Winter is here at 31 weeks!

Do not despair, my dear blog readers.  We've found a way to keep Evelyn warm in the cold Vermont weather:

I told the woman at the craft fair that Evelyn has a "big melon", and she took me seriously!

"What is this hat all about, Mom?"

We have had a good week of Christmas baking, parties, and shopping.  I am finding myself doing a lot more online shopping, because it's easier than dragging Evie all over the place, in and out of the car to buy gifts.

Father Brian came and helped us set up our nativity set, because last year we had too many shepherds and not enough wise men.  Oops!

We had Tara from Birdie Lou photography come over and do some photos of Evelyn and some holiday family photos, as well.  It was a fairly exhausting endeavor for me and Matt, trying to get Evelyn to smile for an hour's worth of photos!  It must have been exhausting for Evelyn, too, because she took a 2-hour nap immediately afterward.  We were pulling out every stop - peek-a-boo, singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider (her favorite song), talking in goofy voices, reading her favorite books.  Matt even went outside and played peek-a-boo through the window in hopes of a big grin!  It was all worth it, because we ended up with some beautiful photos.  I never thought I would be into getting all these pictures done before Evelyn was born, but Tara is such a wonderful photographer, and we feel like she truly captures the spirit of our family in her pictures.  Check back later this week, and I'll post a link to the whole album of photos.

Now comes the "knock on wood" portion of the blog post.  Evelyn has been sleeping REALLY well lately.  For the past three days, she has slept from 8pm to 8:30am!  She's also napping very well (3 naps of at least 1 hour apiece).  We aren't sure what changed, but we'll take it.  Matt and I fight (not really fight) over who gets to get her up, because she is so sweet when she first wakes up, with her sleepy eyes and her bed head.

We have some very sweet friends in the St. Mike's choir, and one student made this beautiful hat for our girl.  How cute!

Thank you Mary Jo!

And, even though the Colts are having the worst season EVER, Evie is holding out hope for at least one win...

Go Colts!