quite the emotional time. He easily cries at night as he gets more tired and finds so many things to be upset about at the end of the day as he's lying in bed. He's quite the thinker, too, but unlike Accalia he likes to talk everything out. I remember 7 being a hard age for me with Accalia because she seemed so distant and inaccessible as she went through these changes. Now with Cole, he's verbalizing a lot of the process that he's going through.

Ella, 3, has had quite the leap in her verbal skills over the past couple months. Unfortunately, she's had no leap in her toileting abilities. I know it's going to happen and probably soon, but there's always that point where you wonder if you're child will be in diapers forever. Ella's doing a lot of imaginative play, which is becoming more and more elaborate.

Tylan, 10 months, is becoming quite the force to be reckoned with at this point. She's only still if she's fast asleep. If she's awake, she's crawling, climbing, standing, etc. The fun thing for the older kids this week has been watching Tylan stand on her own for three seconds at a time. Tylan continues to try out all sorts of sounds, too, but isn't really saying much in the way of recognizable words. She's said mama before, and she'll often say something that either sounds like Ella or wawa.

I have a lot I'm trying to do but am not sure that I'm actually making progress. I should be focusing more on LLL work, but my computer time has been so limited lately. I've been looking into possibilities for work to do at home or at least with the kids being able to be around because we're desperately in need of additional income. I'm not sure how quickly I'll succeed in that, but I'm open to suggestions!

More sleep would be a good thing, too. This past week has been marked by too little sleep on my end. Here's hoping we can start out the week on a much more well rested note!

This poor, poor blog has really been neglected lately. It's just something about the month of June. I've fallen behind on everything I've wanted/needed to do. So, since my last blog post:

- Accalia has turned 10. I now have a child in the double digits!!!
- We had a fun family camp out, and it didn't rain the entire time.
- Our garden, despite desperately needing to be weeded, is growing radishes, carrots, broccoli, watermelon, pumpkins, tomatoes and peppers. The rabbits aren't nearly as bad as they have been in past years.
- There's been plenty of water play in the backyard but not nearly enough trips to the beach or pool. I think Ella tries to alleviate my guilt by referring to the pool in the backyard as "the beach."
- The kids are having fun with their dance studio and library classes. After the 4th of July, swimming lessons start up for Accalia and Cole.
- Tylan has climbed a flight of stairs. Her goal in life is now to try to pull herself up and stand by whatever she's able to reach.
- Our 16-year-old niece and 13-year-old nephew stayed with us for a few days while they attended a sports camp in Yankton.

There's probably more to report, but I hear Ella waking up and need to go!

So, this afternoon Accalia and Cole decided to set up a little booth in the front yard trying to get people to sign up for a new club they created today - a club to try to figure out what happened to Amelia Earhart. They do love a good mystery! Unfortunately, no one other than immediate family members signed up. I told my mom that those two are most definitely their grandfather's grandchildren.

This morning Accalia, Cole and Ella had dentist appointments. All had good reports. This was Ella's first time, and I figured she might allow them to look in her mouth and count her teeth. She ended up letting them do everything they'd normally do during a checkup, including xrays. My little girl who never sits still was completely cooperative, much more than either of the other two were at their first appointments. Go figure.

Of course, things couldn't continue to go smoothly. We went out to the van, intending to grab lunch on the way home and put Tylan down for a nap, and the van wouldn't start. Completely dead. Thankfully there was an auto place basically across the street, and I went over to ask if I could get a jump. They sent someone over right away and he brought the van over so they could look at it. After 1 1/2 hours, they figured it was probably a loose battery cable. They didn't have the correct part in, though, so I'll probably be taking that back to have it replaced. Considering the kids didn't get lunch until nearly 1:30 and Tylan never did get a morning nap, they were amazing.

It's been a busy week - something going on every day - and this is probably one of the quieter times of our summer. The story of my life continues with me being constantly behind and having a million things to do, and now I have to get ready for Accalia's birthday and our campout next weekend. Those will be fun things to plan, though!

Hope it was a fun Memorial Day weekend for all of you! We went to Lake Wilson on Sunday and came back yesterday. We have a bit of a tradition of going there on Memorial Day weekend so the kids can fish with Grandpa. They caught a few fish this year but not as many as in previous years. It was really neat to see the half dozen pelicans on the lake. I don't think I've ever seen pelicans in person before. The kids loved watched them land on the water.

It was a hard weekend in some ways - especially for Cory - since this is probably the last time we'll spend the weekend in Lake Wilson at his childhood home. Myron is getting married August 1 and is moving to his future wife's home about an hour from Lake Wilson in Okabena. He's not going to sell his house but talked about renting it out. At the same time, he's planning to use his garage for storage and is still going to plant a garden and tend it after he's moved, so I have no idea what's actually going to happen. There are a lot of changes that will be happening over the summer, and I just hope it all goes smoothly.

Schools are out for the summer here in Yankton. Last Friday was the last day. I was preparing myself for the doorbell to start ringing at 9 a.m., but the neighbor girls are not around right now. So far our day hasn't been too exciting. We bought some groceries this morning, and now everyone's doing their own thing. My "thing" should include laundry, but I'm being lazy about that right now.

I should stop being lazy about that now and actually do a few things. Off to be domestic!

Around 20 minutes ago, I was sitting at the computer when I heard this incredibly loud roar/rumbling that was almost shaking our house and surprisingly didn't wake up Ella. So I ran outside with Tylan in my arms to see what was going on (yes, of course I run toward potential disaster with my youngest along side), and I could see the lights of a jet a few miles to the northeast. That's very strange because Yankton doesn't have an airport large enough to handle huge jets, so we certainly shouldn't have one flying low enough to buzz us like that. I'm so curious to know what's going on...

Cole had his final soccer game of the spring tonight. It was incredibly hot - 90s - and windy, so it wasn't an especially pleasant day to sit outside. I suppose it was better than being incredibly cold and windy like it was for his soccer game last Saturday. Cole had a lot of fun with his first year of soccer and shed a few tears tonight because he already misses it. I'm sure he'll want to sign up again in the fall.

Turned on the air conditioning for the first time this year. Spent much of the day inside, except for the time spent having the oil changed and having the tires rotated so our van will be ready for our short visit to Lake Wilson Sunday and Monday. Tomorrow I hope we won't go anywhere at all. That would be nice. Perhaps I'm just getting annoyed by being out in public and having so many people make the same comment to me when I have all four kids along: "Got your hands full, don't ya?" My children could be standing perfectly still and be absolutely quiet, and someone would still say this to me. It drives me nuts! My usual reply is a big smile and a positive "Yes, I certainly do!" so they don't get the impression that I want to moan and groan about having four children. I suppose four children is considered a large family by many people, but I don't always think of us that way. Maybe if we had gone into the five or more children range.

