Happy Winds-day

This has taken me a while to post about so please forgive me. We had a bit of excitement the week before Halloween. We were under wind storm warnings that Wednesday and I spent the day watching the trees out my front window bend and sway in the breeze; I prayed they wouldn't come crashing down on my roof! Little did I know that Brad would come home from work to find this:

Thats our backyard and I never heard a sound! Brad was carrying things down the outside stairs and in through the basement when he noticed it. He came in and told me 'we lost a tree by the stairs'. I went outside to discover we hadn't lost A tree we lost THE tree. It took us about 4 days and some help from my dad and brother in law and the handyman who works for our neighbors but we got it cleaned up. It is amazing how much this tree covered all on its own-the space it empty now and we are trying to figure out what to do with it now. We were so lucky this landed in the lake and didn't fall the other way!

Boo!!

Caroline's first Halloween was a success! We had quite the weekend with my parents, my sister and her family staying with us to enjoy some fesitvities out our way then rounding out the weekend with trick or treating at Busia's house. Due to a wardrobe malfunction (and the fact that I found it for $4.25)I had to buy her a new costume on Friday and she was adorable in it. It was so much fun to experiece all the fun by watching it through her eyes...we are really looking forward to Christmas now!

The weekend started with 'haunted pancakes'

Then we started the tricks or treats at Canterbury Village Saturday night

Daddy carved her first Jack 'O Lantern on Sunday afternooon...

And finally she made it through a whole block of trick or treating with the other kids....she had a blast and was so friendly and all smiles for everyone.

On Monday we had her 9 month doctor visit and the doctor played with her more than checked her out I think. Then, her doctor said no matter who else she saw that day Caroline got the award for cutest baby of the day....what else could be so wonderful to hear! Everywhere we go and everyone we see says how happy and cute and beautiful she is lately. And, she seems to be very healthy at 19 lbs. 10 oz (but I don't think that is right and who would know better than the one who carries her around all day) and is now in the 97%-tile for her height at 29.5 inches tall...her doctor was suprised to see the big jump from last time. She has been standing while holding onto the furniture but she has just started letting go and being able to stand for a few seconds at a time. Plus, I am noticing her trying to figure out how and if she could stand without holding onto anything and she walks like a champ holding onto our hands so we are getting closer!! She babbles all the time and can say hi, bye, mama, dada, yeah, papa and our version of no which is 'ah-ah'...she tries to repeat just about anything these days and is so cute about it.