"Mommy hit a reindeer!"

That statement, uttered by Luke several times after our traumatic event, is sort of correct. The deer (forever known as a "reindeer" in the minds of our boys - especially unfortunate this close to Christmas) actually ran into our van. We were driving on a normal city street, neighborhood on the right, open field by a big church on the left, when a deer popped out of nowhere (the neighborhood, apparently) to ram his face into my windshield, his neck into my passenger side rear view mirror, and his body into the front door. Of course, I stopped right there to figure out what happened and what I should do next. What I didn't realize was that the poor animal wasn't completely dead yet and was writhing around in full view of the twins who were strapped into their car seats. Merry Christmas, kids. Mommy killed a reindeer. Santa's sleigh will be a bit slower this year.

We're slowly getting everything fixed, piece by piece. Of course, we only have collision, and the deer wasn't insured, so this is an annoying and unexpected expense. Who would have thought that incident could cause thousands of dollars of damage? We are considering just getting the minimum done - enough to open the door again, repair the windshield, etc, but the body work can be put on hold. We're not too proud to drive around in a beat up van. The funny part is that Joe especially (sometimes Luke, too) has been asking us when we're getting a new car. Apparently, the balloons at the dealership near our house are having the desired effect. So now he says, "The car is broken. Let's get a new one." Sorry, bud, the money tree out back didn't bloom this year.

Maybe it's just Wisconsin, but over and over again, people have told us how surprised they are that we didn't stop and pick it up - all of that free meat gone to waste! I couldn't have imagined hauling that newly-dead carcass into the van with all of the traumatized kids watching. Plus, what the heck would we do with all of that nasty meat? Our doctor even told us about hitting a deer on his way to delivering a baby early one morning. He stuffed it into his trunk, caught the baby, went home, field dressed it and hung it up on his kids' swing set. These folks up here are nuts!

Other quotables from the boys:

Joe: "I love sugar!!!!" Enough said.

Andrew: "Baby Bear" Okay, that doesn't seem like such a big deal, but it's his first time saying two words together. Later that week, he said, "more book" to Scott when he wanted him to keep reading. He's so smart!

Joe: "Do you know we have two mommies? The one that is Jesus' mommy and the mommy that makes the food." Did I mention how much I love that he goes to a Catholic school?

Fall Fun

Better late than never! Here are some shots of one of our last nice weekends this fall.

Jim's Pumpkin Farm in Germantown is our favorite fall spot - hay wagon rides, a pumpkin patch, a non-scary corn maze, fun cut-outs to stick your head into, a big hay pit for the kids to wrestle around in, scarecrow making, and tons of reasonably priced gourds, squash, pumpkins and other decorations. We love it!

Patrick hamming it up on the wagon ride.

Andrew getting his "hay legs" as he tries to navigate the kiddie hay pit. Falling down didn't hurt a bit!

Mommy, Andrew, Patrick and Luke.

Our spooky little goblins.

Andrew's binky matched the pumpkin.

Joe chillin' on the swing with some pumpkin-faced scarecrows.

Back home, Andrew loves playing in the little house from our old next door neighbors. We have to prep it for the winter - it stores all of our Little Tikes ride on toys so Daddy can fit his car in the garage. This year, I'm determined to not have any surprise toys in the yard or (worse) in the driveway. It's a killer for a snow blower!

In Anticipation of Veterans Day

My new favorite picture of my favorite vet, my sister Janelle. She's hanging out the window of the C-130 that she co-pilots.

In The Meantime...

I keep forgetting to download the pictures from the twins birthday, Scott's parents' visit and Halloween. In the meantime, here are some goofy things from around the house.

We had some German yellow jackets hanging out in a crack in our siding. When I sealed it in from the outside (dumb, I now know) they began appearing in our bedroom. When I called an exterminator, he suggested that I caulk all around the heat register as that may be a point of entry into the house. I took the cover off to investigate and left it to ask for more advice and check the internet. Joseph came running down to me and said, "Mommy, you better come in here... it's something with the wall" Completely forgetting what I had done earlier, I followed him into my room. Pointing to the coverless register, he exclaimed, "I did *not* do that." Some good pre-emptive truth-telling on his part!

The boys love corn on the cob (a few months ago, I might note) including Andrew. I gave him a cob that I had broken in half. Luke looked at the corn, very confused, and asked, "Mommy, how did you make that corn little?"

Two more goodies from Luke: "Mommy, Patrick is afflacking me!" (does that have something to do with an annoying duck?) Also, the boys were doing a great job eating all of their vegetables one night. I told them that if they kept it up, there were two oatmeal cookies with their names on them. Luke was really excited when I presented him with his much worked-for treat. He looked at it all confused and said, "What about the names?"

This fall, we are hand-washing fools. The boys know that whenever we come inside from being anywhere, they put their shoes in the shoe crate, their coats in the closet and they head to the sink to wash their hands. Patrick, however, loves the hand drying part of the process the best. He's always desperately asking me to give him a towel, like his hand is going to fall off if he doesn't get it fast enough. Well, I guess I wasn't fast enough the other day. I caught him drying his hands on our bathroom rug. Yuck! Time to start all over!

Andrew did the cutest thing yesterday. He so much wants to be just like his brothers. He tries to imitate them in everything. We had just brushed the older boys' teeth, and, I must confess here, that Andrew's teeth rarely get brushed. I just plain forget or he's already in bed when we do the rest of the boys. Anyway, Andrew grabbed a toothbrush, hopped up in my lap and leaned his head back (just like his brothers do) and said, "Ahhhhh" Later, he took his toothbrush and rubbed it back and forth rather quickly across his tongue. Just like a big boy...

And, finally, to remember summer, I was making dinner one afternoon when Joe came in all breathless and concerned. "Mom, there's something out here you should see." Of course, I dropped everything and ran outside. Joe pointed to the garden (or, I should say, weed patch, since I was too busy this spring to get much planted or do any weeding), and he very seriously told me, "Mommy, there are weeds growing in your garden." Thanks for pointing out the obvious, kid. Didn't need that reminder.