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!

Going to school??

Caroline received a backpack with her name on it when she was born and she has really taken a liking to it lately along with the hat she received at Grant' Farm. She likes to wear them both at once along with my socks and shoes. It is amazing that last month what a word explosion that she has had. She is like a little parrot so we really have to be careful what we say. Today her new word is cinnamon (I think because she really likes the smell of it and she likes to get in my spice cabinet). She knows so many names of people and the words to songs. Her favorite right now is Happy Birthday followed closely by Itsy Bitsy Spider. It is something new everyday. It is truly amazing how much they learn. I am working on putting some videos below so keep watching as they are taking a while to upload. Enjoy the pictures!

Grant's Farm in St. Louis

We did a trip to Grant's Farm in St. Louis which is essentially a large farm owned by the Anheuser-Busch family. So we decided to go on this visit not knowing what was going to happen with the Busch family!! Caroline had a great time riding the tram, pointing out the animals, petting the goats and seeing the Clyesdales. Also in St. Louis, Caroline had her first experience running through a sprinkler which was a big hit (once Grandma did it with her!).

The Big St. Louis wedding

Trying on goggles (backwards!)

Wearing Grandma's bracelets

Well my youngest sister Katie is now married. We spent a week in St. Louis and had Katie's bachelorette party, helped with last minute details, went to the rehearsal dinner and the big wedding!! Katie looked amazing of course and Caroline, well Caroline actually made it down the aisle. Though it took her and Luke (my cousin Erin's little 3 year old) almost 5 minutes (literally) to walk down the long aisle, she made it! They both received a standing ovation at the end of the aisle. Whew, Momma was relieved that was a big stress on my night and then so was the maid of honor speech for which I happened to be called up to do while I was changing a poopy diaper in the back of the reception hall. You can only imagine the shock at hearing my name being called and I came running forward holding Caroline with a diaper bag slung around my shoulder. Talk about embarrassing. Well I made it through it and we all had a great time!! Katie and Kevin make a wonderful couple and we had a great time. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the wedding since both Trent and I had our hands full but hopefully I will get some very soon. I will try and post pictures tomorrow of our trip.