More pics

Reagan and DeeDee in our single picture from the last trip to the zoo. The bear was just hangin' out and watching everyone. When Danielle and I were painting letters for Reese's room, Reagan wanted to paint as well, so we gave her a sponge brush. Next thing we know, she has dipped it in the puppies' water bowl and is proceeding to "paint" the walls, her rocker, her face etc.
If you look closely, you can see her forehead is dripping from her "paintjob".
Reagan and Happy at a recent playdate
Daddy's favorite pasttime - Playing with pigtails!
My daughter the hobo - she's wearing her tutu (which she wears everyday now), her hat (which she required since it was raining), and mommy's purse over her shoulder ("Bye-bye! I leavin'. I goin' to church!") as she greets Daddy coming home from work

Texas Trip Last Month

Since I was so far behind, I thought I'd back-track a bit and cover a few things I missed. Here are some more fun pics from our last trip to Lubbock. Lots of cute ones of Reagan and Evan playing.

"Giddy-up Horsey!" Aunt Alli introduced Reagan to markers. What fun!?! They were washable, but they were a mess! She and Evan loved coloring the books, their arms, each other, etc.
Reagan took a nose dive into the carpet one day. That scab on her nose is a carpet burn. Ouch! You can see it in the pic above too.
Sweet hugs!

King Me!

"Here, Pops, let me show you how this works."We went to Chuck E. Cheese's for Evan's 2nd Birthday. Fun Times!

Driving the fire truck

We got rhythm!

Big Boys playing too

Reagan's Big Girl Bed

I finally finished painting Reagan's new bed. (Just in time to get it inside and miss all this rain that Gustav has brought us.) On Labor Day, Jason and I got her crib dismantled and moved into the nursery and moved in "Reagan's big girl bed" (as she calls it). She wanted to help us put it together. "I do it! I help!" We gave her her own tools and let her work. It made the process quite a bit longer on our part, but she enjoyed herself. She has little steps to get onto the bed that she loves, but she hasn't quite figured out how to get down them yet. But, I'm not complaining. That means that she can't climb out once we put her down to sleep. She's slept in her new bed the last few nights. The first night, it took her about 20 minutes to get to sleep. She kept calling out to us and saying, "I scared. I scared." But, she was a trooper. She did great! Then, when she woke up, she said, "I awake in Reagan's big girl bed!" She was so proud of herself.

Her last pic in her baby crib - Love the morning hair!

"Helping" us assemble the new bed

The finished product (with a strange reflection on the wall?)

Reading in her new bed

Playing in her new bed

Such a big girl now! I can hardly believe it!

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