It's about time!

I know I have to be the WORST blogger in the history of, but hey I am a busy girl! We have been very busy and the next few months which is supposed to be titled the "lazy days of summer" are going to be anything but! Next week we have a short week and then the next is our North Central Family Camp at Budd Creek. I really do look forward to that. Last year I went to teen camp and quickly realized I was not a teen, no where near a teen, and well, I think I will like Family camp better. WE'll see anyway. The 17th is Mine and Cody's 4 year wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe in some ways, but our 3 children are a quick reminder it has been a little while since I walked down the aisle on a VERY hot June day! The 19th is Casey and Jade's wedding in Rector and Noah is going to be a ring bearer. I cannot wait to see if he actually goes through with it, but for their sake I hope he does! Then in July we have VBS. I am teaching the 1st and 2nd graders and am very excited about it. Last year I taught the 4 and 5 year olds and will be glad to get a little older one's this year! Our theme is 'Soul Survivor on Danger Island' it's pretty cute and does have lessons about Bible Character's not mentioned that much like Gideon. I always like lessons that the kids cannot always finish the rest of the story for you!

Speaking of VBS and the Lord, I was thinking of how complacent I and my family have become. Cody and I were on our way down to My mom and dad's house today and we listened to a sermon given to Cody by our friend Luke Moore from Jonesboro. I don't even know who the sermon was by, but he did a great job of sharing the gospel reminding me that I am so blinded by this world and the things it has to offer. Satan doesn't have to try to get church- going people into drugs, alcohol, even pornography instead, all he has to do is get us distracted with buying new things or having the latest and best of everything. Satan is beautiful and his ways appear to be beautiful but the end of them is death, destruction and a desire for more. I am so convicted about this in my life! For example, I will be at church and see someone witha cute shirt on and I will think, "you know, I could really use some new clothes". I will be so convinced by this claim that I will spend money that I really don't have OR money that could be used to further the cause of Christ in some way to buy myself new clothes even though my closet is completely stuffed with clothes already! Another example, my CHI went out this week. To those of you who know me, you KNOW that I DO NOT go anwwhere (Costa Rica, Jamaica...etc...) without one! I have medium/curly hair and it is frizzy and sometimes very difficult to deal with. B.C. (Before the CHI) I had to 'straighten' it with a curling iron.... it took forever, and didn't even work all that well. When I was telling Cody the 'history' behind the CHI in my life he quickly (oh, ever so quickly) reminded me that we really did not have the money for me to buy a new CHI. So, much to his suprise and my own I might add I told him that I did not want one anyway. He did not believe me at first, and to be quite honest I didn't believe myself. However, I remembered the verse in James that talks about letting God perfect us which means going through 'rough' times.

Now, to conclude this before I lose you, let me just say that I know that going without a $140 straightener is not necessarily a 'hard time' for most people. I have owned a CHI for 8 years now and to go without it is a major INCONVENIENCE! However, I want God to work in me, and I want to learn that I cannot always have what I want just because it might do the job better than the cheapo. There are starving children in the church that I attend, how in the world can I justify in my mind that it could be right for me to purchase a new CHI? The truth is I would love to go to JC Penney when they have their's on sale next week and buy one. I am 100% certain that with a little arguing and persuading my husband that a CHI is truly a necessity (and will benefit him in some way) that he would give in to my incessant nagging and just say 'go get one!' . That is the fleshly side of me, but the spirit woman inside of me wants to stick this out and be content with the $10 straightener from Fred's which does happen to be my favorite color, PINK! That's always a plus.