Tylan's almost back to sleep, so I'm going to relax a little before bed and read. Replying to email can wait until tomorrow.

Hope all you mothers out there had a great Mother's Day! We had a really nice day but didn't do anything extraordinary. Cory went out to get me breakfast and a coffee. The kids gave me a gift card to Starbucks (notice the coffee theme?) and the latest Indigo Girls cd. Yay! I had wanted to do something that I knew the kids would enjoy, so after lunch we drove over to the library in Vermillion to check out the traveling interactive math related exhibit in the children's area. The kids had fun with that, and we spent a little more time in town before heading back home. If it had been a warmer day, I think we would have gone to a park, too.

Soon Cory and I will watch Rescue Me, but for now he's playing a Lego Star Wars Wii game while Accalia and Cole cheer him on. Tylan's snoozing in the sling, and Ella's been asleep since around 7:30. Tomorrow is Cole's final soccer practice. He has a game on Saturday and a game next Tuesday, and that's it.

I need to spend some time organizing this desk so I can make room for the materials I'll be using now that I'm starting my work as the Area Coordinator of Leaders (ACL) for La Leche League of MN/DAs (Minnesota, North and South Dakota). I'll be going through some orientation soon, which is good since I've never worked in the Leader Department before. I'm still continuing my work as the Coordinator of Leader Accreditation (CLA) for Iowa, but that shouldn't be a problem since it's not very time intensive. That reminds me that I need to finish up a report...

It is quite windy and cool outside. It's rained on and off throughout the day, so we haven't been hanging around outside. No neighbor girls or boys around today. I don't mind, but I know Accalia and Cole were hoping to play with them after school. Cory's working, and I'm feeling rather aimless. I want to be inspired and motivated but have just found myself sitting around online while the three older kids watch a cartoon they had missed out on last weekend. Tylan is sleeping in my arms.

This weekend will hopefully be nice. Cole has a soccer game tomorrow. I'm looking forward to that but wondering if I should feel out of place because I don't own a cute little track suit like the ones most moms seem to favor around here. Yikes! Please don't run out and buy me one so I can fit in. Mother's Day will probably bring some attention my way. I told Cory I wanted to go over to a public library about 30 minutes away to check out an interactive exhibit in the kids' section. The kids and I could do that any day, but it would be nice to hang out with Cory, and frankly, I want to go when my kids most likely won't be the only kids around and their normal kid noises won't seem to be amplified by 100 and people won't stare and wonder why they aren't in school. I think I've been feeling on display a little too much lately.

Once again, we procrastinate with planting the garden. Our tiller is broken, so that delays things a bit. I've done little parts by hand, but there's only so long that Tylan wants to be on the ground or in a sibling's arms, and it's a little too hard to till with an 8-month-old in arms to make much progress. Most days I wonder how productive I might actually be when I no longer have a baby to hold. Don't want to disappoint myself, though, with how little I'll probably actually do! We have managed to plant sunflowers and morning glories and swiss chard, and we now just have to get to the big garden.

Here is what the kids are up to:

Accalia is buy on the computer or choreographing dances or planning what she and her bff T. will do later in the day. She's hanging out with Cole and holding Tylan and being a little mother to Ella. She's also watching Bones with me and requested that we start watching from Season 1.

Cole just needs some sort of malleable material - clay, playdough, sand, dirt - and figures of some kind. Indoors or outdoors, it doesn't matter. It's even better with a friend to accompany him on his adventures. He's asking Ella if she'll play with him outside, and he's holding Tylan "like a big tuna." He stands and talks to me with his hands in his pockets, and he looks so much older and gives me glimpses of what he may look like some day. He's also so emotional, especially at the end of the day, crying in bed because he's sad if a friend lost a toy.

Ella loves swinging and being alone out in the yard and coloring and playing with Tylan. She is almost always talking, and her vocabulary has increased so much over the past month. She still refuses to use the toilet, though. Wonder why she's resisting that, especially with two older siblings as examples.

Tylan is scooting all over the place, and I can just see it in her eyes that she will soon discover stairs and try to maneuver up those. Even though she's having a blast on the ground, she also needs to be in my arms more urgently than before. She's amazingly quick with her hands and grabs at everything. She's also showing more of an interest in solids but has yet to pop through any teeth to actually chew things.

I just took on a major new responsibility in my life but will probably wait to say more until an official announcement has been made. I think I'm a little nuts for doing it, but I have my reasons.

I'm here for another blog post, so obviously I survived last week! It was odd getting up today and not having any dance rehearsals on the calendar, and once again I'm washing dance clothes and putting everything up for the next month until the summer session starts. Both Accalia and Cole want to continue with classes during the summer.

Both recitals went so well. Accalia looked like she was having so much fun with her gymnastics routine (done to Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid) in the first recital, and she looked so serious and proper with her ballet routine in the second recital. Cole had a blast with his tumbling routine (done to Old Time Rock and Roll) in the second recital and didn't seem phased at all by being on stage for the first time. Cory helped with Cole's group, so maybe that helped put him at ease, too. Ella and Tylan did amazing considering there were four hours of recital to sit through. Ella spent most of the time sitting in my mom's lap, falling asleep for a short time during the second recital. I had to leave the auditorium a few times with Tylan when she got restless or fussy, and she fell asleep toward the end of the first recital and slept until nearly the start of the second. I was so proud of myself for being able to do up Accalia's hair in the bun for the second recital while Tylan slept in my arms (in the sling).

Cory's 37th birthday was also Sunday, so we tried to celebrate as much as possible on a day filled with the recitals. I think we succeeded fairly well! Cory took today off since he didn't need to take off his actual birthday, and that was nice having him at home and being able to do some things around the house and take care of some errands.

Now that the recital is finished, we're looking ahead to Accalia's 10th birthday next month and our annual camp out. Hooray! Once June hits, all of the summer activities will start, too, so I think we'll enjoy the quiet of May until then. We'll probably head out of town to visit Myron for part of Memorial Day weekend, but that will probably be it.

Speaking of Myron, he proposed to his girlfriend Joan a couple weeks ago and she accepted. No date has been set, but it will probably be later in the summer. He's planning to rent his house in Lake Wilson and move to Joan's house about an hour away.

