I like this day.

Today has been such a good day so far. I would rarely say that about a day that began at 4:45 but this day really is good. Jack Jack woke me up to eat and the timing was really perfect because I wanted to watch William and Kate's wedding anyway! I had so much fun watching the wedding (I did doze off a little bit during the ceremony, but still, loved it!) She looked so beautiful and it was so special to watch a part of history "live". I wasn't born yet when Princess Diana married Prince Charles but I always loved hearing other people's stories about watching it so I didn't want to miss out on my chance. I am glad I didn't. It was very special!

Nick hung out for a while this morning because he is working late today and it was so fun to have him home with us. He usually leaves for work before the kids get up so it was fun to have him here for breakfast. He even stayed until it was time to get the kids in the car to go to the gym! It was very helpful!

I went to step class at the gym this morning which was fun but my muscles were having a hard time keeping up!

We came home this afternoon and the kiddos and I had a Dierburg's frozen pizza for lunch. Did you local people know that Imo's makes their pizzas?? I just discovered this! Plus they were on sale this week for 3/$11! A great deal for Imo's whenever you want!

The kiddies and I are going to go out to my mom's to hang out for a little while this afternoon. Nick is getting to be a part of SharePoint Saturday in St. Louis this weekend so he will be gone this evening and all day tomorrow. We will miss him but I am SO proud that he and his co-worker were asked to present at the conference! He is such a hard worker and I am so excited that his hard work is being noticed! I am a very proud wife!

Here are a few pics of those crazy little R's lately...

Soph enjoying her new Toy Story set that Grandma and Grandpa got her for Easter

Max asked me to take a picture of the cows he built

I caught Soph digging in my purse

her accomplice

doing a puzzle together without fighting

Sophie dressed up her baby brother

these two are starting to bond and it makes me very happy!

a rare moment of peace between siblings!

Oh! And the cutest thing happened today... Jack was crying a lot earlier today and I was holding him and I said, "I just can't get him to stop crying" and Max said, "I will do it". So I set Jack on the floor and Max and Sophie both came up and started hugging him and entertaining him and within seconds they were all laughing and Jack was so happy! It was precious!! One of those moments that makes all of the hard days feel SOOO worth it!

31 Days to Clean

Do you all read Sarah Mae's blog? It is fabulous! She also writes over at (in)courage and I just love hearing what she has to say. She truly has a heart for the Lord and has a rare honesty in sharing her faith. Anyway, she has a new e-book and I have been so excited to get my hands on it. It is called 31 Days to Clean: Having a Martha Heart the Mary Way. I am really excited to read it because I need all the help I can get!

Go check it out! I will be reading it soon and will let you know what I think!

Easter 2011

I hate to say it but we "survived" Easter this year. With three kiddos taking turns with a stomach bug it was just not quite what we had planned. I feel kind of like a bad mom. We didn't do our Resurection Rolls for breakfast or even dye Easter eggs. However, all things considered I think our Easter was pretty great. We celebrated with our family which was priceless. I am so glad my mom offered to host this year because if I had done it... well, it might not have happened. So, I thank my mom for making our Easter special this year because I sure didn't have my act together!

Here are our sweet little R's on Easter morning 



 Max trying to find the "good stuff"

Realizing that this was "the good stuff". We had to have a little talk about how Easter isn't really a "present" holiday and we need to be thankful for whatever we get. Ha!

 Jack Jack's first Easter!

 After Max cheered up again he offered to be our photgrapher!

The men in my life <3 They look so handsome in their purple!

 My girl. So thankful I have someone else in the family to even out all the testosterone!

My baby.  The transition to three kids has been HARD but he makes it all worth it!

Our family on Easter. This photo isn't quite what it looks like. We just realized Jack had a blow out diaper, Soph didn't want to be in the picture, and I was loosing my cool FAST!

 Jack in a clean diaper checking out his Easter gifts from Grandma! Mom feeling better! :-)

 Auntie with her nephew! (Notice the hubs in the background... his shirt did not make it out of the blow out incident unscathed!)

 Time for an egg hunt (my oldest said he needed a gun for the egg hunt... not that kind of hunt, Sweetie)

The kids gave up hunting eggs pretty quickly but when I learned there was money in the eggs and no one else jumped at getting them I was all for it! I made $8.50! Starbucks here I come!

