Happy Birthday, Jackson!

Jackson is 11 today! He's such a great kid and really a joy to us. We are incredibly lucky to have him. I thank God for him everyday. He has a very special place in his mother's heart just for him. We will be celebrating him today (and tomorrow...and the next day.) He's famous for trying to spread out the celebration as long as possible. Smart kid!
Muffins for his class.
Dad and Noah singing "Happy Birthday"

Our Little Drummer Boy.

Tonight, we went to West Music to investigate instrument options for Jackson. We came away with a drum kit. My husband had a dazed look on his face from the bill. I took him on a tour of the wall of instruments and explained to him that he was actually really lucky to be getting off so cheap. We could have been dropping $4,ooo on a tuba! Jackson is so excited. I mean giggling like a girl excited. It's 9:30 and I can still hear him giggling in his bed. While I was at the grocery store tonight, his father apparently let him set it up and give it a whirl. When I got home he grabbed me by the arms and said, "MOM, I'M REALLY GOOD, I'M REALLY, REALLY GOOD!" I don't think he was even this excited on Christmas morning. I'll post a picture of him and his nifty drum kit on wheels tomorrow. As he was wheeling it out of the store he said, " I think everyone's looking at me!"

We've Created A Monster

Lily and I went to visit Jill, Sam and Baby Max today. We were invited to stay for lunch and help whittle down the massive amounts of leftovers they've got in the fridge from friends and family who've made meals for them. Jill asks Lily, "What would you like for lunch, Lily?" and with a big smile she said, "Chocolate ice cream!" That's my girl!

Soup Through A Straw.

Am I a cool mom, or what? He was pretty cute when he came up with this idea for his soup. Of course, once all his chicken broth was gone, he stuffed noodles, chicken, and carrots up the straw and then squeezed out a nasty snake-like thing on the table. That wasn't so cute.

Are The Aunts Ready To Kiss This Face?!?!

Mr. Safety Patrol (And A Brother Sneaking A Snack.)

Doesn't he look great? His job this month is to stand in the circle drive where parents drop their kids off for school and hold a big sign on a stick that says, "DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CAR UNATTENDED!" It's great. I've got to go undercover and get a picture.

Whoa. That's Deep.

Jackson had an mathmatics epiphany, if you will, today. He said, "Math has always been confusing and today I felt like I put on a new pair of glasses and I'm now seeing the numbers correctly for the first time." Those are some deep thoughts.
*Thank you Mr. Math teacher/assistant principal man ( I don't remember your name..) Keep up the good work!

This Is What 20 Minutes Of "Window Washing" Looks Like.

"Washing" Mom's Windows.

I'm out of the kitchen 5 minutes and this is what I find when I come back. Stinker.

Thank you, Jesus, I got in my house. It is now thundering and lightening outside and Lily is deathly afraid of storms. If I were outside right now listening to her screaming....I would be running right through the front door...literally. Or I'd wake up our Iowa football players across the street and have them do it.

Night Of Terror.

I just had one of the worst hours of my life. I've been up late cleaning up the kitchen. When I got home earlier I went ahead and locked all the doors to the house because Joe is away on business, and while cleaning up went to take some recycling out to the garage and locked myself out of the house. I knew as soon as I heard the door slam I was in trouble. It was like slow motion and it was instant panic. I actually got dizzy for a few seconds. The kids are all upstairs sound asleep. So I'm running around the house (in bare feet) checking all the doors and windows. All locked. I'm trying to decide what to do. Do I ring the doorbell? Do I throw rocks at the boys room? They are both heavy sleepers and I don't want to scare them half to death not to mention I don't think either one would answer the door in the middle of the night. So I do what any other woman in their right mind would do. I call my mommy. Yes, I did. Luckily my cell was in the van in the garage. Apparently she fell out of bed and was running around the bed looking for the phone because she thought something was wrong at the hospital (see Max post.) She's completely out of it because she'd been asleep for a long time. So, she wakes up Don to see what I should do. His great advice was, "Doesn't she have a key?" Go back to bed Don! So we decide I should call a locksmith. I call every single locksmith in the yellow pages. I'm getting no one even though they advertise 24 hour emergency service. Either their services were discontinued or the machine would refer me to another number that ended up being useless, etc. I actually left a few messages in the hopes that someone would get it. But its 11:30 at night! I'm trying to figure out what to do when I get a call from some unknown number and I'm getting all excited that someone has called me back. I say "hello" and this automated voice says "Good-bye" --click. That was when the tears started. It's now been about 1/2 hour and decide to call the police. They're going to send an officer to help me break in. 20 minutes goes by. I finally get Joe on the phone...he's much more panicked than I am. He says, "what are the chances there's a random key loose in the van?" I start looking just to make him happy because I know there's not going to be one. I find this old nasty key underneath the stereo console. I swear I have never seen this key before in my life. It doesn't look anything like our house keys. I figure what the heck, slide it in the hole. The door opens. I scream, "HOLY SH*T IT FITS!!"' Yep, I said it, and I'd say it again. Long story short, I'm in. I'm exhausted. Thanks, Emily, for keeping me company while I waited and making me laugh. When in doubt, tell funny mom stories! Ha, Ha! Thanks, mommy, for praying for me.