I've been trying to catch up on LLL work throughout the day and did accomplish a few things. There's always more to do, though. Better get to it!

This week is going to be insane. I always feel like this as the week of the dance recital starts, but we always manage to survive. The first of the three dress rehearsals (one for gymnastics, one for ballet, one for tumbling) was tonight, and it went well for Accalia. Unfortunately for me, the group before Accalia had to go through their routine three times, and now I have the Coldplay song they danced to stuck in my head. Urg. Tomorrow night is Accalia's ballet rehearsal, Friday is Cole's tumbling, Saturday is a two hour run through for each of the recitals (a 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. show), and Sunday is the big day.

In addition to dance, Cole had a make up soccer game tonight, will miss out on his soccer game on Saturday because of dance, but will be able to be there for his team picture that morning. I think Friday morning at the art studio is the only other activity they have this week.

The house is a complete disaster, and I'm stressing out a bit because I need to do major cleaning for the weekend and my parents visiting. Of course, I'm sure my parents could care less about the state of my house, but it needs to get down. I've been delayed a bit with this mission because Ella got sick yesterday. After supper, she was in the living room and I was in the kitchen, and I look over to see two large areas of vomit on the living room rug. Ella threw up four more times after that, finally falling asleep vomit free at 4:30 a.m. I only had about 2-3 hours of sleep last night and am conscious right now mainly due to large quantities of caffeinated coffee drinks.

The other think happening this weekend - Sunday to be exact - is Cory's 37th birthday. Hooray! Unfortunately, we won't be able to spend a lot of the day focusing solely on his because of the recital, but he is taking the next day off, so that will be nice.

Accalia just got her first email address today. Not sure why we never did this before, but I guess she just never expressed an interest. She's having a lot of fun sending emails.

Okay, time to move a sleeping Ella from the couch to the bed and hope Tylan stays asleep while I put her down to do that.

Yesterday was a really good day, and I'm hoping that today will follow suit. It was a perfect spring day - upper 60s, sunny, slight breeze - and we spent much of the day outside in the yard. Tylan loved it. I cleaned out our back porch area (I never know what to call it because it's not really a porch or a deck), we filled the sandbox with sand, I gave wagon rides, we picked up fallen willow branches, etc.

We never did see the neighbor girls, but Cole's new friend from the neighborhood, Ian, found his way over. The two have a shared love of Ben 10, and much of their play revolves around that. I can't help but see how it is when Cole and Ian play together compared with when the neighbor girls are over, and it's so much more peaceful and void of drama. Maybe it's because there's just one of Ian and none of the rivalry and fighting that seems to come with the two sisters. I don't know. Sometimes I think I'd do much better as a mother to all boys, but that's not really a helpful thought when three of your four children are girls.

Today Cole has tumbling and then soccer practice (first of the season). I'd continue blogging about our Easter weekend in Mankato, but Ella has climbed up behind me in order to use the computer and it's rather hard to concentrate when she's pulling apart my ponytail. So, I'll take my coffee and take care of some other things.

Caring for sick children is so much easier when you're healthy. I'm not. I was miserable yesterday and am feeling slightly better today, but not well enough to have much patience of any sort. Is it too much to ask that after we get past this cold that we can go more than two weeks between illnesses? There are so many things I need to get done right now, and I'm trying to make up my mind about going ahead with something that would be very time consuming, and all I feel like doing is curling up and shutting out the world.

So as not to paint everything too bleak, the good news is that I'll probably wake up tomorrow feeling almost completely back to normal, and Accalia and Cole probably will, too. They're both still low on energy and haven't been doing a lot. Ella's a little better today but continues to be one incredibly cranky patient. Tylan's still low on energy, too, and is sleeping more, but she's ready to cheer on the Cubs in her pink Cubs track suit given to her by Auntie Jess and Uncle Jer.

We'll be heading to Mankato on Friday for Easter weekend and even going to church twice - Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I'm trying to decide whether to just have the kids wear the same clothes for both church services so we don't have to pack as much. I think it will be a pretty laid back weekend, and hopefully we'll all be 100% to enjoy it all. We were last in Mankato over Christmas. I also have to remember to pack the Easter baskets. And I have to remember to boil eggs in the next day or two so the kids can dye them before we leave. Ah, the joys of not celebrating holidays at home...

Better check on supper. You know those frozen pizzas don't cook themselves!

It's another beautiful spring day with temps in the low 50s, sunny blue skies with a few fluffy clouds, and a light breeze. It's a perfect day to be outside enjoying the new sidewalk chalk and bubbles. Unfortunately, half of the family is too sick to do much of anything other than sleep and lie on the couch.

We made it through almost the entire winter without any illnesses - not even colds - and then March hit and along with it came the flu and nasty colds. That lasted about two weeks, and suddenly Cory gets sick. For the past couple days, Cory has been under the weather, but he was feeling better this morning. Cole and Accalia seem to have caught whatever he has, though, and are really suffering today. Accalia and Cole both went upstairs around 11:30 a.m. for a nap, and Accalia came down after an hour. Two hours later Cole is still up there sound asleep. I really, really hope that this stays clear of Ella, Tylan and myself.

Yesterday, before the kids were feeling really bad, they were outside playing with the neighbor girls. Cole lost energy, though, and Accalia started to feel dizzy and almost black out, so they both came inside. The younger girl (age 6) then sat outside on her sidewalk and pouted about the whole thing. I completely understand her disappointment in losing her playmates early on a lovely day, but this seems to be the response whenever Accalia or Cole stop playing before the girls have to go inside. This happened all last summer, too, and it drove me nuts. Longtime readers probably remember a few rants of mine, fueled on by pregnancy hormones. I just can't help but feel trapped at our home when the neighbor girls are at home, too, and seem to want nothing to do with their own house. The instant they can they come over and stay as long as they can. I guess I should feel pleased that they have such a good time at our house, and it makes me feel sad that they apparently dislike their own house (I suspect mom more than anything) so much that they don't want to spend any extra time there than necessary. I just need to find a balance when school lets out because Accalia and Cole also lose interest in playing after a while and just want to be inside and relax without additional playmates. We'll figure it out. I guess now I have the excuse of a baby needing to nap in order to keep things quiet.

Okay, since I have been so remiss in regularly posting pictures, I'm going to share some below. Yay!

Here is Cory and his dad at the 65th birthday celebration we had for Myron at Outback Steakhouse in Sioux Falls.