The point? God is all we need. Bro Mullins preached this morning that God was the Great I AM to Moses in the Bible and he is our I AM. Meaning he is everything we need for every situation in our lives. (No, he's not going to be a straightener...i wish, but he will provide and help my hair, he did make it afterall!). Seriously though, he is our comforter when we are broken. He is our healer when we're sick. He is our shepherd when we're lost and most importantly he is our Savior all the time. We are in such a need of JESUS, MASTER, EMMANUEL! Praise the Lord for the Lamb that was slain and bore the sins of the world! What sacrifice, what devotion, and what a pricey gift that was given by the Father. What does it take to follow Christ? The A,B,C prayer? admit, believe and confess? No, we're lying to kids when we say this to a point. Jesus said whoever wants to follow him they must pick up their cross daily and follow. The cross in the 1st Century was like our electric chair today...imagine saying you must pick up your electric chair and follow Christ daily. We must count the cost that it takes to follow the Savior. When we do count the cost, our lives will be forever changed. Sometimes I wish I could ignore the Holy Spirit and other times I really do, but submitting to the Lord is beautiful. Lord, do your work in me through this somewhat trivial ordeal. Thank you for your son and the sacrifice you made by giving him up! Happy Memorial Day, and may you remember the day of your Salvation and the Price it Cost our Lord and Savior! Much more than the price of my CHI! :)

Ellie Kate Caroline Simpson

Miss Ellie Kate came into our lives on January 20th and weighed 5lb 14oz. She is now 2 months old and is our little princess! We are all in love with her! Here are a few pictures of her.

We are so thankful for her.

She looks like Elijah some, but also looks like Noah at other times! But either way, she is definitely different from the boys!!!! She makes her presence known.

Christmas and Thanksgiving all rolled into one!

Okay, it has definitely been a while since I have been able to post, but I'm here now. We are now 36 weeks and getting ready for Baby number 3 supposed to arrive by C section on January 22nd if not before. We had a wonderful thanksgiving celebrating with our families in Casscoe and Jonesboro, but it definitley makes for a LONG weekend or whatever 3 days really is. We had a Christmas Play at Church which turned out Wondefully, but I don't have any pictures to post because I was helping and unable to take them at the same time! Sad, I know. Cody had his Cantata at church which I was suckered into doing the "Mary Solo", yeah, way too high for me, but God was the only audience that I was singing to, so I guess he must have enjoyed it. :)

Noah and Eli have been playing more together lately which is a wonderful blessing since I have still been fighting off contractions and trying not to go back to the hospital till it is definitely time! Noah is getting so big and so sweet. He cannot wait to hold Ellie Kate and give her a bath, and feed her. These are his words, but much cuter when he says it. Eli is pretty much oblivious to Ellie right now unless she decides to kick him when I am trying to get him to sleep (which does happen often), but he doesn't really seem to mind all that much. Speaking of which, I just read a book I got 2 days ago called the Birth Order Book (i know it's been around a while), but it is so good. It really gives you hints on how to parent your children and how to be a better spouse due to the order in which you are born. Trust me, there are some VERY good truths to the book!

Didn't get to post too much, but at least this is done!

Birthday Fun

Well, last week was lots of fun. We came to my parents house for my mom and Carlie's birthday party. It was fun. Here are only a few pictures. I realized after I put these up that I did not even have 1 single picture of the Birthday Girls. You can tell that Hadlee and Eli dominated the camera. They are adorable together!

Eli had tubes put in his ears on Tuesday. He did pretty well. I was certainly glad to see that part get over with. I had been feeling better until Tuesday later in the day and Wednesday. Today I had to take brethine because my contractions were about 9 minutes apart. Not fun. I guess it's just going to be that way until the end of this pregnancy. I sure am ready to meet her, but not like this!


Jill has let us borrow a lot of Hadlee's clothes and every once in a while I'll go back and look in the closet where her clothes are and just look at them. A part of me just cannot believe that it is a girl. The other part of me is VERY excited. I just don't know what to do with a little girl after having 2 boys! I guess we'll see.












Eli loves coming to Nanny's house and riding on the rocket.