He's Here!!!!

Maxwell "MAX" Thomas Brown was born Sunday about 5pm. 7lbs 12 oz 20 inches long. He might be the most precious thing I've seen in a long time! He's got very expressive lips.
Lily is thinking she's going to hold him.

Grandma helps. She studied him and studied him. Very serious stuff. She calls him "Baby Mac".


Big cousin/little cousin.

Welcome to the world, Baby Max! We love you already!

(we gave a card to the Brown's that had the above sentiment written in it. Will was in charge of reading the card out loud. He read "Welcome to the world Baby Max. We'll love you eventually." AWWWW...That got some laughs! We love him now...and always. Welcome to the family, little one.)

b

First Day Of School.

As many of you know, we started a new schoool this year. I'm happy to say the first day went extremely well. We had some worries and concerns last night before bed like "what do I do at recess, since I dont know anyone?" and "what if I can't find the bathrooms?" The morning went smoothly with only a few problems with Mr. Noah getting out of bed. "Why are you guys waking me up in the middle of the night?" We got off to school and in the right lines and back home with poor little Lily "Where Jack go?" "Where Noah go?" I prayed today for God to just send one nice kid to Jackson, just one person to make him feel welcome. When he got home he said as soon as he got into the classroom a boy walked up to him and shook his hand and said, "Hi, I'm Grant. What's your name?" What 10 year old does that?!? GOD DOES! So, he ended up hanging out with him most of the day. He's excited about all the new things he gets to do this year. Tomorrow he gets to sign up for band, and today he signed up for safety patrol and to volunteer once a week in the media center during his lunch recess. All in all, he was much relieved and is excited for tomorrow. He said, "Thanks for praying for me, Mom." His best friend from his old school called him afterschool today which I thouhgt was very nice. He took the cordless up to his room and I heard lots of laughing. Noah wasn't real forthcoming with the details, which is normal for him. "What did you do today?" "I forgot." He said he made two new friends. One of them is a girl from India. He honestly, truly,believes that she takes an airplane to school everyday. I tried to explain, but he wasn't convinced. He like his theory better. The only other tidbit I've gotten from him so far was, "The hot dog at lunch was genius!" I've never in my life heard him use that word before, so he must have picked that up from someone. I'm sure there will be more stories tomorrow.

Cousins.

Stinkers!
Goofy kids.
I could make a comment....but I won't.

Bathing Beauties.

Ben and Megan's Wedding.

Great weekend. We went to Joe's cousin, Ben's wedding in Burlington. Congratulations Ben and Megan! The dynamic duo. Cousins Derek and Noah.
Lily Margaret and her 93 year old great grandmother Margaret, better know as "Grandma Honey". She's such a honey.

Lily on the dance floor (with cake on her face). In case you're wondering, this is her microphone.
Jackson, the life of the party, after his PK weekend!!

The happy couple.


Joe and Aunt Holly. Beautiful mother of the groom.
The couple passed out can coozies with their names on it. Whenever Noah gets his hands on a couple of these they quickly turn into fist cuffs.

Boys PK Weekend.

Joe and Jackson had a wonderful weekend in Cincinatti, going to a Promise Keepers convention. It was Jackson's first time going and seemed pretty blown away. Special time for Joe, as well, as his first PK he went to was life-changing, so was pretty excited to share it with Jack. Getting ready to go early in the morning.
At the conference...
Joe's good friend and mentor, Willy. He likes to poke Joe in the bellybutton because he HATES IT!
Jackson especially liked the music. It was a great weekend, lots of laughs and good stories. I'm glad to have them back.

Noah's Dream Come True.

Tonight, we entered Noah's new classroom and discovered, much to his delight, that he has his very own desk, with a big sign on it that says NOAH M. He sat right down, opened the lid and said in a very emotional voice, "I've been waiting my whole entire life to have my very own desk."

Ice Cream Social

Hectic night tonight.
Ice Cream Social at 6:00.
New family (us) orientation at 5:30.
Specific instructions for my husband to be home on time (didn't happen).
Lots of running around like a chicken with my head cut off.
Trying to sharpen a gazillion pencils for school.
Shoving pizza down the children's throats.
Trying to get all the school supplies out to the van.
Crazy lunatic bird is stuck in our garage and is swooping at my head.
Handles bust on my bags.
School supplies everwhere.
Trying to pick up pencils, crayons, paper, etc. while covering my head from lunatic bird.
Nasty message left on husband's phone.
"IF YOU'RE NOT HERE IN 5 MINUTES, WE'RE LEAVING WITHOUT YOU!"
Arrive at school.
Warm welcomes from awesome families.
Awesome teachers.
Emotional mom.
Humble mom.
Feeling God's blessings.