Here is Tylan chewing on a wooden book. At seven months old, she still has no teeth and is not yet crawling. She loves to turn around in a 360, though, and seems to pull herself short distances.


Cole loves nothing more than to pose for pictures with Tylan. He loves that Tylan resembles him more than either of his other sisters. I think he takes solace in that since he didn't get a brother this last time around.


And here are my three girls. Tylan loves Accalia so much. She gets so excited every time she sees her biggest sister and nearly jumps out of my arms to get to her. Ella's relationship with Tylan is slowly evolving with Ella trying to play with Tylan more and more, taking her cues from Accalia.

Wow, it's 50 degrees today and one of the warmer days of our spring so far. We made it through our non-blizzard on Tuesday and might have another storm over the weekend. I really want to put away the boots and hats and mittens and snow pants, but if I do that I'm basically guaranteeing we're going to have a big storm.

Cory's been sick a couple days this week - hopefully just a cold - and it seems that Cole has the same thing. Hopefully we won't have another family wide illness keeping us down for a couple weeks, not with Easter right around the corner.

It feels as if lots has been happening, but apparently I can't think of any of it to blog about right now. Cory will be home soon, supper's in the crockpot, and we're going to watch the final (sniff, sniff) ER tonight.

I need to get myself to bed. I woke up this morning with a bit of a headache and seem to be getting another one now. It was a fairly uneventful weekend, and I didn't really get much accomplished. I guess I sorted through Tylan and Ella's winter clothes, putting away the outgrown items and finding spring/summer clothes to add to the drawers.

Yesterday Accalia's ballet class performed at a local nursing home. Cory had to go to work, so the kids and I went without him. There were 3 or 4 other classes that also performed, and it was a nice little performance. Thankfully Cole and Ella were fairly content throughout, and Tylan started to get a little screechy only toward the end when she was getting tired and hungry.

So this weekend there was lots of Wii playing, some papier mache, some play with the neighbors, and an assortment of other things that aren't coming to mind right now.

Off to bed!

Happy Spring!!! It doesn't feel like spring at all here in Yankton since it's cool and cloudy and windy. Well, actually that probably is what spring is often like around here, so I take that back. It's supposed to be nice here this weekend, but I've heard rumors of snow or at least rain next week.

We don't have a lot going on this weekend. For the past couple months, Cory has basically had the same schedule delivering pizzas, so our weekends aren't very flexible for open for going out of town. Tomorrow afternoon Accalia's ballet class is performing their recital routine at one of the nursing home/assisted living places in town, so that's what we'll be doing for an hour or so. Beyond that, I think Cory and I are going to try to watch a movie tomorrow night after he's home from work.

This is so frustrating. Accalia and I were in the midst of reading the second book in the The 39 Clues series - One False Note - and now we can't find it anywhere. We've always just kept it in the living room near the couch, but it's no where to be found. Our library doesn't have it either, but I'll ask about getting it through interlibrary loan next time we stop in. I tried to do that online, but I kept getting error messages. Grr...

Right now Accalia and Cole are watching Fly Me To The Moon complete with 3D glasses. Picked that up at the library last night. We're also supposed to be getting Madagascar 2 from Netflix today (Accalia and Cole already saw this in the theater, though), so they're looking forward to a day of movies. Accalia and I also have our weekly Bones watching date since I taped the new episode last night.

On top of that, we have a free month trial of Gamefly, so we've been trying out a few different Wii games. Having a subscription to Gamefly would be wonderful, but right now it's not financially feasible. Accalia and Cory have been playing a lot of Super Mario Tennis, though, and Accalia just started the Carnival Mini Golf game last night. Before we even had the Wii, Cory picked up a bunch of games on clearance, including Gamecube games since we have the controllers to play through the Wii. She's started in on a Legend of Zelda game, and I've been reading to her from a walkthrough of the game I found online so she has an idea of what to do.

Meanwhile, Ella has decided it's so much fun to empty the contents of three kitchen drawers and play with all of those things on the kitchen floor. I really should use this as an opportunity to get rid of anything not being used because it's a bit of a pain to pick everything up.

We're seeing the neighbor girls (and a neighbor boy) more often now, too, which doesn't thrill me completely - at least with regard to the girls. I really do just feel bad for them that their lives are such that they often are so unhappy and not so nice to each other and sometimes Cole. I really want to have more patience when it comes to them because I know that coming over to our house is probably a highlight at times, but there are days when I feel as if I barely have enough to give to the four children that are my own. I think this summer will be better, though, because I will not be hugely pregnant and will be able to get around so much easier. I see many more park visits in our future.

Tylan, my sweet little baby, is now seven months old. There's no crawling or sitting up on her own for more than 2 seconds, but I'm quite content to wait. She's discovered joints - wrists, elbows, knees, knuckles, etc. - and is utterly fascinated by them. She'll grab on to her own wrist and just hold it and stare at it. I'd love to know what she's thinking. Tylan is also discovering how to play more and more games. I'll lift her up into the air and bring her back down, and if she wants to go up again she'll plop down quickly on my lap rather than standing up and bouncing. She also loves to watch me play peek-a-boo with certain lift the flap books we have and gets a huge smile on her face. She's also figuring out that she and I aren't one being, and if she's playing on the living room floor and I walk out of site, she often gets upset.

Ella is wedged in between me and the back of the chair I'm sitting on, so I think that means she wants to use the computer. Signing off for now...

This past week is one I hope to not repeat ever again. A combination of sick kids and crappy financial stuff does not a happy Amy make. I guess the good news is that all of the kids are in the end stages of their various illnesses, although that means they're also in that runny nose/coughing phase where they're starting to get energy back but are also cranky as all get out. Today I felt the past week of little/interrupted sleep and illness hit me. I'm getting through a cold of my own right now, but I am glad that I didn't get it until the kids were over the worst of their stuff. At least then I had more energy and patience to care for the sick ones.

Tomorrow's agenda includes paying bills, baking banana muffins, and going to the meeting for Accalia's ballet recital piece. Cory's going to make sure he's home for that so Cole and Ella can stay with him, and I won't have to try to pay attention at the meeting while keeping them quiet and content.

Just waiting for Tylan to fall back to sleep and then I'm going to bed...

Hello neglected blog! Sorry about the two week absence of posts for those of you still around.

