Christmas Card 2009

Fun With My Boys

I hope you enjoy the Fall photo shoot I did with my boys. We used several of these shots for our Christmas card this year. I will post a picture of the Christmas card soon.

Christmas Tree Farm 2009

We had a wonderful time continuing our family tradition of picking out a fresh Christmas tree at one of the local farms. We are so blessed to be able to spend quality time together building family traditions. We hope you enjoy our pics from the farm and some of our decorations for this year.

Visit with Santa 2009

We were so blessed to enjoy another beautiful day together as a family. It is amazing to see how much Christian has grown over the last year. This was the first year that he wanted to sit and talk to Santa without his big brother holding him. We are so proud to be the parents of such handsome and loving boys. We hope you enjoy seeing photos from our visit with Santa and the Poinsettia Tour at White's Nursery.

Mr. Squiggles has arrived at the Simpkins' house

For those of you unaware of the madness surrounding this season's hottest toy, check out the toy causing such a stir below.
I am so happy to say that Christian will be one of the lucky children to own Mr. Squiggles, a Zhu Zhu pet hamster, when Santa arrives this year. We did not have to beat anyone up or sale our house to insure he has one but I can't say that for other people in this world. These hamsters sell for $8 at WalMart(when they have them in stock) but since they are the most popular toy for children this year, people are scalping them for more than $50 online. I don't think adults that do this have the true Christmas spirit but that is only my opinion. Ok, enough about the craziness. When you get some time, check out these cool little things. I remember having a real hamster as a child and it was a complete mess with it's peeing, pooping and constant need to clean it's cage. This new "hamster" does all the things a real hamster can do without the mess. This really helps OCD parents like myself keep a clean, nice smelling house. Ummmm, on second thought, maybe those crazy people are on to something...I kid, I kid, honestly!

The 2010 line of these hamsters comes out in January so to avoid the craziness, I pre-ordered Winkie from that line for his birthday in February. Now, to find the accessories like the convertible car, house and ball for them to play in is my next task. If you are interested in pre-ordering one of the 2010 line, there are many sites online that are offering the chance to do that. It may prevent a headache down the road if your children catch on to the Zhu Zhu pet craze. Check out Winkie below. Have a great happy Friday and wonderful weekend

Happy Veterans Day to all the men and women that have fought and continue to fight for our freedom!

Most importantly, to my husband, for your continued selfless service to our country, I am forever grateful to be your wife.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

We took Christian to Hunt Club Farms for his annual pumpkin patch visit. There were so many things to do and he wanted to do them all. He rode the ferris wheel which was his first ever fair ride and LOVED IT!!!! He also enjoyed the hayride, his first fried Oreo, petting the farm animals and hula hooping with the other kids. I am always amazed at how wonderful life looks when I allow myself to see it through his eyes. He is such a fun child that truly loves everything about life including the simple things that we often take for granted as adults.

Christmas card pics.....check!

We took pictures of the boys for our Christmas card last week and I always hate having to wait until Christmas to show everybody. They are so sweet and I can't wait for you all to see them. I absolutely love taking pics of the boys. They are such great "models" (until they get tired...haha). We are getting ready to watch Freddie play another football game tonight....in the rain. Yuck! Please pray for the safety of all players involved. Thanks! Have a great weekend!

We have entered Christian's photo in the Gap Casting Call. Several of our friends have begged us to get him into modeling but that is easier said than done. You either have to be really lucky or know someone in the business so we thought we would try our luck and enter him in this contest. If you have a few moments, please place your vote for him. The site requires that you register with them to make sure you are a real person and are not placing automated votes. Once you register, you can come back to the site and vote again every 24 hours. Please feel free to tell your friends so they can vote too. Thank you in advance for taking the time to vote for him. We will keep you updated on how he does.

Life of a Southern Belle's 300th Post Give-away!!!

Please stop by my friend, Life of a Southern Belle's, blog and enter her giveaway. She is giving away some wonderful prizes to celebrate her 300th post and besides her blog is great to follow as well. I hope you all are having a great week.

Once a Rebel, Always a Rebel.....win or lose!

