Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!!!

Love,

Caroline

Trunk or Treat

This week, we took Caroline to "Trunk or Treat" at the church where she goes to school. Since I'm 37+ weeks pregnant, I don't know how long I'll last trick-or-treating with her this Halloween so I thought this was a good way to do it. We ate dinner then walked around and trick-or-treated at all the different decorated cars (trunks). It was fun although Caroline couldn't understand why she didn't get to eat every piece of candy right away. She was also not a big fan of talking to all the "strangers", but she was determined to get all her candy so that helped.

We let Caroline pick out what she wanted to be this year. She chose a fairy princess (no big surprise there :-) but her costume could be mistaken as a myriad of things.

Eating her first oreo cookie...she didn't like it! I told her that was un-American (j/k :-)
Totally obsessed with drinking out of "big girl" cups these days
Here we go!

"Trick or treat!!!"

"But mommeeeeeeeeee, why can't I eat ALL of these right NOW?!?!?!?"

Eating candy with her friend, Jake, from her class at school. I love that he was Mario and his brother was Luigi...so cute!!

Me & my Fairy Princess

(and preggo with Matthew at 37 weeks...less than 2 weeks to go, woot woot!!)

Picnic Time

Last weekend, we had grand ole' plans to take Caroline to the zoo on Saturday morning. The weather was terrible, however, and we quickly had to change our plans. So we opted for an indoor donut picnic instead. Caroline kept saying "this is so exciting" so I think she had fun :-) We'll have to do it again soon!

Cuteness

Caroline is doing great in her big girl bed and has yet to figure out she can get out by herself. When she wakes up from her nap or in the morning, she reaches over to her (temporary :-) nightstand, turns on her lamp (which is a touch lamp...a great idea I got from my friend, Laura), grabs a book, and "reads" until I come in to get her. I'm sure this will only last a short time but right now I can't get over the cuteness. I also can't get over how she lays on her tummy and crosses her ankles in the air like a teenager would talk on the phone. Funny girl, my Caroline!

I was able to talk her into "reading" while I filmed her. Please excuse the fact that Caroline isn't wearing pants. Also, Caroline only "reads" the pages she has memorized. When she skips pages, it's because she doesn't have them memorized. I love 2 year old quirkiness!

Counting Down

We are now counting down the days until Matthew's birth day. Even though I seriously can't WAIT for our baby boy to join our family, I've been very emotional lately about the fact that it won't be "just the 3 of us" much longer (I know this is a normal feeling from what lots of friends tell me but it has still surprised me). We want to make these last 4 (now 3!) weekends as a family of 3 special for Caroline. So we're going to try to do something fun as a family each weekend until Matthew is born. This weekend, we took Caroline in her wagon to a pumpkin patch near our house. I could hardly walk up the hills ;-)

We were so excited to run into our good friends, The Smiths. Caroline and Saylor were way more into the pumpkins than each other.

Filling up her wagons with pumpkins...Caroline was on a mission. When we told her we were going to the pumpkin patch she immediately said "I want to get a Daddy pumpkin, Mommy pumpkin, Caroline pumpkin and Matthew pumpkin"

So sweet!

Water break...water bottles are a current obsession.

All loaded up and ready to walk (ride) home.

Our family of four...in pumpkins :-)

10/11/10 & Big Girl Bed

First of all, I'm so excited it's 10/11/10...in exactly one month from today, we'll be meeting baby Matthew!!! We're in countdown mode!!!

Second of all, Caroline got her big girl bed this weekend. I think she would have stayed in her crib forever, but it was time to make the transition since we kinda need the crib in the nursery ;-)

She was so excited and immediately wanted to jump and "cuddle" on her new bed.

She kept saying "I really love my big girl bed. It's so comfy cozy" :-)

Matt loves reading to her in bed each night even though after they say prayers, she kindly asks him to get out of her bed, ha

Here they are reading one of her favorite books at the moment:

I'm not even CLOSE to having Caroline's big girl room completed/decorated. But at least we're off to a good start with the bed. Caroline is doing well sleeping in it so far. Her naps and morning wake up time have shortened a little, but I'm hoping that is just temporary (wishful thinking, uh?) Other than that, she really loves it and says she's happy her crib is now in baby brother's room so "he has somewhere great to sleep" :-)

These are a few of my favorite things...

These days, at 2 1/2 years old, Caroline LOVES:

Picnics,

the petting zoo at the Arboretum on Tiny Tot Tuesdays
especially when the petting zoo involves playing with sweet friends from school (Avery, Leah, Eleanor, Jake & Caroline)

(Leah, Caroline & Eleanor),

any and all pumpkin patches but especially the one at the Arboretum,

riding in her little red wagon,

painting pictures of Little Einsteins (and anything else involving Little Einsteins!),

watching the ducks and turtles at the mall,

Chick-fil-a (Will & Caroline),

playing with friends,

swinging,

"cooking" in the sink with water while I cook,

Little Launa's Library,

playing outside either at the park or in our yard at home,

and last but not least, putting stickers on ANYTHING and EVERYTHING!!

These are just some of my favorite girl's favorite things!!