I guess I should wrap up my whole injured foot story. Just a couple days after I went to the doctor, Tylan dropped a hard toy of hers right on my foot. Yeouch! I was limping around even more and ended up going to convenient care that Sunday afternoon. I had xrays there, and it turns out nothing is broken. Good news, I guess. And actually, my foot has been feeling much better lately, so I guess it's just been a long, slow mend.

My parents came for a night last weekend. Unfortunately it was cold and snowy, so it wasn't great weather for outdoor stuff. We still drove around the lake area to search for eagles and look at the large flocks of geese and ducks congregating on the open water. Then we went to the Dakota Territorial Museum. I remember going there years ago with possibly just Accalia around, and I wasn't sure that the kids would enjoy it. They did, though, and Accalia proclaimed that it felt like we had gone into the past.

The night before my parents came, Cole started to get sick. Now, about five days later, he's starting to get better. We thought it was just a cold before, but now we think he might have had a bit of the flu. There can't just be one sick child either, so now there are three more. Accalia seems to have more of a cold with a bad stuffy nose. Ella is down for the count with a bit of a fever. I'm really hoping it's not the flu for her. Tylan definitely isn't feeling good and has spent all day curled up in the sling nursing.

Last night I was really looking forward to sleeping since I've had too many days in a row of too little sleep. Of course it ended up being a short, disruptive night with three of the kids waking up crying because of an ache or pain or just having weird, scary fever dreams. I'm hoping tonight will be better, but I'm not going to press my luck.

My cousin Chris stayed with us Monday night. That was really nice since we hadn't seen each other for more than three years. It's too bad the kids weren't feeling better. I warned Chris off because of illness, but he said he's pretty resilient.

So that's a quick update while the kids are mostly calm and content.

It looks as if we're in for some lovely winter weather tomorrow. If the trend continues, though, Yankton will get little to nothing. Everything seems to stay up north for the most part. I hope it does, too, so Cory doesn't have problems traveling to or from work.

Speaking of Cory, he took today off so I could see my doctor about my foot. What a nice guy. I took Tylan with me, of course, but the other kids stayed at home with Cory. A couple months ago I tripped backwards over a step stool and hurt my foot but figured it was just twisted pretty bad. I think I just ignored it or put it to the back of my mind until a couple weeks ago when I realized my foot was still bothering me. It turns out I broke a bone in my foot, but since it's not hindering me from doing much there's nothing the doctor will do. Gosh, I was looking forward to wearing a fancy boot, too! My doctor said it could take six months for a bone to properly heal, but I hope it won't be that long.

In other news of the week, we gave Tylan her first taste of solids on Sunday, and she seemed rather intrigued by the mashed banana. Actually, she was probably more interested in sitting in the high chair and chewing on a spoon, so I don't think she's very interested in solids yet. Not a problem for me!

I should try to get to bed earlier tonight since Ella fell asleep early and will probably be up early. Not sure if I'll be successful, though.

Brr! This weekend has been so cold compared with the mild temps we've had for the past week or so. I think we've been a little spoiled for February and have been having trouble getting back into wintery weather. We haven't had a lot going on - just the regular things of hanging out at home, Cory delivering pizzas, etc. Quite exciting.

Today the kids and I took a drive around the lakes and river to see what birds we could spot. We haven't had much luck lately with seeing the bald eagles in trees, but today we saw one soaring overhead as we drove along the Missouri. We also saw large flocks of geese and ducks on Lake Yankton. That's always neat to see and hear when the large flocks take off from the water. We'll probably go down closer to the water and actually get out of the van to observe when it's a little warmer. Cole was hoping we could see mountain lion tracks along the river since I had just shown him a picture in the paper of mountain lion tracks along the river near Yankton, but I explained we'd actually have to be walking right along the shore to see anything like that.

The kids and I are definitely getting excited about the approaching spring. One of the things we want to do this year is plant milkweed so we can attract more monarch butterflies - Cole's favorite. I found an organization - the Live Monarch Foundation - that will send free milkweed seeds (donations are appreciated, though) with a SASE, and I think we'll be doing that.

We have a couple extra things going on this week. Accalia and Ella are getting haircuts on Thursday, and this will be Ella's first haircut. I'm having it chopped off - definitely above the shoulders and possibly just below the chin - because her curly hair gets so easily tangled and Ella is not a fan of even having her hair brushed. As long as she has no attachment to her hair length, I'm going to do this and avoid any unnecessary hair battles. On Wednesday, I'm going to the doctor to have my foot looked at because it's been bothering me since I tripped over that step stool while holding Tylan a couple months ago. It hit me last week that it's possible I could have broken a small bone or done something serious if it's still bothering me, so I thought I should just take care of it.

Now I should go ahead and try to get a few other things done while Tylan is sleeping.

This morning I took Tylan in for her six month checkup (she turns six months on the 19th), and Ella came along. Cory was home today, and Accalia and Cole thought it would be more fun to stay with him and play Wii. All is well. Tylan weighs 15 lbs. 13 oz., which puts her in the 50th percentile, and is 27 inches tall, which puts her in the 90th percentile. She's gained nearly 3 pounds and grown 2 inches in the past two months, so it's pretty much what I was expecting.

Cory did have a few counseling appointments tonight, and even though it was me alone with the four kids, I managed to have a very quiet and relaxing time. Accalia and Cole were watching a new movie on tv, Ella was at the computer, and Tylan was sleeping in my arms, and I just sat and read for about an hour with absolutely no interruption. I'm not sure that's happened since Tylan was born. It was so refreshing!

I have a list of errands for tomorrow, though, so life will have to get busy once again. Yee haw.

Oh, my poor neglected blog! Everyone and everything seems to conspire against me every time I sit down to write. LIke now, Tylan has just woken up and filled her diaper. Good timing, little lady!

I hope that everyone who is celebrating Valentine's Day is enjoying themselves. Cory's working right now, but for lunch we had our traditional fettucine alfredo and then cheesecake for dessert. Cory and I were able to just sit and relax and linger while the kids played all around us. Very nice. And apparently we're all in the mood for ice cream treats today. Cole wanted push pops, Accalia and Ella wanted popsicles, and Cory and I wanted our fave Ben and Jerry flavors (karamal sutra for Cory and cherry garcia for moi).

I can't believe it's been a week already since we went to Bald Eagle Days. That was a lot of fun for the kids, and the presentation was packed. We were able to see four live birds: a red tailed hawk, a deer falcon, an Eastern screech owl, and a bald eagle. Accalia and Cole thought it was hilarious that the bald eagle pooped on the ground. I actually only saw the hawk and the bald eagle because I spent most of the time wandering around the visitor's center with Ella and Tylan. Neither was able to be as quiet as was preferred for when the birds were out - Ella tends to talk a lot and Tylan started in with squealing.