But it would be so nice to see my alma mater do as well as they are predicted to do this season......Stay tuned for what should be an exciting season. Hotty Toddy! Go Rebels!

Just a few Summer pics

In Daddy's antique Cougar

Our boys on July 4th

Christian's first haircut

Sorry it has been so long.....

It has been quite a while since my last post and I am sorry to those of you that follow the Simpkins Family adventures. We are doing great and enjoying our new home in Chesapeake, VA. Yes, I say new home rather loosely because we are not able to stay anywhere very long while we serve this great country. I am working on a new photo slideshow to help catch you all up. I hope to have it posted soon. I hope you have had a wonderful weekend and are looking forward to a great week. Stay tuned for some new pics.

A visit from family......priceless!

We had so much fun during my sister and her family's visit. They spent a week with us and we toured many DC attractions as well as the National Zoo. It was wonderful watching the cousins play together and experience a piece of history together as well. I hope you enjoy the slideshow of their visit. We miss them already!

Easter Bunny 2009

We had a great time visiting with the Easter Bunny but it took Christian a little while to warm up to him. We finally got a small smile out of him before we left. This weekend we will attend a huge Easter Egg Hunt at the National Naval Medical Center campus where Fred attends school. The military does an outstanding job with entertaining our children and we are so excited that Christian is actually old enough to hunt eggs on his own this year.

Happy Spring!

We had a wonderful time this weekend enjoying the beautiful weather and playing in our neighborhood park.

My little SG

We are cleaning out getting ready for the movers and looking forward to a visit from my sister and her family. Her oldest daughter is also my Godchild and ever since she was born, I have made a point to be very active in her life. It has been a little difficult in the last couple of years because we move around so much with my hubby's job but the phone/webcam has been a beautiful thing. She is at the age now that we can have great discussions and I am able to learn what is going on with her by speaking directly to her and that is wonderful. The other day, I received a drawing/note from her that said "I love you Nannie. You are the best." and she even addressed the envelope herself. I just can't put into words the feeling. I stared at the envelope with her own handwriting for so long that my hubby said "are you going to open it?". The funny thing is, I can remember telling her when she was very little that I couldn't wait until she was able to send me something that she had made on her own and there it was. Wow, she is growing up. I am so proud of the little lady she is becoming and I am so proud to not only be her Aunt but also to be her Godmother. She is truly an angel and God blessed my life the day she was born. Nannie loves you SG!!

Our Little Model

We were approached a while back by the Store Manager of Nordstrom's and she asked if Christian would model in their Spring fashion show. It is a big show the store puts on each Spring and it is only for children that the manager picks. We have been told by many people that we should get Christian involved in modeling but we made a decision not to chase after the chance to model but if it presents itself then we would support him 100%. He had a wonderful time and did such a great job. As we were driving to the show, we talked to him about what he was going to do once we arrived at the store and he said, " can I see my friends?" He said this because the store is on the way to our church and he thought we were going to church...haha! I must say he far exceeded our expectations for a two year old that has never walked a runway. We hope you enjoy the pictures and have a great rest of the weekend!

I am not one to copy posts from other bloggers but I felt this was worthy of sharing with all of you that may not be a follower of my friend Preppy 101's blog.

It is rare for Hollywood to show things that accurately depict the wonderful traditions of our military. Yet, we seem to be inundated with negative media attention so hats off to HBO for this film.

While I am very thankful that I have never been on the receiving end of this tradition, I am the proud wife of a courageous military man that has played the part of Kevin Bacon in real life. This is a great tribute to the respectful traditions our military men and women hold dear. If you get a chance, rent this DVD(due out May 19) and show your support for the wonderful job these brave men and women do on a daily basis- often, without accolades.



God Bless Them All For Their Brave Service!

A little update!

One of my favorites from our last Summer in Japan!

I haven't posted in a little while so I just wanted to give a quick update on the the family. Both of the older "boys" are busy with school, as usual, and little Christian is getting bigger and more independent everyday. I have taken on a little sinus cold in the last few days but it seems to be starting to get better....I just sound like a bullfrog! We are getting closer and closer to the big move and are so excited to be in our new home. I can't wait for next week. We have a surprise guest coming in for a few days and also a trip to the new house for a final look before move in time. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support as our family begins this new chapter. Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Snow Days

We hope you enjoy pictures of us playing in the snow! We hope this is our last snow storm before we move.

