Learning to love fall leaves

I love looking at fall leaves --- in someone else's yard. I can't stand raking leaves. Usually it is a Mike job, but since the weekend weather has been crappy and we have been busy I figured I could take the one semi nice afternoon to rake the leaves with the boys. You know, raking isn't so bad when you get to stop for a little while and play in the leaves. The boys had a blast throwing them on each other and me. And I had so much fun chasing them around with a handful of leaves of my own!

Of course, I had to grab the camera for at least a few pictures. I've got some of Nick every year playing out in a big pile and I figured this might be our only chance. While we were out playing and snappin pictures my neighbor walked by after checking in on her mother-in-law and offered to snap a few shots of me with the boys. I started to turn her down and then thought, WHY? Why would I turn down that offer? She made the same comment that every mom I know makes "If I died tomorrow my kids wouldn't even remember what I look like. I am not in any pictures." So I gladly handed over the camera. Unfortunately, Nick ran off to play at that exact moment so she only got a few shots of me with Zander, but I take what I can get! Besides, later Nick came and cuddled for a minute so I could get a famous arms-out-in-front snapshot --- and I love it!







Yeah, the boys were running at me to attack me with a handful of leaves.