Visit to NC and Halloween Fun!

Last week, I got to visit Jocelyn and Co. in North Carolina. It was so fun! Ezra and I both loved seeing the girls and Jocelyn and Jason. And the awesome thing is that Jocelyn writes a post on her own blog each week, so she compiled our photos from the week wrote the best, most detailed post about our visit. And you should totally read it! It covers everything and I don't want to be redundant. I really have nothing to add, except that she and Jason were the best hosts and fed me ice cream every night, that both Ellie and Zelda are the cutest girls ever and I miss them so much already, that their backyard is a beautiful forest, and that wow, I had no idea there were so many trees in the east! I was not expecting Raleigh to be a forest.

Here are some of the pics I forgot to give to her since they were taken on my phone:

Cute baby cousins playing on the iPad together.

Shopping

And here are some others that I just thought were cute:

Ezra did not like the tall grass. Although the path was pretty clear, Ezra would stop walking if any tall grass went up to his thigh or above. He would try to move it before walking again. Of course, it just kept bouncing back, which meant I had to carry him on our little walk.

I just love this pic of Jocelyn's little family! 

I found some leaves changing colors!

Ezra being silly. To me it looks like he's doing some sort of pagan ritual.

Coming out of the woods back to their backyard. This picture alone makes me want to live in NC.

Zelda with a leaf.

All the babies and Jocelyn in one picture!

For some reason, Ezra loved being in the pack 'n' play at Jocelyn's house. He never wanted to get out. That brought lots of attention from the cousins. 

Ezra got his own seat on the way home! No one sat next to us, so we were suuuper lucky. I was super lucky. What a blessing. And he was just too cute.

Other than that, we've mostly just been getting ready for Halloween, trying to help Ezra get better (he is still sick!), and playing. Here are the pics:

Instead of buying pumpkins this year, we did milk carton ghosts. It was free, really fun, and really easy. It's defnitely something we'll do in the future. I'm not saying we're swearing off pumpkins forever, but I loved that it was just as fun and festive as punpkin carving but that it was free and there was no clean up. And I loved the finished product! 

 Another of my free crafts: A Halloween banner, made from construction paper, glue, a string, and little clothespins, all that I already had. (A special thanks to my friend Star, who gave me the ideas for at least half of my monster and helped me design their little faces.)

Still free, of course: a little pumpkin made with beads and wire. 

We gave Ezra some Halloween stickers so he could make his own milk jug. He loved the idea, but most of the stickers were found...

...here the following morning. In the diaperbag. Hmm.

Two things Ezra has loved lately are his monkey and his Daddy.

Monkey

Ezra has always loved his monkey. When he was only a few months old, he would lie next to Monkey in his crib and smile at him and touch his eyes and mouth. Now, he carries him around all day, every day. He can't go anywhere without him. He even cried when Monkey had to go through the scanner at the airport.

Lately, Monkey has had a bit of a rough time. When Ezra was so sick that he was throwing up every night, Monkey went through the wash every morning for about a week. Monkey's arms started coming off, but while we were at Jocelyn's house, she was kind enough to sew them back on. Then, when we were home, Monkey went through the wash again. We didn't notice until we were on our way to church that the stitches holding Monkey's head to his body were coming loose. At church, the situation became more and more precarious. Monkey was looking more and more like Nearly-Headless Nick. But there was nothing we could do, so we came home, and put Ezra down for his nap, naturally, with Monkey. When Ezra started making his sweet baby talk in the bedroom and I knew he was awake, I peeked into the bedroom.

He was standing there with his little Monkey's head in his hands, kissing it. 

Hehe. It was so cute. Of course, he cried like I was the devil when I took Monkey's head and Monkey's body to sew the back together. Tanner had to hold him back from me so I could finish. Anyways, that's Ezra and his monkey. Monkey makes it into just about every picture now.

Daddy

And then of course, there's Daddy. He has also always loved his Daddy. But he's taken lately to climbing on his face, which always makes me laugh. 

And of course, there is always time for cuddles with Daddy.

We walked to the beach one morning a few days ago. It is getting so beautiful here, especially in the mornings when it is cool enough to walk. Ezra had a lot of fun chasing seagulls and climbing into the storage part of his stroller. But it tired him out and he fell asleep in the stroller on the way home, face on his food tray, like always.

And lastly, a game and then goodbye. We love you!

Can you find me?

Love you! Happy Halloween!