Okay, gotta wrap this up. Ella has just been cranky and practicing her most annoying behaviors on the other kids today. I think she's tired. Looking forward to having Cory home on Monday. Tylan will have her six month check up that day and already turns six months on the 19th. Can't believe it's already been half a year!

Gorgeous day today. It's around 50 and tomorrow will probably be warmer. Gotta love a little preview of spring in the midst of winter. Thankfully it's great weather for travel, and Cory's doing a bit of that later on today. He's going from work up to Mitchell to watch our niece Mariah's basketball game. That means he won't be home until 9:30 at the earliest, but I know he'll have fun hanging out with his brother and family. Accalia and I are looking forward to snuggling up and watching the new Bones episode tonight.

So, it's been roughly 5 1/2 months since Tylan was born. I still have that 15 pounds to lose to get back to prepregnancy weight, and I'd love to do that before the summer and swimsuit season. I don't know that it's very realistic, though. I just don't want to have it be two years down the road and still be talking about losing the last of that baby weight!

What's new this time around is that this is the first child where we've decided this will be the last, and we're not at all conflicted with that decision. No second thoughts yet, although I'm sure somewhere down the line I'll yearn for another little baby. Or maybe I'll just yearn to hold someone else's little baby! I'm excited about getting rid of a lot of the baby stuff we'll no longer need, stuff that has been in and out of storage for nearly the past decade. I think we're going to try to have a garage sale in the spring or summer. We'll be getting rid of all of the boy stuff and all of the too small girl stuff. Oh, I know we'll save a few items that have sentimental value, but we'll definitely open up a lot of space in the basement. I'll also be getting rid of maternity clothes. It's sad that I still have maternity clothes hanging up and in my drawers. Tells you how good a job I've done storing things away.

Perhaps the hardest decision, though, is what pregnancy/birth books I'm keeping and giving away. There are just a few I'm keeping, and I'm keeping those because I want to be able to save them for my daughters if they one day give birth. The ones I'm saving are timeless and empowering. I'm also saving the children's books we have since those are something the kids like to hear/read whether or not there's actually a baby on the way. Then there are a few books I'm donating to LLL when I pass along all of the Yankton group supplies to the next nearest group hopefully in the near future.

Okay, I have two children climbing over me right now, so I'm going to have to wrap this up. Enjoy the day!

Less than two hours until we go to the chiropractor! Hooray! I'm fighting off a headache right now and know that getting adjusted is going to make me feel so much better. Hopefully I won't be as prone to migraines after this adjustment.

Our Friday hasn't been too out of the ordinary so far. Accalia and Cole went to the art studio this morning, and Ella, Tylan and I ran to do a couple errands. Other than going to the chiropractor soon, we really don't have much going on. Cory will be working tonight and is actually looking forward to it.

The kids are staying busy and don't have too much cabin fever at this point. I think, though, that they're getting close to either wanting spring here or to have another big snowstorm. I'm sure the latter will happen soon enough. We're supposed to have fairly warm temperatures over the next few days, so at least it won't be a struggle to just go out and run errands.

Accalia has been scouring the house for all of her old Nick magazines and comic books. She's been on such a reading kick with those and has been wanting something new, so I was very happy to find a new Nick comic collection at the store today. Accalia was also very excited on Tuesday to learn some of her gymnastics routine for the spring recital and know what song they'll be using in the routine - Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid.

Cole has been dividing his time between drawing/coloring and playing Webkinz. He's also started doing some word find puzzles. Out of all the kids, I know he's most eager to get outside and play in the dirt once again. I should sit down with him and come up with plans for our garden/yard this year. He's already told me that he wants to plant flowers that will attract butterflies and hummingbirds, which won't be too difficult.

Ella seems to have gotten past a lot of the behaviors I'd been finding so challenging lately. Rather than having the urge to run around in stores, she now wants to help by pushing the cart or just riding in it. Her vocabulary has bumped up again, and I notice that she's adding more and more descriptive words to her sentences. She also spends a lot of time looking through books and magazines and "reading" them.

Tylan doesn't seem to be still unless she's fast asleep. As soon as I put her on the floor, she rolls over and starts reaching for the closest thing so she can put it in her mouth. She tries desperately to move her body forward, too. At times she'll roll over again and again and make it halfway across the room, but I'm perfectly fine if she decides not to be different from the other kids and be an early crawler or walker. Totally fine with that.

Soon I should prepare supper early so it'll be ready for Cory to eat quick after the chiropractor and before he heads off to work.

We're back home after our short yet exhausting trip up north for Pat's funeral. We left Yankton around 3 p.m. yesterday after Cory got off work, stopped for supper at Culver's in Mitchell, and made it to the funeral home in Redfield around 7 p.m. The visitation was supposed to go until 8 p.m., so we kind of expected that by 7 p.m. things would be winding down. We pulled up, though, and the parking lot was filled and vehicles lined the surrounding streets. There was a prayer service going on that the Order of the Eastern Star (an organization Pat belonged to) had requested. Cory stepped into the room for that while I stayed out in the main room with the kids. After nearly four hours of travel, there's just no way we could have entered the prayer service quiet as mice. The service ended soon after, though, and we were able to see Pat's husband, her girls, brothers, grandchildren, etc. That was nice simply because we hadn't seen many of them since Mary's service more than four years ago. Still, we all agreed that we need to get together next just because and not wait for a death to bring us together.

So we stayed at the visitation for about an hour and then headed to the motel. The kids really need to blow off some steam after all of the traveling and time at the funeral home, but that's kind of hard to do in a small motel room with no on site pool or warm weather (close to zero the entire trip) or anything else to do. We managed, though, and eventually turned out the lights around 11:30 p.m. We were all up by 8 a.m. today to get ready for the funeral. The funeral was at Pat's church in Tulare (about 9 miles away), and we arrived an hour early since we knew it would be packed. The parking lot was almost full when we arrived, and the church was indeed bursting at the seams by the time the service started. Unfortunately I didn't get to sit with Cory during the service because Tylan started fussing almost right away. Tylan, Ella and I spent the majority of the service in a back room, but I was able to hear most of the service. It was a really nice combination of laughter and tears and comfort. Accalia had a very hard time, and Cory thinks it really hit her when the minister read letters that two of Pat's granddaughters wrote to her specifically for the funeral. The graveside service was at a small cemetery a ways out in the country, and I just stayed in the van with the kids while Cory went to that. It was just way too cold to take Tylan out for that 10 or 15 minutes. Then we headed back to the church for the meal and didn't stay long after that. Traveling home wasn't too bad, and we made it home about 15 minutes before Accalia had to be at ballet.

