What I'm thankful for

Relatives who are willing to host Thanksgiving every other year (thanks Sheila and Dave!).
Family who care about my kids nearly as much as I do.
A reliable vehicle to get us to visit family safely.
Vaccines and antibiotics.
Friends and relatives who let me hold their babies whenever I need a fix.
A job I truly enjoy and colleagues who respect my opinion.
The internet. Because how else could I save all these mundane parts of our lives for posterity??

We had a fun, relaxing time at my cousins' over Thanksgiving. Lots of food, drink, football, Wii, Nerf dart gun wars, and Dan and Jackie even ran in the Detroit Turkey Trot (5k). The topper to an already awesome weekend was getting to see my cousin, Christian, who we hardly ever get to see, and meet his 10 month old son, Lincoln.

I took almost no pictures of the food, apparently because I was too busy eating it, and no photos of the Nerf wars because I was too busy trying not to get hit! But here are some football videos and pictures of other activities throughout the weekend.

Pie! Pumpkin, Cherry/blueberry, and Apple.

Football team 1 on day 1.

Elliott recovering from the latest Nerf gun war.

Lincoln, Christian and Susie

Sheila the master chef.

Grace, Greyson, and Isaac playing a Wii game that they now all desperately want, of course.

Mutual admiration society. Dave and Lincoln, with Nat in the background.

Possibly the cutest baby ever (my own notwithstanding).

 Elliott gets clonked by Nat.

  Reece and Elliott clonk each other.

Nat's touchdown.

Greyson runs the ball.

Reece runs the ball - the wrong way at first.

 The ball was very slippery that day.

Reece's touchdown.

Jill's touchdown.

Happy Thanksgiving to Nick!

At the last minute, my brother, Nick, decided not to make the long trip to us for Thanksgiving. So we made these videos to show him he was missed:

Even in beautiful weather, accidents happen

My van (with me in it) got hit while I was driving to a salon appointment. See the evidence:

I could reprint the police report I submitted, but I'm assuming anyone reading this does not want to fall instantly asleep. So the short version is, I was turning left with a left-turn arrow, a gray sedan (driven by an ancient man - I forgot to check his birthdate on his license, but suffice it to say that I thought he'd gotten hurt because he was so shaky and seemed confused, but it turned out that's how he normally is) decided to turn right into me instead of waiting for me (and those behind me) to turn. He didn't want to call the police and had the gall to say that he didn't think it was his fault (!), I called anyway and found out they wouldn't come out since we were on private property, we exchanged info and then after conversing with my insurance company I drove to the police department to make a report anyway. There's still a chance it will be come a he-said-she-said since there were no other witnesses who stepped forward (believe me, there were LOTS of witnesses). Oh, and did I mention that Ancient Man is a lawyer? Joy. I'll know more after my insurance person talks to him and his insurance company. The van still runs fine (in fact, the door still opens electrically), I wasn't hurt and was the only one in the vehicle (thank goodness, because if he'd caused injury to my children, I might now be in jail for assault on a frail human), and even in the worst case we just have to cover the deductible and maybe our rates would go up.

I would like to take this opportunity, though, to put in print that if/when I ever get to the point where my driving is a danger to others, PLEASE take away my license and vehicle. And I will do the same for you, m'kay?

On a much happier note, it's been gorgeous here the past few days, and today the boys played dodge ball and kick ball with neighbor kids for a few hours. Then Reece ran around the playground for a while and asked me to take these pictures. And then print them so he can frame them and hang them up around the house. No lack of self esteem with that one.

Making applesauce to last us until next year at this time

It's become an annual tradition that my mom comes to visit toward the end of October to make applesauce with the boys. And it's now become somewhat necessary, since neither of my boys will eat any applesauce besides this homemade type! The boys remember the process from year to year, so it seems to go pretty smoothly. This was the first year I was here to witness the procedure and document it.

First, the apples have to be cut into quarters and cooked. We had a whole bushel, so it took multiple pots on the stove and some in the oven.

Grandma loads up the bowl on the top, Greyson presses it into the hole, and Reece turns the crank.

Quality control check.

Working together as a team, and no arguing! Borderline miracle, here.

Halloween wrap-up, a week late

Definitely the best Halloween yet, in my opinion. Adults ate Indian food while kids had pizza, there was no crying, we stopped when kids were tired and knew it, and the weather held. What more can I say, except that I did not manage to take very good pictures. And the wine had NOTHING to do with it.