Simpson Motto

Our family has decided to have a motto. Words we can live by and stand for. We want to focus on this all year long. Our inspiration comes from the talk given by President Monson, "Be Your Best", which can be read here Be Your Best.

To be our best we need to strive for these 3 things:

1. Study diligently.

2. Pray fervently.

3. Live righteously.

I decided to make this piece of art as a reminder of our motto. SInce taking this picture I have hung it up but that will be for a later post.

Annual Clothing Drive (ME CRAZY)

Every fall there comes a day when Jed says "Let's get out ALL the ski stuff and try everything on!" He likes to make sure things still fit the kids or figure out who needs what before the ski swap comes around. This day drives me crazy! Our living room looks like a yard sale gone wrong. So I usually bow out gracefully and find errands to run. Jed always has the house back to normal by the time I return. Whew!

Seriously, do I need to type anything under this picture?

Pumpkin Launching

Jed is the Scoutmaster over Tucker's group and they were challenged to a pumpkin launching contest after Halloween. What else are you gonna do with all those pumpkins? Well after much design, head scratching, welding, and work they came up with this contraption which they tell me is a trebuchet. After their first trial run it broke, so they had to hurry and go weld it back together before the contest started. Meanwhile the other group's launcher arrived and during their trial run, a pumpkin somehow misfired and came back to slam the poor boy right in the face. He ended up having to leave immediately to go get stitches. The other group decided to bow out because they deemed their launcher "unsafe". You think?

Our boys came back with theirs ready to rock and roll! Another trial run and it worked perfectly! Launched them pretty far too. See the video below.

I think a good time was had by all, well almost all, except the poor boy who had to leave to get his whole upper lip stitched up.

Sumo Wrestling

The kids were complaining about being bored so I came up with this idea. Stuff pillows down Dad's shirts and have a Sumo Wrestling Match!!

I think they had fun, and it wore them out too!

Halloween 2009

So you really CAN Mod Podge ANY surface!! Hannah wanted to be a zombie for Halloween so I came up with the brilliant (possibly stupid) idea of Mod Podging (yes it's a verb) tissue paper onto her face! I think it was a success. How about you?

It totally looked like old dead skin. At least I think it did. I haven't really seen any before.

We knew Hannah's best friend was going to be a zombie also, but what we didn't know was that they would end up making the perfect zombie prom couple!!! How cool is that?

Our wonderful, beautiful, crazy kids all dressed up for Halloween. We have a Care Bear, Zombie prom queen, baby, ?, and a football player!

Grandma and Grandpa came to our Trunk-or-Treat and Zoe wanted Grandma to take her around to all the cars. Thanks Grandma!!

The girls new room

I recently painted Hallie and Stella's room. It was a light powder pink. We decided to go bold and bright. So I chose a happy orange color with white and pink stripes. I think it turned out great. Jed thought it was a bit bright.

I pulled the colors from the girls bedspreads. Kind of a surfer girl look.

Their bedspreads came in bags that were made out of the same material so I used them to Mod Podge their ceiling fan. It was a fun project and the girls just love it!

Pumpkin Decorating

My mom throws a rocking Halloween party every year where the kids get to dress up in their costumes and carve or paint their pumpkins. They make witches brew (homemade root beer) and dinner comes served in a pumpkin with some side dishes that include, orange jell-o with spiders, and goblin shaped biscuits. It is lots of fun and we look forward to it every year. I wish I had a picture of my mom all dressed up as a witch. That is her costume every year.