And of course there was ah-mazing food! My mom is a fabulous cook and she really went all out! I am so thankful! Now, I better get back to my sick kiddos. We are having a post-Easter lounge around day hoping to get EVERYONE healthy and NOT throwing-up!

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Easter! I am so thankful that the only part of Easter that really matters is that Jesus is RISEN and he is alive today and working through me. Because of His grace it is okay that I didn't make a perfect family holiday happen! Praise Jesus!

Happy Easter

with love from all the Little R's! (Pics from Easter to come later this week!)

Sunday Letters

Dear Max,

These pictures are so YOU. You crack us up lately. Your imagination goes 100 miles a minute. You are such a little boy and we love you for it. You have been pretty good this week and very affectionate. You have also been playing more nicely with your sister which is a huge answer to my prayers! You LOVE holidays so you are totally stoked for Easter this week. I can't wait to do our traditions and celebrate with you!

Dear Sophie,

You asked me to take a picture of your toenails. You got your grandma to paint them for you while she was babysitting. This picture is also a sneak peak of what we let you wear to church this morning. In your own words you told me, "I have a style all my own." Yes you do my dear. Yes you do. 

Dear Jack,

Please stop screaming in the middle of the night for long periods of time. Mommy is tired. In other news, your grandma succeeded at getting your hair to stay down. It turns out the secret is a baby brush! Who knew? Despite our late nights together you are still a joy to be around and we love you to pieces!

Dear Nick,

I loved getting to go out with you and our friends last night. I had a blast! It is always fun to get to be a couple with another couple. Thanks for making last night happen! I also want to say thank you so much for working so hard to take over our budget after I have been doing it for so long. You are doing great. I am so proud of all that you do for our family. And I think you are cute. The end.

Pinterest

Okay... so are you all on Pinterest? It is sooo addicting. Like, for me, worse than Facebook addicting. You know when you are browsing online through websites or blogs and you see a really cute outfit and you think, "I would love to wear something like that sometime?" But then, you forget about it and you never get around to remembering the site you saw it again and you just cry and cry and cry... No? Is that just me? Ahem, anyways! So, with Pinterest you can "pin" that pretty outfit and put it on a "board" so that you can easily link back to it whenever you want to see it again. And you can make a board for any category! Style inspiration, house inspiration, ideas of things you want your husband to buy you for holidays (okay, I don't have that category yet but it is not a bad idea!) And one of the COOLEST things about it is that you can "follow" people and look at their boards. So, if you think someone has really great style you can see the picutres that inspire them! I am loving it!

Shoot me an e-mail (KatieLRamsey at gmail dot com) if you want an invite and I will send you one so that you can get started obsessing wasting your time finding inspiration! Oh, and if you want to see my boards go here http://pinterest.com/katielramsey/.

P.S. I kind of hope the hubs doesn't see this blog post before leaving work today or he will know why the house is still a mess and no laundry has been done today! Oops... love you Babe ;-)

8 things

8 Things

I did this a few years ago and saw it on my old blog so I thought it would be fun to try again. I will post my new answers and then after show my old answers from April 27, 2009. Wow, a lot has changed in two years!

Here is todays...

8 things I'm looking forward to

Summer! 

Everyone sleeping through the night on a more regular basis

Taking a vacation sometime, preferably to the beach!

Going to the Mercy Me concert this weekend

The hubs getting home from work today

Buying a new minivan in a year or two when mine finally gives out

Getting to my goal weight

Watching my kids grow and learn every day

8 things I did yesterday

Took the big kids to Mom's Day Out

Went to BodyFlow class at the gym

Hung out at my friend Heather's afterwards

Went to the grocery store and spent under $20

Played outside with the kids

Took a family walk after dinner

Did lots of laundry

Watched Kate + 8 for the first time since "Jon" was dropped

8 things I wish I could do

Keep my kids in a protective bubble (only kind of kidding)

Get a little glimpse into the future

Loose weight without trying

Give up Diet Coke... maybe

Change the world

Keep in touch with people better

Make lots of money effortlessly so the hubs could just hang out with us all day... although maybe I would get bored with that

Be bolder

8 shows I watch

The Big Bang Theory

19 Kids and Counting

House Hunters

All My Children

Say Yes to the Dress

How I Met Your Mother

Super Why

Dinosaur Train (those last two are sad but true!)