If there's a bright spot to all of this, it's that we were able to see more pictures of Mary when she was young. There just aren't many pictures of her as a child because the family was so poor and didn't have a camera. When we saw the pictures, we immediately saw that Ella looks just like Mary. Their faces are the same, and there was one picture of Mary in profile with her eyebrow arched that is exactly what Ella looks like when she makes that expression. I just wish we had pictures of Mary as a toddler because I'm almost positive we'd think we were looking at Ella. Cory's going to ask his cousins if we'd be able to get copies of the pictures for ourselves.

I'd better get to bed and hope that Tylan has a quiet night.

Cory's aunt Pat - Mary's only sister - died Thursday. I'd written in the past about her health problems over the past year or so, and just recently she was also diagnosed with lymphoma. Things went downhill very quickly. She developed pneumonia and was airlifted to Sioux Falls and put in a medically induced coma for a couple days because of a blood infection. She was never taken out of sedation and died quickly after being taken off life support.

Pat was always the one from Mary's side of the family that kept us informed of events and sent cards or little treats to the kids. She was the one who invited all of us to her house on Christmas for that first Christmas after Mary died. She was the one of Mary's siblings (she also has two brothers) that Cory saw the most of when he was growing up. I think it's even more difficult in some ways because Cory knows what Pat's four daughters will be going through mourning the loss of their mother, coming home to visit and not having her there to talk with and play with the grandchildren, not being able to pick up the phone and chat for any reason.

We're leaving tomorrow afternoon to head up north about three hours. The visitation is tomorrow, and we should be able to make it in time for that after Cory gets off work. The funeral is Monday morning. So I've started packing and getting things ready for this trip.

Ugh. My migraine left for part of the day on Saturday but reappeared later in the day. It was there on and off yesterday, too. So the weekend rather sucked having to manage the headache when you know it's never quiet with four children in a house. Well, almost never. Hoping for a pain free start to the week!

It seems so quiet in the house right now. Accalia is at a friend's birthday party until around 8 p.m., Cory is delivering pizzas until around 8 p.m., Tylan is sleeping in the sling, Ella is on the couch watching Pink Panther, and Cole is cleaning off the shelf above the kitchen sink. That shelf has kind of turned into the "here's a broken toy that might be able to be fixed by gluing it so I'll put it here until that gets down" shelf.

Thankfully the weather has warmed up quite nicely since earlier this week. Yesterday it was in the 20s and today is in the 30s. Woo hoo! It's supposed to stay like that for the next few days, too. The only downside is that the snow will start to melt and leave the boulevard all muddy for us to walk through. Due to the street construction over the summer, part of the boulevard was torn up. When they finished construction in October, they smoothed out the dirt and planted some grass seed, but there really wasn't enough time for grass to grow back. Can't wait until spring to plant more grass seed and not have mud to walk through!

I finally had a hair appointment on Thursday. I don't think I'd been to Virginia since Tylan was two months, so that's been about three months. My hair had grown past my shoulders, and Tylan had taken to grabbing onto my hair and sucking on it. I had it cut to just above my shoulders. Tylan still grabs onto it, but it feels so much better. I also had my hair colored. I've had that done twice before. It's more to cover up the cursed Greve gray that started appearing during the time that Mary was sick, so my hair doesn't change color drastically. I had Tylan with me like I did when she was a couple months old. It started out okay. She was in my lap looking around and smiling, and then suddenly her face crumpled. I thought at first that she saw my hair looking different and freaked out. Then I thought maybe the smell from the hair color bothered her. She cried on and off the rest of the time and wouldn't calm down no matter how much I walked with her or nursed her while the hair color set for about 15-20 minutes. Virginia and I finally figured that maybe Tylan was looking in all of the mirrors in the room and getting scared at seeing this baby looking back at her. I don't know. She was perfectly fine once we left that room. I felt so bad that I couldn't soothe her better, though.

Speaking of Tylan, I'm getting really tired of people thinking she's only a couple months old! She's not really small for her age - average with weight and above average for height - but she apparently looks small to some people. I'd think more people would realize a two-month-old wouldn't be sitting up in my arms and grabbing at everything like an almost five-month-old. Of course, I had the opposite problem with Ella where everyone commented on how big she was. Guess you just can't win!

This morning Accalia and Cole used their allowances to each buy a Webkinz to add to their collection. This is number five for Accalia and number three for Cole, I think. Cole bought a bull frog and Accalia bought a grey squirrel. Cole was hoping to get the bald eagle, but they were sold out.

I really hope that Accalia is having fun at the party. They started out at the indoor ice skating rink and will go back to her friend's house for more fun. It's supposed to be a sleep over party, but Accalia wasn't interested in doing that. I always worry a little that she won't have fun since she really only knows her friend and her sister, but she always comes back from the parties so excited about it all.

For Tylan's baby book: Tylan just rolled from her back to her stomach for the first time without a bit of help! Usually she gets hung up with an arm in the way, but she's figured out how to get around that.

I have had the most difficult time getting up in the mornings lately. This morning Ella was probably awake and ready to get up an hour or more before we actually did. I just told her it wasn't time to get up yet, and I think she just snuggled up next to me. I'm amazed that she did that. Maybe it's the time of year that makes me just want to hibernate. It definitely feels like that this week with the frigid temps. It really doesn't help that Tylan usually snoozes until 9:30 or 10 before she wakes up for the day. Not a lot of incentive to get up and going when you know you'll just have a sleeping baby most of the morning. Not that I'm wishing she'd get up super early...

Because of the cold weather, we're really limiting our outings, particularly for Tylan's sake. Yesterday we did have to run out to pick up a few groceries, but we survived that trip. Then, in the afternoon, we had the visiting day at Accalia's gymnastics class. Cole's tumbling class has visiting day today.

Have to get this down for Tylan's baby book: The latter half of month 4 is definitely a time of increasing hand-eye coordination. Not only does she grab at everything with great accuracy, she is also doing more passing things back and forth between her hands. She's also rather enthralled with her ability to move her arm up and down as if she's waving at you. Another neat thing about this age is that Tylan is showing me that she wants to be with me for more reasons than just as her food supply. She's been doing this more and more, especially when she sees someone else in the family and wants to make sure I know she doesn't want to be passed to them. She did this last night with Cory. She was so excited to see him but pressed herself against me to make sure I wouldn't hand her over right away.

