Birthday month

We have had a very busy month of birthday parties so Caroline's new favorite song is Happy Birthday (followed by in a close second, "I'm a little Teapot"). She has a pretend cake at the house so every morning we put the pretend candles on the cake and sing to somebody. She has now taken to wearing the cake on her head in the mornings. Pretty funny and she is getting pretty good at singing the song and blowing at the candles as you can see from the video below.

The other pictures are just a few random ones from this month. Her vocabulary is truly exploding. These are some of my favorite words she says:

1. Toe sin noes (tennis shoes)
2. Hegaper (helicopter)

3. patterpitter (caterpillar)

4. lebiga (ladybug)

Many of the other words she says much clearer... these are some of her favorite standby phrases that more than just a mom can understand:

1. Take nap (I love that she says this so I know when she wants to go to bed!)

2. Fish book (a favorite of hers)

3. Pee yoooo, Caroline! (referring to her stinky diapers or her shoes)

4. Momma's bed (where she wants to go every morning to read books)

5. Daddy's boat (she knows exactly where it is and what it looks like so no matter where we walk from she knows what she is looking for)

It is wonderful to hear her talking and coming up with new words all the time. She keeps me very busy!!

Happy Halloween!!

I wondered whether or not Caroline would get the concept of Halloween...running around the neighborhood in the dark, knocking on strangers doors, asking for candy... well should I have doubted my little go-getter for a minute. She led the pack of the kids (and this included a 4 year old and two much bigger 2 year olds). She was running around the neighborhood in her little bee costume running up to every door she could. She didn't so much care about the candy, just the knocking on the door part. It was so fun to watch and she looked so cute with her little black tighted legs sticking out of her Halloween costume. We had a great time (and so did she!!)

Grandma and Papa come to visit!

Grandma and Papa came to visit from St. Louis for about 10 days. We had a great visit despite my parents being hard at work (they built window cornices for our downstairs windows!). We went to the pumpkin patch, the park, the beautiful beach in Carpinteria, Laurie's clinic, for a boat ride and they were here for Halloween. Caroline, of course, enjoyed being spoiled by more than just Trent and I. When they left, Caroline was asking where they went so I told her St. Louis. So now, whenever their names are mentioned it is.... GrandmaPapa (all one word)....home....O' Louis (which is how she says St. Louis). Pretty funny! Sorry Mom and Dad, I don't have any pictures with you and Caroline -- maybe you have some??

Pumpkin Patch

Caroline and her little friends took a trip to the pumpkin patch this week with their costumes on. It was so cute and all the kids loved seeing the pumpkins and the little animals that were there. Caroline loves saying the "baby pumpkins" and wants to hold all of them which are very "heby" (heavy!). Halloween should be fun!

Gaga and Papa come to visit!

Gaga and Papa (Trent's parents) came to visit last week from Florida. Caroline was very excited to have someone else to pay attention to her besides boring Momma and Daddy. We had a great time riding on "Daddy's boat", visiting Ms. Olsen's (our favorite breakfast haunt), shopping the Farmer's Market and visiting the local Sea Center Aquarium. Caroline became very accustomed to asking for someone else (besides Momma) to read her a book or dance to her favorite song. It was wonderful!! We look forward to their next visit!

Caroline wanted to tell you ....

As you can see from Caroline's shirt, the Von Gunten's have some great news!! I am over three months pregnant with Baby #2. We used this shirt to tell the grandparents a little while back. It was a big hit but of course, Caroline had no idea what was going on! We are very excited about this next baby and I am excited to be (hopefully) over the sickies from the first trimester. I am keeping my fingers crossed!! The new baby will be due in mid - April and we had an ultrasound last week and I could already see his or her little hands and feet moving all around. Very exciting. So needless to say, that (along with Caroline) has been taking all of my energy!! We will keep you posted on the belly's progess. Not with pictures, mind you as I think I only had 3 or 4 of me with Caroline -- I don't love pictures being taken of my belly for some reason -- but with any news.

Cousin Abby comes to visit!!

Last week Trent's brother Tye and his wife Kelly and our niece Abby came to visit. Abby is 16 months old so needless to say, the girls had a great time! They kept each other busy from the minute they woke up until they went to bed. We took a trip out on the boat, up to the zoo in Santa Barbara and riding beach cruisers around our beach area. It was great having them in town. Of course Caroline was always asking about Abby, Abby and she wanted to show her all of her great toys and tricks so hopefully Abby didn't pick up any bad habits! So Abby has been added to her vocabulary as one of her new favorite words along with...

1. Momma's car (do you think we are in it too much??)

2. Blue (because everything is blue right now)

3. Bite (she always wants to try even if she knows she doesn't like it)

4. Sailboat (this has been a favorite for a while!)

Enjoy the pictures and I will add more when I get them from Aunt Kelly!