8 things I say everyday

I love you

No thank you

Don't get out of bed

Night night

What do you say?

Let's not scream

Have such a good day

Amen

Now my 2009 version...
8 things I'm looking forward to
Buying or building a house
Sophie sleeping through the night on a regular basis
the pools opening
Decorating my new house
Getting to be a stay-at-home mom as my kids get older
Possibly homeschooling my children when they are older
Feeling more at home in St. Louis
Having another baby in the future (or adopting!)

8 things I did yesterday
Went to lunch at Ruby Tuesdays
Ate pork steaks for dinner (amazing!)
Played with the kiddos
Walked around the lake (3 miles, woo hoo!)
Checked my e-mail
Made homemade biscotti
Ate homemade biscotti and drank coffee while chatting with the hubs
Watched Desperate Housewives

8 things I wish I could do
Buy a house today
Loose weight more quickly
Make millions of dollars with little to no effort!
Go on vacation with my husband this summer
Cure cancer, AIDS, and stupidity
Have more self confidence
Tell everyone in the world about Jesus... and Dave Ramsey... but first Jesus!
Know that my children will live in a world that will never hurt them

8 shows I watch (Since I rarely watch TV I will go with shows I sometimes watch!)
Desperate Housewives
Househunters
The Today Show
18 Kids and Counting
The Big Bang Theory
How I Met Your Mother
Friends
Seinfeld

8 things I say everyday
Thank you Lord for all you have blessed me with
I love you
night night
Are you hungry?
No thank you
Please share with your sister
you're silly
someone needs a diaper change

Weekend Recap & Sunday Letters... on a Sunday!!

This weekend has been quite an excellent one! Friday was the hubsters birthday of course. I had plans for a birthday dinner with his favorite meal, pork steaks on the grill. However, he was running an hour late getting home and I was heading out for the evening while he had a game night with some guys so we skipped dinner and went straight for the cake!

That night I went and played Bunco at my friend Heather's house and Nick had some guys over and played board games. I had a fabulous night and stayed out way too late!

Saturday we ran some errands, hung out at home and then our fabulous babysitter Katie came over to hang out with the kiddos while Nick and I met some friends at Bandana's for dinner. Nick has been wanting to go there forever but I am rarely in a barbeque mood. So, since it was his birthday we went! Ha! We had a great time and ended up sitting at the restaurant for 3 hours just being grown-ups! It was fabulous!

This morning we went to church, ran to Aldi's (yes, it is true) and then had lunch at Culver's so we could see my sister. I was so tired when we got home but I forced myself to go to the gym instead of taking a nap and now I feel like I have all sorts of energy! It is awesome! I think tonight we will grill some talapia and shrimp and enjoy our Sunday evening. It has been a very good weekend!

 Dear Jack,
You are crawling all over the place! Your sister is not thrilled with your newfound ability to get to her toys but the rest of us think it is adorable. Your big brother has also started picking you up under your armpits and trying to carry you around the house. I think it is safe to say you are going to be a tough little boy!

 Dear Max,
You have been awesome this week. You have been really cracking me up because you have been wanting to play where you are the dad and you call me "darlin'" the whole time. It is too funny. You also made us laugh today when we picked you up from Sunday School and you told us that your craft you had made (some kind of person made out of a clothes pin) was a gun that shoots fire out of it. Leave it to a boy to turn everything into a gun. Lord, help me!

 Dear Sophie,
You are really keeping us on our toes! You are pretty sure you rule the world! You made me crack up laughing this week when your Daddy went to wipe your face and you screamed at him to make sure to not wipe off your lipstick (chapstick). We rarely find you these days without your "make-up" in hand. What are we going to do with you?!

Dear Nick,
I hope your birthday weekend was great! I look forward to seeing how your 29th year plays out! I am so proud of how much you have already accomplished in your life and you aren't even 30 yet! You rock, Babe! I am so proud to be your wife!

I will leave you all with a few more pictures from the past few weeks! (as you can tell, I have totally fallen off the daily picture wagon! I am a mess! What? It is like I have 3 kids or something!!)

Happy Birthday Babe!

On April 8, 1982 the world was changed forever and for the better because Nick Ramsey was born into it... or at least that is pretty much what he told me this morning. Ha! But, I think there is some truth to it. I know my world is much better with him in it. So, happy birthday to my wonderful hubs! I love you!