Gampy Sleeping

Jason's dad, Dr. V. Wayne Ramsey (aka Gampy, PeePaw, & Grandfather Sir), passed away Monday, August 11, 2008, of ALS (Lou Gehrrig's disease). He died peacefully after removing him from life support. He was surrounded by loved ones - his wife, sons, daughters, grandkids, etc. All were showering him with love and prayers in the few days prior.

Wayne was quite the renaissance man. Along with being an OB/GYN and delivering 10,000+ babies, he was an artist, photographer, pilot, farmer, cattle rancher, guitar player, politician, real estate developer, professor, model T car restorer, sign painter, chihuahua breeder, jail house guard, and paper boy. Not to forget, a great husband, father, and grandfather. There was nothing he was afraid to tackle and did so with great confidence and zeal. He will be greatly missed.

You can view his obituary and a slide show of his life at http://www.memorialdesigners.net/. Click on Visitations, type in Wayne Ramsey, & click his name to view the obituary. Then, you can click on view tribute video to watch the slide show.

Of course, Reagan didn't understand what was going on. But, she knew that everyone was concerned about Gampy. I can't tell you how many times a day (both before and after he passed) she would say, "Gampy sleeping." She also made sure to take good care of her Gammy. The picture below was taken right after the funeral. I thought it was precious how she kept hugging Gammy.

Here is all of the family that was in attendance at the visitation Tuesday evening. It includes Wayne's wife, Marty, 5 of Wayne's children, 4 children's spouses, 8 grandkids (counting Evan who was hiding at the time), & 2 grandkids' spouses.

Jason & siblings - Jason, Bryan, Greg, Kathy, & Val

Reagan with cousins - Callie, Annie, Luke, & Seth - Aunt Robin & Uncle Greg

The cousins playing -Luke, Evan, Reagan, & Annie - Reagan & Evan were dancing

More pics and stories to come.

Zero Balloons

You may recall Reagan's love of popping balloons. Well, it hasn't diminished in the last few months. And, it doesn't even have to be real balloons.

We like to play some of the Sesame Street games online. This one is Elmo's Keyboard-o-rama. You hit keys on the keyboard, and onscreen Elmo says a word that starts with that letter or counts to that number. Like "G - grapes" and he eats a grape, "D - Drum" and he plays a drum, etc. Reagan likes hitting the keys and seeing Elmo react. Well, the other day she hit "0" (zero) for the first time. It shows a balloon floating up to the sky, then it pops and Elmo says, "Zero balloons!" Needless to say, she forgot about all the other keys and now just hits zero over and over again. Check it out!

She was sitting in my lap, so I didn't really have the best angle. Sorry about that.

Silly Reagan!

Here are a few fun pictures from the last month.

Entertaining in her tutu (pulled up to her armpits like Erkel)!

Crashing at a restaurant - Poor girl was exhausted!
Taking care of Baby
Riding her new "bicycle" - I know that technically it's a tricycle, but she won't call it that. It's a "bicycle," and she enunciates every syllable.
Her first lollipop. She kept saying, "I like it! Yummy!"
And last, but definitely not least, her latest pen escapade. I know she loves them, so I try to keep them hidden. But she managed to find one while I was working on dinner the other night. I came into the room and she's got her shirt up and is drawing away on her stomach with a huge grin on her face. As you can tell in this picture, she's very proud of her artwork!

Playdates!

Reagan is becoming quite the social butterfly! With birthday parties and playdates, she's really getting to spend some time with other kiddos. Which we really need right now. She's getting into the terrible two phase where everything is "Mine!" and she throws some fits when she doesn't get her way. I just have to remind myself that all toddlers go through this. We're really working on sharing and taking turns, so it's been good for her to practice with other little ones her age.

She had a playdate with Caroline last week. Just a few little squabbles - mainly Reagan's doing, but I think they had fun. She and Caroline have been pals since they were born. We introduced Caroline to "Hairspray". The two of them danced all over the place!

Then, they helped Elizabeth with the laundry. They had an assembly line going transferring stuff from the washer to the dryer. What fun!!

Today, she had a playdate with Happy. Happy's mom, Grace, and I are gym buddies. Grace made rice, miso soup, and steamed fish for us for lunch. Reagan loved it! We had a great time.

The girls playing "jump rope". They each hold on to one end of the rope and jump up and down. Whatever works!
Happy and Reagan making music

Groom's Cake

Here is my first big cake project. I did a groom's cake for a wedding this weekend. The groom plays the piano and flies planes. The model plane on the cake is of the first plane he ever flew. It's a 16" x 16" double layer cake. So, it's pretty big. This took me the better part of 2 days, but I think it turned out well. I'm still learning. But, overall, I was pleased with the final product. Oh, and those are candy rocks on top as well.

Birthday Parties!

Two of Reagan's little friends had birthdays this month, so Reagan had the chance to go to 2 birthday parties this past week. Last Saturday was Katie Jo's third birthday party. It was at Pump It Up, which is one of those places with all the inflatable jumping things. Reagan wasn't too keen on trying it at first, but with a little assistance from some friends, we got her in there, and she loved it. Thanks Patrick & Elizabeth!

"Hmmmm, do I want to go in there?"

Jumping with Elizabeth "I like parties!!"

Today was Samantha's third birthday. She had a Dinosaur Party. There was a Dino Egg Hunt, a Dino Dig, a Dino Pool, etc. Reagan had lots of fun. Daddy was even off today, so he got to go with us. She loved playing with her Daddy!

Party time! Jason is blowing one at her from the corner. "I'm not scared of you, dinosaur!"
Showing Mommy the dino eggs she found
As we were leaving she kept saying, "Party again! Party again!"

Reagan's going to have a little . . .

Here are some pics of Baby Ramsey! If you look at the arrow, it's pretty hard to miss the gender.Check out that precious profile! She - yes, she - was moving so much, we had a hard time getting a good 4D shot. These were the best ones we could find. She had her little arms in front of her face or was turning around in most of the others. She's still moving so her arms look scary, but I like the profile and face shots. I think the first one looks a bit like Reagan's profile.

Look at those little feet and toes!
Our big ultrasound was scheduled for this past Monday, but we had to reschedule it since we made an unexpected trip to Texas. However, Jason's wonderful sister, Kathy, took care of us. She's a nurse practitioner with some OB/GYNs, and she had the imaging people squeeze us in on Tuesday. Thanks, Kathy!! I have my ultrasound here this coming Monday, so we'll get to see the little one again soon.