Surprise News From Kalona

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you! Yes, we are having baby #4! This was quite a surprise, but also a blessing we are so excited about. About 8 years ago we thought we may never have any children. After 2 girls from IVF and a miracle baby boy, we are now going to be the parents of 4 beautiful children. God is so good. I was completely clueless even though I have been feeling terrible for 2 months and I was gaining weight. I thought I was anemic and that Holden just made my body really change! The biggest shock is that Holden is only going to 15 months old when this baby comes! I sometimes wonder how I am going to do it, but if God thinks I can, I know I can! Baby #4 is due to be born on November 17th! That means everyone is invite to our house for Thanksgiving, but you will have to help cook! Ha, ha! We will keep you updated on baby's growth and development. Our house is a 50/50 split as to whether we are having a boy or a girl. Denny and Madeline believe it is a boy while Caroline and I believe it's a girl. I haven't been wrong yet, so we'll see who is right in about 10 weeks!

First Easter Egg Hunt

The Starting LineGoing fast!
Easter egg in a bird's nest!

All done!

Wow! Money!

Yay!

We stayed home for Easter this year, which was so great! We got to do so many things this weekend and we even got to have our first Easter egg hunt at home! The girls had a ball finding all the eggs. Madeline was awesome at letting Caroline get the easiest ones and Caroline just kept saying, "I can find them so fast, Mom!"

Happy Easter!

Holden's First Easter

(Are they Father and Son or what?) Mommy's Boy
We love you!

Beautiful Girls with Beautiful Flowers
Our Family

The Ramsey Kids with Madeline & Caroline

(Holden was sleeping)

Church Easter Egg Hunt

(Thanks T.J. & Kate) Easter is a very important holiday at our house. Even Caroline can tell you that we celebrate Easter because Jesus died and he rose again on Easter. We go to Good Friday service where it is very somber, quiet, and dark and they know that is because Jesus died for us. They also can tell the difference in church on Easter morning and it is a celebration with beautiful colors, happy music, and excitement. It is the most important thing for us to teach our children about Jesus Christ and what he did for them. They know the eggs and candy are fun, but they also know that we celebrate Easter to celebrate Christ's sacrifice and God's love. I am very proud of them and their connection to their faith at such a young age. Happy Easter!

Easter Morning

Cool Shades Holden was trying to get everything from his sisters! We thought it was cute

and funny, but they definitely did not! Get used to it girls!

Cool Chick!

Holden's New Ball!

Caroline loves chocolate!

Holden loves eggs!

Egg Coloring

Ready to color!

Caroline kept doing this about how beautiful her eggs were!

She just couldn't believe how "beautiful" she made them!

Madeline thought she would not get messy this year, but look at those hands!

I have a picture of her like this from every year since she was 18 months old!Finished Product

We colored 36 eggs on Thursday! I love that in Kalona school is out for Easter weekend. Madeline was home Wednesday pm, Thursday, Friday, and Monday! It was so fun to have her there. The girls made some beautiful eggs. I actually boiled that many so I could color some too, but they were having so much fun, I think I did 2! I love to color eggs and we made some yummy egg salad and deviled eggs!

New Way to Play

Holden has now decided he is not happy playing in the exersaucer. He army crawls everywhere so he prefers to be down on the floor at all times. Even though he doesn't want to be in the exersaucer, he still uses it! He likes to be under it. He crawls in and out chasing his balls that he puts in there.

Poor Baby Brother

Madeline likes to play daycare with Caroline and Holden. They were all in Holden's room and she had all the rules, so I was letting them be for a few minutes while I got dinner going. I came into the room and this is how Holden was dressed to "go home." He had on huge cowboy boots and a sweatshirt. The best part was that he did not even seem to care. He was perfectly happy to just play along! Is this just the beginning of him getting dressed up by his sisters?

Reading Together

Nutella! Nutella!

Caroline loves Nutella! We love how her face looks when she eats it!

Aunt Midge's Visit

Denny's parents brought his Great Aunt Midge over to meet Holden for the first time. Holden was sick at Christmas. so she did not get to see him then. We had a fun day having her come. True to herself, she didn't leave without doing a project for Denny! She is an amazing lady and a lot of fun! Papa even took the girls for some Yotty's ice cream! Thanks for coming-we had fun!

Friends in a Fort

Our neighbor, Kate, came to play for a few hours and they wanted to build a fort. We put this together and they did everything in it. Colored, played babies, had snack, and read books. Caroline just kept saying, "You are my best friend. We are best friends!" These two have such fun together!

Thanks, Gramma Judy!

My mom came and spent a few days with us to help me get things organized in the basement for a garage sale. The kids were of course in heaven having her here. I only got these pictures because I was working in the basement the whole time. Caroline kept telling my mom, "You're my most specialist gramma ever! I love you!" Playing legos is just one of the many things she did with them while I worked in the basement. Thanks, Mom! We love you and appreciate your help!

Daryl & Irene

We took the kids to visit a couple that Denny helps out sometimes. They had not been able to meet Holden yet so we went and spent a few hours with them. The girls had fun having cookies and milk and playing at Irene's work table.

First Music Concert

Beautiful Girl Mrs. Billups & Madeline
Pround Little Sister

This is the best picture I could get of the concert!

Madeline loves music class at school and she had been singing all these cute little songs for us around the house for weeks. We finally got to see her perform them at her first music concert. She did so well and had so much fun. We also got to see some of her beautiful artwork at the art gallery walk. It was a fun evening and another way we can see that our little girl is getting bigger.