Notable November Happenings

About a week ago I looked at the calendar and realized that the first half of November had disappeared somehow without me realizing it. Maybe it's because we've kept busy with yard projects and fall fun.


We went flying between storms,

Zeke enjoyed our 'I voted' stickers,

we raked lots of leaves (this big bag is just half of our small back yard),

and played in the leaves,

watched snow come (and then go away, and then come back again),

enjoyed mini marshmallows,

and re-laid the path between our back door and parking area (more to come on that big project).

Pink Train

I love this picture Aaron took in Japan.

One day I'll see something like this in person.

The Taste of Fresh Laundry

Aaron has apologized profusely for passing the clothes-chewing gene to Zeke. He says it just might be payback for how much he irritated his own mother.

Zeke has chewed on his crib blankets for a while now; it was soothing to a kid who wouldn't take a binky and preferred to go to sleep in Mom or Dad's arms with his bottle in his mouth. This summer he took up chewing on his collars, both of jackets and 'church shirts' (polos). And what do you do - it's not like we can take his shirt away from him ... although he has worn fewer polos in attempt to corral the clothes chewing to a Sunday-only activity. He has since extended eligibility for chewing to long sleeves and pants (usually when they are not on his body, but sometimes when they are). In the past couple of days he unfortunately has also taken to chewing tshirt collars - he really is his father's son.

And, as we're finding out, it's not just what he happens to be wearing at the time. He has tried to chew on my shirts and tried once or twice to get my jacket collar into my mouth for me. Also recently, Zeke was helping load wet clothes into the dryer and I saw him take a quick nibble at his denim shorts before he threw them in. Later, while folding the laundry, he was trying to make a full meal of them. Mmmm, tasty.

Halloween Festivities

Zeke's costume was simple and unique this year:

And we have loved decorating our new place.

We had a lot of fun at a ward party and trunk-or-treat last night. Zeke and I made one trip around the parking lot collecting various candies, one otter pop, and one bag of microwave popcorn (which I think is an awesome treat). Zeke really got in to the trick or treat spirit this year and learned to hold up his treat bucket and say something resembling 'trick or treat!' and we are still working on the 'thank you' afterwards. Then we returned to our car and Zeke was happy to sit and help Aaron distribute Smarties while munching his own. And we made some amazingly beautiful and delicious cupcakes to share.