The Dynamic Duo.

When does school start? We're getting pretty desperate for things to do around here. Jackson was actually walking around the house like this.

Ewwww.

I Did It!

Lily: Mom! Mom!

me: what?!?

Lily: I did it!

me: what did you do?

Lily: (a lot of mumble jumble) I did it!

me: show me!

Lily: (takes my hand) C'mon. Show you.

(mom and daughter walk upstairs. Mom is led to bathroom.)

Lily: I did it!

(Daughter flushes toilet.)

Lily: See? I did it!

me: You sure did.

*sidenote- it is an absolute miracle that she has not figured this out before now. No, she did not figure how to 'potty' on the toilet, just the flushing part. Our water bill will now be outrageous. *

Sick Girl.

There's a yucky stomach bug at our house today.

Yum.

I had the great idea today to eat my peach like my mom used to fix us when we were little. Cut up with a little milk and sugar. It was delicious. Noah was a little apprehensive. He said "I like the peaches that come in the little cup with the lid you peel off." (poor kid.) He finally tried it and promptly finished up my bowl for me. Tomorrow I'll have to eat my peaches secretly, so I can actually have some.

My Morning, In A Nutshell.

3 Words.
1. Noah
2. poop
3. toilet paper (lots).


* A very special "thank-you" to Jackson for capturing this special moment, unbeknownst to his mother, and showing the world her "better side". *

**Joe- you are NOT allowed to make any comments on this picture. They will be deleted.**

Why Oh Why Do I Have So Many "Great" Ideas?

It will be cute when it's done....but IT'S TAKING FOREVER!!!! Ok...it's only been two days, but it feels like...a lifetime. My green paint was doing something 'wonky' and was making me fussy. I hate being fussy(especially about green. Did you know I love green?). I'll post the finished wall...that is, if you're still reading my blog and are still alive 50 years from now. By the way, that's a paintbrush in my mouth, not a ciggie..but I felt like I could have used one (if they weren't so nasty and didn't blacken your innards.)

The Long Wait.

This is a hilarious example of Noah's concept of time. Why does that pop-tart take so darn long to cook? He was very nice to get a chair for his sister as well. I think they sat there for 2.4 seconds until it popped and off they went. (without putting their chairs back, of course.)

Our New Member Of The Family.

This bug is smarter than the average bug. We (actually Jill was the brave one...) caught him this last Friday on the front of our house. We kept him in a tupperware container overnight so the kids could "inspect" him. He's HUGE! We looked him up on the internet on what's that bug.com (great website, thanks Shadley!) and found out what kind of mantis he was, etc. Yesterday morning we put him in the palm plant on our back porch, watched him walk up to the top and 'fly' away. This morning, Jackson comes running inside yelling, "He's back, he's back!" There he was back in about the same spot we originally found him on the front of the house. It's got to be the same one, right? We decided he needed a name. In our household, due to Joe, the names are usually obvious (Hammy, the hamster...Dumpy the dumptruck...Bonnie the Bonneville, you get the idea.) So, I for sure thought we had Manny the Mantis. But they came up with 'Theodore'. Go figure.

This Is How To Eat A Donut Like Lily.

Apparently, she doesn't want to eat the hole.

New Shoes For The Girls.

Today, my shoe angel was with me. I found these babies at Goodwill. Never been worn. $4.38. Yep, you heard right. $4.38. (hopefully, I won't break my ankle!)

These little darlins' were discovered at Target. $1.47. Yep, you heard that right. $1.47. That's like...free! (hopefully, she won't break her ankle!)

A Very Reluctant Joe Simpson.

So, as soon as my husband walked in the door and saw me holding the camera, the first words out of his mouth were, "Please don't simpsonize me." My reply was, "c'mon live life on the edge, don't be party pooper!" He said, "don't make me look stupid" So as much as I wanted to put him in a ballerina costume or a barrel with suspenders, I decided to be nice. I think it looks a lot like him! You don't have to be afraid of the blog, Joe! I am not one of those bloggers that will post embarrasing pictures of you! (ahem. you know who you are!) OK. I think I need to officially be done with the simpsonizing!

By Popular Demand...

So, the boys were a bit jealous this morning. So, here is Jackson Simpson...then Noah Simpson....and last but not least, what everyone has been waiting for...Laura Simpson. (I think I look much better as a cartoon!! HA!) Stay tuned...if I'm lucky, tonight's post will be "Joe Simpson." We need to hold him down and get his picture!!