Happy 14th Birthday Freddie!

We had a "little" party for our big 14 year old today. I can't believe he is already 14. I remember the little 9 year old that I met for the first time and later became the mother of like it was yesterday. I have watched a shy little boy turn into a wonderful, self confident young man. He continues to make us proud each day while maintaining the typical aggravating characteristics of every teenager...I am so proud to be his mother and I look forward to many more years of watching him grow up. By the way, the choice of cake was his request as was every part of this party. I guess it goes to prove that men do love their toys:-)

Our New Home.....well, at least for the next chapter in our lives.

We are so pleased to have found this home. It is a 5 bedroom/2.5 bath/3200sq.ft. home that we will live in at our next duty station. I can't say anymore regarding exactly where it is....sorry! We are so excited because not only is it a new home but it is located in the exact school zone where we want our 14 year old to attend HS. The HS is amazing! The pictures that i have posted are of the owner's decor, not ours. We are pleased with their choices of paint so we will probably leave that alone. I can't wait to move our stuff in, decorate and post pics of the WHOLE house. We have always been blessed and continue to be blessed with wonderful homes for our family no matter where we are sent to serve. We will be making our move in the next couple of months so I will keep you all posted. Thanks to all of you that have prayed for us to find a home and location that would be a blessing to our family. God does answer prayers. Have a great weekend!

Hubby's Favorite Saying....at an adorable store to boot!!

I can't believe how cute the Southern Belle Store is and they even have my hubby's favorite saying on an adorable t-shirt.

I couldn't resist posting this one.


Or, this one.


Enjoy and have a great rest of the week!

Potty Training...Christian style!!

I couldn't resist posting the pic from Christian's first potty success. I tried to make sure it was as unrevealing as possible but I must confess, it was too cute for words. The potty book in his hands wasn't staged. He actually asks for that book every time he goes to potty. Right now, we are just getting him used to the potty and keeping low expectations for success on each attempt but I wanted to post his first one. He is a lot of fun and I hope we will look back on the "early" potty days and smile.

What a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

These are the beautiful flowers from my husband.
He also gave me this beautiful necklace and bracelet made by my friend, Karen, at Funky Junk Designs. Please stop by her page and give her some business. She is extremely talented and makes beautiful jewelry as well as other cute stuff.

This is part of my gift to my hubby. I had M&M's personalized with our engagement pic and our first Christmas portrait on them as well as a saying on each one of them. This gift far exceeded my expectations. He was blown away. He also got some weight lifting things that he asked for. Sorry, no pic of those. I hope each of you had a wonderful Valentine's Day and was able to spend it with the one you love. Stay tuned for a "potty" post from Christian.

2 year check up and last visit with Dr. Ashley :(

The life of a military child can be very rewarding but also has it's sad parts. Today, was one of those. Let me explain. Christian has the most wonderful Pediatrician here at our beloved duty station. It is very rare to have a civilian doc at a military clinic but we got very lucky and landed Dr. Ashley ( purposely not using last name and besides Christian calls her this). She is adorable and is just a wonderful doctor to all of her little patients. She gave Christian a clean bill of health, said he was way past his developmental milestones and she let him play with her stethoscope the entire visit (well, except for when she needed to use it). She gave us the ok to start potty training but said do not push it because we are moving in the near future so there could be potential setbacks because of this. We love her casual approach especially when it seems so many people are potty nosy and are always asking us when we are going to potty train him. Believe it or not, experts agree that girls typically train earlier than boys because boys just don't care about it as early as girls and 2.5 years old is about the time they all agree is a great starting age. Now, if you are reading this and your child trained at 18 months without any "accidents", woo hoo for you, you are very lucky and blessed. I, however, am going to casually offer the potty to him now and not force the issue. We'll keep you updated on his progress. Ok, now back to Dr. Ashley, this was our last official time to see her since we will move soon. I pray that we are blessed with a wonderful Pediatrician at our next duty station. Thanks Dr. Ashley for the great care you have given to our children. We will miss you more than you know!