Well, this week has been pretty good. It's the best I've had in a while. I have been on bedrest and that is a Pain! Last week we came down to Casscoe to stay with my mom and dad while Cody and Bro. Jeff went to the State Association Meeting. Unfortunately I am not able to lift Elijah (which he wants a lot right now). We really had a good time. Noah enjoyed getting to play with Maxee and Trey. Elijah and Hadlee got to play together although I don't think they really understand that right now. We went to the doctor at the beginning of the week for both Eli and myself. Dr. Selby said I am still on partial bedrest. He did an ultrasound which showed that Ellie Kate had turned her little self around and is now breech. I really think that she moved back though in the past day or so. Anyway, we went to Dr. Shaw for Eli's appointment and he said that Eli's ears are not awful right now, but he had just gotten off of antibiotics and they weren't good enough for him to have just gotten off of that. He is getting tubes in his ears next Tuesday the 17th so hopefully he will be better. Hopefully I'll be able to give an update after all of that! I hope everyone has a terrific week!

Already November

Here are a few pictures from this last month. We didn't take the kids out trick or treating, but we did dress them up and take their pictures. They both were so sweet and adorable.







Elijah did not like that "mane" on but he looked so adorable in it. Noah, however, did love his giraffe costume and wanted to wear it to sleep in it!












Cody gave thedevotional about the pumpkin to our kids. I know they don't look like they were hearing anything he said, but God's word doesn't return void. Just when we don't think they are listening or paying attention they surprise us!















Elijah had on his "i love mom" pajamas and I caught him playing in mine and Cody's room. He was so adorable that I had the hardest time getting on to him.

I truly am amazed at how fast this year has gone by. God has been so good this year. Not that he hasn't other years, but truly I have felt and seen the loving hand of My father, friend, and comforter. We found out we are having a little girl on Oct. 12th. The day before my birthday. We decided her name will be Ellie Kate. I have been on bed rest for the last week, but other than that we are just looking forward to seeing her in about 10 more weeks!!

Eli turns 1!

Flowers that Cody sent me for my "bad day". They are so beautiful. I wish they would stay that way forever!

My beautiful Eli. He is so sweet and adorable. He is the most snuggly baby ever!

Noah got his new hat from Bass Pro Shop that Nanny and Pop got him. You can see that his pants are too big and have to be rolled up a little :)

Eli thought it would be lots of fun to smear his birthday cake all over Mimi's table!

Just about to stick his cute chubby little hand into his cake for the first time!

Eli playing with Makena. He has always adored Makena. She is so sweet with him and really with all babies!

Eli wearing his cute little hat anticipating the cake to come....he didn't know anything could taste so good!
ELI IS ONE!

Well, my baby turned one on October 1st! I cannot believe that it has been a year since he was born. It just feels like yesterday. He is no longer crawling and is constantly on the move and into everything! We had his first birthday at Mimi and Paw Paw's house in Jonesboro and had a fish fry. It was nice for some of Cody's family to get to see the boys that usually only gets to see them on Thanksgiving (maybe) and Christmas.
Carlie, Makena and Trey were able to come to the party and we were so glad. I know Noah was so happy to get to play with Trey and Eli adores Makena. We had everything decorated with Elmo and he had a cute cake just for him. When he first stuck his hands in the cake he did not know what to think. I'm pretty sure that it took him a few minutes to realize, "hey, this is food!" He began to eat it and got quite a bit in until we finally decided he had enough. I don't think he would have EVER come to that conclusion.

We had a good weekend. Eli got clothes, a Ming Ming (which was his favorite), trucks, a new car seat, and even diapers (which were very much appreciated!).
Noah got the flu from Uncle Casey the same weekend and so on Monday after Elijah's birthday he had to go to the doctor. Thankfully, he did get Tamiflu. Eli and I also got it as a preventative. I did not know it could be used as that, but it can in certain instances. In our case it was very probable that Eli and I would get it from the close contact that we had with Noah and so the doctor said that he would put us on the medicine just in case we did get it and then the effects would not be as severe. We survived that week and made it through right up to the weekend. Cody had a pre teen retreat to attend at Budd Creek. He came back very refreshed. It was nice to have that kind of refreshing breath of God's goodness in our home.

This past week has been stressful in some ways, but it has also been very nice to see God's unchanging hand magnified even more than before. I read the book "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers and it has totally and completly changed my outlook on the Love Christ gives us. My husband new that Monday was a rough day and he had flowers sent to me. They are beautiful and in the gorgeous fall colors.