It is a girl... we think! Nick and I went to our first ultrasound this morning and they said they are pretty sure we are having a girl! It was kind of a weird angle so they said they couldn't say for certain. So, for now we are thinking pink and keeping the receipts! We are super excited! We were really thinking it was going to be another boy but we really couldn't be happier. And, as our tradition goes Nick took the day off of work and I got to buy a few girlie things as my reward for having so much self-control and not buying any baby stuff until we found out for sure what the gender was! Here are a few things we bought! My absolute favorite... leopard print shoes!! I have a pair just like them!

I took Max to get his picture taken with a bunny for Easter. He had so much fun and thought the bunnies were great! He was so sweet and gentle with them. I was so proud!

Max and I had such a fun day today! We went with our friends Amy and Adria to the Rutledge-Wilson Farm Community Park in Springfield. They have lots of fun animals to see and pet. Max loved it! Especially the goats! Unfortunatly my camera's batteries died early on at the farm so we will have to go back again so I can take more pictures! I think we might even go back tomorrow so we can take Daddy with us!

We are also excited in our house because we are about a week and a half away from our first ultra-sound! Hopefully we will be able to find out if we are having a boy or a girl! Our appointment is March 11th and my wonderful friend Christina has offered to watch Max so that Nick can come with me and we can both peek in on our new little one for the first time!

My little boy is just too cute! He has starting putting words together and we can just hardly resist him when he does! Especially when his new word is please. Tonight we were hanging out and he goes over to the counter where there were cookies in a tupperware and he pointed saying "cook, cook". Then Nick asked, "do you want a cookie?" and he responded with "cook peash". It was so cute.

We are amazed at how much his vocabulary is expanding. I am pretty sure it hs quadrupled in the past few weeks. Whenever he sees a cat on t.v. he exclaims, "kikky"! And he can defenitely identify cookies and crackers, "cooks and cacks".

Anyway, enough bragging for now.

Max is growing and changing so much everyday. He has started talking a lot more which is so much fun. He can say please, kinda comes out "peash", banana "nana", no, me, mama, dada, and several other words... when he feels like it!
We are headed up to Troy today to hang out with my family. So, in order to have a good car ride, my goal for the day is to keep Max up and not let him nap. Wish me luck! We are planning on heading out around 3.
Other than that not much is going on. We are just enjoying life and trying to keep busy!
Have a blessed day!

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile... but then I guess that is how I start off every post.

Max is now 15 months old and walking everywhere. Nick and I enjoy his walking since it slows him down a bit... for now. He has also become quite the climber. He climbs up on the couch, the coffee table, his toybox, and anything else that will stand still long enough. His favorite thing to do is stack toys on his rocking chair and then try to climb on top. He is so funny!

I am enjoying staying at home full time now. Max and I have lots of playdates with friends and go to Story Time for 1 year olds at the library once a week. Nick is enjoying the homemade dinners that come with my staying at home so everyone couldn't be happier with the situation!

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday and Baby #2 is doing great so far. Very strong heartbeat and measuring perfectly. I only gained 1.5 pounds which I am happy about. My doctor was happy to see that I am gaining weight this time instead of losing it at the beginning. I have been much less sick this time around which is a HUGE blessing with a 1 year old to chase around!

Hope everyone is having a good winter and enjoying 2008 so far!

Love,

Katie

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Ours has been wonderful. We have gotten to spend some quality time with friends and family and just relax. We have been here in Troy sinced Friday night and we are having a great time. We opened presents this morning and everyone got what they asked for and more! Nick is most excited about his new Flip Video (a little video camera that plugs into the computer, it is awesome!). Katie got a new scanner, printer, copier that she can't wait to start using, and Max got a basketball hoop!