Happy Birthday Christian!

We faithfully prayed for the day to come.

When God takes the best from Mommy and Daddy

to make into one.

Our prayers have been answered

and the miracles have only begun.

A blessing is born!

We thank God

for you -

Son.

It is so hard to believe that two years ago today, God blessed us with such an amazing, loving and precious little boy. I remember as a little girl, dreaming of growing up to be a wife and mother, one day, but I can honestly say, Christian, is more than I could have ever dreamed of. His loving heart, kind ways and little boy spunk is certainly a gift from God. We are very fortunate to be his parents and as you can tell from the poem that Fred wrote to him before he was born, we prayed for the gift of him long before we saw his sweet face. We hope to always be parents that not only he is proud of but that God is proud of. Happy Birthday to our sweet boy! May God continue to bless your life and may you always seek His guidance as you grow into a wonderful man! We love you Son!

Diane at A Picture is Worth a 1,000 Words tagged me to do a photo Meme. The directions are to look in the 6th folder of your My Pictures folder, post the 6th picture and write about it.



This picture is from Christmas 2007. It is of my hubby and sons at a Christmas party in Japan while we were stationed there. I love this picture of my boys and the picture swap was fun to do because you don't know what picture is the 6th one in the 6th folder and so you get a surprise out of this as well as your blog friends. I hope you all enjoy the picture and even though I am required to pick people to do this, I hope you all choose to partake in the picture swap.

I would like to pass this on to:

Life of a Southern Belle
Confessions of a Southern Socialite
Sippy Cup Chardonnay
Muffy Martini
Magnolias, Marriage and Manhattan
CLEMSONGIRL AND THE COACH

I hope you all enjoy sharing your pictures and have a wonderful week!

thanks for following my blog....

ok, my bloggin friends, i have finally remembered to put that little blog follower box on my profile so please feel free to add yourself. i love all of you that keep up with my blog and i love following yours as well so while you're here, click on the "follow this blog" thing in my sidebar so i will be able to keep up with all of you that do follow. thanks!!



on a different note, for those of you that love Mardi Gras, it is time to order your King Cakes. i placed my order at Gambino's(the picture above is of a Gambino's King Cake) last night and it will be FedExed to my house by friday. for those of you that do not know about this, you must have the experience of eating a King Cake at least once in your life so why not now. Gambino's is a very famous bakery in New Orleans and they make many delicious confections but especially King Cake. if you do order one, i would love to hear about it. have a great rest of the week and.....Laissez les bons temps rouler....

Hotel for Dogs....great movie, great dinner and marvelous weekend.

We decided Christian was now old enough to sit through an entire children's movie without trying to run around visiting the other movie goers so we had family movie night on Saturday. We went to see Hotel for Dogs and it was wonderful. As you can see by his picture, he was such a good boy. We took a quick camera phone shot.


He sat through the whole movie and at one point even reclined in his seat like adults do. After the movie, we had dinner at a local Japanese restaurant. It was a good dinner and we enjoyed ourselves however, it was far from the real Japan cuisine we are used to. If you have children, grandchildren or you happen to be a kid at heart, be sure and check out Hotel for Dogs. It will be money well spent. Have a great week!

Happy Birthday Mama...I still miss you more than words.

Today would have been my mother's 60th birthday and as I sit here and type this post, I am filled with mixed emotions. It is so hard for me to imagine her being 60 because God called her home so early at the age of 45 as cancer overtook her body. I feel so blessed to have been her daughter and would give anything for one more day with her but there are two things in my life that have happened since her passing that I would give up my chance to be with her if she could only have time to be a part of those things.

The last portrait I have of her.

