The Evolution of an Evie Smile...

"I'm sleeping and shan't be disturbed..."



It must be a good dream...



"I guess I should get up now...big yawn"



"Ah, what is this, another camera?"


"Ok, I'll give you a little smile and giggle."

Search for the Great Pumpkin

Today Evie visited a nursery of a different kind to help Mom and Dad pick out a pumpkin for the family's jack-o-lantern this year. Here is a picture of her getting up and personal with the pumpkins to determine which one will work best. Or, the picture could be Evie being tired of her parents trying to set up photo opps for her and wants to go home.

Evie celebrates Daddy's Birthday and Grandma Gen's life

This weekend, Evie helped celebrate Daddy's birthday with gifts and ice cream cake. Daddy got many great gifts; Evie gave him a Dartmouth Dr. Seuss onesie and "Hop on Pop", and Mommy got him some wireless headphones so that Daddy can watch TV shows like "The Shield" without having to worry about Evie hearing any bad words. But, it looks as if Evie is not a big fan of the headphones herself, from the picture below...



But, it was a sad couple of days as well as the McDonald family mourned the passing but celebrated the life of Great-Grandma Gen, Grandma Beanie's mother. Grandma Gen lived a wonderful 95 years and touched the lives of everyone who knew her. Evie was Grandma Gen's 13th great-grandchild. She will be missed by all of us. Here is a picture of her with daughters Adele (Aunt Dellie) and Arlene (Grandma Beanie).

Evie takes on New Jersey!

Evie made her first trip up to New Jersey this weekend and experienced many adventures: quality time with Grandma and Pops, meeting Tootsie for the first time, and having a blast at Great Aunt Dellie's Birthday Bash. On Saturday, the family traveled to Morristown to cousin Matt and Kristen's house to celebrate great-aunt Dellie's 70th Birthday, and what a celebration it was! It was a great family reunion with Matt, Kristen and their three boys: Thomas, Jimmy, and Jack; Peter and Maureen and their children Peter and Kathleen, and Bethie with Quintin and Geneveive. Evie also met Uncle Wally, Aunt Karen, Uncle Dave and Aunt Casey for the first time!

Although little Evie slept through much of the ruckus, the rest of the family enjoyed wiffleball, karaoke, and delicious food. Here is a picture of Daddy and Grandma Beanie singing Bruce Springsteen's "Badlands" in true New Jersey fashion. Aunt Dellie was later awarded the Beanie Cup in honor of her birthday.

Finally, Evie got to have fun with her cousin Julianna McDonald (Dave and Casey's) daughter for the first time: the two babies seemed to hit it off as Julianna promised to teach Evie her doublefisting thumbsucking technique. Julianna, at 4.5 months old, is already rolling over and showing great potential as a future wiffleball player by lobbing toys out of her crib.

Evie and Andy meet for the first time!

Evie got to meet her new best friend, Andrew Paul (Jen and Tom's new baby!) today. Andy is about 2.5 weeks old, born on September 15. While the daddies enjoyed Sunday football and tracking their multiple fantasy football leagues, the mommies treated themselves to afternoon tea at the Ritz-Carlton. In this picture, Evie lets Andy know that he can lean on her, if he needs a friend.



It looks as if "napping" is contagious, as the two cuties close their eyes to get some sleep (or, to avoid the flash from two enthusiastic mommy photographers!).

Baby Evie's first race...

Evie's training all paid off when she participated in a "Dash for Dad" race/walk this Sunday morning. While Mommy, Ba, and Opa walked the 2K, Daddy ran the 10K and came in 7th place out of around 500 runners! Pretty amazing (but a little embarrassing that Dad passed the 2K walkers and then came back to meet us because we were walking a little slow).

Wait a second... maybe it was because Evie slept the whole time in her new "Cadillac" stroller. I guess she just couldn't help it in such a smooth ride.

Baby in Training

Here's a picture of Evie exercising in her little Zebra jumper- she's great at moving her legs like she's on a bicycle (and kicking her legs especially when she's having her diaper changed)! She demonstrated in the womb that she really knows how to kick and punch and has really strong legs!