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Evy : 18 months, Daddy : 30 years, Mommy : 28 years (and 32 weeks pregnant)

It's hard to believe our girl is a year and a half. Time flies when you're having fun (and having kids). It's been a good past few weeks for us. We celebrated Josh's 30th birthday, my 28th, and are quickly approaching baby Violet's arrival. She's due April 9th, but considering how fast 18 months has gone, 8 weeks will be a blink!

Evy is growing and learning so quickly! Josh and I are impressed daily with her expanding vocabulary (45 words today!) and understanding. She loves books, songs, baths, food, Elmo, playing outside, and her baby dolls.

We got together with Josh's family yesterday and his sister Sarah blessed us again with her gift of photography. Evy's increasingly active, curious nature posed a rewarding challenge for Sarah; we think she demonstrated her skill with flying colors by capturing all these great action shots!

So here we are trying to captivate Evy with bubbles but no matter what we do, she just can't get her mind off of that playground of in the distance (to her right).

Below, she's heading in that direction.

She took a quick break from her pilgrimage to the playground so she could snuggle w/ us and give Violet a kiss/hug. Evy has picked this up from Josh. Josh very regularly talks to Violet, rubs my tummy, etc. so Evy does the same. Sometimes she rubs my tummy and says, "Kick! Kick!" The sweetest part is that Violet responds to both of them too!

And she's back on her way...

Leggings on little girls are definitely one of the cutest things in the world.

THE PLAYGROUND!!!

So proud of herself!

Waving at some nearby dogs.

Below, if we ever decide to run for office, we'll use this picture for our political campaign.
"Vote for Nachtigall!" But how 'bout that clear, blue sky, eh?! It was a perfect day!

In case you didn't know, we got a new van! This is its cute profile. You can't tell from the picture, but it's smiling.

This is one of just a few pictures where Evy actually sat still.

Ticklish ...

Where's Mommy's nose?

"I'm here Grandma!"

"I'll try the doorbell instead."

A little heart on my tummy to say, "Mommy loves Violet." (And Happy Valentines' Day)

"Shoes."

Aunt Sarah says my belly button means, "Almost done."

Christmas

We had such a great Christmas this year!
Above is Evy sporting some reindeer antlers.
Evy has recently begun smiling and posing for pictures. This is her favorite smile to use. After we take the picture she likes to see it (the joys of digital cameras) and she seems to find herself quite entertaining. We agree, of course.

This strainer makes a great hat. And Evy thinks this picture is hilarious.

One of the most special parts of our Christmas this year was telling Evy the Christmas story. Her favorite books were the ones about Baby Jesus. In fact, she sang her first words, "Jesus, Jesus" while reading a favorite Christmas book.
She spent a lot of time playing w/ our Nativity set, which is actually ceramic, so we had to keep a close eye on her, but she was really careful and took good care of all the pieces. Jesus was her favorite piece. It was not uncommon for Jesus to be missing from the rest of the set because He was off "ministering" somewhere else in the house.
Below, she's carefully playing w/ the Nativity. We're not exactly sure how the Nutcracker got in there, but we figured Evy is an evangelist. More about that later.

Here she is enjoying our church's kids program on Grandma's lap, sitting beside her great grandparents.

Her favorite part was watching her cousins dance and sing as angels announcing Jesus' birth to the shepherds.

As I mentioned before, Evy is an evangelist. Our church has life size nativity in the sanctuary during the advent season and Evy LOVES it. Lately, every time we go to church we say, "Let's go see Jesus!" The morning of this kids' program, when we walked into the sanctuary, we realized that Jesus was missing from the nativity because He's going to be in the kids' program that night. Evy was a little confused about it and spent a little time looking for Him as well as "talking" about how He wasn't there.

After the service, Grandma (Josh's mom) took Evy up on stage and showed her that Jesus was just hiding behind the inn set, in preparation for His big show. As soon as Evy saw that Jesus was there, she turned right around, with much "rejoicing," and hurried off to tell Grandpa and bring him over to see for himself! Then of course, she had to tell Daddy too! Daddy even took Jesus out of the manger so she could give him a hug and a pat.

It reminded me of when the shepherds found Jesus and were so excited that they had to "go tell it on the mountain!"

Here we are celebrating w/ Daddy's side. Aunt Sarah and Aunt Jenny taught Evy how to eat olives.

Evy had a special snuggle with her Great Grandma Berg (and Evy's wearing an outfit from her Great Grandparents on Mom's Wilkinson side)

Here's Mom with her cousin in law Laura. Laura's son Nathan was born on Jan. 5th. Our daughter is due April 9th.

Dad's side

Evy and her cousins

Uncle Tad put lots of time and love into making these beautiful blocks for Evy. She liked them so much, she climbed right into the box. She hasn't figured out how to build anything yet, but she's great at demolishing everything others try to build.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is acting out the Christmas story as a family. We even had costumes this year! Last year, Evy played the part of Jesus and was quite content to lay in the manger while we acted out the story around her. This year, she brought her favorite baby doll to play the part of Jesus. Here she is, carefully laying baby in the manger and helping Mary and Joseph (Megan and Grandpa) with childcare . Though she was a sheep for the scene w/ the shepherds, we're not exactly sure what part Evy is playing here. Maybe the holy nanny?

The cast

On Christmas morning we gave Evy a big toy for the yard (a hand - me - down from her cousins). It's a slide w/ a fort underneath. Here she is trying it out. Yes, she tasted some dirt and frosty tomatoes a few minutes before.

She likes it!
(And you can see in the background that we're having another great year with our orange tree)

Here we are with Mom's side. The 3 Es (Evy, Eden, and Elly) enjoyed playing together in their matching panda pajamas. It's great that they're all so close in age and share interest in toys.

Snow time! Evy seems to really enjoy the snow. Mom made her this took for Christmas.

Little footprints in the fresh snow.

We enjoyed several sled runs down Nana and Grandpa's drive way. I posted a video at the end.

Evy and Eden going for a ride.

Back inside, Evy got a broom for Christmas! (She wanted one, mine was too tall for her)...

... and a Dora potty seat from her cousins ....

.... and a Little People Nativity Set from Nana and Grandpa! Now she can play with it all by herself, and she does! As you can see, Jesus is her favorite piece again. This set also plays Evy's favorite song, Away in the Manger.

Back outside for more snow play.

Mom made matching tooks for Eden and Elly too. Here are Elly and Evy in the sled.

Eden and Nana are pulling Evy and Elly while Uncle Ken helps out.

Snow bunny

Here's a fun video of Evy and Daddy enjoying a sled ride together. Latte tries to play chicken with them at first but jumps out of the way just in time.