Okay, have to take care of one or maybe two diapers now.

I have completely failed my children when it comes to cooking from scratch. Today, as I was preparing to make brownies from scratch, Cole told me I didn't know how to do that. I told him I had a recipe, and he seemed to accept that. Then, when I gave him a piece of the finished product, he gave me a thumbs up and said, "Wow, this almost tastes like the brownie mix!" Sigh.

Today my two accomplishments have been bathing Ella and cleaning the upstairs landing. The rest of the house, unfortunately, will just have to speak for itself. Since yesterday, Accalia in particular, has been playing a lot of the Wii game Cooking with Mama. Shannon so generously sent it to us, and it's exactly the type of game Accalia enjoys. She was especially pleased today when she was able to make ratatouille.

Other than that, there's not a lot going on. Cory worked last night and is working for a while tonight as well as tomorrow. Tonight I think we may try to watch Hancock, but that's about all the excitement from over here.

So, other than playing Wii, the kids have been up to one thing or another. Accalia spends a lot of time listening to music and dancing or doing gymnastics. She's working on her ballet routine for the spring recital and is getting excited about that. Cole is doing a lot of drawing, and lately our dining room table is usually covered with paper and drawing/coloring utensils. Ella's doing a little of everything the older two do and is especially proud that she's playing a Wow Wow Wubzy game on Nick Jr. that requires both hands doing different controls. Tylan is grabbing for everything and wants to put everything in her mouth. It will definitely be an adventure when she's mobile and wandering around the house.

I'm hoping tonight will be quiet and relaxing. Last night was neither, and we were all up way too late. I can tell the kids are a little short on sleep.

This January is beginning to feel like the January after Mary died where we were all sick and it just seemed to go on and on. I had a cold before Christmas that almost disappeared before we left for Mankato, and then it seemed to hang on and on and is now finally going going gone. Tylan seemed to pick up a tiny bit of this as well - mainly goopy eyes. And now, yesterday Ella is sick. She was so cranky yesterday, and by midafternoon had a really raspy voice. She fell asleep early but was clearly uncomfortable and was extremely restless. I told Cory he should probably just sleep in the guest room so he could have an uninterrupted night of sleep, and that turned out to be a good idea. I wasn't in bed until 1 a.m., and then Ella was awake every hour or so very briefly.

Today Ella still isn't feeling well and really would have benefitted from a nap earlier in the afternoon. She's been poking at her ears a little but won't say if they hurt or just feel plugged up or what. Thankfully she seems to calm down if I give her Hyland's Teething Tablets. I'd like to pick up some of Hyland's earache tablets, too, but they didn't have any at the one store I've been to recently. The teething tablets, though, have both chamomile and belladonna, so they have some calming and pain relieving elements that are probably also in the earache tablets. I'm hoping that by tomorrow she'll be getting back to her old self.

So today has been a day of just sitting around, reading, watching toons, etc. Cole's been busy building with his legos, and Accalia decided she was going to read every single one of the Sandra Boynton board books we own, and that's what she did for a little while today. Boynton's books are probably the favorite of all of the kids so far when they're younger.

I've been sorting through all of the magazines that have been piling up. There have been a number that I've been saving forever and finally just paged through and found nothing of interest. I'd let the two LLL magazines I receive - NEW BEGINNINGS (the member magazine) and LEAVEN (the Leader magazine) pile up over the past year, so I sat down to get up to date with that responsibility of leadership. I'd forgotten how much I enjoy reading NEW BEGINNINGS and how it makes you feel as if you've just sat down at a series meeting with a bunch of other mothers. I think it's probably also an indication of how much I've been missing that tribe feeling of being with other similarly minded mothers and women.

Other magazines that have been piling up include old, old issues of Mothering Magazine. I subscribed to that through the first year of Ella's life and then didn't renew because I just wasn't making the time to read it. I have a bunch of issues to read through now. I'd love to resubscribe because that's a magazine I still dearly love and was the first "alternative" parenting magazine I read. I just wish I could sit and read all day. One of the things that makes me feel richest is being surrounded by books and magazines - piles and piles of them.

I'm not sure why we've never done this in previous winters, but we've started going out on at least a weekly basis looking at bald eagles. Today we left a little early for Accalia's ballet class and drove along the Missouri River. We saw eight bald eagles! In one tree there were three eagles, in another there were three more. Then there were two flying over the river and one ended up flying right over us. Such an incredible sight! If you live anywhere near a bald eagle nesting spot and can watch them without disturbing them, don't miss your chance!

We have to pick up Accalia soon, so I'd better start getting ready.

Happy New Year! I hope 2009 is off to a wonderful start for all of you. It hasn't been a particularly spectacular day today, partly because I had a headache that I just couldn't get rid of until I went out and bought Excedrin. Then it disappeared. I think I need a new pillow.

This has been a nice week because we had so much more time with Cory at home. Normally Cory delivers pizza on Wednesdays, but for whatever reason he had yesterday off. We had told the kids we would order pizza for New Year's Eve, so we did that. Then we just hung around all evening, continuing to catch up on this season of Pushing Daisies. It wasn't that huge of a thrill for the kids to stay up until midnight since it seems that one or two of them are usually awake close to that time most nights. The idea of welcoming a new year was fun, though, and we had made homemade noise makers out of toilet paper rolls and tissue boxes that were put to good use at midnight.

Today, after most of the family sleeping in at least a little bit, we headed out so Cory could get in some bald eagle viewing. We saw two adult eagles around the same place I snapped pictures of the one the other day, and we watched another soar around the dam for a few minutes. Then we ran to the store to pick up a few things, including new socks for Accalia. She was very happy about that since all of her socks seemed to develop holes over the past month.

Other than that, Cory took down our outside Christmas decorations, and I put away the Christmas village. Tomorrow I'm going to work on getting more stuff put away. Unfortunately tomorrow is back to reality with Cory returning to work and me having to pay bills. Yippee. Cory's going to resume his early morning swimming at the rec center, which he's very excited about since his dad gave us another year's membership as our Christmas gift.

Now I should put Ella up in bed since she fell asleep on the couch. Tylan has woken up again, but she shouldn't be too hard to get back to sleep. Accalia and Cole are building with legos, and I'm going to start getting ready for bed. That's about all from here on the first day of 2009.