Today we had Grandma and Grandpa Powell in for lunch and then the Bahr Family and their niece Ava (family friends) came to spend the evening. We all played Wii (Dance Dance Revolution and Bowling) and had an awesome time.
Max is in heaven spending so much time with his grandparents. He and Grandpa have spent a lot of time playing with tools (Grandma has a play workbench!) and Grandma has been great for snuggling and chasing cats with.
Tomorrow the girls are going to see Wicked at The Fox and we are so excited. I got the soundtrack for Christmas and have been listening to it to get ready. Seeing live theater is one of my favorite things in the entire world so I can hardly handle the anticipation.
Well, I better get going. My husband is waiting for me to play a round of Wii bowling. I hope I win.
I wish you all a wonderful and blessed holiday!
Love,
Katie

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile! Life at our house has been wonderful and crazy! During one busy week in December I graduated college and we found out we are expecting baby #2. So basically, the Ramsey family couldn't be happier!

Max is doing great! He is walking... when he feels like it! He is such a smart little guy and he amazes us everyday. Yesterday we were reading a book and when we saw a picture of a baby Max did the sign for "baby". We had never taught him that one but it is in the Baby Einstein sign language movie he has! It is amazing the things they pick up!

We are headed to Troy today to celebrate Christmas with my family. We are super excited. Max will have so much fun being the center of attention and playing with his grandparents and Auntie M. I am looking forward to a little extra help keeping him entertained!

Well, I guess I should get to packing and wrapping presents. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Happy Friday everyone! It is definetly a happy one here at the Ramsey house! I have been super busy finishing up the semester. Graduation is December 14th and the count down has begun! I have a few really big projects left before the end of the semester.
Max is doing really well. He still isn't walking yet... but he finds crawling so efficient he doesn't have much a desire to! He is using basic sign language a lot which has made our lives so much easier. He is able to let us know when he is hungry or finished. He has also started having a few of his own words for things... he LOVES bananas and refers to them as "nanas" which he wants several times a day. He has also referred to his Grandpa Don as "Papa" when we look at family pictures.
Our family is very ready for Thanksgiving. We are going to Big Cedar Lodge in Branson with my parents, sister, and grandma. We are so excited! It will be so nice to get out of town and spend some time with family!
We will post some pictures of our trip when we get back!

Max is 1! I can't believe how quickly the year has flown by. We celebrated by having two very fun birthday parties! Check out Picasa to see more pictures!

Hello Friends and Family!

I hope this post finds everyone happy and healthy! Here at the Ramsey House things are great. Life is keeping us very busy but that is generally how we like it! Max is getting a new tooth in (top left) so he is quite a bit fussier than usual but still tolerable.

School is going well for me this semester. Lots of projects, but it is already over 1/4 of the way through so how can I complain?? My favorite class is probably my Scientific and Technical Editing class. My instructor is fabulous and I am actually learning some things!

Nick is keeping busy at work. He enjoys his job most days and loves the people he works with. Nick watches Max on Fridays while I have class and so Max gets to hang out at E.B.I. and flirt with all of the girls. He loves it.

Max of course is doing great... except for the teething. He has totally mastered pulling up and is enjoying his mobility. He has starting making the "ma" sound so I am hoping that is a sign of things to come!

My mom and grandma are coming to town for a visit today so we are looking forward to a fun weekend with them. I hope everyone else has a great weekend. We are still downloading most of our pictures to our Picasa site, http://picasaweb.google.com/KatieLRamsey, so check there if you are interested! Here is one of my favorite pictures from the past few weeks...

Hello!
I just wanted to announce that last night Max said his first real word! He has said words before but this is the first one he seems to know the meaning of! He said, "duck". We happen to have a lot of duck toys so there ya go!

Wow, it has been a super busy week. It was my first week back in school- one down, sixteen to go! I think it is going to be a really good but busy semester. It looks like I might actually learn a few things in a few of my classes which I am looking forward to. But, I think they are going to be a lot of work. So... if you don't hear from me much this semester, I appologize!
Max is a lot of fun these days... if you can keep up. He crawls everywhere and has very little interest in being held! He is into everything! But, we LOVE it!! Everyone kept telling us... "you don't want them to crawl", "enjoy them now because you are going to go crazy after they start crawling". Well, I must say I appreciate the advice but you are wrong. We love it that he can crawl! He has so much fun exploring his world and we love watching him learn more everyday!
He also has two new tricks, he dances when you ask him to, and does a "touchdown" (put his arms in the air) when asked as well. Both are soooo cute!
Well, I guess that is about all we have to report from Nixa! Hope everyone is doing well in your part of the world!

