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.