My husband and my son will never have the opportunity to know her and that saddens me. Sometimes, my husband will do things like cook a dish a certain way or give me advice that reminds me of her wisdom and I can't help but think of her and how happy she would be. My son being born was the hardest thing for me to go through without her because I know the one thing she prayed God would allow her to see was her grandchildren. I know His plan was different and she is in a much better place but I can't help but watch Christian grow and experience new things that I wish she could see and be a part of. He would have made her so happy and he would be more than blessed to have had her in his life. The most comforting thing I cling to is that I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, she is watching from above. So many people knew and loved her so instead of me telling you why I thought she was a remarkable woman and mother, I have posted a poem that was written for me by my dear friend as well as hers, Senator Terry C. Burton. He captured her essence better than I could ever have. Thank you my friend for such beautiful words about my mother. Have a great rest of the week and never take the ones you love for granted. Every minute of every day with your loved ones, is a gift from God.

too cute to resist...

hey guys, just wanted to share these adorable coats and boots that my hubby picked up for me at Target, yes, i did say Target. sometimes that place really surprises me and since i never buy clothes for myself (post becoming a mother), he picked these out. i think these are adorable. i am sure they will not last long so if you like them you should fly on over to your nearest Target or check them out online. they have the navy pattern in green and yellow as well as the solid in hot pink, black and khaki. now i am ready for spring and the numerous rain showers we have. enjoy your week!

Happy Birthday Fred!

Fred celebrated his 37th birthday on Wednesday and at first wasn't too thrilled about being that age but is now starting to embrace it. I can't say I blame him too much, though, because I can remember thinking 35 was old until I reached it myself. I told him, let's put this age thing in perspective. He will be retired at 42 to do whatever he wants. I mean, not many folks can say that. I thought the matching napkins/plates had a very appropriate saying on them and the cute little candles that spelled happy birthday were great until they burned up and almost caught stuff on fire. Hallmark should take those back to the testing lab:)! We will continue to enjoy the many years God is willing to give us together. Have a great weekend!

Oh, before I forget, congrats to my alma mater, OLE MISS, for ending the season at #14 in the polls. Finally, a little credit to those hard working young men and coaches. Proud to be a Rebel!

friends are God's angels on earth...so glad to be blessed with them.

Thank you to my sweet bloggin buddy, Belle, from Life of a Southern Belle, for this great award. I always enjoy reading her blog and her posts never disappoint. I am honored that she enjoys my blog enough to give this award to me.


The blogs that I have chosen to receive this award always touch my heart and many times my funny bone. Please check out these blogs. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

The qualifications to receive the award are:

A. Display a cheerful attitude- I always try very hard to do this!
B. Love one another - Some people do make this easier than others.
C. Make mistakes - All of the time...so glad to be loved, anyway.
D. Learn from others- I hope I never stop being able to do this.
E. Be a positive contributor to the blog world- It makes me happy to know that my blog brings a smile to other's faces........who would've thought!
F. Love life- Every minute of it....the good and not so good...because I am so thankful for my life!
G. Love kids- They are truly the best things God gave to this world.......

The Rules:
1. Must link it back to the creator
2. Post the rules
3. Choose 5 people to give it to
4. Recipients must fit the characteristics above
5. Create a post to share this
6. You must thank the winner

I'm going to pass this along to:

The Mills Family

Grosgrain Lane

Sippy Cup Chardonnay

All Things Southern and Preppy

The Hall Family

rub a dub dub.....christian playing in his tub

love these little feet

he loves his bubble baths

christian will be 23 months on friday....time really flies.

2009 Cotton Bowl Champions!

94% said we couldn't do it!

WE DID IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Proud to be an OLE MISS REBEL!!!!!

Hotty Toddy!

Happy New Year 2009!

Fred and I celebrated New Year's Eve quietly at home with Christian after having a nice dinner of Pad Thai from Thai Farm, here in Rockville. Freddie attended a big party/lock-in at our church where they had over 35 games and they were able to meet the strongest man in the world, the Jesus Painter and many others. Today, we are going to enjoy family time as well as a wonderful meal cooked by my hubby. The menu is below.

Sugar Fried Turkey

Black-eyed Peas

Southern style Collard Greens

Crescent Rolls

Sweet Tea

I know that I am about to be worthless after eating this meal but I will enjoy every bite and veg for the rest of the day while watching all the bowl games. Before I forget to tell you, my hubby also surprised me with a Spiced Pumpkin Creme Frappuccino from Starbucks for MY New Year's dessert. Yum Yum! I pray that each of you have a happy and healthy 2009. God Bless Our Troops And Their Families.