musical pumpkins

i love that i got a shot of the neighbors jumpstarting their work van. i am so glad that i am always compelled to be humble.








reagan was being extremely quiet and i snuck up on him to find out what he was doing. *note to pre-parents-quiet almost always means naughty* silly me, i had left the candy bowl within his reach. he was reaching in, chewing on each selected piece and then throwing the ones he couldn't open on the floor. please note meatball patiently waiting his turn to pounce on the candy. they have been partners in crime before.

the joys of home maintenance

we really enjoy our house. we love the space and the lack of loud neighbors. we just wish they would mow their lawn and keep their bite-y dogs locked up(but then, there is always something to complain about). one thing that has been a little hard to adjust to from apartment life is the need to repair and replace things ourselves. i miss the maintenance men!!! on saturday, thomas was edging the lawn and the edger picked up a rock and threw it right through the front door. awful. the worst part is that this is the SECOND time this has happened since we moved in, first the back door and now the front.

pumpkinmania

my heart has been set on going to a pumpkin patch for many weeks now. last saturday we made it to clanton and the Grand Ole Pumpkin patch. i went a little crazy with all the picture taking.


reagan was such a good little model for mommy. i am prepping to become a stage mother. i wonder how reagan will enjoy pageants???

with our friends dave and kierstin(kiki). thomas is a tall guy, 6'3. dave is a REALLY tall guy, 6'6.

thomas and our selected orb. work it baby!

i was thrilled when reagan decided to sit down in the dirt. LOVE IT!
this one looks like my size!
*blankie made the trip too!

WAAAYCROSS, where all the ways cross!

more trips for the simpson clan. last weekend we went to waycross for my sister-in-law, mindy's baby shower. i think it was one of my favorite trips as we weren't rushed and we could just enjoy hanging out with family. the only downer was the georgia-tennessee game, which we are not talking about anyway.

reagan decided to get some "ink done" while we were visiting mimi susu. reagan has an affinity for drawing on himself. it happens at least every few days. he keeps me on my toes. he was too fast for me this time. ps-those are NOT my hairy legs. i've only let my hair get that long once, so quit bringing it up!


my dear sweet sisters-in-law, mindy and lauren. i believe that mindy is going to have the largest baby ever. he already weighs more than 5 lbs and she isn't due until november.
the boys, justin, thomas, sean and little reagan.

the whole fam damily. we are outside of the house that justin and mindy recently bought and are renovating.

reagan LOVES all the animals at mimi susu's house. i think he wanted to ride the dogs.
reagan kept pushing my hand through the fence as a gesture for me to go get those goats so he could play with them. i have a feeling that dogs won't be the only animals that find refuge in our home someday.









my favorite picture.
father and son.

going to kansas city, kansas city here we come!

for general conference weekend, reagan and i flew to kansas city. we spent 4 glorious, fun filled days with grandma and grandpa, and steve, sarah, joshua and whitney. the weather was great and fun was had by all. of course, this story does involve me flying so you know that something had to go wrong. luckily for me, the only drama was the airport not transferring my luggage to kansas city from atlanta. fortunately, it only took them about 24 hours to locate it and have it delivered. you know, i love wearing the same clothes i traveled in all day and i know reagan looked adorable wearing his pajamas at 6 in the evening. i was able to fly out of the montgomery regional airport which was surprisingly nice and modern. i was expecting something like the airport on the tv show "wings".

on saturday, the whole fam damily went to the park between conference sessions to enjoy the beautiful weather. reagan LOVED the baby swing.















the whole clan swinging together.













i was relieved and thrilled that reagan took to grandma as well as he did. since we have always lived so far away, i had great fears of him being too shy with his grandparents. reagan loved grandma! she was his favorite! when she dropped us off at the airport, he was so upset!








joshua's 4th birthday is this week! how time flies! we had a party at the grandparent's house. joshua is a BIG BOY now! he is the smartest 4 year old i know. he knows all his letters and numbers and colors. he even spells and recognizes tons of words. GREAT JOB SARAH!!!














this is the only picture i could get of whitney by herself. she was too busy playing to slow down for picture taking. she has so much personality. she loves being "pretty" and says so all the time.
she wasn't too keen on reagan though. she wasn't going to share her grandma with any old "baby". she was so funny. whenever he was playing with her toys or sitting with grandma she would say, "oh, no baby!" she was too cute! especially funny since she is only 6 months older than him. she was in charge of everyone.



i was able to visit my dear, sweet friends kelsey and diane. i was so touched that kelsey remembered me after being gone for 8 years. they gave me a picture of my old dog spud that they found at their house. kelsey proudly announced, "here, it's a picture of you!" i am thankful that she keeps me humble!







mom and i went to the best and most beautiful shopping mecca in kansas city, the the plaza
















we met dad for lunch at manny's deliciouso restaurante mexicana!!!



the day was topped off with a visit to the newly remodeled independence missouri visitor's center. it was incredible! beautiful and spiritual. a wonderful place to visit. located adjacent to the independence missouri temple site.

in all it was a wonderful weekend full of fun, family, spiritual upliftment and delicious chocolate birthday cake.

the simpsons are E-X-P-A-N-D-I-N-G

some pretty exciting news for you simpson family watchers. we have a new addition. i hope these photos come in clear enough for you to see the gender. you know how those first baby photos are always so blurry....











we are thinking of calling him tyrone. when i was younger, whenever we saw a turtle on the side of the road, my mom would pull over and run and pick it up for us. i was on the way to the park and i saw him crossing the street. my first thought was, "a turtle! now is my chance to be a good mom, just like my mom!" i ran out into the street and snatched him up! i didn't know what to do with him so i put him on the floor of the car and prayed that he wouldn't pee on anything or crawl under the seat and bite my toes off. i had reagan and meatball will me too, so that was an added concern, so we hurried home. i put him in a box with some grass and then we just stared at him for a while. i checked on him a few minutes ago and i saw that he was trying to escape the box. i'm really not sure what else to do with him. my brothers were the ones that played with our turtles. meatball wanted to sniff him and reagan thought he was rock and he would have eventually thrown him. i heard the voice of william wallace in my head and i knew what to do. i let him go. "FREEDOM!"

lifestyles of the middle class and anonymous

finally. the long awaited and promised pictures of the new crib. i am embarassed to say that one of the reasons it took me so long to post was because it was hard to find each room clean when i was ready to take a picture. i am glad that i have immortalized the house in pictures so that i can later remember that at one time, this house was clean.

thomas' office/the home gym.

the reading room. like we are high society or something.

the living room/play room. i guess everything could be slash playroom in this house.

the other side of the living room.

the dining area.

reagan's room.

the other side of reagan's room. i have some fabric that matches his quilt that i plan on making curtains out of. this will most likely happen when reagan is in kindergarten. he isn't too keen on my use of the sewing machine. if he can't use it, then i can't use it.

as they say on cribs, this is where it all happens.

this is the neighbor's back yard. we have lived here since mid august and he has never mowed it. we call it the mosquito farm. if you look closely, you can see two lawn mowers with grass growing through them.

our backyard. i can't wait until the weather starts to cool off to the low 80s and we can actually spend more than 5 minutes at a time out there.

***not pictured-the guest room. yes, there is a guest bedroom. please feel free to come use it. stay for a weekend. come see all that fun-gomery has to offer. hopefully, we'll have a mattress on the bedframe by then.

two of these things are not like the others

while we visited waycross, we were able to see our good friends, charlie and jessica moore. the moores have been blessed to have 5 children.
all girls.
3 and under.
reagan and i pretended that we were part of the clan.