Nick and I are in awe of how quickly Max is growing and changing. He crawled for the first time on Saturday night! He has to really want something to do it at this point, but we have a feeling any day now he will just take off!

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile! Things are going well here with the Ramsey family. Today is Nick and my 2 year anniversary! We are so excited! It has been a great 2 years!

Max is doing great and getting so big! He is pulling up and almost crawling. I think this is my favorite age so far. He is getting such a personality.

My mom and sister are coming to visit tomorrow evening until Thursday morning so I am really excited about that. Max is head over heels in love with his Auntie M so he will have a great time. I love having some company during the day!

Not much else is new. Nick is still enjoying his job at E.B.I. and we are staying busy. We try to have friends over for dinner about once a week and we are really just enjoying our life, family, and friends.

We hope all is well with all of you. Please drop us a line sometime and let us know how you are doing... KatieLRamsey@gmail.com

Love,

The Ramsey's

Hey Friends! Since I haven't been fabulous at updating I have started posting are pictures on Picasa since that is a little easier. http://picasaweb.google.com/KatieLRamsey We will still post on here too, but for those of you who like to see pictures a little more often, here you go!

Max's newest trick... scooting backwards!! It is so cute. He has no idea what he is doing but he tends to get further and further away from whatever toy he is reaching for! I feel a little bad for him!

I just wanted to make a comment to all of our friends out there who are soon to be parents or are planning to have babies in the future... read BabyWise! We constantly have people telling us how good our baby is (and yes, he is pretty good natured anyway) but really it all comes from BabyWise! BabyWise has taught Nick and I to put our marriage first and to focus on helping Max become a secure and moral person from day one... even if that sometimes means he isn't totally happy with us for that moment. But, in the end he is a happier baby because he feels secure and although he is totally loved, he is not the center of the universe!! If you want to learn more please check out a copy or we would be happy to lend you ours. We are so grateful we found a parenting philosophy that we totally agree with and that has worked so well for us!

Max is getting so big and amazing us every single day. He is starting to show some interest in crawling and pulling up. Along with the amazing things he is doing he has also started screaming when he gets upset which hopefully won't last too much longer, we don't encourage it!

Hello Family and Friends!

We hope you all are enjoying the summer as much as we are! Max loves being outside so we go on about two walks a day! Very good exercise for Mom and Dad! Last Saturday we went to Mountain Grove to visit with Nick's family. Nick's mom had foot surgery but seemed to be doing well! Max enjoyed showing off for his grandparents! He really loves showing off in general!

His newest "trick" is giving snuggles. He has always snuggled a little bit but now if you snuggle him and then ask for "some snuggles" he snuggles you back! It melts my heart everytime! Nick and I are so blessed to have such an increadible little boy! Nick and I are enjoying Max so much that we look forward to seeing if the Lord has any other children planned for our future and what they will be like!

Here are some pictures from this week!

Wow, I have been intending to do this blog since Tuesday and I am just now getting around to it. Ahh life with a 7 month old! It is wonderful, but everyday is a new adventure! Our family spent Memorial Day weekend in Troy with the Powell''s. So much fun, as always! Max had a great time and was totally content being snuggled by his grandparents and Auntie M all weekend. Coming home and getting back to normal was definetly an adjustment! My mom and sister came down yesterday to attend a conference today so we got to spend yesterday shopping in Branson, Max and the girls, Nick had to work. Max loved it. He got two new pairs of shoes and he was so excited. As soon as we put them on his feet he started bouncing around and showing off. He definetly knew he was getting something new! And of course his grandma had to get him a few outfits to match the new shoes! We all had a great time! And we even got to see Aunt Teri working at her new store at the Landing, Justice! Here are a few pictures from Memorial Day.